There was a king who gave his daughter a beautiful diamond necklace. The necklace was stolen and his people in the kingdom searched everywhere but could not find it. So the king asked to search for it and put a reward for＄50,000 for anyone who found it.
One day, a clerk was walking home along a river when he saw something shinning in the river and when he looked, he saw the diamond necklace. He decided to try and catch it to get the ＄50,000 reward.
He put his hand in the river and tried to catch the necklace, but somehow missed it and didn’t catch it. He took his hand out and looked again and the necklace was still there. He tried again.
But strangely, he still missed the necklace! He came out and started walking away, feeling sad. Just then, an old man walking by saw him, and asked him what was the matter. The clerk didn’t want to share the secret with him, thinking he might take the necklace for himself, so he refused to tell him anything.
The old man could see this man was troubled. He again asked the clerk to tell him the problem and promised that he would not tell anyone about it. The clerk told him about the necklace and how he tried and tried to catch it, but kept failing.
The old man then told him that perhaps he should try looking upward, toward the branches of the tree, instead of in the river. The clerk looked up and true enough, the necklace was hanging on the branch of a tree. He had been trying to take a reflection of the real necklace all this time.
【小题1】The clerk tried to get the diamond necklace to __________.

对话填空 (共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分)

A: He is very good, isn’t he?

B: Sorry, what did you say?

A: I s__________ the singer was great.

B: Yes, and interesting to watch.

A: Have you seen him here b_________?

B: Oh, yes. He’s always at e__________ the same place on Saturdays when I come into town. I think he probably w__________ the music and words by himself, b________ I’ve n________ heard any of the songs before.

A: It’s not fair

B: What do you m__________?

A: People with musical ability l_________him have to stand around here to make a living.

B: Perhaps he enjoys i_________ or more money than you think.

A: I h_________ so.

A young boy loved football with all his heart. But being half the size of the other boys, this hopeful athlete  36  the bench and hardly ever played.
This young man was still the  37  of the class when he entered high school. He decided to try his best at every  38  , and perhaps he could play later. All through high school he   39  neither a practice nor a game, but   40   a bench-warmer all four years.
When the young man went to   41  , the coach kept him on the roster(候选名单)   42  he always put his heart and soul to every practice, and at same time,   43  the other members with the spirit they badly needed. But during his four years at college, he never   44  to play in a game,
In the last football match, the game was not going  45  . When the team was ten points  46  , the silent young man came to the coach and said “Coach, please let me  47  . Believe me.”  The coach pretended not to hear him . There was no  48  he wanted the worst player in this close playoff(决赛) game.
But the young man  49  , and finally the coach, feeling sorry for him,  50  . “All right,” he said. “You can go in.” Soon, the coach, the players and everyone in the   51  could not believe their eyes. This little   52  man, who had never played before, was doing everything right. The opposing team could not   53  him. He ran, he passed, blocked like a star.
The   54  was(were) soon tied, In the closing seconds of the game, he intercepted(拦截) a  55  and ran all the way for the winning touchdown(触地得分). The fans applauded(鼓掌) and his teammates raised him onto their shoulders. Such cheering he never heard.

. Look at that little boy wandering about — perhaps he _____ his mother.

A. will lose     B. is losing  C. had lost       D. has lost

Even at school there had been an unhealthy competition between George and Richard. 

   “I’ll be the first millionaire in Coleford!” Richard used to boast. 

   “And you’ll be sorry you knew me,” George would reply “because I’ll be the best lawyer in the town!”

   George never did become a lawyer and Richard never made any money. Instead both men opened bookshops on opposite sides of Coleford High Street. It was hard to make money from books, which made the competition between them worse. 

   Then Richard married a mysterious girl. The couple spent their honeymoon on the coast—but Richard never came back. The police found his wallet on a deserted beach but the body was never found. He must have drowned.

   Now with only one bookshop in town, business was better for George. But sometimes he sat in his narrow, old kitchen and gazed out of the dirty window, thinking about his formal rival(竞争对手). Perhaps he missed him? 

   George was very interested in old dictionaries. He’d recently found a collector in Australia who was selling a rare first edition. When the parcel arrived, the book was in perfect condition and George was delighted. But while he was having lunch, George glanced at the photo in the newspaper that the book had been wrapped in. He was astonished—the smiling face was older than he remembered but unmistakable! Trembling, George started reading. 

   “Bookends have bought ten bookstores from their rivals Dylans. The company, owned by multi-millionaire Richard Pike, is now the largest bookseller in Australia.” 

1.George and Richard were ______ at school.

A. roommates     B. good friends    C. competitors    D. booksellers

2.How did George feel about Richard after his disappearance?

 A. He envied Richard’s marriage.

 B. He thought of Richard from time to time.

 C. He felt lucky with no rival in town.

 D. He was guilty of Richard’s death.

3.George got information about Richard from ______.

 A. a dictionary collector in Australia

B. the latter’s rivals Dylans

 C. a rare first edition of a dictionary

D. the wrapping paper of a book

4.What happened to George and Richard in the end?

 A. Both George and Richard became millionaires.

 B. Both of them realized their original ambitions.

 C. George established a successful business while Richard was missing.

 D. Richard became a millionaire while George had no great success.