感恩，是我们生活中永恒的话题。学会感恩，学会热爱生活，我们将会感受到更多的快乐。假如你校拟举行一次有关“感恩”的演讲比赛。请你根据以下要点写一篇英语演讲稿。

要点：1. 感恩对象（父母、老师、同学、朋友、挫折……）；

      2. 以一次亲身经历说明为何感恩；

      3. 如何感恩。

注意：1. 只选择一个感恩对象；

      2. 可对所给要点作适当发挥；

      3. 演讲稿中不得提及考生所在学校或本人姓名。

4.词数不少于120，开头已写好，不计入总词数。

Good afternoon, everyone! It’s a great honor to have the opportunity to be with you today. The topic of my speech is “Thank you, ___________.”

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a box by his feet. He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help.” There were only a few coins in the box. The boy felt sad.

A man walked by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the box. Then he took the sign, turned it around and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the box was full. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.

That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

That man said, “I only wrote the truth . I said what you said but in a different way.” What he had written was, “Today is a beautiful day and I can not see it.”

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing? Of course, but the second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

Great men say, “In the journey of life, if you want to travel without fear, you must have the ticket of a good conscience（良心）.”

It’s a beautiful thing to see a person smiling! And it’s even more beautiful to know that you are the reason of a person’s smiling!

81. Why did the blind boy feel sad?  (no more than 10 words)

 _______________________________________________________________________

82. When did the man change the boy’s sign?  (no more than 3 words)

________________________________________________________________________

83. Why did the second sign have a better effect?  (no more than 10 words)

________________________________________________________________________

84. According to the last paragraph, what is the most beautiful thing?  (no more than 15 words)

_______________________________________________________________________

Today, February twenty-ninth, is leap day. This date only appears on the calendar once every four years. But why?

Everyone knows the Earth takes three hundred sixty-five days to travel around the sun. Well, that is not exactly correct. The Earth really takes three hundred sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds to complete its orbit around the sun.

The problem for people developing calendars (日历) was what to do with the extra(额外的) five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds.

People needed calendars to help them know when to plant crops and when to celebrate religious holidays. The ancient Greeks and Chinese had a solution(解决办法). They produced calendars that included extra months every nineteen years.

The ancient Romans had a different solution. In the year forty-six, the Roman ruler Julius Caesar made a new calendar. The Julian calendar included an extra day every four years. But there was a problem. The Julian year was just over eleven minutes longer than the cycle(循环) of the seasons. In fifteen eighty-two, Pope Gregory the Thirteenth established a new calendar to keep a better recorder of the days. Pole Gregory was the religious leader of most of Europe. He decided that years that could be divided by four would add a day. However, years that ended in two zeros and that could not be evenly(均匀地) divided by four hundred would not be leap years. For example, the years seventeen hundred, eighteen hundred and nineteen hundred were not leap years. But the years sixteen hundred and two thousand were leap years

So leap years are years with three hundred sixty-six days, instead of the usual three hundred sixty-five. This extra day is added to the calendar on February twenty-ninth, sometimes known as leap day. People born on leap day may be called “leaplings.” They usually celebrate their birthday on February twenty-eight or March first. 

Title:     71    

The United States is one of the few countries in the world that has an official day on which fathers are honored by their children. On the third Sunday in June, fathers all across the United States are given presents, treated to dinner or otherwise made to feel special.

　However, the idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in Spokane, Washington.  A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon(说教) in 1909. Having been raised by her father, Henry Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her.

　It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices(牺牲) and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a selfless(无私的) and loving man. Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.

　In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge declared the third Sunday in June as Father's Day.  Roses are the Father's Day flowers: red to be worn for a living father and white if the father has died.

　When children can't visit their fathers or take them out to dinner, they send a greeting card. Traditionally, fathers prefer greeting cards that are not too sentimental(伤感的, 忧伤的). Most greeting cards are too special so fathers laugh when they open them. Some give heartfelt thanks for being there whenever the child needed Dad.

66. The United States is special in Father's Day because ______.

　　A. many people celebrate the day         B.  only America celebrates the day

　　C. America makes it an official day       D.  all men are honored in America

67. At first, Father's Day was fixed on June 19th because ______.

　　A. Sonora honored her father on her father's birthday

　　B. Sonora's birthday was June 19

　　C. it was decided by the president at that time

　　D. her mother died on June 19

68.  How many years has passed before Father's Day became an official day since the father's day was celebrated?

　　A.  4          B.  10          C.  14           D.  24

69.  According to the passage, on Father's Day, ______.

　　A. people will wear the same flowers to honor their fathers

　　B. only daughters wear red flowers to honor their fathers

　　C. children must go home to honor their fathers

　　D. fathers are often honored in different ways

70. According to the passage, we can infer that Henry Jackson Smart ______.

　　A. was very kind to anyone              B. did a lot for his daughter

　　C. was the first father honored in 1924     D. always help others by giving money

There is a common belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever considered spelling unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, quite different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority (优先) it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to encourage a child to express himself freely in writing without holding him back with spelling.

　If spelling becomes the only point of his teacher's interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to “play safe”. He will write only words within his spelling range (范围）. That's why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.

　I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience: “This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling mistakes.” It may have been a sharp criticism(批评) of the pupils technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad thing for the teacher who had omitted (略过) to read the composition, which contained some beautiful expressions of the child's deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the mistakes, but if his priority had centered on the child's ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more hope to seek improvement.

61. Teachers differ in their opinions(意见不同) about ______.`

　　A. the difficulties in teaching spelling

B. the role of spelling in general language development

　　C. the importance of the basic writing skills　

D. the necessity (必要性) of teaching spelling

62. The expression “play safe” probably means ______.

　　A. to write carefully　　　　　　　　　　 B. to do as teachers say

　　C. to use dictionaries frequently　　　 D. to avoid using words one is not sure of

63. Teachers encourage the use of dictionaries so that______.

　　A. students will be able to express their ideas more freely

　　B. teachers will have less trouble in correcting mistakes

　　C. students will have more trust in writing　 D. students will learn to spell words correctly

64. The writer seems to think that the teacher's judgement on that sensitive piece of writing is______.

　　A. reasonable　　　 B. foolish　　　　 C. unfair　　　　 D. careless

65. The major point discussed in the passage is _______.

　　A. the importance of developing writing skills　 B. the importance of spelling

　　C. the correct way of marking composition

　　D. the relationship between spelling and the content of a composition

It seems that there’s a good reason why dogs have remained as man’s best friend. Scientists have found that dogs are the only animals that can read emotion in faces much like humans. The finding suggests that like an understanding friend, dogs can see at a glance if we are happy, sad, pleased or angry.

　When humans look at a new face, their eyes usually wander left, falling on the right hand side of the person’s face first. This “left gaze bias”（左视偏好） only happens when we look at faces and does not apply(应用于) any other time, such as when looking at animals or objects.

　A possible reason for the tendency（倾向） is that the right side of the human face is better at expressing emotions.

 Researchers at the University of Lincoln have now shown that pet dogs also have “left gazes bias”, but only when looking at human faces. No other animal has been known to show this behavior before.

　A team, led by Dr Kun Guo, showed 17 dogs images(形象) of human, dog and monkey faces as well as objects.

　Film of the dog’s eye and head movements shows a strong left gaze bias when the animals were presented with human faces. But this did not happen when they were shown other images, including those of dogs. “Guo suggests that over thousands of generations of association（交往） with humans, dogs may have developed the left gaze bias as a way to guess our emotions,” New Scientist magazine reported.

　“Recent studies show that the right side of our faces can express emotions more accurately than the left. If true, then it makes sense for dogs — and humans — to see the right hand side of a face first.”

　56. The reason why dogs are man’s best friend is that _______.

　　 A. they can read our facial emotions easily       B. they can help us in many ways

　　 C. they are the only animal that can protect us    D. they are easy to deal with

　57. The “left gaze bias” only happens when we look at _______.

　　 A. animals        B. plants       C. people         D. dogs

　58. From the passage we can learn that______.

　　 A. the left side of the human face is better at expressing emotions

　　 B. only pet dogs have “left gaze bias”

　　 C. Dr Kun Guo is a team leader

　　 D. The “left gaze bias” happens when dogs were presented with images of dogs

　59. The passage mainly wants to tell us that ______.

　　 A. dogs are man’s best friend      B. what is the “left gaze bias“

　　 C. dogs can guess our emotions    D. dogs read emotions the same as humans

　60. The underlined word “accurately” in the last paragraph probably means _______.

　　 A. luckily             B. exactly          C. slowly         D. easily

`  I used to work in a hospital as a pharmacy technician(药剂师).  48  was part of my duty to go around the nursing stations to pick up orders(订单)  49   deliver(派送) medicine. Once I was on my way to a nursing station, I met an elderly lady,  50   was sitting outside a room crying. I stopped to ask if she was Okay. She said her husband was dying in the room. So I just sat there for   51  while, holding her hand and listening to her. This was   52   I would do every time I saw her. Then one day I saw her sitting there, and she wasn’t crying any  53  . She told me that her husband had died the night before. I asked her why she was still there. She replied, “I came back to say thank you for just being there, listening to me and helping me through this.” I hugged her and wished her well. I walked away with tears  54   my eyes and a heart filled with joy because I had been  55   to help someone through her darkest days.

By the time I was in middle school, my family had already moved many times. And this time I was  36   that we were moving to Ohio. This was to be my second middle school.

I had bright red hair, freckles(雀斑),big glasses, and, even worse, I was too fat. It was not gong to be  37  for me. In addition, I was very shy and making friends did not come easily to me. But I expected what was coming.

Getting on the school bus the first day, I felt all eyes  38  at me. I could hear the whispers(低语). “Who’s that?” and even “She is huge!”  39  , the kids had known each other over the years and I was a  40  .

The following day was even worse. Some boys thought it  41  to tie(系) a shoelace(鞋带) across the passage(过道) to the bottom of the bus seats. I did not notice the shoelace and fell over. I could hear the  42   I managed to  43   any eye contact and found a seat. I looked out of the bus window and held back my tears.

It was then that I sank into myself. I   44   that I was thin and pretty with a lot of friends. I started losing weight, and I became more   45   with myself, and be happy with myself.

Unbelievably, one of my new-found friends said that I didn’t have to be   46  . I just had to be me, and be happy with myself.

Whenever I am  47   with any of life’s issues(问题), I always remember the proverb, “This too shall pass.”

36. A. taught          B. told        C. warned         D. ordered

37. A. interesting      B. important    C. easy           D. unfair

38. A. looking        B. arriving     C. knocking        D. firing

39. A. Secretly        B. Curiously   C. Carelessly       D. Obviously

40. A. stranger        B. director     C. leader          D. head

41. A. major          B. funny      C. silly            D. clever

42. A. noise          B. voice       C. cry             D. laughter

43. A. return         B. discover     C. avoid           D. meet

44. A. learned        B. found       C. regretted        D. imagined

45. A. satisfied       B. busy        C. patient          D. comfortable

46. A. eager         B. perfect       C. careful         D. cheerful

47. A. concerning    B. communicating   C. struggling    D. fighting

 Can you explain _______ you don’t listen to your English teacher in class?

   A. why it is that     B. why is it that        C. how it is that   D. how is it that

Project Hope is ______ a national project. It aims to change the lives of poor children in rural areas.

   A. rather than       B. other than          C. more than     D. better than