1 . As I drove along the road, small car flew across the center divider from the opposite direction and crashed into my car head-on. I fell unconscious and was awakened by the ringing of my mobile phone.
I was brought to Kuala Lumpur General Hospital bleeding on from my nose, mouth and legs. But the hospital staff was too busy to attend to me, so I called a friend to tell him about the accident. Some friends arrived very soon and sent me to a private hospital nearby. I saw my injured feet hanging from my body, blue and lifeless, and I begged the doctors to save them at all cost. They calmly promised to do their best.
The doctors made it. After I was discharged, I was given ten months medical leave. My heart sank, knowing that it meant I, a big man, couldn't work. How was I going to support my 65-year-old mother and other family members? I felt completely helpless, but a la of unexpected blessings came my way. When I was recovering at home, friends and relatives helped me with my banking, insurance or simply came to cheer me up.
When the casts（石膏）were removed, I did not let the sight of my weak legs discourage me. I worked hard at my physiotherapy（物理疗法）with only one aim. After eight months, I was walking without the aid of a walking stick. Oh February the following year, I returned to my job again. Today, after eight years, I have travelled to many counties as a tour leader.
The accident makes me realize how lives can change in a second. I value life more, not only of my own but also of everyone I know, and I will always try to help when I know of someone in trouble.
1. What made the author come back to life in the traffic accident?| A．Someone made a call to him. |
| B．A car crashed into his ear head-on. |
| C．One of his friends gave him first aid. |
| D．His mobile phone was out of order suddenly. |
| A．Was inspired. | B．Got injured. |
| C．Was discovered. | D．Left hospital. |
| A．He is honest and strong. | B．He is learned and intelligent. |
| C．He is optimistic and determined. | D．He is discouraged and desperate. |
| A．Life is very precious to people. | B．It's a hard job to be a tour guide. |
| C．Many people are in trouble in life. | D．It's a must for someone to help others. |
2 . In May 1987 the Golden Gate Bridge had a 50th birthday party. The bridge was closed to motor traffic so people could enjoy a walk across it. Organizers expected perhaps 50,000 people to show up. Instead, as many as 800, 000 crowded the roads to the bridge. By the time 250,000 were on the bridge, engineers noticed something terrible：the roadway was flattening under what turned out to be the heaviest load it had ever been asked to carry. Worse, it was beginning to sway（晃动）. The authorities closed access to the bridge and tens of thousands of people made their way back to land. A disaster was avoided.
The story is one of scores in To Forgive Design：Understanding Failure, a book that is at once a love letter to engineering and a paean（赞歌）to its breakdowns. Its author, Dr. Henry Petroski, has long been writing about disasters. In this book, he includes the loss of the space shuttles（航天飞机）Challenger and Columbia, and the sinking of the Titanic.
Though he acknowledges that engineering works can fail because the person who thought them up or engineered them simply got things wrong, in this book Dr. Petroski widens his view to consider the larger context in which such failures occur. Sometimes devices fail because a good design is constructed with low quality materials incompetently applied. Or perhaps a design works so well it is adopted elsewhere again and again, with seemingly harmless improvements, until, suddenly, it does not work at all anymore.
Readers will encounter not only stories they have heard before, but some new stories and a moving discussion of the responsibility of the engineer to the public and the ways young engineers can be helped to grasp them.
"Success is success but that is all that it is," Dr. Petroski writes. It is failure that brings improvement.
1. What happened to the Golden Gate Bridge on its 50th birthday?| A．It carried more weight than it could. |
| B．It swayed violently in a strong wind |
| C．Its roadway was damaged by vehicles |
| D．Its access was blocked by many people. |
| A．No design is well received everywhere |
| B．Construction is more important than design. |
| C．Not all disasters are caused by engineering design |
| D．Improvements on engineering works are necessary. |
| A．Failure can lead to progress. | B．Success results in overconfidence |
| C．Failure should be avoided. | D．Success comes from joint efforts. |
| A．A news report | B．A short story. |
| C．A book review | D．A research article. |
3 . The end of the school year was in sight and spirits were high. I was back teaching after an absence of 15 years, dealing with the various kinds of "forbidden fruit" that come out of book bags. Now was the spring of the water pistol.
I decided to think up a method of dealing with forbidden fruit.
"Please bring that pistol to me," I said. "I'm going to put it in my Grandma's Box."
"What's that?" they asked.
"It's a large wooden chest full of toys for my grandchildren," I replied,
"You don't have grandchildren," someone said.
"I don't now." I replied. "But someday I will. When I do, my box will be full of wonderful things for them."
My imaginary Grandma's Box worked like magic that spring, and later. Sometimes. students would ask me to describe all the things I had in it. Then I would try to remember the different possessions I supposedly had taken away—since I seldom actually kept them. Usually the offender would appear at the end of the day, and I would return the belonging.
The-years went by, and my first grandchild Gordon was born. I shared my joy with that year's class. Then someone said, "Now you can use your Grandma's Box." From then on instead of coming to ask their possessions back, the students would say, "That's okay. Put it in your Grandma's Box for Gordon."
I loved talking about the imaginary box, not only with my students but also with my own children. They enjoyed hearing about all the forbidden fruit I had collected. Then one Christmas I received a surprise gift—a large, beautifully made wooden chest. My son Bruce had made my Grandma's Box a reality.
1. What was the author's purpose in having the conversation with the students?| A．To collect the water pistol. | B．To talk about her grandchildren. |
| C．To recommend some toys. | D．To explain her teaching method. |
| A．The student's parent. | B．The maker of the Grandma's Box. |
| C．The author's grandchild. | D．The owner of the forbidden fruit. |
| A．They went to play with the baby. | B．They asked to see the Grandma's Box. |
| C．They made a present for Gordon. | D．They stopped asking their toys back. |
| A．She enjoys telling jokes. | B．She is a strict and smart teacher. |
| C．She loves doing woodwork. | D．She is a responsible grandmother |
4 . As a first-aid responder, you never know what type of situation you might walk into, or who you’ll meet along the way. That’s definitely been the case for Jeffrey Lanenberg, a 51-year-old first-aid responder since 1984.
Ten years into the job, Jeffrey received a call that reported that a man in his early 30s had fallen down in the Mall of America. When Jeffrey and his partner arrived at the scene, they found the young male face down on the ground. He had gone unconscious, making weak attempts to breathe. His wife stood beside him holding their small son in horror. They quickly rushed to calm the man to keep him under control and offer necessary first aid. After Jeffrey dropped the patient off at the neighboring hospital, he thought about the man and his family for a long time.
Jeffrey thought he had experienced everything under the sun until one random visit to Office Max three years ago, where he met a man repeatedly walk back and forth while staring at him. As it turned out, the man was the patient he had saved 20 years earlier.
“You gave me 20 years more than I ever thought I’d have,” the man said. He thanked Jeffrey repeatedly and told him he had someone he wanted him to meet. He stepped around the corner and reappeared with a 20-something-year-old man. Jeffrey instantly knew that it was the son he had seen standing by his mother all those years ago.
“That day changed my life,” Jeffrey said. “Before that, everything was about work…When I talk to my beginner-training class, I tell them you never know the impact you can have on someone’s life.”
1. What did Jeffrey do with the young man?| A．He cured the man at the scene. | B．He took care of the man’s wife and son. |
| C．He only sent the man to hospital. | D．He did what was needed. |
| A．It was a common routine.. | B．It was troublesome. |
| C．It was unbelievable | D．It was a dangerous situation. |
| A．Jeffrey helped bring up his little son. |
| B．Jeffrey donated to support his family. |
| C．Jeffrey gave him the present happy life. |
| D．Jeffrey taught his son to be a new doctor. |
| A．He was rewarded with much money. |
| B．He changed his attitude to his job. |
| C．He got a promotion to be a team leader. |
| D．He took up teaching work to train newcomers. |
5 . Tabichi’s father,uncle,and cousins have all worked as teachers. He could see that his relatives were making a real difference to people’s lives and wanted to do the same. So for the past 12 years, Tabichi has worked as a math and science teacher in the hope that his lessons will give students a chance to improve their situations.
However,working at a remote village school in Kenya hasn’t been easy. The unique challenges and obstacles have forced Tabichi to find unique solutions for his students. The school only has one computer and unreliable Internet access. The school also has no library or laboratory. To make matters worse,there are not enough books for all the students and the school is desperately in need of more teachers. Most of the students are not able to concentrate, because they haven’t had enough meals at home.
One of the other major challenges that Tabichi faces is keeping kids in school as long as possible. So Tabichi spends most of his time outside of the classroom working on ways to keep kids in school. When the 36-year-old gets the feeling that a student is at risk of dropping out, he works to persuade families to put more value in education. To help those in poverty afford food,uniforms,and books, Tabichi also gives away 80 percent of his salary. Despite all the obstacles he faces, Tabichi is credited for improving the school and keeping much of the village’s youth in school. He has also managed to set up science clubs and addressed food insecurity issues.
Thanks to his tireless work,his students have excelled. In recent years,students have won national and international science competitions. In March of 2019, Tabichi was voted the best teacher in the world and won the prize of $1 million.
1. What inspired Tabichi to be a teacher?| A．The high salary of teachers. |
| B．His father’s demand on him. |
| C．Contributions a teacher can make. |
| D．His relatives’ encouragement. |
| A．The difficulties Tabichi’s school faced. |
| B．The life of a remote village in Kenya. |
| C．Tabichi’s unique teaching ways for his students. |
| D．Most of the students’ distraction on their learning. |
| A．Giving students the best lessons. |
| B．Helping students get rid of poverty. |
| C．Persuading students not to drop out. |
| D．Getting students away from any risk. |
| A．Pitiful. | B．Lucky. |
| C．Punctual. | D． Selfless. |
