Pete Richards was the loneliest man in town on the day that little Jean Grace opened the door of his shop.

         Pete's grandfather had owned the shop until his death. Then the shop became Pete's. The front window was full of beautiful old things: jewelry of a hundred years ago, gold and silver boxes, carved figures from China and Japan and other nations.

         On this winter afternoon, a child stood there, her face close to the window. With large and serious eyes, she studied each piece in the window. Then, looking pleased, she stepped back from the window and went into the shop. Pete himself stood behind the counter. His eyes were cold as he looked at the small girl. “Please,” she began, “would you let me look at the pretty string of blue beads in the window?” Pete took the string of blue beads from the window. The beads were beautiful against his hand as he held the necklace up for her to see.

         “They are just right,” said the child as though she were alone with the beads. “Will you wrap them up in pretty paper for me, please? I've been looking for a really wonderful Christmas present for my sister.”

         “How much money do you have?” asked Pete.

         She put a handful of pennies on the counter. “This is all I have,” she explained simply. “I've been saving the money for my sister's present.”

         Pete looked at her, his eyes thoughtful. Then he carefully closed his hand over the price mark on the necklace so that she could not see it. How could he tell her the price? The happy look in her big blue eyes struck him like the pain of an old wound.

         “Just a minute,” he said and went to the back of the shop. “What's your name?” he called out. He was very busy about something.

         “Jean Grace,” answered the child.

         When Pete returned to the front of the shop, he held a package in his hand. It was wrapped in pretty Christmas paper.

         “There you are,” he said. “Don't lose it on the way home.”

         She smiled happily at him as she ran out of the door. Through the window he watched her go. He felt more alone than ever.

         Something about Jean Grace and her string of beads had made him feel once more the pain of his old grief. The child's hair was as yellow as the sunlight; her eyes were as blue as the sea. Once upon a time, Pete had loved a girl with hair of that same yellow and with eyes just as blue. And the necklace of blue stones had been meant for her.

         But one rainy night, a car had gone off the road and struck the girl. After she died, Pete felt that he had nothing left in the world except his grief. The blue eyes of Jean Grace brought him out of that world of self-pity and made him remember again all that he had lost. The pain of remembering was so great that Pete wanted to run away from the happy Christmas shoppers who came to look at his beautiful old things during the next ten days.

         When the last shopper had gone, late on Christmas Eve, the door opened and a young woman came in. Pete could not understand it, but he felt that he had seen her before. Her hair was sunlight yellow and her eyes were sea-blue. Without speaking, she put on the counter a package wrapped in pretty Christmas paper. When Pete opened the package, the string of blue beads lay again before him.

         “Did this come from your shop?” she asked.

         Pete looked at her with eyes no longer cold. “Yes, it did,” he said.

         “Are the stones real?”

         “Yes. They aren't the best turquoise(绿松石), but they are real.”

         “Can you remember to whom you sold them?”

         “She was a small girl. Her name was Jean. She wanted them for her sister's Christmas present.”

         “How much were they?”

         “I can't tell you that,” he said. “The seller never tells anyone else what a buyer pays.”

         “But Jean has never had more than a few pennies. How could she pay for them?”

         “She paid the biggest price one can ever pay,” he said.

         For a moment there was no sound in the little shop. Then somewhere in the city, church bells began to ring. It was midnight and the beginning of another Christmas Day.

         “But why did you do it?” the girl asked.

         Pete put the package into her hands.

         “There is no one else to whom I can give a Christmas present,” he said. “It is already Christmas morning. Will you let me take you to your home? I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas at your door.”

         And so, to the sound of many bells, Pete Richards and a girl whose name he had not yet learned walked out into the hope and happiness of a new Christmas Day.

1.When Pete saw Jean Grace, he was ______.

A. very enthusiastic, hoping for some business to be done

B. cold but he still served the young customer

C. cold, unwilling to serve the young customer

D. very warm to the young customer though he did not want to sell anything to her

2.Pete did not say the price of the necklace because ______.

A. the seller never tells anyone else what a buyer pays

B. he priced the necklace too high

C. he knew it would disappoint the girl

D. he didn't want to sell the necklace

3.The eyes of Jean Grace brought Pete out of his world of self-pity and he ______.

A. tried to forget the memory of his sweetheart

B. began to look at the world optimistically

C. remembered his lost love

D. no longer felt the pain in him

4.A young woman came into the shop because ______.

A. she was afraid that there might be some mistake

B. she thought that the stones she had bought were not real

C. she was not sure if she could get more stones like those

D. she did not like what she had once bought

5.By saying “She paid the biggest price one can ever pay,” Pete meant that Jean Grace     .

A. gave the most money for the necklace

B. gave all she had with her for the necklace

C. appreciated the value of the necklace

D. wanted to have the best thing in the shop

6. At the end of the story we see that Pete _____.

A. found another girl that he could trust

B. met someone who truly loved him

C. found a place to go at last

D. regained his ability to love

When I was young, I belonged to a club that did community service work. There was one specific event that was   1    for me. I spent three or four hours handing out warm dinner to the ___2_ out in the streets. After that I went to a homeless shelter(避难所) not far from the Bay Bridge. I was in high school and at the time my sister was too young to join in . She wanted to help,   3    she made many chocolate chip cookies for me to __4_____ and hand out to people. When getting to the shelter, I passed out the   5   . I began making sandwiches and shared them with the crowd. I had the containers with my sister’s cookies in them and began to walk around, offering them to anyone near me.

I walked   6  to an old gentleman and said, “Sir, would you like a cookie?” He stopped and turned around, looked at me   7  and said, “What did you say? Did you call me sir?” I told him I had , and his eyes  8  a little bit and said, “No one has ever called me sir.” So he was completely   9 . It struck me.

I explained I had been raised that regardless of (不顾)   10  and social status（地位）, everyone deserved(值得）  11 . It saddened me to think that just because he was homeless, no one offered him the honor . It broke my heart. I just didn’t understand   12  no one ever called him sir. I had never thought that anyone was   13   me because I wasn’t raised that way. Every single person deserves to be treated with respect. Years later, I still carry that   14    and the lesson it taught me. Somtimes, what we take for granted can really make a difference in   15  life.

1.                A．uncommon      B．unusual         C．universal  D．simple

2.                A．winners        B．losers          C．hopeless  D．homeless

3.                A．but            B．so             C．while D．though

4.                A．enjoy          B．eat            C．take D．produce

5.                A．meals          B．cookies         C．chocolates D．chips

6.                A．near           B．close           C．forward  D．along

7.                A．briefly         B．swiftly          C．highly    D．directly

8.                A．cried          B．opened         C．watered  D．lit

9.                A．disappointed    B．moved         C．spoiled   D．relieved

10.               A．income         B．pain           C．colour D．goal

11.               A．respect        B．praise          C．happiness  D．laughter

12.               A．what           B．how           C．why  D．whether

13.               A．in front of       B．below          C．behind    D．beside

14.               A．word          B．memory        C．feeling    D．sadness

15.               A．someone’s     B．anyone’s      C．everyone’s   D．no one’s

In 1956 Phoenix, Arizona, was a city with boundless blue   1 . One day as I walked around the house with my sister Kathy’s new parakeet （小鹦鹉）on my finger, I wanted to show Perky what the sky looked like. I took him into the backyard, and then, to my horror , Perky flew off. The enormous, blue sky swallowed up my sister’s blue  2   and suddenly he had gone, clipped wings and all. 
I told Kathy about Perky's disappearance and I was anxious that she would blame me. But , unexpectedly, Kathy managed to   3  me. With fake optimism, she even tried to convince me that Perky would find a new    4   . But I was far too clever to   5   that such a thing was possible.
Decades later, I watched my own    6  growing. We shared their activities, spending soccer Saturdays in folding chairs with the   7 of the kids’ friends, the Kissells. The two families went camping around Arizona together. We became the best of friends. One evening, the game was to tell Great Pet stories. One person claimed（宣称） to  8  the oldest living goldfish. Someone else had a psychic dog. Then Barry, the father of the other family, took the floor and ___9___that the Greatest Pet of All Time was his blue parakeet, Sweetie Pie.
"The best thing about Sweetie Pie," he said, "was the  10   we got him. One day, when I was about eight, out of the clear, blue sky, a little blue parakeet just  11   down and landed on my finger."
When I was finally able to  12 , we examined the amazing evidence. The dates and the locations and the pictures of the bird all  13 . It seems our two families had been  14  long before we ever met. Forty years later, I ran to my sister and said, "You were  15 ! Perky lived!"

When I was young, I belonged to a club that did community service work. There was one specific  36  that was unusual for me. I spent three or four hours handing out warm dinner to the homeless   37   in the streets. After that I went to a homeless shelter not far from the Bay Bridge.
I was in high school and at the time my sister was too young to   38   . She wanted to help,   39  she made many chocolate chip cookies for me to  40   and hand out to people. When getting to the shelter, I passed out the   41   . I began making sandwiches and   42    them with the crowd. I had the containers with my sister’s   43    in them and began to   44    around, offering them to anyone near me.
I approached an   45   gentleman and said, “ Sir, would you like a cookie?” He stopped and turned around, looked at me and said, “What did you say? Did you call me sir?” I told him I had, and his eyes   46    a little bit and said, “ No one has   47    called me sir.’ So he was completely moved.
It   48    me.
I explained I had been raised that   49    color and social status, everyone deserved respect. It   50    me to think that just because he was homeless, no one   51    him the honor. It broke my heart. I just didn’t understand   52    no one ever called him sir. I had never thought that anyone was below me because I wasn’t raised that way. Every   53    person deserves to be treated with respect. Years later, I still carry that memory and the   54    it taught me. Sometimes, what we take for granted can    55    make a difference in someone’s life.

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
Everybody has had at least one experience from which he knows the meaning of life. This time, which took place several years ago, but seems as if it just happened.
On an afternoon several years ago, my brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister’s dress and picked out a beautiful skirt. “ Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion.” he said．I guess this was the occasion: it was the funeral of my sister, after her unexpected death.
He took the shirt and put it on bed, with the other clothes we were taking to the funeral. Then he closed the drawer and turned to me, “Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you’re alive is a special occasion.”
I’m thinking about his words, and they’ve changed the way I live my life. I’m spending more time with my family and friends and less time in committee meetings. Whenever possible, life should be a kind of experience to enjoy, not to suffer. “Someday ”and “one of these days ”are losing their importance  on my vocabulary. If it’s worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now.
Ever since that day, I have been trying very hard not to put off, hold back or save anything that would add laughter and color to our lives. Every morning when I open my eyes, I tell myself that every day, every minute, every breath, truly is a gift. So cherish every day and find the true meaning of your life.
56．Why did Jan buy the beautiful skirt but didn’t wear it?
A．She waited for a special occasion to wear it on.
B．She wanted to keep it for someone else.
C．She saved it till she grew up.
D．She would give it to herself as a gift some day.
57．What does the underlined word “cherish” mean?
A．Treasure.  B．Waste.      C．Own. D．Save
58．From his experience, the author learns that_______.
A．everybody can have a happy life through efforts
B．every day in our lives is worth cherishing
C．enjoying ourselves is the most important thing in our lives
D．everybody will have some things left to do after his death
59．What does the author write this passage for?
A．To show how to make good use of everyday in life.
B．To explain the true meaning of his brother-in-law’s words.
C．To tell people to cherish every day and find the meaning of life.
D．To encourage people to waste time and enjoy themselves in life.
60．What’s the best title for this passage?
A．Every Day IS a Gift      
B．My Sister Jan
C．What Is the Meaningful Life like   
D．The Most Important Time in Your Life