I was in a rush as always, but this time it was for an important date I just couldn’t be late for! I found myself at a checkout counter behind an elderly woman seemingly in no hurry as she paid for her groceries. A PhD student with not a lot of money, I had hurried into the store to pick up some flowers. I was in a huge rush, thinking of my upcoming evening. I did not want to be late for this date.
We were in Boston, a place not always known for small conversation between strangers. The woman stopped unloading her basket and looked up at me. She smiled. It was a nice smile –warm and reassuring—and I returned her gift by smiling back.
“Must be a special lady, whoever it is that will be getting those beautiful flowers,” she said.
“Yes, she’s special,” I said, and then to my embarrassment, the words kept coming out.
“It’s only our second date, but somehow I am just having the feeling she’s ‘the one’. Jokingly, I added, “The only problem is that I can’t figure out why she’d want to date a guy like me.”
“Well, I think she’s very lucky to have a boyfriend who brings her such lovely flowers and who is obviously in love with her,” the woman said.” “My husband used to bring me flowers every week –even when times were tough and we didn’t have much money. Those were incredible days; he was very romantic and – of course – I miss him since he’s passed away.”
I paid for my flowers as she was gathering up her groceries. There was no doubt in my mind as I walked up to her. I touched her on the shoulder and said, “You were right, you know. These flowers are indeed for a very special lady.” I handed her the flowers and thanked her for such a nice conversation.
It took her a moment to realize that I was giving her the flowers I had just purchased. “You have a wonderful evening,” I said. I left her with a big smile and my heart warmed as I saw her smelling the beautiful flowers.
I remember being slightly late for my date that night and telling my girlfriend the above story. A couple of years later, when I finally worked up the courage to ask her to marry me, she told me that this story had helped to seal it for her –that was the night that I won her heart.
【小题1】Why was the writer in a hurry that day?

D
The Weekly Telegraph is Britain’s global newspaper, the home-grown quality newspaper that delivers the best of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph to the British around the world and adds its special articles, features and reports designed to be of real value to foreign readers．Telegraph.co.uk/expat, the website, increases the value of the newspaper, thus creating a complete expatriate（国外的）support system, both online and offline．
Order a gift subscription（订阅）for a friend or relation overseas this Christmas and they will begin to recognise what a useful investment your subscription represents, and you’ll receive a FREE bottle of 10-year-old Tawny Port to enjoy at home in the UK．
Subscriptions will start early January 2010．Port can only be delivered to a UK address and receivers must be over 18 years of age．
For more details or for 6-month subscriptions, please contact our subscriptions department on Tel +44 （0） 1622 335080 or email weeklytelegraphsubs@telegraph.co.uk Office hours: 09:00-17:00 GMT）．
Please contact weeklytelegraphsubs@telegraph.co.uk with any questions regarding your subscription．
Your money back if you are not satisfied
Our “no quibble” money-back policy means that we guarantee to return the money for your subscription in full if you are not satisfied with the first four issues．
YOUR PAYMENT
Select a zone of payment．Price is for 52 issues．
United Kingdom                           105.00 GBP （Great Britain Pound）
USA                                     125.00 GBP
Canada/ Australia/ New Zealand               108.00 GBP
Zambia/ Zimbabwe /Tanzania                 85.00 GBP
South Africa                               80.00 GBP
Middle East/ Europe/ Rest of the world          80.00 GBP
71．The Weekly Telegraph in the advertisement is mainly intended for ______．
A．the British at home and abroad         B．the British in the UK
C．the foreigners in Britain         D．English learners across the globe
72．If you want to receive a free bottle of 10-year-old Tawny Port, you must ______．
a．live in the United Kingdom
b．have an overseas friend who is over 18
c．order a subscription of the Weekly Telegraph
d．offer your friend or relation’s address overseas
A．a, b           B．c, d         C．a, c      D．b, c
73．What do we know about the Weekly Telegraph from the passage?
A．The content of it can’t be read online．
B．One can subscribe to it 24 hours a day．
C．Your money can partly come back if you’re not satisfied
D．The prices for different countries are probably different．
74．To order a 6-month subscription for a friend in Tanzania, you should ______．
A．contact the subscriptions department
B．subscribe to the Daily Telegraph for a year
C．tell your friend to visit telegraph.co.uk/expat
D．pay 85.00 GBP
75．Which of the following statements is true based on the text?
A．Telegraph．co．uk/ expat receives support from online readers only．
B．Subscriptions of the paper can be made starting from January 2010．
C．Telegraph．co．uk/expat mainly solve your subscription problems．
D．US and Middle East readers can enjoy equal price for 52 issues．

Why should you learn Sign Language? Do you want to improve your communication with a family member or friend who is deaf? Do you want to be able to communicate with deaf people in general? Would you like to advance in your career by being able to communicate in ASL? Do you want to be a Sign Language interpreter?
Sign language is not just a random (随意的) collection of gestures but a full-blown (完全成熟的) language in its own right, complete with its own grammatical rules. Each country or region has its own sign language, as different from each other as English is from Spanish. Each version of sign language is somewhat linked to the spoken language in its region. For example, American sign language does share similarities with English, even though it is its own language.
The advantages of knowing sign language in addition to a spoken language are many. Communication becomes possible on many levels with the deaf community, with other people either hearing or not in any of the above situations, as well as many more.
While other languages take years to learn, American Sign Language can be taught in a much shorter time period. It is one of the easiest languages to learn because most of the signs were developed to mimic the actual word or phrase it is representing. Even the alphabet signs look like the letters of the English alphabet.
American Sign Language, or ASL, is the third most used language in the United States. Used by the deaf community, interpreters, and friends and family of the deaf. There are a lot of sites on the internet that not only shows you the sign with video, but will help you practice reading signs as well.
Teaching even hearing babies sign language seems to be the fashion in recent years and for good reason. Communicating in sign language is fun and natural as babies naturally use body gestures in early communication. Teaching baby sign language actually appears to enhance the learning of verbal skills and brain development of the children involved.
【小题1】Which two regions share similarities in their sign language?
A. Spain and Britain.
B. Mexico and USA.
C. Australia and Canada.
D. Japan and Korea.
【小题2】Sign language ________.

完形填空（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从1-10各题所给的A.B.C.和D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
We all know that some things are obviously right. For example, it is right to be   1  to other people. It is also right to look after the environment. Some things are   2  wrong, too. For instance, we should not hurt or bully（欺负）others, nor should we litter. Rules often tell us what is right or wrong.
Rules can help the public make the right   3 , and remain safe. Car drivers have to obey traffic regulations that tell them the right things to do on the road to avoid crashes. Cyclists who give signals before turning or stopping help prevent   4 .
If people follow rules without taking other matters into consideration, it will be   5 for them to form what is sometimes called a “black and white” view (黑白分明的观点). For example, they may believe that people should always tell the truth, and that lying is   6  acceptable. Such people always stick to their views, even if it means that they may get into  7 .
Sometimes it may not be so easy to know   8  what is right or wrong. Some people choose not to eat meat because they believe that it is   9  to eat animals, but others argue that they can eat meat and   10  be kind to animals; some insist that stealing is always wrong, but others think that one does not need to feel so guilty (有罪的) when stealing some food to eat, if he lives in a really poor area and he is starving.
Rules help us live together in harmony, because they show us the right way to treat others. However, some people argue that rules may be confusing, having observed that rules change all the time, and that some schools have some regulations and others have different ones---so who is to decide what is right?

“To be or not to be.” Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of the world. They were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for himself but also for every thinking man and woman. To be or not to be, to live or not to live, to live richly and abundantly, or to live dully and meanly. A philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not, which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He answered it by saying: “I think, therefore I am.”
　　But the best definition of existence I ever saw was one written by another philosopher who said: “To be is to be in relations.” If this is true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity(强烈) of our relations. Unfortunately we are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But other than our regular occupation, how much are we alive? If you are interested only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent. So far as other things are concerned --- poetry and prose(散文), music, pictures, sports, unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs ---you are dead.
On the contrary, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest --- even more, a new accomplishment(成就) --- you increase your power of life. No one who is deeply interested in different kinds of subjects can remain unhappy. The real pessimist is the person who has lost interest.
　　Bacon said that a man dies as often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life by contacts with new friends, and new ideas and thoughts, too. Where your thoughts are, there will be your life too. If your thoughts are limited only to your business, only to your physical welfare, only to your narrow circle of the town in which you live, then you live a narrow restricted(有限的, 受约束的) life. But if you are interested in what is going on in China, then you are living in China. If you’re interested in the characters of a good novel, then you are living with those highly interesting people. If you listen intently to fine music, you are away from your immediate surroundings and living in a world of passion and imagination.
To be or not to be --- to live intensely and richly, or merely to exist, which depends on ourselves. Let us widen and intensify our relations. While we live, let us live!
【小题1】What does the author mainly want to do by this passage?