My granddaughter, Shari, owns The Berry (莓果) Factory in Sacramento, California, and her mother, Joan, and I were helping with the Valentine’s Day rush. We’d dipped (浸泡) hundreds of berries, arranged gift baskets and packaged orders to be shipped around the country.

     By the end of the day, the two middle-aged women, Joan and I, were exhausted. Shari didn’t seem tired. That was typical Shari. Though she was very busy, I’d seen her give away berries to everybody — parking attendants, mail carriers and hairdressers. “For me?” they would say, bursting into a smile.

     As a “thank you”, Shari took us out for dinner. But there was a 45-minute wait at her favorite restaurant. “No big deal. There’s another place just up the road,” she said, driving us there. This time we walked right in.

     When the waitress came to take our drink orders, Shari reached into her handbag, pulling something out. “I want you to have these,” she said, handing the waitress a box of chocolate-dipped strawberries. “She will love those berries!” I thought. But the waitress seemed startled. She only let out a “thank you” before grabbing the box and rushing into the kitchen.

A few minutes later, the waitress returned with our iced tea. “I apologize,” she said. “My best friend and I had promised to send each other something every Valentine’s Day. But she passed away last year. I didn’t know how I’d get through this day without her. Then you handed me that box.” “I’m so sorry to hear that,” said Shari. “It’s not much, but I hope you can enjoy them.” “Oh, I will,” the waitress said. “See, every year we always sent each other the same thing; a box of chocolate-dipped strawberries bought from our favourite store, The Berry Factory.”

1.What can be inferred in the first paragraph?

    A. The Berry Factory is a gift store

    B. The Berry Factory has few shop clerks.

    C. The Berry Factory has many branches around the country

    D. The Berry Factory has customers from different parts of the country.

2. Which of the following words can best describe Shari?

    A. Talkative        B. Creative         C. Kind-hearted         D. Well-known

3. The underlined word “startled” in Paragraph 4 probably means _________.

    A. shocked              B. excited              C. tired            D. frightened

4.We can learn from the last paragraph that _________.

    A. the waitress’ best friend didn’t like chocolate

    B. the waitress’ best friend broke up with her 

C. the waitress’ best friend worked for Shari

D. the waitress’ best friend was Shari’s customer

Valentine’s Day is named for Saint Valentine, an early Christmas churchman who helped young lovers. Valentine was killed for his Christian beliefs on February 14 more than 1700 years ago, but the day which is named after him is even earlier than that.
More than 2,000 years ago, the ancient Romans celebrated a holiday for lovers. As part of the celebration, girls wrote their names on pieces of paper and put them in a large container. Boys reached into the container and pulled one out. The girl whose name was written on the paper became his lover or sweet heart for a year.
Now, lovers still put their names on pieces of paper and they sent each other Valentine’s Day cards that tell of their love. Sometimes they also send gifts, like flowers or chocolate candies. Americans usually send these gifts and cards through the mail system. But some use another way to send this message. They have it printed in a newspaper. The cost is usually a few dollars. Some of the messages are simple and short, “Jane, I love you very much”. Others say more. This one, for example, “Dan, Roses are red. Violets are blue. I hope you love me as much as I love you. Forever, May.”
Most of the newspapers that print such messages are local, but USA Today is sold throughout the United States and 90 other countries. This means someone can send a Valentine message to the lover in a far-away place almost anywhere in the world. These messages cost 80 dollars and more. An employee of USA Today says readers can have a small heart or rose printed along with their messages this year. Will this kind of Valentine’s Day message reach the one you love? Well, just make sure he or she reads the newspaper.
【小题1】When was the day named after Valentine?

书面表达（满分25分）

现在许多年轻人都热衷于过诸如“情人节”、“愚人节”、“圣诞节”之类的洋节，但也有许多人对此持反对态度。请结合下表内容谈谈你的看法。

        注意：

文章必须包括表中的全部内容。

词数：120左右。文章开头已写好，不计入总词数。

参考词汇：入侵—invasion；传统的—traditional

Is it right for young people to celebrate foreign festivals such as Valentine’s Day, April Fools’ Day and Christmas Day?________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

The Roman Emperor Claudius II was fighting many wars. He wanted a strong army, but many men did not want to be soldiers. Claudius thought the men wanted to stay at home to be with their wives and children instead of leaving to fight wars.

Claudius thought of an awful solution to his problem. He decided to cancel all marriages! No one in all of Rome could get married. Claudius thought that if the men couldn’t get married, the men would ignore the women and want to be soldiers.

Valentine, who was a priest (牧师), believed that people needed to get married. He thought it was wrong for people to live together without being married. So he secretly and illegally married couples anyway. He performed the weddings in secret places, so the Roman soldiers would not find out.

But they did find out. Valentine was arrested and brought before the Emperor. The Emperor thought Valentine was a well-spoken and wise young man, and encouraged him to stop being a Christian (基督徒) and become a loyal Roman. Valentine would not deny his beliefs, and he refused. He was sent to prison and was finally killed. While he was in prison, he sent out letters to his friends and asked to be prayed (祈祷) for by writing Remember your Valentine.

Valentine was killed on the 14th or the 24th of February in the year 269 or 270. We celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14th in honor of St. Valentine.

1.The Emperor Claudius II wanted men to __________.     

A. live at home and work for the empire                  

B. become loyal Roman citizens

C. go to other countries and raise families    

D. fight wars in other lands

2. The underlined word “awful” in the second paragraph probably means __________.

A. terrible         B. wonderful         C. possible         D. friendly

3. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage? 

A. Valentine believed in marriage and risked death to marry people.

B. Claudius wanted to stay at home with his wife.

C. Claudius thought Valentine was a man with a bright future.

D. Valentine broke the law.

短文改错（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同学写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（）,并在其下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

Love is just a thread

      Sometime I really doubt that there is love between my parents. Every day they are very busy try to earn money in order to pay the high tuition to my brother and me. They don’t act in the romantic ways that I read in books and I see on TV. In their opinions, “I love you” is very luxurious for them to say. Sending flower each other in Valentine’s Day is even more out of the question. Finally my father has a bad temper. When he’s very tired of the hand work, it is easy for him to lose her temper.