1 . Green fingers
It never occurred to me when I was little that gardens were anything less than glamorous places. Granddad’s garden was on the bank of a river and sloped gently down towards the water. You couldn’t reach the river but you could hear the sound of the water and the birds that sang in the trees above. I imagined that all gardens were like this—a place of escape, peace and solitude. Granddad’s plot was nothing out of the ordinary when it came to features. He had nothing as grand as a greenhouse, unlike some of his neighbors. Not that they had proper “bought” greenhouses. Theirs were made from old window frames. Patches of plastic would be tacked in place where a carelessly wielded spade had smashed a pane of glass.
At home, his son, my father, could be quiet and withdrawn. I wouldn’t want to make him sound humorless. He wasn’t. Silly things would amuse him. He had phrases that he liked to use, “It’s immaterial to me” being one of them. “I don’t mind” would have done just as well but he liked the word “immaterial.” I realize that, deep down, he was probably disappointed that he hadn’t made more of his life. He left school without qualifications and became apprenticed to a plumber. Plumbing was not something he was passionate about. It was just what he did. He was never particularly ambitious, though there was a moment when he and Mum thought of emigrating to Canada, but it came to nothing. Where he came into his own was around the house. He had an “eye for the job.” Be it bookshelves or a cupboard—what he could achieve was astonishing.
My parents moved house only once in their entire married life. But my mother made up for this lack of daring when it came to furniture. You would just get used to the shape of one chair when another appeared, but the most dramatic change of all was the arrival of a piano. I always wanted to like it but it did its best to intimate me. The only thing I did like about it were the two brass candlesticks that jutted out from the front. “They’re too posh,” my mother said and they disappeared one day while I was at school. There was never any mention of my being allowed to play it. Instead lessons were booked for my sister. When I asked my mother in later life why I wasn’t given the opportunity, her reply was brief: “You’d never have practiced.”
Of the three options, moors, woods or river—the river was the one that usually got my vote. On a stretch of the river I was allowed to disappear with my imagination into another world. With a fishing net over my shoulder I could set off in sandals that were last year’s model, with the fronts cut out to accommodate toes that were now right to the end. I’d walk along the river bank looking for a suitable spot where I could take off the painful sandals and leave them with my picnic while I ventured out, tentatively, peering through the water for any fish that I could scoop up with the net and take home. After the first disastrous attempts to keep them alive in the back yard, they were tipped back into the water.
I wanted to leave school as soon as possible but that seemed an unlikely prospect until one day my father announced, “They’ve got a vacancy for an apprentice gardener in the Parks Department. I thought you might be interested.” In one brief moment Dad had gone against his better judgment. He might still have preferred it if I became a carpenter. But I like to feel that somewhere inside him was a feeling that things might just turn out for the best. Maybe I’m deceiving myself, but I prefer to believe that in his heart, although he hated gardening himself, he’d watched me doing it for long enough and noticed my unfailing passion for all things that grew and flowered and fruited.
1. When the writer describes his granddad’s garden, he is _______________.| A．proud that his granddad was such a good gardener |
| B．embarrassed that the garden was not as good as others nearby |
| C．indignant that items in the garden were often damaged |
| D．positive about the time he spent in the garden |
| A．He was regretful that his father had not achieved more. |
| B．He was irritated that his father used words he didn’t understand. |
| C．He was sympathetic to the reasons why his father behaved as he did. |
| D．He was grateful that his father had not taken the family to Canada. |
| A．was able to do something by himself |
| B．was able to show how talented he was |
| C．was able to continue his day job |
| D．was able to forget his failure |
| A．He was surprised when it suddenly appeared. |
| B．He was pleased at seeing it in the living room. |
| C．He was angry that only his sister would have piano lessons. |
| D．He was proud that his mother had listened to his advice. |
| A．how much free time he was given |
| B．how beautiful the river was |
| C．how good a fisherman he was |
| D．how carefree his childhood was |
| A．His father did not want his son to be a gardener. |
| B．His father was tired of disagreeing with his son. |
| C．His father had been impressed by his son’s love of gardening. |
| D．His father had been trying to find a job his son would enjoy. |
2 . Alibaba founder Jack Ma was never supposed to be a billionaire.
Harvard snubbed him. He flunked college entrance exams twice. Investors thought the serial entrepreneur was
But Ma proved them all
Analysts
How did an English teacher with a
Searching for "beer" and "China" during his first use of the Internet in 1995, Ma found nothing. But there was plenty of information about American beer and German beer.
A few years later, in 1999, Ma gathered 17 friends and acquaintances at his home again. They worked feverishly on a new
Alibaba.com was born. The firm quickly outgrew Ma's apartment, eventually becoming the
Ma, 49, has always been proud of his humble
But he did have plenty of
"He's funny! He can do standup in Chinese or English," said Duncan Clark, a former Alibaba consultant. "He can
Ma, married with two kids, is also known to
"He cares more about what is in someone's heart than what is on their
In Ma’s company, employees are called "Ali people," and managers are given nicknames taken from popular Chinese martial arts novels. Ma, as a Tai Chi devotee, sometimes draws
| A．confident | B．talented | C．crazy | D．extraordinary |
| A．guilty | B．ignorant | C．foolish | D．wrong |
| A．spacious | B．tiny | C．luxurious | D．significant |
| A．comment | B．estimate | C．predict | D．examines |
| A．competitive | B．promising | C．prosperous | D．modest |
| A．Awaiting | B．Seizing | C．Searching | D．Sensing |
| A．launch | B．connection | C．broadcast | D．contact |
| A．competition | B．technology | C．venture | D．career |
| A．dominant | B．budding | C．emerging | D．marginal |
| A．origins | B．opinions | C．ideals | D．roots |
| A．fortune | B．challenge | C．resource | D．charisma |
| A．appoint | B．adapt | C．associate | D．attempt |
| A．rely on | B．look beyond | C．relate to | D．involve in |
| A．face | B．resume | C．record | D．report |
| A．attention | B．cooperation | C．inspiration | D．aspiration |
