A few months earlier I had been painting two portraits for each of my parents．I'd planned to give them the portraits as Christmas gifts．This would be a   36   for everyone，as I had not studied  37  ．
While painting one day, I was surprised by a knock on the door. Quickly having put all my  38 materials out of sight, I opened the   39  . To my astonishment, my father came in .
Immediately I wanted to show him the paintings, but I was   40  to destroy his Christmas surprise. Yet something  41  me to share the gifts with him. After making him promise to keep it secret, I   42   he keep his eyes closed until I had the portraits set on easels(画架). “Okay, Daddy. Now you can   43  !”
He appeared dazed at first. Finally , he said, “I don’t believe it. The eyes are so  44 that they follow you everywhere—and look how   45   your mother is. Will you let me have them  46 ?”
Excited with his response, I happily volunteered to   47  them to the frame shop the next day. Several weeks passed. Then one night the   48   rang—my father had a stroke(中风). He died the next day, and it seemed all   49    escaped from the life of my mother and me .
I finally remembered to  50   about the framed portraits. I was surprised when the shopkeeper told me my father had visited the shop,   51 for the framing and had them gift-wrapped.
 52 we had lost our loved people, everyone gathered on Christmas Day making an effort to be   53  . As I looked into my mother’s sad eyes and unsmiling face, I decided to give her Daddy’s and my   54  . After she saw it, with a wide smile, she quickly said, “I knew Daddy would be with us on Christmas Day!”
I glanced at the gift card written in my father’s   55 . “ Mother—Our daughter reminded me why I am so blessed. I’ll be always looking at you.—Daddy.”

Here in the hills were buffaloes (野牛). I had even, in my very young days — when I could not live till I had killed one of each kind of African animal — shot a bull out there. Later on, when I was not so interested to shoot as to watch the wild animals, I had been out to see them again. But twice I had to go back without success.
But one afternoon as I was having tea with some friends outside the house, Denys came flying from Nairobi and went over our heads westwards; a little while after he turned and came back and landed on the farm. I drove down to the plane to bring him back, but he would not get out of his plane.
“The buffaloes are out feeding in the hills,” he said, “come out and have a look at them.”
“I cannot come,” I said. “I have got a tea-party up at the house.”
“But we will go and see them and be back in a quarter of an hour,” he said.
This sounded to me like the suggestions which people make to you in a dream. So I went up with him. It did not take us long to see the buffaloes from the air; we counted them as they peacefully mixed and separated on the open ground closed in by bushes. There was one very old big black bull, and a number of young ones; if a stranger had come near to them they would have heard or smelt him at once, but they were not prepared for something from the air. They heard the noise of our machine and stopped feeding, but they did not seem to be able to look up. In the end they realized that something very strange was about; the old bull first walked out in front of the others. Suddenly he began to go down the valley side and after a moment he broke into a run. The whole group now followed him, rushing hurriedly down into the buses. In a small wood of low trees they stopped and kept close together. Here they believed themselves to be out of sight. We flew up and away. It was like having been taken there by a secret unknown route.
When I came back to my tea-party the teapot on the stone was still so hot that I burned my fingers on it.
【小题1】The writer drove to the plane ________.

三：阅读理解（共15小题，每小题2分，满分30分）
第一节：阅读下面的短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
As is known to all, in daily conversation modern people like to use simple words and simple sentences, especially some sentences with some parts left out. Here is an interesting example from the conversation between Henry, a fisherman, and his wife Sylvia. Do you know what they are talking about?
Sylvia: Going?
Henry: Been.
Sylvia: Any?
Henry: Some.
Sylvia: Big?
Henry: Small.
36. Which of the following is TRUE according to the conversation?
A. Sylvia got some fish for Henry.        B. Henry didn’t catch any fish.
C. Sylvia has cooked some fish.          D. Henry has just been back with some fish.
37. The text is mainly about           .
A. catching fish in the sea                          B. spending holidays 
C. short forms in daily talks                     D. joy in daily life
38. The writer wants to tell us simple words and sentences are ________ in daily conversation.
A. terrible             B. popular                  C. out of date      D. out of sight      

Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a month. But don't   1   it to be blue - the name has nothing to   2   the color of our closest celestial（天体） neighbor.

A full moon   3   on December 2. It will appear again on Thursday in time for the New Year's countdown.

"If you're in Times Square, you'll see the   4   moon right above you. It's going to be that brilliant," said Jack Horkheimer, director emeritus of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and host of a weekly astronomy TV show.

The New Year's Eve blue moon will be   5   in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. For partygoers in Australia and Asia, the full moon does not show up  6   New Year's Day, making January a blue moon month for them.

However, the Eastern Hemisphere can celebrate with a partial lunar eclipse（月蚀） on New Year's Eve when  7   of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. The   8   will not be visible in the Americas.

A full moon occurs   9   29.5 days, and most years have 12.  10  , an extra full moon in a month - a blue moon - occurs every 2.5 years. The   11   time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't   12    again until 2028.

Blue moons have no astronomical   13   , said Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"`Blue moon' is just a   14   in the same sense as a `hunter's moon' or a `harvest moon,'" Laughlin said in an e-mail.

The popular definition of blue moon   15   after a writer for Sky & Telescope magazine in 1946 misunderstood the Maine Farmer's Calendar and marked a blue moon as the second full moon in a month. In fact, the calendar   16   a blue moon as the third full moon in a season with four full moons, not the usual three.

Though Sky & Telescope corrected the  17   decades later, the definition caught on. For purists（语言纯正癖者）, however, this New Year's Eve full moon doesn't even qualify as a   18   moon. It's just the first full moon of the winter season.

In a tongue-in-cheek essay   19   on the magazine's Web site this week, senior contributing editor Kelly Beatty wrote: "If skies are clear when I'm    20  celebrating, I'll take a peek（眯着眼睛看） at that brilliant orb（天体） as it rises over the Boston skyline to see if it's an icy shade of blue. Or maybe I'll just howl."

(   ) 1. A. wish                  B. wait                        C. hope               D. expect

(   ) 2. A. deal with            B. do with                   C. develop with     D. form into

(   ) 3. A. occurred            B. came                      C. ran                   D. went

(   ) 4. A. full                   B. half                         C. bright                   D. part

(   ) 5. A. out of sight               B. visible                     C. big                   D. clear

(   ) 6. A. until                  B. when                      C. before              D. since

(   ) 7. A. part                   B. all                           C. any                  D. none

(   ) 8. A. moon                 B. eclipse                     C. sun                  D. shadow

(   ) 9. A. each                  B. every                             C. either                      D. all

(   ) 10. A. On the whole    B. Generally speaking   C. On average       D. In addition

(   ) 11. A. last                  B. next                        C. other               D. another

(   ) 12. A. go                   B. see                          C. come               D. look

(   ) 13. A. point               B. evident                    C. theory              D. significance

(   ) 14. A. name                      B. object                      C. phenomenon     D. tradition

(   ) 15. A. created             B. came about              C. made               D. copied

(   ) 16. A. named              B. called                          C. introduced               D. defined

(   ) 17. A. error               B. name                      C. reality              D. number

(   ) 18. A. blue                 B. red                          C. yellow              D. grey

(   ) 19. A. published        B. posted                     C. printed             D. written

(   ) 20. A. in                    B. out                          C. away               D. on

New technology links the world as never before. Our planet has shrunk（收缩）. It’s now a “global village” where countries are only seconds away by fax or phone or satellite link. And, of course, our ability to benefit from this high-tech communication’s equipment is greatly enhanced by foreign language skills.

    Deeply involved with this new technology is a breed of modern businesspeople who have a growing respect for the economic value of doing business abroad. In modern markets, success overseas often helps support domestic(国内的) business efforts.

    Overseas assignments are becoming increasingly important to advancement within executive(行政的) ranks. The executive stationed in another country no longer need fear being “out of sight and out of mind.” He or she can be sure that the overseas effort is central to the company’s plan for success, and that promotions often follow or accompany an assignment abroad. If an employee can succeed in a difficult assignment overseas, superior will have greater confidence in his or her ability to cope back in the United States where cross-cultural considerations and foreign language issues are becoming more and more common.

    Thanks to a variety of relatively inexpensive communications devices with business applications, even small businesses in the United States are able to get into international markets.

    English is still the international language of business. But there is an ever-growing need for people who can speak another language. A second language isn’t generally required to get a job in business, but having language skills gives a candidate(候选人) the edge when other qualifications appear to be equal.

The employee posted abroad who speaks the country’s principal language has an opportunity to fast-forward certain negotiations, and can have the cultural insight to know when it is better to move more slowly. The employee at the home office who can communicate well with foreign clients(客户) over the telephone or by fax machine is an obvious asset to the firm.

What is the author’s attitude toward high-tech communications equipment?

A. Critical.                   B. Indifferent.               C. Negative.                 D. Positive.

With the increased use of high-tech communications equipment, business people_________.

A. have to get familiar with modern technology

B. are gaining more economic benefits from domestic operations

C. are placing more importance on their overseas business

D. are eager to work overseas

In this passage, “out of sight and out of mind” (Para. 3) probably means _________.

A. being unable to think properly for lack of insight

B. being totally out of touch with business at home

C. missing opportunities for promotion when abroad

D. leaving all care and worry behind

According to the passage, what is an important consideration of international corporations in employing people today?

A. Connections with businesses overseas.     B. Ability to speak the client’s language.

C. Technical know-how.                             D. Business experience.