. “_____ when does the pub stay open？”  “About midnight.”

It seemed only several minutes _______ he finished this painting .

Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers advised, “Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience.” How right they were!

       “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste that helps you hang on there when the going gets tough. It is the inner voice that whispers, “I can do it!” When others shout, “No, you can’t!” It took years for the early work of Barbara Mclintock, a geneticist who won the Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn’t stop working on her experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.

      We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such youthful air, whatever their age. At 90, pianist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach. As the music flowed through his fingers, joy would reappear in his eyes. As author and poet Samuel Ulman once wrote, “Years wrinkle(使皱) the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

     Enthusiastic people also love what they do, without being affected by money or title or power. Patricia Mellratl, retired director of the Missouri Repertory Theater in Kansas City, was once asked where she got her enthusiasm. She replied, “My father, long ago, told me, ‘I never made a penny until I stopped working for money.’”

      If we cannot do what we love as a full-time career, we can as a hobby. Elizabeth Layton was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended periods of depression that troubled her for at least 30 years and the quality of her work led one critic to say, “I am tempted into a genius.”

   We can’t afford to waste tears on “might-have-been”. We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after “what-can-be”．We need to live each moment whole-heartedly, with all our senses—finding pleasure in the sweet smell of a back-yard garden, the simple picture of a six-year-old, and the beauty of a rainbow.

The author mainly wants to say that _________

A. enthusiastic people will never get old

    B. enthusiasm can make you succeed and enjoy life

    C. enthusiasm is more important than experience

    D. enthusiasm can give people more success and fame

Which of the following can best explain the underlined sentence in the second paragraph?

    A. Enthusiasm can give you courage and strength in difficult times.

    B. If you don’t have enthusiasm, you can achieve nothing.

    C. Enthusiastic people never consider money and fame.

    D. Enthusiastic people can gain great fame and honor.

The author mentions cellist Pablo Casals in the third paragraph to show that____

    A. music can arouse people’s enthusiasm

    B. enthusiasm can give people inspiration needed to succeed

    C. enthusiasm can make people feel young

    D. enthusiasm can keep people healthy

How many examples are given in the passage to show the importance of enthusiasm?

    A. Three    B. Two    C. Four   D.  Five

  It will be a long time ______- he returns.

There was a story many years ago of a school teacher—Mrs. Thompson. She told the children on the first day that she loved them all the same. But that was a lie. There in the front row was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. He didn‘t play well with the other children and he always needed a bath. She did not like him.

Then Mrs. Thompson got to know that Teddy was actually a very good boy before the death of his mother. Mrs. Thompson was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when, like all her other students, Teddy brought her a Christmas present too. It was his mother’s perfume(香水)．

Teddy said, “Mrs. Thompson, today you smell just like my Mom used to.” After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she stopped teaching reading, writing and math. Instead, she began to teach children.
Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. The boy‘s mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he improved. By the end of the sixth grade, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class.

Six years went by before she got a note from Teddy. He wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. He went to college. Mrs. Thompson got two more letters from him with the last one signed. Theodore F. Stoddard, M. D. (医学博士).

The story doesn’t end there. On his wedding day, Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson‘s ear, “Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, for believing in me. You made me feel important and showed me that I could make a difference.”
Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back, “Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn’t know how to teach until I met you.”

1．What did Mrs. Thompson do on the first day of school?
A. She made Teddy feel ashamed.
B. She asked the children to play with Teddy.
C. She changed Teddy‘s seat to the front row.
D. She told the class something untrue about herself.

2．What did Mrs. Thompson find out about Teddy?
A. He often told lies.
B. He was good at math.
C. He needed motherly care.
D. He enjoyed playing with others.

3．In what way did Mrs. Thompson change?
A. She taught fewer school subjects.
B. She became stricter with her students.
C. She no longer liked her job as a teacher.
D. She cared more about educating students.

4．Why did Teddy thank Mrs. Thompson at his wedding?
A. She had kept in touch with him.
B. She had given him encouragement.
C. She had sent him Christmas presents.
D. She had taught him how to judge people.