1 .         Barditch High School decided to an All-School Reunion. Over 450 people came to the event. There were tours of the old school building and a picnic at Confederate Park. Several former teachers were on hand to tell stories about the old days. Ms. Mabel Yates, the English teacher for fifty years, was wheeled to the Park.

Some eyes rolled and there were a few low groans (嘟囔声) when Ms.Yates was about to speak. Many started looking at their watches and coming up with excuses to be anywhere instead of preparing to listen to a lecture from an old woman who had few kind words for her students and made them work harder than all the other teachers combined.

Then Ms. Yates started to speak:

“I can’t tell you how pleased I am to be here. I haven’t seen many of you since your graduation, but I have followed your careers and enjoyed your victories as well as crying for your tragedies. I have a large collection of newspaper photographs of my students. Although I haven’t appeared in person, I have attended your college graduations, weddings and even the birth your children, in my imagination.”

Ms. Yates paused and started crying a bit. Then she continued:

“It was my belief that if I pushed you as hard as I could, some of you would succeed to please me and others would succeed to annoy me. Regardless of our motives, I can see that you have all been successful in you chosen path.”

“There is no greater comfort for an educator than to see the end result of his or her years of work. You have all been a great source of pleasure and pride for me and I want you to know I love you all from the bottom of my heart.”

There was a silence over the crowd for a few seconds and then someone started clapping. The clapping turned into cheering, then into a deafening roar (呼喊). Lawyers, truck drivers, bankers and models were rubbing their eyes or crying openly with no shame all because of the words from a long forgotten English teacher from their hometown.

1. What activity was organized for the school reunion?

A．Sightseeing in the park.

B．A picnic on the school playground.

C．Telling stories about past events.

D．Graduates’ reports in the old building.

2. What can be inferred from Paragraph 2?

A．Some graduates were too busy to listen to Ms. Yates’ speech.

B．Many graduates disliked Ms. Yates’ ways of teaching.

C．Some people got tired from the reunion activities.

D．Most people had little interest in the reunion.

3. We can learn from Ms. Yates’ speech that she _____________.

A．kept track of her students’ progress

B．gave her students advice on their careers

C．attended her students’ college graduations

D．went to her students’ wedding ceremonies

4. What was Ms.Yates’ belief in teaching teenagers?

A．Teachers’ knowledge is the key to students’ achievements.

B．Pressure on students from teachers should be reduced.

C．Hard-pushed students are more likely to succeed.

D．Students’ respect is the best reward for teachers.

5. Which of the following can best describe Ms. Yates?

A．Reliable and devoted.	B．Tough and generous.
C．Proud but patient.	D．Strict but caring.

2 . To err is human. To blame the other guy is even more human.
Common sense is not all that common.
Why tell the truth when you can come up with a good excuse?
These three popular misquotes(戏谑的引语)are meant to be jokes, and yet they tell us a lot about human nature .To err, or to make mistakes, is indeed a part of being human, but it seems that most people don’t want to accept the responsibility for the problem. Perhaps it is the natural thing to do .The original quote about human nature went like this:” To err is human, to forgive, divine(神圣的).”This saying mirrors an deal people should be forgiving of others’ mistakes. Instead, we tend to do the opposite –find someone else to pass the blame on to. However, taking responsibility for something that went wrong is a making of great maturity.
Common sense is what we call clear thought. Having common sense means having a good general plan that will make things work well, and it also means staying with the plan. Commonsense tells you that you take an umbrella out into a rainstorm, but you leave the umbrella home when you hear a weather forecast for sunshine．Common sense does not seem to be common for large organizations, because there are so many things going on that one person cannot be in charge of everything. People say that in a large company,”the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.”
And what is wrong with a society that thinks that making up a good excuse is like creating a work of art? One of the common problems with making excuses is that people, especially young people. get the idea that it’s okay not to be totally honest all the time. There is a corollary(直接推论)to that: if good excuse is “good”even if it isn’t honest, then where is the place of the truth?
1. According to title passage, which of following seems the most human?

A．To search for truth．	B．To achieve one’s ideal
C．To make fun of others’mistakes．	D．To criticize others for one’s own error.

2. According to the author, what is a sign of a man’s maturity?

A．Doing things his own way.

B．Bearing responsibility for his mistakes.

C．Making as few mistakes as possible．

D．Thinking seriously about his wrongdoing.

3. Which of the following isN0Tbased on common sense?

A．A man tries to take charge of everything in a large company.

B．A student goes out with an umbrella in stormy weather.

C．A company’s next move follows a good plan．

D．A lawyer acts on fine judgments．

4. What is the author’s opinion about a good excuse?

A．Making a good excuse is sometimes a better policy.

B．Inventing a good excuse needs creative ideas.

C．A good excuse is as rewarding as honesty.

D．Bitter truth is better than a good excuse.

5. What would be the best title for his passage?

A．A Mirror of Human Nature	B．To Blame or to Forgive
C．A Mark of Maturity	D．Truth or Excuse