The most important holiday in spring, especially for Christians, is Easter. This Christian holiday is not on the same date every year，but it’s always on a Sunday. It can be any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. Many people celebrate Easter by buying new clothes. Children celebrate by hunting for colored eggs that their parents have hidden around the house. People also give Easter baskets filled with candy and other goodies to one another to celebrate the day.
But the holiday is more than new clothes and good things to eat. On Easter, many people go to church to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection（复活）from the dead. Most people color Ester eggs. Some people hide them. Others just eat them. But no matter what one does with Easter eggs，they are an important Easter tradition across the Western world. People from many different cultures celebrate Easter. In both America and Belgium, children look for Easter eggs hidden on grass and in bushes(灌木丛). In America, children believe the eggs are hidden by the Easter rabbit.But in Belgium, the hidden eggs are supposed to have fallen from church bells. In Bulgaria (保加利亚), red Easter eggs are lucky in churches. Bulgarian families also hit these Easter eggs together to see whose is the strongest. The winner looks forward to good fortune(运气) that year. Still dozens of other Easter traditions exist. In parts of Austria，for example，children sing from door to door and are rewarded with colorful eggs.To celebrate Easter, people ___________.
| A．go shopping, hide colored eggs and children hunt for them |
| B．give Easter baskets filled candy and goodies to one another |
| C．buy new clothes, hide colored eggs and children look for them around the house |
| D．both B and C |
For Christians the more important thing to do on Easter is________.
| A．going to church to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection |
| B．buying new clothes |
| C．eating delicious food and paint color eggs |
| D．exchange beautiful gifts each other |
People from different cultures have different ideas about Easter egg _________.
| A．In both American and Belgium, children hunt for Easter eggs hidden in rooms and in bushes |
| B．In Belgium, the hidden eggs are thought to have fallen from doorbells |
| C．In American, children believe the eggs are hidden by the Easter bunny |
| D．In America, the hidden eggs are supposed to have fallen from doorbells |
After our hospital visit, my husband and I needed cheering up, so we thought we would treat ourselves to a big breakfast at our favourite restaurant. While we were waiting for our meals, we decided to use all our small change and make our wallets light, so we counted it out as we waited.
I vaguely(含糊地) remember seeing a man sitting nearby. When our meals arrived, we found a note. It read,” Your breakfast has been paid for. Hope you have a lovely day.”
It was a wonderful surprise as nothing like that had ever happened to us. He must have thought we could hardly pay the bill. We looked around to thank him, but he had left. As retirees(退休者)，we were grateful for the help like this, but it was the kindness of a total stranger that meant so much more to us.The old couple went to restaurant for a big breakfast in order to _______.
| A．become happier | B．become healthier |
| C．become lighter | D．become younger |
What have you learnt from the story?
| A．The old couple couldn’t afford the meal. |
| B．The old couple paid the meal by small change. |
| C．The old couple had a free meal in the end |
| D．The old couple bought the man a big breakfast |
Clearly, the man sitting near the couple was _______.
| A．poor | B．rich | C．helpful | D．grateful |
Sydney Tower is ____________ in Sydney, Australia.
| A．the busiest street | B．the biggest station |
| C．the most beautiful park | D．the highest point |
Sydney Tower opens at ____________.
| A．8:00 am | B．9:00 am | C．10:30 pm | D．11:30 pm |
If an adult with two children goes to visit Sydney Tower, he has to pay ___________.
| A．$60 | B．$90 | C．$120 | D．$150 |
On the evening of last Sunday while I was reviewing my lessons in my room, it suddenly began to rain. 1 as usual, I stopped to listen to the rhythm（韵律）of the rain. For many years, whenever it rains, I couldn’t 2 listening to it and thinking of the garden in which I spent my childhood in my hometown.
When I was a little girl, my family lived in a big house with a big garden in the countryside. The garden was full of flowers and 3 , with some bamboo in front of the wall. Whenever it rained, I 4 to sit in the front of the house, listening to the rhythm of the rain and watching the 5 raindrops.
When small drops of rain fall from the heaven in a row, they 6 a curtain made up of pearls（珍珠）; when the raindrops 7 the ground, a lot of small sprays（水花）will splash（溅出）and then disappear slowly.
I have been 8 interested in watching such a scene.Listening to the rhythm of the rain, I feel calm and peaceful in my heart. This feeling of peace makes me think a lot about life. We are the 9 of the earth, and one day we will embrace（拥抱）our earth and stay with her forever. Life is short and we should treasure it.
Listening to the rhythm of the rain, I learn to understand the 10 of life.
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Look at the centre circles of Diagram (图)A and Diagram B. Which of the centre circles looks larger? In fact, they are exactly the same size.
Then look at the picture on the right. What do you see? A vase? Or two faces？Does the picture change quickly from one to the other again and again? Maybe or maybe not, but you can never see them at the same time.
“What’s happening? Is something wrong with my eyes?” You may wonder at what you see. Don’t worry. Here is how it goes:
When we look at things, our eyes send messages to our brains and then our brains interpret（解读）the information. However, sometimes our brains interpret the received information in a wrong way. It seems that our eyes are playing a joke on us. This often happens and we call it “visual illusion(视觉错误)”.
Movie makers often make use of visual illusions. They make the objects around actors much smaller or bigger than usual. This makes us believe that the actors are much larger or smaller than they usually are. The movies Jurassic Parkand Honey I shrunk the kids just make use of visual illusions.Why does the centre circle in Diagram A look smaller than that in Diagram B?
| A．something is wrong with our eyes |
| B．the two circles are not the same size |
| C．our brains interpret the information in a wrong way |
| D．the two pictures change quickly from one to the other |
What do movie makers make use of visual illusions for ?
| A．To help the actors look better |
| B．To make the actors much braver |
| C．To help the actors become stronger |
| D．To make the actors seem different in size |
In the picture below, it seems that Line AB is shorter than Line CD, but in fact Line AB is as long as Line CD.
Which paragraph can explain what has happened to our eyes?
A. The second one.
B. The third one.
C. The fourth one.
D. The sixth one. What’s the right order according to the passage?
a. We look at things with our eyes.
b. Our brains interpret the messages.
c. Our brains tell us what we have seen.
d. Our eyes send messages to our brains.
| A．a d b c | B．c a b d | C．a c d b | D．b c a d |
Where may this passage be from?
| A．A letter | B．An English newspaper |
| C．A science book | D．An advertisement |
America is growing older. Fifty years ago, only 4 out of every 100 people in the United States were 65 or older. Today,10 out of every 100 Americans are over 65. The aging of the population will affect American society (社会) in many ways —education, medicine, and business. Quietly, the growing of America has made us a very different society —one in which people have a quite different idea of what kind of behavior is suitable at various ages.
A person’s age no longer tells you anything about his/her social position (职位、地位), marriage or health. There’s no longer a particular year in which one goes to school or goes to work or gets married or starts a family. The social clock that kept us on time and told us when to go to school, get a job, or stop working isn’t as strong as it used to be. It doesn’t surprise us to hear of a 29-year-old university president or a 70-year-old man who has become a father for the first time. Public ideas are changing.
Many people say, ‘I am much younger than my mother—or my father—was at my age.’ No one says ‘ Act your age’ any more. We’ve stopped looking with surprise at older people who act in youthful ways. It can be learnt from the text that the aging of the population in America ______.
| A．has made people feel younger |
| B．has changed people’s social position |
| C．has changed people’s understanding of age |
| D．has slowed down the country’s social development |
The underlined word ‘one’ in the first paragraph refers to____.
| A．a society | B．America | C．a place | D．population |
."Act your age " in the last paragraph means people should ______.
| A．be active when they are old |
| B．do the right thing at the right age |
| C．show respect for their parents young or the old |
| D．take more physical exercise suitable to their age |
If a 20-year-old man becomes general manager of a big company, the writer of the text would most probably consider it ______.
| A．normal | B．wonderful |
| C．unbelievable | D．unreasonable |