The First of May is a Bank Holiday—the first public holiday of the year in England. Most people consider it a special day, the beginning of summer, a day when the light lasts long into the evening, and when we can look for warm weather. We don't always get it. We feel disappointed, but not surprised if there are cold winds and frosts at night in May. Winter should be over. Most people know that in the past, when farming occupied almost everyone, the changing seasons were of great importance. In that older time there was every reason to celebrate May Day. Customs of those celebrations remain.?

Of these customs, the best known is the choosing of a May Queen and the dancing round Maypole. Even these customs are little more than memories now—but in the last century it was quite common in villages and small towns, and even in schools and colleges, for a pretty and popular girl to be chosen Queen of the May. It was a great honour to be chosen. For a day she wore a light and flowery dress, carried garlands（花环）, and was ceremonially crowned with flowers. She presided over a procession, as a rule with a number of attendants, and over the Maypole dancing and all kinds of entertainment. The Maypole was slender（苗条的w.w.^w.k.&s.5*u.c.#o） tree trunk, cut off its branches, with beautiful ribbons fastened to the top. The dancing was designed in such a way that the dancer's movements move the ribbons into a pattern. This, as you can imagine, required skill from the dancer, and was not achieved without practice.

It's the Celtic people who celebrated the First of May as a spring festival. Their celebration seems to have had little to do with taking pleasure in early, beautiful flowers and in warmer weather! They called it Beltane—the fire of the god Bel. They lit fires, in the expectation that their blaze would help the sun in its struggle to regain its strength. They drove their cattle between banks of flame in the expectation that the terrified beasts would be purified and protected from disease. A tree, which must have been blackened with smoke, stood in the middle of the fires, and is thought to have been the origin of the Maypole. Their priests（牧师） made sacrifices to the goods in the hope of good harvests and sufficient store of food for the winter. There was dancing certainly, but it was noisy and cheerful, since its purpose was not to weave a pattern of colored ribbons, but to drive out evil spirits from the earth and to arouse those kind spirits.?

57. The main purpose of the passage is to show ________.?

A. the reason why they celebrate May Day

B. the start and customs of May Day

C. the way they celebrate May Day

D. the choosing of a May Queen during May Day

58. According to the passage, which sentence is NOT true??

A. In the old days they celebrated May Day for the changing of the seasons.?

B. In England summer begins at the first of May.?

C. The custom of the choosing of a May Queen still exists in the present May Day celebration.?D. The Celtic people celebrated the first of May as a spring festival.??

59. From the surrounding words and sentences we know that the word “presided” means ____.

A. 管理    B. 越过   C. 指挥   D. 主持?

60. The best title for this passage is ________.

A. The First of May     B. The Beginning of Summer

C. May Queen        D. The Holiday of the Year?

四、单词拼写：（10分）

1.When the police caught the thief, he _______(假装) an ordinary man.

2.He failed in his first a________(  尝试 )to ride a horse, but he would try a second time.

3.This company shows great _______( 尊重 )for human rights.

4.We should honor those who have made great _________(贡献) to the society.

5.They ________(宣布) the date of their wedding in the paper.

6.He was not a regular ___________（顾客） of that shop, for he just dropped in sometimes.

7.He is a j____（新闻记者） collecting and writing news reports for newspapers and magazines.

8. A good salesman must be ________(进取的) if he wants to succeed.

9. B_________（举止） yourself, or you’ll not be allowed to take part in the party.

10. I’ve got about $10 in my w_____________.（钱包）

第二部分：语言知识及应用（共两节，满分35分）

第一节：完形填空（共10小题；每小题2分，满分20分）

阅读下面短文, 掌握其大意，然后从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Once upon a time, there was a boy who would go into the forest and gather food and herbal medicines (草药) with some of his fellows every spring. However, one year, a tiger showed up in the forest and no one dared go into the forest again. One day, the boy’s father became ill, and thew*w^w..c~o*m family couldn’t afford the (21)  _ that the father needed. The boy decided to try and find some herbal medicines as well as some food in the forest.

It was a perfect sunny day. At first, it was quiet and (22)  _  happened. But later, when the boy bent down to reach one more mushroom, he was suddenly pushed to the ground. A large shadow covered him. He rolled over and looked (23)___  in shock as the tiger said in a deep voice. “You are my (24)__  . Say good-bye to this world.” (25)__  his sick father, the boy knew he couldn’t die. He quickly calmed down and put a mushroom into his mouth, and chewed and swallowed. Then he said, “(26)__ __ you can kill and eat me, but I wish you to know that these mushrooms are deadly poisonous (有毒的). You can eat me, but you will die too. My family will look for me and find you. They will (27)__   your stomach and eat your meat. Your fine skin will carpet the floor of a rich man’s house and your tiger bones will get a good (28)_     in the medicine shops. My family will have enough for a year or more and I will be given a good funeral（葬礼）and long (29)____ .

The tiger hesitated (犹豫). He saw the frightful mushrooms in the basket and (30)____ his appetite (胃口). He slowly walked away. The boy saved his own life with his quick thinking.

A. love                     B. medicine             C. care                        D. doctors

A. anything                 B. everything          C. nothing                    D. something

A. down                  B. out                   C. around                     D. up

A. energy                B. power                C. enemy            D. supper

A. Looking after    B. Thinking of              C. Bringing back         D. Believing in

A. Of course        B. No way                  C. In the beginning        D. In any case

A. feed               B. open                    C. sell                      D. kick

A. price                    B. seller                      C. reward                   D. doctor

A. understood        B. encouraged               C. needed                   D. remembered

A. lost             B. increased                  C. regained                D. forgot

Ⅱ. 写作（共两节，满分35分）

第一节：短文填词（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

阅读下面短文，根据以下提示：1）汉语提示，2）首字母提示，3）语境提示，在每个空格内填入一个适当的英语单词，并将该词完整地写在右边相对应的横线上。所填单词要求意义准确，拼写正确。

注意：本题分A、B两篇，A篇为一级达标学校学生应答题，B篇为非一级达标学校学生应答题。

(A)

Once an American and a Frenchman decided to cross the

sea _____ France and England in balloon in 1784. When they flew                        81. ________

high over the w     , they suddenly discovered a hole in the                                82. ________

balloon. What was_____ (更糟糕), the hole became bigger and bigger.                  83. ________

The air keeping the balloon_____ was escaping quickly and the                              84. ________

balloon was coming down. _____ (看到) this, the two men threw                          85. ________

a      their equipment away to make the balloon lighter. It started                             86. ________

to r     higher again. But soon it again was too close to the water.                       87. ________

Finally, the men had _____ choice but to throw away most of                          88. ________

their clothes to s      themselves. The crowd was very surprised                         89. ________

to see this when the balloon_____(降落)in front of them.                                     90. ________

六、Reading comprehension.(阅读理解)20分

A

Air is an odorless(that cannot be smelled;smelless),invisible(that cannot be seen)gas that surrounds the planet earth.It is everywhere on the planet.An “empty” drinking glass and an “empty” room,to give two examples,are not really empty.Each is filled with air.When the glass is filled with water,the water pushes the air out of the glass.

Air,as a gas,has no definite(fixed,particular)shape,but,because it is matter,it takes up space.It is easy to prove that air is something that takes up space.Stuff a dry handkerchief into the bottom of a glass so that it will not fall out when the glass is turned upside-down.Push the upside-down glass,hold it straight into a jar of water till the glass is completely covered.When the glass is taken out of water,the handkerchief will be dry.The air inside the glass took up space and kept the water from coming in.

1.“Stuff a dry handkerchief into…”.The underlined word means.

A.Press tightly     B.Take out          C.Put down      D.Turn fully

2.The writer tells us that _________.

A.the experiment was done in the laboratory

B.the experiment was done outside the room

C.the experiment is easily done

D.the experiment is carried out indoors

3.Which of the following pictures gives us the correct result?

(W—water;A—air;H—handkerchief)