【正文】 four adults. GET ON A BIKE London‘s ?Boris bikes‘ have attracted the most attention, but other cities also have similar programmes that let you rent a bicycle and explore at your own pace, saving you on public transport or car parking costs. Among the smaller cities with their own programmes are Newcastle (casual members pay around 163。. And at Farringdon, a double room cost just 163。. If you can be flexible and want to know dates to avoid—or you‘re looking for a big event to pass your time—check out sites such as , which allow you to search for events in the UK by city, date and category. STAYAWAY FROM THE STATION If traveling to your destination by train, you may want to find a good base close to the station, but you could end up paying more for the sake of convenience at the start of your holiday. Don‘t be too choosy about the part of town you stay in. Booking two months in advance, the cheapest room at Travelodge‘s Central Euston hotel in London for Saturday 22 September was 163。s heart. C. To explain how puters help create gifts. D. To describe the gifts the author has received D Planning a visit to the UK? Here we help with ways to cut your costs. AVOID BIG EVENTS Big sporting events, concerts and exhibitions can increase the cost of acmodation and make it harder to find a room. A standard double room at the Thistle Brighton on the final Friday of the Brighton Comedy Festival (19 Oct.) cost 163。s face as he unwrapped those swirling black letters carefully placed in a cheap frame, I knew I had given the perfect gift. 11. The idea for a special gift began to form when the author was______. A. doing shopping B. having a debate C. reading a message D. leaving for Wyoming 12. The author39。s face when they receive it that determines the true value? What gift is worth the most? This Christmas I was debating what to give my father. My dad is a hard person to buy for because he never wants anything. I pulled out my phone to read a text message from my mom saying that we were leaving for Christmas shopping for him when I came across a message on my phone that I had locked. The message was from my father. My eyes fell on a photo of a flower taken in Wyoming. and underneath a poem by William Blake. The flower, a lone dandelion standing against the bright blue sky, inspired me. My dad had been reciting those words to me since I was a kid. That may even be the reason why I love writing. I decided t hat those words would be my gift to my father. I called back. I told my mom to go without me and that I already created my gift. I sent the photo of the creamcolored flower to my puter and typed the poem on top of it. As I was arranging the details another poem came to mind. The poem was written by Edgar Allan Poe。 but instead of answering his question, I told them for two hours the story I was reading at the moment. The book was Sister Carrie. They listened bugeyed and breathless. I must have told it well, but I think there was another and deeper reason that made them to keep an audience. Listening to a tale being told in the dark is one of the most ancient of man‘s entertainments, but I was offering them as well, without being aware of doing it, a new and exciting experience. The books they themselves read were the Rover Boys or Tom Swift or . I had read them too, but at thirteen I had long since left them behind. Since I was much alone I had bee an enthusiastic reader and I had gone through the booksforboys series. In those days there was no reading material between children‘s and grownups‘ books or I could find none. I had gone right from Tome Swift and His Flying Machine to Theodore Dreiser and Sister Carrie. Dreiser had hit my young mind, and they listened to me tell the story with some of the wonder that I had had in reading it. The next night and many nights thereafter, a kind of unspoken ritual (儀式 ) took place. As it grew dark, I would take my place in the center of the stoop and begin the evening‘s tale. Some nights, in order to taste my victory more pletely, I cheated. I would stop at the most exciting part of a story by Jack London or Bret Harte, and without warning tell them that that was as far as I had gone in the book and it would have to be continued the following evening. It was not true, of course。 第一部分 閱讀理解（共兩節(jié)，滿分 60 分） 第一節(jié) （共 25 小題；每小題 2 分，滿分 50分） 閱讀下列短文，從每題所給的四個選項（ A、 B、 C、和 D）中，選出最佳選項，并在答題卡上填該項或涂黑。 2. 將答案寫在答題卡上對應題目的答案標號下。 2021— 2021 學年度高二級第二學期期末試題（卷） 英 語 本試卷滿分共 150 分，分第 Ⅰ 卷（選擇題）和第 Ⅱ 卷（非選擇題）兩部分。 第 Ⅰ 卷 注意事項： 1. 答第 Ⅰ 卷前，考生務必將自己的姓名、準考證號填寫在答題卡上。不能答在本試卷上，否則無效。 A A city child‘s summer is spent in the street in front of his home, and all through the long summer vacations I sat on the edge of the street and watched enviously the other boys on the block play baseball. I was never asked to take part even when one team had a member missing—not out of special cruelty, but because they took it for granted I would be no good at it. They were right, of course. I would never fet the wonderful evening when something changed. The baseball ended about eight or eight thirty when it grew dark. Then it was the custom of the boys to retire to a little stoop(門廊 ) that stuc