- How often are the Olympic Games held?

-             four years.       

A. Every     B. Each      C. In      D. For

Learning English grammar and English vocabulary can be hard enough, but trying to understand English sayings can be more difficult. Some are just hard to figure out and others don’t make any sense at all. Here are four funny English sayings that you can use every day.

I’m happy as a clam(蛤).

Think of a clam. It doesn’t have to do anything. It just sits on a beach or on the bottom of the ocean all day doing nothing. It never has to work. That sounds like happiness, doesn’t it? If someone asks, “How are you today?” you can answer “I am happy as a clam” to let him or her know what a great mood you are in.

I wouldn’t touch that (or him/her) with a ten-foot pole.

Maybe there is a person who you don’t want to be friends with or even talk to. Well, this saying means that you dislike him or her so much that you don’t want to touch or go near him or her, even within ten feet!

You don’t have a leg to stand on.

?? This saying doesn’t mean that the person you’re talking to has no legs. It means that his or her argument is incorrect. He or she doesn’t have a leg to stand on because he or she has no facts to support what he or she is saying. This saying is a good way to tell people that you think they’re wrong.

??? Break a leg!

??? This saying actually means the opposite of what it sounds like. If you tell this to a person, you’re wishing him or her good luck！The saying comes from a superstition(迷信) that whatever you say aloud, the opposite will come true.

1.The first paragraph mainly tells us____________________.

A.learning English grammar is hard

B.learning English vocabulary is hard

C.we should use English sayings every day

D.it can be harder to understand English sayings

2.Which of the following is TRUE about a clam?

A.It can be used to show happiness.????? B.It needs to do many things.

C.It needs to eat a lot.???????????????? D.It can only live on the beach.

3.The saying “I wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole” means___________.

A.I hate him.????????????????????? B.I want him to be my friend.

C.I like him.?????????????????????? D.I want to argue with him.

4.We can learn from the passage that______________________.

A.the saying “You don’t have a leg to stand on” means someone loses his legs

B.the saying “Break a leg” means someone hurts his or her leg

C.if we say “Break a leg” to someone, we give him or her a good wish

D.if we say “I am ill” aloud, we will become healthy

My teachers suggested that I see a speech specialist (专家) in school.

I never really gave much thought to my speech. If other people understood what I was saying, then that was good enough. I didn’t mind repeating myself many times.

Before testing me, the speech specialist asked me what I thought of having good speech. I told her I thought it was not important.

“Well, when you are in an interview for a job, and they don’t know what you are saying, what are they going to say to you? Nice meeting you, bye,” she said.

Maybe good speech was important. I took part in 20-minute classes each week with the specialist.

After she tested me, she told me that I spoke too fast, and didn’t give enough eye contact (眼神交流). I learned that when I made eye contact with someone, it meant that I was talking to that person, and I could also see what he or she thought about what I was saying.

When my first speech class started, I found that I had been speaking too fast to be understood. Every time I spoke too fast, the specialist stopped me and told me to start again. At first, I got stopped after almost every other sentence. After a while, I felt my speech slow down. I wasn’t sure if people could understand me better, but my friends stopped asking me to repeat myself.

Speech is an important skill to have. If you do have good speech, that’s a good thing, but if you don’t have it, it is never too late to improve.

1.The article is probably taken from       .

 A. a newspaper    B. an advertisement  C. a detective story    D. a science book

2.What did the writer think of having good speech before the classes?

A. It was very useful.

B. It was nothing important.

C. It was impossible.

D. It was good for interviewing.

3. What were the writer’s problems when he was speaking?

a. He spoke too quickly.                 b. He never stopped once he started talking.

c. He seldom kept eye contact with people.  d. He didn’t give others time to ask questions.

A. a, b            B. b, c             C. a, c              D. b, d

4. From the sentence “but my friends stopped asking me to repeat myself,” we know that _____.

A. the writer’s friends couldn’t understand him

B. the writer still couldn’t make eye contact

C. the writer improved a lot

D. the writer didn’t slow down

5.Through the passage, the writer wants to tell us that _____.

A. seeing a speech specialist is necessary

B. speech is an important skill to have

C. good speech can help you make friends

D. good speech gets good affect

Mr Smith gave his wife money every Friday evening. His wife always spent it all the next Wednesday, so that for the next three days she had no money to spend at all. One day Mr Smith asked her," But how did you spend all that money?" She answered, "I don't know . "So one Friday evening, Mr Smith gave her money together with an exercise book and a pencil. He said to his wife ,"Please write down how you spend the money . "Next Tuesday, his wife had no money again. Mr Smith took the exercise book to see how she had spent it. "I have done what you told me ,"she said gladly. She had written "Friday, I got 18 pounds from Mr Smith. "on the first page, and on the second page, she wrote ,"Tuesday, I have spent it all. "

1.Mrs Smith always spent all the money ____.

A. the next day B. in four days C. in a week D. on next Wednesday

2.Mr Smith gave his wife an exercise book and a pencil and asked her____

A. to do homework

B. to have a look

C. to write down how she spent the money

D. to draw a picture on it

3.Mrs Smith was ____ to do what Mr Smith asked her to .

A. happy   B. sad  C. sorry   D. excited

4.Mr Smith gave his wife money ____ a week.

A. once  B. twice　C. three times  D. four times

5.The story tells us that Mrs Smith was not very ____.

A .glad B. tall C. careful D. Good

Last Monday we asked our students about how often they do the housework in Beishan Middle School. Here are the results.

Most students do the housework twice or three times a week. They often clean their rooms. Some students do the housework five times a week. They often clean the floor(地板). Some students help their parents on the farm. They think their parents are too busy, so they help them.

The results for “wash clothes” are interesting. Some students wash clothes once or twice a week. They often wash clothes on Saturdays or Sundays. Some students wash clothes three to four times a week. They only wash their own（自己的） clothes. But most students wash their clothes once a week. And they wash clothes on Sundays.

Liu Ying, a girl in Class 6, Grade 8 has lots of housework to do. She washes the dishes and cleans the floor every day. She often cooks. Sometimes three times a day. She says, “My mother isn’t healthy. My father works in another city. So I have to do most of the housework at home.”

1.Some students help their parents on the farm because        .

A. they think they are old enough

B. they think their parents are too busy

C. they don’t have too much homework

D. it is fun

2. How often do most students wash their clothes?       

A. Once a week.                                               B. Twice a week.                       

C. Three to four times a week.              D. never

3.From the passage we know that            .

A. Liu Ying is not a healthy student                               

B. Liu Ying is good at housework

C. Liu Ying doesn’t want to do housework.

D. Liu Ying has to do much housework.

4.Which of the following is NOT true?      

A. Most students don’t do the housework.                 

B. Liu Ying is a student from Class 6, Grade 8.

C. Liu Ying cooks three times a day sometimes.

D. Liu Ying washes the dishes and cleans the floor every day.