George Gershwin, born in 1998, was one of America’s greatest composers. He published his first song when he was eighteen years old. During the next twenty years he wrote more than five hundred songs.

Many of Gershwin’s songs were first written for musical plays performed in theatres in New York City. These plays were a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of his songs have remained popular as ever. Over the years they have been sung and played in every possible way — from jazz to country.

In the 1920s there was a debate in the United States about jazz music. Could jazz, some people asked, be considered serious music? In 1924 jazz musician and orchestra leader Paul Whiteman decided to organize a special concert to show that jazz was serious music. Gershwin agreed to compose something for the concert before he realized he had just a few weeks to do it. And in that short time, he composed a piece for piano and orchestra which he called Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin himself played the piano at the concert. The audience were thrilled when they heard his music. It made him world-famous and showed that jazz music could be both serious and popular.

In 1928, Gershwin went to Paris. He applied to study composition (作曲)with the well-known musician Nadia Boulanger, but she rejected him. She was afraid that classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style. While there, Gershwin wrote An American in Paris. When it was first performed, critics (评论家)were divided over the music. Some called it happy and full of life, to others it was silly and boring. But it quickly became popular in Europe and the United States. It still remains one of his most famous works.

George Gershwin died in 1937, just days after doctors learned he had brain cancer. He was only thirty-nine years old. Newspapers all over the world reported his death on their front pages. People mourned the loss of the man and all the music he might have still written.

1.Many of Gershwin’s musical works were ________ .

A．written about New Yorkers                B．Composed for Paul Whiteman

C．played mainly in the countryside            D．performed in various ways

2.What do we know about the concert organized by Whiteman?

A．It attracted more people to theatres

B．It proved jazz could be serious music

C．It made Gershwin leader of the orchestra

D．It caused a debate among jazz musicians

3.What did Gershwin do during his stay in Paris?

A．He created one of his best works           B．He studied with Nadia Boulanger

C．He argued with French critics              D．He changed his music style

4.What do we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Many of Gershwin’s works were lost

B．The death of Gershwin was widely reported

C．A concert was held in memory of Gershwin

D．Brain cancer research started after Gershwin’s death.

5.Which of the following best describes Gershwin?

A．Talented and productive                  B．Serious and boring

C．popular and unhappy                    D．Friendly and honest

You can’t always predict a heavy rain or remember your umbrella. But designer Mikhail Belvacv doesn’t think that forgetting to check the weather forecast before heading out should result in you getting wet. That’s why he created lampbrella, a lamp post with its own rain sensing umbrella.

The designer says he come up with the idea after watching people get wet on streets in Russia. “once, I was driving on a central Saint Petersburg street and saw the street lamps lighting up people trying to hide from the rain. I thought it would be appropriate to have a canopy(伞蓬)built into a street lamp.” he said.

The lampbrella is a standard-looking street lamp fitted with an umbrella canopy. It has a built-in electric motor which can open or close the umbrella on demand. Sensors(传感器)then ensure that the umbrella offers pedestrians shelter whenever it starts raining.

In addition to the rain sensor, there’s also a 360°motion sensor on the biberglass street lamp which detects whether anyone’s using the lampbrella. After three minutes of not being used the canopy is closed.

According to the designer, the lampbrella would move at a relatively low speed, so as not to cause harm to the pedestrians. Besides, it would be grounded to protect from possible lighting strike. Each lampbrella would offer enough shelter for several people. Being installed at 2 meters off the ground, it would only be a danger for the tallest of pedestrians.

While there are no plans to take lampbrella into production, Belyacv says he recently introduced his creation one Moscow Department, and insists this creation could be installed on any street where a lot of people walk but there are no canopies to provide shelter.

1.For what purpose did Belyacv create the lampbrella?

A．To predict a heavy rain                   B．To check the weather forecast

C．To protect people from the rain             D．To remind people to take an umbrella

2.What do we know from Belyacv’s words in Paragraph2?

A．His creation was inspired by an experience

B．it rains a lot in the city of Saint Petersburg

C．Street lamps are protected by canopies

D．He enjoyed taking walks in the rain

3.Which of the following show how the lampbrella works?

A．motor→canopy→sensors                 B．Sensors→motor→canopy

C．motor→sensors→canopy                 D．canopy→motor→sensors

4.What does paragraph 5 mainly tell us about the lampbrella?

A．Its moving speed                        B．Its appearance

C．Its installation                          D．Its safety

5.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．The designer will open a company to promote his product

B．The lampbrella could be put into immediate production

C．The designer is confident that his creation is practical

D．The lampbrella would be put on show in Moscow

Sparrow is a fast-food chain with 200 restaurants. Some years ago, the group to which Sparrow belonged was taken over by another company. Although Sparrow showed no sign of declining, the chain was generally in an unhealthy state. With more and more fast-food concepts reaching the market, the Sparrow menu had to struggle for attention. And to make matters worse, its new owner had no plans to give it the funds it required.

Sparrow failed to grow for another two years. Until a new CEO, Carl Pearson, decided to build up its market share. He did a survey, which showed that consumers who already used Sparrow restaurants were extremely positive about the chain, while customers of other fast-food chains were unwilling to turn away from them. Sparrow had to develop a new promotional campaign.

Pearson faced a battle over the future of the Sparrow brand. The chain’s owner now favored rebranding Sparrow as Marcy’s restaurants. Pearson resisted, arguing for an advertising campaign designed to convince customers that visits to Sparrow restaurants were fun. Such an attempt to establish a positive relationship between a company and the general public was unusual for that time. Pearson strongly believed that numbers were the key to success, rather than customers’ speeding power. Finally, the owner accepted his idea.

The campaign itself changed the traditional advertising style of the fast-food industry. The TV ads of Sparrow focused on entertainment and featured original songs performed by a variety of stars. Instead of showing the superiority of a specific product, the intention was to put Sparrow in the hearts of potential customers.

Pearson also made other decisions which he believed would contribute to the new Sparrow image. For example, he offered to lower the rent of any restaurants which achieved a certain increase in their turnover (营业额) .

These efforts paid off, and Sparrow soon became one of the most successful fast-food chains in the regions where it operated.

1.Which was one of the problems Sparrow faced before Pearson became CEO?

A．The number of its customers was declining

B．Its customers found the food unhealthy

C．It was in need of financial support

D．Most of its restaurants were closed

2.What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Customers of Sparrow restaurants           B．Sparrow restaurants

C．Customers of other fast-food chains         D．other fast-food chains

3.For what purpose did Pearson start the advertising campaign?

A．To build a good relationship with the public

B．To stress the unusual tradition of Sparrow

C．To lean about customers’ spending power.

D．To meet the challenge from Marcy’s restaurants.

4.The TV ads of Sparrow ________ .

A．changed people’s views on pop stars

B．amused the public with original songs

C．focused on the superiority of its products

D．influenced the eating habits of the audience

5.What was Pearson’s achievement as a CEO?

A．He managed to pay off Sparrow’s debts.

B．He made Sparrow much more competitive

C．He helped Sparrow take over a company

D．He improved the welfare of Sparrow employees

阅读下面短文并用英语回答问题，交答案与在答题卡相应的位置上（请注意76、77、79和80四个小题后面的词数要求）。

[1] Jean Paul Getty was born in 1892 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He became a millionaire when he was only 24. His father was wealthy, but he did not help his son. Getty made his millions alone. He made his money from oil. He owned Getty Oil and over 100 other companies. The Fortune magazine once called Getty “the richest man in the world.”

[2]But money _________. He married five times and divorced five times. He had five children but spent little time with them. None of Getty’s children had very happy lives.

[3]Getty loved to make money and loved to save it. In spite of his great wealth, Getty was miser. Every evening, he wrote down every cent he spent that day. He even put pay telephone in the guest’s bedrooms in his house so he could save money on phone bills.

[4] In 1973, kidnappers took his 16-year-old grandson, and demanded a large amount of money for his safe return. Getty’s son asked his father for money to save his child. But Getty refused. The kidnappers were merciless and Getty’s son made repeated requests for help from his father. Finally, Getty agreed to lend the money, but at 4 percent interest.

[5] Getty started a museum at his home Malibu, California. He bought many important and beautiful pieces of art for the museum. When Getty died in 1976, the value of the collection in the museum was $1 billion. He left all his money to the museum. After his death, the museum grew in size. Today it is one of the most important museums in the United States. Getty made a large fortune in his life, but he gave his money to the art world because he wanted people to learn about and love art.

1.What is the main idea of Paragraph 1? (no more than 8 words)

________________________________________________________________________________________

2.Fill in the blank in Paragraph 2 with proper words. (no more than 7 words)

________________________________________________________________________________________

3.Explain the underlined sentence in Paragraph3.

________________________________________________________________________________________

4.What did the kidnappers do to Getty’s family (no more than 10 words)

________________________________________________________________________________________

5.What does the author want to tell us about Getty in the last paragraph? (no more than 10 words)

________________________________________________________________________________________

假如你是新华中学的学生李华，你的美国朋友Tom一周前给你发电子邮件，询问你暑假里的打算，但你因准备期末考试未能及时回复。请根据双下要点给他回封邮件：

1.未及时回信的原因；

2.你假期的打算（如做兼职、旅行、做志愿者等）

注意：1. 词数：120-150；

2 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Number sense is not the ability to count. It is the ability to recognize a    1   in number. Human beings are born with this ability.   2   , experiments show that many animals are, too. For example, many birds have good number sense. If a nest has four eggs and you remove one, the bird will not    3  .However, if you remove two, the bird    4   leaves. This means that the bird knows the    5   between two and three.

Another interesting experiment showed a bird's    6   number sense. A man was trying to take a photo of a crow（乌鸦）that had a nest in a tower, but the crow always left when she saw him coming. The bird did not    7   until the man left the tower. The man had an    8  .He took another man with him to the tower. One man left and the other stayed, but they did not    9   the bird. The crow stayed away until the second man left, too. The experiment was    10   with three men and then with four men. But the crow did not return to the nest until all the men were    11  .It was not until five men went into the tower and only four left that they were    12   able to fool the crow.

How good is a human's number sense? It's not very good. For example, babies about fourteen months old almost always notice if something is taken away from a    13   group. But when the number goes beyond three or four, the children are    14   fooled.

It seems that number sense is something we have in common with many animals in this world, and that our human    15   is not much better than a crow's.

1.                A．rise            B．pattern         C．change   D．trend

2.                A．Importantly      B．Surprisingly      C．Disappointedly D．Fortunately

3.                A．survive         B．care           C．hatch D．notice

4.                A．generally       B．sincerely        C．casually   D．deliberately

5.                A．distance        B．range          C．different  D．interval

6.                A．amazing        B．annoying        C．satisfying  D．disturbing

7.                A．relax           B．recover         C．react D．return

8.                A．appointment     B．excuse         C．idea D．explanation

9.                A．fool           B．hurt           C．catch D．kill

10.               A．reported       B．repeated       C．designed  D．approved

11.               A．confused       B．gone           C．tired  D．drunk

12.               A．gradually       B．luckily          C．strangely  D．finally

13.               A．single          B．small           C．local  D．new

14.               A．seldom         B．temporarily     C．merely    D．often

15.               A．sight           B．nature         C．ability D．belief

One day, Nick invited his friends to supper. He was cooking some delicious food in the kitchen .Suddenly, he    1. （find）that he had run out of salt. So Nick called to his son,” Go to the Village and buy some salt, but pay a fair price for it: neither too much    2.   too little.”

His son looked surprised. ”I can understand why I shouldn’t pay too much, Father, but if I can pay less,  3.   not save a bit of money?”

“That would be a very    4.  （reason）thing to do in a big city, but it could destroy a small village like ours,” Nick said.

Nick’s guests,  5.   had heard their conversation, asked why they should not buy salt more cheaply if they could. Nick replied,” The only reason a man would sell salt    6.   a lower price would be because he was desperate for money. And anyone who took advantage of that situation would be showing a lack of respect    7.   the sweat and struggle of the man who worked very hard to produce it.”

“But such a small thing couldn’t    8.  （possible）destroy a village.”

“In the beginning, there was only    9.   very small amount of unfairness in the world, but everyone added a little ,always    10.  （think）that it was only small and not very important ,and look where we have ended up today.”

Imagination and fantasy can play an important role in achieving the things we fear. Children know this very well. Fred Epstein ,in his book If I Make It to Five, tells a story he heard from one of friends about Tom, a four-year-old boy with a cancer in his back bone. He came through several operations and a lot of pain by mastering his imagination.

Tom loved to pretend, and he particularly loved to play superheroes ,Dr. Epstein explained that it was actually a brilliant way for his young mind to handle the terrifying and painful life he led.

The day before his third trip to the operating room, Tom was terribly afraid. ”Maybe I could go as Superman ,”he whispered to his mom. Hearing this, the mother hesitated for a while. She had avoided buying the expensive costume（戏装），finally she agreed.

The next day Tom appeared as the powerful Superman, showing off through the hospital halls and coolly waving his hand to the people greeting him along the way. And Tom, with the strength of his fantasy, successfully made it through the operation.

The power of imagination need not be reserved for children only. We all have the power to use our fantasies to attempt things we never thought possible, to go through those things that seem impossible, and to achieve what we never believed we could. Just as Dr. Epstein puts it ,”If you can dream it, you can do it”

It doesn‘t mean that you should dress as a superhero for your next job interview. But, next time you are texted in a way that seems impossible, imagine what it would take to overcome it .Become the person you need to become to win over your challenge and do it in your mind first. So, let your imagination run wild, and dare to dream.

1.What do we know about Tom?

A．He was seriously ill                      B．He was a dishonest boy.

C．He was crazy about magic                 D．He was Dr.Epstein’s patient

2.What can be inferred about Tom’s mother?

A．She was a rich lady                      B．She refused Tom’s request

C．She wanted Tom to be a superhero          D．She wanted to get Tom through the pain

3.When Tom went for the third operation,he    .

A．pretended to be painful                  B．acted like a superhero

C．appeared in poor spirit s                  D．argued with his mother

4.In the last paragraph, you are advised    .

A．to go through some difficult tests

B．to wake up from your wild dreams

C．to become a powerful person in your mind

D．to wear expensive clothes for job interviews

5.What is the purpose of the passage?

A．To tell us an interesting story.

B．To help us make right decisions.

C．To advise us to care about children.

D．To encourage us to use our imagination.

Some people think that success is only for those with talent or those who grow up in the right family, and others believe that success mostly comes down to luck. I’m not going to say luck,talent,and circumstances don’t come into play because they do. Some people are born into the right family while others are born with great intelligence, and that’s just the reality of how life is.

However,to succeed in life,one first needs to set a goal and then gradually make it more practical.And,in addition to that,in order to get really good at something,one needs to spend at least 10,000 hours studying and practicing.To become great at certain things,it’ll require even more time,time that most people won’t put in.

This is a big reason why many successful people advise you to do something you love. If you don’t enjoy what you do ,it is going to feel like unbearable pain and will likely make you quit well before you ever become good at it.

When you see people exhibiting some great skills or having achieved great success,you know that they have put in a huge part of their life to get there at a huge cost.It’s sometimes easy to think they got lucky or they were born with some rare talent,but thinking that way does you no good,and there’s a huge chance that you’re wrong anyway.

Whatever you do,if you want to become great at it, you need to work day in and day out,almost to the point of addiction,and over a long period of time.If you’re not willing to put in the time and work,don’t expect to receive any rewards.Consistent, hard work won’t guarantee you the level of success you may want, but it will guarantee that you will become really good at whatever it is you put all that work into.

1.Paragraph 1 mainly talks about ________.

A．the reasons for success                   B．the meaning of success

C．the standards of success                  D．the importance of success

2.In Paragraph 2,the underlined word that refers to ______.

A．being good at something                  B．setting a practical goal

C．putting in more time                     D．succeeding in life

3.Successful people suggest doing what one loves because ______.

A．work makes one feel pain                 B．one tends to enjoy his work

C．one gives up his work easily               D．it takes a lot of time to succeed

4.What can we infer from Paragraph 4?

A．Successful people like to show their great skills.

B．People sometimes succeed without luck or talent.

C．People need to achieve success at the cost of life.

D．It helps to think that luck or talent leads to success.

5.What is the main theme of the passage?

A．Having a goal is vital to success.

B．Being good is different from being great.

C．One cannot succeed without time and practice.

D．Luck,talent and family help to achieve success.

One day, when I was working as a psychologist in England，an adolescent boy showed up in my office. It was David. He kept walking up and down restlessly, his face pale, and his hands shaking slightly. His head teacher had referred him to me. "This boy has lost his family," he wrote. "He is understandably very sad and refuses to talk to others, and I'm very worried about him. Can you help?”

I looked at David and showed him to a chair. How could I help him? There are problems psychology doesn’t have the answer to, and which no words can describe. Sometimes the best thing one can do is to listen openly and sympathetically

The first two times we met, David didn't say a word. He sat there, only looking up to look at the children's drawings on the wall behind me. I suggested we play a game of chess. He nodded. After that he played chess with me every Wednesday afternoon-in complete silence and without looking at me. It's not easy to cheat in chess, but I admit I made sure David won once or twice.

Usually, he arrived earlier than agreed, took the chess board and pieces from the shelf and began setting them up before I even got a chance to sit down. It seemed as if he enjoyed my company. But why did he never look at me?

"Perhaps he simply needs someone to share his pain with," I thought. "Perhaps he senses that I respect his suffering.” Some months later, when we were playing chess, he looked up at me suddenly.

"It’s your turn," he said.

After that day, David started talking. He got friends in school and joined a bicycle club. He wrote to me a few times about his biking with some friends, and about his plan to get into university. Now he had really started to live his own life.

Maybe I gave David something. But I also learned that one-without any words-can reach out to another person. All it takes is a hug, a shoulder to cry on, a friendly touch, and an ear that listens.

1.When he first met the author, David    .

A．felt a little excited                       B．walked energetically

C．looked a little nervous                    D．showed up with his teacher

2.As a psychologist, the author    .

A．was ready to listen to David

B．was skeptical about psychology

C．was able to describe David's problem

D．was sure of handling David's problem

3.David enjoyed being with the author because he________.

A．wanted to ask the author for advice

B．need to share sorrow with the author

C．liked the children’s drawings in the office

D．bear the author many times in the chess game

4.What can be inferred about David?

A．He recovered after months of treatment.

B．He liked biking before he lost his family.

C．He went into university soon after starting to talk.

D．He got friends in school before he met the author.

5.What made David change?

A．His teacher’s help.

B．The author’s friendship.

C．His exchange of letters with the author.

D．The author’s silent communication with him.