Start Today

  "What can you do when you have done nothing but mess up your whole  life  long?" These were the words I heard when I   36   the TV the other day. They were coming  from one of  the  talk shows   37 are so popular on TV  these days.  I started  to  turn the channel but  the words  I had   38   made me stop  for a moment.  I   39    the speaker of  them. He couldn't have been more  than 18 years old, but already he was writing off （认为……已失败） his life as a useless waste.

  I wanted to shout at him:" You're not   40    yet!"

  It is   41   sad that so many people cannot get beyond (摆脱) their pasts and live   42   the present. There are so many people like that talk show guest. There are people still  in  their  teen years   43    that their lives are over. There are people in their twenties who already think they have   44   the boat to success and happiness. There are people in their thirties and forties who sit around complaining that life has passed them by.  I want  to shout  to  them all:" Wake up! You're still  45  ! What have you done today?" If you want a happy  life, you can't dwell on(细想、纠缠于)your past   46  . If you want joy and love  in your  life, you have  to choose  them  today. God gives us a new chance at  life every  time we wake up in the morning. It is up to us to seize it.

  Today  47 be  the beginning of a new  life for each of us. We can choose  joy right now. We can share love today. We can  live  in delight starting at this moment. It doesn't matter how hard our past has been. Our present can be full of joy and our future can be full of 48   .  It doesn't matter  if we are eight 49   eighty--we can still make our  lives   50   . Life isn't over until your last heartbeat. Start today, then, to make your heart beat with joy, love, and light.

36. A. turned down B. turned off     C. turned on D. turned up

37. A. when    B. that    C. one      D. what

38. A. heard   B. found   C. seen     D. listened to

39. A. looked up   B. looked after     C. looked for D. looked at

40. A. death    B. dead    C. die D. died

41. A. so     B. so a    C. such D. such a

42. A. at     B. with    C. in D. to

43. A. think     B. thinking   C. thinks   D. to think

44. A. taken    B. caught    C. missed    D. lost

45. A. alive     B. living     C. lively     D. lovely

46. A. mistake   B. mistakes  C. wrong   D. ideas

47. A. must     B. mustn't     C. can't     D. can

48. A. pain  B. happiness      C. sadness D. challenge

49. A. and     B. to    C. or    D. between

50. A. wonder B. wondering     C. wondered D. wonderful

If you lose 12 times in a row (连续地), will you just give up? Dale Carnegie ,a pioneer in public speaking and self- development, kept trying. And he became famous by showing people how to be successful.

Carnegie was born in 1888 in a poor farming family in the central United States. The boy didn’t see a train until he was 12 years old. In his teens, he had to get up at 3a.m. every day to milk the cows in his family. When Carnegie first entered college, he felt hopeless because of his clothes and ordinary looks. His mother encouraged him: “ Why not try to be better in other things instead of just dress and good looks?”

Carnegie tried to be more active in college . He joined the debate（辩论） team. But one after another, he lost 12 meets. The young man was very disappointed in himself. He said later that he thought of killing himself after so many failures. But soon Carnegie was seen practicing public speaking on the riverside . His hard work paid off at last. In 1906, Carnegie won a famous speech contest and became widely known. The young man made his own words come true : “Believe that you will succeed , and you will.”

In order to share his success, Carnegie opened schools and wrote books. His best- sellers include “How to Win Friends and Influence People “ and “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” .More than 50 million copies of his books have been printed in 38 languages . They are still helping people on the road to success.

  根据短文内容选择最佳答案。

(   ) 1 What did Carnegie’s parents do for a living?

A They had a farm to take care of.   B They were famous speakers.

C They worked for the government.         D They made a living by selling farms.

(   ) 2 Which of the following statements is true about Carnegie’s teenage years?

A He had lots of friends to talk with.    B He seldom had enough sleep at night.]

C He couldn’t afford to go to school.  D He made lots of money by milking cows.

(   ) 3 At college, Carnegie tried to ______.

A wear fashionable clothes                 B take part in dance parties

C win the debates but failed                D make as much money as he could

(   ) 4 The last paragraph mainly talks about Carnegie’s______

   A family life             B achievements(成就) C personality      D writing skills

(   )5 It can be inferred(作出推论)from the story that             .

   A Carnegie was never ashamed of his poor family

   B Carnegie was always optimistic about his future.

   C Carnegie’s mother played an important role in his success.

   D Carnegie was a man with a good sense of humor.

Do you get angry when your friends sing loudly while you are trying to work or when your best friend does not wait for you after school?

If you do, you need to take control of your feelings. Getting angry with others can cause you to lose friends.

Gary Egeberg, an American high school teacher, has written My Feelings Are Like Wild Animals to help you control your feelings. It tells how to stay cool when bad things happen.

The book says that getting angry only makes problems worse. It can never make them better.

“Getting angry is not a natural way to act,” the book says. It is just a bad habit, like smoking.

The book says you can control your anger easily---all you have to do is to tell yourself not to be angry.

The book gives many tips to help you if you get angry easily. Here are the top three.

l         Keep a record. Every time you get angry, write down why you are angry. Look at it later and you will see you get angry too easily.

l         Ask your friends to stop talking to you when you get angry. This will teach you not to be angry.

l         Do something different. When you get angry, walk away from the problem and go somewhere else. Try to laugh.

(   )61.If you often get angry, _________.

A. nobody will wait for you after school  B. you will do worse in your study

C. you will have less friends            D. smoking can be a good help

(   )62.Gary Egeberg is someone who __________.

A. knows how to control your feelings   B. makes a living by writing books

C. is fond of keeping wild animals      D. gets angry easily with his students

(   )63.According to the book, one can put anger under control by _______.

A. staying away from other people    B. reminding yourself not to get angry

C. never talking with your friends     D. singing loudly to calm down yourself

(   )64.From the 1^st tip we can make the conclusion that __________.

A. writing helps to control one’s feelings   B. one’s anger is built upon one’s experience

C. people think better when they are calm  D. a good habit helps to take away a bad one

(   )65.We can safely say from this passage that ______.

A. there are more than three tips in Gary’s book

B. Gary Egeberg never gets angry in his life

C. getting angry easily can’t be changed easily

D. school kids often get angry with each other