I hate to bring up the topic, ______why did you get home that late last night?

Great changes ______ in my hometown in the past ten years.

【阅读理解 - Passage D】It is quite reasonable to blame traffic jams, the cost of gas and the great speed of modern life, but manners on the road are becoming horrible. Everybody knows that the nicest men would become fierce tigers behind the wheel. It is all right to have a tiger in a cage, but to have one in the driver’s seat is another matter. Road politeness is not only good manners, but good sense too. It takes the most cool-headed drivers great patience to give up the desire to beat back when forced to face rude driving. On the other hand, a little politeness goes a long way towards reducing the possibility of quarreling and fighting. A friendly nod or a wave of thanks in answer to an act of politeness helps to create an atmosphere of good will and calm is so necessary in modem traffic conditions. But such behaviors of politeness are by no means enough. Many drivers nowadays don’t even seem able to recognize politeness when they see it. However, misplaced (错位的) politeness can also be dangerous. Typical examples are the driver who waves a child crossing the street at a wrong place into the path of oncoming cars that may be not able to stop in time. The same goes for encouraging old ladies to cross the road wherever and whenever they want. An experienced driver, whose manners are faultless, told me it would help if drivers learned to correctly join in traffic stream without causing total blockages (堵塞) that give rise to unpleasant feelings. Unfortunately, modern drivers can’t even learn to drive, let alone master the roadmanship. Years ago, experts warned us that the fast increase of the car ownership would demand more give-and-take from all road users. It is high time for all of us to take this message to heart. The passage mainly talks about ______.

【阅读理解 - Passage B】I worked in a small company with about thirty-five employees (雇员) . We had a good-sized kitchen with a fridge that several employees used. But people would often go to the fridge to surprisingly find either their whole lunch missing, or in my case, my can of Cherry Coke gone. I usually kept it in my lunch bag. At times when I bought takeaway food, I would get two — one for lunch and one for dinner — so I didn’t have my lunch bag. Even so, I often couldn’t find the food. It was a shock to everyone. We doubted who was stealing, but could never prove (证明) it. One day, a good idea came to my mind, and I couldn’t wait to try it. It was break time at noon. I headed down to the kitchen about five minutes early and gave my Coke such a hard shake that I feared it may actually go off in my hands. I placed it back in the fridge. Then, I hid into a cupboard in the kitchen, waiting for the right moment. BINGO! A lady came in and took the Coke. I put my hand over my mouth for her to open it, but she took it with her and left. I thought she would open it in the hall. No! As I left the kitchen, I heard her yell (叫喊) . I passed her office, and Coke was everywhere: the walls, the floor, all over her desk, computer, her work, and all over her — everywhere! Well, food has never gone missing again since then because the lady got fired. What is the text mainly about?

【阅读理解 - Passage B】British teen Kitty Tait wakes up at 5 a.m. every day to bake bread, but it’s not just any old bread. The young girl who runs the Orange Bakery in her home town, with her dad Alex, adds a little humor to her bakes. “If something is fun to eat, it makes it even tastier!” the teen baking star, who overcame depression (忧郁症) after discovering the art of bread making, said. It was watching her dad make a simple loaf of white bread that changed her life forever. “Something that was so unpromising — a bit like how my brain felt at the time — had turned into something so magical,” she recalls. Soon, Kitty was baking loaves for her neighbors. And before she knew it, there was a order service followed by a pop-up in her neighbor’s garage where she sold almost 100 loaves of bread and doughnuts (甜甜圈) in half an hour. “At that moment, I realized that this was what I wanted to do with my life,” she says. A few months later, after raising enough money through crowdfunding, the teen rented a small retail space in town and her dad quit his job to become her business partner. They’ve been running the Orange Bakery ever since, selling everything from Marmite and cheese swirls to Danish pastries. “I’m just really excited about people eating good bread, whether it is made by themselves or bought from a bakery,” says Kitty. My main mission is to make bread inclusive and joyful because I have found so much joy in it. Today, the Taits are part of the global baking community, running baking classes at local schools. Which word can describe Kitty’s bread in her neighborhood?

（英模二十四）4. ______ it rained heavily, they still went on working in the fields.

Whenever I made mistakes, the teacher pointed them out with ______.

（英模七·完形）25. The cat wasn't afraid of ______ at all.

【阅读理解 - Passage B】In the sport of track and field, athletes compete not only with one another but against themselves and in each race they try to achieve the new personal best. For one Nebraska teen running in what would likely to be his final cross-country outing before graduating from high school, his personal best turned out not to be marking the fastest time but displaying the biggest heart. Although it was a long shot when he came out from the starting position last Thursday, Brandon Schutt from Bellevue East High School knew if his time was good enough that day, he still had the potential to qualify for the upcoming state meet. A mile into the 3.1-mile race, however, Schutt realized he wasn’t going to be able to keep up the necessary momentum (势头). Rather than risking injury, he slowed to a comfortable pace that would allow him to simply get pleasure from the moment and the day. Meanwhile, Blake Cerveny from Omaha Burke High School was running a very different kind of race. Aiming to beat his own personal record, after a fast start, he continued to push himself hard with less than 400 meters to go, Cerveny’s legs cramped up (抽筋) , but he didn’t give up. Cerveny rose from the ground and continued on, only to fall again after another 150 meters and again... About 100 meters away from the finish line, he lay curled on the ground. His legs had simply given out. Before Cerveny’s dad could reach his son, Brandon Schutt was at his side to offer a helping hand. The two completed the final meters of the course. Schutt even made sure the injured runner crossed the finish line first, securing his opponent a faster time. In today’s competitive world, while the emphasis in athletics is so often on breaking records, it is inspiring to see an athlete like Brandon Schutt. What can we learn about Blake Cerveny in the race?

The book ______ on the desk belongs to my sister.

（英模八）7. These singers are famous in England, ______ no one knows them here.

【阅读理解 - Passage D】People believe that climbing can do good to health. Where can you learn the skill of climbing then? If you think that you have to go to the mountains to learn how to climb, you’re wrong. Many Americans are learning to climb in city gyms. Here, people are learning on special climbing walls. The climbing wall goes straight up and has small holding places for hands and feet. How do people climb the wall? To climb need special shoes and a harness around your chest to hold you. There are ropes tied to your harness. The ropes hold you in place so that you don’t fall. A beginner’s wall is usually about 15 feet high, and you climb straight up. There are small pieces of metal that stick out for you to stand on and hold on too. Sometimes it’s easy to see the new piece of metal. Sometimes, it’s not. The most difficult is to control your fear. It’s normal for humans to be afraid of falling, so it’s difficult not to feel fear. But when you move away from the wall, the harness and the ropes hold you, and you begin to feel safe. You move slowly until you reach the top. Climbing attracts people because it’s good exercise for almost everyone. You use your whole body, especially your arms and legs. This sport gives your body a complete workout. When you climb, both your mind and your body can become stronger. What does the underlined word “workout” in the last paragraph most probably mean?

The letter ______ I received from him yesterday is very important.

【阅读理解 - Passage C】We often reach a point in our life when we should be ready for change that will help us unlock our self-improvement power. However, there’s always something staring at us right under our nose but we don’t see it. The only time we think of unlocking our self-improvement power is when everything gets worst. When do we realize that we need to change diets? When none of our shirts and jeans would fit us. When do we stop eating candies and chocolates? When all of our teeth have fallen off. When do we realize that we need to stop smoking? When our lungs have gone bad. We see the warning signs and signals when things get rough and difficult. The only time most of us ever learn about unlocking our self-improvement power is when the whole world is falling apart. Change will happen, like it or hate it. At one point or another, we are all going to finally unlock our self-improvement power not because the world says so, but because we realize it’s for our own good. Happy people don’t just accept change; they embrace (拥抱) it. Unlocking our self-improvement power means unlocking ourselves out of the box of thought that is just the way we are. Jane always tells everyone that she doesn’t have courage to be around groups of people. She heard her family tell the same things about her to other people. Over the years, that is what Jane has believed. Every time a great crowd come, she steps back and locks herself up in a room. Jane not only believes in her story, but lives it! Self-improvement may not be everybody’s favorite word, but if we look at things in a different way, we might have greater chances of enjoying the whole process instead of counting the days until we are fully improved. Only when we are enjoying the whole process of unlocking our self-improvement power will we realize that we’re beginning to take things light and become happy. The writer mentions the three questions in Paragraph 2 to show that ______.

He _______ in this factory for ten years before he moved to Beijing.

The waiter talked as ______ as he could.

The owner of the restaurant thought the guests ______ a large amount of beer. so he asked his employees to buy more in advance.

The new swimming pool near our neighborhood makes it ______ for us to exercise than before.

（英模六·C篇）Which products should people buy?

【阅读理解 - Passage C】American country music is also known as country western music. It has a very long history. It comes from the folk songs of immigrants (移民) from Britain. Country music uses simple music and words to express everyday feeling such as loneliness, loves and sadness. That is to say, country music describes life. It talks about friends and enemies, trucks and roads, farms and crops. People in many parts of the world like country music, because everyone can understand what the music is about. Country western music became popular first among cowboys (牛仔) in the American west countryside. Cowboys had to take care of cows day and night. When they were alone with the cows, they often sang beautiful and peaceful songs to calm the animals and to overcome their own fear. They were not well-educated and so they sang about their daily life in very simple word. They played the guitars, violins and other instruments. In the south of America, many people added instruments from their homes, like bottles and spoons. When cowboy visited their friends and families on holidays like Thanksgiving, they usually sang and played country western music. In recent years, many musicians have made country western music a little different from the one in the past. These changes make the songs sound even better. Today singers such as Carth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Emmylou Harris, Lye Lovtt, Eddie Rabbitt, LeAnn Rime, Randy Travis and a group called Alabama are singing and playing in different styles. They have brought country western music more and more fans from all over the world. The best title for the passage is ______.