1 . I grew up in the 1950s with very practical parents. My mother washed aluminum foil (铝箔纸) after she cooked in it, and then she reused it.She was the earliest recycle (回收利用) queen before people had a name for it.

My father was no different.He preferred getting old shoes fixed to buying new ones.Their marriage was good and their dreams were focused (集中).Their best friends lived just a wave away.Though my parents have passed away,I can see them now-Dad in trousers,a T-shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress,lawnmower (割草机) in one hand and dishtowel in the other.

It was the time to fix things-a curtain rod (挂帘杆) the kitchen radio, the screen door, the oven door, and so on. They fixed all things we had.It was a way of life,and sometimes it made me crazy.All that re-fixing and renewing made me want to scream.I wanted just once to be wasteful.Waste meant being rich.Throwing things away meant you knew there’d always be more.I often thought like that.

But then my mother died,and on that clear summer night,in the warmth of the hospital room,I learnt that sometimes there isn’t any more.Sometimes,what we care about most gets all used up and goes away and it will never return. So, while we have it, it is the best that we love it,care for it,fix it when it’s broken and cure it when it’s sick.

This is true for marriage,old cars,children with bad report cards,dogs with bad hips and aging parents and grandparents.We keep them because they are worth it and because we are worth it.

1. We can learn that when the writer was young, she________.

A．thought highly of her parents’ habits

B．often helped her parents fix old things

C．often threw things away without being noticed

D．at times hated it when her parents fixed old things

2. What did the writer realise after her mother’s death?

A．Her mother truly loved her.

B．She had wasted a lot of money.

C．Things may never return once they are gone.

D．She had hurt her parents for many times.

3. What is the writer’s purpose in writing the passage?

A．To advise us to love what we have.

B．To encourage us to recycle old things.

C．To explain why her parents recycled.

D．To help us know about life in the past.

2 . 根据课文内容填空

Lifestyles differ from person to person. Some people, known as     1     natives, do a wide     2     of things online, such as     3     with friends, watching misreading updated news and interesting articles and so on. Take shopping as an example--it’s so     4     to compare quality and prices before buying. Some other people live their lives as go-getters. They tend to     5     goals when setting out to do something. Then they make a schedule and try hard to achieve it. As for life choices, in the case of Zhang Tian, he chose to be a     6     teacher in Guizhou province instead of going to big cities. Despite the poor facilities and unstable supplies of power and water, he has improved the learning lives for the students by introducing more attractive subjects like music, art and PE to the school.

    7     made him feel satisfied was that his students were able to read, speak and write in English and became more     8     in learning. Besides all these, he contacted charity organizations to set up a library and help sell local products online. As a result of the     9     he made, he became very popular among the villagers and was treated as one of them. Zhang Tian intended to stay for another year. He feels so happy that he     10     his heart, even though it may not be what others expected of him.

3 . “If Bill would praise me once in a while, he’d make my life much happier,” a young homemaker said to her neighbor.    1     But unless we hear words of praise from someone else, how can we know that we are valued friends or co-workers?

Anyone who wants to improve his relationships with others needs only to show a sympathetic understanding. The way to express this understanding and give others the feeling of importance and worthiness boils down to this:    2     Praise and tell him about it.

We each have a mental picture of ourselves, a self-image. When we are proud of our self-image, we feel confident and free to be ourselves. We function at our best. When we are ashamed of our self-image, we attempt to hide it rather than express it.    3    

A miracle happens to the person whose self-esteem has been raised.    4     He is kinder and more easy-going with those around him. Praise is the polish that helps keep his self-image bright and shining. What has this to do with your giving praise?A lot.    5     When you add to his self-esteem,you make him want to like you and to work with you.

As artists find joy in giving beauty to others, anyone who masters the art of praising will find that it blesses the giver as much as the receiver. As the saying goes, “Flowers leave some of their fragrance in the hand that bestows (赠予) them.”

A．He suddenly likes other people better.

B．All of us need to feel needed and admired.

C．Children,especially, are hungry for praise and appreciation.

D．Always look for something in the other person you can admire.

E．We become unfriendly or aggressive, and hard to get along with.

F．You have the ability to create that kind of miracle in another person.

G．Encouragement through praise is a way of getting people to do their best.

4 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

There are many factors     1    (contribute) to a person’s success in life. Whether he is at school or at work, a person is more likely to succeed if he is hard-working, honest, intelligent, responsible, and so on. But     2     all the possible characteristics that can affect one’s success, I believe self-confidence to be the most important for the following reasons.

The first reason is that when a person has self-confidence he believes in     3     (he). He believes that he can and will succeed, and this gives him the courage     4     (try) new things. In order to be successful we     5     be willing to take some risks, so having self-confidence is very important.     6     reason is that a confident person rarely gives up. When he fails he tries again and again     7     he wins. The final reason is     8     confident people are not afraid to show off their achievements. This is not to say that they should（吹嘘）, but that they should     9     (confidence) accept the compliments (赞扬) of others. When their achievements     10     (notice) more by others at school or at work, they are more likely to succeed.

5 . 语法填空。

When I first look at the picture, it seems to be just a pretty simple drawing of a man in a garden. However, when     1     (look) at it more closely, I see something interesting.

In the picture, a man is wearing a hat and an apron, and is carrying an umbrella because it is raining     2     (heavy). He has his back turned to us. We can see he is in his garden, for he is watering the flowers     3     a watering can. The drawing     4     (entitle) “It’s Time to Water the Flowers”.

This implies that this man obviously loves routines (and his flowers), and probably     5     (water) his flowers every day at the same time. He is doing this even though it is raining heavily. However, the plants don’t need the extra water he is providing. He is not seeing the obvious, but is just going through the motions without     6     (think).

The overall message we can take from this picture is that it is important     7     (have) routines and timetables, as they can help us stay organised,     8     sometimes routines can control us, rather than us controlling the routines. It is important not to become too preoccupied with routines and schedules, because they can make us blind to     9     is in front of us. Sometimes we need to be flexible and adapt to changing     10     (circumstance).

6 . It should have at least been a dunk (扣篮). Everyone in the area knew it as the tall, wonderful _______ flew toward the basket. There was no one within 20 feet of him and no obstacle to _______ him from scoring as he had so many times before. But this time he _______.

Never mind that he was_______ at full speed during a pressure-packed game, with thousands of _______fans screaming at him to miss. As far as I was concerned, there was no _______for missing such an easy, automatic shot. I couldn’t believe it. For the rest of the game, I _______about every missed shot and every bad pass. By the end of the game, I _______ at him through the television screen, “You’re a professional. A professional doesn’t make mistakes like that!”_______, he didn’t play a perfect game.

Later that evening I was doing some filing (归档) when I paused to reread a column from several weeks ago. I stopped when I __________ a typo(打字错误). Instead of “the”, I had written “tje”. But it was an understandable __________. After all, the letters “h” and “j” are right __________ to each other on the keyboard. Anyone could slip and hit the wrong __________. And I was sure the editors would catch the mistake and fix it __________it went into publication.

My eyes went __________ to “the”. And somewhere in the back of my mind I heard a(n) __________ scolding voice: “You’re a professional. A professional doesn’t make mistakes like that!”

I guess it’s __________ that we don’t really have a right to expect __________ in others until we’re prepared to expect it in ourselves. And not just professionally. This is __________true on the highway, in the grocery store, at the movies and most especially in the home. Unless we can offer ourselves as a perfect example, we ought to be willing to excuse others’__________.

1.

A．professor

B．athlete

C．performer

D．announcer

2.

A．prevent

B．discourage

C．take

D．differ

3.

A．touched

B．scored

C．paused

D．failed

4.

A．walking

B．running

C．driving

D．turning

5.

A．supporting

B．crazy

C．opposing

D．enthusiastic

6.

A．possibility

B．chance

C．excuse

D．problem

7.

A．knew

B．complained

C．worried

D．doubted

8.

A．laughed

B．stared

C．aimed

D．shouted

9.

A．Obviously

B．Unfortunately

C．Importantly

D．Finally

10.

A．checked out

B．came across

C．missed out

D．learnt about

11.

A．column

B．word

C．condition

D．error

12.

A．connected

B．next

C．useful

D．first

13.

A．way

B．number

C．place

D．key

14.

A．before

B．until

C．after

D．when

15.

A．suddenly

B．properly

C．directly

D．willingly

16.

A．unexpected

B．strange

C．terrible

D．familiar

17.

A．clear

B．true

C．important

D．probable

18.

A．perfection

B．surprise

C．impression

D．success

19.

A．yet

B．ever

C．also

D．never

20.

A．words

B．faults

C．behaviour

D．absence

7 . Fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word that you do not need.

A. safe        B. robbery        C. expressions        D. replied        E. open        F. amazing G. employee        H. positive        I. concentration        J. curious        K. recovered

Jerry is a popular manager of a restaurant. The reason why the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator(鼓舞人心者). If a(n)    1     was having a bad day, Jerry was always there, telling him how to look on the bright side of the situation.

This attitude really made me       2     , so one day I asked him, “I don’t get it! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it? ”

“Each time something bad happens, I can choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I always accept their complaining and point out the     3     side of life,” Jerry replied.

Several years later, I heard that one day Jerry left the back door of his restaurant    4     and was robbed by three armed men. While trying to open the       5     , his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination(密码). The robbers panicked and shot him.

Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to hospital. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry       6     with fragments(碎片)of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the    7     took place. “Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked.

“No,” Jerry said. “But when I saw the     8     on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, ‘He is a dead man.’ ”

“A nurse asked if I was allergic(过敏的) to anything,” Jerry continued. “ ‘Yes,’ I     9    . The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my answer. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets! ‘ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘Please operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’ ”

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his       10     attitude. Attitude, after all, is everything.

8 . After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. collapsed     B. inspected     C. exceptionally     D. edge     E. grateful     F. permission G. laborious     H. dawned     I. exhaustion     J. delicately     K. calculated

Climb

Just take a minute or two to marvel at your fingers. The way they can grip onto any surface and how they move and adapt to anything. Suspended halfway up a rocky cliff face, I am painfully     1     for this, as my life is dependent on the endurance and strength in my fingertips.

I started the morning with a quiet stroll along the     2     of the cliff. I wasn’t afraid as I had done this many a time to clear my mind. As I looked out at the crashing sea below I started to shiver; it was late November and it was predicted to be a(n)     3     cold winter. As I reached the furthest point of my walk, turned around and started on my way back home, my foot slipped as the ground beneath my leather boots     4    . Clutching wildly, I plummeted towards a near certain death in the cold and uninviting sea. “Grab something quickly” said an urgent voice inside my head.

As a child, I had had climbing lessons, and I managed to grab hold of a small ledge on the side of the cliff face. My other hand and feet just slipped into place and I started to make my way up; a long and     5     process of hand, foot, hand, foot and so on. About fifteen minutes later I got to the first big ledge, I hauled myself up and sat down and     6    my body; my knees were cut up and bleeding from the fall and my hands were raw and sore. I had also wrenched my shoulder which I rubbed tentatively, while I slowly started to relax.

As I was just about to fall asleep, I was jerked back to my senses by the voice, “No, not now, don’t go to sleep now, keep going.”

I responded by getting up and starting again, the voice was so insistent. After about half an hour I had to stop to rest. I found a ledge, and with the     7     of the voice inside my head, fell asleep. In the morning I continued but I no longer felt alone, it was as if somebody else was guiding my hands and feet and encouraging me. With the seagulls screeching above me and the sea crashing on the rocks below me, the only thing I could do was climb. I     8     that I could get to the top in about an hour and I did exactly that.

On reaching the top, I remembered that when I was small my father had told me the story of Reinhold Messner, a well-known climber all over the world and I admired him so much. The realization     9     on me: it was his power that had guided me to the top.

I whispered a quick thank you and then collapsed in     10    .

9 . All of us ought to be able to brace ourselves for the predictable challenges and setbacks that crop up every day. If we expect that life won’t be perfect,     1     But even if you are strong enough to persist the obstacle course of life and work, sometimes you will encounter an adverse event that will completely knock you on your back.

Whether it’s a financial loss, the loss of respect of your peers or loved ones, or some other traumatic event in your life,     2     You may even wonder if things can ever change for the better again.

Adversity happens to all of us, and it happens all the time.     3     To ignore adversity is to give in to the ultimate self-delusion.

    4     Abraham Lincoln overcomes a difficult child-hood, depression, the death of two sons, and constant ridicule during the Civil War to become arguably one of the greatest president ever. Helen Keller made an impact on the world despite being deaf, dumb, and blind from an early age. Franklin Roosevelt had polio.

There are endless examples.     5    

A．What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

B．we’ll be able to avoid that impulse to quit.

C．these major setbacks leave you doubting yourself.

D．Some are either there or in wait just around the corner.

E．we’ll learn to accept imperfection and compromise with reality.

F．But history is made by people facing hurdles but achieving greatness.

G．People faced adversity bravely, learned valuable lessons and moved ahead.

10 . Very occasionally, I escape to the city. Boarding the train, I watch the North Sea flash by and disappear. I like to stare out of its window and look for deer standing in fields, or the sight of a red kite in the sky.

    1     The rough edges of Northumberland become smoother and softer the further south I travel, until the fields are swallowed by buildings.

    2     In other words, they do not fully understand my choice. At the same time, they glance over my shoulder at the wide beaches and distant hills. But while the middle of nowhere holds its own charm, I always find a trip to the city nourishing in its own special way. The city codes of life in the south feel familiar to me: standing on the right of the escalator (自动扶梯), always moving. Sitting on the train, I watch tired faces, beautiful faces, wise faces, and young faces.     3    

When I am here, the possibilities who I could become feel endless. The streets are filled with sights and sounds that leave me breathless and hungry for more.     4     Somehow lost in the beauty and attraction all around me, I am filled with the feeling that I can be whoever I choose.

At home, most of the diversity lies in the landscape. The beautiful vastness of Northumberland feeds my reflective soul and taps into my creativity, but I am an outgoing person who enjoys being with others.     5     In it, there are more chances that I can get along with people. Both the ones I already know and those I have yet to meet may be whom I get along with.

Following an escape, I return to writing alone at my desk, watching the sky burn pink outside as candles shine and daughters sleep inside.

A．I absorb all in and feel less ordinary.

B．It is this that I miss the most about the city.

C．Choosing to escape now is definitely not a wise choice.

D．Some people are confused about the concept of escaping to a city.

E．With the train travelling forward, what is shown in front of me varies.

F．Many of the conveniences of the cities cannot be enjoyed in the villages.

G．I wonder what lives these people are leading and form stories in my head.