完型填空。从题后所给的A.B.C.D四个选项中选出符合题意的最佳选项。
Long ago there was a poor farmer in Russia. He had been very 1__ with everything he had. However, when he found his elder brother was __2__ than him, he felt disappointed. So he 3__ hard about how he could also be richer. Finally he got an idea. He started to spend less money on food and clothes to __4___ some money to buy more land. Once he had enough money, he started __5_for land.
He6__ that on the neighboring land, there were some nomads living there. He bought some gifts and went to ___7_ their head. He presented the gifts to the head and told him the 8__ of his visit. The head welcomed him, accepted the gifts and agreed to his 9_ to get the land. The head told him that he could have the land _10__ giving him anything. He can take as much land as he could _11 by walking through the land before sunset. He should start in the morning and whatever distance he could travel during the 12_____, he could have it.
The farmer became very 13___when he heard this offer. Now he could have lots of _14__ without paying anything. He came __15 the next morning and started running, not walking, 16_ he could cover the largest area. To reach his goal, he neither ate food, nor drank water, nor had any rest. He just continued___17_. Without eating, or drinking, or resting he just got very 18__.When he came back to the head in the evening, he 19__ right on the spot. Sadly his son buried him in a piece of land about 6×4feet.
Don’t be greedy or you will __20 everything finally.

                              A
When you think of success, you think of relative achievements in your own world. Each element of your world is important to you, and there is no need to compare with others. You cannot affect the success of others; you can affect your own success.
Success is very much achievable to everybody. Believe that and you have taken the first step. If you do not believe in yourself, then building self-esteem is your first task. However, believing in your ability to achieve whatever you want to succeed in is very important if you are not to be held back by self-doubt throughout your journey to success.
There are many things that will affect your ability to succeed, and it is best to focus on those under your immediate control. Once you do that, then the characteristics you develop can be applied to becoming successful in a range of activities.
What is important to you is that, as you start to reach milestones in your ambitions, you should appreciate your own achievements. Appreciating yourself will strengthen your self-confidence and your determination to succeed.
Some of the key characteristics you will find in those who are successful are perseverance, prepared to research, plan, work hard and practice a lot even when things do not seem to be going well, and an ability to recover and learn from setbacks. At the beginning of whatever you are trying to succeed in, a strong vision of your future, planning, and setting yourself achievable tar gets can all play an important role.
All these qualities, skills and characteristics can be learned and developed. But it is up to you to get things started. Those who do not start travel nowhere. For others, life can be a continuous journey of fulfillment.
【小题1】56. According to the passage, if you want to achieve success, what should you do first?

完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分） 
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）中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
I will never forget the year I was about twelve years old. My mother told us that we would not be   36    Christmas gifts because there was not enough money. I felt sad and thought, "What would I say when the other kids asked what I’d  37   ?" Just when I started to    38   that there would not be a Christmas that year, three women   39    at our house with gifts for all of us. For me they brought a doll. I felt such a sense of   40    that I would no longer have to be embarrassed when I returned to school. I wasn’t    41. Somebody had thought    42   of me to bring me a gift.
Years later, when I stood in the kitchen of my new house, thinking how I wanted to make my   43   Christmas there special and memorable, I   44   remembered the women’s visit. I decided that I wanted to create that same feeling of   45   for as many children as I could possibly reach.
So I    46   a plan and gathered forty people from my company to help. We gathered about 125 orphans (孤儿) at the Christmas party. For every child, we wrapped colorful packages filled with toys, clothes, and school supplies,  47   with a child’s name. We wanted all of them to know they were   48 .  Before I called out their names and handed them their gifts, I    49   them that they couldn’t open their presents    50   every child had come forward. Finally the    51   they had been waiting for came as I called out, "One, two, three. Open your presents!" As the children opened their packages, their faces beamed and their bright smiles   52   up the room. The    53    in the room was obvious, and   54   wasn’’t just about toys. It was a feeling — the feeling I knew   55  that Christmas so long ago when the women came to visit. I wasn’t forgotten. Somebody thought of me. I matter.

完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分） 
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
About ten years ago, I was on a plane going west, and a young woman  1  and sat across the aisle (过道) from me. I noticed her for two reasons. She was very attractive, and she was holding a teddy bear about half her  2 . I teased her by asking if she had a   3  for the bear.She laughed and said no.
About halfway through the flight she   4 over and told me she was going to Tucson to enter rehab（康复治疗）. She   5 to share her life story with me. She had been working as a dancer  in a nightclub. That   6  had led her down a dark   7  to drugs and alcohol. As I listened to her story, I was   8   at all she had gone through. I listened to all she shared and told her I was sure she was going to   9  it.  At the end of the   10 , she thanked me for listening to her.
A few years later, I got a   11  in the mail saying, “Wow, it’s been five years since we met on that plane. It is   12 how you touched my life.” She went on to tell me that she had   13  to stay away from drugs, and had been working for a radio station. She felt she had achieved things she could not have   14  that
day on the plane. We agreed to set up a time to get   15 .
When I saw her, she was   16 _ the attractive young woman I remembered. She told me that that little   17  we had had turned her life around. She had got on the plane   18  anything would work in her life, and my affirmation of her as a person and of her   19  had given her the last bit of   20  she needed to work through her problems.           
The young woman taught me it’s never too late to make a new start in life.

Balzac was good at buying things at its lowest price. One day he wanted to buy a vase in a shop window that was much more expensive than he could offer. Not being able to make the shopkeeper cut down its price very much, he left without further talking. Collecting a half dozen of his friends, he explained his wish to them and they worked a plan. The first would enter the shop and make an offer, lower than the marked price. Not getting the vase at his price, he would walk out. Shortly after another would enter and ask for a price lower than the first. In this way, each of the others would offer a price lower than the one before, and the last of his friends made a great effort to attempt to get it at the lowest price. Before long Balzac himself would return, offer more than the last two or three persons made and trust to luck. The plan worked--- Balzac got the vase at his price!
【小题1】Which of the following is true according to the passage?