That summer an army of crickets(蟋蟀) started a war with my father. Dad didn’t care for insects much more than Mamma, but he could tolerate a few living in the basement. Mamma was a city girl and she said a cricket was just too noisy. Then to support her point she wouldn’t go to bed. She drank coffee and smoked my father’s cigarettes and paced between the sofa and the TV. Next morning she threatened to pack up and leave, so Dad drove to the store and hurried back. He sprayed poison from a jug. When he was finished he told us that was the end of it.

  For a couple of weeks we went back to find dead crickets in the laundry. He suggested that we’d all be better off to hide as many as we could from Mamma. I fed a few dozen to the cat who I didn’t like because he scratched for no reason.

  However, soon live crickets started showing up in the kitchen and bathroom. Mamma was upset because she thought they were the dead crickets coming back, but Dad said these were certainly new ones. He fetched his jug of poison and sprayed all over until the whole house smelled of poison, and then he sprayed the basement again.

  A couple of weeks later, when both live and dead crickets kept turning up, Dad emptied the basement of junk. Then he burned a lot of old newspapers and magazines which he said the crickets had turned into nests.

  While we ate supper that evening, the wind lifted some flames onto the wood pile. The only gasoline was in the lawn mower’s(割草机) fuel tank but that was enough to create an explosion big enough to reach the house. Once the roof caught, there wasn’t much anyone could do.

  After the fire trucks left, Mamma took the others to Aunt Gail’s. I helped Dad and Uncle Burt carry things out of the house and pile them by the road. We worked into the night and we didn’t talk much, while all around the noise of crickets broke our silence.

56. What do we know about the author’s mother?

   A. She didn’t like insects at all.

   B. She liked insects more than his father.

   C. She cared for insects very much.

   D. She could only tolerate a few insects.

57. The author’s father drove to the store to buy _______.

   A. cigarettes for himself                                         B. some poison

   C. more coffee for his wife                             D. some gasoline

58. The author’s father burned the old newspapers and magazines because he thought ______.

   A. they were no longer useful

   B. the crickets were afraid of fires

   C. they became the home of crickets

   D. the dead crickets came back to life

59. We learn from the last paragraph that ________.

   A. the author’s family lost their battle against the crickets

   B. the author’s parents learned to put up with insects

   C. the author’s family didn’t suffer much in the fire

   D. the author’s parents got divorced

 I can still remember it as it was yesterday. I was a college freshman and had ____36___ up most of the night, laughing and talking with friends. Now just before my first ____37___ of the day, my eyelids were feeling heavier and heavier and my head was drifting down to my desk to make my textbook a ____38___. A few minutes nap(瞌睡) time before class wouldn’t ____39___, I thought.

  BOOM! I lifted my head suddenly and my eyes opened wider than saucers. I looked around with my ____40___ beating wildly trying to find the cause of the ____41____. My young professor was looking back at me with a boyish smile on his face. He had ____42____ dropped the textbooks he was carrying onto his desk. “Good morning!”, he said, still ____43____. “I am glad to see everyone is ____44___. Now let’s get started.”

  For the next hour I wasn’t sleepy at all. It wasn’t from the ____45___ of my professor’s textbook alarm clock either. It was instead from the ____46___ discussion he led. With knowledge and good ____47___ he made the material come ____48___. His insights were full of both wisdom and loving-kindness. And the enthusiasm and joy that he ____49___ with were contagious(富有感染力的). I ___50___ the classroom not only ___51___ awake, but a little smarter and a little better as well.

  I learned something far more important than not ____52___ in class that day too. I learned that if you are going to do something in this life, do it with ____53___. What a wonderful place this would be if all of us did our work joyously and well. Don’t sleepwalk your way through ____54___ then. Wake up! Let your love fill your work. Life is too ___55___ not to live it well.

36. A. took                  B. divided                   C. stayed                           D. put

37. A. lecture                     B. test                        C. task                        D. class

38. A. platform            B. pillow                      C. carpet                            D. wall

39. A. lose                   B. help                        C. last                         D. hurt

40. A. heart                B. mind                       C. thought                  D. head

41. A. trouble                    B. noise                      C. failure                            D. Incident

42. A. angrily               B. carelessly                C. intentionally           D. accidentally

43. A. smiling                     B. talking                           C. complaining            D. shouting

44. A. active               B. curious                   C. present                   D. awake

45. A. voice                B. shock                      C. interruption                  D. blow

46. A. fascinating     B. convincing         C.puzzling                  D.encouraging

47. A. point            B. sense              C.humor            D.look

48. A. strange                    B. natural                           C. handy                            D. alive

49. A. taught                     B. spread                           C. combined               D. started

50. A. decorated         B. filled                       C. left                         D. entered

51. A. high                  B. wide                       C. narrow                           D. widely

52. A. discussing         B. speaking                 C. cheating                 D. sleeping

53. A. joy                           B. speed                            C. aim                         D. determination

54. A. work                 B. life                          C. journey                   D. college

55. A. hard                  B. complex                  C. short                       D. simple

 On AIDS Day, the minister of Health Department demanded that the problems ____ paid special attention to.

A. referred to being                               B. referred to be     C. refer to being     D. refer to be

 --- Take a cigarette, please.

--- No, thanks. It’s three years     I smoked.

A. before            B. since                C. after               D. when

 In no country     Britain, as has been mentioned,      experience four seasons during the course of a single day.

A. other than; one can                  B. apart from; one can

C. other than; can one                 D. rather than; can one

 When you study the local map, you will find this town is    .

A. twice as a large town as that                                      B. twice the size that one

C. twice as larger as that one                                        D. twice as large a town as that one

 --- John, I can’t play tennis at all. I wonder if you could teach me.

---        . Just name the day.

A. I’m glad           B. Go ahead          C. If you like it            D. With pleasure

 I hope there are enough books for each student to have ___________. 

A. it                            B. those                      C. one                         D. them

 Bill always seems so confident, but ________ he’s extremely shy.

       A. in vain                    B. in contrast                     C. in reality                 D. in surprise

 A ______ road goes ______ from one place to another. 

A. straight, straight  B. straightly, straightly  C. straight, straightly              D. straightly, straight