题目内容
I didn't see Faye Wong at the concert last night because she ________ to appear as planned for some reason.
A.failed
B.attempted
C.managed
D.decided
I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn’t think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.
I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.
It takes confidence to make a new start—there’s a dark period in-between where you’re neither one thing nor the other. You’re out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you’re too ashamed to say, “Well, I’m writing a novel, but I’m not quite sure if I’m going to get there.” My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.
Then I met an agent(代理商) who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.
The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal—that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for.
It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck—of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract(合同)of the publisher—to be a published writer—is unbelievably rewarding(有回报的).
【小题1】What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?
A.I was waiting for good fortune. |
B.I was trying to find an admirable job. |
C.I was being aimless about a suitable job. |
D.I was doing several jobs for more pay at a time. |
A.to finish the writing course | B.to realize her own dream |
C.to satisfy readers’ wish | D.to earn more money |
A.Disturbed. | B.Ashamed. | C.Confident. | D.Uncertain. |
A.It pays to stick to one’s goal. |
B.Hard work can lead to success. |
C.She feels like being unexpectedly lucky. |
D.There is no end in sight when starting to do something. |
I once did a year of voluntary service in a residential home for people with learning disabilities. It was set in an English village deep in the countryside, quite different from my home in Sweden. One of my fellow volunteers, a girl from Tanzania, seemed a little unhappy, so I asked what the problem was. She told me she had a friend back home who had financial difficulties and maybe it was impossible for her to complete her university courses.
So this friend of mine had sent all her money to Tanzania to support her friend! This meant that she didn't have much food to eat and no money to go anywhere outside the village.
I was so touched and I felt I had to do something. So, during my next trip to one of the nearby towns I walked into a shop. I didn’t have much money left myself but I thought I'd buy her an extra box of chocolate we both liked and some rice. I started talking to the woman(also a volunteer)working in the shop and eventually told her about my friend.
The woman looked at me, amazed. “Does she eat pasta?” she asked. “Yes,” I replied. She immediately started loading a bag with pasta, cookies, and other things until the bag was full. “Give her this for me. It’s my treat!’’ I couldn’t believe it but accepted with happiness. As I left the shop to go home with my unexpected bag of food, I asked the woman her name. “Just Gloria,” she said.
Imagine my friend’s face when I arranged the gifts on my kitchen table and fetched her from her room to see! I had never seen her so happy! A few weeks later she found Gloria in the shop and thanked her in person.
These two extraordinary women really showed me what true kindness and compassion(同情)are, and the impression will stay with me for the rest of my life!
【小题1】The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 1 probably refers to .
A.the shop |
B.the writer's home |
C.the residential home |
D.a year of voluntary service |
A.Because she had to stop her voluntary work. |
B.Because she had no money to buy food or other things. |
C.Because she had spent all her money on food and clothes. |
D.Because her friend in Tanzania maybe had to quit school for lack of money. |
A.Because the writer was a volunteer. |
B.Because they lived in the same room. |
C.Because the writer was moved by her kind act. |
D.Because the writer didn’t wish she went hungry. |
A.the writer was from England |
B.the writer was a university student from Tanzania |
C.Gloria was from Sweden and was very kind to the writer |
D.the writer volunteered to help people with learning disabilities |
I found out one time that doing a favor for someone could get you into a lot of trouble. I was in the eighth grade at the time, and we were having a final test. During the test, the girl sitting next to me whispered something, but I didn’t understand. So I leaned over her way and found out that she was trying to ask me if I had an extra pen. She showed me that hers was out of ink and would not write. I happened to have an extra one, so I took it out of my pocket and put it on her desk..
Later, after the test papers had been turned in, the teacher asked me to stay in the room when all the other students were dismissed(解散). As soon as we were alone she began to talk to me about what it meant to grow up; she talked about how important it was to stand on your own two feet and be responsible (负责任) for your own acts. For a long time, she talked about honesty and emphasized(强调) the fact that when people do something dishonest, they are really cheating(欺骗) themselves. She made me promise that I would think seriously(认真地) about all the things she had said, and then she told me I could leave. I walked out of the room wondering why she had chosen to talk to me about all those things.
Later on, I found out that she thought I had cheated on the test. When she saw me lean over to talk to the girl next to me, it looked as if I was copying answers from the girl’s test paper. I tried to explain about the pen, but all she could say was it seemed very very strange to her that I hadn’t talked of anything about the pen the day she talked to me right after the test. Even if I tried to explain that I was just doing the girl a favor by letting her use my pen, I am sure she continued(继续) to believe that I had cheated on the test.
【小题1】The story took place(发生) exactly ____ .
A.in the teacher’s office | B.in an exam room |
C.in the school | D.in the language lab |
A.she had not brought a pen with her |
B.she had lost her own on her way to school |
C.there was something wrong with her own |
D.her own had been taken away by someone |
A.to go on writing his paper | B.to stop whispering |
C.to leave the room immediately | D.to stay behind after the exam |
A.honesty | B.sense of duty | C.seriousness | D.all of the above |
A.the moment he was asked to stay behind |
B.when the teacher started talking about honesty |
C.only some time later |
D.when he was walking out of the room |