Every year between February and April,when the southwest monsoon (季风)blows ,a fever seizes the Thais (泰国人).It is the kite flying in Thailand __1__a strong feeling of interest that is nothing  2   of feverish.

During the summer, in the moths of March and April ,the skies   3   cities ,towns and villages  throughout the Kingdom are   4      with kites of all descriptions --long-tailed dragons,twisting snakes ,beautiful butter-flies,or familiar cartoon characters wheeling and weaving in the waim air.

One afternoon ,a friend and long-time kite flier invited me to   5     him  at the Pramane Ground ."What's the attraction?"I asked as he flew a huge kite."Well ,you can feel  a bit of a   6    at first ."he replied,""a grown man standing there holding the end of a string and    7    up into the sky .But once you forget yourself ,you get caught up in the   8   of controlling something inthe air where you cannot follow.You're on the ground :the kite's in the air but it's you that are making it al    9    .Come on ,go fly a kite."

I took his advice in the   10   it was meant and ,holding the hand of my young daughter si that others woukd think I was only satisfying a child's   11    ,I bought a rainbow-colored snake .After a few failed runs we got the kite into the air   12    greater ease than I expected.It was only at my daughter 's crying ,"My go,my go "that I realized I'd been holding the string ,completely   13   what I was discovering was a very pleasing pastime.

Like many other    14    of popular culture ,the sport of kite flying in Thailand has been   15   down from generation to generation.Its origins(起源)are    16    probably in ancient China,although it seems likey that Thai kites are as old as the    17   itself.It was a craze    18    by everyone from the king down.

"It's a great tradition (传统),that has the    19    of bringing generations togeter,"says my friend ,"What you see today at the King's Cup is the   20    as the people of the past would have seen more than two hundred years ago."  

1.A.fires             B.fights          C.turns         D.keeps

2.A.long             B.short           C. fond         D.proud

3.A.on              B.over            C.around       D. in

4.A.alive            B.ready           C.open         D.equal

5.A.see              B.care            C.accept       D. join

6.A.hero             B.fool            C.master       D.fireman

7.A.flying           B.missing         C.staring        D. jumping

8.A.match           B.comfort         C.excitement    D.movement

9.A.happen          B.begin           C. attend       D.break

10.A.way            B.while           C.language     D. need

11.A.game           B.sport           C. request       D. best

12.A.for             B.with            C.beyond       D.under

13.A.tired of         B.fit for          C. helped with    D. devoted to

14.A.laws           B.rules           C.forms         D. researches

15.A.put            B.handed          C.sat           D.looked

16.A.rooted          B.left           C.dated          D.hoped

17.A.history         B.Kingdom       C.time          D.earth

18.A.imagined        B.used          C.enjoyed       D.told

19.A.effect           B.right         C. name         D.science

20.A.same           B.kite          C. invention      D. relation

Talk about a real-life hero! Ten-year-old Larry Champagne from St. Louis，Missouri, hit the brake (刹车) on a runaway school bus. He saved himself and 20 other kids on board from disaster.
It all happened in one terrible accident. On the way to school, the bus driver, Ernestine Blackman, suddenly fell ill. Seeing the car was running away, the other kids started to scream, but Larry ran to the front and stopped the bus.
“At first I thought, ‘We’re going to die,’” says Larry, “but after I pressed the brake, I felt safe.”
Larry’s speedy reaction made news all over the country. He appeared on TV shows as a hero. The bus company gave Larry a big gift. His school hung a medal of honor around his neck.
“My grandmother always tells me to do what’s right,” says Larry. He thanked his brother, Jerrick, 9, who “helped me get the bus driver up” during the emergency（紧急情况）. How did he know how to stop the bus? Larry is something of a mechanic（机械师）. He helps his grandfather work on his old truck. “He gets his hands dirty,” says his grandfather. One thing is for certain: Larry knows where to find the brakes.
【小题1】What did Larry do to save the runaway bus?

For many people today, reading is no longer relaxation. To keep up their work they must read letters, reports, trade publications, interoffice communications, not to mention newspapers and magazines: a never-ending flood of words. In  1  a job or advancing in one, the ability to read and comprehend  2   can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the unfortunate fact is that most of us are   3   readers. Most of us develop poor reading  4    at an early age, and never get over them. The main deficiency   5  in the actual stuff of language itself ——words. Taken individually, words have  6   meaning until they are strung together into phrases, sentences and paragraphs.    7  , however, the untrained reader does not read groups of words. He laboriously reads one word at a time, often regressing（退回） to  8    words or passages. Regression, the tendency to look back over   9  you have just read, is a common bad habit in reading. Another habit which  10   down the speed of reading is vocalization—sounding each word either orally or mentally as  11    reads.

　　To overcome these bad habits, some reading clinics use a device called an  12  , which moves a bar (or curtain) down the page at a predetermined（预先确定的） speeD．The bar is set at a slightly faster rate  13   the reader finds comfortable, in order to “stretch” him. The accelerator forces the reader to read fast,    14  word-by-word reading, regression and subvocalization（默读）practically impossible. At first  15  is sacrificed for speeD．But when you learn to read ideas and concepts, you will not only read faster,   16    your comprehension will improve. Many people have found  17   reading skill drastically improved after some training. 18  Charlce Au, a business manager, for instance, his reading rate was a reasonably good 172 words a minute  19   the training, now it is an excellent 1,28 words a minute. He is delighted that how he can   20  a lot more reading material in a short period of time.  

1．  A．applying B．doing       C．offering   D．getting

2．  A．quickly    B．easily       C．roughly    D．decidedly

3．  A．good       B．curious    C．poor        D．urgent

4．  A．training   B．habits      C．situations        D．custom

5．  A．lies   B．combines        C．touches    D．involves

6．  A．some       B．a lot        C．little        D．dull

7．  A．Fortunately     B．In fact      C．Logically        D．Unfortunately

8．  A．reuse       B．reread      C．rewrite     D．recite

9．  A．what        B．which      C．that D．if

10．A．scales      B．cuts C．slows       D．measures

11．A．some one        B．one   C．he    D．reader

12．A．accelerator      B．actor        C．amplifier D．observer

13．A．then        B．as     C．beyond    D．than

14．A．enabling B．leading    C．making    D．indicating

15．A．meaning B．comprehensionC．gist    D．regression

16．A．but   B．nor   C．or     D．for

17．A．our   B．your        C．their        D．such a

18．A．Look at    B．Take        C．Make       D．Consider

19．A．for   B．in     C．after        D．before

20．A．master     B．go over     C．present     D．get through

Ideas about polite behavior are different from one culture to another．Some societies, such as America and Australia, for example, are mobile and very open．People here change jobs and move house quite often．As a result, they have a lot of relationships that often last only a short time, and they need to get to know people quickly．So it’s normal to have friendly conversations with people that they have just met, and you can talk about things that other cultures would regard as personal．
On the other hand there are more crowded and less mobile societies where long – term relationships are more important．A Malaysian or Mexican business person, for example, will want to get to know you very well before he or she feels happy to start business．But when you do get to know each other, the relationship becomes much deeper than it would in a mobile society．
To Americans, both Europeans and Asians seem cool and formal at first．On the other hand, as a passenger from a less mobile society puts it, it’s no fun spending several hours next to a stranger who wants to tell you all about his or her life and asks you all sorts of questions that you don’t want to answer．
Cross-cultural differences aren’t just a problem for travelers, but also for the flights that carry them．All flights want to provide the best service, but ideas about good service are different from place to place．This can be seen most clearly in the way that problems are dealt with．
Some societies have ‘universalistic’ cultures．These societies strongly respect rules, and they treat every person and situation in basically the same way．
‘Particularistic’ societies, on the other hand, also have rules, but they are less important than the society’s unwritten ideas about what is right or wrong for a particular situation or a particular person．So the normal rules are changed to fit the needs of the situation or the importance of the person．
This difference can cause problems．A traveler from a particularistic society, India, is checking in for a flight in Germany, a country which has a universalistic culture．The Indian traveler has two much luggage, but he explains that he has been away from home for a long time and the suitcases are full of presents for his family．He expects that the check – in official will understand his problem and will change the rules for him．The check – in official explains that if he was allowed to have too much luggage, it wouldn’t be fair to the other passengers．But the traveler thinks this is unfair, because the other passengers don’t have his problem．
【小题1】Often moving from one place to another makes people like Americans and Australians _____．

He was just 12 years old when he died. But he brought courage and hope to people around the world.
Nkosi Johnson, who died last June, is remembered today as an AIDS fighter. This young boy challenged his government’s AIDS policies and millions of South Africans in the fight against the disease.
Johnson was the longest survivor born HIV positive（艾滋病病毒携带者）.He survived with this deadly disease for 12 years before it claimed his life.
At first, Johnson was expected to live for nine months when his foster mother, Gail Johnson took him in at the age of two. She now runs Nkosi’s Haven across town from her house in Melville. The Haven is home to 20 children living with HIV or AIDS, and 11 of their mothers.
Johnson attracted the world’s attention and stole the hearts of thousands of people across the world at the 13^th International AIDS Conference in Durban in July 2000. He stood in front of a large audience including South African President Thabo Mbeki. He told them that he wanted AZT, a drug used to treat AIDS patients, to be given to HIV-positive pregnant（怀孕的） women to prevent the disease being passed on to their unborn babies. He received a loud cheer at the end of his speech.
Johnson’s speech was broadcast live across the world. With views beyond his age and even a sense of humor, Johnson soon became an international sign of the fight against AIDS and HIV.
【小题1】The underlined words “claimed his life” (Paragraph 3) means _______.

A．The Sad Story of an AIDS Child.

B．The Courage of an AIDS Child

C．AIDS, a Deadly Disease

D．A Hero in South Africa