I know a little bit about the city as I __________ there for one year in my youth.

A. am studying????????????? ????????????? B. had studied????????????? ????????????? C. studied????????????? D. have studied

Liu Qian, a magician from Taiwan, cast his spell(魔法)over an audience of thousands on the CCTV Spring Festival Show. Die-hard fans are still trying to work out the secrets behind many of the tricks he performed.

But Liu, 32, when asked, laughed off the idea that there might be an “answer” to his magic. “The most fascinating things about magic is the puzzling process. People enjoy how magicians make the impossible come true,” said Liu.

Few people today believe in the possibility of real magic. They also often fail to consider magicians’ devotion to their art. It can take a magician years’ of practice to perfect a trick before he performs it on stage.

Part of Liu’s star appeal is his astonishing skill. However, when he began in the industry, he was embarrassingly clumsy. “I could practice thousands of times for one single act. It wasn’t much fun,” he said.

No magician’s supernatural powers on stage extend to their life off stage. Liu says his life was no easier or funnier because he was a magician.

He developed an interest in magic at a young age, but didn’t consider making a living out of it until he graduated from university. He had studied Japanese language and found himself unable to find a job. “My parents never considered being a magician as a proper job. To begin with, I had little confidence I would be doing this in the long term,” he said.

Yet Liu felt a powerful calling to become a magician. “For many people, magic somehow means a miracle, which is something we all secretly wish for no matter how hard-bitten or cynical (愤世嫉俗的)we become,” he said.

Liu may be right. A popular modern dream is of the fairy godmother, who waves her magic wand (棒) and makes our dreams come true. But according to Liu, we all have the power to create magic in our lives. As Liu puts it: it’s not the magic that makes it work；it’s the way we work that makes it magic.

1. According to the passage, we can tell that ________.

A. being a famous magician, Liu Qian leads a comfortable life

B. it is a hard job for magicians to perform magic tricks well

C. Liu Qian’s parents supported his wish of earning a living by being a magician

D. Liu Qian showed great talents in performing magic tricks when he first took it up

2. As to whether there’s real magic, Liu Qian believes ________.

A. there is no real magic and what counts in our life is the way we work

B. if we secretly wish for something, magic will turn out to be a miracle

C. the puzzling process of performing magic tricks is the answer to magic

D. there exists a fairy godmother waving her magic wand to make our dreams come true

3. Which of the following sayings is similar to the underlined sentence in meaning?

A. All roads lead to Rome.                B. Easier said than done.

C. Actions speak louder than words.       D. Where there is a will, there is a way.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A. Magic in our lives                     B. The answer to magic

C. A popular magician from Taiwan         D. The way to become a successful magician

Mr. Briggs got a job with an insurance company(保险公司) after he left school and went around visiting people in their homes to sell them life insurance. One day, after he had been working for the company for about a year, the insurance manager sent for him and said, “Mr. Briggs, I have been looking at your record as a salesman with our company, and there is one thing that surprises me about it. Why have you been selling insurance only to people over 95 years old, and why have you been giving them such generous（宽厚的）conditions? You’ll ruin our company if you go on like that.”

  “Oh, no, sir,” answered Mr. Briggs at once, “Before I started work, I looked at the figures(数字) for deaths in this country during the past ten years, and I can tell you that few people die at the age of 95.”

Before he worked in an insurance company, what was Mr. Briggs?______.

A .He was a worker.   B. He was an official.

C. He was a student.   D. He was a businessman.

The word “ruin” in the second paragraph means       .

A. lose  B. break   C. leave   D. destroy

Which of the following is true according to the passage?      

A.Mr. Briggs had studied the figures for deaths for several years.

B. Mr. Briggs began to look at the figures after he started work.

C. A great number of very old people die every year.

D. The number of the very old people who died every year is small.

I graduated from a small public school in Michigan. One day，Mr. Ledy，our football coach，asked me to play football. I couldn’t help  36  ：me，play football? I was six feet tall and was not much __37__ a hundred pounds in weight. I thought that they might just need  38    fool to increase the number of the players. However，he was persistent(坚持的) and __39__I joined the football team. That           40  to be one of my best decisions as a kid.

Our worst game  __41__ was the one against Crystal Falls. They beat us 56 to 6. Yeah! That was a football not a basketball _42__. We played them again when we were seniors. They __43__ us again but the score was much more _44_，30 to 20.

Coach Ledy would not let that __45__ again. He encouraged us to beat them，to pay them back. And we did so in the last game we played before __46__. I had scored 6 points alone in the game. Coach Ledy praised me. It was a huge _47 for me.

Was I a football hero? Ha! Ha! No，I couldn’t __48__ it without our team. The thing I learned through football was __49__. We won as a team and we __50__ as a team.

I think Mr. Ledy would be __51__ of me if he knew that I had broken the athletic __52__ at the University of Michigan. I’m __53__to him as I would not have today’s honor without him. I’ll __54__life’s final war with pain to win the victory；I’ll seek the lights of glory wholeheartedly and I’ll __55__ working hard so as not to let him down.

21．A. shouting     B. screaming  C. laughing    D. applauding

22．A. up              B. over          C. more          D. out

23．A. another          B. other          C. some          D. any

24．A. immediately       B. secretly        C. personally D. finally

25．A. took out     B. turned out C. gave off       D. gave out

26．A. never      B. once     C. ever           D. again

27．A. game      B. team       C. story     D. score

28．A. won            B. met           C. beat     D. fought

29．A. accessible   B. comfortableC. sensitive     D. acceptable

30．A. happen              B. succeed        C. spread        D. develop

31．A. liberation    B. closing         C. graduation      D. school

32．A. honor      B. hope         C. success  D. surprise

33．A. take         B. manage        C. solve             D. explain

34．A. courage      B. devotion       C. teamwork      D. contribution

35．A. united     B. appeared       C. prepared D. lost

36．A. proud      B. fond          C. full      D. kind

37．A. time        B. record   C. date     D. ability

38．A. pleased       B. grateful        C. hopeful   D. loyal

39．A. fight          B. join           C. desire            D. enjoy

40．A. take on       B. put on   C. rely on    D. keep on

A newly trained teacher named Mary went to teach at a Navajo Indian reservation. Every day, she would ask five of the young Navajo students to __1__ the chalkboard and complete a simple math problem from   2   homework.

    They would stand there, silently,  3   to complete the task. Mary couldn’t figure it out.   4   she had studied in her educational curriculum helped, and she   5   hadn’t seen anything like it in her student-teaching days back in Phoenix.

     What am I doing wrong? Could I have chosen five students who can’t do the  6  ? Mary would wonder. No,  7  couldn’t be that. Finally she   8   the students what was wrong. And in their answers, she learned a   9   lesson from her young   10   pupils about self-image and a(n)   11   of self-worth.

     It seemed that the students  12  each other’s individuality and knew that  13  of them were capable of doing the problems.   14  at their early age, they understood the senselessness of the win-lose approach in the classroom. They believed no one would  15  if any students were shown up or embarrassed at the  16  . So they   17   to compete with each other in public.

     Once she understood, Mary changed the system   18   she could check each child’s math problem individually, but not at any child’s expense  19  his classmates. They all wanted to learn,  20  not at someone else’s expense.

1．  A．go to B．come to    C．get close to      D．bring

2．  A．his    B．their  C．his own    D．her

3．  A．happy       B．willingly   C．readily      D．unwilling

4．  A．Anything  B．Nothing    C．Everything       D．Neither

5．  A．almost      B．certainly   C．hardly      D．never

6．  A．question   B．chalkboard       C．problem    D．homework

7．  A．they  B．it      C．everything       D．each

8．  A．asked       B．questioned       C．told   D．understood

9．  A．outstanding      B．surprising C．annoying  D．frightening

10．A．sunburned B．tender       C．Indian      D．naughty

11．A．sense B．image       C．way   D．aspect

12．A．had   B．ignored     C．respected  D．cared

13．A．none        B．no one      C．each  D．not all

14．A．Especially B．Even though    C．Even so    D．Even

15．A．lose   B．win   C．achieve     D．answer

16．A．time  B．situation   C．chalkboard       D．condition

17．A．refused     B．rejected    C．tried  D．promised

18．A．if      B．so that      C．unless       D．in case

19．A．in favour of    B．of     C．by means of     D．in front of

20．A．and   B．but    C．so     D．or