Dear son,
The day that you see me old and I am already not in good health, have patience and try to understand me.
If I get dirty when eating, if I can not dress, have patience and remember the hours I   26   teaching it to you. If, when I speak to you, I   27  the same things thousand and one times, do not   28   me, listen to me. When you were small, I had to read to you thousand and one times the same story   29   you got to sleep. When I do not want to have a   30  , neither shame me nor scold me. Remember when I had to chase you with thousand excuses I   31  , in order that you wanted to bathe. When you see my   32   little about new technologies, give me the necessary time and do not look at me with your mocking(嘲弄) smile. I taught you   33   to do so many things: to eat good, to dress well, to confront life…. When at some moment I lose the memory or the   34  of our conversation, let me have the necessary time to remember, and if I cannot do it, do not become nervous, as the most important thing is not our conversation but surely to be with you and to have you   35   to me.
If ever I do not want to eat, do not force me. I know well   36   I need to and when not. When my   37   legs do not allow me to walk, give me your   38  , the same way I did when you gave your first   39  . And when someday I say to you that I do not want to   40  any more ---- that I want to rest forever, do not get ___41__. Someday you will understand.
Try to understand that my age is not lived but survived. Some day you will discover that, despite my mistakes, I always wanted the   42   thing for you and that I tried to prepare the way for you. You must not feel sad, angry or impotent(无可奈何) for seeing me   43   you. You must be next to me, try to understand me and to help me as I did it when you   44   living. Help me to walk, help me to end my way with love and  45  . I will pay you by a smile and by the immense love I have had always for you.
I love you, Son
Your father

Pierre is a 25-year-old penguin at the California Academy of Sciences. Due to his old age, he was going bald, which made him feel too cold to swim in the pool. Therefore, biologists at the academy had a wetsuit created for this penguin to help him get back in the swimming pool.
Unlike marine mammals, which have a layer of fat to keep them warm, penguins depend on their waterproof feathers. Without them, Pierre was unwilling to jump into the swimming pool and ended up trembling on the side of the pool while his 19 peers played in the water.
"He was cold; he would shake," said Pam Schaller, a senior biologist. Schaller first tried a heat lamp to keep Pierre warm. Then she got another idea: if wetsuits keep humans warm in the cold Pacific, why not make one for Pierre?
Schaller designed the suit, which covered Pierre’s body and had small openings for his flippers.
“I would walk behind him and look at where there were any gaps, and cut and refit and cut and refit until it looked like it was extremely suitable,” she said.
One concern was that the other penguins would reject Pierre in his new suit, but in fact, they accepted his new look. He swam freely and got along with others well, although he was the only penguin with a black stomach.
Schaller couldn’t say for sure whether the wetsuit allowed Pierre to recover his fine feathers, but “certainly we were able to keep him comfortable during a period of time that would have been very difficult for him to stay comfortable”.
Pierre will take off his suit after his new feathers grow back.
【小题1】Pierre felt too cold to swim in the pool because of _____.

As Christmas is coming, there are presents to be bought, cards to be sent, and rooms to be cleaned. Parents are faced with difficult jobs of hiding presents from curious young children. If the gifts are large, this is sometimes a real    11 . On the Christmas Eve, young children find the excitement almost unbearable. They are torn between the wish to go to bed early so that Father Christmas will bring them presents quickly and the wish to   12  up late so that they will not   13  the fun. The wish for gifts usually proves stronger. But though children go to bed early, they often lie   14  for a long time, hoping to get a short look at Father Christmas.
Last Christmas, my wife and I   15  hid a few large presents in the storeroom. I   16  the moment when my son, Jimmy, would ask me where that new bike had come from, but fortunately he did not see it.
On Christmas Eve,   17   took the children hours to go to sleep. It must have been nearly   18  when my wife and I went quietly into their room and began   19  stockings. Then I pushed in the   20  I bought for Jimmy and left it beside the Christmas tree. We knew we would not get much sleep that night, for the children were   21  to get up early. At about five o’clock the next morning, we were   22  by loud sounds coming from the children’s room—they were shouting excitedly!   23   I had time to get out of bed, young Jimmy came riding into the room on his new bike, and his sister, Mary, followed close behind pushing her new baby carriage.   24  the baby arrived. He moved on the hands and knees into the room dragging a large balloon. We were woken up   25  by them at this time.

Sometimes I really doubt whether there is love between my parents. Every day they are very busy trying to  31  in order to pay the high tuition for my brother and me. They don’t act in the 32 ways that I read in books or I see on TV. In their opinion, “I love you” is too 33 for them to say. Sending flowers to each other on Valentine’s Day is even more out of 34.
One day, my mother was sewing a quilt. I sat down beside her. “Mom, I have a question to ask you. Is there _35  between you and Dad?” I asked her in a very low voice. She didn’t answer immediately. She  36  her head and continued to sew the quilt.
I was very worried because I thought I had _37_ her. I was 38_ and I didn’t know what I should do. But at last I heard my mother say the following words:
“Susan,” she said thoughtfully, “Look at this thread．Sometimes it __39_, but most of it disappears in the quilt. The thread really makes the quilt _40__. If life is a quilt, then love should be a thread．It can hardly be seen _41 , but it’s really there. Love is 42_.”
I listened carefully but I __43_ her until the next spring. At that time, my father suddenly _44 seriously. My mother had to stay with him in the hospital for a month. When they returned from the hospital, they both looked __45_. It seemed both of them had had a serious illness. After they were back, every day in the morning and dusk, my mother helped my father 46__ on the country road．
“Dad, how are you feeling now?” I asked him one day.
“Susan, don’t _47  me.” he said gently. “To tell you the truth, I just like walking with your mom.”_48_ his eyes, I know he loves my mother deeply.
Once I thought love meant flowers, gifts and 49 . But from this experience, I understand that love is just _50_ in the quilt of our life. Love is inside, making life strong and warm.

完形填空（共20小题，每小题1分，满分20分）
When I entered the classroom, our teacher announced we were going to have a math test. I took a look at the   41  full of what looked like hieroglyphs(象形文字) to me and began to   42  . I did the best that I could, and then left my   43  to put my paper in a pile(摞) on the front desk with a(n)   44  .
I returned to my seat and then an idea came to my mind. I   45  where the teacher was before I made my   46 . She was walking in the   47  of the room with her back turned. I left my seat and went back to the pile of test papers already handed   48  and when I picked up my paper I also   49  the paper right below it before returning to my seat. When I looked at the   50  paper I had taken, I discovered it was the work of the   51  girl in our class,   I copied her answers to my paper.
The next day the teacher handed back our papers turning them facedown on everyone’s desks. When I   52  my paper over, I was   53  to see an “F” on it. After class I went to the girl whose answers I had   54  and said to her, “That math test was difficult. I   55  it. I guess we need to study more.” Her   56  was, “Not me, I got every question   57  and got an A.”
The teacher knew. She never blamed me in front of the class and   58  me to keep my dignity(尊严). I made a   59  to myself never ever to cheat again. I would remember to always be   60  in the things I do. I never forgot that teacher who failed me when, really, I had failed myself.