The First of May is a Bank Holiday—the first public holiday of the year in England.
Most people consider it a special day ,the beginning of summer ,a day when the light lasts long into the evening ,and when we can look for warm weather .We don't always get it .We feel disappointed ,but not surprised if there are cold winds and frosts at night in May .Winter should be over .Most people know that in the past ,when farming occupied almost everyone ,the changing seasons were of great importance .In that older time there was every reason to celebrate May Day .Customs of those celebrations remain.?
Of these customs ,the best known is the choosing of a May Queen and the dancing round Maypole .Even these customs are little more than memories now—but in the last century it was quite common in villages and small towns ,and even in schools and colleges ,for a pretty and popular girl to be chosen Queen of the May .It was a great honour to be chosen .For a day she wore a light and flowery dress, carried garlands（花环）,and was ceremonially crowned with flowers .She presided over a procession ,as a rule with a number of attendants ,and over the Maypole dancing and all kinds of entertainment .The Maypole was slender（苗条的） tree trunk ,cut off its branches, with beautiful ribbons fastened to the top .The dancing was designed in such a way that the dancer's movements move the ribbons into a pattern. This, as you can imagine ,required skill from the dancer ,and was not achieved without practice .
It's the Celtic（凯尔特的）people who celebrated the First of May as a spring festival .Their celebration seems to have had little to do with taking pleasure in early ,beautiful flowers and in warmer weather! They called it Beltane—the fire of the god Bel .They lit fires ,in the expectation that their blaze would help the sun in its struggle to regain its strength. They drove their cattle between banks of flame in the expectation that the terrified beasts would be purified（净化） and protected from disease .A tree ,which must have been blackened with smoke ,stood in the middle of the fires ,and is thought to have been the origin of the Maypole .Their priests（牧师） made sacrifices to the goods in the hope of good harvests and sufficient store of food for the winter. There was dancing certainly ,but it was noisy and cheerful ,since its purpose was not to weave a pattern of colored ribbons ,but to drive out evil spirits from the earth and to arouse those kind spirits.?
【小题1】The main purpose of the passage is to show ________.?

The First of May is a Bank Holiday—the first public holiday of the year in England.
Most people consider it a special day ,the beginning of summer ,a day when the light lasts long into the evening ,and when we can look for warm weather .We don't always get it .We feel disappointed ,but not surprised if there are cold winds and frosts at night in May .Winter should be over .Most people know that in the past ,when farming occupied almost everyone ,the changing seasons were of great importance .In that older time there was every reason to celebrate May Day .Customs of those celebrations remain.?
Of these customs ,the best known is the choosing of a May Queen and the dancing round Maypole .Even these customs are little more than memories now—but in the last century it was quite common in villages and small towns ,and even in schools and colleges ,for a pretty and popular girl to be chosen Queen of the May .It was a great honour to be chosen .For a day she wore a light and flowery dress, carried garlands（花环）,and was ceremonially crowned with flowers .She presided over a procession ,as a rule with a number of attendants ,and over the Maypole dancing and all kinds of entertainment .The Maypole was slender（苗条的） tree trunk ,cut off its branches, with beautiful ribbons fastened to the top .The dancing was designed in such a way that the dancer's movements move the ribbons into a pattern. This, as you can imagine ,required skill from the dancer ,and was not achieved without practice .
It's the Celtic（凯尔特的）people who celebrated the First of May as a spring festival .Their celebration seems to have had little to do with taking pleasure in early ,beautiful flowers and in warmer weather! They called it Beltane—the fire of the god Bel .They lit fires ,in the expectation that their blaze would help the sun in its struggle to regain its strength. They drove their cattle between banks of flame in the expectation that the terrified beasts would be purified（净化） and protected from disease .A tree ,which must have been blackened with smoke ,stood in the middle of the fires ,and is thought to have been the origin of the Maypole .Their priests（牧师） made sacrifices to the goods in the hope of good harvests and sufficient store of food for the winter. There was dancing certainly ,but it was noisy and cheerful ,since its purpose was not to weave a pattern of colored ribbons ,but to drive out evil spirits from the earth and to arouse those kind spirits.?
1.The main purpose of the passage is to show ________.?
A.the reason why they celebrate May Day?
B.the start and customs of May Day?
C.the way they celebrate May Day?
D.the choosing of a May Queen during May Day
2.According to the passage ,which sentence is NOT true??
A.In the old days they celebrated May Day for the changing of the seasons.?
B.In England summer begins at the first of May.?
C.The custom of the choosing of a May Queen still exists in the present May Day celebration.?
D.The Celtic people celebrated the first of May as a spring festival.?
3.From the surrounding words and sentences we know that the word “presided” means ________.
A.管理 B.越过 C.指挥 D.主持?
4.The best title for this passage is ________.?
A.The First of May  B.The Beginning of Summer
C.May Queen    D.The Holiday of the Year?

完形填空（共15题，每小题1分，满分15分）
阅读下面短文，掌握大意，然后从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳答案，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A long time ago, in a small house in Scotland, two friends lived together. Their names were John and Bobby.
John and Bobby were not  16   , and they had few things except friends,    17    they were happy. They lit a warm fire when it was cold outside. They had food to eat when they were hungry. They were  never     18     because they had each other.
John and Bobby     19     to take long walks together. After their     20     John usually cooked the dinner. John and Bobby ate the dinner and then     21    in front of the fire. They had a(n)     22     but happy life.
Then John developed a(n)     23     disease and died in the spring of 1858. He was  24     in a grave (坟墓). After that, Bobby stood at John’s grave and shouted. “Come on, Bobby,” John’s     25     said. “It’s time to go home.” Bobby went home, but later he returned to the grave. He     26     near it. He stayed there all night.
Bobby stayed at the grave site the next day, and the day after another. For the next 14 years, Bobby never left the    27    . When the weather was cold, he slept in a small house near the grave. When it was     28    , he slept on the ground near John’s grave.
29    , in 1872, Bobby died, too. John’s friends buried him in a     30     grave near John’s. Why was Bobby’s grave so little? Bobby, John’s best friend, was a dog.
16. A. rich                  B. lucky          C. beautiful      D. funny 
17. A. and               B. or         C. but             D. so
18. A. lonely           B. alone         C. worried                D. separate
19. A. failed   B. competed  C. imagined         D. liked
20. A. work           B. rest     C. run                 D. walk
21. A. sang                B. talked          C. sat    D. studied
22. A. hard                 B. sad          C. easy         D. simple
23. A. serious  B. unhealthy   C. big     D. sick
24. A. put                   B. escaped       C. stored         D. buried
25. A. friends B. children  C. parents   D. brothers
26. A. got up    B. turned down         C. sat down D. put up
27. A. garage   B. grave         C. home          D. town
28. A. cool                  B. warm        C. wet                D. rainy
29. A. Luckily    B. Quickly        C. Finally   D. Interestingly
30. A. large     B. small    C. firm     D. weak

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（Ａ、Ｂ、Ｃ、Ｄ）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项
I want to share a true story with you. I am    1   that it can inspire (激励) everyone. Let’s be like lamps (灯) or candles to light people’s    2  .
Some of my    3   work in Australia. Among the natives, there was an elderly man. I am sure that you have    4  been in a situation as difficult as that    5   old man’s. He was completely ignored by everyone. His    6   was disordered and dirty.
I told him, “Please let me    7   your house, wash your clothes, and make your bed.” He answered, “I’m    8   with this. Let it be.”
I said again, “It will be still better if you    9   me to do it.”
He finally    10  . So I was able to clean his house and wash his clothes. I    11   a beautiful lamp, which was covered with    12  . Only God knows how many    13   had passed since he last lit it.
I said to him, “Don’t you light your lamp? Don’t you ever    14   it?”
He answered, “No. No one comes to see me. I have no    15   to light it. Who would I light it for?”
I asked, “Would you light it every    16   my sisters came?”
He replied, “Of course.”
From that day on, my sisters committed (投入) themselves to    17   him every evening. We cleaned the lamp and he would    18   it every evening.
Two years passed. I had completely    19   that man. He sent this message: “Tell my friends that the light they lit in my life continues to    20   still.”

Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

Each year around 800 people – most of them children – need treatment in hospital for injuries caused by fireworks. A third of the accidents take place at back garden firework parties and about a third of the   41   are to children under the age of 13. The cost of medical treatment after firework accidents can be as much as ￡20 million a year.

Martin Pearcey, 11, is one of the lucky ones: he could have been   42  in one eye.

Like hundreds of others on November 5（Guy Fawkes’s Night）, Martin went to his   43  park to see the fireworks display. He was with his brothers, John and Dave.

“A gang of kids had taken the   44  material out of several fireworks and had put it in a pile on the ground,” remembers John.

“When they lit it, it went off and   45  Martin in his eye.”

John   46  Martin to their grandmother’s house nearby, where the eye was immediately bathed in cold water. He was then taken to hospital, where a sterilized（消毒的） patch was put over it.

“At first he couldn’t see a thing because the eye was so swollen(肿胀的),” says Martin’s elder sister, Pat. “It was weeks before it would open   47  again.”

His dad agrees. “He was lucky not to lose the sight of that eye.”

“Little kids shouldn’t be able to get hold of fireworks,” adds Pat. “I think organized   48  are much safer.”

And young Martin now says, “I don’t mind fireworks when grown – ups are   49 , but I don’t like it when little kids have them. I think fireworks are a bit stupid, really.”