Last year, on the night before the first day of the Spring Festival, Hugo Pang was sitting in his huge flat on Hong Kong Island. It was late in the evening, and Hugo was sipping a glass of his favorite French brandy, and listening to music on his huge, expensive music center. Pang lived alone, apart from the six maid who cooked and cleaned for him, and the chauffeur（私家司机） who drove his Rolls-Royce。

Suddenly, the room seemed to begin spinning around him. Then there was a flash of light and a puff of smoke, and before him Pang saw an old man dressed in traditional Chinese clothes. Pang looked at his brandy glass, and looked again at the old man. He was so frightened he couldn’t speak.

“Come with me,” said the old man, “I’m going to show you something.” He took Pang’s hand, and immediately the room disappeared, and Pang was standing in a field outside a village in Guangdong Province. The houses were small and the village was poor, but in front of him Pang saw a little crowd of children were playing. It was Spring Festival, and the sound of firecrackers could be heard from inside the village, while smoke rose over the roofs of the houses. Then, among the children playing, Pang recognized himself. “We were poor then,” he said, “but we were happier. We had to work hard to get everything we had.”

1.The first paragraph tells us that Hugo Pang was________

2.When the old man first appeared, Pang looked at his brandy glass because__________

3.The village in the last paragraph was___________

4.The old wanted to show Pang that________

Today, roller skating is easy and fun. But a long time ago, it wasn’t easy at all. Before 1750, the idea of skating didn’t exist. That changed because of a man named Joseph Merlin. Merlin’s work was making musical instruments. In his spare time he liked to play the violin. Joseph Merlin was a man of ideas and dreams. People called him a dreamer.

One day Merlin received an invitation to attend a fancy dress ball(化装舞会). He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of party came near, Merlin began to think how to make a grand entrance at the party. He had an idea. He thought he would get a lot of attention if he could skate into the room.

Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll. Finally, he decided to put two wheels under each shoe. These were the first roller skates. Merlin was very proud of his invention and dreamed of arriving at the party on wheels while playing the violin.

On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room playing his violin. Everyone was astonished to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skates. He rolled on and on. Suddenly, he ran into a huge mirror that was hanging on the wall. Down fell the mirror, breaking to pieces. Nobody forgot Merlin’s grand entrance for a long time!

49. The text is mainly about _________.

A. a strange man              

B. an unusual party

C. how roller skating began     

D. how people enjoyed themselves in the 18^th century

50. People thought Merlin was a dreamer because he _________.

A. often gave others surprise     B. was a gifted musician

C. invented the roller skates      D. was full of imagination

51. Merlin put wheels under his shoes in order to _________.

A. impress the party guests       B. arrive at the party sooner

C. test his invention             D. show his skill in walking on wheels

52. What is the main point the writer is trying to make in the last paragraph?

A. The roller skates needed further improvement

B. The party guests took Merlin for a fool

C. Merlin succeeded in beyond expectation.

D. Roller skating is easy and fun.

At the age of sixteen, I joined a volunteer group with my dad. I went on my first volunteer project in West Virginia. On the night we arrived, we discovered that “our family” was living in a trailer(拖车) that was in poor condition. A crew had been working on it for two weeks, but every time they finished one problem, another surfaced.
We decided the only reasonable solution was to build a new house – something unusual but necessary under these circumstances. The family was overjoyed with their new house that was twenty by thirty feet with three bedrooms, a bath and a kitchen.
On Tuesday of that week, while we ate lunch together, I asked the family’s three boys, Josh, Eric and Ryan, "What do you want for your new room?" Expecting toys and other gadgets that children usually ask for, we were surprised when Josh responded, "I just want a bed."
The boys had never slept in a bed! They were accustomed to plastic mats. That night we had a meeting and decided that beds would be the perfect gift. On Thursday night, a few adults in our group drove to the nearest city and bought beds and new bedding.
When we saw the delivery truck coming, we told the family about the surprise. We could hardly contain ourselves. It was like watching excited children on Christmas morning.
That afternoon, as we fitted the frames of the beds together, Eric ran into the house to watch us. Too dirty to enter his room, he observed with wide-eyed enthusiasm from the doorway.
As my father slipped a pillowcase onto one of the pillows, Eric asked, "What is that?"
"A pillow," she replied.
"What do you do with it?" Eric continued to ask.
"When you go to sleep, you put your head on it,” I answered softly. Tears came to our eyes as she handed Eric the pillow.
"Oh . . . that's soft," he said, hugging it tightly.
Now, when my sister or I start to ask for something that seems urgent, my Dad gently asks, "Do you have a pillow?"
We know exactly what he means.
【小题1】The writer’s first volunteer project was         .

Starry Night

Have you ever seen a real night sky that looks like Van Gogh’s Starry Night? I hope not! So, why would an artist paint the sky this way? Perhaps I can answer that with another question. When you’re happy, why do you sing instead of speaking? Or when you’re in love, why do you speak of roses and honey? When we do these things, we, too are artists. We’re using something that goes beyond a mere scientific description in order to communicate our feelings more powerfully than straightforward words can. So consider for a moment that Van Gogh might not have been hallucinating (产生幻觉的) on the night he painted this. Maybe he felt something so powerful that he had to go beyond the familiar to express it.

I hope I’m reminding you of something you already know as I describe the experience of being outside at night under a crystal clear sky that makes everything seem clean and refreshing. So you look up. And suddenly you see the sky that you’ve seldom seen before. It’s not just the same old dark night sky tonight. Instead, the blackness is a deep, rich blue that is more bottomless than any ocean. The stars are not spots of light but brilliant, magical diamonds that dance like tiny angels. In just this special moment, the sky is somehow alive, and it seems to speak to you silently about the meaning of infinity (无限).

Now look at the painting again. Can you see something of what makes this such a famous and well-loved image? But there’s more here than that. Van Gogh painted this while he was quite struck down by a mental disease. It is natural to imagine that he frequently battled the fear that he would never escape his prison to true freedom. It is natural for us to imagine this because each of us has faced our own personal prison, whether it be disease, the loss of a loved one, serious financial problems … In such moments it is tempting to give up to despair (绝望) and collapse in hopelessness.

Looking at this painting, I imagine Van Gogh in just such a moment of despair, when he is struck by the memory of one of those amazing night skies. He recalls the sense that he is not alone, that there is a living, infinite world with rich colorful creatures and scenes all around.

And so the sky flows across the canvas (画布) full of vitality (活力) and power. The stars don’t just sparkle; they explode. Looking closer, we notice that the earth itself seems to respond to the movement in the sky, forming its own living waves in the mountain and rolling trees. In the sleepy village, the windows of the houses glow (发光) with the same light that brightens the universe. The giant trees at the left seem to capture the joy by stretching upwards toward the sky.

What a tremendous message of hope there is in this masterpiece! Even if our troubles persist, the world around us assures us that life is worth living. That’s what the angels sing about. Doesn’t it make you want to sing, too?

1.Looking at the painting Starry Night, we can see all the following except________.

A. The singing angels                             B. the giant trees

C. the sleepy village                               D. the sparkling stars

2.Van Gogh does NOT describe a feeling of ______ through the Starry Night.

   A. happiness         B. vitality            C. power                    D. despair

3.The underlined word “prison” in the 3rd paragraph probably means ______.

   A. trouble in one’s life                                   B. mental illness

   C. control from the authority                  D. a place where criminals are kept

4.What is the main purpose of this passage?

 A. To explain how Van Gogh painted the Starry Night.

 B. To tell us how to appreciate the Starry Night.

 C. To prove Van Gogh was in a hallucinating state of mind while painting the picture.

 D. To show us the beauty of the sky on a starry night.

Today, roller skating is easy and fun．But a long time ago, it wasn’t easy at all. Before 1750, the idea of skating didn’t exist. That changed because of a man named Joseph Merlin. Merlin’s work was making musical instruments. In his spare time he liked to play the violin. Joseph
. People called him a dreamer.
One day Merlin received an invitation to attend a fancy dress ball. He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of the party came near, Merlin began to think how to make a grand entrance at the party. He had an idea. He thought he would get a lot of attention if he could skate into the room.
Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll. Finally, he decided to put two wheels under each shoe. These were the first roller skates. Merlin was very proud of his invention and dreamed of arriving at the party on wheels while playing the violin.
On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room playing his violin. Everyone was astonished to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skates. He rolled on and on. Suddenly, he ran into a huge mirror that was hanging on the wall. Down fell the mirror, breaking to pieces. Nobody forgot Merlin’s grand entrance for a long time!
【小题1】                                                                                                     The text is mainly about ________.