I will never forget the very moment that caused me to leave my gift behind because I wanted the gift that my older sister Maria had.
My family was spending a week at the beach. One morning, Maria went to the beach early, but I stayed behind to finish a drawing of a seashell. After finishing the drawing, I walked to join Maria. She was a top gymnast (体操运动员). Her show was perfect as she wheeled along the beach. The beauty of that sight froze me, and I decided immediately that I too would become a gymnast like her.
I knew that I had never been very good at sports. However, when I told my parents I wanted to take a gymnastics class, they agreed with me in surprise. The next week, I went to a beginners’ class.
If only my parents had talked me out of this misguided plan! Five minutes into the first class, it was clear that I didn’t have the gift of a gymnast. But I kept at it.
During this time, drawing and painting—which had been my two favorites—all but left my mind. It must have been hurting for my family as they watched my hopeless efforts. I blindly decided to be like Maria. I just would not give up.
At the same time, on the advice of Ms. White, my art teacher, I hurriedly handed in my seashell drawing for an art contest in our town. One night as I was having a hard time practicing, the phone rang. It was Ms. White. “Alice, you won the contest!” she said loudly.
“Really?” was all I could reply.
“Yes,” Ms. White said. “They’re going to give you a prize. And that’s not all. The winner is also accepted into Wildale’s Summer Fine Arts Institute.” I couldn’t believe what I heard. Only a handful of young artists were accepted each summer.
That night I didn’t go back into the living room to continue practicing. Gymnastics was Maria’s gift, not mine. It had taken me a while, but I realized that I had a gift of my own.
【小题1】Alice wanted to be a gymnast because ________.

One night I was sitting in my room half-listening as my 15-year-old brother Tommy fought with my 12-year-old brother Kevin. I didn’t pay attention when Kevin rushed up the stairs with the hurt on his face.
About 20 minutes later, as I was walking upstairs I heard Kevin crying inside the bathroom. I knocked on the door and asked, “Hey Kevin, do you want to talk?”
No answer.
I tried again, “Why don’t you come out of there?”
Again, no answer.
So, joking around, I grabbed a stack of （一摞）cards and a pencil and wrote, “If you don’t want to talk, we can write notes to each other.”
An hour later I was still sitting on the floor outside the bathroom with two stacks of cards in front of me. One was blank and one was cards from Kevin on which he had translated all his yucky feelings into words for me. As I read one of Kevin’s notes, tears came to my eyes. It said, “Nobody in this family cares about me. I’m not the youngest, and I’m not the oldest. Tommy thinks I’m silly and Dad wishes he had the other Kevin as a kid because he’s better at basketball. And you’re never around to even notice me.”
Tears came to my eyes as I wrote back to him. “You know Kevin, I really do love you and I’m sorry I don’t always show it. I am here for you and you are loved in this family.”
There was no answer for a while, but then I heard a tearing sound coming from inside the bathroom. Kevin, who had run out of cards wrote on a torn paper cup. “Thanks.”
I wrote back “For what?” it returned to me with “Loving me” on it.
Since then, I try my best to never only half-notice my family members any more. Kevin and I have a closer relationship now. And sometimes when one of us notices that the other is upset, we’ll smile and say “Write it on a paper cup.”
【小题1】The underlined word “yucky” most probably means ____.

Do you like pop music? Most people  1__. One of the best bands on the music scene  2__ the New Ocean Waves. In the last twelve months, they’ve  3__ three major concerts and made a hit CD. They’re going to  4__ on CCTV next month. And then they’re going to go on a world tour in which they will perform in ten  5__ cities. Be sure not to  6___ them if they come to a city near you – if you can get tickets, that is.
“ 7___ years, we played other people’s songs”, says lead singer Zhu Wen. “ But now we play  8___ our own songs. We’ve had _9_  _ songs in the top ten, but we really hope to have a number one hit some day.” Good luck to the New Ocean Waves. They’re 10___ to a great start. And they’re really nice people. Did you know that they gave half of the money they made to a charity for homeless children?

Richard found a job in a big office after he finished college. He liked to use his(1)___ and was good at his job. So he was often paid more than (得到的报酬多于) his workmates and he worked (2) _____ . But something was wrong with the young man a month ago. He couldn't fall (3) _________ at night. So he was always (4) _________ in the daytime and often made mistakes. He had to go to a hospital. The doctor (5) _________ and told him to buy some sleeping pills. He took them (6) _________ he went to bed. Soon after that he went to sleep. Richard (7) _________ in the morning. He had a look at the clock on the wall. It was a quarter to seven. He got up and went to work after (8) _________ . As soon as he went into the office, he said to the head of the office, "Good morning, Mr Clarke! I've (9) _________ had a good sleep like last night's and I'm feeling much better now!" "Skunk (混蛋)!" the head (10) _________ loudly. "We've looked for you for two days! I wanted you to do something important, but it's too late now!"

While I was waiting to go into university, I saw in a newspaper a teaching job wanted at a school about ten miles from where I   16 . Because I was in great need of   17  and wanted to do something useful, I applied(申请).
Three days later, a letter   18 . It asked me to see the   19  at Croydon. It proved to be a(n)   20  journey —a train to Croydon station, a ten-minute bus ride and then a walk of   21  a quarter of a mile. As a result I arrived there, feeling too hot to be nervous. Clearly, the principal   22  opened the door. He was   23  and round.
“The school” he said, “has a group of twenty-four boys between seven and thirteen.”
I should have to teach all the   24  except art, which he taught himself. I should have to divide the class into  25  groups and teach them at three different   26 , and I was not    27  at the thought of teaching maths —a subject which I didn’t do very well in at school. It was   28  that I had to teach them on Saturday afternoon   29  most of my friends would be   30  themselves at that time.
Before I had time to ask about my salary(薪水), he got up to his feet. “Now,” he said. “you’d better meet my wife. She is the one who really runs this school.”

Everyone has his dream. ＿1＿do I .In ten years, I think I will be a reporter. I’ll live in Shanghai, because I went to Shanghai and ＿2＿in love with it last year. I think it’s a really beautiful city. ＿3＿ a reporter, I think I’ll meet lots of interesting ＿4＿.I think I’ll live in  5  apartment with my best friends, because I don’t like living   6 . I will have pets. I can’t have   7  pets now because my mother hates them and our apartment is too small. So in ten years, I’ll have many different pets. I might even keep a pet parrot. I’ll probably go skating and swimming   8 . During the week, I’ll look smart, and probably will   9  a suit. On weekends, I’ll dress more casually. That’s my dream. I’ll work   10  to make it come true.

The basketball final between Perfect School and Sunrise School has entered white-hot stage. There are only fifteen seconds left. Sunrise School is one point ahead. Mitchell, who is one of the best players of Perfect School, is now controlling the ball. The students are extremely excited. They cannot help standing up and shouting, “Go! Mitchell!”Other teammates also encourage Mitchell, “Take a shot, boy!”
Mitchell knows it will be the last shot. He hesitates (犹豫) and falls into careful thinking. He imagines that he shoots from the halfway line. The hall turns quiet. All eyes follow the track of the basketball. It jumps round the ring over and over again and finally rolls out of the court. The world turns noisy. Mitchell sees his coach lower his head, his teammates kneel down and his fans cry. It gives him so much pain. It is the last match for his coach before retiring. All the teammates practiced hard and hoped to give their coach a perfect ending. But now, the bubble bursts (破裂).
“Is that what you want?” Mitchell asks himself.“Certainly not. But how can I change the situation? Teamwork!”Mitchell returns to reality from his thinking. He does not have a shot by himself but surprisingly passes the basketball to his teammate, Jack, who is standing near the basket. Jack catches the basketball and quickly scores a two-point shot. There goes the whistle at the same time. Perfect School finally wins the game.
【小题1】When there are only fifteen seconds left, ______.

人人都有朋友 初中三年同学之间结下深厚的友谊。假设你叫张华，你的笔友李敏在下面这封信中介绍了他的学友，请你写一封70 词左右的回信，说说你好友的基本情况和兴趣爱好。
注意：1、回信的开头和结尾已给出.但不计入总词数：
2、信中请勿使用朋友的真实校名和姓名
Dear Zhang Hua.
How are you? In this letter I’d like to say something about my best friend.
My best friend is Gao Jun. He is fifteen. He is tall with short hair. We are in the same class.
Gao Jun is smart and friendly in class, he listens to the teachers carefully At home, he often helps his mother with housework He does well in all his lessons. And he is always ready to help others. So, everyone in our class likes him
Gao Jun seems to have a special interest in writing. He wants to be a writer in the future.
Both of us like playing basketball .We usually play it after class. We feel happy when we are together. I think we will be good friends forever.
What about your best friend? Can you tell me something about him( her)?
Yours.
Li Min.
Dear Li Min.
Thank you for telling me so much about your best friend Gao Jun.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Yours.
Zhang Hua

Joan is an American girl. She lives in China now. She is in my class. Her parents work in China, too, but her brother works in the U.S.A. He often writes letters to them. Joan likes Chinese class very much, and likes speaking Chinese with us after class. Her father teaches us English well. We all like his class. On Sundays, Joan goes to the People's Park with her father and mother. Sometimes she goes shopping with her mother. They like the Chinese food very much. It's a happy family.
【小题1】Joan is from ________.
A. China B. Japan  C. the U.S.A. D. Canada
【小题2】Joan likes speaking ________with us after class.

British English and American English
A student is studying British English. He wonders: Can I have a talk with Americans? Can they catch me? Learners of English often ask--what are the differences between British English and American English? How important are these differences?
Certainly, there are some differences between British English and American English. There are a few differences in grammar（语法）. For example, speakers of British English say “in hospital” and “Have you a pen?” Americans “in the hospital” and “Do you have a pen?” Pronunciation (发音) is sometimes different. Americans usually sound the “r” in words like “car”and “farm”. Some speakers of British English do not sound the “r” in these words. There are differences between British English and American English in spelling and vocabulary. For example, “colour”and “honour” are British English spellings. “Color” and “honor” are American English spellings.
These differences are in grammar, pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary. However, they are not important. For the most part, British English and American English are the same language.
【小题1】In American English, we can say, “      ? ”