1 . The quality of patience goes a long way toward your goal of creating a more peaceful and loving self. The more patient you are, the more accepting you will be of what life is, rather than insisting that life be exactly as you would like it to be. Without patience, life is extremely frustrating.     1     Patience adds some ease and acceptance to your life. It’s important for inner peace.

    2     If you are stuck in a traffic jam, late for an appointment, being patient would mean keeping yourself from building a mental snowball before your thinking gets out of hand and gently reminding yourself to relax. It might also be a good time to breathe as well as an opportunity to remind yourself that, in the bigger scheme of things, being late is “small stuff”.

Patience is a quality of heart that can be greatly enhanced with deliberate practice.    3     They are the periods of time that I set up in my mind to practise the art of patience. Life itself becomes a classroom, and the curriculum is patience. You can start with as little as five minutes and build up your capacity for patience over time. What you’ll discover is truly amazing. Your intention to be patient, especially if you know it’s only for a short while, immediately strengthens your capacity for patience. Patience is one of those qualities where success feeds on itself. Once you reach little milestone—five minutes of successful patience—you’ll begin to see that you do indeed have the capacity to be patient, even for longer periods of time. Over time, you may even become a patient person.

Being patient will help you to keep your perspective. You will see even a difficult situation, say your present challenge, isn’t “life or death” but simply a minor obstacle that must be dealt with.     4    

A．An effective way that I have found to deepen my own patience is to create actual practise periods.

B．You are more easily annoyed and bothered.

C．It is generally believed that the quality of being patient is very difficult to develop.

D．Becoming more patient involves opening your heart to the present moment, even if you don’t like it.

E．Without patience, you will see the same scene as an emergency complete with yelling, frustration, hurt feelings and high blood pressure.

F．If you lack patience, you are destined to fail in what you are pursuing.

2 . Directions: Write an English composition in 120-150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
请结合生活实际，谈一下你对乔布斯过说的这句话“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”的理解。
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4 . Directions: Write an English composition in about 120-150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
“It’s more important to keep your old friends than it is to make new friends.”
对这个观点，你是同意还是不同意？请结合实际，写一篇短文阐述你的看法。
内容可包括：
•你在这个问题上的立场；
•你选择这个立场的原因；
•通过具体事例或实际生活经历分析或证明你的观点。

5 . Directions: Write an English composition in 120-150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
假设你是树德中学高三学生李明，你校英语报正在征集全校学生对于“适度的压力有利于进步”的看法，你对此很有兴趣，内容须包括：
1.你是否赞成这种说法；
2.用你自己的亲身经历来说明你的理由。
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6 . All I had to do for the two dollars was clean her house for a few hours after school. It was a beautiful house, too, with a plastic-covered sofa and chairs, wall-to-wall blue-and-white carpeting, a white enamel stove, a washing machine and a dryer—things that were common in her neighborhood, absent in mine. In the middle of the war, she had butter, sugar, steaks, and seam-up-the-back stockings.

I knew how to scrub floors on my knees and how to wash clothes in our zinc tub, but I had never seen a Hoover vacuum cleaner or an iron that wasn't heated by fire.

Part of my pride in working for her was earning money I could squander (浪费)：on movies, candy, paddleballs, jacks, ice-cream cones. But a larger part of my pride was based on the fact that I gave half my wages to my mother, which meant that some of my earnings were used for real things—an insurance-policy payment or what was owed to the milkman or the iceman. The pleasure of being necessary to my parents was profound. I was not like the children in folktales: burdensome mouths to feed, nuisances to be corrected, problems so severe that they were abandoned to the forest. I had a status that doing routine chores in my house did not provide—and it earned me a slow smile, an approving nod from an adult. Confirmations that I was adultlike, not childlike.

In those days, the forties, children were not just loved or liked; they were needed. They could earn money; they could care for children younger than themselves; they could work the farm, take care of the herd, run errands（差事）, and much more. I suspect that children aren't needed in that way now. They are loved, doted on, protected, and helped. Fine, and yet...

Little by little, I got better at cleaning her house—good enough to be given more to do, much more. I was ordered to carry bookcases upstairs and, once, to move a piano from one side of a room to the other. I fell carrying the bookcases. And after pushing the piano my arms and legs hurt so badly. I wanted to refuse, or at least to complain, but I was afraid she would fire me, and I would lose the freedom the dollar gave me, as well as the standing I had at home—although both were slowly being eroded. She began to offer me her clothes, for a price. Impressed by these worn things, which looked simply gorgeous to a little girl who had only two dresses to wear to school, I bought a few. Until my mother asked me if I really wanted to work for castoffs. So I learned to say "No, thank you" to a faded sweater offered for a quarter of a week⁵s pay.

Still, I had trouble summoning （鼓起）the courage to discuss or object to the increasing demands she made. And I knew that if I told my mother how unhappy I was she would tell me to quit. Then one day, alone in the kitchen with my father, I let drop a few whines about the job. I gave him details, examples of what troubled me, yet although he listened intently, I saw no sympathy in his eyes. No "Oh, you poor little thing. " Perhaps he understood that what I wanted was a solution to the job, not an escape from it. In any case, he put down his cup of coffee and said, ⁴⁴Listen. You don't live there. You live here. With your people. Go to work. Get your money. And come on home. ”

That was what he said. This was what I heard:

Whatever the work is, do it well—not for the boss but for yourself.

You make the job; it doesn't make you.

Your real life is with us, your family.

You are not the work you do; you are the person you are.

I have worked for all sorts of people since then, geniuses and morons, quick-witted and dull, big-hearted and narrow. I've had many kinds of jobs, but since that conversation with my father I have never considered the level of labor to be the measure of myself, and I have never placed the security of a job above the value of home.

1. What is the "pleasure" of the author from the sentence "The pleasure of being necessary to my parents was profound. （paragraph 3） " ?

A．She was proud as she could earn money for her mother.

B．Her own value of being needed.

C．She is distinctive from those children in folktales.

D．She enjoyed a status of being an adult in her family.

2. According to the article, which of the following is true about children in the 1940s and now?

A．Children become needed, loved and liked when they are at forty.

B．Children in modern times are less likely to be spoiled by parents.

C．Children in 1940s are capable as they can handle various daily routine.

D．Children in modern times aren' t needed to do daily works any more.

3. What did the author's father make her understand?

A．Don't escape from difficulties at work.

B．Whatever decision she made, her father would support her.

C．Convey her dissatisfaction with her work.

D．Make a distinction between work and life.

4. Which of the following corresponds to the author's views in the passage?

A．Don't regard work achievement as a criterion for evaluating oneself.

B．Hard work is a struggle for a better future in your limited life.

C．Parents are the best teachers of children.

D．Job security is less valuable when compared with family.

7 . Directions: Write an English composition in 100－150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
古人云：“天生我材必有用”（There must be a use for my talent.) 通过描述你生活中的一件事情，说明人各有所长，无论才能大小都能成为有用的人。
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8 . How I Failed My Oxford Interview

As soon as the words left my mouth I knew I’d_______. “You think Jane Austen is... soft?” The man opposite me asked in disbelief. Then, he and his colleague took turns to_______my claim, finishing each other’s sentences as they stressed Austen’s novels were, in fact, savage.

“I just mean...” I said in a_______voice, trying to keep the tone light, “that she’s not as biting as Virginia Woolf.”

The two professors patted this idea around, too, like a couple of cats toying with a frightened bird---giving _______ examples of how Austen’s work was, _________, more biting than Woolf’s. With no more defensive action to take, I simply smiled and said, “Let’s just agree to disagree, shall we?” And at that moment, my dreams of going to Oxford university_______in a puff of smoke.

Part of my problem, in hindsight was a lack of confidence._______I was a straight A student and had prepared for the interview to the best of my ability, I wasn’t a skilled debater. When faced with two experts who told me that I was wrong, instead of defending myself, I rolled over and accepted_______.

To pass the interview, you need confidence, of course. You also need   a_______ passion for your subject, not just a keen interest. In other words, don’t put comments on your personal statement that you don’t have________for your in-person backup.

So, months later, I already knew the contents of my thin envelope when it appeared on my doormat. ________, I felt a pang of disappointment. I had wanted to go to Oxford since I was 13. I used to look up images of my favorite college with the same________of a bride-to-be browsing wedding dresses.

Ultimately, I didn’t have what it took---but, looking back, that was________a bad thing. Instead of going to Oxford, I found a university that was a better fit for my interests. I loved my eclectic course, where I could write an essay comparing Jane Eyre to 50 Shades of Grey.

Failing my Oxford interview also provided a valuable life lesson. I’m now more confident in my opinions, more passionate when it comes to debate, and I try to back up my points with________evidence. What’s more, I had never since ended a discussion by giving a ____________smile and saying,” let’s just agree to disagree, shall we?”

1.

A．produced sensation

B．made a mistake

C．sparked controversy

D．caused disruption

2.

A．clarify

B．provoke

C．manipulate

D．challenge

3.

A．subtle

B．bright

C．sophisticated

D．vague

4.

A．specific

B．brief

C．ambiguous

D．abstract

5.

A．for one thing

B．in turn

C．on the contrary

D．at large

6.

A．vanished

B．facilitated

C．implanted

D．distributed

7.

A．As long as

B．Even though

C．Despite

D．Because

8.

A．paradox

B．compromise

C．defeat

D．embarrassment

9.

A．burning

B．fulfilling

C．dying

D．innate

10.

A．substitute

B．readiness

C．optimism

D．concern

11.

A．Previously

B．Practically

C．Naturally

D．Exclusively

12.

A．resentment

B．controversy

C．distraction

D．eagerness

13.

A．not necessarily

B．all but

C．in particular

D．at length

14.

A．stubborn

B．hard

C．radical

D．generous

15.

A．stunning

B．winning

C．overwhelming

D．simpering

9 . Great work is work that makes a difference in people’s lives, writes David Sturt, Executive Vice President of the O.C. Tanner Institute, in his book Great Work: How to Make a Difference People Love. Sturt insists, however, that great work is not just for surgeons or special-needs educators or the founders of organizations trying to eliminate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The central theme of Great Work, according to Sturt, is that anyone can make a difference in any job. It’s not the nature of the job, but what you do with the job that counts. As proof, Sturt tells the story of a remarkable hospital cleaner named Moses.

In a building filled with doctors and nurses doing great life-saving work, Moses the cleaner makes a difference. Whenever he enters a room, especially a room with a sick child, he engages both patients and parents with his optimism and calm, introducing himself to the child and, Sturt writes, speaking “little comments about light and sunshine and making things clean.” He comments on any progress he sees day by day (“you’re sitting up today, that’s good.”) Moses is no doctor and doesn’t pretend to be, but he has witnessed hundreds of sick children recovering from painful surgery, and parents take comfort from his encouraging words. For Matt and Mindi, whose son McKay was born with only half of a heart, Moses became a close friend. As Sturt explains, “Moses took his innate (与生俱来的) talents (his sensitivity) and his practical wisdom (from years of hospital experience) and combined them into a powerful form of patient and family support that changed the critical-care experience for Mindi, Matt and little McKay.”

How do people like Moses do great work when so many people just work? That was the central question raised by Sturt and his team at the O.C. Tanner Institute, a consulting company specialized in employee recognition and rewards system.

O.C. Tanner launched an exhaustive Great Work study that included surveys to 200 senior executives, a further set of surveys to 1,000 managers and employees working on projects, an in-depth qualitative study of 1.7 million accounts of award-winning work (in the form of nominations (提名) for awards from corporations around the world), and one-on-one interviews with 200 difference makers. The results of the study revealed that those who do great work refuse to be defeated by the constraints of their jobs and are especially able to reframe their jobs: they don’t view their jobs as a list of tasks and responsibilities but see their jobs as opportunities to make a difference. No matter, as Moses so ably exemplifies (例证), what that job may be.

1. According to Sturt, which of the following is TRUE?

A．It’s not the nature of the job, but what you do that makes a difference.

B．Anyone in the world is responsible to delete poverty and change the world.

C．Anyone can make a difference in people’s lives no matter what kind of job he does.

D．Surgeons, special-needs educators and founders of organizations can succeed more easily.

2. According to this passage, how does Moses, a common hospital cleaner, make a difference in people’s lives?

A．By keeping optimistic and calm when facing patients and their parents at hospital.

B．By showing his special gift and working experience when working at hospital.

C．By showing his sympathy and kindness to patients when entering their rooms.

D．By pretending to be a doctor or nurse when entering a room with a sick child.

3. The word “constraints” in the last paragraph probably refers to ______.

A．demands

B．advantages

C．disadvantages

D．limitations

4. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Great work is work that makes a difference in people’s lives no matter what you do.

B．If a boss has trouble recognizing his employees, he can ask O. C. Tanner for advice.

C．Moses makes a difference through his sensitivity and his practical wisdom.

D．Those who do great work are never defeated by others or their jobs themselves.

10 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word: for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

A few months ago as I wandered through my parents’ house, the same house I grew up in, I had a sudden, scary realization. When my parents bought the house, in 1982, they were only two years older than I am now. I tried to imagine     1     in two years, ready to settle down and buy the house I’d still be living in almost 30 years later.

It seemed ridiculous. On a practical level, there’s no way I could afford to buy a house anytime soon. More importantly, I wouldn’t want to. I’m not sure     2     I’ll be living in two years, or what kind of job I’ll have. And I don’t think I’ll be ready to settle down and stay in one place.

So this is probably the generation gap     3     (divide) friends and me from our parents. When our parents were our age, they     4     (get) their education, chosen a career and were starting to settle into responsible adult lives.

My friends and I--“Generation Y”--still aren’t sure what we want to do with our lives.     5     we end up doing, we want to make sure we’re happy doing it. We’d rather take risks first, try out different jobs, and move from one city to another     6     we find our favorite place. We’d rather spend our money on travel than put it in a savings account.

This casual attitude toward responsibility has caused some critics to call my generation “arrogant”, “impatient”, and “overprotected”. Some of these complaints have a point. As children, we     7     (encourage) to succeed in school, but also to have fun. We grew up in a world full of technological innovation: cell phones, the Internet, instant messaging, and video games.

Our parents looked to rise vertically--starting at the bottom of the ladder and slowly making their way to the top, on the same track, often for the same company. That doesn’t apply     8     my generation.

Because of that, it     9     take us longer than our parents to arrive at responsible, stable adulthood. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In our desire     10     (find) satisfaction, we will work harder, strive for ways to keep life interesting, and gain a broader set of experiences and knowledge than our parent’s generation did.