第二部分：阅读理解（第一节20小题，第二节5小题；每小题2分，满分50分）

第一节：阅读下列短文, 从每题所给的四个选项 (A、B、C和D) 中, 选出最佳选项。

I'm from the South Bronx. At 7, my neighborhood was the beginning and end of my universe. It was a small town to me. Everyone knew each other, so if you got into trouble in school, chances are your mom knew about it before you got home. I felt watched over and safe.

But just before I turned 8, things began to change. I watched two buildings on my block burn down. I remember seeing my neighbor Pito go up and down the fire escape to get people out. Where were the firemen? Where was the truck? Somebody must have called them.

That same summer, after serving two tours in Vietnam, my brother was killed in the South Bronx. He was shot above the left eye and died instantly.

People who could moved out of the neighborhood, and all I wanted to do was get out, too. I used education to get away from there and got good at avoiding the topic of where I was from. To be from the South Bronx meant that you were not a good person. It felt like a stain.

After college, I didn't want to come back to the South Bronx, but in order to afford graduate school, I had to. I was almost 30 and could only afford to live at my parents' home. It felt like a defeat, and I hated it.

At the same time, the city was planning a huge waste facility here, and no one seemed to care — including many of us who lived here. They were like, "Well, it's a poor community; what's the difference?"

I was very angry. It drove me to act. It moved my spirit in a way that I didn't know was possible. And it changed my beliefs — it changed the way I felt about myself and my community. I worked hard with others who felt the same way, and together, we defeated the plan.

After that, I realized it's just as important to fight for something as it is to fight against something. So we dreamed up a new park on the site of an illegal waste dump — and after many community clean-ups, along with $3 million from the city, we have one. And it's a glory. It was the seed from which many new plans for our community have grown.

Today, the South Bronx is no longer a stain; it's a badge(象征) of honor for me. I believe that where I'm from helps me to really see the world. Today, when I say I'm from the South Bronx, I stand up straight. This is home, and it always will be.

1Paragraphs 2 and 3 make the readers believe ____________.

2.The author went back to the South Bronx after college because ____________.

3.The underlined sentences(Paragraph 2) imply that ____________.

4.What does the author want to convey in the passage?

He was 50 years old when I was born, and a "Mr. Mom" long before anyone had a name for it. I didn't know why he was home instead of Mom, but I was young and the only one of my friends who had their dads around. I considered myself very lucky.

  Dad did so many things for me during my grade-school years. He asked the school bus driver to pick me up at my house instead of the usual bus stop that was six blocks away. He always had my lunch ready for me when I came home----usually a peanut butter and sandwich that was shaped for the season. My favorite was at Christmas. The sandwiches would be covered with green sugar and cut in the shape of a tree.

  As I got a little older and tried to gain my independence, I wanted to move away from those "childish" signs of his love. But he wasn't going to give up. In high school and no longer able to go home for lunch, I began taking my own. Dad would get up a little earlier and make it for me. I never knew what to expect. The outside of the bag might be covered with his way of a mountain scene （it became his trademark）or a heart with the word "Dad-n-Angle" in its center. Inside there would be a note with that same heart or an “I love you”. Many times he would write a joke or a riddle. He always had some silly saying to make me smile and let me know that he loved me.

   I used to hide my lunch so no one would see the bag or read the note, but that didn't last long. One of my friends saw the note one day, caught it, and passed it around the lunch room. My face burned. To my astonishment, the next day all my friends were waiting to see the note. From the way they acted, I think they all wished they had someone who showed them that kind of love. I was so proud to have him as my father. Throughout the rest of my high school years, I received those notes, and still have a majority of them.

    And still it didn't end．When I left home for college（the last one to leave）, I thought the messages would stop．But my friends and I were glad that his action continued.

    I began getting letters almost every Friday．The front-desk worker always knew who the letters were from----the return address said, “The Hunk.” Many times the envelopes were addressed in crayon, and along with the enclosed letters were usually drawings of our cat and dog, pictures of him and mom and if I had been home the weekend before, of me racing around town with friends and using the house as a hotel．He also had his mountain scene and the hearten-cased inscription （题词）,“Dad-n-Angie”.

1．The author lists so many details in order to show        .

   A．she had a childish father                B．she had a caring father

    C．her father didn’t want her to be lonely    D．her father was not manly enough

2．The author tried to hide her lunch from her friends because        .

  A．she did not want her friends to share her father's love

  B．she did not like her father's notes

  C．the food had been badly prepared

  D．she was afraid her friends might laugh at her

3．"He was 50 years old when I was born, and a ' Mr．Mom' long before anyone had a name for it．Here "Mr．Mom" means          .

  A．a mother who works outside to support the family

  B．a father who is responsible for doing housework

  C．a mother who is responsible for doing housework

  D．a father who cares too much for his children.

4．Her father didn't give her independence when the author grew a little older because        .

   A．she had no mother and needed someone to look after her

  B．she was not clever and needed someone to help her

  C．she had no ability to do things all by herself

      D．he loved his youngest daughter very much

One day I came home from school, changed my clothes and got ready for work. I work at a local restaurant in town as a cashier and waiter.

I went to work feeling   36  . And to make matters worse, I was busy that evening. It' s the same thing over and over again.  37 with customers who complain about their food andwhere they are  38 is too big or too small. Little things like that tend to  39 a lot of us  40 but we manage to deal with it.

Three elderly ladies walked in and sat by the windows. It happened to be the very   41  near where I keep the dirty   42 in the boxes. Trying to keep up with all the dirty tables, customers leaving and coming in and   43 running all over the house, it was crazy．  44  these elderly women were watching   45  I was working to make sure every table was clean and ready for the next customers.

When they   46  their meals, I took their plates back to the kitchen. They talked to me for a while about school, how I was doing, what   47  I was in and what I planned to do in the future.

 48 they were leaving, they walked past me and one of them said to me in a  49  and gentle voice, “You are going places.（你前途无量） And that was it.” They left the  50 and I had tears in my eyes, because they gave me  51 to believe in myself．They   52  my spirit from being down and gave me a   53 to keep on working hard.

People used to tell me that I couldn’t have a career in    54  until I had a degree. I'm now a co-anchor (联合主持人) of a student-produced television  55 . And the best thing is: I'm only 17 years old and I am a senior in high school.