I made a promise to myself on the way down to the vacation beach cottage. For two weeks I would try to be a loving husband and father. Totally loving. No ifs, ands or buts.

The idea had come to me as I listened to a talk on my car radio. The speaker was quoting a Biblical passage about husbands and their wives. Then he went on to say, “Love is an act of will. A person can choose to love.” To myself, I had to admit that I had been a selfish husband. Well, for two weeks that would change.

And it did. On arriving at the beach cottage, I kissed Evelyn meeting me at the door and said, “That new yellow sweater looks great on you.” “Oh, Tom, you noticed”, she said, surprised and pleased. Maybe a little puzzled. After the long drive, I wanted to sit and read. Evelyn suggested a walk on the beach. I started to refuse, but then I thought, “Evelyn’s been alone here with the kids all week and now she wants to be alone with me.” We walked on the beach while the children flew their kites.

So it went. Two weeks of not calling the Wall Street firm where I am a director; a visit to the shell museum though I usually hate museums. Relaxed and happy, that’s how the whole vacation passed. I made a new promise to keep on remembering to choose love.?

There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment, however. Evelyn and I still laugh about it today. On the last night at our cottage, preparing for bed, Evelyn stared at me with the saddest expression.

“What’s the matter?” I asked her.

“Tom,” she said in a voice filled with distress, “I don’t?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…that checkup I had several weeks ago…our doctor…did he tell you something about me? Tom, you’ve been so good to me…am I dying?”

It took a moment for it all to be understood. Then I burst out laughing.

“No, honey,” I said, wrapping her in my arms. “You’re not dying; I’m just starting to live.”

From the story we may infer that Tom drove to the beach cottage ______.

A. with his family     B. with Evelyn    C. alone      D. with his children

During the two weeks on the beach, Tom showed more love to his wife because ______.

A. she looked lovely in her new clothes

B. he had made a lot of money in his Wall Street firm

C. he was determined to be a good husband

D. the doctor said his wife was seriously ill

The author says, “There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment.” What does “one thing” refer to?

A. He praised her sweater, which puzzled her.

B. He was so good to her that she thought she must be dying.

C. He knew something about her illness but didn’t tell her.

D. She insisted on visiting a museum, which he hated.

By saying “I’m just starting to live,” Tom means that ______.

A. he is just beginning to understand the real meaning of life

B. he is just beginning to enjoy life as a loving husband

C. he lived an unhappy life before and is now starting to change

D. he is beginning to feel regret for what he did to his wife before

The child of today owes much of its pleasant school life to the work of Maria Montessori and others who felt as she did.

Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in northern Italy.Both her parents were well educated.

While Maria was a student，she took great interest in the study of the particular nature of the child’s mind.It came to her that small children should have freedom to learn.

Maria became a doctor and professor at Rome University.In 1907，after working with backward students，she was given a chance to try out her ideas on children.There were sixty children，aged three to six，in the Children’s House.The rooms were bright and colourful.Maria let the children make their own choice of what they wanted to do and work with their own speed.They became busy，peaceful and happy.

Maria Montessori was one of the world’s greatest teachers.She traveled in Europe，America and Far East.She thought that true education，providing for the real needs of the child，would produce wise and happy grown­ups and therefore a peaceful world.Her original way of education has changed our whole idea of what childhood is.

Maria Montessori died in Holland at the age of eighty­two.

41．The short passage is mainly about________.

A．the education of backward students

B．a new idea of education

C．the importance of proper education

D．the life of Maria Montessori

42．Maria traveled a lot in the world to________.

A．teach the backward students

B．enjoy her life in real nature

C．spread her ideas of teaching

D．study the situation of education

43．In what way did Maria teach the children in the Children’s House?

A．She taught them the best way of learning well.

B．She let them learn in a very pleasant way.

C．She taught them by showing them how to do things.

D．She just let them choose the most interesting subjects.

44．We learn from the passage that________.

A．Maria left her homeland in order to study abroad

B．Maria didn’t get married

C．Maria’s own parents were her teachers

D．Maria fully understood the child’s mind

45．Which of the following best explains why Maria was one of the world’s greatest teachers?

A．She created a new way in teaching，which changed the old idea of children’s education

B．She taught the backward students very successfully and produced a peaceful world.

C．She showed great love for the children and trained them in a new way.

D．She taught backward students in many different countries and let them learn freely.

完形填空
I came to study in the US last fall. My life had been quite  1 since I arrived at
Andover. Although I had quite a few extracurricular (课外的) activities, I hadn’t taken any official leadership position.
This  2 changed when I received an e-mail from Ms Griffith, my cluster dean (主
任),    3 that a few female DC Rep was needed. DC Rep 4 Discipline Committee Representative.  5 boarding school students break serious rules, like using  6  , getting drunk or cheating in the studies. The punishments given to such students are   7 by a DC Rep, a house counselor, two student representatives, the cluster dean. I was really interested in becoming a DC Rep for my cluster, Pine Knoll, 8 so were five other students. We had to hold   9 and Ms Griffith asked us to write  10  to be sent to everyone in Pine Knoll.
I thought hard about what to write. I didn’t  want to make any   11 because they are difficult to keep. I didn’t want to say I was experienced, because I was not. So I started my speech by explaining  12  I wanted to become a DC Rep. “ I want to serve Pine Knoll and also learn how American boarding schools carry out disciplines,” I wrote  13 .
I made three   14 that said “ Vote For Teresa” and put them on every exit (出口处) of my dorm so that people would  15 my name when they went to vote.
Although I tried hard, I didn’t win the election, I was  16 . But my positive nature didn’t allow me to   17 for very long. I actually  18 when my friends tried to comfort（安慰） me. “Teresa, I’m sorry that you didn’t win the election,” they would say.
“ No, don’t be sorry for me. I am very happy to have taken part in the election.” I said.
It is true: the   19 is much more important than the result. I am surprised and happy to discover my hidden  20 .

Who's in control of your life? Who is pulling your string? For the majority of us, it's other people-society, colleagues, friends, family or our religious community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde puts it, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry(模仿)，their passions a quotation.”

So when people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug－we are addicted to it and seek it out wherever we can. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their fix(一剂毒品)，we worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval.

But just as with any drug, there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom－the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot-control what other people think. People have their own agenda(日程安排), and they come with their own baggage and, in the end, they're more interested in themselves than in you. Furthermore, if we try to live by the opinions of others, we will build our life on sinking sand. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted and probable pleasing no one in the process.

 So how can we take back control? I think there's only one way－make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values－not values imposed from the outside by others, but innate values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others, we will live a more authentic(真实的), effective, purposeful and happy life.

What Oscar Wilde says implies that       .

  A. most people's thoughts are controlled by others.

  B. we have thoughts similar to those of others.

  C. most people have a variety of thoughts.

  D. other people's thoughts are more important.

What does the author try to argue in the third paragraph?

  A. The price of taking the drug is freedom.

  B. Changing opinions may cost us our freedom.

  C. We may lose ourselves to please others.

  D. We need to pay for what we want to get.

It can be concluded from the passage that      .

  A. it's important to accept others' opinions.

  B. it's better to do what we like.

  C. we shouldn't care what others think.

  D. we shouldn't change our won opinions.

The author tries to persuade the readers to accept his arguments mainly by      .

  A. making suggestions.                      B. analyzing causes and effects.                     

  C. providing examples and facts.        D. discussing questions                                 

“Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell.”

This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown citizen who lived in Rome in AD 52 wrote it.

We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives.

But have all these developments really improved the quality of our lives?

Picture this: You’re rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night to get it done. How calm and happy do you feel?

Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have not telephones, no cars, not even any electricity often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they lead simpler lives.

One family in the UK went “back in time” to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today. The grandparents, with their daughter, and grandsons Benjamin, 10, and Tomas, 7, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.

The grandmother, Lyn, said, “It was hard physically, but not mentally.” She believed life was less materialistic. “The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes,” She said. The boys said they fought less to fight over, such as their computer. Benjamin also noticed that his grandmother had changed from being a “trendy（时髦的）, beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things.”

Here are some simple ways to beat the stress often caused by our inventions!

Don’t be available all the time, turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day. Don’t check your e-mail every day.

Don’t reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets annoying.

1.The passage is mainly about         .

         A．problem with technology  

B．improvements of our life with technology

         C．the important roles technology plays in our everyday life

         D．major changes which will be likely to happen to technology

2.The writer quoted（引用） what a citizen in ancient Rome said at the beginning of the story in order to         .

         A．share a truth about life     

B．tell us what life was like long time ago

         C．make us wonder what causes such a thing to happen

         D．point out that you experience some big problems and they may be the same

3.Why did the family choose to spend some time in a 1940’s house? Because        .

         A．they liked to live simple lives

         B．they were curious about how people lived without modern inventions

         C．they were troubled by modern inventions

         D．living in a different time would be a lot of fun for them

4.What do you think the underlined word “available” in the 1^st suggestion offered by the writer mean?

         A．Busy on line  B．Free.     C．Be able to  D．Be found by others.