完形填空（共20小题，每小题1分，满分20分） 

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

I moved to a new neighborhood two months ago. In the house with a large  1  across the road lived a taxi driver, a single parent with two school-aged children. At the end of the day, he would  2  his taxi on the road. I  3  why he did not park it in the garage.

Then one day I learnt that he had another car in his garage. In the afternoon he would come home  4  work, leave his taxi and go out for his  5  affairs in his other car, not in his taxi. I felt it was 6  .

I was curious to see his personal car but did not make it until I 7  to be outside one evening two weeks  8 , when the garage door was 9 and he drove out in his “own” car: a Rolls-Royce（劳斯莱斯）! It shook me completely  10  I realized what that meant. You see, he was a taxi driver. But  11 inside, he saw himself as something else: a Rolls-Royce owner and a（n）  12  . He drove others in his taxi but himself and his children in his Rolls-Royce. The world looked at his taxi and  13  him a taxi driver. But for him, a taxi was just something he drove for a living. Rolls-Royce was something he drove for a (n）14.

We go to bed every night and  15  every morning as parents or children, not as bankers, CEOs or professors. We go for a  16 as close friends or go for a vacation as a 17  . We love life as it is. Yet often, we base our entire happiness and success on how high we  18  the social ladder—how much bigger and better a  19  we have. And we ignore our Rolls-Royce, by keeping it dusty in our garage. We should focus more on  20 we are than what we do!

1.                A．window        B．garage          C．door D．yard

 

2.                A．park           B．stop           C．check    D．repair

 

3.                A．knew          B．understood      C．asked    D．wondered

 

4.                A．for            B．out of          C．without   D．from

 

5.                A．business        B．national         C．personal  D．public

 

6.                A．wasteful        B．useful          C．wonderful D．plentiful

 

7.                A．appeared       B．intended        C．expected D．happened

 

8.                A．later           B．more           C．ago  D．before

 

9.                A．broken         B．fine            C．shut D．open

 

10.               A．once          B．before         C．when D．until

 

11.               A．far            B．deep          C．long  D．little

 

12.               A．driver          B．engineer       C．father D．son

 

13.               A．called          B．made          C．elected   D．turned

 

14.               A．experience     B．earning         C．life   D．position

 

15.               A．stay up         B．wake up        C．stay home D．go home

 

16.               A．competition     B．performance    C．debate    D．party

 

17.               A．family          B．company       C．team D．whole

 

18.               A．build          B．climb          C．stand D．lay

 

19.               A．garden         B．garage         C．car   D．taxi

 

20.               A．who           B．what           C．which D．where

 

 

Arthur Miller was born on October 17th, 1915 and died on February 10th, 2005.Over the course of seven decades(十年) of literature career(文学生涯), Arthur Miller created some of the most memorable stage plays(舞台剧) in American Literature. He is the author of DeathofaSalesmanandTheCrucible. Born and raised in Manhattan, Miller went through the best and the worst of American society.

Arthur Miller's childhood：His father was a productive shop­keeper and clothing manufacturer(制造商) until the Great Depression(大萧条时期) dried up nearly all business opportunities.Yet, despite being faced with poverty, Miller made the best of his childhood. He was a very active young man, in love with such sports as football and baseball. When he wasn't playing outside, he enjoyed reading adventure stories. He was also kept busy by his many boyhood jobs. He often worked alongside his father. During other times in his life, he delivered bakery goods and worked as a clerk in a car parts warehouse.

College life: In 1934, Miller left the east coast to attend the University of Michigan. He was accepted into their school of journalism. His experiences during the Depression made him skeptical (怀疑的) about religion. Politically, he began leaning towards the "Left”.And since the theater was the cutting edge way for socio­economic liberals (自由主义者) to express their views, he decided to enter the Hopwood Drama competition. His first play, NoVillain, received an award from the university.It was an impressive beginning for the young playwright; he had never studied plays or playwriting, and he had written his play in just five days!

Miller's later years: In 1987, his autobiography was published. Many of his later plays dealt with personal experience. In particular, his final play, FinishingthePicture mirrors the last days of his marriage to Marilyn Monroe.In 2005, Arthur Miller passed away at the age of 89.

1.What can we know about Arthur Miller from Paragraph 2?

A．He was born into a poor family.

B．His father wasn't good at business.

C．He couldn't adjust himself to poverty.

D．He had to do lots of jobs to make a living.

2.Arthur Miller began to write plays ________.

A．when he was in college

B．when he was a small boy

C．because his father encouraged him to do so

D．because it was one of his school assignments(作业)

3.We can infer from Paragraph 3 that ________.

A．the University of Michigan is on the east coast of the USA

B．Miller's university education made him doubt religion

C．Miller learned playwriting all by himself

D．socio­economic liberals were probably not politically "left”

4.Which of the following plays tells the story of Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe?

A．Death of a Salesman.

B．The Crucible.

C．No Villain.

D．Finishing the Picture.

5.The passage is intended to________.

A．introduce Arthur Miller's plays

B．tell us about Arthur Miller's childhood

C．explain how Arthur Miller started to write plays

D．give us a brief introduction to Arthur Miller's life

 

In 1970, at the age of 35, my father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. There was not much      done at that time and my father had to rely on the medication and treatment that were      at that time. But one thing was      , my father was not a quitter. He was a teacher who       children with special educational needs in Chicago Public High School. Every day we would hear      about “his kids”. These “kids” did not usually      my sister and I.

One day, my father arrived at his school and walked up the     for his first period. He was having a very       day because the disease was really taking everything out of him. He       once and bruised (擦伤) his knee but he still kept going.       did he know that someone was watching.

As the day      his steps began to get a little lighter. At the end of the day, he was about to leave      a young girl entered his office. He had met her in the hallway but she was not one of his      . He asked what he could do for her and she said, “I just wanted to thank you for     my life.”

He looked at her and couldn’t       what he had done. She then went on      . “When I got up this morning, I felt as if I was at the end of my      and ready to kill myself. But when I saw you trying to go up the stairs and then you fell, I felt    and the feeling of sadness just kept getting     . And now you are walking as      as ever. It’s really true that everything will get better as the days go on.”

1.A. information                      B. research                            C. knowledge             D. experience

2.A. favorable                     B. believable                        C. reasonable            D. available

3.A. obvious                       B. special                         C. natural              D. strange

4.A. abandoned              B. followed                           C. taught              D. attended

5.A. stories                              B. jokes                 C. songs                       D. humors

6.A. connect                      B. change                     C. mean                       D. defeat

7.A. mountains                B. stairs                                 C. ladders        D. streets

8.A. normal                   B. pleasant                           C. simple              D. difficult

9.A. fell                            B. stood               C. happened         D. appeared

10.A. Few                          B. Little              C. Seldom             D. Never

11.A. arrived                          B. progressed         C. broke               D. stopped

12.A. until                                 B. before                C. when                      D. while

13.A. students                             B. friends             C. teachers               D. workers

14.A. losing                     B. giving               C. passing     D. saving

15.A. write down                 B. figure out                         C. cut off               D. put up

16.A. responding             B. admitting                          C. explaining           D. complaining

17.A. rope                B. wall               C. road                 D. work

18.A. sorry                B. bad               C. lucky                 D. proud

19.A. lower                  B. weaker           C. higher             D. stronger

20.A. carefully             B. quickly           C. lightly              D. slowly

 

For many writers, writing stories or plays is a part-time job: to support themselves they take on other jobs, such as teaching. It is one sign of August Wilson’s success that for many years he has been able to make a living only by writing plays.

Wilson was born in Pittsburgh and dropped out of school in the ninth grade. He was a good reader, however, and continued his education by reading library books, learning about black nationalist movements of the time, and closely observing(观察) the lives of the poor people.

In the late 1960’s Wilson set up a theater company called Black Horizons and began to think of ways to describe African-American life on the stage. He had the idea of a cycle of plays, each of which was set in a different decade(十年) of the 20^th century, showing how African-American life has developed.

The first successful play of this series was Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom about black musicians in Chicago in the 1920s, who are not accepted by white society. Other plays in the series include Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, about blacks in the 1910s who had moved north to Pittsburgh in search of a new identity; Fences, which focuses on a father–son conflict(冲突) in the1950s; and The Piano Lesson, about a 1930s family that was uncertain about whether to sell the family’s treasure. For the last two of these plays Wilson was awarded Pulitzer Prizes.

Wilson has written eight plays in his cycle, the most recent being King Hedley the Second, a play set in the 1980s. His plays are enjoyed by both the blacks and the whites and engage anyone who is interested in African-American experience.

1.Wilson won Pulitzer Prizes for ________.

A．The Piano Lesson & Fences

B． Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom & Fences

C．The Piano Lesson & King Hedley the Second

D．King Hedley the Second & Joe Turner’s Come and Gone

2. It is possible that in his series of the 20^th –century plays, Wilson plans to write ________.

A．no more          B．two more          C．three more        D．four more

3.The underlined word “engage” in the last paragraph means ________.

A．award            B．benefit           C．please            D．attract

4.What’s the passage mainly about?

A．The life of August Wilson.                 B．The growth of August Wilson.

C．A cycle of plays of August Wilson.           D．August Wilson’s theater company.

 

When Jackie Robinson walked onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, on April 15, 1947, he changed baseball forever. As the first African American to play in the Major League in modern times, many believe he changed the country forever.

Robinson was born in 1919. He lived in a time when rules controlled what African Americans could do. He was a top athlete, playing football, basketball and baseball. But playing for a major league team was off limits to Robinson because of his race.

Branch Rickey, president and manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed(和…签约)Robinson in 1947. He believed that Robinson not only had the skills, but the courage to face the challenge of becoming modern baseball’s first black player.

It wasn’t easy. Robinson sometimes faced boos(嘘声)from fans. But he became a star, anyway. In 1962, he became the first African-American player chosen to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2005, he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award can give to an American.

By breaking baseball’s color barrier(肤色障碍), Robinson opened the door for many to follow his footsteps, not only in baseball, but in other areas of life as wall. After he stopped playing the game, Robinson worked as a manager for a coffee company. He wrote a newspaper column(专栏). He also started a bank.

1.According to Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson was _____________.

A．poor but clever                         B．unlucky but confident

C．proud and strong                       D．brave and skilled

2.We can know that Jackie Robinson’s story _______________.

A．changed many African’s ideas

B．had an effect on many black people’s lives

C．encouraged black people to fight with whites

D．started a hot discussion about the color barrier

3.Which of the following is NOT what he once did?

A．a newspaper column writer               B．a banker

C．a university teacher                     D．a manager in a company