The sound of the rain hitting the windows wakes me up and it sounds just exactly as it did 15 years ago, which reminded me of my girlhood.

It was my second day of ____36___ and it was raining heavily. I couldn’t __37_____ the habit I had at home, so I fell asleep right at my ___38____. I woke up to find myself not in the classroom but carried on Dad’s back. We were ____39__ home. It was the last time I felt __40____ to him.

After that, he never carried me or hugged me as other fathers did to their children. I was not bothered by this ___41____. I was proud of it, for I felt _____42____ and “grown up”. However, there were times when I felt depressed by not having sought __43___ from him.

One day, I was writing Chinese characters as homework. I hated doing this more than anything. Dad came and stood behind me for a moment, __44____ me scratching（乱涂）the paper. Then he said, “ This kind of writing needs ___45_____. Your writing is not strong enough. Press harder.”

I followed his ____46_____ for the next two weeks, but __47____ I could see little improvement, I followed my own method---the __48___ way. His advice didn’t improve my writing but our __49____. As I grew older, I found out that he had finished his ___50___ in Grade 6, which was the highest grade in town then, so he was considered to be a ___51___. People used to ask him to write something to put on the walls, but he never felt very useful.

He often said to me, “As you can see, this family is going to count on you. We are __52__ to improve you anything for your future. You have to get _53____ to change the life for yourself.”

As a result of his __54___, I have __55___ it through high school and through college.

36. A. graduation   B. employment      C. college       D. school

37. A. form    B. resist   C. follow D. break

38. A. dormitory    B. door   C. desk    D. bed

39. A. at  B. already       C. beyond       D. halfway

40. A. close    B. near    C. happy D. relaxed

41. A. gap      B. thought      C. action D. accident

42. A. lonely   B. depressed   C. independent       D. comfortable

43. A. comfort       B. help    C. support      D. explanation

44. A. helping B. directing    C. watching    D. blaming

45. A. skill     B. patience     C. time    D. practice

46. A. introduction B. manner      C. spirit   D. advice

47. A. even if  B. while  C. as       D. though

48. A. difficult       B. slow   C. efficient     D. fast

49. A. relationship  B. friendship   C. thought      D. life

50. A. schooling     B. life     C. hope   D. expectation

51. A. writer   B. scholar       C. scientist      D. specialist

52. A. tired     B. glad    C. useless       D. ready

53. A. an education B. a rich boyfriend C. a well-paid job   D. a good writing

54. A. help     B. expectations       C. examination       D. watch

55. A. succeeded    B. got     C. made  D. found

A year ago, I paid no attention to English idioms, though my teacher stressed the importance again and again. But soon, the importance of English idioms was shown in an amusing experience.

One day, I happened to meet an Englishman on the road, and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the foreigner seemed to be astonished. Gently shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders, he said, “You don’t say!” “You don’t say!” I was puzzled. I thought, perhaps this is not a proper topic. “Well, I’d better change the topic.” So I said to him, “Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall? By the way, have you ever been there?” “Certainly, everyone back home will laugh at me if I leave China without seeing it. It was wonderful.” He was deep in thought when I began to talk like a tourist guide. “The Great Wall is one of the wonders in the world. We are very proud of it”. Soon I was interrupted again by his words：“You don’t say!” I couldn’t help asking, “Why do you ask me not to talk about it?” “Well, I didn’t request you to do so,” he answered, greatly surprised. I said, “Didn’t you say ‘you don’t say’?” Hearing this, the Englishman laughed to tears. He began to explain, “‘You don’t say’ actually means ‘really?’ It is an expression of surprise. Perhaps you don’t pay attention to English idioms.” Only then did I know I had made a fool of myself. Since then I have been more careful with idiomatic expressions.

Always remember: what the English teachers say is always right to us students.

1.A year ago, I paid no attention to English idioms because _______.

A．I didn’t have the slightest interest in them

B．English idioms are not important

C．My teacher didn’t emphasize the importance of them

D．I was not careful with English idioms

2.At first, on hearing “You don’t say,” I thought the foreigner meant _______ .

A．I had talked too much

B．he was not interested in the topic

C．he was only interested in the Great Wall

D．he had something to tell me

3.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．The Englishman left China without seeing the Great Wall.

B．The Englishman wanted to see the Great Wall after I talked about it.

C．The Englishman wanted me to act as his guide.

D．The Englishman visited the Great Wall and thought it worth visiting.

4.After the Englishman explained the idiom, _______. 

A．I felt very silly

B．the Englishman became a real fool

C．I thought he had made me a fool

D．I became more careful in everything

 

We arrived in Spain for the first time a few weeks ago.I decided to   21    a car because we had sold the one we had in England before  22    home.Yesterday the sales office rang us to say the car was  23  .I had tried out a model like it before,but as I was not yet  24    driving in this city,my wife did not want me to collect it   25    so we went together to   26    it.We paid for the car and   27    the papers.They told us that there was   28    petrol(汽油) to take us to a garage,where we could fill up.The   29    garage to the office was about 100 yards away and we got there   30   .But when I turned into the main road I suddenly saw a lot of cars racing  31   me.I got out of   32    as fast as I could by backing into the garage  33    and the man behind   34    me.

“It’s such a problem to   35    to drive on the right side,isn’t it?”my wife said.“Yes,if only I had had a few lessons for   36   ,”I replied.“You had better go   37    on the way home,”my wife said.“You’d be sorry if you had   38    on the first day,wouldn’t you?”While we were talking,the man behind got out of his car and said in good English,“Would you mind telling me   39    you are thinking of leaving?   40    are you going to sit in your car all day?”

A.borrow           B.drive             C.buy               D.choose

A.leaving          B.making                C.returning         D.getting

A.right            B.ready             C.fixed             D.sold

A.sure of      B.satisfied with   C.interested in      D.used to

A.on my own        B.right away            C.in a hurry            D.on the way

A.receive          B.bring             C.order             D.fetch

A.accepted         B.wrote             C.signed                D.copied

A.little           B.enough                C.much              D.no

A.best             B.nearest           C.quickest          D.cleanest

A.lately          B.directly              C.safely                D.slowly

A.after           B.with              C.around                D.towards

A.their way           B.the garage            C.their sight           D.the car

A.at last         B.once more         C.as usual          D.as well

A.caught          B.cheered           C.shouted at            D.chatted with

A.prepare         B.continue          C.choose                D.remember

A.discussion      B.adventure         C.experiment            D.practice

A.carefully           B.smoothly          C.quickly               D.differently

A.an error        B.a problem     C.an accident       D.a headache

A.when            B.why               C.how               D.what

A.For             B.Or                    C.But               D.So

I entered high school having read hundreds of books.But I was not a good reader.Merely bookish,I lacked a point of view when I read.Rather,I read in order to get a point of view.I searched books for good expressions and sayings,pieces of information,ideas,themes—anything to enrich my thought and make me feel educated.When one of my teachers suggested to his sleepy tenth-grade English class that a person could not have a “complicated(复杂的) idea” until he had read at least two thousand books,I heard the words without recognizing either its irony(嘲讽) or its very complicated truth.I merely determined to make a list of all the books I had ever read.Strict with myself,I included only once a title I might have read several times.(How,after all,could one read a book more than once?)And I included only those books over a hundred pages in length.(Could anything shorter be a book?)

There was yet another high school list I made.One day I came across a newspaper article about an English professor at a nearby state college.The article had a list of the “hundred most important books of Western Civilization.”“More than anything else in my life,”the professor told the reporter with finality,“these books have made me all that I am.”That was the kind of words I couldn’t ignore(忽视).I kept the list for the several months it took me to read all of the titles.Most books,of course,I hardly understood.While reading Plato’s The Republic,for example,I needed to keep looking at the introduction of the book to remind myself what the text was about.However,with the special patience and superstition(迷信) of a schoolboy,I looked at every word of the text.And by me time I reached the last word,pleased,I persuaded myself that I had read The Republic,and seriously crossed Plato off my list.

On heating the teacher’s suggestion of reading,the writer thought ______.

A.one must read as many books as possible

B.a student should not have a complicated idea

C.it was impossible for one to read two thousand books

D.students ought to make a list of the books they had read

While at high school,the writer ______.

A.had plans for reading

B.learned to educate himself

C.only read books over 100 pages

D.read only one book several times

The underlined phrase “with finality” probably means ______.

A.firmly                                                                 B.clearly

C.proudly                                                               D.pleasantly

The writer’s purpose in mentioning The Republic is to ______.

A.explain why it was included in the list

B.describe why he seriously crossed it off the list

C.show that he read the books blindly though they were hard to understand

D.prove that he understood most of it because he had looked at every word

The writer provides two book lists to ______.

A.show how he developed his point of view

B.tell his reading experience at high school

C.introduce the two persons’ reading methods

D.explain that he read many books at high school

I was blind, but I was ashamed of it if it was known. I refused to use a white stick and hated asking for help. After all, I was a teenager girl, and I couldn’t bear people to look at me and think I was not like them. I must have been a terrible danger on the roads, coming across me wandering through the traffic, motorists probably would have to step rapidly on their brakes. Apart from that, there were all sorts of disasters that used to occur on the way to and from work.

One evening, I got off the bus about halfway home where I had to change buses, and as usual I ran into something,“I’m awfully sorry,”I said and stepped forward only to run into it again. When it happened a third time, I realized I had been apologizing to a lamppost. This was just one of the stupid things that constantly happened to me. So I carried on and found the bus stop, which was a request stop, where the bus wouldn’t stop unless passengers wanted to get on or off. No one else was there and I had to try to guess if the bus had arrived.

Generally in this situation, because I hated showing I was blind by asking for help, I tried to guess at the sound. Sometimes I would stop a big lorry and stand there feeling stupid as it drew away. In the end, I usually managed to swallow my pride and ask someone at the stop for help.

But on this particular evening no one joined me at the stop; It seemed that everyone had suddenly decided not to travel by bus. Of course I heard plenty of buses pass, or I thought I did. But because I had given up stopping them for fear of making a fool of myself, I let them all go by. I stood there alone for half an hour without stopping one. Then I gave up. I decided to walk on to the next stop.

1.The girl refused to ask for help because she thought_________.

A．she might be recognized

B．asking for help looked silly

C．she was normal and independent

D．being fond blind was embarrassing

2.After the girl got off the bus that evening, she_________.

A．began to run

B．hit a person as usual

C．hit a lamppost by accident

D．was caught by something

3.At the request stop that evening, the girl___________.

A．stopped a big lorry

B．stopped the wrong bus

C．made no attempt to stop the bus

D．was not noticed by other people

4.What was the problem with guessing at the sound to stop a bus?

A．Other vehicles also stopped there.

B．It was unreliable for making judgments.

C．More lorries than buses responded to the girl.

D．It took too much time for the girl to catch the bus.

5.Finally the girl decided to walk to the next stop, hoping__________.

A．to find people there

B．to find more buses there

C．to find the bus by herself there

D．to find people more helpful there