“I can’t believe what I’m hearing!” I thought to myself. Jeff was the last candidate (候选人)for president of Student Council. My best friend Tony came to me and said, “I’m sorry, Mike. I really thought you should be  1 .”
Later that day, I happened to pass Jeff in the dining room. I offered him a   2 “Congratulations” and walked to my usual table. To my surprise, Jeff put his plate beside mine.
“I’m, er…I’m just wondering if you would …consider coming to work on my team,” he said  3 . “You are really smart, and you would be a great manager.”
“I don’t think so,” I replied, feeling unsure.
“Well, if you change your mind, we are meeting tomorrow,” he said before moving to another table.
All that night, I thought about the offer from Jeff. Maybe being a part of the election process(选举过程) would give me a   4  to make important changes at our school. I decided to join them.
My first goal was to   5  an attractive advertisement. Within a few days, we designed a poster with Jeff’s pictures showing him in a number of activities. No one could walk through any hallway  6  passing Jeff’s smiling face.
My next step was to   7  which new activities students would like to have at our school. Many of them wanted a chess club and a volleyball team.
With the information I had collected, Jeff met with the headmaster. The headmaster   8 to add these activities to our school program.
An eighth grader said, “It’ll be like attending a new school with Jeff as president.”
Hearing these words made my heart filled with   9 . I had wanted to become president of Student Council to make a difference. I achieved that and more by working as a member of Jeff’s team. He became the most popular candidate and I was large part of his   10 . The fact that it has made a difference in other people’s lives is the real prize. What a great feeling!

Mary’s dime（一毛钱）
It was Sunday afternoon. I decided to clean up the room nicely so that my parents would feel   1  when they returned from a long ride! Then, I sat in the room, having nothing to do.
　　 What else could I do? Then, with no reason, I suddenly  2  the pale face of that little beggar(乞丐) girl. I could see the glad light   3  her eyes when I put the dime in her little dirty hand.
　　  How much I  4  that dime, too! Grandpa gave it to me a whole month ago, and I had kept it ever since in my red box upstairs, but those sugar apples looked so attractive, and were so   5  — only a dime a piece — that I wanted to have one.
　　  I could imagine the little girl stood there in front of the  6  in her old dirty dress, looking at the   7  that were put all in a row in the window. I wonder what I should say, “Little girl, what do you want?” I gently asked. She felt   8  and looked straight at me, just as if（似乎）nobody had spoken so   9  to her before. She realized what I had meant, so she said seriously and sadly. “I was thinking how good one of those delicious hamburgers would  10 . I haven’t had anything to eat today.”
　　 Now I thought to myself, “Mary Williams, you have had a good breakfast and a good lunch today,   11  this poor girl has not had a mouthful yet. You can give her your  12 . She needs it a great deal more than you do.”
　　 I could not run away from that little girl’s sad,  13  look — so I dropped the dime right into her hand. How  14  the girl was! I am so glad I gave her the dime,  15  I had to go without the apple lying there in the window.

DNA is the whole “map” of the human body. It is something that all humans have, and it tells the body what to do. DNA is the reason that we look like our parents, because we get some of their DNA to make our own.
People have been trying to understand the human body for a long time, In1860, Mr Mendel discovered why we look the same as other people in our family. It is because of small things called “genes”(基因) in our body. In 1953, two scientists, Watson and Crick, found out that those small parts are really messages . They’re written in the DNA with a special language.
In1961, another two scientists found the first “word” that they could understand in that language. It shows how DNA tells the cell﹙细胞﹚to build its parts. So far, scientists have found all the words in the DNA map, but we still do not understand what they all do. By understanding what just one “word ”means, we can help to save people from several illness. So the more we understand, the more doctors will be able to do.
Most people hope that this will help to make better medicine and help sick people. Other people worry that when we learn more “words” and find out more information, we will use it in the wrong way, just to make people more attractive (有吸引力的)，or stop sick people getting jobs.
【小题1】When did Mr Mendel discover why we look the same as other people in our family?
A. In 2000.     B. In 1961      C. In 1953     D In 1860
【小题2】What did the two scientists find in 1961? They found_____.

In Britain, people have different attitudes(态度)to the police. Most people generally   1  them and the job they do, but some people said that the police shouldn’t    have special   2 .

What does a policeman actually do? It is not a(n)  3  job to describe. After all，a policeman has a number of jobs to do. A policeman often has to   4  traffic, either on foot in the centre of a town, or in a police car on the roads. Indeed，in Britain, he might be in the Traffic Police and spend a lot of time  5  up and down main roads. A traffic policeman has to help keep the traffic moving，stop speeding cars and help when there is a(n)  6  .

A policeman has to help keep the  7 ，too. If there is a fight, we  8  the police to come immediately. And they often have to deal with situation at great risk of their own  9 .

We want the police to solve crimes，of course，so an ordinary(普通) policeman,    10  he is not a detective，he will often have to help   11  criminals. And   12  do we call when there is an emergency—an air crash，a fire or an earthquake？Of course the police. So a policeman has to  13  to face any terrible emergency that may happen in the modern world.

The police do a  14  job，they do it so well that I support them. But I do not envy policemen. I do not think that I could   15  do the job of a policeman.

1.                A．dislike　　　    B．protect         C．admire　　　  D．suspect

2.                A．power　　      B．thoughts        C．knowledge    D．abilities

3.                A．funny　　      B．difficult　　     C．attractive　　 D．easy

4.                A．control         B．stop　　　      C．remove　　　　   D．break

5.                A．walking　　     B．driving　　　    C．marching　　  D．searching

6.                A．murder         B．robbery        C．accident  D．theft

7.                A．peace　　　    B．balance         C．situation　　　 D．rule

8.                A．order　　      B．encourage      C．allow　　　   D．expect

9.                A．family　        B．safety　　      C．future　　　  D．work

10.               A．only if　　      B．as 　　        C．since　　 D．even if

11.               A．interview　　　 B．notice          C．arrest　　　   D．warn

12.               A．how　　　　    B．where         C．what　　　    D．who

13.               A．hope　　　     B．promise　　　   C．prepare　　   D．decide

14.               A．comfortable     B．hopeless        C．necessary  D．meaningless

15.               A．hardly　　      B．ever　　       C．forever　　　 D．never

Betty is not a traditional American beauty. She is unfashionable, has thick red glasses, untidy hair and large metal braces (牙套) on her teeth. But this hasn’t stopped her from becoming one of America’s favorite TV characters. So how did she manage to do it?

The answer is that charm can be more attractive than beauty. Betty is the main character in a TV show Ugly Betty. The show is about her life as an office worker at a fashion magazine in New York.

The TV show has just started. Betty has many exciting experiences and romantic stories. Betty is often looked down on and laughed at by the people around. But she manages to do better than others with her hard work, charm and wisdom. The show tells us about how a girl goes from an ugly young duck into a beautiful swan.

Though you may know the ending of the show from the beginning and the story is familiar to many of us, it has still been a big success in the USA. It has attracted a large number of viewers and won two Golden Globes awards, one of the highest honors for a television program in the USA. “I think you can see a bit of Betty in all of us, and I mean men as well, because it’s about the underdog (弱者) ”, says Ashley Jensen, who plays one of the characters on the show.

The program is so popular because of the performance of the 23-year-old actress America Ferrera who plays the role of Betty. She brings the character alive on the screen.

1.Betty is popular because of                   .

A. her clothes          B. her charm            C. her personality     D. her appearance

2.In Paragraph 4, the underlined word “it” refers to (指的是)                   .

A. the beginning        B. the ending           C. the story            D. the show

3.Which is the reason for the success of the show?

A. A large number of viewers.

B. Her life as an office worker.

C. The wonderful performance.

D. Two Golden Globes awards. 

4.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A. Betty is a girl of wisdom. 

B. Betty acts as a beautiful swan on the show.

C. Betty is an American favourite TV character.

D. Betty is often looked down on by the people around.

5.What can be the best title for the passage?

A. Beauty from within.    B. A romantic story.

C. An ugly girl.    D. An exciting experience.