I have spent years of my life traveling all over the world. When I arrive in a new country or city, usually I am very  36   and go to bed early. For this  37   my first day or night in any new place is always quiet and very  38  happens.  39   my first night in Algeciras was very different. This night was very   40    and unusual.

    At that time   41   in Southern Spain was a dirty and   42   looked-after city. I arrived late in the evening by  43  . As soon as I got off the boat, I went to look for a   44  . I found a small hotel not far from the boat.

   This hotel looked  45  and untidy from the outside. But I was very tired and did not know my  46  around the city of Algeciras. And so I decided to stay in this  47 hotel on the quay(码头). I also decided to stay in this hotel for another   48  . The moon was full and it was a clear,   49  night. From the hotel I could  50  the sea. I could see the huge rock of Gibraltar in the bright moonlight.

   The hotel had a narrow  51  and no name. When I went through this doorway, I had to climb up narrow and dark stairs to the first floor. I  52  a small cupboard with a desk in front of it. This was the hotel office.

   An untidy and tired woman was sitting beside the  53  . When I said I wanted a room for the night, she took me  54  some more stairs to a room on the second floor. Inside this room the landlord was sitting playing cards with some friends. He was  55 his game of cards and I was simply a nuisance(讨厌的人). He looked at me when the woman told him that I wanted a room. Then he said, Room Five, and turned back to his game of cards.

A. frightened       B. excited                C. tired            D. satisfied

A. choice            B. reason              C. aim            D. journey

A. much           B. little               C. few            D. many

A. So              B. Because            C. And             D. But

A. ordinary          B. common            C. forgetful       D. strange

A. Gibraltar        B. Algeciras            C. Madrid       D. New Delhi

A. badly           B. well                     C. wrongly        D. good

A. bus             B. boat               C. plane          D. train

A. guide           B. driver              C. hotel              D. dinner

A. clean           B. dirty               C. beautiful      D. interesting

A. friend          B. address             C. charge        D. way

A. small           B. large              C. expensive      D. funny-looking

A. reason          B. person             C. memory        D. sight-seeing

A. dark            B. cloudy           C. bright        D. sunny

A. look down at    B. praise              C. study          D. forget

A. bedroom        B. doorway            C. stairs         D. bulletin-board

A. came to         B. picked up           C. painted       D. escaped from

A. cupboard       B. office              C. desk               D. doorway

A. over           B. down               C. up           D. under

A. tired of                B. enjoying            C. throwing      D. buying

                                                                                               Dec. 24, 1848

Dear Johnston,

       Your request for eighty dollars, I do not think it best to satisfy now. At the various times when I have helped you a little, you have said to me, “We can get along very well again,” but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can only happen by some fault in your behavior. What that fault is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler(游手好闲). I doubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day’s work, in any other day. You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it.

This habit of uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty; it is vastly important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should break this habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it, easier than they can get out after they are in.

You are now in need of some ready money; and what I suggest is, that you shall go to work hard, for somebody who will give you money for it.

Let father and your boys take charge of your things at home-prepare for a crop, and make the crop, and you go to work for the best money wages, or to pay back any debt you owe. And to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise you that for every dollar you will, between this and the first of May, get for your own labor, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your work.

Now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next year you will be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for $ 70 or $80. Then you value your place in Heaven cheaply, for I am sure you can with the offer I make you get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months’ work. You say if I furnish you the money you will deed(抵押) me the land, and if you don’t pay the money back, you will deliver possession-Nonsense! If you can’t now live with the land, how will you then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not now mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eight time eighty dollars to you.

               Affectionately

  Your brother

   A. Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln wrote the letter to Johnston mainly to ________.

A. show his concern for him                 B. recommend him to save money

C. decline his request and motivate him              D. introduce him a new job

What’s the problem with Johnston, according to Lincoln?

A. He was very lazy.                                 B. He wasted time a lot.

C. He couldn’t get much from work.           D. He disliked working.

In the letter Lincoln suggested that Johnston should ________.

A. keep himself from getting into trouble    B. go to work hard for somebody

C. manage well the things at home             D. keep the children out of the idle habit

If Johnston got one dollar for his work, Lincoln promised to _________.

A. reward him with labor                           B. pay off his debt

C. hire him at 10 dollars a month                      D. give him another dollar

In order to get 80 dollars from Lincoln, Johnston promised to ________.

A. take away his place in Heaven                B. deed Lincoln the land

C. live without the land                                    D. do good work every day 

Everybody likes a winner, and there are always people ready to cheer for a good winner. But who has ever heard a song for the man who comes in second? So this is in praise of the almost winner, the nearly champion(冠军), the next to the biggest, the second best. This is the song of Mister Two.

You hear unflattering(不讨好人的)names for Mister Two. “Alsoran”, they call him, and “runner­up”, names that make you think of a fellow who couldn’t quite make it. Don’t let that fool you. Ask the winner of any race how good a man Mister Two is. He will tell you it’s Mister Two who made him run so fast, Mister Two is always threatening to overtake and pass him.

Ask the salesman who won the contest and what kept him looking for extra order. Ask the directors of the big company why they keep changing their product, seeking the new equipment, the added advantage. What drives them? What keeps them going? It’s the salesman with nearly as many orders. It is the company with the product almost as good. It’s Mister Two.

In this country, we’re proud of the quality of our champions. Our big men come very big. Our fast men run very fast. Our wise men are the wisest and our greatest men are the greatest that a country could hope to be blessed with. And why is that? It is Mister Two that makes the race always open and everybody can run. So this is for you, Mister Two. This is your song. This is for all the days you tried for first, and came in second. It’s for the nights when you wonder if you ought to go on trying, since nobody seems to notice.

We notice, Mister Two. We know the score. Winner or not, you’re a natural champion. There couldn’t be a race without you, Mister Two.

 

58. People usually call Mister Two unflattering names to    him.

A. praise       B. encourage      C. laugh at      D. respect

59. According to the author, Mister Two is mentioned in connection with the following except    .

A. business   B. sports            C. greatness    D. failure

60. It is implied in this story that    .

A. Mister Two is as important as the winner

B. every leader needs someone to help him

C. the second today must be the first tomorrow

D. second place is always praised

61. The person who wins needs to understand that    .

A. winning is everything

B. being Mister Two is wonderful

C. without Mister Two he would do better

D. without strong competition he wouldn’t have worked so hard

Kieron Williamson, a seven-year-old British boy, is being recognized as an art genius after selling 16 paintings for 18, 000 pounds in just 14 minutes. This boy has artistic skills that would be the envy of any serious painter and drawn comparisons to Pablo Picasso, a child prodigy(神童)who became one of the most recognized artists of the 20th century.

 It all began on a family holiday to Cornwall on the southwest English coast when Kieron was five. Inspired by the view, he asked his parents for his first sketch-pad (速写纸). From that moment on, he became deeply interested. While supportive, Kieron’s parents are careful not to push their son. He only paints when and what he wants.

 He has a waiting list of hundreds and requests for his works have been flooding in. His father said a sale of Kieron’s works held in November even drew a buyer from Japan. “We had people driving down that night, there were people on the door waiting to come in the morning who had been standing outside, the phones were going mad as soon as the door opened at nine o’clock and within 14 minutes all the 16 pictures had gone, ” he said.

All this talent, money and high praise could so easily go to a young boy’s head, but Kieron said his friends keep him grounded. “Some of them want to be as good as me and some of them think. . . Umn, ‘you are not too special’, ” he said.

    Kieron’s favourite painter is British artist Edward Seago and he has spent some of his earnings buying a work by his hero. The rest is being invested by his parents until he reaches 25. Kieron’s parents and his younger sister Billi-Jo don’t see him as anything other than a normal seven-year-old boy who likes to tear around the house and who’s mad about football. But for now, with so much still to learn, there’s only one thing he wants to be when he grows up. He said, “I think I’ll definitely be an artist. ”

26. According to Paragraph 1, we can know Kieron Williamson ________.

A. painted 16 paintings in only 14 minutes

B. draws as well as Picasso did

C. is one of the most recognized artists

D. has unusual ability in painting

27. What made Kieron Williamson begin to love painting?

A. His first sketch-pad.

B. His parents’ encouragement.

C. The view at the seaside.

D. His swimming near the coast.

28. In Kieron Williamson’s friends’ opinion, he ________.

A. is famous but a little proud

B. isn’t very special from other children

C. isn’t worth praising at all

D. is hard to get along with

29. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ________.

A. Edward Seago thinks highly of Kieron’s painting

B. Kieron likes doing sports and painting instead of studying

C. Kieron’s family is very poor

D. Kieron wants to be a great painter

30. The passage mainly tells us________.

A. a seven-year-old painting genius

B. how to be a great painter

C. Kieron Williamson may become the second Picasso

D. the painting changed Kieron Williamson’s life greatly

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