Dear Xiaohua,

   I’m very glad to receive your letter. From your letter, I know you have shown   48   great interest in inventing new things. That’s great. As for how to be an inventor, there is no quick answer to   49   .

   Coming from different cultures and having different backgrounds, inventors do not seem to have much _ 50 _ common.  But creative thinking,   51   is greatly valued, is perhaps the basic skill an inventor should have. In order to explore new possibilities, you will have to learn to break __52 _ from old thought patterns. When you get stuck, try to look at the problem in        __53   many ways as possible. Each new way may improve your understanding.

   More importantly, always keep it in your mind   54   success is no accident. It is the result of a long process of trial and error. Above   55  , the main task for you is to study hard and try to learn more knowledge. This, of course, will lay a solid foundation.

   Hope your future invention will make a difference.

   Good luck.                                       

                                                                Yours,

                                                                                                       Wang Li

One morning, a boy of twelve saw a small fire at one end of the ship “S. S. Panama”. Rua Parori   36  home immediately, against the wishes of his _ 37 _ , to see the fire at the ship. It was a good thing that he did, because there was nobody else around, and  _38  , the small fire grew  __39__ big.

Young Rua stood at the   40   of the stairway up to the ship, and shouted at the top of his voice. He   41   the port workers living downstairs, who were enjoying a Sunday morning in bed.

The S. S. Panama was one of the six  42   ships in port at the time, all of them within twenty-five metres of old buildings, shops and houses, of wood.  43  , the S. S. Panama was carrying oil, as well as paint, and paper from ports in the Far East.

 The fire   44   hundreds of boxes of paper, which made the fire spread very quickly. The end of the ship now black with smoke, but  45   to Rua Parori, the fire did not   46   the paint or the oil.

 Rua was also lucky, because his father was pleased   47   angry with him.

36. A. got                 B. left                    C. went             D. hurried

37. A. father              B. mother                      C. teacher           D. own

38. A. in no time          B. at the time            C. for a while          D. on time

39 .A. surely              B. hurriedly          C. dangerously         D. fully

40. A. top              B. middle               C. foot              D. flight

41. A. called on         B. woke up            C. rang up           D. signed up

42. A. beautiful          B. small               C. comfortable         D. huge

43. A, What’s worse     B. unfortunately         C. To his surprise     D. To tell the truth

44. A. missed           B. burned              C. surrounded          D. heated

45. A. according        B. referring            C. belonging           D. owing

46.A. reach             B. get                 C. arrive              D. move

47. A. less than          B. other than            C. rather than          D. more than

When _____ different cultures, we often pay attention only to the differences without noticing the many similarities.

A. compared            B. being compared    C. comparing     D. having compared

 John is one of the foreign teachers who ________ in our school.

   A．teaches       B．is teaching      C．has been teaching         D．are teaching

Mark Twain’s own story is as memorable as _______he imagined.

A. that              B. those             C. one            D. it

This printer is of good quality. ______ it break down within the first year, we would repair it at our expense.

    A. Would               B. Should                     C. Could           D. Might

Through several provinces _____ the longest river in China.

    A．walk      B．walks         C．run            D．runs

      _is known to us all is that America is a developed country        the First World．

       A．Which; belonged                                  B．As; belonging to  

       C．What; belonging to                               D．It; belonging

The order came _____ the soldiers _____ the small village the next morning.

A. that; would leave                  B. that; leave

C.／；must leave                    D. when; should leave

—Mary, please speak a little loud so that I can hear you clearly, ______?

    —OK, I’ll have a try.

A. will you       B. can you         C. will she        D. can she