My mother _________ when I got home yesterday.

A. cook B. will cook C. cooked D. was cooking

Keep quiet, please. The baby ____________.

A. sleeps B. is sleeping C. will sleep D. slept

Lucy is my friend. She _________in this school since she came here.

A. has studied B. will study C. am studying D. studied

A new library _________in my college next year.

A. builds B. built C. is built D. will be built

— Ann, could you tell me ______ yesterday?

— Oh, I went to the supermarket near my home.

A. where did you go B. where will you go

C. where you went D. where you will go

I used to have little passion (激情) in my life. But what happened the other day changed my mind. It was then that I learned how______it is to have a passion in life.

That day 1 went home in Mom’s car. When Mom ____ at a red light, someone on the side of the road caught my eye. It was a man dressed in rags (破舊衣服). He was homeless. That didn’t interest me, because I had seen many like him before. Those people usually looked unhappy and hopeless.

But this man was different in some way. He was not sitting down with a sad expression. Instead, he had a _____in his hand and was dancing happily to the music. The radio seemed to be the most precious (珍貴的) thing he had.

“Mom, why does that man _____a radio though he’s homeless?” I asked.

“He bought it.” She replied.

“But why doesn’t he use the money to buy food or clothes? He______for something that he didn’t need.”

“Well, Sarah, sometimes food and clothes aren’t the most important.”

That man must care so much about ______ for that he bought a radio instead of food or clothes. I soon realized that______is the key to life.

Since then I am always thinking of what is truly important in life. A home, a meal, clothes—these things are not_____ parts of the life. What we often forget is that we all need a joy, a light in a dark day. We all need a passion which gives a person the happiness they need to keep going.

1.A. strange B. dangerous C. important D. difficult

2.A. walked B. stopped C. stood D. exercised

3.A. radio B. phone C. scarf D. hat

4.A. have B. use C. care D. like

5.A. asked B. waited C. paid D. looked

6.A. stories B. music C. news D. languages

7.A. happiness B. friendship C. knowledge D. health

8.A. only B. also C. all D. never

Here are some interesting places for you to enjoy yourself in while you are staying in Beijing.

Here is the timetable of science activities in the Children’s Palace.

1.The teacher who teaches photography is from ______.

A. England B. Italy C. America D. China

2.The computer science class may last for about ________ .

A. 2 weeks B. 4 weeks C. 12 weeks D. 16 weeks

3.If you want to learn technical English, you should go to the Children’s Palace on ______.

A. Wednesday B. Thursday C. Saturday D. Sunday

My friend Mary came to school wearing a brand-new pair of Zee jeans. “Your new Zee jeans are so cute!” I said.

“My grandma took me clothes shopping last weekend,” Mary said. “The Zee jeans were on sale. They have cool pockets and are unbelievably comfortable. When you’re at my house after school, try them on and see for yourself.”

“Hmm.” I didn’t think so. But when I tried them on, I couldn’t help agreeing. “I’m totally taking these!” I said. As soon as I got home, I told my mom that I had to get some Zee jeans.

Mom said, “You already have three pairs of perfectly good jeans. There is no way Dad and I are paying that much for a pair of pants. If you want to buy them with your own money, I would be happy to make a long list of extra chores you can do.”

“I’ll start this minute,” I said.

It took me three weeks to save enough money. I changed kitty litter, watched my little brother and sister, and cleaned refrigerator. The refrigerator cleaning was the worst because one of the shelves fell while I was taking everything out. Food and milk splashed all over the floor. It took me one and a half hour to clean it up!

Anyway, I finally bought my Zee jeans, and I loved them even more than I thought I would. I loved them half because they had cool pockets and super comfortable, and half because I had worked so hard to earn the money to buy them myself.

1.Who bought the new Zee jeans for Mary?

A. Her mother. B. Herself. C. Her friend. D. Her grandmother.

2.Why did mom not want to buy a pair of Zee jeans to the writer?

A. She didn’t like the writer.

B. She thought the writer was lazy.

C. She thought that the writer had enough jeans.

D. She didn’t have enough money.

3.How did the writer buy the new jeans?

A. She got money from her mom.

B. She made money by doing housework.

C. She borrowed money from Mary.

D. She asked her grandma to buy them for her.

Songs help memories

The power of music

Most people can remember important news stories clearly, whether it was the murder of President Kennedy in the US or 9/11.But now psychologists Martin Conway and Catriona Morrison, from the University of Leeds in the UK, are investigating how music can create “autobiographical memories” of the main events in our lives. The study is online. People have to choose a song by the Beatles and describe the memories that they have when they listen to it.

Reminiscence bump

Morrison explained that they looked at different age groups and their memories. We often remember more from when we are teenagers and this is called “the reminiscence bump”. This is the time in your life when you form your idea of who you are. For older people who have memories related to the Beatles’ music, most of those memories are from when they were teenagers. But younger people also had clear personal memories from their past.

She loves you

This study was different from other memory studies, because people remembered events from their past with lots more details. Morrison explained: “It was like people had travelled back to the past, and they had very clear memories of things that had happened. When they heard a song like She Loves You by the Beatles, they could remember one night in autumn 1963.They remembered what they were wearing, what the weather was like and what their friend said to them. You get a lot more information than if you just say, ‘tell me about a night you remember’. ”

The study has found that music could be used with people who have problems remembering the past. “You could use music to help improve people’s ability to remember,” said Morrison. “In the future, we would like to do more experiments to see how useful music is in helping people to remember the past, and compare it to other things that might also help.”

1.Professor Conway and Dr. Morrison’s research aims to _____________.

A. see how music can help people remember the past

B. study old songs’ influence on people’s behavior

C. find out what influences people’s memories of the past

D. find ways to help people with memory difficulties

2.The example of She Loves You is used to show that ___________.

A. love songs can help people to have clearer memories

B. songs tell stories that are similar to our experiences

C. music can take people back to their teenage years

D. people can remember more details with the help of music

3.Morrison’s team’s future research is probably on ___________.

A. why some people have memory problems

B. what methods can best help people bring back memories

C. how music can help people in their studies or work

D. how to help older people remember more details about the past

Are you wearing old clothes?

Don’t worry if you are. Clothes bought at thrift shops are more popular than ever in the West nowadays.

A lot of young people have an interest in secondhand clothing.

Goodwill Industries, one of the most famous secondhand shopping companies in the US, said there had been an increase of 84 percent in money made from the sale of donated goods from 2007 to 2012, from $1.9 billion(about 13 billion yuan) to $3.5 billion.

Fanny Moizant, an online group that sells used clothes from luxury brands(奢侈品牌), agrees that “secondhand” is part of fashion now.

“Fashion has changed,” she told the Financial Times last month.” People need our service ----they need a place to let go and get rid of this excess(過剩).”

It wasn’t always this way. Secondhand clothes used to be much less popular.

Keren Charles, 37, from the US, remembers how embarrassed she was the first time she entered a thrift store more than 20 years ago.

“I didn’t want anyone to see me,” Charles told CNN. “In high school, people thought you were either poor or homeless.”

Now, the fashion fan says about 97 percent of her clothes are secondhand. Her favorite find is a $5 blue evening dress that could be worth hundreds of dollars.

So what is a thrift shop, exactly?

According to the US Association of Resale Professionals, a thrift shop is run by a not-for –profit（非盈利的）organization to get money to charitable causes.

The shops have become popular in recent times due to economic reasons.

More customers began coming to thrift shops in the US at the start of the recession(蕭條), according to CNN.

And now secondhand clothing and vintage items are showing up in Western high fashion and street wear.

Fashionable hip-hop artist Macklemore and Ryan Lewis even wore a 2013 Billboard Music Award for their hit song Thrift Shop. The song is about “l(fā)ooking for a come up”(search for cheap things in a thrift store.

However, thrift store culture may be great for new shoppers and for business but it’s not so great for shoppers like Charles who are still “l(fā)ooking for a come up.”

“The competition is tough now,” she told CNN. “You’re in the thrift stores, and you’re seeing so many other people, but it’s still better than shopping at a department store.”

1.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the article?

A. Vintage items sell better than other used clothes.

B. Thrift shops are a new form of shops that have appeared in the last 10 years.

C. Thrift shops sell used clothes in order to help people in need.

D. Young people show less interest in secondhand clothing than older people.

2.According to the article, secondhand clothes have become popular in the West because _______.

A. there are more thrift stores to shop in

B. people have to live on less money

C. artists and stars are often seen in secondhand clothes

D. people now care less about others’ opinions

3.The underlined word “Vintage” in paragraph 15 probably means“_________”.

A. old but expensive B. large and very beautiful C. old but high quality D. popular and new

4.What is the article mainly about?

A. The popularity of thrift store culture.

B. The importance of recycling secondhand clothes.

C. Different attitudes toward thrift shops.

D. The influence of the economy on fashion.