There was a gardener who looked after his garden with great care. To water his flowers, he used two buckers. One was a shiny and new bucket. The other was a very old and dilapidated one, which had seen many years of service, but was now past its best.

Every morning, the gardener would fill up the two buckets. Then he would carry them along the path, one on each side, to the flowerbeds. The new bucket was very proud of itself. It could carry a full bucket of water without a single drop spilled . The old bucket felt very ashamed because of its holes: before it reached the flowerbeds, much water had leaked along the path.

Sometimes the new bucket would say, “See how capable I am! How good it is that the gardener has me to water the flowers every day! I don't know why he still bothers with you. What a waste of space you are!”

And all that the old bucket could say was, “I know I’m not very useful, but I can only do my best. I’m happy that the gardener still finds a little bit of use in me, at least.”

One day, the gardener heard that kind or conversation. After watering the flowers as usual, he said, “You both have done your work very well. Now I am going to carry you back. I want you to look carefully along the path.”

Then the two buckets did so. All along the path, they noticed, on the side where the new bucket was carried, there was just bare earth; on the other side where the old bucket was carried, there was a joyous row of wild flowers, leading all the way to the garden.

1.What does the underlined word “dilapidated” probably mean?

A．Dirty             B．Dark             C．Worn-out         D．Plain-looking.

2.What was the old bucket ashamed of?

A．His past.          B．His aging.          C．His manner.        D．His leaking.

3.The new bucket made conversations with the old one mainly to

A．laugh at the old one

B．take pity on the old one

C．show off its beautiful looks

D．praise the gardener’s kindness

4.Why was the old bucket still kept by the gardener?

A．Because it was used to keep a balance

B．Because it stayed in its best condition

C．Because it was taken as a treasure

D．Because it had its own function

Lightning flashed through the darkness over Donald Lubeck’s bedroom skylight. The 80-year-old retired worker was shaken by a blast of thunder. It was 11 p.m. The storm had moved directly over his two-story wood home in the rural town of Belchertown, Massachusetts. Then he heard the smoke alarm beeping. Lubeck padded down the stairs barefoot and opened the door to the basement, and flames exploded out.
Lubeck fled back upstairs to call 911 from his bedroom, but the phone didn’t work. Lubeck realized he was trapped. “I started panicking,” he says.
His daughter and young granddaughters, who lived with him, were away for the night. No one will even know I’m home, he thought. His house was three miles off the main road and so well hidden by pines that Lubeck knew calling for help would be fruitless.
Up a hill about a third of a mile away lived Lubeck’s closest neighbors, Jeremie Wentworth and his wife. Wentworth had been lying down, listening to the radio when it occurred to him that the sound was more like a smoke detector. He jumped out of bed, grabbed a cordless phone and a flashlight, and headed down the hillside toward the noise.
He dialed 911. “Is anyone there?” he called out as he approached the house. Wentworth knew that Lubeck lived in the house.
Then he heard, “Help me! I’m trapped!” coming from the balcony off Lubeck’s bedroom.
“I ran in and yelled,‘Don, where are you?’ Then I had to run outside to catch my breath.”
After one more attempt inside the house, he gave up and circled around back. But there was no way to get to him. “I shined the flashlight into the woods next to an old shed and noticed a ladder,” says Wentworth. He dragged it over to the balcony and pulled Lubeck down just as the second floor of the house collapsed.
Wentworth and Lubeck don’t run into each other regularly, but Lubeck now knows that if he ever needs help, Wentworth will be there.
Lubeck still chokes up when he tells the story. “I was alone,” he says. “Then I heard the most beautiful sound in my life. It was Jeremie.”
【小题1】According to the text, Lubeck___________.

第三部分阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）

第一节阅读下面两篇语言材料，然后按要求做题。（共10小题；每小题2分，满分20分）

A few years ago, I took a sightseeing trip to Washington D.C. I saw many of our nation’s treasures, and I also saw a lot of unfortunate people like beggars and homeless folks in the streets.

Standing outside the Ronald Reagan Center, I heard a voice say, “Can you help me?” When I turned around, I saw an elderly blind woman with her hand extended(伸出). In a natural reaction, I reached into my pocket, pulled out all of my loose change and placed it in her hand. I didn’t even look at her. I was annoyed at being bothered by a beggar.

But the blind woman smiled and said, “I don’t want your money. I just need help finding the post office.”

Immediately, I realized what I had done. I acted with prejudice(偏见)—I judged another person simply for what I thought she was.

The thing I had forgotten about myself is that I am an immigrant. I left Honduras and arrived in America at the age of 15. Through the years, I have been a dishwasher, cashier, mechanic and pizza delivery driver among many other jobs, and finally I became a network engineer.

In my own life, I have experienced many open acts of prejudice. I remember a time, at age 17— I was a busboy, and I heard a father tell his little boy that if he did not do well at school, he would end up like me.

But now, living in my American middle-class lifestyle, it is too easy to forget my past, to forget who I am and where I have been, and to lose sight of where I want to be going. That blind woman on the street of Washington D.C. cured me of my blindness. She reminded me to always keep my eyes and heart open.

1. When the author came to America at first ______.

A. he usually did some work with a little payment.          

B. he used to beg for some money on the street.

C. he lived a comfortable life as a network engineer.  

D. he was respected by others all the time.

2. According to the passage, what did the author regret?

A. That he gave all his change to the blind woman.   

B. The way he treated the blind woman.

C. That he came to Washington D.C. for a visit.  

D. That he didn’t tell the woman the way to the post office.

3. The father mentioned in the passage wanted ______. 

A. to encourage his son to make a living by himself   

B. his son to become a busboy in the future  

C. his son to work harder at school

D. to remind his son to depend on himself at school

4. We can infer all of the following statements from the passage EXCEPT ______.

A. He disliked being bothered by beggars.  

B. He was delighted to give away his money to beggars.    

C. He once suffered a lot.      

D. The blind woman didn’t beg for money at that time.

5. What does the author want to tell us through this story?

A. Don’t dream up ways to get what you want.     B. Money is the root of all evils.

C. An easy life makes a person forgetful.   D. Be good to others all the time.

　　In 1826, a Frenchman named Niepce needed pictures for his business. But he was not a good artist. So he invented a very simple cameras. He put it in a window of his house and took a picture of his yard. That was the first photograph.

　　The next important date in the history! of photography was 1837. That year, Daguerre, another French, took a picture of his studio. He used a new kind of camera and a different process. In his pictures, you could see everything very clearly, even the smallest details. This kind of photograph was called a daguerreotype.

　　Soon, other people began to use Daguerre's process. Travelers brought back daguerreotypes from all around the world. People photographed famous buildings, cities and mountains.

　　In about 1840, the process was improved. Then photographers could take pictures of people and moving things. The process was not simple. The photographers had to cary lots of films and processing equipment. But this did not stop the photographers, especially in the United States. After 1840s daguerreotype artists were popular in most cities.

　　Mathew Brady was a well - known American photographer. He took many pictures of famous people. The pictures were unusual because they were very life - like and full of personality （个性）.

　　Brady was also the first preson to take pictures of war. His 1862 Civil War pictures showed dead soldiers and ruined cities. They made the war seem more real and more terrible.

　　In the 1880s, new inventions began to change photography... Photographers could buy films readymade in rolls（卷）. So they did not have to make the film themselves. Also, they did not have to process the film immediately. They could bring it back to their studios and develop it later meaning that they did not have to carry lots of equipment. And finally, the invention of the small handheld camera made photography less expensive.

　　With the small camera, anyone could be a photographer. People began to use cameras just for fun. They took pictures of their families, friends and favorite places. They called these pictures" snapshot".

　　Photographs became very popular in newspapers in the 1890s. Soon magazines and books also used documentary photographs. These pictures showed true events and people. They were much more real than drawing.

　　Photography also turned into a form of art by the end of the 10th century. Some photographs were not just copies of the real world. They showed ideas and feelings, like other art forms.

　　The passage is mainly about ________.

　　A. the inventoin of cameras

　　B. a kind of new art - photography

　　C. the development of photography

　　D. the important dates in the history of photography

　　　The first pictures of a war were taken by________.

　　A. a French photographer in the 1840s

　　B. an American photographer in the 1860s

　　C. a German reporter in the 1880s

　　D. a French artist in the 1890s

　　Photography can also be an art form because artists can ________.

　　A. take anything they like

　　B. keep a record of real life

　　C. take photos of the famous

　　D. show ideas and feeling in pictures

A German who has been a volunteer teacher in the Guangxi countryside for ten years is a celebrity ( 名人)in China these days .
42-year-old Echart Lowwe was born in Hamburg , Germany . He graduated form the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts. In the early 1990, Echart Lowwe traveled to China and became greatly interested in the country . In 1999 , he started working as a high school teacher in the city of Hechi , Guangxi , Later he went to a primary school in the remote Banlie Village to work as a volunteer teacher . He is still teaching there now .
His teaching methods are different from Chinese teachers . He never uses textbooks in class or sets exams .He seldom tells students how to do things , but instead encourages his pupils to be independent . He teaches music , nature and painting . To teach his students the spirit of teamwork , he asked them to paint a picture together .
Lowwe loves being with children . Kids love him back . He is often seen surrounded by groups of kids. “I feel he is our loved one .He is close to us ,”one of his students says.
Lowwe said “ I have always had the desire to teach in the countryside. I am doing what I want to do now . If I had to die right now , I would die happily ,” he said .
根据短文内容，判断以下句子的（ T ）误（ F ）。
【小题1】Echart Lowwe is a volunteer teacher from Germany .
【小题2】He used to work as a painter in Hechi .
【小题3】He has his own ways of teaching .
【小题4】Kids love him because he helps them do exams better .
【小题5】Echart Lowwe doesn’t regret what he is doing .