As a teacher, my daily activity involves driving to a new school almost every day.

On one particular day during my lunch break, I drove to a nearby square to get a coffee. Upon returning to the 36, I realized I had locked my phone and my 37 inside! I had about 15 minutes to get back to the 38. So I hurried into a McDonald’s in the same square, and asked the man at the counter, who happened to be the 39, to call a taxi for me. After I 40 explained my situation to him, he rushed inside to make the phone while I waited anxiously in the restaurant. I had less than 10 minutes to 41 to my school at this point.

A moment later, the manager returned only to tell me that the line was 42, and that he had not been able to 43 the taxi yet. I think both 44 and fear could be seen in my face.

Without a thought, he grabbed his coat and 45 to drive me to the school. Without hesitation, I followed him into his car and got back to the classroom with two minutes to 46 before the bell rang!

This experience made me 47 that out of every seemingly hopeless situation, there is the opportunity for acts of kindness to happen, which has an unimaginable influence on those who receive them.

Levi Strauss was born in Bavaria (巴伐利亚) in Europe in 1829. He emigrated（移居）to the United States of America when he was seventeen years old. His brothers sold cloth, and he worked for them even though he could not speak English very well. At this time many people were moving to California because gold was discovered there. Strauss went to look for gold, too.

Strauss took a lot of cloth with him to San Francisco. He thought that he could make tents out of the cloth and sell them to people working in the gold fields. But when he got there, he saw that people had a greater need for clothes than tents. Clothes did not last very long in the gold fields. At first Strauss made pants out of canvas（帆布）. They were very strong ---- much stronger than other pants. Soon everyone was wearing them , so he decided only to make pants. He opened a small store and made a lot of money from selling pants.

After a while, Strauss found a material even stronger than canvas. It came from a town in France called Nimes. The French called the material serge de Nimes, which means “cloth from Nimes”. The Americans called it denim. Strauss also bought some cloth from Genoa, a town in Italy. To Americans this name sounds like “jeans”, so they called his pants jeans. The cloth that Strauss used was always blue, so people also called his pants blue jeans and blue denims. Other people called them Levi’s. Levi Strauss jeans are some of the best-selling jeans in the world today. They last a long time and are very comfortable.

56. When Levi Strauss went to San Francisco for the first time, he wanted to ______.

A. find a strong material to make pants

B. work for his brothers

C. make money by selling tents

D. open a store to make pants

57. In the beginning Strauss made pants from ______.

   A. serge de Nimes         B. silk

C. denim                D. canvas

58. The name “jeans” was first used by ______.

A. Bavarians             B. Americans

C. Italians               D. Frenchmen

59. The story is about ______.

A. where cloth came from

B. the man who first made jeans

C. how to make lots of money

D. life on the gold fields

Competition between international universities is heating up, as China grows as one of the largest exporters of students aiming to study abroad. “Lots of universities are becoming more and more aggressive to attract Chinese students. Every day I receive contacts from universities in the US expressing the desire to come to China to recruit students,” said Frank Joseph, a commercial officer from embassy of the United States.

One key reason why more Chinese students are able to study abroad is the economy: With China’s boom within the past decade, more families have the financial wherewithal(资金) to send their children to international universities. There will be a total of 200,000 family-funded Chinese students studying overseas in 2009, up 20 percent from last year, said Wu Zaofeng, deputy secretary general of China Education Association for International Exchange.

International institutions, Joseph said, are also facing increasingly tough financial situation with a shortage of domestic students and a drop in government subsidies(补贴). Students, especially in the US are paying high tuition fees and living expenses. Chinese students with money to spend, according to experts, can fill up the gap. Students on average spend 150,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan every year studying in US, according to statistics from the US Institute of International Education. During 2007-2008, there were approximately 81,000 Chinese students studying in the US, up 19.8 percent from 2006.

Representatives from approximately 60 universities from the United States are planning to arrive in Beijing this weekend to attract more Chinese students at this year’s fair. Besides the US, many other countries are also vying(竞争) to enroll Chinese students.

Post-study work visa put out by British government allows all international students completing a UK degree qualification to apply for a visa to stay on and look for work in UK for up to 2 years. Being the third most popular destination for international students next to the US and the UK, France has set up two types of scholarships and has handed out an increase of 26 percent in scholarship funds to Chinese students in recent years.

1.The reason for heating up competition between international universities is ___.

A．that China has become one of the largest exporters of the students aiming to study abroad

B．that the students in China are becoming richer and richer

C．China’s boom, the students’ desire and foreign universities’ commercial motive

D．that the students in foreign countries do not want to go to universities

2.Why are more Chinese students able to study abroad?

A．Because they can’t go to the best universities at home.

B．Because their families have enough money to send them to international universities.

C．Because they want to win the scholarship of foreign universities

D．Because the Chinese students enjoy following others and they want to be independent.

3.Which of the following statements is true?

A．There are fewer family-funded Chinese students studying abroad in 2008 than in 2009.

B．Chinese students are able to study abroad for their relatives overseas.

C．In 2009 there will be 200,000 state-funded Chinese students studying overseas.

D．In 2009 there will be 200,000 Chinese students studying in the US.

4.From the passage we can learn that _____.

A．the number of foreign students is becoming smaller and smaller

B．there were approximately 81,000 foreign students studying in the US during 2007-2008

C．the international universities are short of money

D．the Chinese students are richer than the American students

5.What does the UK do to attract the international students?

A．Setting up two types of scholarships.

B．Handing out an increase of 26 percent in scholarship funds to Chinese students in recent years.

C．Allowing to look for work in their spare time in the UK for up to 2 years.

D．Permitting students to have a visa to stay on and look for work for 2 years after completing the degree.

— Do you think he will come at this weekend?

— ___________, because he has an important party to attend.