Twenty years ago, I drove a taxi for a living. One night I went to pick up a passenger at 2:30 AM. When I arrived to collect, I found the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window.

I walked to the door and knocked, “Just a minute,” answered a weak, elderly voice.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her eighties stood before me. By her side was a small suitcase.

I took the suitcase to the car, and then returned to help the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the car.

She kept thanking me for my kindness. “It’s nothing,” I told her. “I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.”

“Oh, you’re such a good man.” She said. When we got into the taxi, she gave me an address, and then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”

“It’s not the shortest way,” I answered quickly.

“Oh, I’m in no hurry,” she said. “I’m on my way to a hospice(临终医院). I don’t have any family left. The doctor says I don’t have very long.”

I quietly reached over and shut off the meter(计价器).

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked, the neighborhood where she had lived, and the furniture shop that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she’d ask me to slow down in front of a particular building and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

At dawn, she suddenly said,” I’m tired. Let’s go now.”

We drove in silence to the address she had given me.

“How much do I owe you?” she asked.

“Nothing.” I said.

“You have to make a living,” she answered. “Oh, there are other passengers,” I answered.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. Our hug ended with her remark, “You gave an old woman a little moment of joy.”

The old woman chose to ride through the city in order to ______.

A. show she was familiar with the city                    B. see some places for the last time

C. let the driver earn more money                             D. reach the destination on time

The taxi driver did not charge the old woman because he ______.

A. wanted to do her a favor                              

B. shut off the meter by mistake

C. had received her payment in advance

D. was in a hurry to take other passengers

What can we learn from the story?

A. Giving is always a pleasure.

B. People should respect each other.

C. An act of kindness can bring people great joy.

D. People should learn to appreciate others’ concern.

Bernice Gallego sat down one day this summer, as she does pretty much every day,and began listing items on eBay. She dug into a box and pulled out a baseball card. She stopped for a moment and admired the picture. “Red Stocking B. B. Club of Cincinnatti,” the card read, under the reddish brown color photo of ten men with their socks pulled up to their knees.

As a collector and seller, it’s her job to spot old items that might have value today. It’s what Bernice,72, and her husband, Al Gallego, 80, have been doing since 1974 at their California antique store.

This card, she figured, was worth selling on eBay. She took a picture, wrote a description and put it up for auction.She put a $10 price tag on it, deciding against $15 because it would have cost her an extra 20 cents. Later that night she got a few odd inquiries---someone wanting to know whether the card was real, someone wanting her to end the caution and sell him the card immediately.

The card is actually 139 years old. Sports card collectors call the find “extremely rare” and estimate the card could fetch five, or perhaps, six figures at caution.

Just like that, Bernice is the least likely character ever for a rare-baseball card story. “I didn’t even know baseball existed that far back,” Gallego says, “I don’t think that I’ve ever been to a baseball game.” The theory is that the card came out of a storage space they bought a few years back. It is not uncommon in their line of work to buy the entire contents of storage units for around $200.

When she met with card trader Rick Mirigian, she found out what the card was-----an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnatti Red Stocking.

“When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich bag and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted,” Mirigian says. “ They’ve uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine. That card is history. It’s like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso.”

67. What can we conclude from paragraph 3?

   A.Bernice had to pay some fees for her card on eBay.

   B.Bernice wanted to end the caution that night.

   C.Bernice decided to sell the card for $15.

   D.eBay charged her 20 cents for the card.

68. The underlined word “fetch” in paragraph 4 most probably means “_______”.

   A. go and bring   B. add up to   C. go down to   D. be sold for

69. From the passage we may learn that _______.

   A. Bernice is a baseball fan

   B. Bernice is the last person to purchase the rare-baseball card

   C. Bernice unexpectedly became the owner of the rare-baseball card

D. Bernice didn’t realize the value of the card until she put it up for auction

70. What would be the best title for the passage?

A.A Surprisingly Valuable Discovery

B.The History of the Baseball Card

C.Bernice Gallego---A lucky collector 

D. Sports Card Collectors

根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有多余选项。

            The goal here is to limit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which are closely associated to the big problem of global-warming.

Strategy 1: Bring your own cup to Starbucks

You’ll get a 10 cent discount, and it’s one less paper cup to end up in a landfill. While you’re there, pick up some free bags of spent coffee grounds to use as ‘‘green’’ fertilizer in your garden.

The payoff:      

Strategy2: Turn off your computer

When in standby mode, your PC is still using energy.            

The payoff: Turning off a monitor for 40 hours a week may only save $ 5 a month, but it reduces CO2 by 750 pounds

Strategy 3: Reuse plastic bags

Instead of throwing away 100 billion plastic bags a year, try and get a second, third, or tenth use out of them. Better yet, next time you shop, try a reusable bag.

The payoff:         The amount of oil it would take to make just 14 plastic bags would run your car for one mile.

Strategy4: Use recycled paper in the bathroom

Most of the toilet paper we use is made from trees found in forests previously untouched by humans.

The payoff: If every household replaced one roll of toilet paper with a recycled one, 424000 trees would still be standing. Look for eco paper towels too.

Strategy5: Buy energy-efficient appliances(电器)

Replace the old fridge with an Energy Star appliance and you’ll use 15 percent less energy.   

The payoff: If we all used one Energy Star appliance at home, it would be like planting 1. 7 million acres of new trees.

A. You can be proud of yourselves, even if you can only make one or two of these green changes.

B. Adding green to your garden is beautiful and earth-pleasing.

C. It might be a little expensive to buy, but you’ll save money on your electricity bills and help the environment.

D. In fact, 75 percent of electricity used in your home comes from electronics that are turned off.

E. You’re reducing pollution.

F. The store won’t create more waste when they throw away a cup.

G. Just one tree will help make cleaner air and save the environment from 5000 pounds of hot carbon dioxide each year.

“The first and best of victories is for a man to conquer himself; to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the most shameful,” says Plato. Self-control is at the root of all the advantages. Let a man give in to his impulses (冲动) and feelings, and from that moment he gives up his moral (道德上的) freedom.

A single angry word has lost many a friend. When Socrates found in himself any temper or anger, he would check it by speaking low in order to control himself. If you are conscious of being angry, keep your mouth shut so that you can hold back rising anger. Many a person has dropped dead in great anger. Fits of anger bring fits of disease. “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.” “Keep cool”, says George Herbert, “for fierceness (狂怒) makes error a fault.”

To be angry with a weak man is to prove that you are not strong yourself. “Anger,” says Pythagoras, “brings with folly(愚蠢) and ends with regret.” You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he conquers, not by the power of those which conquer him.

Self-control is man’s last greatest victory.

If a man lacks self-control he seems to lack everything. Without it he can have no patience, no power to govern himself; he can have no self-confidence, for he will always be controlled by his strongest feeling. If he lacks self-control, the very backbone and nerve of character are lacking also.

What does the reader learn from the first paragraph?

A. The greatest victory for a man is to conquer everything except himself.

B. One’s moral freedom is based on the control of himself.

C. To control oneself is the most difficult in one’s life.

D. If a person is too stubborn, he will feel most shameful.

What is the correct interpretation of “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad” ?

A. If the gods want to kill you, they make you crazy first.

B. If you always lose your temper, you will soon be finished.

C. If you cannot control yourself, you will become crazy.

D. If you are mad, you will be punished by the gods.

If a man lacks self-control, he lacks all of the following EXCEPT _______.

A. the very backbone and nerve of character 

B. the patience and power to control himself

C. strong feelings

D. self-confidence

The author’s main purpose in writing this article is to _______.

A. explain that self-control is the key to success

B. teach people how to control everything in order to make a great success

C. distinguish all kinds of self-control and suggest ways for keeping it

D. advise people not to lose temper so as to make and keep more friends

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