Vincent Van Gogh was not always an artist. In fact, he wanted to be a church minister and was even sent to the Belgian mining community of Borinage in 1879. He discovered that the miners there endured terrible working conditions and poverty-level wages. Their families were skin-and-bone and struggled simply to survive. He felt concerned that the small pay he received from the church allowed him a reasonable lifestyle, which, in contrast, seemed to him unfair.
One cold February evening, while he watched the miners trudging home, he spotted an old man staggering toward him across the fields, wrapped in a burlap(粗麻布) bag for warmth. Van Gogh laid his own clothing out on the bed, set aside enough for one change, and decided to give the rest away. He gave the old man a suit of clothes and he gave his overcoat to a pregnant woman whose husband had been killed in a cave-in.
He lived on starvation food and spent his salary on food for the miners. When children in one family caught typhoid fever, though feverish himself, he packed up his bed and took it to them.
A wealthy family in the community offered him free room and board, Van Gogh declined the offer, stating that it was the final temptation (诱惑) he must reject if he was to faithfully serve his community of poor miners. He believed that if he wanted them to trust him, he must become one of them. And if they were to learn of the love of God through him, he must love them enough to share with them.
He was acutely aware of the big difference between words and actions. He knew that our lives always speak louder and clearer than our words. Maybe that is why Francis of Assisi often said to his monks, “Wherever you go, preach(讲道). Use words if necessary.”
Others are “listening” carefully to your actions. What are you saying to them?
1. We can infer form the passage ____________.
A. our lives always speak louder and clearer than our words
B. the miners there worked under excellent working conditions
C. the ministers lived a much better and easier life than the miners at the time
D. Van Gogh himself offered to work in the Belgian mining community of Borinage in 1879.
2. What does the underlined word “trudging” in the second paragraph mean?
A. Moving very quickly B. Moving with quick light steps
C. Walking slowly for pleasure. D. Walking with slow heavy steps.
3. According to the passage, which of the following words can best describe Van Gogh?
A. Ambitious and aggressive. B. Considerate and sympathetic
C. Greedy and selfish. D. Determined and grateful
4. What does the last paragraph want to tell us?
A. Use words if necessary B. Actions speak louder than words
C. Rome was not built in a day. D. Where there is a will there is a way.
Watch out, Yahoo. There is a search engine out there with super speed and accuracy. It’s very cool.
Google is the Web’s largest search engine. In just two years it has gained a reputation for surprising speed and accuracy, delivering what you are looking for in a second. The site now does this 40 million times a day --- a number achieved without spending a penny on a TV or newspaper ad.
Google doesn’t need them. In the past six months alone, the site has won a Webby (the online version of the Oscar) for technical excellence, set a new record for search engines by indexing a billion Web pages.
Yahoo still has ten times the audience, but Google consistently ranks first in customer satisfaction: 97% of users find what they are looking for most or all of the time. “You see people smile when they use it, like they’ve found something no one else knows about,” says Danny Sullivan, editor of an online newsletter.
No one is smiling more than Larry Page, 27, and Sergey Brin, 26, who seem certain to become billionaires when the company goes public, probably sometime in 2004. they make a great comedy duo(成对的表演者)。When they first met as Ph. D. students, the pair say, they found each other horrible – “I still find him horrible,” adds Brin – but driven together by a computer-science project aimed at coming up with better ways of searching the Web.
The idea behind the Google is that traditional search engines are stupid. They think relevance (关联) is based on repetition; if you type in a request for Tiger Woods, say, you’ll get websites listed according to how many times those words appear. Not only is this no guarantee of quality, but it’s also open to abuse. If you own a Tiger fan site and want to lead more people to it, simply type his name thousands of times in the site’s source code(编码).
1What does the underlined word “them” in the third paragraph refer to?
A. 40 million times B. Speed and accuracy.
C. TV and newspaper ads. D. Web pages
2. Which of the following win greater customer satisfaction?
A. Yahoo B. Tiger Woods C. Larry Page D. Google
3. It can be inferred that Page and Brin ______________.
A. hold very important positions in Google
B. are two ordinary computer programmers of Google.
C. used to hate each other very much
D. hold quite different opinions of computer-science
4. We can learn from the last paragraph that ___________.
A. Google is open to abuse
B. Google remains a traditional search engine
C. Google thinks relevance is based on repetition
D Google is better than traditional search engines
第二节：完型填空（20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）
Many people say their most painful moments are saying goodbye to those they love. After watching Cheryl, my daughter-in-law, through the six long months her mother suffered towards death, I think the most painful 36 can be in the waiting to say goodbye.
Cheryl made the two-hour trip over and over to be with her mother. They spent the long afternoons praying, comforting, and retelling their 37 memories.
As her mother was getting 38, Cheryl always sat for hours 39 watching her mother sleeping. Each time she kissed her mother before leaving, her mother would say in 40, “I’m sorry you drove so far and sat for so long and I didn’t even 41 up to talk with you.”
Cheryl would tell her it didn’t matter, still her mother felt 42 and apologized at each goodbye 43 the day Cheryl found a way to give her mother the same reassurance(安慰) her 44 had given to her so many times.
“Mom, do you 45 when I made the high school basketball team?” Cheryl’s mother nodded. “For every game you’d 46 so far and sit for so long and I never even left the bench to play. Each time I felt 47 and apologized to you for wasting your time.” Cheryl 48 took her mother’s hand.
“Do you remember what you would say to me?”
“I would say I didn’t come to see you 49, I came to see you.”
“And you 50 those words, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I really did.”
“Well, now I say the 51 words to you. I didn’t come to see you 52. I came to see you.”
Her mother understood and smiled as she floated back into sleep.
Their 53 together passed quietly into days, weeks, and months. To the last day they cared each other in the 54, love given and received just by seeing each other.
A love so strong that, 55 in this deepened silence that followed their last goodbye, Cheryl can still hear her mother’s love.
36. A. moments B. business C. consequences D. failures
37. A. lost B. buried C. shared D. frozen
38. A. thinner B. stronger C. better D. worse
39. A. silently B. excitedly C. impatiently D. desperately
40. A. laughter B. tears C. despair D. happiness
41. A. catch B. keep C. wake D. sit
42. A. grateful B. sorry C. optimistic D. nervous
43. A. until B. since C. after D. while
44. A father B. mother C. mother-in-law D husband
45. A. know B. forget C. remember D. doubt
46. A. walk B. run C. ride D. drive
47. A. guilty B. excited C. silly D. sensitive
48. A. quickly B. eagerly C. curiously D. gently
49. A. study B. play C. explain D. cry
50. A. said B. appreciated C. meant D. weighed
51. A. useful B. final C. different D. same
52. A. talk B. sleep C. complain D. weep
53. A. mornings B. afternoons C. evenings D. nights
54. A. carefulness B. sadness C. kindness D. stillness
55. A. thus B. only C. even D. ever
Of the two speeches, I think the ______ was better.
|
A．latter |
B．later |
C．late |
D．latest |
______ for a few days, the thirsty and hunger soldiers had to give in at last.
|
A．Being surrounded |
B．Surrounding |
|
C．Having been surrounded |
D．Having surrounded |
. I could see that there was ______ arguing with her, but I could not help saying something about it.
|
A．nothing better than |
B．anything better than |
C．no point |
D．no doubt |
