Some say everyday miracles(奇迹) are predestined(注定的)----the right time for the appointed
meeting. And it can happen anywhere.
In 2001, 11-year-old Kevin Stephan was a bat boy for his younger brother's Little League team in
Lancaster, New York. It was an early evening in late July. Kevin was standing on the grass away from the plate, where another youngster was warming up for the next game. Swinging his bat back and forth, giving it all the power an elementary school kid could give. The boy brought the bat back hard and hit Kevin in the chest. His heart stopped.
When Kevin fell to the ground, the mother of one of the players rushed out of the stands to his aid.
Penny Brown hadn't planned to be there that day, but at the last minute, her shift(换班)at the hospital had been changed to see her son’s performance. She was given the night off. Penny bent over the senseless boy, his face already starting to turn blue, and giving CPR, breathing into his mouth and giving chest compressions. And he revived in the end.
After his recovery, he became a volunteer junior firefighter, learning some of the emergency first-aid
techniques that had saved his life. He studied hard in school and was saving money for college by working as a dishwasher in a local restaurant in his spare time.
Kevin, now 18, was working in the kitchen when he heard people screaming, customers in confusion,
employees rushing toward a table. He hurried into the main room and saw a woman there, her face turning blue, her hands at her throat. She was choking.
Quickly Kevin stepped behind her, wrapped his arms around her and clasped his hands. Then, using
skills he'd first learned in Scouts. The food that was trapped in the woman's throat was freed. The color began to return to her face.
"The food was stuck. I couldn't breathe," she said. She thought she was dying. "I was very frightened."
Who was the woman?
Penny Brown.
(    )59. The author wrote the passage to show us that_______.
A. miracles are predestined and they can happen anywhere
B. whoever helps you in trouble will get a reward one day
C. God will help those who give others a helping hand
D. miracles won’t come without any difficulty sometimes
(    )60 Which of the following statements is True of Kevin Stephan?
A. He was hit on the face by a boy and almost lost his life
B. He was a volunteer junior firefighter, teaching the players first-aid skills
C. He worked part-time in a local restaurant to save money for college
D. He saved Penny Brown though he didn’t really know how to deal with food choke
(    )61. Why did Penny Brown change her shift and was given the night off that night?
A. She was invited to give the players directions
B. She volunteered to give medical services
C. She was a little worried about his son’s safety
D. She came to watch her son’s game and cheered him
(    )62. The underlined word “revived”(paragraph3) most likely means______.
A. came back to life      B. became worse     C. failed      D. moved
(   )63. When Kevin knew the woman was Penny Brown, probably he first felt _____.
A. happy        B. surprised         C. sad       D. worried

About ten years ago when I was an undergraduate in college in New York, I was working as a practice student at my University's Museum of Natural History. One day while I was working at the cash register in the gift shop, I saw an elderly couple come in with a little girl in wheelchair.
As I looked closer at this girl, I saw that she was seated on her chair. I then realized she had no arms or legs, just a head, neck and the trunk of the human body. She was wearing a little white dress with the patterns of red roses and yellow dots.
As the couple wheeled her up to me I was looking down at the register. I turned my head toward the girl and gave her a wink(眨眼示意). As I took the money from her grandparents, I looked back at the girl, who was giving me the most beautiful, largest smile I have ever seen
All of a sudden her handicap was gone and all I saw was this beautiful girl, whose smile just melted me and almost instantly gave me a completely new sense of what life is all about. I immediately felt full of hope and confidence. She took me, a poor, unhappy college student, into her world, a world of smiles, love and warmth.               
That was ten years ago, but I still remember it clearly as if it happened just yesterday. I'm a successful business person now and whenever I get down and think about the troubles of the world, I think about that little girl and the remarkable lesson about life that she taught me.
【小题1】What was the writer a decade ago?

III. Reading Comprehension （35分）
Section A
Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.
There was a man who played the piano in a small bar. There were not too many ___46___, but because he was a good piano player, some people ___47___ came in every night just to hear him play. But one night, a patron (老顾客) told him he didn’t want to hear him play but to sing a song.
The man said, “I have never done that before in public. I think I’m ___48___ at playing the piano.” But the customer ___49___. He told the waiter, “I’m ___50___ listening to the piano day after day. I want to hear something new and I want that guy to sing.”
The waiter ___51___ across the room, “Hey, buddy! If you want to get ___52___, sing a song. The patrons are asking you to sing!”
So in order no bring some money home that night, the piano player who had never sung in public did so for the very first time. And ___53___ had ever heard the song Mona Lisa sung before ___54___ that night by Nat King Cole, and it surprised all, including the ___55___ himself.
He had talent he was sitting on! He may have lived the rest of his life as a no-name piano player in a no-name bar, but ___56___ he had to sing, he went on to become one of the best-known entertainers in America.
You, too, have skills and ___57___. You may not feel as if your “talent” is particularly ___58___, but it may be better than you think! And with persistence, most skills can be ___59___. Besides, you may as well have no ability at all if you sit on whatever talent you possess. The ___60___ is not “What ability do I have that is useful?” It is rather “How will I use whatever ability I have?”
46.   A. waiters       B. players       C. singers       D. customers
47.   A. never         B. still     C. ever    D. only
48.   A. better  B. nicer   C. easier  D. sooner
49.   A. agreed       B. worried      C. insisted      D. charged
50.   A. familiar with     B. fond of      C. used to      D. tired of
51.   A. complained       B. shouted      C. explained   D. served
52.   A. changed     B. fired          C. paid    D. praised
53.   A. nobody      B. anybody     C. somebody   D. everybody
54.   A. since   B. after   C. until   D. when
55.   A. waiter B. singer C. patron D. owner
56.   A. unless B. although     C. because      D. if
57    A. advantages B. characters   C. abilities      D. principles
58.   A. different    B. surprising   C. famous       D. great
59.   A. improved   B. wasted       C. recognized        D. impressed
60    A. decision     B. difficulty    C. question     D. solution

If you feel at present that you don’t have enough friends in your life, one reason may be that you have let yourself become too busy to make time for the relationships you already have. Starting and keeping friendship requires effort and commitment.
Many of us let our lives become so busy with work and other commitments that we don’t get around to scheduling time for pleasure and renewal（叙旧）with the friends, relatives and acquaintances we already have.
Making the effort to call your friends more regularly and to accept more of the invitations you receive from others can improve your social life in a hurry!
Are there any people you could call right now and be assured of a pleasant welcome? Are there people that you could count on to help you in time of difficulty? Can you have close talks with them? Do you have fun when you are together? Are you happy to have them in your life?
If you haven’t seen much of them lately, is it because you have become too busy? Have you grown apart? Was there an argument?
If the main reason you haven’t been getting together with the people you already know is that you have got too busy, take a good look at how you spend your time. Compare it with your real values and priorities（优先考虑的事）in life. Is your busy lifestyle really bringing you the quality of life that you want?
If you have become too busy for friends, why has this happened? Are you seeking material toys in your life at the expense of relationships with other human beings? Have you allowed your time to be over-committed because you never say “No” to anyone? Do you insist on doing things yourself that could be appointed to others? If so, why? Do you believe that everything depends on you?
Examine whether the way you are now spending your time accurately reflects your deepest values and priorities. Make sure that you schedule adequate time for the things that are truly most important to you.
If you really want to keep friends in your life, make a space in your schedule, and a space in your heart for them.
68.In this passage the author mainly discusses ____.
A. how to balance friendship and work
B. how to spend our spare time
C. whether we should keep friendship
D. whether we should invite friends to dinner
69. Which of the following doesn’t indicate a good relationship?
A. You have someone to count on when you are in trouble.
B. You have someone to have close talks with.
C. You have fun when you are with someone.
D. You feel depressed with others in life.
70 .The reason why you have become too busy for friends may be the following EXCEPT that ____.
A. you spend too much time seeking material toys in your life
B. you feel it difficult to keep friendship
C. you stick to doing everything all by yourself
D. you never refuse whatever other people ask you to do

Any foreigner who has tried to learn Chinese can tell how hard it is to master the tones required to speak and understand. And anyone who has tried to learn to play the violin or other instruments can report similar challenges.
Now researchers have found that people with musical training have an easier time learning Chinese. Writing in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience，researchers from Northwestern University say that both skills draw on the same parts of the brain that help people discover changes in pitch(音调)．
One of the study’s authors，Nina Kraus，said the findings suggested that studying music “actually tunes our sensory system”．This means that schools that want children to do well in languages should hesitate before cutting music programs，Dr.Kraus said. She said music training might also help children with language problems.
Mandarin(普通话)speakers have been shown to have a more complex encoding(编码) of pitch patterns in their brains than English speakers do. This is because in Mandarin and other Asian languages，pitch plays a central role. A single­syllable word can have several meanings depending on how it is intoned.
For this study，the researchers looked at 20 non­Chinese speaking volunteers，half with no musical background and half who have studied an instrument for at least six years.
As they were shown a movie，the volunteers also heard an audio tape of the Mandarin word “mi” in three of its meanings：squint，bewilder and rice. The researchers recorded activities in their brain stems to see how well they were processing the sounds. Those with a music background showed much more brain activities in response to the Chinese sounds.
The lead author of the study，Patrick C．M.Wong，said it might work both ways. It appears that native speakers of tonal languages may do better at learning instruments.
【小题1】When learning Chinese，a foreigner will find ________.