Charles Dickens, one of the greatest English writers, was born in 1812 in a small town of England. When he was nine years old, the family moved to London.  There were several younger children in the family. Their life was hard.  So Dickens could not go to school. When Charles went to school, he was already twelve years old.  But he didn’t finish school Two years later he began to work. The future Writer often went to the library to read books.  He read a lot. Then Dickens wrote a lot of novels and stories all his life. Dickens died over a hundred years ago, but people are still reading his books with great interest.
判断正误：（Y 或N）
1. Charles Dickens was a great British writer.
2. Dickens began to go to school when he was very young.
3. At the age of fourteen Charles began to work.
4. The future writer bought lots of books to read.                                   
5. Today, people still like the books written

Tom is a schoolboy. He is only seven years old, but he is very busy on weekdays. One Saturday he decided to relax himself, so he went to the cinema.
It was the first time for him to do that. He bought a ticket and then went in. But after two or tree minutes he came out, bought a second ticket and went in again. After a few minutes he came out again and bought a third ticket. Two or three minutes later he came out and asked for another ticket. Then the girl in the ticket office asked him, “Why did you buy so many tickets? How many friends did you meet?” Tom answered. “No, I have no friend here. But a big boy always stops me at the door and tears(撕) my ticket.”
根据材料内容，选择最佳答案。
1. Tom wanted to buy ________ when the girl asked him why.
A. a second ticket           B. a third ticket           C. a fourth ticket         D. a fifth ticket
2. The big boy stopped Tom at the door because ________.
A. it was the big boy’s job                          B. the big boy didn’t like Tom
C. the big boy didn’t know Tom                      D. Tom didn’t buy tickets at all
3. The big boy was ________ at the cinema.
A. a bookseller             B. a policeman           C. a shopkeeper         D. a worker
4. From the story we know ________.
A. Tom had a lot of money                           B. Tom knew little about the cinema
C. the big boy wasn’t friendly to Tom                  D. the girl wanted to get more money
5. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. Tom bought the tickets for himself.                  B. Tom hadn’t been to the cinema before.
C. Tom was too young to make friends.                 D. Tom met no friend at the cinema.

Living in the foreign culture can be exciting, but it can also be confusing. A group of Americans who taught English in other countries recently discussed their experiences . They discussed that miscommunications were always possible, even over something as simple as “yes” and “no”.
On her first day in Micronesia, an island in the Pacific, Lisa thought the waitress wasn’t paying any attention to her. The day was hot she went into a store and asked, “ Do you have any cold drinks ?” The woman there didn’t say anything. Lisa repeated the question again. Still the woman said nothing. She later learned that the woman had answered her: She has raised her eyebrows , which in Micronesia , it means, “yes”.
Jan remembered an experience she had in Bulgaria, a country in Europe. She went to a restaurant that was known for its cabbage. She asked the writer, “Do you have cabbage today ?” He nodded his head. Jan waited, but the cabbage never came. In that country, a nod means “no”.
Tom had a similar problem when he arrived in India. After explaining something in class , he asked his students if they understood . They answered with different nods and shakes of heads. He thought some people hadn’t understood, so he explained again. When he asked again, the did the same thing. He soon found out that his students did understand. In India, people nod and shake heads in different ways . It depends on where they come from.
【小题1】These Americans teaching English in other countries found that they _____________.
needed to learn foreign languages.
should often discuss their experiences
had problems with communications
【小题2】People in Micronesia show “yes” by _________.
A. nodding heads          B. raising the eyebrows         C. shaking hands.
【小题3】 Tom misunderstood his class at first because __________.
he didn’t know much about Indian culture
he didn’t explain everything clearly enough
he didn’t know where the students came from
【小题4】Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
In Bulgaria, nodding heads means “no”
Jan taught English on a Pacific island
Lisa was trying to buy some cabbage.
【小题5】The passage is mainly about _________.
body language in foreign restaurants
class discussion in Indian schools
miscommunicaions in different cultures

Do you like eating sandwiches? Do you know the story of sandwich?
Many years ago, in England, the rich people liked playing cards, the Earl(伯爵) of Sandwich liked playing cards, too. He liked to play for money. He was one of the greatest players at that time. He often played all day and all night.
Once (曾经) he played for twenty-four hours without stopping. He didn’t leave the table even to eat. His servants (佣人) had to bring food to him. They brought him some meat and some bread. But he didn’t want to stop playing when he ate. He put the meat between two pieces of bread and ate. In this way he could go on playing cards. Later, people called this kind of food sandwich after his name.
根据短文内容判断句子正(T), 误(F).
【小题1】 The world “sandwich” comes from England.
【小题2】 The Earl of Sandwich liked playing cards for money.
【小题3】 His servants asked him to go home.
【小题4】 He went on playing cards without eating, so he could get a lot of money.
【小题5】 Servants found a way to make sandwiches.

My English teacher is very funny . He has really long hair and wears earring in one ear . He likes to wear purple shirts and orange pants . He also uses all kinds of slang(俚语) words from 1970s. When he likes something , he’ll say it’s really “ groovy（酷的）”. I think he played the guitar in a rock band when he was young .
The other day , he walked into  class and noticed (注意) that there was a new student . He asked him , “Hey ,man ,what’s happening ?” The student was very confused(困惑的) ，but we all laughed because we knew that the teacher was just saying hello . “You’re new ,aren’t you ?” The teacher asked . The student was surprised , and said to himself , “Is this the teacher ? He looks strange(奇怪 ).” Then he explained(解释) to all us , “Sorry .Maybe I’m in the wrong classroom .”
【小题1】Why is the English teacher strange ?

  When Mr. David retired (退休) , he bought a small house in a village near the sea . He liked it and hoped to live a quier lift in it .
But to his great surprise , many tourists came to see his house in summer holidays , for it was the most interesting building in the village . From morning to night there were tourists outside the house . They kept looking into the rooms through the windows and many of them even went into Mr. David’s garden . This was too much for Mr. David . He decided to drive the visitors away . So he put a notice on the window . The notice said “If you want to satify your curiosity (好奇心) , came in and look round . Price : twenty dollars .” Mr. David was sure that the visitors would stop coming , but he was wrong . More and more visitors came and Mr. David had to spend every day showing them around his house . “I came here to recite , not to work as a guide , ” he said angrily . In the end , he sold the house and moved away .
【小题1】Mr. David’s house was so ________ that many tourists came to see it .

Angela Chang (张韶涵) didn’t know it would be so hard to turn singing into a career (事业). She went to many different record companies. But she was always turned down for looking too young and small.
“I’d never had such difficulties before,” Chang said. But Chang’s talent was finally accepted in 2002. When she got a piece of work, she cried.
She soon became a star. Her first album Over the Rainbow sold very well. She won many awards.
“You wouldn’t believe such a beautiful voice could come from such a small body,” said one musician after hearing Chang sing. “She has a special voice. You can’t forget it.”
But the 25-year-old girl has other talents too. Chang is also an actress. She has played a role in the popular TV plays, My MVP Valentine and At Dolphin Bay. Many people remember her common-girl parts in the plays. But acting is difficult. Chang once acted so badly that she was nearly fired (解雇). Another time it took her 27 tries to get a scene (一场戏) right.
“I cried when I got back home,” Chang said. “But I knew that I wouldn’t always fail. You only fail when you give up.”
Now with four albums behind her - Over the Rainbow, Aurora, Pandora and Flower in the Wonderland, it’s clear that Chang and music were made for each other. As she sings in one song, “I have a pair of invisible wings (隐形的翅膀). They fly me to the skies and give me hope.”
【小题1】The phrase “turned down” in the first paragraph means “______”.

A rabbit is running into his hole. You may ask, “What happened?”
Well, when a rabbit sees something dangerous, it runs away. Its tail moves up and down as it runs. When other rabbits see this tail moving up and down, they ran, too. They know there is danger. The rabbit has told them something without making a sound. It has given them a signal.
Many other animals use this kind of language. When a bee finds some food, it goes back to his home. It can’t tell the other bees where the food is by speaking to them, but it does dance in the air. This tells the bees where the food is.
But animals say things by making sounds. A dog barks, for examples, when a stranger comes near. A cat purrs(发出呼噜呼噜的声音) when pleased. Some birds make several different sounds, each with its own meaning.
But human beings have something that no animals have---- a large number of words about things, actions, feelings or ideas. We are able to give each other information to tell or inform other people what is in our mind or how we feel. By writing words down we can remind ourselves of the things that have happened, or send messages to people far away. No animals can do this. No animals has the wonderful power of language.
No one knows how man learned to make words. Somehow he learned to make them. As centuries went by, he made more and more new words. This is what we mean by language.
People in different countries made different kinds of words. Today there are about fifteen hundred different languages in the world. A very large English dictionary, for examples, contains four or five hundred thousand words. But we don’t know all these. The words we know are called vocabulary. We should try to make our vocabulary larger. Read as many books as possible. When we met a new word, look it up in the dictionary. A dictionary is the most useful book.
【小题1】What’s the meaning of the underlined word?

Trudy’s class has a newspaper. The students write stories, articles and poems for it. Then one of them types their work into a computer and prints it out. The teacher puts up everything on the wall so that it looks like a large, open newspaper.
One day Trudy said to the teacher, “most newspapers have advertisements. Can we have our advertisements?
The teacher thought this was a good idea. She made Trudy the advertising manager and Trudy asked the other students to advertise in the newspaper. Here are some of the advertisements she received.

Hello, my dear friends, today here’s a funny cartoon for you! It is a Chinese cartoon. Its name is Happy Sheep(绵羊) and Big Big Wolf(狼).
In this cartoon, there are some sheep and three wolves. Happy Sheep is the leading role(主角). He likes playing football and running. He runs faster than(比) the other sheep. Pretty Sheep likes making clothes and growing flowers. She is very beautiful. Lazy Sheep( 懒羊羊) is clever. But he doesn’t like doing sports. He likes sleeping best. Force Sheep(沸羊羊) is stronger than the other sheep. Warm Sheep is the class monitor（班长）at school. Slow Sheep is 68 years old. He is old. He is the village head. Every sheep has a lovely pet(宠物). Big Big Wolf wants to eat sheep. Red Wolf is Big Big Wolf’s wife. She is very bad. Banana Wolf is nice. He is the friend of the sheep. He likes eating bananas very much.
【小题1】________ doesn’t like sports.