Our bedroom has no full-length mirror. There is one at the canteen entrance. I always cherish a secret desire to take a glance before it at myself in a beautiful new dress. However, each time when it comes to the fulfillment, I get seized with such an uneasiness that I literally stagger(踉跄) away—backing out at the critical moment.
At the root of it is my lack of confidence by which I have been enslaved since childhood. It embarrasses me at the mildest praise, crushes my utmost efforts to say “No”, and prevents me from asking my parents for one cent more than necessary. Among other things, lack of confidence has wormed its way into my love of piano.
At the age of 14, one Sunday morning, I was woken up by a resounding hymn(洪亮的圣歌). Tracing that call of God into a neighboring church, I found myself deeply attracted by the melody of a piano—something beyond the means of my parents. To make it worse, people say a pianist is supposed to have music in the blood, but I believe I had none from my engineer father and technician mother. For days on end, I kept thinking of nothing else. I had a dream.
It wasn’t a dream after gold, which made some of my close friends to engage in business as self-employed traders or street peddlers. I was sometimes dazzled by their gold rings or elegant necklaces behind which, however, I seemed to catch sight of skeletons in their cupboards and was frightened away from the craze for fortunate. Out of despair, I kept it to myself, lack of confidence weighing heavy on me. I could do nothing but turn to my dream for comfort, for courage to aim high and wish for the impossible. I was convinced that before I could afford anything expensive (to me, it was a piano), I should climb up the academic ladder as high as possible.
For the next nine years, I carefully held back my desire for music to keep my search for learning, especially in English studies. My efforts were so rewarding that I went successfully through high school and college in my hometown. When I received the admission notice for a second degree course at a famous university in Beijing, the national capital, tears welled up in my eyes. I knew my command of English was my wealth, for I might make a deal with a pianist who would give me access to his piano in exchange for English lessons. And that has come true!
To this day, whenever I lay my fingers on the snow-white keyboard, ready for a melody, I still feel shy. I am quite aware of my limited music talent, but as a shy dreamer, I have found my way to success.
【小题1】According to the first two paragraphs, we can learn that the writer is __________.

A．helpless

B．shy

C．honest

D．considerate

【小题2】 Why did the writer say her desire for the piano was a dream in the third paragraph?
a. Her parents couldn’t afford a piano.
b. Her parents didn’t want her to engage in music.
c. She thought she had no gift for music.
d. She could do nothing but accept the reality.

A．a, b

B．c, d

C．a, c

D．b, d

【小题3】 How did the writer make her dream of playing the piano come true?

A．She turned to her friends for financial aid.

B．She taught English in exchange for piano lessons.

C．She was admitted to a university for a second degree course in music.

D．She earned money by doing a part-time job to pay for her piano lessons.

【小题4】 What can we learn from the writer’s example?

A．Wealth always comes after a great effort.

B．Confidence is a key factor in success.

C．We should be academically successful before other achievements.

D．We should make every effort to turn a dream into reality.

Mr. Peter Johnson, aged twenty-three, battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water. He took the only escape route—through the boot.
Mr. Johnson’s car had ended up in a ditch at Romney Marsin, Kent after he lost proper control on ice and hit a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,” Mr. Johnson said. “I couldn’t force the doors open because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”
Mr. Johnson, a sweet salesman of Sitting Home, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot. Then he began his struggle to escape. [来源:学.科.网]
Later he said, “It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew the back seat to get into the boot. I hammered desperately with a hammer trying to make someone hear, but no help came.”
It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot. Then Mr. Johnson found a wrench (扳手) and began to work on the boot lock. Fifteen minutes passed by. “It was the only chance I had. Finally it gave, but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in. I forced the lid down into the mud and climbed up clear as the car filled up.”
His hands and arms cut and bruised, Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby. Huddled in a blanket, he said, “That thirty minutes seemed like hours.” Only the tips of the car wheels were visible, police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.
【小题1】Which of the following objects is the most important to Mr. Johnson?

A．The hammer.

B．The coin.

C．The seat.

D．The horn.

【小题2】We know from the passage that ______.

A．Mr. Johnson’s car stood on its boot as it fell down

B．Mr. Johnson’s car accident was partly due to the slippery road

C．Mr. Johnson struggled in the pouring mud as he unscrewed the back seat

D．Mr. Johnson could not escape from the door because it was full of sweet jam

【小题3】“Finally it gave” in Paragraph 5 means that ______. 

A．at last the wrench went broken

B．the chance was lost at the last minute

C．the lock came open after all his efforts

D．luckily the door was torn away in the end

【小题4】What is the best title for this newspaper article?

A．Driver Escapes through Car Boot

B．The Story of Mr. Johnson, a Sweet Salesman

C．The Driver Survived a Terrible Car Accident

D．Car Boot Can Serve as the Best Escape Route

Something roared like thunder. The earth shook a little and we heard the rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire. ‘‘Father!” Hassan cried. We sprung to our feet and raced out of the living room.
“Father! What’s that sound?” Hassan screamed, his hands outstretched toward Ali. Ali wrapped his arms around us. A white light flashed and lit the sky in silver. It flashed again and was followed by rapid sharp sounds of gunfire.
“They’re hunting ducks, ” Ali said in a hoarse voice. “They hunt ducks at night, you know. Don't be afraid.”
A siren(汽笛）went off in the distance. Somewhere glass broke and someone shouted. I heard people on the street, woken up from sleep. Hassan was crying. Ali pulled him close and held him with tenderness.
We stayed huddled (蜷缩）that way until the early hours of the morning. The shootings and explosions had lasted less than an hour, but they had frightened us badly, because none of us had ever heard gunshots in the streets. They were foreign sounds to us then. The generations of Afghan children whose ears would know nothing but the sounds of the bombs and gunfire were not yet born. Huddled together in the dining room and waiting for the sun to rise, none of us had any idea that a way of life had ended. The end came when Russian tanks were rolling into the very same streets where Hassan and I played, bringing the death of the Afghanistan I knew and marking the start of a still ongoing era of bloodletting.
Just before the sunrise, Baba’s car pulled into the driveway. His door slammed shut and his running footsteps pounded the stairs. Then he appeared in the doorway and I saw something on his face. Something I didn’t recognize right away because I’d never seen it before: fear. “Amir! Hassan!” He cried as he ran to us, opening his arms wide. “They blocked all the roads and the telephone didn’t work. I was so worried!”
We let him wrap us in his arms and, for a brief moment, I was glad about whatever had happened that night.
【小题1】Who is the author of this passage?

A．Amir.

B．Ali.

C．Baba.

D．Hassan.

【小题2】By saying “They’re hunting ducks”, Ali _______.

A．told the children the truth	B．played a joke on the children
C．tried to calm the children	D．cheered the children up

【小题3】We can infer from the passage that  _______.

A．there were thunderstorms that night

B．Afghan children were used to the war

C．people on the street shouted and broke the windows

D．that night was the end of people's peaceful life

【小题4】From the last sentence of the passage, we know _______.

A．Baba's arms gave the author temporary comfort and joy

B．there was a chance that a world in peace was to come

C．what happened that night seemed nothing to the author

D．the author was glad to see his father come home safe

I lost my sight when I was four by falling off a box car in a freight（货物）yard in Atlantic City. Now I am thirty two. I can slightly remember what color red is. It would be wonderful to see again, but a disaster can do strange things to people. I might not have come to love life as I do if I hadn’t been blind. I don’t mean that I would prefer to go without my eyes. I simply mean that the loss of them made me appreciate the more what I had left.
Life, I believe, asks constant adjustments to reality. The adjustment is never easy. I was totally confused and afraid. But I was lucky. My parents and my teachers saw something in me—a potential to live, and they made me want to fight it out with blindness.
The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. If I hadn’t been able to do that, I would have become a chair rocker on the front porch for the rest of my life. When I say belief in myself, I mean: an assurance that I am, despite imperfections, a real, positive person; that somewhere in the intricate（错综复杂的） pattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.
It took me years to discover and strengthen this assurance. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball. I thought he was making fun of me and I was hurt. “I can’t use this.” I said. “Take it with you,” he urged me, “and roll it around.” The words stuck in my head. “Roll it around!” By rolling the ball I could hear where it went. This gave me an idea how to achieve a goal I had thought impossible: playing baseball. At Philadelphia’s Overbrook School for the Blind I invented a new kind of baseball. We called it ground ball.
All my life I have set a series of goals and then tried to reach them, one at a time. I had to learn my limitations. It was no good trying for something that I knew at the start was out of reach. I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I made progress.
【小题1】We can learn from the beginning of the passage that _______

A．the author lost his sight because of a car crash.

B．the author wouldn’t love life if the disaster didn’t happen.

C．the disaster made the author appreciate what he had.

D．the disaster strengthened the author’s desire to see.

【小题2】What’s the most difficult thing for the author?

A．How to adjust himself to reality.

B．Building up assurance that he can find his place in life.

C．Learning to manage his life alone.

D．How to invent a new kind of baseball.

【小题3】According to the context, “a chair rocker on the front porch” in paragraph 3 means that the author _________.

A．would sit in a rocking chair and enjoy his life.

B．would be unable to move and stay in a rocking chair.

C．would lose his will to struggle against difficulties.

D．would sit in a chair and stay at home.

【小题4】What is the best title for the passage?

A．A Miserable Life	B．Struggle Against Difficulties
C．A Disaster Makes a Strong Person	D．An Unforgettable Experience

A programmer and an engineer are sitting next to each other on a long flight from Los Angeles to New York．The programmer leans over to the engineer and asks if he would like to play a fun game．The engineer just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines and rolls over to the window to catch a few winks．
The programmer persists and explains that the game is really easy and has a lot of fun．He explains, "I ask you a question, and if you don't know the answer, you pay me $5．Then you ask me a question, and if I don't know the answer, I'll pay you $5．" Again, the engineer politely refuses and tries to get to sleep．
The programmer, now somewhat anxious, says, "OK, if you don't know the answer you pay me $5, and if I don't know the answer, I'll pay you $50!" This catches the engineer's attention, and he sees no end to this torment（折磨） unless he plays, so he agrees to the game．
The programmer asks the first question．"What's the distance from the earth to the moon?'' The engineer doesn't say a word, but reaches into his wallet, pulls out a five dollar bill and hands it to the programmer．Now, it's the engineer's turn．He asks the programmer, "What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down on four?" The programmer looks up at him with a puzzled look．He takes out his laptop computer and searches all of his references．After about an hour, he wakes the engineer and hands him $50．The engineer politely takes the $50 and turns away to try to get back to sleep．The programmer, more than a little angry, shakes the engineer and asks, "Well, so what's the answer?" Without a word, the engineer reaches into his wallet, hands the programmer $5, and turns away and goes back to sleep．
【小题1】What's the best title for the passage?

A．A Boring Conversation	B．A Fun Game
C．A Trick During The Flight	D．A Question Without Answer

【小题2】What kind of person is the programmer according to what he said?

A．Confident．

B．Selfish．

C．Greedy．

D．Generous．

【小题3】What can we infer according to the last sentence?

A．The engineer has little money with him．

B．Actually the engineer doesn't know the answer, either．

C．The engineer is bored with programmer．

D．The engineer beats the programmer at last．

【小题4】Which is NOT true according to the passage?

A．In the beginning the engineer is not interested in the game．

B．The engineer is too sleepy to want to play the game．

C．At last the engineer gains $45 from the programmer．

D．Nobody knows the answer to the engineer's question．

My favorite English teacher could draw humor out of the driest material. It wasn’t forced on us either. He took Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, Addison’s essays, and many other literary wonders from the eighteenth century and made them hilarious, even at eight o’clock in the morning. The thing that amazed me most was that the first time I read these works on my own, some of them seemed dead, but the second time, after his explanation, I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen the humor. The stories and poems and plays were suddenly filled with allusions(典故) and irony and hilarious moments. I learned more from him than from any other teacher.
My least favorite English teacher also made people laugh. Some students found him to be wonderfully funny. Many others did not. He assigned journals over a six-week period, to be written every day. At the end of the six weeks I had a notebook full of bits and pieces about my ideas, short stories, reactions to what we had read, and so on. Our teacher announced that we would be grading each other’s journals. Mine was passed to Joe, that class clown, who always behaved in a funny or silly way. He saw it fit to make a joke of and said, “This writing isn’t fit to line the bottom of a birdcage.” Our teacher laughed at that funny remark. It hurt me so much that the anger from it has driven my writing and teaching ever since.
So what makes the difference? Humor is one of the most powerful tools teachers or writers have. It can build up students and classes and make them excited about literature and writing, or it can tear them apart. It is true that humor is either productive or counter-productive and self-defeating.
【小题1】The passage mainly discusses ________.

A．teaching

B．literature

C．humor

D．knowledge

【小题2】The underlined word “hilarious” in Paragraph 1 probably means ________.

A．funny

B．tiring

C．inspiring

D．brilliant

【小题3】The English teacher the writer disliked most ________.

A．was not able to make students laugh

B．hurt his student’s feelings

C．didn’t let his students do the grading

D．had no sense of humor

When two Bangs meet
Sheldon Cooper is a scientific genius on the popular American TV show, The Big Bang Theory (《生活大爆炸》). He finally met his match last year: Stephen Hawking.
This is not the first time that the scientist has appeared on TV. He has also been on Star Trek (in 1987) and The Simpsons (in 1989). Each time, he played himself.
Hawking, 71, is perhaps the world’s most famous scientist after Albert Einstein. He has spent his whole life studying the beginning and the end of the universe, including the Big Bang (宇宙大爆炸) theory.
The Big Bang theory explains the early development of the universe. According to the theory, about 13.7 billion years ago everything was all squeezed （挤压）together in a tiny, tight little ball, and then the ball exploded. The results of that explosion are what we call the universe.
Hawking has always tried to make science more popular with people. His book: A Brief History of Time was published in 1988. In the book he shares his understanding of the universe in simple language. The book tries to explain many subjects about the universe to common readers, including the Big Bang, black holes and light cones (光锥).
Hawking’s achievements are even greater if you think about his disability. When he was 21, Hawking caught a bad illness that slowly stopped him from moving or talking. Now he sits on a wheelchair with a computer by his side. To communicate, he moves two fingers to control the computer’s mouse. He chooses his words from the screen, which are then spoken by a voice synthesizer (合成器).
Hawking also believes that there might be aliens in space. However, he believes they are probably very dangerous, so we should not look for them. “I imagine they might exist in very big ships ... having used up all the resources from their home planet,” Hawking said in a British documentary（纪录片） named Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking. 
【小题1】What does the “two Bangs” in the title refer to?

A．The director of “The Big Bang Theory” and the founder of it.

B．The director and the actor of “The Big Bang Theory”.

C．The founder of the “Big Bang” theory and its spreader.

D．The scientific genius on TV show and the one alive in real life.

【小题2】Acting in The Big Bang Theory is Hawking’s _____ time on TV.

A．first

B．second

C．third

D．fourth

【小题3】According to Paragraph 5, Hawking wrote the book A Brief History of Time especially for _____.

A．scientists who study the universe

B．people who know a lot about the universe

C．people who know little about the universe

D．people who only know simple language

【小题4】The Big Bang theory mainly explains _____.

A．how the universe started	B．what the universe is like
C．how old the universe is	D．how the universe exploded

【小题5】According to the passage, which of the following about Hawking is TRUE?

A．He was born with a disability.

B．He uses a computer to communicate.

C．He believes aliens are our friends.

D．He encourages people to look for aliens.

I learned how our attitudes made a big difference in our everyday lives from my friend Mary.
She doesn’t have any pets. I happened to see her outside on a -30 degree morning walking a dog. I felt sorry for Mary, out there walking a dog that’s not hers in such cold weather. I thought maybe she was saying to herself, “Yeah, this is why I don’t have any pets! I hate walking dogs.”
Later that day I saw Mary and said, “I saw you out there walking a dog this morning. Are you unhappy because you had to walk it on such a cold day?” To my surprise, she said that she enjoyed getting out there and walking the dog and that she got good exercise because of the dog. She also said she had talked to her brother, the dog’s owner, who was on holiday in Orlando, Florida with his family. He said his children were enjoying Disney World and the resorts (胜地). His four-year-old son had breakfast with Mickey Mouse and said it was the best day in his life. Mary said, “If I can help my brother and his family have a wonderful time relaxing for a week, knowing that their pet is being loved and cared for, what more could I ask for?” She added, “It’s worth it for me to make the sacrifice (牺牲) so that they can go and have fun.”
I learned a lesson from Mary.
【小题1】What do we know about Mary?

A．She liked exercising outside before that day.

B．In fact she likes taking care of dogs very much.

C．She likes helping others.

D．She was sorry for not going on holiday with her brother.

【小题2】Why did the author feel sorry for Mary?

A．It was a cold morning.

B．He thought Mary was suffering because of others.

C．Mary didn’t have any pets.

D．He found Mary was unhappy to walk the dog.

【小题3】Mary’s brother and his family could have a wonderful holiday because __________.

A．the children could have breakfast with Mickey Mouse

B．the children enjoyed Disney World and the resorts

C．Mary did not go with them

D．Mary looked after their dog

【小题4】What lesson did the author learn from Mary?

A．Traveling is fun, and walking dogs is also fun.

B．Walking dogs will make you feel warm.

C．Helping others is also a kind of enjoyment.

D．Walking dogs is also a kind of exercise.

【小题5】What can we infer from the passage?

A．The author mistook Mary that morning.

B．Mary would raise a dog after helping her brother.

C．Mary made a lot of sacrifices for her brother.

D．Mary disliked raising any pets.

When I was seven, my parents gave me a doll, a doll’s house and a book. The Arabian Nights, came wrapped in red paper. I was just ready to read when my mother walked into my room．
“Isn’t your doll just beautiful?” my mother asked. I looked at the doll, with fair hair in a pink dress----I’ll have to call her “she” because I never gave her a name. I folded my lips and raised my eyebrows, not really knowing how to let my mother down easily.
“This doll is different.” My mother explained, trying to talk me into playing with it.
Thinking the doll needed love, I hugged her tightly for a long time. Useless, I said to myself. Finally, I decided to play with the doll’s house. But since rearranging the tiny furniture seemed to be the only active possible, I lost interest. I caught sight again of the third of my gifts The Arabian Nights, and I began to read it. From that moment, the book was my constant companion.
Every day I climbed our garden tree, nestled among its branches, I read the stories in The Arabian Nights to my heart’s content. My mother became concerned as she noticed I wasn’t playing with either the doll or the little house. She insisted that I take the doll up the tree with me.
Trying to read on a branch 15 feet off the ground while holding on to the silly doll was not easy. After nearly falling off twice, I tied one end of a long vine around the doll’s neck and the opposite one around the branch, letting the doll hang in mid air while I read. I always looked out for my mother, though. I sensed that my playing with the doll was of great importance to her. So every time I heard her coming, I lifted the doll up and hugged her. The smile in my mother’s eyes told me my plan worked.
The inevitable(不可避免的) happened one afternoon. Totally absorbed in the reading, I didn’t hear my mother calling me. When I looked down, I saw my mother staring at the hanging doll. Fearing the worst of scolding, I climbed down in a flash, reaching the ground just as my mother was untying the doll. To my surprise, she didn’t scold. She kept on staring at the doll．
The next day, my father came home early and suggested he and I play with the doll’s house. Soon I was bored, but my father seemed to be having so much fun, I didn’t have the heart to tell him. Quietly I slipped out, picking up my book on my way to the yard. So absorbed was he in arranging and rearranging the tiny furniture that he didn’t notice my quick exit.
Almost 20 years passed before I found out why the hanging-doll incident had been so significant for my parents. By then I was a parent myself. After recalling the incident, my mother said all those years she had been afraid whether I would turn out to be a most loving and understanding mother to my son．
My mother often thanks God aloud for making me a good parent, pointing out that with education I might have been a rich dentist instead of a poor poet. I look back on that same childhood incident, recalling my third gift, the book in red-paper, and I take advantage of the experiences that have made me who and what I am. Sometimes I pause to wonder at life’s wonderful ironies （讽刺）.
【小题1】Why didn’t the author give the doll a name?

A．Because the gift was given by her parents.

B．Because the girl didn’t care much for the doll.

C．Because her parents would give the doll a name.

D．Because the doll had little in common with her.

【小题2】The author’s account of a childhood incident shows that, as a young girl, she viewed her parents as people who        .

A．hoped to shape their children’s future

B．were unconcerned about their behavior

C．ruined their children’s dreams completely

D．might withdraw their love at any moment

【小题3】 What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．The mother is now satisfied with her daughter’s career.

B．The daughter now regrets what she did when she was a girl.

C．The mother thinks the daughter’s achievements are unsatisfactory.

D．The daughter wishes that she had been allowed more freedom as a child.

It was the afternoon of December 24, the day before Christmas; and as the newest doctor in our office, I had to work. The only thing that brightened my day was the beautifully decorated Christmas tree in our waiting room and a gift sent to me by a fellow I was dating — a dozen long-stemmed red roses.
As I was cleaning my office, I was told a lady urgently needed to speak with me. As I stepped out, I noticed a young, tired-looking woman with a baby in her arms. Nervously, she explained that her husband — a prisoner in a nearby prison — was my next patient. She told me she wasn’t allowed to visit her husband in prison and that he had never seen his son. Her request was for me to let the boy’s father sit in the waiting room with her as long as possible before I called him for his appointment. Since my schedule wasn’t full, I agreed. After all, it was Christmas Eve.
A short time later, her husband arrived — with chains on his feet and hands, and two armed guards as bodyguards. The woman’s tired face lit up like our little Christmas tree when her husband took a seat beside her. I kept glancing out to watch them laugh, cry and share their child. After almost an hour, I called the prisoner back to my office. The patient seemed like a gentle and modest man. I wondered what he possibly could have done to be held under such conditions. I tried to make him as comfortable as possible.
At the end of the appointment, I wished him a Merry Christmas----a difficult thing to say to a man headed back to prison. He smiled and thanked me. He also said he felt saddened by the fact he hadn’t been able to get his wife anything for Christmas. On hearing this, I was inspired with a wonderful idea.
I’ll never forget the look on both their faces as the prisoner gave his wife the beautiful, long-stemmed roses. I’m not sure who experienced the most joy — the husband in giving, the wife in receiving, or myself in having the opportunity to share in this special moment.
【小题1】What can be inferred from the first paragraph?

A．The writer was a newcomer to her office.

B．A fellow sent her a dozen red roses as Christmas present.

C．She was in low spirits because she had to work before Christmas.

D．She was at work with a light heart.

【小题2】The young woman came to the writer’s office for the purpose of __________.

A．having her baby examined

B．giving her husband a chance to make his escape

C．having her husband examined

D．getting a chance for her family to get together

【小题3】The underlined part in paragraph 3 most probably means “__________”.

A．to be sent to hospital	B．to be separated from his family
C．to be comfortable	D．to become a prisoner

【小题4】What does the writer learn from the story?

A．The wife experienced the most joy in receiving.

B．An act of kindness can mean a lot.

C．The prisoner was treated with mercy.

D．Whoever breaks the law should be punished.