How many people have I met who have told me about the book they have been planning to write but have never yet found the time ? Far too many.

    This is Life, all right, but we do treat it like a rehearsal (排演) and, unhappily, we do miss so many of its best moments.

    We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families always making ourselves believe that this style of life is merely a temporary state of affairs along the road to what we really want to do. Then, at 60 or 65, we are suddenly presented with a clock and several grandchildren and we look back and realize that all those years waiting for Real Life to come along were in fact real life.

    In  America they have a saying much laughed at by the English：“Have a nice day” they speak slowly and seriously in their shops, hotels and sandwich bars. I think it is a wonderful phrase, reminding us, in effect, to enjoy the moment: to value this very day.

    How often do we say to ourselves, "I'll take up horse-riding (or golf, or sailing) as soon as I get a higher position," only to do none of those things when I do get the higher position.

    When I first became a reporter I knew a man who gave up a very well paid respectable job at the Daily Telegraph to go and edit a small weekly newspaper. At the time I was astonished by what appeared to me to be his completely abnormal (反常的) mental state. How could anyone turn his back on Fleet Street in central London for a small local area？I wanted to know.

    Now I am a little older and possibly wiser, I see the sense in it. In Fleet Street the man was under continual pressure. He lived in an unattractive London suburb and he spent much of his life sitting on Southern Region trains.

1.

 The first paragraph of the passage tells us that          .

A. we always try to find some time to write a book

B. we always make plans but seldom fulfill them

C. we always enjoy many of life's best moments

D. we always do what we really want to do

2.

 The underlined phrase "turn his back on" (paragraph 6) most probably means         .

A. leave for           B. return to           C. give up           D. rely on

3.

 The man ( paragraph 6) left his first job partly because he was           .

A. in an abnormal mental state                B. under too much pressure

C. not well paid                            D. not respected

4.

 What is probably the best title for the passage?

A. Provide Homes For Our Family             B. Take Up Horse-riding

C. Value This Very Day                      D. Stay Alive

Bill Javis took over our village’s news-agency at a time of life when most of us only wanted to relax. He just thought he would like something but not too much to do, and the news-a??gency was ready-made. The business produced little enough for him, but Bill was a man who only wanted the simplicity and order and regularity of the job. He had been a long-serving sailor, and all his life had done everything by the clock.

Every day he opened his shop at 6:00 a. m. to catch the early trade; the papers arrived on his doorstep before that. Many of Bill’s customers were city workers, and the shop was convenient for the station. Business was tailing off by 10 o’clock, so at eleven sharp Bill closed for lunch. It was hard luck on anybody who wanted a paper or magazine in the after??noon, for most likely Bill would be down on the river bank, fishing, and his neatest competitor was five kilometers away. Sometimes in the afternoon-, the evening paper landed on the doorway, and at 4 o’ clock Bill reopened his shop. The evening rush lasted till seven, and it was worthwhile.

He lived in a flat above the ship, alone. Except in the very bad weather, you always knew where to find him in the af??ternoon, as I have said. Once, on a sunny afternoon, I walked home along the river bank from a shopping trip to the village. By my watch it was three minutes past four, so I was aston??ished to see Bill sitting there on his little chair with a line in the, water. He had no luck, I could, see, but he was making no effort to move. “What’s wrong, Bill?” I called out from the path.

For answer, he put a hand in his jacket and took out a big, golden object. For a moment I had no idea what it could be, and then it suddenly went off with a noise like a fire en??gine. Stopping the bell, Bill held the thing up and called back, "Ten to four, you see, and this is dead right. "

I had never known anyone carrying a brass alarm clock round with him before.

5. Bill Javis became a news-agent when ________.

A. he need the money.                         B. he decided to take things easy

C. he was quite an old man                 D. he gave up clock-repairing

6. Bill opened the shop so early in the day because ________.

A. he liked to do as much as possible before he went to work

B. the shop had to be open when the morning papers came

C. he was never sure of time

D. it was then that he did a lot of business

7. On that sunny afternoon, the writer was surprised when he saw Bill because ________.

A. he thought it was late for Bill to be still fishing

B. he thought Bill was ill, since he was not moving at all

C. Bill had not caught anything, and that seemed strange

D. Bill stayed in his flat

8. From the information given in the passage, who or what do you think was wrong?

A. The bell was; it must have gone off at the wrong time.

B. Bill was; he had dropped off to sleep.

C. The writer’s watch was fast.

D. Bill’s clock was wrong; it was old.

Jim was a farmer. He lived in a village far away from the town. One day he was  very ill , and everyone thought he would die . But his family wouldn’t give up. They decided to sent for a doctor in town . The doctor arrived the village two days later and looked over the man. The doctor wanted a pen and some paper , But there was no pen or paper in the village , because nobody could read or write .

The doctor looked around and picked up a piece of burnt wood. Using the wood, he wrote the name of the medicine on the door of the house.“ Get the medicine for him right away, ” he said, “and he will soon get well.’ family and friends did not know what to do . They could not read the writing . Then the village baker had an idea . He took off the door of the house and took the door to the nearest town . He bought the medicine, and Jim was saved. After that Jim would not let anyone wash the magic words off the door .

People in the village thought James would die because ________ .

A. he was seriously ill            　 B. the doctor could do nothing for him

C. the doctor didn’t come            D. they couldn’t find any doctor

The doctor got to the village two days later because ________ .

A. he walked to the village     　　  

B. the will age was far from the town

C. there was something wrong with his car    

D. they couldn’t find any doctor

When the doctor got to the village, he______.

A. found another doctor there

B. gave some medicine to Jim

C. looked over Jim carefully

D. had no idea and could do nothing for Jim

The doctor wrote down the name of the medicine with_____ on_____.

A. a pen; a piece of paper

B. a piece of burnt wood; some paper

C. a piece of burnt wood; the door of the house

D. a pen; a piece of wood

What do you think of the people in the village?

A. They were rich and clever.

B. They were lazy.

C. They could read and write well.

D. They were poor and fell behind the times.

把下列单词填入每个句子的空白处（注意所填单词的形式变化）：

1 ___________ is a kind of natural phenomenon.

2 Please read the __________ on the bottle before taking the medicine.

3 May and I are classamtes, but we live in different _________.

4 Mao Zedong spoke with a strong Hunan __________.

5 When we met many years later I could hardly __________ Lily at the airport.

6 Gansu is a __________ province of China.

7 If you want to learn Chinese, you may learn from her. She speaks very ________ Chinese.

8 Will you please __________ the story to the whole class?

9 Visitors are ___________ not to touch the exhibits.

10 He lived in America for five years and has a good __________ of English.

11 The population of that country is increasing ___________.

12 Our __________ must do something to stop the rising house prices.

13 The police are trying to discover the __________ of the killer.

14 Usually you will read faster if you have a bigger English _________.

15 All those _________ at the meeting are high officials.

16 _________, English is not so hard to learn if you put your heart into it.

17 _________ speakers of English are in good demand in our school.

18 Only ten boys passed the exam, _________ Peter and you.

19 My father likes me to major in __________ trade when I go to university.

20 Underground and _________ mean the same in English.

21 Englishmen say flat, while Americans say ____________.

22 India was once __________by Britain and won its independence in 1947.

Although he lived ____ in a ____ mountain village, he didn’t feel ____ at all.