One day while shopping in a small town in southern California，it was my misfortune to be approached by a clerk whose personality conflicted with mine. He seemed most unfriendly and not at all concerned about my intended purchase. I bought nothing，and marched angrily out of the store. My hostility（敌意） toward that clerk increased with each step.
On the outside，standing by the road，was a dark­skinned young man in his early twenties. His expressive brown eyes met and held mine，and in the next instant a beautiful, dazzling（给人印象深刻的） smile covered his face. I gave way immediately. The magnetic（磁力的） power of that smile dissolved （溶解）all bitterness within me，and I found the muscles in my own face happily responding（回应）.
“Beautiful day，isn't it？”I remarked，in passing. Then，I turned back.“I really owe you a debt of gratitude（感谢），”I said softly.
His smile deepened, but he made no attempt to answer．A Mexican woman and two men were standing nearby．The woman stepped forward and volunteered, "Sir, but he doesn't speak English．Do you want me to tell him something?" In that moment I felt transformed（改变）．The young man's smile had made a big person of me．My friendliness and good will toward all mankind stood ten feet tall．
"Thank you?" The woman seemed slightly puzzled．
I gave her arm a friendly pat as I turned to leave．"Just tell him that," I insisted．"He'll understand．I am sure !"
Oh, what a smile can do! Although I have never seen that young man again, I shall never forget the lesson he taught me that morning．From that day on, I became smile-conscious, and I practice the art anywhere and everywhere, with everybody．
【小题1】Why did the author leave the store angrily?

A．The clerk treated him unkindly．	B．He couldn't buy what he wanted．
C．The clerk didn't speak English．	D．The store's goods were too dear．

【小题2】By saying "I felt the muscles（肌肉） in my own face happily responding" （in Paragraph 2）, the author means __.

A．he was still angry	B．he did not want to smile
C．he would thank the young man	D．he smiled back at the young man

【小题3】The author asked the woman to say "Thank you!" to the young man because the young man_____.

A．had helped the author before	B．taught the author how to smile
C．was a kind employee of the store	D．taught the author a valuable lesson

【小题4】In the passage, the author seems to suggest that we should __   ___.

A．be generous to strangers	B．practice smiling every day
C．smile at other people	D．help people in trouble

He lost his arms in an accident that cost his father the life. Since then, he’s had to depend on the arms of his younger brother. To take care of him, his younger brother became his shadow, never leaving him alone for years. Except for writing with his toes, he was completely unable to do anything in his life.

   One late night, he felt bad and had to wake up his younger brother. His younger brother accompanied him into the toilet and then went back to the dorm to wait. But being so tired, his younger brother fell asleep, leaving him three hours till the teacher on duty discovered him. As they grew up, they would have their share of problems. Then one day, his younger brother wanted to live his own life, which made him heart-broken.

   A similar misfortune befell a girl. One night her mother, who suffered from mental illness,  disappeared. Her father went out looking for her mother, leaving her alone at home. She tried to prepare meals for them, only to overturn the lamp on the stove, resulting in a fire which took her hands away.

   Though her elder sister, who was studying in another city, showed her willingness to look after her, she was determined to be completely independent. At school, she always studied hard and learned to be independent. She wrote in her composition: “Though I lost my arms, I still have legs; I’m lucky.”

   One day, the boy and the girl were both invited to appear on a television interview program. They both were asked to write something on a piece of paper with their toes. The boy wrote: My younger brother’s arms are my arms; while the girl wrote: Broken wings, flying heart.

   It is true that misfortune can strike at any time. If you choose only to complain and escape, it will always follow you wherever you go. But if you decided to be strong, the hardship will turn out to be a fortune on which new hopes will arise.

Which of the following is TRUE according to this passage?

   A. The elder brother lost his arms in a family fire when cooking.

   B. In an accident the elder brother lost his arms, but his father lost his life.

   C. The younger brother shouldn’t have left his brother alone.

   D. The boy and the girl were both independent.

Which is the best title of this passage?

   A. Help Those in Need

   B. Broken Wings, Flying Heart

   C. Life, Often Unfair, Is Compared to Voyage

   D. The Importance of One’s Arms

What is the biggest difference between the boy and the girl?

   A. The girl didn’t live with her sister while the boy was helped a lot by his brother.

   B. The girl had a devoted sister while the boy’s brother refused to help him.

   C. The girl chose to be challenged while the boy chose to give in.

   D. The boy lost his father while the girl lost her mother.

The underlined word “befell” in the third paragraph means “        ”.

   A. fell                  B. happened to         C. passed                  D. pulled down

 

     请阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36~55各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该选项的标号涂黑。

Introduction to Letters to Sam

Dear Reader,

     Please allow me to tell you something before you read this book. When my   1, Sam, was born, my heart was filled with joy. I had been sitting in a wheelchair for 20 years before then, and I have been  2ill many times. So I wondered if I would have the  3to tell Sam what I had  4.

     For years I have been hosting a program on the  5and writing articles for a magazine.  Being  6to move freely, I have learned to sit still and keep my heart  7, exchanging thoughts with thousands of listeners and  8. So when Sam was born, I  9to tell him about school and friendship, romance and work, love and everything else. That’s how I started to write these  10. I hope that Sam would  11them sooner or later.

     However, that expectation  12when Sam showed signs of autism (自闭症) at the age of two. He had actually stopped talking before the discovery of the signs. He  13to communicate with others, even the family members. That was  14for me but didn’t stop me writing on. I realized that I had even   15now to tell him. I wanted him to  16what it means to be “different” from others, and learn how to fight against the misfortune he’ll  17as I myself, his grandfather, did. I just  18if I could write all that I wanted to say in the rest of my life.

     Now,   19the book has been published, I have been given the chance. Every chapter in the book is a letter to Sam: some about my life, and all about what it means to be a   20.

                                                                  Daniel Gottlieb

1.A. son                        B. nephew                     C. brother                     D. grandson

2.A. seriously                B. mentally                    C. slightly                     D. quietly

3.A. ability                    B. time                          C. courage                    D. responsibility

4.A. written                   B. suffered                    C. observed                   D. lost

5.A. radio                      B. television                   C. stage                        D. bed

6.A. ready                     B. unable                       C. anxious                     D. eager

7.A. warm                    B. broken                      C. closed                      D. open

8.A. hosts                     B. visitors                     C. readers                     D. reporters

9.A. began                    B. stopped                     C. forgot                       D. decided

10.A. letters                  B. emails                       C. books                       D. diaries

11.A. find                      B. read                          C. collect                      D. keep

12.A. developed             B. disappeared               C. changed                    D. arrived

13.A. tried                     B. refused                     C. regretted                   D. hoped

14.A. exciting                B. acceptable                 C. strange                     D. heartbreaking

15.A. less                      B. everything                 C. more                        D. nothing

16.A. understand           B. explain                      C. believe                      D. question

17.A. fear                     B. face                          C. know                       D. cause

18.A. felt                      B. guessed                    C. saw                          D. doubted

19.A. as                        B. once                         C. though                      D. if

20.A. teacher                 B. child                         C. man                         D. writer

 

We may look at the world around us, but somehow we manage not to see it until whatever we’ve become used to suddenly disappears.   36  , for example, the neatly-dressed woman I   37    see —or look at — on my way to work each morning.

For three years, no matter   38   the weather was like, she was always waiting at the bus stop around 8:00 am. On   39  days, she wore heavy clothes and a pair of woolen gloves. Summertime   40   out neat, belted cotton dresses and a hat pulled low over her sunglasses.   41  , she was an ordinary working woman. Of course, I   42   all this only after she was seen no more. It was then that I realized how   43   I counted on to see her each morning. You might say I   44   her.

“Did she have an accident? Something   45  ?” I thought to myself about her   46  . Now that she was gone, I felt I had   47   her. I began to realize that part of our   48   life probably includes such chance meetings with familiar   49  : the milkman you see at dawn, the woman who

  50   walks her dog along the street every morning, the twin brothers you see at the library. Such people are 51 markers in the landscape of our lives. They add weight to our   52   of place and belonging.

Think about it.  53  , while walking to work, we mark where we are by   54   a certain building, why should we not mark where we are when we pass a familiar, though   55  , person?

A. Use                B. Set             C. Follow           D. Take

A. would             B. used to           C. ought to         D. had to

A. that               B. how             C. what             D. whether

A. snowy             B. cool            C. sunny            D. cloudy

A. wore                   B. brought          C. gave           D. helped

A. Clearly            B. Luckily          C. Unfortunately    D. Besides

A. impressed           B. watched         C. remembered      D. knew

A. long               B. easy             C. difficult         D. much

A. loved              B. missed               C. disappointed      D. hated

A. special             B. unexpected     C. especial          D. worse

A. disappearance      B. appearance       C. misfortune      D. fortune

A. forgotten           B. lost              C. known         D. hurt

A. happy              B. enjoyable        C. frequent        D. daily

A. friends            B. strangers         C. tourists          D. guests

A. regularly            B. actually       C. hardly          D. probably

A. common          B. pleasant          C. important     D. faithful

A. choice            B. knowledge       C. decision         D. sense

A. Because            B. If             C. Although        D However

A. keeping            B. changing         C. passing       D. mentioning

A. unnamed           B. unforgettable    C. unbelievable     D. unreal

A jobless man applied for the position of “office boy” at Microsoft. The HR manager interviewed him and then watched him cleaning the floor as a test.
“You are employed,” he said. “Give me your e-mail address and I’ll send you the application to fill in, as well as date when you may start.”
The man replied, “But I don’t have a computer, neither an e-mail.”
“I’m sorry,” said the HR manager. “If you don’t have an e-mail, that means you do not exist. And he who doesn’t exist cannot have the job. ”
The man left with no hope at all. He didn’t know what to do, with only ten dollars in his pocket. He then decided to go to the supermarket and buy 10kg tomatoes. He then sold the tomatoes from door to door. In less than two hours, he succeeded to double his capital. He repeated the operation three times, and returned home happily with 60 dollars.
The man realized that he could survive in this way, and started to go every day earlier, and returned late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled every day. Shortly, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles. Five years later, the man is one of the biggest food retailers(零售商) in the US.
He started to plan his family’s future and decided to have a life insurance. He called an insurance broker(保险业经纪人) and chose a protection plan.
When the conversation was concluded the broker asked him his e-mail. The man replied, “I don’t have an e-mail.”
The broker answered curiously, “You don’t have an e-mail, and yet have succeeded to build an empire(帝国). Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an e-mail?” The man thought for a while and replied, “Yes, I’d be an office boy at Microsoft!”
【小题1】Why can’t the man have the job at Microsoft?

A．Because he was lazy.	B．Because he didn’t pass the test.
C．Because he didn’t have an e-mail.	D．Because he didn’t have a computer.

【小题2】The underlined word “triple” can be replaced by ______.

A．become large

B．become 3 times

C．increase quickly

D．decrease quickly

【小题3】The man can be described as _______.

A．helpful and grateful	B．positive and generous
C．smart and hardworking	D．stubborn and unselfish

【小题4】Which proverb can best describe the story?

A．Misfortune may be an actual blessing.	B．Where there is a will, there is a way.
C．Accidents will happen.	D．No pains , no gains.