If Confucius (孔子) were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake, there would be a lot of candles. He’d need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.

While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day, few people in the United States will give him a passing thought. It’s nothing personal. Most Americans don’t even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.

But this doesn’t mean that Americans don’t care about Confucius. In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.

In the past two decades, the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities. More recently, the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes in more than 80 countries. These schools teach both Chinese language and culture. The main courses of Chinese culture usually included Chinese art, history and philosophy (哲学). Some social scientists suggest that Westerners should take advantage of the ancient Chinese wisdom to make up for the drawbacks of Westerners philosophy. Students in the United States, at the same time, are racing to learn Chinese. So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States. Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers.

So the old thinker’s ideas are still alive and well.

Today China attracts the West more than ever, and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.

As for the old thinker, he will not soon be forgotten by people in the West, even if his birthday is.

1.We can learn from Paragraph 4 that American students ________.

A. play an important role in Chinese competitions

B. have a great interest in studying Chinese

C. try to get high scores in Chinese exams

D. fight for a chance to learn Chinese

2.What is the best title for the passage?

A. Forgotten Wisdom in America

B. Huge Fans of the Chinese Language

C. Chinese Culture for Westerners

D. Old Thinker with a Big Future

3.The passage is likely to appear in ________.

A. a biography

B. a history paper

C. a newspaper

D. a philosophy textbook

第一节 完形填空(共20 小题,每小题1.5分 ,满分30分)

I did very badly at school. My headmaster thought I was ________ and when I was 14, he said, “You’re never going to be ________ but a failure.”

After five years of ________ jobs, I fell in love with a very middle-class girl. It was the best ________ that could have happened to me. I ________ to do something positive with my life because I wanted to prove to ________ that what people said about me was ________, especially her mother, who had said to me, “Let’s ________ it, you’ve failed at everything you’ve ever done.”

So I tried hard with my ________ and went to college. My first novel _____ while I was at college.

After college I taught during the ________ in high school and attended evening classes at London University, where I got a ________ in history. I became a lecturer at a college and was thinking of ________ that job to write full time ________ I was offered a part-time job at Leeds University. I began to feel proud of myself: ________ was a working-class boy who’d ________ school early, now teaching at the university.

My writing career (职业) took off when I discovered my own style. Now I’m rich and ________, have been on TV, and met lots of film stars. ________ what does it mean? I ________ wish all the people that have put me down had ________:“I believe in you. You’ll succeed.”

1.A. brightB. uselessC. simpleD. hopeful

2.A. anythingB. somethingC. everythingD. nothing

3.A. lowB. usefulC. goodD. poor

4.A. supportB. happinessC. surpriseD. thing

5.A. admittedB. decidedC. plannedD. told

6.A. meB. themC. herD. it

7.A. wrongB. rightC. stupidD. faulty

8.A. seeB. knowC. understandD. face

9.A. experimentB. practiceC. writingD. composition

10.A. came onB. came inC. came outD. came back

11.A. dayB. nightC. monthD. year

12.A. graduationB. passC. degreeD. success

13.A. giving inB. giving back

C. giving outD. giving up

14.A. whileB. ifC. whenD. or

15.A. thereB. hereC. itD. that

16.A. leftB. attendedC. changedD. graduated

17.A. tiredB. calmC. nervousD. famous

18.A. AndB. ButC. HoweverD. Well

19.A. justB. exactlyC. soD. very

20.A. praisedB. saidC. answeredD. advised

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