第二部分 阅读理解(共25小题，每一节每小题2分，第二节每小题1分，共45分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项。并将选项的字母标号填入题前的答题表内。
A
It was at least two months before Christmas when nine-year-old Almie Rose told her father and me that she wanted a new bicycle．As Christmas drew nearer，her desire for a bicycle seemed to fade，or so we thought．We bought the latest rages，Baby-Sitter’s Club dolls，and a doll house．Then，much to our surprise。on December 23rd，she said that she“really wanted a bike more than anything else”．
It was just too late，what with all the details of preparing Christmas dinner and buying last-minute gifts，to take the time to select the“right bike”for our little girl．So here we were---Christmas Eve around 9：00 P．M，with Almie and her six-year-old brother，Dylan，nested snug in their beds．Now we could only think of the bicycle and the disappointment of our child．“What if I make a little bicycle out of clay(a kind of earth)and write a note that she could trade the clay model in for a real bike?” her dad asked．“This is an expensive item and she is‘such a big girl’，and it would be much better for her to pick it out．”So he spent the next four hours painstakingly working with clay to make a tiny bike．
On Christmas morning，we were excited for Almie to open the little heart-shaped package with the beautiful red and white clay bike and the note．Finally，she opened it and read the note aloud．“Does this mean that I trade in this bike that Daddy made me for a real one?”Beaming，I said，“Yes．”Almie had tears in her eyes when she replied．“I could never trade in this beautiful bicycle that Daddy made me．I’d rather keep this than get a real bike．”At that moment，we would have moved heaven and earth to buy her every bicycle on the planet!
41.．Which is the right time order of the following events?
a．The girl asked for a new bike．
b．The girl opened the little heart-shaped package．   
c．The parents bought the girl a modern and popular doll．   
d．The father made the girl a bike with clay．
e．The girl would rather keep the clay bike than get a real one．
A  a, b, c ,e d  B a, c, d, b, e  C．a，c，b，d，e    D．a，b，d，e，e
42.．Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A．The parents wanted the girl to have the clay bike forever．
B．Tears were in the girl’s eyes because she didn’t like the present at all．
C．The girl never lost her desire for a bike．
D．The parents paid little attention to the daughter’s desire for a bike．
43.．Why did Dad make the clay bicycle?
A．Because he wanted to buy a real one，but he had no money．
B．Because he didn’t want to disappoint his daughter．
C．Because he thought his daughter would like it．
D．Because he wanted to give his daughter a surprise．
44.．What can be inferred from the last sentence of the text?
A．The parents were happy and encouraged．
    B．The parents felt comfortable and relaxed．
C．The parents were moved and felt proud of the girl．   
D．The parents felt disappointed and sorry for the girl．

Mr. Brown was going away for a week. Before he left, he said to his son, "if anyone asks for me, you can tell him that your father has been out for doing something, and will be back in a week, then be sure to ask him to sit down for a cup of tea."
"OK, Dad," said his son. But he was afraid his son couldn't remember this, he wrote these words down on a piece of paper and gave it to him. His son put it into his small pocket, took it out and looked at it every now and then.
Four days passed, but no one came to see his father. The boy thought that there was no man to come and that the piece of paper was of no more use for him, so he burnt it that evening.
The next afternoon, someone knocked at the door. The boy opened it. A man was standing at the door and said, "Where is your father?" The boy put his hand into his pocket at once and looked for the piece of paper. He could not find it. He suddenly remembered he had burnt it, so he shouted, "No more." The man was very surprised. He asked, "No more? I met your father last week. When did it happen?"
"Burnt yesterday evening."
【小题1】Mr. Brown told his son that _____.

What makes a gift special? Is it the price you see on the gift receipt？Or is it the look on the recipient's face when they receive it that determines the true value? What gift is worth the most?
This Christmas I was debating what to give my father. My dad is a hard person to buy for because he never wants anything. I pulled out my phone to read a text message from my mom saying that we were leaving for Christmas shopping for him when I came across a message on my phone that I had locked. The message was from my father. My eyes fell on a photo of a flower taken in Wyoming, and underneath a poem by William Blake. The flower, a lone dandelion (蒲公英) standing against the bright blue sky, inspired me. My dad had been reciting those words to me since I was a kid. That may even be the reason why I love writing. I decided that those words would be my gift to my father.
I called back. I told my mom to go without me and that I already created my gift. I sent the photo of the cream-colored flower to my computer and typed the poem on top of it. As I was arranging the details another poem came to mind. The poem was written by Edgar Allan Poe；my dad recited it as much as he did the other. I typed that out as well and searched online for a background to the words of it. The poem was focused around dreaming, and after searching I found the perfect picture. The image was painted with blues and greens and purples, twisting together to create the theme and wonder of a dream. As I watched both poems passing through the printer, the white paper coloring with words that shaped my childhood, I felt that this was a gift that my father would truly appreciate. Christmas soon arrived. The minute I saw the look on my dad’s face as he unwrapped those black letters carefully placed in a cheap frame, I knew I had given the perfect gift.
【小题1】The idea for a special gift began to form when the author was _________.

第三部分阅读理解 (共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)
请认真阅读下列短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
Saving the Planet with Earth-Friendly Bamboo Products
Jackie Heinricher’s love affair with bamboo started in her backyard. “As a child, I remember playing among the golden bamboo my dad had planted, and when there was a slight wind, the bamboos sounded really musical.”
A fisheries biologist, Heinricher, 47, planned to work in the salmon industry in Seattle, where she lived with her husband, Guy Thornburgh, but she found it too competitive. Then her garden gave her the idea for a business: She’d planted 20 bamboo forests on their seven-acre farm. 
Heinricher started Boo-Shoot Gardens in 1998. She realized early on what is just now beginning to be known to the rest of the world. It can be used to make fishing poles, skateboards, buildings, furniture, floors, and even clothing. An added bonus: Bamboo absorbs four times as much carbon dioxide as a group of hardwood trees and releases 35 percent more oxygen.
First she had to find a way to mass-produce the plants—a tough task, since bamboo flowers create seed only once every 50 to 100 years. And dividing a bamboo plant frequently kills it.
Heinricher appealed to Randy Burr, a tissue culture expert, to help her. “People kept telling us we’d never figure it out,” says Heinricher. “Others had worked on it for 27 years! I believed in what we were doing, though, so I just kept going.”
She was right to feel a sense of urgency. Bamboo forests are being rapidly used up, and a United Nations report showed that even though bamboo is highly renewable, as many as half of the world’s species are threatened with dying out. Heinricher knew that bamboo could make a significant impact on carbon emissions (排放) and world economies, but only if huge numbers could be produced. And that’s just what she and Burr figured out after nine years of experiments—a way to grow millions of plants. By placing cuttings in test tubes with salts, vitamins, plant hormones, and seaweed gel, they got the plants to grow and then raised them in soil in greenhouses.
Not long after it, Burr’s lab hit financial difficulties. Heinricher had no experience running a tissue culture operation, but she wasn’t prepared to quit. So she bought the lab.
Today Heinricher heads up a profitable multimillion-dollar company, working on species from all over the world and selling them to wholesalers. “If you want to farm bamboo, it’s hard to do without the young plants, and that’s what we have,” she says proudly.
56. What was the main problem with planting bamboo widely?
A. They didn’t have enough young bamboo.
B. They were short of money and experience.
C. They didn’t have a big enough farm to do it.
D. They were not understood by other people.
57. What does Heinricher think of bamboo?
A. Renewable and acceptable                             B. Productive and flexible.
C. Useful and earth-friendly.                                 D. Strong and profitable.
58. The underlined word “renewable” in Paragraph 6 probably means “________”.
A. able to be replaced naturally                B. able to be raised difficultly
C. able to be shaped easily                    D. able to be recycled conveniently
59. What do you learn from the passage?
A. Heinricher’s love for bamboo led to her experiments in the lab.
B. Heinricher’s determination helped her to succeed in her work.
C. Heinricher struggled to prevent bamboo from disappearing.
D. Heinricher finally succeeded in realizing her childhood dream.

It s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree．It has been there for the past 10 years or so．It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas—the commercial aspects of Christmas-overspending．Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to avoid the usual presents．The idea came in an unusual way．
Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a match against a team sponsored by a church．These youngsters, dressed in ragged clothes, presenting a sharp contrast to our boys in their beautiful dresses and shoes．As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears．It was a luxury that the poor team obviously could not afford．Well, we ended up defeating them．Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said．"They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them．" That's when the idea for his present came．That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought wrestling headgear and shoes for the youngsters and sent them anonymously （匿名地） to the church．On Christmas Eve? I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me．His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in the following years．
For each Christmas, I followed the tradition．The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas．It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed expectation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to show its contents．As the children grew, they joined．
May we all remember the reason for Christmas, and the true Christmas spirit this year and always．God bless梡ass this along to your friends and loved ones．
【小题1】The author avoids usual Christmas presents because her husband _____．