My parents divorced when I was 5, making my mother a single parent. We had little money, but my mum gave me a lot of love. Each night, she sat me on her lap and spoke the words that would change my life," Kemmons, you are certain to be a great man and you can do anything in life if you work hard enough to get it."
At fourteen, I was hit by a car and the doctors said I would never walk again. Every day, my mother spoke to me in her gentle, loving voice, telling me that no matter what those doctors said. I could walk again if I wanted to badly enough. She drove that message so deep into my heart that I finally believed her. A year later, I returned to school— walking on my own!
When the Great Depression(大萧条)occurred, my mum lost her job. Then I left school to support the family. At that moment, was determined never to be poor again.
My real change occurred on a vacation I took with my wife and five kids in 1951.I was angry that the second-class hotel charged an extra $ 2 for each child. That was too expensive for the average American family. I decided to open a motel(汽车旅馆)for families that would never charge extra for children. 'There were plenty of doubters at that time.
Not surprisingly .mother was one of my strongest supporters. We experienced a lot of challenges. But with my mother's words deeply rooted in my soul. I never doubted we would succeed
Fifteen years later, we had the largest hotel system in the world—Holiday Inn. In 1979 my company had 1,759 inns in more than fifty countries with an income of $ 1 billion a year.
You may not have started out life in the best situation. But if you can find a task in life worth working for and believe in yourself, nothing can stop you.
1. When Kemmons was a little child, what his mother usually told him was .| A．funny | B．touching |
| C．sad | D．encouraging |
| A．His previous business success of various levels. |
| B．His terrible experience in the hotel. |
| C．His mum's support: |
| D．His wife's suggestion. |
| A．Modest, helpful, and hard-working. | B．Careful, helpful and beautiful. |
| C．Loving, supportive and strong-willed.. | D．Strict, sensitive and supportive. |
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【推荐1】"I'm going home to Demark, son, and I just want to tell you I love you."
In my dad's last telephone call to me, he repeated that seven times in half an hour. I wasn't listening at the right level. I heard the words, but not the message and certainly not their deeper meaning. I believed my dad would live to be over 100 years old, as my great-uncle lived to be 106. I had not felt his regret over Mom's death, understood his loneliness as an "empty nester", or realized most of his friends had long passed away. I was too busy to really listen.
"Dad's dead," sighed my brother Brian on June 5.
My little brother is a lawyer and has a humorous, quick mind. I thought he was setting me up for a joke.
"Dad died in the bed he was born. His coffin and his belongings will be shipped to us by tomorrow. We need to prepare for the funeral（葬礼）." continued Brain.
I was speechless. This isn't the way it's supposed to happen. If I knew there were to be Dad's final days, I would have asked to go with him to Demark.
I believe the hospice（临终安养院） movement which says, "No one should die alone." A loved one should hold your hand and comfort you when you go from one place of reality to another. I would have offered comfort during his final hour, if I had been really listening, thinking. Dad announced his departure（离开） as best as he could and I had missed it. My heart was in pain, because he was always there for me but I wasn't there for him.
1. What message did the father probably try to announce on the phone?| A．His leaving the author forever. | B．The loneliness he had suffered from. |
| C．His eagerness for a peaceful life. | D．The regret over the loss of his wife. |
| A．He felt life was simply hopeless. | B．He didn't give any thought to it. |
| C．He was unable to accept the fact. | D．He put the blame all on himself. |
| A．Grateful | B．Disappointed | C．Shocked | D．Regretful |
“BANG!” I pulled the door heavily behind me. “Never set foot in this house again!” stormed father. I rushed out of the flat and ran along the street.
A young man who held a child in his arms walked past me. I felt as if I saw my childhood from another space: happy and carefree. But now...I don’t know whether it is because I have grown up or because Dad is getting old. We differ in our ways of thinking. We are just like two people coming from two different worlds. It feels like there is an iron(铁制的) door between us that can never be opened.
I wandered in the streets, until I had only the street lights to keep me company. My heart was frozen on this hot summer night. When I finally reached the high-rise apartment block in which I lived, I saw that the light was still on.
I thought to myself, “Is Father waiting for his boy, or still angry with him?”
All the lights were off except Father’s.
Dad was always like this. Maybe he didn't know how to express himself. After an argument he had the habit of tucking me underneath the covers(掖被子) while I was sleeping. This was how he always was. He had been a leader for so long that telling everyone else what to do had become his second nature.
The light was still on.
“Am I wrong?” I whispered, maybe... With the key in hand, I was as nervous as I had ever been. At last, I decided to open the door. As soon as I opened the door, tears ran down my cheeks. I suddenly realized that the iron door that I had imagined between us did not exist at all. Love——it’s second to none.
1. How did the author most probably feel when he left the flat?| A．Frightened. | B．Curious. | C．Angry. | D．Excited. |
| A．The street lights. |
| B．His happy childhood. |
| C．The high-rise apartment block. |
| D．The iron door between him and his father. |
| A．He forgot to turn it off. | B．He was testing the light. |
| C．He was afraid of darkness. | D．He was waiting for his son. |
| A．The father loved his son indeed. |
| B．The son liked walking along the street. |
| C．The story took place on a cold winter night. |
| D．The father was too old to understand his son. |
【推荐3】An eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little brother. All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money. Only a very expensive operation could save him now and there was no one to lend them the money.
When she heard her daddy say to her tearful mother,“Only a miracle can save him now，” the little girl went to her bedroom and pulled her money from its hiding place and counted it carefully. She hurried to a drugstore（药店）with the money in her hand.
“And what do you want?” asked the salesman. “It’s for my little brother,” the girl answered. “ He’s really, really sick and I want to buy a miracle.” “Pardon？” said the salesman.
“My brother Andrew has something bad growing inside his head and my daddy says only a miracle can save him. So how much does a miracle cost？” “We don’t sell a miracle here, child. I’m sorry,” the salesman said with a smile.
“Listen, if it isn’t enough, I can try and get some more. Just tell me how much it costs.”
A well-dressed man heard it and asked，“What kind of a miracle does your brother need？”
“I don’t know，” she answered with her eyes full of tears. “He’s really sick and mum says he needs an operation. But my daddy can’t pay for it，so I have brought all my money.”
“How much do you have？” asked the man. “$ 1.11, but I can try and get some more,” she answered, “Well，what luck,” smiled the man. “$ 1.11，the price of a miracle for little brothers.”
He took up the girl’s hand and said，“Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let’s see if I have the kind of miracle you need.”
That well-dressed man was Dr Carlton Armstrong, a famous doctor. The operation was successful and it wasn’t long before Andrew was home again.
How much did the miracle cost？
1. In the eye of the little girl，a miracle might be _______.| A．something interesting | B．something beautiful |
| C．some wonderful medicine | D．some good food |
| A．she had still kept some money |
| B．she hoped not to be refused |
| C．There was no need to worry about money |
| D．she thought money was easy to get |
| A．The girl’s love for her brother. | B．The girl’s money. |
| C．The medicine from the drugstore. | D．Nobody can tell. |
| A．The doctor didn’t ask for any pay |
| B．A miracle can happen if you keep on |
| C．The little girl is lovely but not so clever |
| D．Andrew was in fact not so sick as they had thought |
【推荐1】The year I turned fifty, I resolved to do something new every day. However, balancing 365 new things with work and family, while still managing to do the laundry and get dinner on the table every night, was not always easy. In the early weeks of the project, I found it difficult to find so many new things.
It wasn’t long before my friends learned that I was open to almost anything I could consider a new thing, and the invitations began pouring in not just from friends, but friends of friends. As a result, my life was new. I went dog sledding. I attended a fashion show. I went to numerous lectures on all kinds of topics that I never would have previously considered useful or interesting and found something to appreciate in every single one. I even signed up immediately when learning about a local group trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by doing something unusual.
As time went by, whenever I learned about something that seemed remarkable, I did what I could to pursue it. Instead of “Why”, I began to ask “Why not”. Now I find it is easier to just keep my eyes open to the possibilities that surrounded me. It turned out that there were new things everywhere, and all I had to do was make a little effort to enjoy them.
I looked back on the year. It doesn’t matter to me that many of my “new things” weren’t exactly meaningful. What matters is how to make full use of them when discovering there is an endless number of new things for me. It seemed to me an obvious sign that at fifty, my life was full of promise. I could continue to grow, stretch my wings, and learn more every day for the rest of my life. I enjoyed the idea of something new, and it gave me a reason to welcome each day as an opportunity to experience the world a little differently.
1. Which of the following can best describe the author’s feeling according to Paragraph 1?| A．Better late than never. | B．Action speaks louder than words. |
| C．Saying is one thing but doing is another. | D．Experience is the best teacher. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Appreciative. | C．Cautious. | D．Tolerant. |
| A．Make the most of new things. | B．Wait for your life to start over. |
| C．Try to find more new things. | D．Never say never when in trouble. |
| A．Dream for a New Life | B．The Value of Friendship |
| C．Remarkable New Things | D．A Year of New Things |
【推荐2】When Boris left school, he could not find a job. He tried hard and he wrote letters to many companies until he could not afford to buy any more stamps. Boris began to lose his confidence, then depressed. Still he went on trying and still he failed. He began to think that he had no future at all.
“Why don’t you start your own business?” one of his uncles told him. “The world is a money-locker. You’d better find a way of opening it. ”
“But what can I do?”
“Get out and have a look round. ” advised his uncle.
“See what people want; then give it to them, and they will pay for it. ”
Boris began to cycle around the town and found a suitable piece of waste ground in the end. Then he set up his business as a cycle repairer. He worked hard, made friends with his customers and gradually managed to win his good fame. A few months later, he found that he had more work than he could deal with by himself. He found a number of empty shops but they were all no good: in the wrong position, too expensive or with some other problems. But at long last, he managed to find an empty shop in a new place where there were plenty of customers but no competition.
Boris and his assistant taught themselves how to repair motorcycles. Slowly but surely the profits increased and the business developed. At last, Boris had managed to open the money-locker and found bank notes and gold coins inside.
1. Which of the following best describes Boris’s job hunting experience?| A．Boring. | B．Surprising. | C．Encouraging. | D．Disappointing. |
| A．repairing cycles |
| B．buying empty shops |
| C．cycling around the town |
| D．developing a waste ground |
| A．it was not so expensive |
| B．he had a lot of old customers there |
| C．there were good opportunities there |
| D．he could make good use of his skills there |
【推荐3】Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in New York City. During his long life, he watched America grow from a young nation to the strongest industrial power in the world. Whitman was influenced by events around him. But his poetry speaks of the inner self. He celebrated great people like President Abraham Lincoln. He also celebrated common people.
As a young man, Whitman worked as a school teacher, printer and newspaper reporter. He was 36 years old when his first book of poetry was published. He called it Leaves of Grass. It had only twelve poems. The poems were written in free verse. The lines did not follow any set form. Some lines were short and some were long. The words at the end of each line did not have a similar sound. They did not rhyme.
One of America’s greatest thinkers and writers immediately recognized the importance of Leaves of Grass. Ralph Waldo Emerson praised Whitman’s work. But most other poets and writers said nothing or denounced it.
The American Civil War began in 1861. During the war, Whitman worked without pay at army hospitals. He helped care for wounded and dying soldiers. He sat beside these men for hours. He brought them food and wrote letters for them. After the Civil War, Whitman worked for government agencies. He watched the United States try to heal itself and increase democracy (民主)To Walt Whitman, democracy was more than a political system or idea. It was the natural form of government for free people. Whitman believed democracy was meant to honor the rights of every person and the equality of all people.
In 1873, Walt Whitman suffered a stroke (中风). He spent the last years of his life in Camden, New Jersey and wrote more poems. Whitman was poor and weak during the last years of his life. He died in 1892.
1. Walt Whitman expressed his feelings by ________.| A．singing songs | B．celebrating great people |
| C．writing poems | D．praising common people |
| A．1819 | B．1855 | C．1861 | D．1873 |
| A．many great writers liked Whitman’s poems very much |
| B．a lot of people agreed with Emerson |
| C．many poets and writers didn’t praise or even thought ill of Whitman’s poems |
| D．many poets and writers thought highly of Whitman |
| A．brave soldier | B．man of devotion |
| C．honest official | D．great politician |
