The book A Short Guide to Great Britain , which you sent me before I went abroad , offered me ______ guide.I am really thankful.

The clock struck eleven at night. The whole house was quiet. Everyone was in bed except me. Under the strong light，I looked sadly before me at a huge pile of that troublesome stuff（东西） they call “books”.

    I was going to have my examination the next day.  “When can I go to bed？” I asked myself. I didn’t answer，in fact, I dared not.

The clock struck twelve. “ Oh，dear！” I cried. “Ten more books to read before I can go to bed！” We pupils are the most wretched creatures in the world. Dad does not agree with me on this. He did not have to work so hard when he was a boy.

    The clock struck one. I was quite desperate（绝望的）now. I forgot all I had learned. I was too tired to go on. I did the only thing I could. I prayed，“Oh，God，please help me pass the exam tomorrow. I do promise to work hard afterwards，Amen.” My eyes were so heavy that I could hardly open them. A few minutes later，with my head on the desk，I fell asleep.

 1. When the author was going over his lessons，all the others in the house were  ________ .

    A. asleep                                        B. outside

    C. working in bed                           D. quietly laughing at him

2. The underlined word wretched in Paragraph 3 probably means _______ .

    A. very happy                                B. disappointed

    C. very unhappy                              D. hopeful

3. Reviewing his lessons didn’t help him because _______  .

A. he was excited                       

B. he was nervous

    C. he was worried

    D. he hadn’t studied hard before the examination

4. The best title for the passage would be __________ .

    A. The Night Before the Examination          B. Working Far into the Night

    C. A Slow Student                                D. Going Over My Lessons

My mom is a teacher．She finds a lesson in everything．I was watching Sesame Street by my second birthday so I’d   16   my ABCs and 123s．Our weekly family trips to the library began when I was three．And my mom had me spotting （认出） the historical markers with childlike   17   on family vacations by the time I was six．For her, life was all about learning．But the biggest lesson she   18   me was never to let my   19   define who I am, and never forget what is   20   in life．

I was born with Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome, an extremely   21   genetic bone and muscular disorder．There are only about 100 reported   22 ．At birth, my knees were bent more than 90 degrees, and I had my first surgery to   23   them when I was just six weeks old．This surgery was the first of many in my   24 ．I’d had 26 surgeries by the time I was 15．

Strange as it   25  , I have good memories of my medical days．One of my   26   is about my mom and me being in the hospital cafeteria（自助餐厅）．We sat down for an ice cream sandwich dessert．It was   27   fancy, but at that moment, I knew I was   28 ．

My parents pushed me to be as   29   as possible — even when I didn’t want to be．My mom taught me that I could do anything and that I should   30   let my disability stop me．In high school, I was a member of the National Honor Society, and in college, I was editor-in-chief of my school newspaper．I wouldn’t have had the   31   to push myself if my parents hadn’t been there,   32   me on and giving me a reality check when I got down on myself．

Every night before I go to bed, I   33   my mom for everything, for all the great help she’s given me．And   34   I get older, I know that “Thanks, Mom” is about so much more than the physical assistance．And that’s   35   matters the most．

Mr. Briggs got a job with an insurance company(保险公司) after he left school and went around visiting people in their homes to sell them life insurance. One day, after he had been working for the company for about a year, the insurance manager sent for him and said, “Mr. Briggs, I have been looking at your record as a salesman with our company, and there is one thing that surprises me about it. Why have you been selling insurance only to people over 95 years old, and why have you been giving them such generous（宽厚的）conditions? You’ll ruin our company if you go on like that.”

“Oh, no, sir,” answered Mr. Briggs at once, “Before I started work, I looked at the figures(数字) for deaths in this country during the past ten years, and I can tell you that few people die at the age of 95.”

1. Before he worked in an insurance company, what was Mr. Briggs?______.

2.The word “ruin” in the second paragraph means       .

3. Which of the following is true according to the passage?      

They ______ on the program for almost one week before I joined them, and now we _____on it as no good results have come out so far.

A. had been working; are still working        B. had worked; were still working

C. have been working; have worked         D. have worked; are still working