Summer Rain

The worst days of any summer are the rainy ones. We spend all year looking forward to nice weather and long, hot days. All of winter, with its cloudy days and bitter cold, we dream of those endless days at the beach, lying on the sand and enjoying the bright and burning sun. And then, summer comes, and it rains.

As a child, I would wake up to rainy summer days and come close to crying. It wasn’t fair. We suffered through months of school and experienced bad weather for those short ten weeks of freedom and pleasant weather.

On those rainy summer days, I had nothing fun to do and could only sit inside, staring out at the rain like a bird in a cage. I was an only child, so there was no one else to play with. My father worked from home, so I was not truly alone, but he could not actively play with me since he was at work. It was those days that I would watch whatever was on television or read any books that I could find lying around. I’d drag through the day and pray each night that the rain would not be there the next day.

As an adult, though, my opinion of summer rain has changed. When you have to work every day, summer is not as exciting. Everything seems dull. Such a mindset makes you cheer for anything new or different. I spend the winter dreaming of summer and the summer dreaming of winter. When summer comes, I hate how hot it is. And then I look forward to the rain, because the rain brings with it a cold front, which makes me comfortable. Rainy days are still the worst days of the summer, but summer rain today means positively beautiful — and considerably cooler — weather tomorrow.

21. When the author was a child, he ______.

A. hated rainy days                            B. liked staying indoors

C. preferred cooler weather               D. dreamed on summer days

22. We can learn from the passage that the author ______.

A. was often left alone at home         B. had no brothers or sisters

C. preferred reading to playing outside   D. could enjoy the brilliant sun in winter

23. As an adult, the author views summer rain differently because ______.

A. he knows it won’t last long             B. his summer holiday is very short

C. rain makes the weather cooler            D. he can better deal with his holiday

A sick little gift is being kept alive thanks to her best friend--a dog who carries her oxygen tank (氧气瓶)on his back. Alida’s faithful dog companion Mr Gibbs has been specially trained to shepherd the three-year-old, who breathes through a tube most of the time. He follows her closely as she plays in her family’s ten-acre land in Louisville, uses the slide or even rides her bike.

Alida was diagnosed（诊断）with neuroendocrine hyperplasia of infancy（NEHI）when she was just eight months old. Her rare condition has just eight hundred documented sufferers throughout the world, and causes diseased pieces of the lungs to filter（过滤）oxygen through extra layers（膜）of cells making it hard or almost impossible to breathe. For Alida and her parents, it meant that even a walk in the park was very difficult because oxygen equipment was too heavy for the youngster to be able to carry herself. As parents they wanted to do something to help their daughter survive despite having a tube following her all the time. The couple found out about “service dogs” from a TV program and realized an animal trained to help the blind could be trained to help Alida. They finally found help in the shape of golden doodle—a retriever crossed with a poodle-dog Mr Gibbs. Now--thanks to trainer Ashleigh Kinsley—Alida and Mr Gibbs love nothing more than playing and running around together with the dog acting as Alida’s life saver.

24. What is Mr Gibbs?

A. A pet dog.      B. A policeman.      C. A doctor.         D. A firefighter.

25. When did the doctor know Alicia caught the disease?

    A. At her birth.                       B. At the age of eight.

    C. Before she was one year old.          D. When she was three years old.

26. The underlined part “the couple” in paragraph 3 refers to ________.

    A. Alida’s classmates                  B. Alida’s parents

    C. Alida’s doctors                     D. Alida’s pets

27. How did Alicia keep alive?

    A. By training her dog.                 B. By staying with her parents.

C. By playing with her fellows.          D. By breathing through a tube.

Students who say they never or hardly ever used dictionaries may speak English well but usually write poorly, because they make many mistakes.

The students who use dictionaries most do not learn especially well either. The ones who look up every new word do not read fast. Therefore they do not have time to read much. Those who use small two-language dictionaries have the worst problems. Their dictionaries often give only one or two words as translations of English. But one English word often has many translations in a foreign language and one foreign word has many translations in English.

The most successful students are those who use large college edition dictionaries with about 100,000 words but do not use them too often. When they are reading, these students first try to get the general idea and understand new words from the context. Then they reread and use the dictionary to look up only key words that they still do not understand. They use dictionaries more for writing. If they are not sure how to spell a word, they always use a dictionary. Also, if they think a noun might have an unusual plural（复数） form, they check this in a dictionary.

28. The writer thinks that ___________.

A．choose a good dictionary, and you’ll be successful in learning English

B．dictionaries are not necessary to the students who learn English

C．it is very important for students to use good dictionaries properly

D．using dictionaries very often can’t help to improve writing

29. According to the passage, which of the following is WRONG?

A．Dictionaries have little effect on learning to speak English.

B．Whatever new words you meet while reading, never use dictionaries.

C．Small two-language dictionaries have serious shortcomings.

D．Reading something for the first time, you’d better not use dictionaries.

30. When in the reading does the writer advise students to use a good dictionary?

A．At the beginning of the reading                  B．At the end of the reading

C．During the first reading                            D．After the first reading

31. This passage mainly tells us __________.

A．that students shouldn’t use small two-language dictionaries

B．what were the shortcomings of small two-language dictionaries

C．why students should use large college edition dictionaries

D．what dictionary students should choose and how to use it 

When my daughter Sally was five, I bought Grimm’s Fairy Tales and read Snow White to her one night. At the end of the original Grimm tale, Snow White’s stepmother is made to put on red-hot iron shoes and dance until she falls down dead.

This came as something of a shock. I always thought fairytales had happy endings. And I didn’t want my five-year-old daughter going to sleep thinking: “Thank goodness they tortured (折磨) that old woman to death.” That’s when I decided to write fairy tales.

In the years that followed, I wrote tales non-stop and read them to Sally at bedtime. The Corn Dolly was based on a child who was always complaining; The Silly King was just a silly story Sally loved; I wrote The Witch and the Rainbow Cat for Sally because of her enormous  appetite for stories about witches while Dr Bonocolus’s Devil is a new version of the Faust legend．

Nifobobinus, however, was different. I wrote this book when Sally was older and took up all things girls have to do — who’s friends with who, who stuck a sticker on the back of whose boyfriend, or whatever thing she felt funny.

Nicobobinus, the boy who could do anything, came out of my desire for a more innocent world. He lived a 1ong time ago, in a city called Venice. Only his best friend, Rosie, knew he could, and nobody took any notice of anything Rosie said, because she was always having wild ideas anyway.

Nicobobinus was so different that it turned out to be an instant hit. The Times called me “an author setting out to rival the classic fairytales”. I asked Sally what she thought of Nicobobinus. She said it was her favourite.

32. What led the writer to start writing fairy tales for her daughter?

A. The frightening ends of past fairy tales.

B. His daughter’s strong interest in fairy tales.

C. His desire to let his daughter know more stories.

D. His attempt to fill his daughter’s bedtime with something.

33. We can infer from the third paragraph that the writer _____.

A. was a very productive fairy tale writer

B. based all his stories on some old legends

C. never described witches in his fairy tales

D. created his stories out of his own interest

34. When creating Nicobobinus, the first thing the writer considered was _____.

A. the changes of his daughter’s interests

B. what story the publisher wanted to get

C. ways to keep his daughter Sally innocent

D. the difference of the story from other stories

35. The underlined word “rival” in the last paragraph can be replaced by _____.

A. follow                    B. explore           C. challenge              D. recommend

Telephone tips

If the phone rings and someone speaks in English, don’t be afraid to answer it! The fear of talking on the phone in a second language will disappear if you practice often. Here are a few tips for helping you improve your ability to answer a call in English.

36._______________

  Listening to someone speaking in a second language over the telephone can be very challenging because you cannot see the person you are trying to hear. However, it may be even more difficult for the person you are talking with to understand you. You may not realize that your pronunciation isn’t clear because your teacher and fellow students know and understand you. Pay special attention to your weak areas of your pronunciation when you are on the phone.

37._______________

  Don’t pretend to understand everything you hear over the telephone. Even native speakers ask each other to repeat and confirm information from time to time. This is especially important if you are taking a message for someone else. Learn the appropriate expressions that English speakers use when they don’t hear something properly. Don’t be afraid to remind the person to slow down more than once. Keep your telephone in an area that is away from other noise distractions such as a radio or television.

38._______________.

  Ask another student to practice talking on the phone with you. You might choose one night a week and take turns phoning each other at a certain time. Try to talk for at least fifteen minutes. You can talk socially, or role play different scenarios in a business environment. The most important thing about practicing telephone English is that you are not able to see each other’s mouths.

39. _______________. 

  There are many ways to get free telephone English practice. After business hours, you can call and listen to recorded messages. Write down what you hear the first time, and then call back and check if your notes are accurate. Make sure you have a pen handy so that you can repeat the information and check your comprehension.

40._______________.

  The way that you speak to your best friend on the phone is very different from the way you should speak to someone in a business setting. Many speakers make the mistake of being too direct on the telephone. It is possible that the person on the other line will think that you are being rude on purpose if you don’t use formal language in certain situations. Sometimes just one word such as could or may is necessary in order to sound polite. Take the time to learn how to answer the phone and say goodbye in a polite manner, as well as all the various ways

one can start and end a conversation casually.

Listening to someone on the telephone is like listening to a taped recording in class. The only difference is that you have to talk back! Follow the tips above and remember that practice makes perfect!

A. Use business recordings

B. Speak slowly and clearly

C. Learn telephone manners

D. Practice often with a friend

E. Always be considerate of your friends

F. Make sure you understand the other speaker