I lost my sight when I was four years old by falling off a box car in a freight yard in City and landing on my head. Now I am thirty two. I can slightly remember the brightness of sunshine and what color red is .It would be wonderful to see again , but a calamity (灾难)can do strange things to people .It occurred to me the other day that I might not have come to love life as I do if I hadn’t been blind . I believe in life now.I am not so sure that I would have believed in it so deeply , otherwise. I don’t mean that would prefer to go without my eyes . I simply mean that Atlantic the loss of them made me appreciate the more what I had left .
Life, I believe, asks a continuous series of adjustments to reality. The more readily a person is able to make these adjustments, the more meaningful his own private world becomes. The adjustment is never easy. I was totally confused and afraid. But I was lucky. My parents and my teachers saw something in me--a potential to live, you might call it--which I didn't see, and they made me want to fight it out with blindness.
The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. That was basic. If I hadn't been able to do that, I would have collapsed and become a chair rocker on the front porch for the rest of my life. When I say belief in myself I am not talking about simply the kind of self confidence that helps me down an unfamiliar staircase alone. That is part of it. But I mean something bigger than that: an assurance that I am, despite imperfections, a real, positive person; that somewhere in the sweeping, intricate（错综复杂的） pattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.
It took me years to discover and strengthen this assurance. It had to start with the simplest things. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball. I thought he was making fun of me and I was hurt. "I can't use this." I said. "Take it with you," he urged me, "and roll it around." The words stuck in my head. "Roll it around! "By rolling the ball I could hear where it went. This gave me an idea how to achieve a goal I had thought impossible: playing baseball. At Philadelphia's Overbrook School for the Blind I invented a successful variation of baseball. We called it ground ball.
All my life I have set ahead of me a series of goals and then tried to reach them, one at a time. I had to learn my limitations. It was no good trying for something that I knew at the start was wildly out of reach because that only invited the bitterness of failure. I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I made progress.
1.We can learn from the beginning of the passage that _______
A. the author lost his sight because of a car crash.
B. the author wouldn't love life if the disaster didn't happen.
C. the disaster made the author appreciate what he had.
D. the disaster strengthened the author's desire to see.
2.What's the most difficult thing for the author?
A. How to adjust himself to reality.
B. Building up assurance that he can find his place in life.
C. Learning to manage his life alone.
D. How to invent a successful variation of baseball.
3.According to the context, “a chair rocker on the front porch” in paragraph 3 means that the author __________
A. would sit in a rocking chair and enjoy his life.
B. would be unable to move and stay in a rocking chair.
C. would lose his will to struggle against difficulties.
D. would sit in a chair and stay at home.
4.According to the passage, the baseball and encouragement offered by the man _____
A. hurt the author's feeling.
B. gave the author a deep impression.
C. directly led to the invention of ground ball.
D. inspired the author.
5.What is the best title for the passage?
A. A Miserable Life
B. Struggle Against Difficulties
C. A Disaster Makes a Strong Person
D. An Unforgettable Experience
We can stay young forever. That is the message Dr. Shen Ziyin wants to give the world. And the Chinese doctor claims that he has found an answer to the problems of aging.
His solution is a herbal medicine to slow the process of aging.
Dr. Shen Ziyin has been trained in Western medicine. At the same time he studied traditional Chinese medicine. And, he has been working for the past forty years to put together the best of both and find a cure for aging. He has
taken a hint from its aging process. It is responsible for the level of activity that the human bodies go through Studies conducted by Dr.Shen show that herbal medicine based on the shen system slow the the ancient Chinese medicine system called “shen”.
According to Shen, it is the kidney（肾脏）which adjusts the functioning of the body as well as aging process, says a report in The Telegraph newspaper.
We notice that when people grow old, they have reduced strength, loss of hair, backache, weakness in general, and wrinkles, among others. This happens because when people grow old, their bodies produce T-cells. These T-cells contain a particular substance called Fas. Fas makes the cells in the body destruct themselves.
So the only way to slow down aging is to slow the production of T-cells in the body. This can happen if people eat low calorie food. Then the body is not active enough to produce extra T-cells. But, is going hungry all the time a good price to pay for staying young?
This is where Dr. Shen’s herbal medicine comes in. But how effective it will be, only time can tell.
1.How did Dr. Shen find the solution to the problem of aging?
A. By studying Western medicine.
B. By learning traditional Chinese medicine.
C. By combining both Western and Chinese medicine.
D. By doing research on both Western and Chinese people.
2.What plays the most important role in keeping people young according to Shen?
A. Medical treatment. B. People’s good kidney.
C. Level of people’s activity. D. Positive life attitude.
3.The reason why people become old is that _________.
A. their bodies produce T-cells
B. their bodies are unable to fight diseases
C. they have reduced strength, loss of hair
D. they become weaker and weaker
4.We can probably learn from the passage that _________.
A. producing more low calorie food allows people to keep young
B. the more Chinese herbal medicine people drink, the better for health
C. people should try to quicken the production of T-cells in the body
D. it remains unknown how effective Dr. Shen’s herbal medicine is
It was an autumn morning shortly after my husband and I moved into our first house. Children were upstairs unpacking , and I was looking out of the window at my father moving around mysteriously on the front lawn. My parents lived nearby ,and Dad had visited us several times already. “What are you doing out there?” I called to him .He looked up, smiling. “I’m making you a surprise.” Knowing my father, I thought it could be just about anything. A self-employed jobber, he was always building things out of odds and ends. When we were kids, he always created something surprising for us.
Today, however, Dad would say no more, and caught ups in the busyness of our new life, I eventually forgot about his surprise. Until one gloomy day the following March when I glanced out of the window. Any yet… I saw a dot of blue across the yard. I headed outside for a closer look. They were crocuses (番红花), throughout the front lawn. Lavender, blue, yellow and my favorite pink ---- little faces moved up and down in the cold wind.
Dad! I smiled, remembering the things he had secretly planted last autumn. He knew how the darkness and dullness of winter always got me down. What could have been more perfectly timely to my needs?
My father’s crocuses bloomed each spring for the next four or five seasons, bringing the same assurance every time they arrived: hard times was almost over. Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon.
Then a spring came with only half the usual blooms. The next spring there were none. I missed the crocuses. I would ask Dad to come over and plant new bulbs. But I never did.
He died suddenly one October day. My family was in deep sorrow, leaning on our faith. I missed him terribly.
Four years passed, and on a dismal spring afternoon I was driving back when I found myself feeling depressed. “You’ve got the winter depression again and you get them every year.” I told myself.
It was Dad’s birthday, and I found myself thinking about him. This was not unusual --- my family often talked about him, remembering how he lived his faith. Once I saw him give his coat to a homeless man.
Suddenly I slowed as I turned into our driveway. I stopped and stared at the lawn. And there on the muddy grass and small gray piles of melting snow, bravely waving in the wind, was one pink crocus.
How could a flower bloom from a bulb more than 18 years old, one that had not blossomed in over a decade? But there was the crocus. Tears filled my eyes as I realized its significance.
Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon. The pink crocus bloomed for only a day. But it built my faith for a lifetime.
1.According to the first three paragraphs, we learn that _________.
A. the writer was unpacking when her father was making the surprise
B. the writer knew what the surprise was because she knew her father
C. it was not the first time that the writer’s father had made a surprise
D. it kept bothering the writer not knowing what the surprise was
2.Which of the following would most probably be the worst time of the year as seen by the writer?
A. Spring. B. Summer. C. Autumn. D. Winter.
3.Which of the following is NOT true, according to the passage?
A. The writer’s father planted the crocus to lift her low spirit.
B. The crocuses bloomed each spring before the writer’s father died.
C. The writer often thought about her father since her father died.
D. The writer’s father died some years after he planted the crocus.
4.The writer’s father should be best described as_________.
A. a full-time gardener with skillful hands
B. a part-time jobber who loved flowers
C. a kind-hearted man who lived with faith
D. an ordinary man with doubts in his life
5.Crocus was viewed as the symbol of _________ by the writer.
A. faith B. family C. love D. friendship
In a world where comparisons happen non-stop, it is difficult to look outside yourself and to ever be 21 with who you are. There’s always someone who’s a bit 22 . The only solution is to reach 23 and measure against what Warren Buffett calls your own inner yardstick. There is no more 24 measure for comparison than who your were yesterday, last week or last decade, when you were at your 25 .
Nothing useful ever comes from comparison to others .Either you see yourself as better than someone and you get 26 , or you see someone else as better than you and you feel like all your hard work is for 27 . It is a fool’s game. Not one of us is exactly 28 . The only direct and honest comparison is 29 yourself. Everything else is apples to oranges.
My opinion is that you are only 30 to compare yourself to someone else if their life 31 is the same as your own. Good luck finding that 32 . And one thing is for sure. No matter how hard you work and how dedicated（埋头苦干的）you are, there will always be someone who can run a little faster, jump a little higher, score a little better or look a little nicer in a swimsuit. And if there’s not, you can 33 someone is coming up fast 34 you. So how can you always win in life? Become your best 35 .
Having an image of your most recent past limits is the perfect thing to 36 you to the next level. If you ran 7 flights of stairs yesterday, then do 8 today. Who 37 if the guy next to you did 15? It doesn’t make a bit of 38 . You are a more 39 person today than you were yesterday. Your own 40 is all you need.
1.A. patient B. strict C. content D. concerned
2.A. stronger B. better C. lazier D. wiser
3.A. inside B. out C. for D. up
4.A. accurate B. useful C. careful D. powerful
5.A. end B. best C. convenience D. side
6.A. satisfied B. busy C. inspired D. lazy
7.A. nothing B. fun C. sure D. success
8.A. equal B. unique C. alike D. common
9.A. within B. by C. for D. of
10.A. instructed B. allowed C. directed D. suggested
11.A. situation B. position C. occasion D. accommodation
12.A. game B. match C. friend D. enemy
13.A. conclude B. bet C. announce D. declare
14.A. before B. beside C. below D. behind
15.A. assistant B. competitor C. coach D. teacher
16.A. contribute B. expose C. push D. devote
17.A. cares B. says C. wonders D. asks
18.A. effort B. sense C. difference D. change
19.A. successful B. happy C. lucky D. fit
20.A. benefit B. progress C. habit D. result
---I’m sorry! I would have taken him to hospital if I had known he was seriously ill.
--- But ______ .
A. you didn't B. you hadn't C. he wasn't D. you aren't
Rock-climbing is a breathtaking activity, very popular nationwide among young people, ______ cooperation as well as courage plays an important role.
A. who B. which C. where D. of which
