When most people travel, they spend some time booking hotel rooms. However, my friend Ashley and I were not like most people many years ago. We decided that backpacking through Ireland would be more fun if we “winged it”.

  Winging it, of course, meant that we’d each buy a one-way ticket to Dublin, and give ourselves ten days to get back to Bath, England, where we were enrolled in a study-abroad program. The plan was to visit Dublin, Galway, Cong, and finally end things in Belfast, where we figured we could catch a flight back to England.

  Unfortunately, Ireland had other plans for us, as nothing worked out the way in which we thought it would. After getting stuck in Galway and Cong for about seven days, we finally managed to take a bus trip from Cong to Belfast. The twelve-hour bus ride started at ten in the morning, which meant that we’d arrive in the heart of Belfast at around ten at night. Of course, like all transport, the bus ran late, and we ended up in Belfast at around eleven-thirty at night. As there were a ton of hotels around the area where it dropped us off, we weren’t too worried about finding a hotel room. But hotel after hotel turned us down.

  After the third hotel turned us down and the fourth one was locked up for the night, Ashley and I started to realize that we had to spend a long night sleeping on a city bench. Like militant soldiers, we slept in turn as we were worried we would get robbed. The system worked, as we were able to stay safe while catching as much sleep as we could on the bench.

  From this experience, I really learnt a good lesson.

1.Why did the author and his friend decide to wing it when they went to travel in Ireland? (No more than 8 words)

2.What did the author and his friend do in Bath, England? (No more than 8 words)

3.How long did it take the author and his friend to get to Belfast from Cong by bus? (No more than 5 words)

4.Why did the author and his friend have to take turns to sleep? (No more than 8 words)

My father was a foreman of a sugar-cane plantation in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. My first job was to drive the oxen that ploughed the cane fields. I would walk behind an ox, guiding him with a broomstick. For $ 1 a day, I worked eight hours straight, with no food breaks.

It was very tedious work, but it prepared me for life and taught me many lasting lessons. Because the plantation owners were always watching us, I had to be on time every day and work as hard as I could. I’ve never been late for any job since. I also learned about being respectful and faithful to the people you work for. More important, I earned my pay; it never entered my mind to say I was sick just because I didn’t want to work.

I was only six years old, but I was doing a man’s job. Our family needed every dollar we could make because my father never earned more than $ 18 a week. Our home was a three-room wood shack with a dirty floor and no toilet. Nothing made me prouder than bringing home money to help my mother, father, two brothers and three sisters. This gave me self-esteem(自尊心), one of the most important things a person can have.

When I was seven, I got work at a golf course near our house. My job was to stand down the fairway and spot the balls as they landed, so the golfers could find them. Losing a ball meant you were fired, so I never missed one. Some nights I would lie in bed and dreamt of making thousands of dollars by playing golf and being able to buy a bicycle.

The more I dreamed, the more I thought. Why not? I made my first golf club out of guava limb(番石榴树枝) and a piece of pipe. Then I hammered an empty tin can into the shape of a ball. And finally I dug two small holes in the ground and hit the ball back and forth. I practiced with the same devotion and intensity. I learned working in the field — except now I was driving golf balls with club, not oxen with a broomstick.

1. The writer’s first job was _______.

　 A. to stand down the fairway at a golf course

　 B. to watch over the sugar-cane plantation

　 C. to drive the oxen that ploughed the cane fields

　 D. to spot the balls as they landed so the golfers could find them

2. The writer learned that_______ from his first job.

　A. he should work for those who he liked most

　B. he should work longer than what he was expected

　 C. he should never fail to say hello to his owner

　 D. he should be respectful and faithful to the people he worked for

3. _______ gave the writer self-esteem.

A. Having a family of eight people

　 B. Owning his own golf course

　 C. Bringing money back home to help the family

　 D. Helping his father with the work on the plantation

4. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

　 A. He wanted to be a successful golfer.

　B. He wanted to run a golf course near his house.

　C. He was satisfied with the job he got on a plantation.

　D. He wanted to make money by guiding oxen with a broomstick.

For the past six weeks I have been having online writing classes. I had never taken an online class before, so I did not know what to expect. Now I am about halfway through the courses, and I am doing three courses, where I am practicing writing.

These creative writing classes have been somewhat similar to those I took in a middle school. There are weekly readings where we have to discuss our thoughts, and we comment on each other’s work. But there are some differences. In my middle school, I had one novel writing class where we all sat in a circle twice a week and discussed each other’s work. Each person had a copy of the story but the author of the story was always anonymous(匿名的). This allowed people to give honest opinions since there was no face to connect the story to.

The creative article course is held in a computer lab and all of our work is done online. Every week, two people read their stories aloud to the class, and then we spend a few minutes discussing them, and then post comments on the online discussion board. Still, the main benefit of an online class is that I can choose when to turn in my homework. This allows me to choose how to manage my time.

 I think taking three creative writing courses at one time may have been a little too ambitious, but I am studying a variety of writing styles and I think I am becoming a better writer for it.

How long do the online writing classes that the author is taking last for in total?

A. About twelve weeks.               B. About two months.

C. About six months.                  D. About six weeks

What do the author’s online classes and school classes have in common?

A. Students have classes in a computer lab.

B. Students sit in a circle twice a week.

C. Students write novels every day.

D. Students discuss their reading every week.

Why was the author of the story anonymous during the discussion?

A. Because students didn’t want their work popular.

B. Because in this way students could express their real ideas freely.

C. Because students didn’t know each other at all.

D. Because it took students less time to finish the discussion.

What is the main advantage of taking online writing classes?

A. Students needn’t have face-to-face talks.

B. Students can hand in their homework late.

C. Students can arrange their time as their like.

D. Students needn’t do any homework.

B

YOU CAN HELP!

Everyone was born with his own built-in burglar(窃贼) alarm. It’s called the sense of sight and sound．Unfortunately, many of us go around with the alarm switched off.

We don’t see the stranger wandering outside the house next door.

We don’t notice the sounds from the flat upstairs.

(Weren’t they supposed to be on holiday?)

The police can only do so much to prevent crime. There never can be enough of them to guard every home in every town. So they need your help in fighting with the burglars，the vandals（恣意破坏者）, and the car thieves.

Not, of course, by setting out to have a go every time you see something suspicious. It’ll always be the job of the police to arrest criminals.

But by acting as a line of communication between them and your community, for instance, you probably know far more about your immediate neighborhoods than the police ever could.

A stranger in someone’s garden would probably be far more obvious to you than it would to even the local police, if, of course, you were on the look-out.

That’s the whole idea behind the Neighborhood Watch schemes, springing up around the country to create a spirit of watchfulness within a community, anything suspicious being reported to the police.

It’s early days yet, but results so far are very encouraging. The crime figures are already dropping in many of the areas running the scheme. And all due to people like you.

61. The underlined word “them” refers to “______”.

A. criminals          B. the police   C. neighbors   D. strangers

62. The advertisement points out that many people______.

A. are not ready to help the police   

B. are not as watchful as they could be

C. don’t look after their gardens well      

D. don’t tell their neighbors about their holidays

63. One of the ways we could help prevent crime is to______.

A. turn on the alarm system in our home 

B. try to stop criminals from escaping

C. look out for people behaving suspiciously 

D. inform the police if we hear noises upstairs

64. The purpose of the advertisement is to __________in their neighborhood.

A. ask people to join the police force

B. advise people how to protect their homes

C. warn people about the increasing risk of crime

D. encourage people to be on watch for possible crime

 “Can I see my baby?” asked the happy new mother. The bundle（婴儿包）was placed in her arms and when she moved the fold of cloth to look upon his tiny face, she held her breath-the baby has been born without ears. Time, however, proved that the baby’s hearing was perfect except his appearance.

One day when he rushed home from school and threw himself into his mother’s arms, he cried out bitterly, “A boy, a big boy… called me a f-…freak.” She sighed, knowing that his life was to be endless of heartbreaks.

He grew up, handsome for his misfortune. A favorite with his fellow students, he might have been class president, but for that. He developed a gift for literature and music.

The boy’s father had a talk with the family doctor. Could nothing be done? “I believe we could graft（移植）on a pair of outer ears, if they could be donated（捐献）,”the doctor decided. So the search began for a person who would make such a sacrifice a young man. Two years went by. Then, “You’re going to the hospital, son. Mother and I have someone who will donate the ears you need. But it’s a secret,” said the father.

The operation was a brilliant success. His talents blossomed （开花）into genius. School and college became a series of successes. Later he married and entered the diplomatic（外交）service. “But I must know!” he urged his father. “Who gave so much for me? I could never do enough for him.”

“I do not believe you could,” said the father, “but the agreement was that you are not to know….not yet.” The years kept the secret, but the day did come…. one of the darkest days that ever pass through a son. He stood with his father over his mother’s casket（棺材）.Slowly and tenderly, the father stretched forth a hand and raised the thick, reddish-brown hair to let out the secret.

60．The story is mainly about        .

         A．how a boy had new ears through an operation

         B．what a devoted parent privately did for the child

         C．how a disabled boy turned into a useful person

         D．why a donator made a sacrifice to a bright boy

61．From the first paragraph we know that the mother      .

         A．was determined to donate her ears to perfect her son.

         B．kept her husband unknown about the baby’s situation

         C．felt shocked and disappointed to see her new baby

         D．complained of her bad luck to have a disabled child

62．We can infer from her passage         .

         A．the agreement was between the donator and the family

         B．the boy was so popular that he was made class president

         C．finally the boy came to know who the donator was

         D．the mother donated her ears to her son after she died

63．What moral lesson can we draw from this reading?

        A．True beauty lies only in the heart not in appearance.

         B．It is a virtue for young generations to learn to be grateful

         C．It is up to parents to help their children heart and soul.

         D．Real love lies in what is done unknown rather than what is done known.