A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said, “I am blind, please help.” There were only a few coins in the hat.
A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized(听出)his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”
The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”
What he had written was, “Today is a beautiful day; I can not see it.”
Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply sign the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective (有效的)？
【小题1】The boy in the passage can not           .

A lady in an old cotton dress and her husband, dressed in an old suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked into the president of Harvard’s outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such country people had no business at Harvard. She frowned. “We want to see the president,” the man said softly.  “He’ll be busy all day,” the secretary said coldly. “We’ll wait,” the lady replied.

For hours, the secretary didn’t talk to them, hoping that the couple would finally become tired and go away. They didn’t. And the secretary finally decided to disturb the president. “Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they’ll leave,” she told him. He frowned too. Someone of his importance didn’t have the time to spend with nobodies.

The president walked toward them unwillingly. The lady told him, “We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard, and was very happy here. But he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to set up a memorial(纪念碑) to him somewhere on campus. ” The president was so surprised that he shouted sharply, “We can’t put up a statue(塑像) for every person who attended Harvard and died, this place would look like a cemetery.

“Oh, no” the lady explained, “We don’t want to build a statue. We thought we would give a building to Harvard.” The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at their plain clothes, and said with surprise, “A building! Do you have any idea how much a building costs? The physical building at Harvard cost seven million and a half.”

For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly. “Is that all it costs to start a university?” Her husband nodded(点头). Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they set up the university with their name -------a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.

You can easily judge(判断) others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.

46. What did the old couple go to Harvard for?

A. They wanted to see their son.

B. They had an important meeting

C. They went to Harvard just to see start a university

D. They wanted to meet the president of Harvard.

47. Why didn’t the president come out to meet the couple?

A. He was really busy at that time.

B. The secretary didn’t allow the couple to meet the president.

C. He was important and didn’t have time for unimportant people.

D. He had an important friend to meet and had to spend some time together.

48. From the passage, we can know ______.

A. the old couple were in fact rich people

B. the secretary was afraid of the old couple

C. the old couple’s son was killed in Harvard

D. the president of Harvard was kind and patient to anyone

49. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. the old couple set up their own university.

B. the old couple set up a memorial to their son

C. the old couple gave a building to Harvard.

D. Giving a building to Harvard was easy and cheap at that time.

50. The best title of the passage is “______”.

A. Never Judge a Book by Its Cover     B. How the Stanford Was Built 

C.A Visit to Harvard University        D. A Strange Old Couple