As a boy ,Mark Twain caused much trouble for his parents . He used to play practical jokes on all his friends and neighbors .The nature of his jokes often led to violence. He hated to go to school, and he constantly ran away from home. He always went in the direction of the nearby Mississippi .He liked to sit on the bank of the river for hours at a time and just gaze at the mysterious island and the passing boats. He learned many things about the river during those days. He learned all about its history and unusual people who rode up and down it . He never forgot those scenes and those people .He later made them part of the history of America in the books Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Mark Twain received his genius （天才）from his mother . Obviously he didn’t get it from his father . He once stated that he had never seen a smile on his father’s face .On the other hand, his mother had the rare ability to say humorous things. The same ability made Mark Twain an extremely humorous public speaker.
【小题1】Because of the nature of his jokes when he was a child , Mark Twain would           

A．ran away from school

B．cause his parents to quarrel with others

C．get into trouble with his friends and neighbors

D．like to sit on the bank of the Mississippi River

Mark Twain，an American writer, published more than 30 books, hundreds of
short stories and essays and gave lectures around the world throughout his career. 
Mark Twain left school when he was twelve. He had little school education. Thou
gh he had little school education, he became the most famous writer of his time
. He made millions of dollars by writing. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Cl
emens, but he is better known all over the world as MarkTwain, his penname. 
Mark Twain was born in 1835 and he was not a healthy baby. In fact, he was not
expected to live through the first winter. But with his mother's tender care,
he managed to survive. As a boy, he causedmuch trouble for his parents. He use
d to play jokes on all of his friends and neighbors. He didn't like to go to sc
hool, and he constantly ran away from home. He always went in the direction of
the nearby Mississippi. He was nearly drowned nine times. After his father's d
eath in 1847, Mark twain began to work for a printer, who only provided him wit
h food and clothing. Then, he worked as  a river-boat pilot (领航
员)and later joinedthe army. But shortly after that he became a miner. During t
his period, he started to write short stories. Afterwards he became a full-time
writer.
In 1870, Mark Twain got married. In the years that followed he wrote many books
including Tom Sawyer in 1876, and Huckleberry Finn in 1884, which made him fam
ous, and brought him a great fortune. Unfortunately, Mark Twain got into debts
in bad investments（投资） and he had to write
large numbers of stories to pay these debts. In 1904, his wife died and then on
e of their childrenpassed away.At the age of 70, his hair was completely white.
He bought many white suits and neckties. Hewore nothing but white from head to
foot until his death on April 21, 1910.
【小题1】 When Mark Twain was a little baby,          .

C
The clock struck eleven at night. The whole house was quiet. Everyone was in bed except me. Under the strong light, I looked sadly before me at a huge pile of that troublesome stuff(东西) they call “books”.
I was going to have my examination the next day. “When can I go to bed?” I asked myself. I
didn’t answer, In fact I dared not.
The clock struck twelve. “Oh, dear! ” I cried. “Ten more books to read before I can go to bed!” We pupils are the most unhappy creatures in the world. Dad does not agree with me on this. He did not have to work so hard when he was a boy.
The clock struck one. I was quite desperate（绝望的） now. I forgot all I had learned. I was too tired to go on. I did the only thing I could. I prayed, “Oh, God, please help me pass the exam tomorrow. I do promise to work hard afterwards, Amen.” My eyes were so heavy that I could hardly open them. A few minutes later, with my head on the desk, I fell asleep.
64. When the author was going over his lessons, all the others in the house were ________ .
A. asleep           B. outside       C. working in bed    D. quietly laughing at him
65. Reviewing his lessons didn’t help him because   ____  .
A. it was too late at night                   B. he was very tired
C. his eyes lids were so heavy that he couldn’t keep them open
D. he hadn’t studied hard before the examination
66. What do you suppose happened to the author the second day?
A. He went to a church to pray again      B. He got an A in the exam
C. He failed in the exam                D. He was punished by his teacher
67. The best title for the passage would be _________ .
A. The Night Before the Examination        B. Working Far into the Night
C. A Slow Student                        D. Going Over My Lessons

  The Pillow
At the age of sixteen, I joined a volunteer group with my dad. I went on my first volunteer project in West Virginia. On the night we arrived, we discovered that “our family” was living in a trailer (拖车) that was in poor condition. A crew had been working on it for two weeks, but every time they finished one problem, another surfaced.
We decided the only reasonable solution was to build a new house—something unusual but necessary under these circumstances. The family was overjoyed with their new house that was twenty by thirty feet with three bedrooms, a bath and a kitchen.
On Tuesday of that week, while we ate lunch together, I asked the family’s three boys, Josh, Eric and Ryan, “What do you want for your new room?” Expecting toys and other gadgets that children usually ask for, we were astonished when Josh responded, “I just want a bed.”
The boys had never slept in a bed! They were accustomed to plastic mats. That night we had a meeting and decided that beds would be the perfect gift. On Thursday night, a few adults in our group drove to the nearest city and bought beds and new bedding.
When we saw the delivery truck coming, we told the family about the surprise. We could hardly contain ourselves. It was like watching excited children on Christmas morning.
That afternoon, as we fitted the frames of the beds together, Eric ran into the house to watch us. Too dirty to enter his room, he observed with wide-eyed enthusiasm from the doorway.
As my father slipped a pillowcase onto one of the pillows, Eric asked, “What is that?”
“A pillow,” he replied.
“What do you do with it?” Eric continued to ask.
“When you go to sleep, you put your head on it,” I answered softly. Tears came to my eyes as my father handed Eric the pillow.
“Oh…that’s soft,” he said, hugging it tightly.
Now, when my sister or I start to ask for something that seems urgent, my dad gently asks, “Do you have a pillow?”
We know exactly what he means. [来源:学科网ZXXK]
【小题1】The writer’s first volunteer project was ______.

A．what they want to get may be unnecessary

B．they should not waste money on small things

C．they should do more volunteer work for the poor

D．what he will buy is not what they want but a pillow

The clock struck eleven at night. The whole house was quiet. Everyone was in bed except me. Under the strong light, I looked sadly before me at a huge pile of that troublesome stuff they call “books”.
I was going to have my examination the next day. “When can I go to bed?” I asked myself. I didn’t answer. In fact I dared not.
The clock struck twelve. “Oh, dear!” I cried. “Ten more books to read before I can go to bed!” We pupils are the most wretched creatures in the world. Dad does not agree with me on this. He did not have to work so hard when he was a boy.
The clock struck one. I was quite desperate（拼命）now. I forgot all I had learned. I was too tired to go on. I did the only thing I could. I prayed, “Oh God, please help me pass the exam tomorrow. I do promise to work hard afterwards, Amen.” My eyes were so heavy that I could hardly open them. A few minutes later, with my head on the desk, I fell asleep.
【小题1】The underlined word “wretched” in Paragraph 3 probably means _____.