The company plans to      the costs of raw materials by 10% next year.

A. turn down          B. cut down          C. keep away        D. cut off

Tony got his back hurt when he      an old man out in the earthquake.

A. carries             B. had carried        C. was carrying       D. carried

Six people have      they will be attending the meeting and ten haven't replied yet.

A. confirmed          B. preserved         C. impressed         D. apologized

—Would you mind if I take the seat?

—        .

A. Yes, sit down, please                     B. No, not at all

C. Surely, never mind                       D. No, you can't take it

A student will be immediately punished if he is found      in the exam.

A. cheat             B. to cheat            C. cheated          D. cheating

To develop her students' spelling skills, Mrs. Hardy held a spelling competition in her class. The two   1  spellers would compete in the school spelling competition with other  2  from the fourth, fifth and sixth grades.

Spelling was Jasmine's  3  subject and books were her best friends.  4  would allow her to 5  into the sea, find buried treasure,  6  meet the mean man Mr Grandet(葛朗台). Fairy tales  7  her to dream of being a princess.

The day came for Mrs. Hardy to  8  the result of the competition. Jasmine sat in her seat. Finally Mrs. Hardy announced that Reece Bradley and Jasmine Russell would  9  in the school final spelling competition.

Smiling  10  , Jasmine looked at Reece, but he  11  her by frowning(皱眉) as if he were 12  to take part in the competition.

“Way to go, Jasmine,” Rashad, Jasmine's another classmate, said with a playful push to her arm. “Do you think you have a  13  of winning the competition?”

Jasmine  14  , “My Aunt Lucy says anything can be got by  15  hard. I'm going to study the word list till my  16  stop working!”

During the break, Jasmine, Rashad and Reece met on the basketball court for a game of Horse. Jasmine said, “Let's  17  for the competition by spelling bigger words!”

“Like what?” Rashad asked. Jasmine smiled. “Like antidisestablishmentarianism.” Reece rolled his eyes and asked. “Anti—what?”

Jasmine  18  the word, trying not to laugh.

“You made that  19  ,” Rashad said. “Anything can be got by working hard. This is  20 everybody should believe in.

1. A. strong                 B. active                C. best            D. brave

2. A. competitors            B. monitors            C. ministers      D. athletes

3. A. favorite                B. basic               C. obvious       D. fortunate

4. A. Parents                B. Teachers          C. Lessons        D. Books

5. A. enter                  B. dive                C. fall             D. swim

6. A. but                           B. than              C. or             D. so

7. A. reminded                      B. inspired           C. permitted       D. intended

8. A. circulate                B. explain             C. deliver        D. announce

9. A. compete                B. compare          C. host           D. win

10. A. sadly                B. Stiffly            C. kindly        D. happily

11. A. scared               B. pleased             C. surprised       D. satisfied

12. A. ready                B. unhappy            C. pleasant        D. content

13. A. chance              B. courage            C. help           D. power

14. A. agreed               B. greeted             C. asked           D . nodded

15. A. thinking              B. working            C. playing          D. behaving

16. A. arms                B. brains              C. ears           D. hands

17. A. explore              B. build               C. practise        D. organize

18. A. limited              B. tricked                   C. described       D. repeated

19. A. into                 B. out               C. up             D. over

20. A. what              B. that               C. why           D. which

A farmer had some puppies to sell. He painted a sign advertising them on the edge of his yard.

One day, a little boy came to buy one of the puppies. With a whistle(口哨), the farmer called, “Here, Dolly!” Out from the doghouse ran Dolly followed by four little balls of fur. The little boy stood against the fence. His eyes danced with delight.

As the dogs made their way to the fence, the little boy noticed something else inside the doghouse. Slowly another little ball appeared, something wrong with its legs, doing its best to catch up.

“I want that one,” the little boy said.

The farmer knelt down at the boy's side and said, “Son, you don't want that puppy. He will never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would.”

With that, the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down and began rolling up one leg of his trousers. In doing so, he showed a steel brace(固定器) running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe. Looking back up at the farmer, he said, “You see, sir, I don?t run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands.”

1. How did the farmer advertise his puppies?

A. Advertise them in the newspaper.

B. Put up a sign in his yard.

C. Show them to his neighbors.

D. Send pictures to a magazine.

2. The underlined words “four little balls of fur” refer to “”.

A. four toy balls                   B. four balls made of fur

C. four lovely dogs                 D. four puppies with no fur

3. Why did the boy choose the last dog?

A. Because they have something in common.

B. Because he didn't have enough money.

C. Because it was the most lovely one.

D. Because the farmer wouldn't sell other dogs.

4. According to the story, we know that the boy .

A. didn't like dogs at all              B. needed a dog to help him

C. could run as fast as others          D. had an artificial(假的) leg

The London Marathon is an annual event and of the thousands of runners who take part, many of them have a story to tell as to why they are running the 26.2 mile (42.2 km) course around London.

The men's race was won by Kenyan, Martin Lel, who finished the race in just two hours and five minutes, a personal best time for him. Irina Mikitenko was the winner of the women's race and this was astonishingly only her second race at marathon distance!

There was also a group of 24 runners who have competed in every single one of the 28 London marathons. Jeff Aston is one of them and at 60 years old, he finished in just over three and a half hours.

A lot of the non-competitive runners take part in the marathon to raise money for charity. Jeff estimates he has raised about ￡25,000 (350,000 RMB) over the 28 years he has been running.

Jane Tomlinson is a well-known name in the UK. She raised millions for charity doing long cycle rides, marathons and triathlons while struggling against terminal cancer, a battle she sadly lost last year. In honor of Jane, her husband and daughter took part in the marathon. They managed to raise ￡20,000 (280,000 RMB) for a charity set up in Jane's name.

Another astonishing one was blind runner Dave Heeley completing the marathon. As if that wasn't enough, this was his seventh marathon in seven days, as he took part in a special challenge which took him to seven countries.

1. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

A. A Variety of Athletic Runners                B. London Marathon

C. Inspirational Event                         D. Astonishing Marathon Stories

2. What do we know from the passage?

A. The London Marathon is held every year to raise money for charity.

B. Jane Tomlinson together with her husband took part in the marathon.

C. Dave Heeley is an inspiring marathon runner.

D. Kenyan, Martin Lel won the men's race just over three and a half hours.

3. The underlined word “triathlons” in the fifth paragraph probably refers to    .

A. a formal meeting                           B. a special challenge

C. a kind of disease                            D. an athletic competition

We are all called upon to make a speech at some point in life, but most of us don't do a very good job. This article gives some suggestions on how to give an effective speech.

So, you have to give a speech and you're terrified. You get nervous, you forget what you want to say, you stumble over words, you talk too long and you bore your audience. Later you think,   “Thank goodness, it's over. I'm just no good at public speaking. I hope I never have to do that again.”

Cheer up! It doesn't have to be that bad. Here are some simple steps to take the pain out of speech making. Ask yourself the purpose of your speech. What is the occasion? Why are you speaking? Then, gather as many facts as you can on your subject. Spend plenty of time doing your research. Then spend plenty of time organizing your material so that your speech is clear and easy to follow. Use as many examples as possible and use pictures, charts and graphs if they will help you make your points more clearly. Never forget your audience. Don't talk over their heads and don't talk down to them. Treat your audience with respect. They will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Just remember: Be prepared. Know your subject, your audience and the occasion. Be brief. Say what you have to say and then stop. And be yourself. Let your personality come through so that you make person-to-person contact with your audience.

If you follow these simple steps, you'll see that you don't have to be afraid of public speaking. In fact, you may find the experience so enjoyable that you volunteer to make more speeches! You're not convinced yet. Give it a try and see what happens.

1. We can conclude from Paragraph 2 that many people     .

A. talk too long in a speech

B. are happy to give a speech

C. are afraid of giving a speech

D. do not prepare for a speech

2. All of the following statements are true except that      .

A. a lecturer does not need to organize his speech

B. few people know how to make good speeches

C. research is important in preparing a speech

D. there are simple steps to improve your speaking

3. The underlined expression “talk over their heads” means “      ”.

A. speak too loudly                          B. look at the ceiling

C. look down upon them                      D. use difficult words and ideas

4. The main idea of the passage is that       .

A. you can improve your speaking ability

B. a poor speaker can never change

C. it's easy to make a short speech

D. it is hard to make a speech

根据首字母和汉语提示，写出下列单词的正确形式。

1. Ticket is free to all and there is no need to book in a.       .

2. Jill made some interesting      (评论) about what I had written.

3. In g      , the cost of these cameras ranges from $200 to $300.

4. I don't really want a bigger house－I'm s      with what I've got.

5. The children were     (争论) over which TV program to watch.

6. Pages should not be copied without the     (许可) of the publisher.

7. His bad cold p     him from playing in tomorrow's game.

8. We had to       (低语) because Jill's mother was in the next room.

9. 80% of Americans think television is h       to society and especially to children.

10. The building work is taking quite a long time, and     (因此) costing us money.