【2015年江苏省苏州市中考英语试题】阅读下列短文，从每小题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
In Western society, especially in the English-speaking world, the chance for young people to see the other countries and experience life is considered important. Many young people, when they finish school at the age of 18, take a gap year before they go to university.
Parents often want their children to grow up a little and see what the real world is like when they finish school. Although they are worried about their safety, many think that the advantages of independence and experience are worth the worries. Children are encouraged to be brave, independent and to explore the world on their own or with friends.
Young people also want to experience freedom and see what life is like on the other side. This other side could be the other side of the world or just the other side of life. For example, if they have a rich life, they may want to see how people in poor areas live.
A gap year after school is also an important chance for young people to spend time thinking about what they want to do with their lives. A little bit of growing up and experience will help them make their important career decisions, especially when they are unsure about what they want to study.
Another reason for going straight after school is to get a break from studying before they start the next few years of university. So anywhere you travel in the world, you will meet young European people exploring the world.
So much of the world has been travelled and explored. The young people are now looking for more worthy experiences. Some of them work as volunteers to do something for the country they are visiting. Many gap year volunteers are now spending a few months teaching English in Thailand, helping feed giant pandas in China or building a well(井) in a village in Africa.
These young people’s wish to explore the world is an expression of the values of the societies that they are part of. Both discovering the world and making a positive difference in it are important parts of the Western mind.
Which is NOT a reason for young people to take a gap year?
| A．Young people want to take a break from studying. |
| B．Young people want to be sure about what to study. |
| C．Parents encourage them to be brave and independent. |
| D．Parents encourage them to live a free and wealthy life. |
Now a gap year volunteer might do something more valuable like .
| A．experiencing different cultures |
| B．helping protect rainforests in Brazil |
| C．making friends with more people |
| D．enjoying traditional local food |
By taking a gap year, young people may .
| A．stay with their parents all the time |
| B．make money for their further study |
| C．help change the world for the better |
| D．change the Western mind completely |
The purpose of writing this article is to .
| A．show different opinions about gap year |
| B．offer readers information about gap year |
| C．discover new ways to take a gap year |
| D．tell young people when to take a gap year |
Should we be afraid of sharks? Maybe not. New research into the reasons for shark attacks (攻击) suggests that sharks don’t like the way humans taste! In fact, most people who are attacked by the shark are still alive after receiving only one bite (咬). Why is this?
There are many opinions to explain why sharks sometimes attack people. One opinion is that sharks are just curious (好奇的). We know that sharks are the strongest animals in their environment, so they are not afraid of anything. Naturally, that means they are curious when they meet something unusual. Because they don’t have hands or feet., the only way they can find out an object is to bite it! It is thought that sharks sometimes bite humans for this reason, and then swim away.
Scientists also say that sharks would not waste energy trying to eat a human, as we have a lot of bones (骨头). It is hard for a shark to eat us because sharks don’t have hands, and they can’t pull the meat off our bones. Maybe that’s why they only bite us once. Unluckily, one bite from a large shark is serious enough to hurt people greatly!
Another opinion is that sharks attack humans by mistake. Some sharks may sometimes mistake humans for a seal. An example of this is when a shark attack attacks a surfer. A surfer lying on a surfboard looks like a seal when seen from below. Sharks like seals because they have thick fat.
Whatever the reason for shark attacks on humans, sharks should be afraid of us. Sadly, we kill almost 40 million of them each year.What happens to people attacked by sharks?
| A．Most of them because blind. | B．Most of them because of deaf. |
| C．Most of them died. | D．Most of them are still alive. |
How do sharks find out about an unusual object according to the passage?
| A．By biting. | B．By smelling. |
| C．By touching. | D．By killing. |
Which sentence about sharks is true?
| A．Sharks pull meat off bones when they eat. |
| B．Sharks might mistake humans for seals. |
| C．Sharks like to attack surfers because of their thick fat. |
| D．One bite from a shark is nothing serious. |
What would the author write the passage mainly for?
| A．To tell surfers to stay away from sharks. |
| B．To ask people to stop killing sharks. |
| C．To let us know the reasons for shark attacks on people. |
| D．To show that humans are much stronger than sharks. |
Nathan Sawaya's childhood was a lot of fun. He drew cartoons, wrote stories, and played with plastic toy bricks (积木). His grandparents bought his first set of toy bricks when he was five years old and he's been building with toy bricks ever since. He even took his building bricks to college with him! Instead of books and a computer, he had a model of Greenwich Village made of bricks on his desk.
Nathan started as a lawyer but gave up His highly-paid (高薪的) job to become an artist that uses toys in his art. He uses toy bricks to build everything from the Statue of Liberty(自由女神像) to Superman! He has more than 1.5 million colored bricks in his working room in New York which he uses to make pieces of art. He started by building small models but then decided to do something big and created a self-portrait (自画像). It took him two days just to build the eyes.
Nathan's work has appeared in museums around the world. Children love his art because it is made out of the same toys that they play with at home and adults love his work because it is fascinating. Since it began in2007, Nathan's exhibition "The Art of the Brick" has been very popular with museum visitors everywhere.
"I'm proud that I took a dream I had as a child, to become an artist, and I have actually made a job out of it," says Nathan. "To do what you love in life is the most important thing."What did Nathan put on his desk at college?
| A．The Statue of Liberty. | B．Superman. |
| C．His serf-portrait. | D．A Greenwich Village modal. |
Why did Nathan give up his job as a lawyer?
| A．Because he made little money out of a lawyer. |
| B．Because he wanted to make toys for the children. |
| C．Because he decided to become an artist of toy bricks. |
| D．Because he was going to work in the museum instead. |
What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 3 refer to?
| A．Nathan's work. | B．Nathan's exhibition. |
| C．Nathan's art. | D．Nathan's self-portrait |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．The Brick Artist | B．The Brick Exhibition |
| C．Toy Bricks for Adults | D．The Artist's Childhood |
请阅读下面短文，根据短文内容从每小题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项，并在答题卷上将该项涂黑。（每小题2分）
How much are the musical tickets for two children?
A. 16 pounds, B, 35 pounds. C. 30 pounds. D. 40 pounds.When will the Teenage Drawing Competition be held?
| A．On June 7th. | B．On August 6th. |
| C．On September 20th. | D．On April 25th. |
Where can you watch Adele's performance this Sunday afternoon?
| A．At St. James' s Park. | B．At Westfield Theater. |
| C．At Westfield Shopping Center. | D．At Cambridge Theater. |
阅读下文并回答问题。
One day, a rich father took his young son on a trip to the countryside. He wanted to show him how poor the villagers were and wished him to cherish what he had. They spent two days in a poor family in the village.
On their return from the trip ,the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“ It was great, Dad.”
“Did you see how poor people could be?” the father asked.
“Oh, yeah!” said the son .
“So what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.
After thinking for a while, the son answered, “I saw that we have a dog ,while they have four. We have a pool in the garden. And they have a small river without an end. At night, We have small lights in the garden, but they have the stars in the sky. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around to keep us safe but they have friends.”
You could imagine the look on the father’s face!
Then the son went on, "Thanks, Dad. Now I know how poor we are!”Did the rich father take his young son to the countryside?
____________________________________________________________________________How long did they spend in the poor family in the village?
_______________________________________________________________________________Where was the pool of the rich family?
_______________________________________________________________________________
Kindergartens( 幼儿园 ) may teach you very important things you need to know. Dancy, a 5-year-old boy, saved his father’s life with the skills he learned.
The boy’s father became seriously ill on the way home from a father-son shopping. He couldn’t speak and could hardly move, but he tried hard to stop the car safely. At that point, Dancy used his father’s phone to call his mother for help. The 5-year-old boy tried his best to give her useful information and he was able to tell where they were. Just as he had learned in the kindergarten, Dancy read the letters he saw on a nearby store sign: “F,U,R,N,I,T,U,R,E.” But that wasn’t enough for his mother to find them. Then he added that they were near a bridge. Finally, his mother understood he was talking about a store called Furniture 22 on New Jersey’s Route22.The mother called 911 and the father was saved in time.
“He just thought his dad needed help,” Dancy’s mother told the reporter. She also pointed out that her husband was a hero, too. “ It is surprising for him to get off the highway ( 高速路 ) and get himself and his child to safety even when he was so sick,” she said.
Shine, head of the kindergarten, felt proud of his pupil. “ Dancy’s spelling skills helped him seize the moment,” he said. “And that’s the real value (价值 ) of education.”When the father became seriously ill, he and his son were ________.
| A．on the highway | B．at home |
| C．in a shopping center | D．in a hospital |
Dancy called ________for help when his father couldn’t speak.
| A．his mother | B．911 | C．Shine | D．the reporter |
The Chinese meaning of the word “seize” in this passage is probably“________”.
| A．成功 | B．抓住 | C．救援 | D．失去 |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Dancy drove his father home. |
| B．The reporter was really a hero. |
| C．Shine sent Dancy’s father to hospital |
| D．Dancy saved his father with his spelling skills. |