The Spring Festival is the biggest festival for Chinese people all around the world. The celebration usually lasts for 15 days. There is a lot to do.
On the eve of the Spring Festival, family members get together and have big meals. Their favorite dish on this day is dumplings.
Days before the Spring Festival, families will clean their homes. People think cleaning sweeps away bad luck. It makes the house ready for good luck.
The color red is everywhere during the Spring Festival. People think red is a happy color and will bring them a bright future. People wear red, too. They decorate (装饰) their homes with pieces of red paper. Kids get a lot of “hong bao”. It is a red paper bag with money in it. Usually, older people give younger ones hong bao. They think it brings good luck.
The Spring Festival is the time to make everybody happy. So don’t say any bad words or do anything that will bring unhappiness to other people.
For instance, you’d better not say any bad words like “death”. Don’t break anything. People think that it means your luck is running out.
Also, don’t borrow or lend money on these days. If you have borrowed money, return it before the Spring Festival.What do most people do on the eve of the Spring Festival?
| A．Family members gather for a big meal. |
| B．Friends eat dumplings together. |
| C．They borrow money from friends. |
| D．They give each other hong bao. |
Why do people clean their houses days before the Spring Festival?
| A．Because they enjoy being clean. |
| B．Because it is believed that cleaning will sweep away bad luck. |
| C．Because they think it will bring happiness to others. |
| D．Because it is thought that cleaning brings in money. |
We can tell from the story that the Spring Festival is _________.
| A．a time of harvest and fun |
| B．celebrated for one whole month |
| C．only celebrated in China |
| D．a time for families to get together |
Give this memory test a try. Mix up 52 playing cards. Now look at the top seven for a second. Can you remember them in order?
Players at the World Memory Championships can. In fact, the 2002 champion (冠军), Andi, memorized the order of 1196 cards after looking at them for only an hour! And a German girl, Lara, only ten years old, memorized 75 faces and names in fifteen minutes!
In 1987, a Japanese man, Mr. Tomoyori, wanted to prove that his memory was the best in the world by remembering by heart pi (π), a number in math which starts 3.14159…This number never repeats itself or ends. He recited pi to 40,000 decimal places (小数位). It took the fifty-five-year-old man more than twelve hours to say the numbers, but he did it without making a mistake!
To remember pi, Mr. Tomoyori connected each number with a sound. He then made up stories to help him remember the words he made from the sounds. In an interview after his achievement, he said, “I decided to go ahead and memorize the value of pi up to one thousand places. But it wasn’t easy – in fact, it took me three years. To get to 40,000 decimal places it took me about ten years.”
Unluckily for Mr. Tomoyori, his record was broken in 1995, when another Japanese man, Mr. Goto, memorized pi to 42,195 places.Why was Lara’s success special?
| A．She was just a little girl. | B．She was the 2002 champion. |
| C．She was from Germany. | D．She remembered more words. |
What is true about Mr. Tomoyori?
| A．He found pi easy to remember. |
| B．His memory was the best in the world. |
| C．He used stories to help remember words. |
| D．He only made one mistake while saying pi. |
Who remembered the greatest numbers according to the passage?
| A．Andi. | B．Lara. | C．Mr. Goto. | D．Mr. Tomoyori. |
| THEME PARKS – FUN AND MORE THAN FUN |
 Disneyland will bring you into a magic world. As you walk around Disneyland, you may see Snow White and Mickey Mouse in a parade or on the street. If you want to have fun and more than fun, come to Disneyland! |
 Dollywood, in the beautiful Smoky Mountains in the southeastern USA. Although Dollywood has rides, the park’s main attraction（吸引力） is its culture. You can even take a ride on the only steam-engine train still working in the southeast USA. Come to Dollywood to have fun learning all about America’s historical southeast culture! |
 If you want to experience the ancient days, England’s Camelot Park is the place for you. Every area of the park is modeled after life in the days of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. To enter a world of ancient England, come to Camelot Park! |
 Some theme parks are not only for fun but also educational. Take the Polynesian Cultural Center(PCC) in Hawaii as an example. It not only shows visitors the Polynesian way of life but also protects their skills and culture for the future. |
Which park will bring you into a magic world?
A. Disneyland. B. Dollywood.
C. Camelot Park. D. The PCC.What’s Dollywood’s main attraction?
| A．Magic shows. | B．King Arthur’s life. |
| C．Polynesian culture. | D．America’s southeast culture. |
What can you enjoy in Camelot Park?
| A．Meeting Snow White. |
| B．Experiencing ancient England. |
| C．Riding on the steam-engine train. |
| D．Feeling the Polynesian way of life. |
Have you ever complained(抱怨) why life is so tiring? Does the sky sometimes seem dark to you? Are your studies sometimes not successful? Well, friends, cheer up and smile all the time. If you see the world with your warm heart, you’ll find that the whole world smiles to you.
While in school, sometimes you are tired of your lessons, but have you ever noticed the happy smile on your teacher’s face when you did a good job?
One day it is fine. Just before you want to go out, it suddenly starts to rain. Maybe you would feel very sad and start complaining about the weather. But dear friends, why don’t you sit down and listen to the free concert that the nature offers you? And with the timely rain, crops in the fields will grow better and better, so farmers will have a good harvest.
Although everyone wants to succeed in what he tries to do, sometimes failure(失败) can’t be avoided. I think failure is not terrible, and the terrible thing is that we are afraid of it and give up hope. When we face failure, we must be confident in ourselves, draw a useful lesson from it and try our best to finish what we have decided to do. As a popular saying goes, “Failure is the mother of success.”
Attitude decides everything. With an optimistic(乐观的) attitude life is easy and pleasant. Let’s smile to whatever we meet and the whole world will smile to us.What will you find if you see the world with your warm heart?
Why will farmers have a good harvest according to the passage?
What is the terrible thing when we face failure?
How do we make life easy and pleasant?
What’s the best title of this passage?
阅读短文，根据短文内容，从短文后的五个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有一项为多余选项。
Many people think self-confidence is the key to a happy, successful life. But where does self-confidence come from?.
I’m Lucy. Self-confidence means that I can do something well. It’s even better if someone else tells you that you’re good at something, too. When people listen to me and pay attention to my ideas, I know they like me. When people don’t listen, I sometimes feel sad..
I’m Jeff. Respect from my family and friends makes me feel the best. I don’t care if I’m the best football player, or I don’t get the highest grade on a test, or don’t succeed at everything I do.. If someone says something unkind about you, you don’t mind that much because you know they’re wrong—that means you have self-confidence.
I’m Sue. I really feel good when my mum gives me a hug and says,“Have a nice day!”before I leave the house. Also, one day in a store I asked a salesman where to find something, and to my surprise, he said,“You have a beautiful smile.” For the rest of the day I was happy. These kinds of things have to come naturally and from the heart, but they make a big difference in the way a person feels.. Believe that no matter who you are, you can build your own self-confidence.
| A. I hope someone will care about me B. You should remember“You can do it if you think you can.” C. Here’s what some students have to say about it D. I only care that I have tried my best and people respect me for it E. Listening shows they care about me |
In choosing a friend, one should be very careful. A good friend can help you study. You can have fun together and make each other happy. Sometimes you will meet fair-weather friends. They will be with you as long as you have money or luck, but when you are down, they will run away. How do I know when I have found a good friend? I look for certain qualities(品质) of character, especially understanding, honesty and reliability(可靠).
Above all else, I look for understanding in a friend. A good friend tries to understand how another person is feeling. He is not quick to judge. Instead, he tries to learn from others. He puts himself in the other person’s place, and he tries to think of ways to be helpful. He is also a good listener.
At the same time, however, a good friend is honest. He does not look for faults(过错) in others. He notices their good points. In short, a friend will try to understand me and accept me.
Another quality of a friend is reliability. I can always depend on a good friend. If he tells me he will meet me somewhere at a certain time, I can be sure that he will be there. If I need a favor, he will do his best to help me. If I am in trouble, he will not run away from me.
There is a fourth quality that makes a friend special. A special friend is someone with whom we can have fun. We should enjoy our lives, and we would enjoy our friendship. That is why I especially like friends who are fun to be with. A good friend likes the same things I like. We share experiences and learn from each other. A good friend has a good sense of humor, too. He likes to laugh with me. That is how we share in the joy of being friends. And I know that he is looking for the same quality in me.
When I meet someone who is reliable, honest and understanding, I know I’ve found a friend!Which of the following qualities the writer thinks is the most important in choosing a friend?
| A．Understanding. | B．Honesty. |
| C．Reliability. | D．A sense of humor. |
If you have fair-weather friends, __________.
| A．you will become rich |
| B．you can be sure that you get real friends |
| C．you will be refused when you get into trouble |
| D．they will give you all that they have when you need help |
This passage mainly discusses _________.
| A．the qualities of a friend |
| B．how to get along with friends |
| C．the importance of having a friend |
| D．the importance of the qualities of a friend |