Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had ___36____ from just the two of us in a ___37____ into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just ___38___ our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you ___39___? Well, as Apple grew we ___40___ someone who I thought was very talented to ___41___ the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge (分歧) and ___42___ we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors ___43___with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. ___44___ had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating（毁灭性的）.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to ___45___ for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to ___46___ on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been ___47___, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it ___48___ that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the ___49___ of being a ___50____ again, less sure about everything. It freed me to ___51___ one of the most creative periods of my life.

I’m pretty sure _ _52___ of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was ___53___ tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Don’t lose ___54___. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t ___55___. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it.                                      

 －By Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer

1.A. grown          B. begun                C. removed          D. kept

2. A. bedroom       B. farm             C. garage               D. kitchen

3.A. announced      B. declared         C. released         D. coped

4.A. managed        B. started              C. installed            D. entitled

5.A. provided       B. sorted               C. promoted         D. hired

6.A. run            B. involve          C. open             D. engage

7.A. instantly      B. constantly           C. eventually           D. frequently

8. A. risked            B. supported            C. pleased          D. sided

9.A. Which          B. What             C. Whichever            D. Whatever

10. A. apologize        B. reveal               C. head             D. stand

11.A. imply         B. put              C. impress          D. dawn

12.A. resisted          B. rejected         C. solved               D. interrupted

13.A. made out      B. come out         C. turned out           D. tried out

14.A. darkness      B. lightness            C. carelessness     D. business

15.A. waiter            B. pioneer          C. beginner         D. visitor

16.A. enter         B. relieve              C. preview          D. expect

17.A. something     B. none             C. everything           D. anything

18. A. careful          B. acceptable           C. hopeful          D. awful

19.A. courage           B. patience         C. imagination          D. faith

20.A. settle            B. recall               C. claim                D. deny

English is the most widely used language in the history of our planet. One in every seven human beings can speak it. More than half of the world’s books and three quarters of international mail are in English. Of all languages, English has the largest vocabulary — perhaps as many as two million words.
However, let’s face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in an eggplant, neither pine nor apple in a pineapple and no ham in a hamburger. Sweet-meats are candy, while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But when we explore its paradoxes (探讨它的矛盾), we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,  public bathrooms have no baths in them.
And why is it that a writer writes, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce, and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn’t the plural of booth be beeth? One goose, two geese — so one moose, two meese?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell the next?
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects (反映) the creativity of human beings. That’s why, when stars are out, they are visible (能看见的); but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it; but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
1. According to the passage ______.
A. sweet-meats and sweetbreads are different things
B. there should be egg in an eggplant
C. pineapples are the apples on the pine tree
D. boxing rings should be round
2. Which of the following is the correct plural?
A. Beeth.        B. Geese.         C. Meese.        D. Tooth.
3. Which of the following includes two items which have the similar meaning?
A. A wise man and a wise guy.    B. Overlook and oversee.  
C. Quite a lot and quite a few.     D. Hot as hell and cold as hell.
4. The underlined words “wind up” in the last paragraph probably mean “______”.
A. blow        B. roll up         C. get hurt        D. finish
5. Through the many paradoxes in the English language, the writer wants to show that human beings are ______.
A. clever      B. crazy        C. lazy         D. dull

Are you a social butterfly, or do you prefer being at the edge of a group of friends? Either way, your genes and evolution may play a major  1  , US researchers reported on Monday.

While it may come as no surprise that genes may help explain  2  some people have many friends and others have  3  , the researchers said, their findings go just a little farther than that.

"Some of the things we find are  4    uncommon," said Nicholas Christakis of Harvard University in Massachusetts, who helped   5  the study.

"We find that how interconnected your friends are   6   on your genes. Some people have four friends who know each other and some people have four friends who don't  7  each other.  8     Dick and Harry know each other depends on Tom's  9    ," Christakis said in a telephone interview.

Christakis and colleague James Fowler of the University of California San Diego are  10     known for their studies that show obesity, smoking and happiness spread in networks.

For this study, they and Christopher Dawes of UCSD used national data that   11   more than 1,000 identical(同卵的) and fraternal（异卵的） twins’ genes. Because  12  share an environment, these studies are good for showing the impact that genes have  13  various things, because identical twins  14  all their genes while fraternal twins share just half.

"We found there appears to be a genetic tendency to introduce your friends  15  each other," Christakis said.

There could be good, evolutionary reasons  16  this. People in the middle of a social network could be secret to useful gossip,  17   the location of food or good investment choices.

But they would also be at risk of catching effects from all sides -- in which case the advantage would  18   more cautious social behavior, they wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"It may be that natural selection is  19  not just things like whether or not we can resist the common cold, but also who it is that we are going to come into  20   with," Fowler said in a statement.

(    ) 1. A. role                 B. rule           C. roll                  D. pole

(    ) 2. A. where                  B. why          C. when               D. how

(    ) 3. A. a few                      B. several      C. few                  D. some

(    ) 4. A. generally          B. mainly      C. mostly              D. frankly

(    ) 5. A. conduct            B. introduce   C. conflict            D. instruct

(    ) 6. A. depends            B. bases        C. take                 D. put

(    ) 7. A. see                   B. inspect      C. learn               D. know

(    ) 8. A. When                   B. Where       C. What               D. Whether

(    ) 9. A. genes                      B. brains        C. appearances      D. figures

(    ) 10. A. much             B. best           C. very                 D. least

(    ) 11. A. recorded        B. illustrated C. described          D. compared

(    ) 12. A. brothers          B. sisters        C. twins               D. cousins

(    ) 13. A. with                      B. on             C. for                   D. to

(    ) 14. A. share              B. have          C. own                 D. show

(    ) 15. A. into               B. to             C. in                    D. from

(    ) 16. A. for                 B. with          C. to                    D. at

(    ) 17. A. in addition to B. due to       C. as for                      D. such as

(    ) 18. A. lie on             B. bring in     C. lie in               D. send in

(    ) 19. A. acting on               B. putting on C. relying on        D. sending on

(    ) 20. A. contract          B. face          C. join                  D. contact

Why are so many people so afraid of failure? Quite simple because no one tells us how to fail so that failure becomes an experience that will lead to growth. We forget that failure is part of the human condition and that every person has the right to fail.

   Most parents work hard at either preventing failure or protecting their children from the knowledge that they have failed. One way is to lower standards. A mother describes her child’s hastily made table as “Perfect!” even though it doesn’t stand still. Another way is to shift(转移)blame. If John fails science, his teacher is unfair or stupid.

   The trouble with failure prevention is that they leave a child unequipped for life in the real world. The young need to learn that no one can be best at everything, no one can win all the time and that it’s possible to enjoy a game even when you don’t win. A child who’s not invited to a birthday party, who doesn’t make the honour roll on the baseball team, feels terrible, of course. But parents should not offer a quick comfort, prize or say “It doesn’t matter.” because it does. The young should be allowed to experience disappointment and be helped to master it.

Failure is never pleasurable. It hurts grownups and children alike. But it can make a positive contribution to your life once you learn to use it. Step one is to ask “Why did it fail? Don’t blame someone else. Ask yourself what you did wrong, how you can improve. If someone else can help, don’t be shy about inquiring. Success, which encourages repetition of old behaviour, is not nearly as good a teacher as failure. You can learn from a bad party how to give a good one, from an ill-chosen first house what to look for in a second. Even a failure that seems definitive can cause fresh thinking, a change of direction. After twelve years of studying ballet, a friend of mine applied for a professional company. She asked. That ballet master shook his head. “You will never be a dancer,” he said,” you haven’t the body for it.”

In such cases, the way to use failure is to take stock bravely asking “What have I left? What else can I do?” My friend put away her shoes and moved into dance treatment center, a field where she’s both able and useful. Failure frees one to take risks because there’s less to lose. Often there is recovery of energy — a way to find new possibilities.

1.The first paragraph tells us ______.

  A. failure is very natural for every person

  B. the reason why we don’t know how to fail

  C. the reason why so many people are afraid of failure

  D. one should be ready to face failure at any time

2.How many preventions may parents use when a child fails according to the passage?

  A. only two  B. no more than three  C. less than three  D. more than three

3. Which statement below does the writer support?

  A. Failure is as good an experience as success.

  B. Failure is the mother of success.

  C. Failure is far from a good teacher like success.

  D. Definitive failure gives us nothing but fresh thinking.

4. We can learn from the last paragraph that _______.

  A. failure is the recovery of energy

  B. failure makes one free to do something dangerous

  C. failure should be forgotten in our life

  D. failure is likely to do us good in life

I shall never forget the day when the earthquake took place. It was about 5 o’clock in the afternoon and I was   16   to my daughter’s school. Our plan was to go   17 together. I’d stopped at a   18   to get some fresh fruit. We like to have some fruit to eat   19   our swim. I was driving along a high road on the way.  20   my road was another road which was built like a   21 . I was hungry so I put the bag of apples   22   me and started to eat one.  23   I saw the cars in front of me start to  24   from side to side. Then my car started to shake! I didn’t know what was happening. Perhaps something had   25   wrong with my car. I drove a little more slowly and then I   26   the car and at the same moment the road   27   onto the cars in front of me. I found myself in the __28  . I couldn’t move. My legs and feet were hurting badly and I couldn’t move them. All round me was  29  But above me I could hear shouts and a lot of noise. Then I memorized what had happened. I had been   30   an earthquake. For about two hours nobody came. Luckily I could reach the bag of   31  , so at least I had plenty to eat. Then I heard people   32   towards me. A team of people had come to   33   if anyone was under the   34  road. I called out, “I’m here!” I heard a shout. Soon a stranger climbed to my car. “How are you   35  ?”He asked. “Not too bad,”I said. They didn’t get me out until the next morning.

1.A. driving    B. leading  C. walking      D. running

2.A. shopping       B. dancing    C. swimming   D. sightseeing

3.A. farm           B. shop         C. park        D. school

4.A. after          B. during           C. since        D. once

5.A. Under          B. Along        C. Over         D. Beside

6.A. bridge         B. roof         C. cover       D. top

7.A. under          B. along            C. inside       D. beside

8.A. Finally        B. Actually     C. Suddenly    D. Slowly

9.A. move       B. roll         C. burst       D. jump

10.A. been        B. broken    C. gone     D. done

11.A. parked      B. started    C. moved    D. stopped

12.A. put         B. ran       C. fell       D. jumped

13.A. dark        B. afternoon  C. sun       D. car

14.A. noisy       B. dusty     C. quiet      D. blood

15.A. on        B. at       C. by        D. in

16.A. food       B. sandwiches  C. apples    D. bread

17.A. climbing    B. shouting    C. moving   D. driving

18.A. know      B. tell        C. understand  D. see

19.A. falling      B. broken     C. breaking   D. dirty

20.A. sleeping     B. feeling     C. eating     D. going