I lost my sight when I was four years old by falling off a box car in a freight yard in Atlantic City and landing on my head. Now I am thirty two. I can slightly remember the brightness of sunshine and what color red is. It would be wonderful to see again, but a calamity(灾难) can do strange things to people. It occurred to me the other day that I might not have come to love life as I do if I hadn't been blind. I believe in life now. I am not so sure that I would have believed in it so deeply, otherwise. I don't mean that I would prefer to go without my eyes. I simply mean that the loss of them made me appreciate the more what I had left.

Life, I believe, asks a continuous series of adjustments to reality. The more readily a person is able to make these adjustments, the more meaningful his own private world becomes. The adjustment is never easy. I was totally confused and afraid. But I was lucky. My parents and my teachers saw something in me--a potential to live, you might call it--which I didn't see, and they made me want to fight it out with blindness.

The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. That was basic. If I hadn't been able to do that, I would have collapsed (崩溃) and become a chair rocker on the front porch for the rest of my life. When I say belief in myself I am not talking about simply the kind of self confidence that helps me down an unfamiliar staircase alone. That is part of it. But I mean something bigger than that: an assurance（确信） that I am, despite imperfections, a real, positive person; that somewhere in the sweeping, intricate（错综复杂的） pattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.

It took me years to discover and strengthen this assurance. It had to start with the simplest things. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball. I thought he was making fun of me and I was hurt. "I can't use this." I said. "Take it with you," he urged me, "and roll it around." The words stuck in my head. "Roll it around! "By rolling the ball I could hear where it went. This gave me an idea how to achieve a goal I had thought impossible: playing baseball. At Philadelphia's Overbrook School for the Blind I invented a successful variation of baseball. We called it ground ball.

All my life I have set ahead of me a series of goals and then tried to reach them, one at a time. I had to learn my limitations. It was no good to try for something I knew at the start was wildly out of reach because that only invited the bitterness of failure. I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I made progress.

1.We can learn from the beginning of the passage that _______

2.What's the most difficult thing for the author?

3.According to the context, "a chair rocker on the front porch" in paragraph 3 means that the author __________

4.According to the passage, the baseball and encouragement offered by the man _____

5.What is the best title for the passage?

B

Honesty may well be the policy, but it often deserts us when no one is watching, psychologists report today. Experiments with an honesty box to collect payments for hot drinks show that people are better at paying up when under the gaze(注视) of a pair of eyes. The surprise was that the eyes were not real, but photographed.

Researchers at Newcastle University set up the experiment in secret. They attached a poster to a cupboard of mugs above an-honesty box alongside a kettle, with tea, coffee and milk. Over 10 weeks, they alternated each week between images of eyes and pictures of flowers.

Dr. Bateson, a behavioral biologist and leader of the study, said that even though the eyes were not real they still seemed to make people behave more honestly. They effect may arise from behavioral characteristics that developed as early humans formed social groups that increased their chances of survival. Individuals had to co-operate for the good of the group, rather than act selfishly.

"If nobody is watching us it is in our interests to behave selfishly. But when we think we're being watched we should behave better, so people see us as co-operative and behave the same way towards us, "Dr. Bateson said.

"We thought we'd get a slight effect with eyes, but it was quite striking how much difference they made. Even at a subconscious(潜意识的) level, it seems people respond to eyes, and that might be because eyes send a strong biological signal we have evolved(进化) to respond to."

The finding, which researchers believe sheds light on our evolutionary past, could be turned to practical use. The psychologists say images of eyes could promote ticket sales on public transport and improve monitor systems to prevent antisocial behavior.

45. This passage is mainly about _______________.

A. the policy of honesty            B. an honesty box to collect money

C. evolution on honesty              D. an experiment on honesty

46. The reason for doing the experiment secretly is that the researchers _____________.

A. wanted to get a comparatively more exact result

B. had known they wanted to do something illegally

C. meant to get the co-operation of their colleagues

D. intended to sell the hot drinks at a higher price

47. People behave honestly under watchful gaze of eyes because _____________.

A. they want to leave a good impression   B. they fear to be laughed at by others

C. they've got the nature through evolution D. they take the photo for a real pair of eyes

48. Images of a pair of eyes can be applied to all except _____.

A. tickets sales on public transport        B. cold drink sales in public places

C. places with “No spitting!” signs         D. Christmas decorations in one’s home

Have you ever thought of taking a train and having an adventure？Riding the train can be a real adventure. That is how I feel every time I take Amtrak. I often take a four-hour trip to visit my children. Every time I take this trip I never know what will happen.

Last week when I was on the train, there was a man sitting by himself in the back of the train carrying on a mobile phone conversation—in another language. It was loud and disturbed most of the people on the train. I think it was annoying.

Fortunately I sat next to a wonderful old lady who was taking a two-day trip by train. She said her two daughters were worried at the thought of driving for three days to reach her home, although she had no trouble driving. The train ride was the only choice for her. She loved to look out of the window and watch the world go by on the train.

She was fun to talk to and asked me when my children started being parents. That is a very good question. Both of us are old and have children. She asked that same question from time to time.

There are always many people on the train from all walks of life, different countries, and many languages. Riding the train is a great way to increase your knowledge and learn all kinds of cultures. If you get hungry, you can buy food in the food car at any time. If you need to use the restroom, there is always one for you.

It surely beats driving the car, which has to stop for food and restrooms. And it is better than taking the bus.

1.According to the passage, the purpose of the author’s train ride was ______.

A．to do business                          B．to see her children

C．to visit places of interest                  D．to see her old friends

2.In the author’s opinion, on the train Amtrak ______.

A．the services are quite good                B．the food is terribly expensive

C．all the passengers are polite               D．all the passengers are American

3.What is the best title for this passage?

A．A painful experience on the train           B．A wonderful lady

C．Train ride—a cultural experience           D．The history of Amtrak

Roughly speaking, teachers in traditional education may feel that students are too young to know much about the world, and have to be told what to do most of the time. By contrast, open education offers teachers quite different feelings. Students are expected to be responsible for their own education—to discover subjects by themselves instead of being made to study them. This way of teaching allows the students to grow independently and to develop their own interests in many subjects. Some students who do badly in a traditional classroom will be happier in an open classroom and enjoy learning. They will not have to worry about grades or rules at all.

However, many students won’t do well in an open classroom. For these students, they will do little in school if there are too few rules. They will not make good use of open education, which is so different from traditional class, because they may have a problem getting used to making so many choices on their own. For them it is important to have some rules to direct them. They may worry about the rules even when there are no rules. In addition to that, some traditional teachers do not believe in open education and do not like it either.

Since both of some good points and bad points of the open education have been explained clearly, you may have your own opinion on the issue. Personally, I think that the concept of open education is good only in theory. In actual fact, it may not work very well in a real class or school. I believe, most students, but of course not all students, need some structure in their classes. They may want and need to have rules.

In some cases, they must be made to study some subjects. Many students are pleased to find subjects they have to study interesting. They would not study those subjects if they did not have to.

1.Open education allows the students to_________________.

2.Open education may be a good idea for the students who __________.

3.Some students will do little in an open classroom because___________.

4.Which of the following best summarizes the passage?

The Local Ness Monster is said to be a creature or a group of creatures living in the Loch Ness , a lake near the city of Inverness in northern Scotland.

The first modern sighting occurred on May 2,1993. The newspaper Inverness Courier reported a story of Mr. and Mrs John Mackay, who saw a very large animal rolling and plunging (跳入) into the water. The report attracted thousands of readers, of whom some were brave enough to see and even try to capture the animal.

A photograph taken by surgeon R.K Wilson on April 19,1934 seemed to show a large creature with a long neck gliding through the water. However ,decades later the photo was said to have been faked by Marmaduke Wetherell after he was hired by the Daily Mail.

In 1962, the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau was formed to act as a research organization .Whatever the result of their research is, the Loch Ness has become a real place which attracts millions of tourists every year.

1.Where is the lake Loch Ness?

2.When was the first modern sighting?

3.The underlined word “capture” can be replaced by________?