It was the last day of the final examination in a large eastern university. On the steps of one building, a group of engineering seniors gathered, discussing the exam due to begin in a few . On their faces was confidence（自信）. This was their last exam—then on to and jobs.
Some talked of jobs they already had; others talked of jobs they get. With the certainty of four years of college, they felt ready and able to take of the world.
The coming exam, they knew, would be a(n) task. The professor had said they could bring books or notes they wanted, requesting only that they did not each other during the test.
they entered the classroom. The professor passed out the papers. And smiles on the students’ faces as they noted there were only five essay-type questions.
Three hours had passed the professor began to collect the papers. The students no longer looked confident. On their faces was a frightened expression. Papers in hand, no one spoke as the professor faced the class.
He looked at the faces before him, and then asked, “How many completed all five questions?” a hand was raised.
“How many answered four?” Still no hands.
“Three? Two?” The students moved restlessly in their seats.
“One, then? Certainly somebody finished .” But the class remained silent.
The professor put down the papers. “That is exactly what I ,” He said. “I just want to impress upon you that you have completed four years of engineering, there are still many things about the you don’t know. These questions you couldn’t answer are relatively in everyday practice.” Then smiling, he added, “You will all this course, but remember—even though you are now college graduates, your education has just .”
Over years they have the name of his professor, but not the lesson he taught.
1.A. seconds B. hoursC. minutesD. days
2.A. graduation B. interviewC. discussion D. education
3.A. mustB. had toC. would D. used to
4.A. holdB. charge C. placeD. control
5.A. interesting B. necessaryC. unusualD. easy
6.A. no B. anyC. eitherD. all
7.A. listen toB. talk toC. look at D. refer to
8.A. JoyfullyB. NervouslyC. QuicklyD. Curiously
9.A. changed B. appearedC. frozeD. stopped
10.A. then B. beforeC. asD. after
11. A. pleased B. surprisedC. worriedD. moved
12.A. Once B. NotC. OnlyD. Even
13.A. one B. allC. noneD. it
14.A. wondered B. enjoyed C. hatedD. expected
15.A. right now B. as thoughC. even thoughD. now that
16.A. exam B. questionC. collegeD. subject
17.A. valuable B. difficultC. strangeD. common
18.A. pass B. failC. takeD. start
19.A. begun B. completedC. failedD. succeeded
20.A. understood B. forgotten C. remembered D. strengthened
A good book can be satisfying. If reading is a habit you’d like to get into, there are some ways to develop it.
Realize that reading is enjoyable if you have a good book. If you have a difficult book and you are forcing yourself through it, it will seem like a task. _____1._______
Set time. You should have some time during every day when you’ll read for at least 5 to 10 minutes. __2._______ For example, make it a habit to read during breakfast and lunch and even dinner if you eat alone.
Always carry a book. __3.__ When I leave the house, I always make sure to have my car keys and one book at hand. The book stays with me in the car, and I take it into the office and to appointments and pretty much everywhere I go.
__4. Find a place in your home where you can sit in a comfortable chair. Don’t lie down unless you’re going to sleep. There should be television or computer near the chair, and no music or no noisy family members/roommates. If you don’t have a place like this, create one.
Reduce television/the Internet. If you really want to read more, try cutting back on time on TV or the Internet. __5.__ Still, every minute you reduce of the Internet/TV, you could use for reading. This could create hours of book reading time.
A. Wherever you go, take a book with you.
B. Go to bookstores.
C. Have some good tea or coffee while you read.
D. Find a quiet place.
E. This may be difficult for some people.
F. If this happens, give up the book and find another one that you’ll really love.
G. It means you will read no matter how busy you are.
The following are letters to the editor of a school newspaper.
Dear editor,
I’d like to express my opinion about grades. Students should be allowed to study without worrying about grades. Fortunately, most educators are becoming aware of the fact that students have different interests and abilities. I understand that grades are useful, but grades often limit creativity. Competing for better grades causes many students to turn down opportunities to pursue music, dramatics and sports. Grades force an arbitrary(武断的) standard of success on everyone. I do not demand as some extremists do, that grades be removed immediately. However, I do believe that less emphasis should be placed on grades. I hope that someday grades will become optional at Village High School.
Magdalena Smith
Drama Club
Dear editor,
I’d like to say something about grades. Let’s face the facts about grades. Grades perform three basic functions. First, grades motivate(激发) students to work at their highest level of competence（能力）. Second, they act as a reward for hardworking students and as a punishment to students who do not work hard. Finally, grades are used as an effective standard by which to measure students’ achievement. Good grades help students to get jobs and to get into university. I've spoken with a number of students who have jobs, and most of them say that they were hired primarily on the basis of their grades. My grades helped me land a part-time job and will help me get into university next year. I think grades are extremely important at Village High School.
Simon Harper
Science Club
1.Which of the following is not Magdalena Smith’s opinion?
A. Grades should not be used to measure a person’s success.
B. Students may give up the chance to learn music and sports for grades.
C. Students’ creativity may not be developed for grades.
D. Grades should be taken away at once.
2.We can learn Simon Harper _____.
A. is concerned about students' creativity
B. believes in the benefits of good grades
C. doesn't work too hard at his studies
D. supports students' interests and abilities
3.From the second letter, we can infer that Simon Harper is a/an_____.
A. student B. teacher
C. headmaster D. advertiser
Mom’s birthday present? It may be a difficult thing for some people, but for me, it is an easy thing. Mom loved flowers, so every year I sent her flowers. Actually she had a bed of irises (鸢尾花) in the backyard of her small, Indiana farm. They were beautiful. “Take some,” she said, “Dig some up and plant them on the side of your own house.”
But in my yard they became lacking in energy. A year passed, then two, but not one flower appeared. I cut back all their green leaves. I was tired of seeing them so lonely. Finally, I dug the irises up and threw them away.
About that time Mom died unexpectedly. My sister and I sold the farm. I never went back to see the irises. I just couldn’t stand seeing another family living in our home—Mom’s home. Autumn came, then winter. The following spring, as Mom’s birthday approached, I struggled with the question of how to remember her. I stared out of the window and saw a few stubborn irises in my side yard sprouting (发芽), —tall, thin but flowerless. Because of seeing them, I decided to order flowers as I always did on Mom’s birthday, and send them to my sister. I wished so badly I could still send flowers to Mom. But that was impossible.
On the morning of Mom’s birthday, I was in my car ready to work. Something in the yard caught my eye. The irises! One had bloomed with flowers, big, showy and purple, as lovely as they ever had been on Mom’s farm. I smiled and turned my eyes upward. I could no longer send flowers to Mom. But somehow, she’d been able to send them to me.
1.According to the first paragraph, Mom ________.
A. didn’t like the presents from the author
B. wanted to give the author some flowers
C. lived with the author on an Indiana farm
D. got different birthday presents from the author every year
2.At first, the irises in the author’s yard ________.
A. all died quickly
B. grew as well as on Mom’s farm
C. didn’t bloom at all
D. grew better than those on Mom’s farm
3.What troubled the author?
A. She didn’t know how to grow irises.
B. She regretted they had sold Mom’s farm.
C. She couldn’t bear others living in Mom’s home.
D. She didn’t know what to do in memory of Mom.
4.What can be learned from the last paragraph?
A. All the irises in the author’s yard bloomed.
B. The author went to see the irises in Mom’s yard.
C. It was Mom who took care of these irises in the author’s yard.
D. The author thought the blooming irises were gifts from Mom.
I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent.
I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows (誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.
So here's what I wanted to tell you today: get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion (提升), the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love，and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(休闲) but work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.
It is so easy to waste our lives，our days，our hours，and our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of living. I learned to live many years ago. Something really，really bad happened to me，something that changed my life. If I had my choice，it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what，today，seems to be the hardest lesson of all.
I learned to love the journey，not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and tried to give some of it back because I believed in it，completely and totally. And I tried to do that，in part，by telling others what I had learned.
By telling them this：read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness，because if you do，you will live with joy and passion(激情) as it ought to be lived.
1.How did the author form her view of life?
A．Through social experience.
B．By learning from her friends.
C．Through an unfortunate experience.
D. From her children and husband.
2.By the underlined sentence “It is so easy to exist instead of living.” in the fifth paragraph，the author really means that people tend to________.
A．make a living rather than live a real life
B．work rather than enjoy life
C．waste a lot in life
D．forget the most important lesson in life
3.What’s the author’s attitude towards work?
A．Do it well to serve others.
B．Earn enough money to make life better.
C．Try your best to get higher position and pay.
D．Don’t let it affect your real life.
4.It can be inferred from the passage that________.
A．the author is a success in personal life
B．the author doesn’t try her best to work well
C．the author spends all her time caring for her children
D．the author likes traveling very much
As a boy I was always small for my age. I was also five years younger than one of my brothers and seven years younger than the other. As a result I often felt left out when their friends came over to play. I was either too small or too young for whatever they were doing and they didn't want their younger brother listening to their conversations either. More often than not I found myself outside playing alone and feeling forgotten.
I remember one spring afternoon feeling especially lonely as I sat in the yard behind our house. We lived miles from town and I hardly saw my own friends outside of school. I heard my brothers laughing from inside the house and felt a single tear coming down my cheek. At that moment I saw a large brown dog walking over to me. He looked happy and his tail was wagging as well. Even though he didn't know me he greeted me like a long lost friend, licking(舔) my chin and sitting beside me on the spring grass. It must have been at least an hour that I patted and talked to this four-legged angel. He let me pour out all my troubles and share my deepest thoughts before he kissed my cheek goodbye and ambled off either to Heaven or his home. I went back inside feeling happy, knowing that no matter what life may hold I was loved. Now over 40 years later I still remember that angel with a smile.
I believe that God sent him at that moment of sadness to remind me just how much he loved me. There is nothing more important than knowing we are loved. When we are loved, we will learn to love others. Learning to love helps us to understand ourselves and other people better.
1.How did the writer feel when his brothers’ friends came?
A. Proud. B. Worried.
C. Lonely. D. Happy.
2.The writer shared his troubles and thoughts with the dog because ______.
A. it was his friend B. it could understand him
C. it looked like an angel D. it was friendly to him
3.From Paragraph 2, we can learn that ______.
A. the boy met a long lost friend
B. the boy had no friends at school
C. the dog spent the afternoon with the boy and his brothers
D. the dog helped the boy realize that he was loved
4.The author wrote the story to______.
A. encourage people to talk about their troubles
B. show knowing you are loved is the most important
C. tell people they should treat animals friendly
D. share his unforgettable experience with us
