It was a cold day, and I had no desire to drive up the winding mountain road to my daughter Carolyn’s house. But she had insisted that I come to see something at the ________ of the mountain.
So here I was ________ to make the two-hour journey through ________. By the time I saw how thick it was near the top, I’d gone too far to turn back.
“I’ll stay for lunch, but I’m heading back down as soon as the fog lifts,”
I ________ when I arrived.
“But I need you to drive me to the garage to pick up my car,” Carolyn said. “Could we at least do that?”
“How ________?” I asked.
“About three minutes,” she said. “I’ll drive—I’m used to it.”
After ten minutes on the mountain road, I looked at her ________. “I thought you said three minutes.”
She smiled. “This is a different route.”
Turning down a narrow track, we parked the car and ________ out. We walked along a path that was thick with old pine needles. Huge black-green pines ________over us. Gradually, the peace and silence of the place began to ________ my mind.
When we stopped, I took a deep breath in _______.
From the top of the mountain were rivers of flowers in bloom. A mix of _____from white to lemon to red — unfolded like a carpet before us. At the center was a waterfall of purple flowers and here and there were coral-colored ones. And western bluebirds flew ________ the heads of the flowers happily.
A series of ________ came to my mind. Who created such beauty? How? When?
As we approached home, we saw a sign that read: “I ________ Answers to Your Questions.”
The first answer was: “One Woman—Two Hands, Two Feet, and Very Little Brain.” The second was: “One at a Time.” The third: “________ in 1958.”
As we drove home, I was so ________ by what we had seen, I could hardly speak. “She changed the world,” I ________ said, “one flower at a time. She took her first step almost 60 years ago, probably just the beginning of an idea, but she kept at it.”
“Imagine,” I said, “if I’d had a(n) ________ like her and worked at it, just a little bit every day, what might I have ________?”
Carolyn looked at me, smiling. “Start tomorrow,” she said. “ ________ yet, start today.”
11. A.back | B.bottom | C.top | D.corner |
12. A.unwilling | B.unable | C.unlucky | D.unfit |
13. 14. A.announced | B.criticized | C.suggested | D.complained |
15. 16. A.excitedly | B.calmly | C.nervously | D.anxiously |
17. A.checked | B.looked | C.got | D.dropped |
18. A.floated | B.streamed | C.towered | D.skipped |
19. A.empty | B.fill | C.disturb | D.control |
20. A.embarrassment | B.amazement | C.disappointment | D.amusement |
21. A.materials | B.patterns | C.colors | D.shapes |
22. A.over | B.through | C.within | D.along |
23. A.predictions | B.decisions | C.imaginations | D.questions |
24. A.Understand | B.Know | C.Doubt | D.Forget |
25. A.Started | B.Continued | C.Finished | D.Quitted |
26. A.troubled | B.moved | C.encouraged | D.confused |
27. A.frankly | B.seriously | C.frequently | D.finally |
28. A.promise | B.story | C.idea | D.challenge |
29. A.gained | B.required | C.regretted | D.remembered |
30. A.more | B.better | C.harder | D.later |