My father was a foreman of a sugar-cane plantation in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. My first job was to drive the oxen that ploughed the cane fields. I would walk behind an ox, guiding him with a broomstick. For $ 1 a day, I worked eight hours straight, with no food breaks.

It was very tedious work, but it prepared me for life and taught me many lasting lessons. Because the plantation owners were always watching us, I had to be on time every day and work as hard as I could. I’ve never been late for any job since. I also learned about being respectful and faithful to the people you work for. More important, I earned my pay; it never entered my mind to say I was sick just because I didn’t want to work.

I was only six years old, but I was doing a man’s job. Our family needed every dollar we could make because my father never earned more than $ 18 a week. Our home was a three-room wood shack with a dirty floor and no toilet. Nothing made me prouder than bringing home money to help my mother, father, two brothers and three sisters. This gave me self-esteem(自尊心), one of the most important things a person can have.

When I was seven, I got work at a golf course near our house. My job was to stand down the fairway and spot the balls as they landed, so the golfers could find them. Losing a ball meant you were fired, so I never missed one. Some nights I would lie in bed and dreamt of making thousands of dollars by playing golf and being able to buy a bicycle.

The more I dreamed, the more I thought. Why not? I made my first golf club out of guava limb(番石榴树枝) and a piece of pipe. Then I hammered an empty tin can into the shape of a ball. And finally I dug two small holes in the ground and hit the ball back and forth. I practiced with the same devotion and intensity. I learned working in the field — except now I was driving golf balls with club, not oxen with a broomstick.

The writer’s first job was _______.

A. to stand down the fairway at a golf course

B. to watch over the sugar-cane plantation

C. to drive the oxen that ploughed the cane fields

D. to spot the balls as they landed so the golfers could find them

The word “tedious” in Paragraph 2 most probably means _______.

A. difficult            B. boring        C. interesting  D. unusual

The writer learned that_______ from his first job.

A. he should work for those who he liked most

B. he should work longer than what he was expected

C. he should never fail to say hello to his owner

D. he should be respectful and faithful to the people he worked for

_______ gave the writer serf-esteem.

A. Having a family of eight people

B. Owning his own golf course

C. Bringing money back home to help the family

D. Helping his father with the work on the plantation

Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A. He wanted to be a successful golfer.

B. He wanted to run a golf course near his house.

C. He was satisfied with the job he got on a plantation.

D. He wanted to make money by guiding oxen with a broomstick.

How to Get What I Want?

There’s an expression: “What you see is what you get.” My grandfather used to say: “If you looked at a tree long enough, it will move.” We see what we want to see. Psychologists tell us that nothing controls our lives more than our self-image. We live like the person we see in the mirror. We are what we think we are. If you don’t think you’ll be successful, you won’t. You can’t be it if you can’t see it. Your life is limited to your vision. If you want to change your life, you must change your vision of your life.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was not that famous in 1976 when he met with a newspaper reporter. The reporter asked Schwarzenegger: “Now that you’ve retired from bodybuilding, what do you plan to do next?” Schwarzenegger answered very calmly and confidently: “I’m going to be the No. 1 movie star in Hollywood.” The reporter was shocked and amused at Schwarzenegger’s plan. At that time, it was very hard to imagine how this muscle-bound bodybuilder, who was not a professional actor and who spoke poor English with a strong Austrian accent, could ever hope to be Hollywood’s No. 1 movie star!

So when the reporter asked Schwarzenegger how he planned to make his dream come true, Schwarzenegger said: “I’ll do it the same way I became the No. 1 bodybuilder in the world. What I do was create a vision of who I want to be, and then I start living like that person in my mind as if it were already true.” Sounds almost childishly simple, doesn’t it? But I worked! Schwarzenegger became the No. 1 highest paid movie star in Hollywood. Remember: “If you can see it, you can be it.”

There’s a successful businessman who often wears a shirt with these words on it: “Don’t just pursue your dreams. Chase down and tackle! ” you only get one life to live, so why not live the best life possible? So you can be fully satisfied at what you see and get.

1.What did Arnold Schwarzenegger do before he became a Hollywood star?

A. He worked for a newspaper.

B. He was a man working on bodybuilding.

C. He worked in a small film company.

D. He was a businessman.

2.Why was it hard for the reporter to believe that Schwarzenegger would become a star one day?

A. Because he was not famous.

B. Because he was not professional and spoke poor English.

C. Because he was good at nothing except bodybuilding.

D. Because he only spoke English fluently. 

3.What did Schwarzenegger plan to do to make his Hollywood star dream come true?

A. He continued to build his body.

B. He went to make more movies.

C. He lived a life like a movie star.

D. He tried his best to meet the movie directors.

4.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 mean?

A. Have a dream and make it come true.

B. Stop your dream and find realistic things to do.     

C. You can just daydream alone.

D. There’s nothing to do in the world but dream.

Mark and his brother Jason both were looking at the shining new computer enviously, Jason was determined not to go against their father's wishes but Mark was more adventurous than his brother. He loved experimenting and his aim was to become a scientist like his father.
“Dad will be really mad if he finds out you've been playing with his new computer.” Jason said, “He told us not to touch it.”
“He won’t find out,” Mark said. “I'll just have a quick look and shut it down.”
Mark had been scolded before for touching his father's equipment. But his curiosity was difficult to control and this new computer really puzzled him.
It was a strange-looking machine — one his dad had brought home from the laboratory where he worked. “It’s an experimental model," his father had explained, “so don’t touch it under any circumstances.” But his father's warning only made Mark more curious. Without any further thought, Mark turned on the power switch. The computer burst into life and seconds later, the screen turned into colors, shifting and changing and then two big white words appeared in the centre of the screen: “SPACE TRANSPORTER.” “Yes!” Mark cried excitedly, “It's a computer game. I knew it! Dad's only been pretending to work. He's really been playing games instead.”A new message appeared on the screen: “
ENTER NAMES
VOYAGER 1:…
VOYAGER 2:…
Mark's fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed in both of their names.
“INPUT ACCEPTED. START TRANSPORT PROGRAM. AUTO-RETRIEVE INITIATED( 自动回收程序已启动).”The screen turned even brighter and a noise suddenly rose in volume. “I think we'd better shut it off, Mark,” Jason yelled, reaching for the power switch. He was really frightened.But his hand never reached the switch. A single beam of dazzling white light burst out of the computer screen, wrapping the boys in its glow(光芒) , until they themselves seemed to be glowing. Then it died down just as suddenly as it had burst into life. And the boys were no longer there. On the screen, the letters changed.
“TRANSPORT SUCCESSFUL. DESTINATION ( 目的地)：MARS.  RETRIEVE DATE: 2025.”
【小题1】Why did Mark touch the computer against his father's warning?

In 1971, a young man who grew up very poor was travelling across the country, trying to make a new __36__ for himself. Along the way, he had __37__ run out of money and was forced to spend the night in his car. This    38    until one morning, after a week of sleeping in his car, he walked    39    into a restaurant and ordered a big breakfast.
After eating his first good meal in    40  , he found himself    41  to the waiter, telling him he had lost his    42 . The waiter, who was also the owner, walked    43   the chair where the young man had been sitting. He bent down,   44    a $20 bill that looked    45  it had fallen on the floor and said, “Son, you must have    46  this,” the owner said. The young man couldn’t believe his    47  ! He quickly paid for the breakfast, left a    48 , bought gas with the change, and headed West.
On the way out of town, he began to understand    49  the fellow did. Maybe nobody dropped the money    50  . “Maybe that fellow just knew I was    51  and he helped me in a way that didn’t __52__ me.” Right then he made a promise to help others if he could.
Later, he worked very hard and became a rich man. Now, he lives near Kansas City. Each year he    53   thousands of dollars. He is known as the “Secret Santa” because at   54  time each year, he personally hands money out to those on the streets and at hospitals. “I’ve lived the story, so I know it certainly more blessed（带来快乐的） to give than to ___55__, because it comes back to you many many times over,” he says. “It restores some faith in humanity.”

Once a man named Grand found a box of old papers in a room at the top of his house. He burned most of them, because he didn’t like old things very much, But one of these papers was an old letter. At the bottom(底部) of the letter was the name of a well-known writer. “When this letter was written,” said Grant, “no one knew about the writer. But now everyone knows him. Some people like to buy letters like this. I may be able to get much money for the letter if I sell it to the right man.”

But there were a lot of dirty marks all over the letter.

“It doesn’t look nice,” he thought. “No one wants to buy a letter if it’s dirty. I’ll have to clean it.”

So he took a piece of cloth and some water and cleaned the letter. He worked hard and gave a lot of care. At last the letter looked better. And he was very pleased with his work.

“Now it looks nice,” he said to himself. “I’ll be able to sell it for a lot of money.”

He took the letter to a shop in London where old papers of this kind were bought and sold.

“I want to sell this letter,” Grant said to the man in the shop. “It was written by a well-known writer. You know about these things. How much will you give me for it?”

The man looked at him for a long time.

“I will give you two pounds for it,” he said at last.

“Only two pounds!” said Grant. “But people pay ten pounds for a letter like this. And just look! I’ve even cleaned it to make it look nice.”

“I can see that,” said the man. “That’s the trouble. People who buy old papers like them to be dirty.”

1.Which of the following is not right?

A. Grant found a box of old letters.            B. Grant didn’t like old things very much.

C. Grant didn’t burn the old letter.            D. The letter was written by a famous writer.

2.Grant didn’t burn the letter because______.

A. it was written by his father                 B. he thought he could get much money by selling it

C. he wanted to keep it forever             D. he wanted to give it to the government

3.In order to sell it, Grant decided to _____ first.

A. make advertisement(广告)in the newspapers    B. show it to others around him

C. clean it to make it look nice                D. take it to an archeologist(考古学家)

4.Grant didn’t sell the letter at a good price because_______.

A. it was not an old letter                 B. few people knew about the writer

C. it had been cleaned                      D. the man didn’t like it