2、I love charity(慈善) shops and so do lots of other people in Britain because you find quite a few of them on every high street. The charity shop is a British institution, selling everything from clothes to electric goods, all at very good prices. You can get things you won’t find in the shops anymore. The thing I like best about them is that your money is going to a good cause and not into the pockets of profit-driven companies, and you are not damaging the planet, but finding a new home for unwanted goods.

The first charity shop was opened in 1947 by Oxfam. The famous charity’s appeal to aid postwar Greece had been so successful it had been flooded with donations(捐赠物). They decided to set up a shop to sell some of these donations to raise money for that appeal. Now there are over 7,000 charity shops in the UK. My favourite charity shop in my hometown is the Red Cross shop, where I always find children’s books, all 10 or 20 pence each.

Most of the people working in the charity shops are volunteers, although there is often a manager who gets paid. Over 90% of the goods in the charity shops are donated by the public. Every morning you see bags of unwanted items outside the front of shops, although they don’t encourage this, rather ask people to bring things in when the shop is open.

The shops have very low running costs: all profits go to charity work. Charity shops raise more than ￡110 million a year, funding（资助）medical research, overseas aid, supporting sick and poor children, homeless and disabled people, and much more. What better place to spend your money? You get something special for a very good price and a good moral sense. You provide funds to a good cause and tread lightly on the environment.

40. The author loves the charity shop mainly because of _______.

   A. its convenient location

   B. its great variety of goods

   C. its spirit of goodwill

   D. its nice shopping environment

41. The first charity shop in the UK was set up to ____.

   A. sell cheap products

   B. deal with unwanted things

   C. raise money for patients

   D. help a foreign country

42. Which of the following is TRUE about charity shops?

   A. The operating costs are very low.

   B. The staff are usually well paid.

   C. 90% of the donations are second-hand.

   D. They are open twenty-four hours a day.

43. Which of the following may be the best title for the passage?

   A. What to Buy a Charity Shops.

   B. Charity Shop: Its Origin & Development.

   C. Charity Shop: Where You Buy to Donate.

   D. The Public’s Concern about Charity Shops.

1、Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had “seven fathers,” because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she retreated(躲避) into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.

In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because her thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the university’s Writers’ Workshop, however, she felt lonely----a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her “Creative voice.”

“It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That’s when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn’t write about.”

Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street, when she was twenty-nine. The book tells about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school through graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children’s book, and a short-story collection.

36. Which of the following is TRUE about Cisneros in her childhood?

A. She had seven brothers.

   B. She felt herself a nobody.

C. She was too shy to go to school.

D. She did not have any good teachers.

37. The graduate program gave Cisneros a chance to _____.

   A. work for a school magazine

   B. run away from her family

   C. make a lot of friends

   D. develop her writing style

38. According to Cisneros, what played the decisive role in her success?

   A. Her early years in college.

   B. Her training in the Workshop.

   C. Her feeling of being different.

   D. Her childhood experience.

39. What do we learn about The House on Mango Street?

   A. It is quite popular among students.

   B. It is the only book ever written by Cisneros.

   C. It wasn’t success as it was written in Spanish.

   D. It won an award when Cisneros was twenty-nine.

34、The dress that looks beautiful         her is worth         .

       A．in; to buy                                            B．on; to be bought

       C．in; being bought                                   D．on; buying

33、It was         great shock to the world that the earthquake, which was         biggest one in 32 years, happened in Wenchuan county, Sichuan Province on May 12^th .

       A．a; 不填               B．the; the                C．a; the                  D．不填；the

32、I         not get away any sooner although I had planned to leave earlier.

       A．could                  B．would                 C．should                 D．might

31、―What a surprise! There used to         many trees here.

―Yes. Something must be done         people         too many trees in the area.

       A．have; stopping; from cutting down        B．having; to stop; from cutting off

       C．be; to shop; cutting down                     D．being; stopping; to cut off

30、Which sentence is wrong?

       A．He charged me a great deal of money to the room.

       B．He spent much money renting the room.

       C．He paid quite a lot of money for the room.

       D．It cost him lots of money to rent the room.

29、I like this jacket better than that one, but it costs almost three times______.

A. as much    B. as many    C. so much    D. so many

28、―Shall we go out for dinner tonight?

―______.

A. You are right        B. It must be funny     
C. That sounds great       D. Have a nice time