Hello! I have a new friend．Her name is Zhang Li．She is a __1__ girl．She's from Wenchuan．Do you __2__ Wenchuan? There was a big earthquake（地震）there on May 12th of 2008．Oh，Zhang Li lost her father __3__ mother，only herself now．So she __4__ with us．Every day she goes to school with __5__．She is in Class 2，Grade7．I'm in Class 2，Grade 7，too．Zhang Li is a __6__ student．She does well in school work，__7__ the teachers all like her．They think she is very clever．Zhang Li loves __8__．She has a cat at home．Oh，the cat is also from Wenchuan．It's very __9__ to people．Every night it __10__ TV on the sofa with Zhang Li．It's Zhang Li's best friend．

1．A．beautiful                      B．English                    C．Chinese

2．A．study                       B．listen                    C．know

3．A．or                         B．and                       C．but

4．A．lives                           B．plays                      C．takes

5．A．us                        B．me                      C．my

6．A．dirty                         B．lazy                       C．good

7．A．with                       B．because                   C．so

8．A．apples                      B．vegetables                 C．animals

9．A．friend                      B．friendly                    C．friends

10．A．sees                      B．watches                   C．speaks

What do I like best about Britain? The fact is that people here very rarely smoke. I never smoke myself, I think it’s a disgusting habit. But my friends in Spain smoke nearly all the time. It’s so nice to breathe “clean” air in cinemas, on buses and so on. And the few people who do smoke, almost always ask “Do you mind if I smoke?” before they light up.

The old people are so friendly, and they’ve nearly always got time to help you. When you don’t know where you are, they come up to you and say, “Can I help you, love?” or “What are you looking for, dear?” I love the way they call everybody “love” and “dear” like that even completely strangers.

Why does everybody say the weather here’s so bad? I love these cool, grey, cloudy days. They’re a bit sad---perhaps that’s why I like them. I come from Turkey. It’s sunny most of the time there. But here the weather’s so hard to tell. You hardly even know what to expect when you looked out of the window in the morning and it often changes five or six times during the day! It’s raining now, for example, but I’ve got no idea what it’s going to be like this afternoon.

I’m staying an English family. Family life here seems to be much more relaxed than in my country. People eat whatever they like, come in and go out whenever they want to, there aren’t so many rules. When I go out in the evening, nobody asks me “Where are you going? Whom are you going with? What time are you coming home?” You’ve got much more, the chance to live your own life, and do whatever you want.

41. The old men call everybody “love” and “dear” because they want to show that ______.

A. they’re friendly                                      B. they’re old

C. they’re your family members                   D. they’re the owners

42. Which country isn’t mentioned in the passage?

A. Britain                               B. Spain  

C. Canada                                 D. Turkey 

43. What does the under­lined word rarely mean in Chinese?

A. 很少地                                                        B. 批评

C. 赞扬                                                   D. 鼓励

44. The writer the weather in England is _______.

A. bad               B. terrible                     C. sunny            D. hard to tell

45. Which of the following is WRONG according to the passage?

A. The weather in Britain is cool, grey, cloudy.

B. Family life in Britain is much more relaxed than that in Turkey.

C. The air in Britain isn’t clean enough.

D. The old people in Britain are very helpful.

A lot of teenagers are good at art at school, but how would you feel if people called you “the new Picasso(毕加索)” or if presidents and other famous people collected your paintings?
Alexandra Nechita was ten when her paintings became famous all over the world. She visited Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and her family’s native place (祖籍) Romania where 5,000 fans came to see her at the airport. Alexandra said, “When it all started, I was moved. It was very exciting and I loved the traveling, but I got very tired. And I missed home.”
Alexandra is a good student. Her studies always come first. She only starts painting after she’s done her homework. She works on two or three paintings at a time. The paintings sell for thousands and Alexandra’s parents have given up their jobs to work for their daughter. Life for the Nechita family is very different from what it was like a few years ago.
Alexandra’s father Niki left Romania for political reasons in 1985. At first he tried his best to learn English and had different kinds of low-paid jobs. In 1987, he brought his wife and Alexandra, who was then 18 months old, to America. The family was very poor. Alexandra began to draw at the age of three.
She was drawing for four or five hours a day. Soon people offered to buy her paintings and she had her first art show at the age of eight. Stories about this child appeared in the newspapers and television. They now live in a large house with a swimming pool. Her mother said, “We started without anything, but thanks to Alexandra, we have everything we ever dreamed of.”
【小题1】Alexandra became well-known all over the world for her paintings at the age of _______.