阅读下面短文， 掌握其大意， 然后从各题所给的四个选项中， 选出最佳选项。

As soon as I learned to say the word “beauty”, I set out to look for it. Before I could find it, I asked my mother what a beauty was like. She said that a beauty is  36  who has large bright eyes and fine skin.

When I was in Grade Four, I  37  such a girl. I sat right in front of her and  38  her to see if she was a real beauty. She  39  a beauty in my eyes until the day she  40 with me. She demanded that I  41  her pencil box which I  42  knocked on to the floor. I  43 . Suddenly she flew at me and threw me onto the ground and we rolled about  44  each other.

During the years that followed, I came across  45  explanations given to me by different people. Some said a girl with a thin figure(体形) is a beauty,  46  that a girl with a gentle voice is beautiful,  47  said it is a girl with hair that is like a waterfall. I  48  give these a second thought.

I searched for a beauty  49  had told me before, but it was useless. Then I met an old man. He told me that a beauty is a girl who might not be quite  50   with natural beauty. However, she becomes a beauty  51  experiencing hardship. After a 10-year hunt for a beauty, I found her. She became my  52 . She was not very pretty but she was 53 . She was born in a  54  family and had to take care of herself from young. When we married, I really got the idea about a beauty. She was the one the  55  old man had described to me.

36.A. your classmate    B. a girl               C. an experienced girl   D. an ugly girl

37. A. liked                 B. was tired of      C. was against                D. found

38. A. stared at            B. scolded            C. beat                D. laughed at

39. A. wasn’t              B. pretended to be        C. treated himself       D. was

40. A. quarreled           B. talked              C. played                       D. studied

41. A. steal                  B. rob her of        C. like                        D. pick up

42. A. by chance          B. by no means  C. by herself              D. by the way

43. A. agreed                  B. refused              C. was happy                  D. did so

44. A. talking with      B. helping          C. hitting                   D. leaving

45. A. the same            B. different  C. the opposite        D. some correct

46.A. but                       B. or                     C. as                              D. so

47. A. Everyone          B. The others        C. Nobody             D. Others

48. A. did                      B. must          C. didn’t                    D. should

49. A. an old man               B. some people  C. nobody              D. my mother

50. A. lucky                       B. sad                 C. willing                     D. happy

51.A. after                  B. without            C. liking                       D. against

52. A. friend                      B. teacher            C. classmate                  D. girlfriend

53.A. ugly                  B. beautiful  C. lovely                       D. kind

54.A. rich                      B. farmer’s     C. happy                       D. poor

55.A. foolish                  B. kind-hearted      C. wise                      D. honest

Last summer I went through a training program and became a literacy volunteer（扫盲志愿者）. The training I received, though excellent, did not tell me how it was to work with a real student, however. When I began to discover what other people’s lives were like because they could not read, I realized the true importance of reading.

My first student Marie was a 44-year-old single mother of three. In the first lesson, I found out she walked two miles to the nearest supermarket twice a week because she didn’t know which bus to take. When I told her I would get her a bus schedule. She told me it would not help because she could not read it. She said she also had difficulty once she got to the supermarket, because she couldn’t always remember what she needed. Since she did not know words, she could not write out a shopping list. Also, she could only recognize items by sight, so if the product had a different label, she would not recognize it as the product she wanted.

As we worked together, learning how to read built Marie’s self-confidence, which encouraged her to continue in her studies. She began to make rapid progress and was even able to take the bus to the supermarket. After this successful trip, she reported how self-confident she felt. At the end of the program, she began helping her youngest son, Tony, a shy first grader, with his reading. She sat with him before he went to sleep and together they would read bedtime stories. When his eyes became wide with excitement as she read, pride was written all over her face, and she began to see how her own hard work in learning to read paid off. As she described this experience, I was proud of myself as well. I found that helping Marie to build her self-confidence was more rewarding than anything I had ever done before.

As a literacy volunteer, I learned a great deal about teaching and helping others. In fact, I may have learned more from the experience than Marie did.

What did the author do last summer?

A. She worked in the supermarket.

B. She helped someone to learn to read.

C. She gave single mothers the help they needed.

D .She went to a training program to help a literacy volunteer.

Why didn’t Marie go to the supermarket by bus at first?

A. Because she liked to walk to the supermarket.    B. Because she lived far away from the bus stop.

C. Because she couldn’t afford the bus ticket.       D. Because she couldn’t find the right bus.

How did Marie use to find the goods she wanted in the supermarket?

A. She knew where the goods were in the supermarket.  B. She asked others to take her to the right place.

C. She managed to find the goods by their looks.       D. She remembered the names of the goods.

Which of the following statements is true about Marie?

A. Marie could do things she had not been able to do before.

B. Marie was able to read stories with the help of her son.

C. Marie decided to continue her studies in school

D. Marie paid for her own lessons.

In today’s Internet age, the demand for online games continues to grow. Online computer game centers exist in many cities and towns throughout Asia. Facing the pressures of school and life, people tend to the virtual world, expecting a diversion from these problems. Too often, however, they can lead to problems and unhealthy addictions 迷。

This is most clearly seen in the example of South Korea. The country has the world’s highest percentage of high-speed Internet services. It also has a high number of online game players and related problems. In 2002, a young man collapsed(突然晕倒) and died while playing online games. He had been playing almost nonstop for 86 hours at an Internet café. Another young man killed his sister after becoming confused between the online world and real life. A 12-year-old boy stole US $ 16,000 from his father and ran away from home. He did this to continue his obsession(着迷) with an online game. Such problems, however, don’t just happen in South Korea. They are spreading to other parts of Asia, as well.

What kinds of people develop online game addiction? What does the problem look like? Dr. SueHuei Chen, a clinical psychologist, researches Internet addiction. She discovered some signs of at-risk individuals such as lack friendships and good social skills. Those problem individuals feel it so compulsive 难控制的to play online games that they could sacrifice things such as school or family. They feel the need to spend more and more time online. And they become upset if anyone tries to limit限制 their online game playing.

How many problem game players are there? In mainland China, the potential number of problem online gamers is alarming. In 2004, the China daily reported that China had 13.8 million online game players. Furthermore, it stated that 80 percent of these were under 25 and had signs of addiction. Such numbers point toward a growing problem among Chinese young people.

Make sure to keep control over your online game playing. If you don’t control it, it can get control of you.

What is mainly discussed in the passage?

       A．The disadvantages of the Internet.

       B．The online game problems in Asia.

       C．The popularity of online games worldwide.

       D．The cause of online game addiction.

The underlined word “diversion” in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to __________.

       A．career       B．comfort    C．escape      D．support

According to Paragraph 2, which of the following statements is NOT true?

       A．The young killer’s sister was killed in a fictional 科幻 world

       B．Online game playing is responsible for the young man’s death.

       C．People in South Korea have access to the Internet most easily.

       D．The teenage boy stole money because of his playing games online.

What can we learn from the passage?

       A．Most people in Asia have developed an addiction to online games.

B．Online game addictions cause many life-and-death arguments in South Korea.

       C．Lonely and unsociable people seem to more easily develop Internet addictions.

       D．In the year 2004 there were a total of 13.8 million Chinese visiting the Internet.

   In the earliest stages of man’s development he had no more need of money than animals have. He was content with very simple forms of shelter, made his own rough tools and weapons and could provide food and clothing for himself and his family from natural materials around him. As he became more civilized, however, he began to want better shelter, more efficient tools and weapons, and more comfortable and more lasting clothing than could be provided by his own neighborhood or by the work of his own unskilled hands. For these things he had to turn to the skilled people such as smiths, leather workers or carpenters. It was then that the question of payment arose.

   At first he got what he wanted by a simple process of exchange. The smith who had not the time to look after land or cattle was glad to take meat or grain from the farmer in exchange for an axe or a plough (犁). But as more and more goods which had no fixed exchange value came on the market, exchange became too complicated to be satisfactory. Another problem arose when those who made things wanted to get stocks of wood or leather, or iron, but had nothing to offer in exchange until their finished goods were ready.

   Thus the difficulties of exchange led by degree to the invention of money. In some countries easily handled things like seeds or shells were given a certain value and farmer, instead of paying the smith for a new axe by giving him some meat or grain, gave him so many shells. If the smith had any shells left when he had bought his food, he could get stocks of the raw materials of his trade. In some countries quite large things such as cows or camels or even big flat stones were used for trade. Later, pieces of metal, bearing values according to the rarity (稀有) of the metal and the size of the pieces, or coins were used. Money as we know it had arrived.

What does the first paragraph mainly tell us?

A. Man needed little in the earliest stages of development.

B. Man preferred to make tools by himself.

C. How the simple process of exchange arose.

D. What the early man needed from others.

As men became more civilized they __________.

A. all learnt to make by themselves the things needed

B. had to travel a lot to look for what they wanted

C. wanted better things than those they themselves could provide

D. no longer provided food and clothing for themselves

Exchange of goods became difficult because __________.

A. man became more civilized

B. there was not a marketplace for farmers and smiths to exchange their goods

C. farmers hadn’t enough grain or meat to provide for skilled workers

D. more and more goods which had no fixed exchange values appeared on the market.

Money was not used until __________.

A. paper was invented

B. nothing could be offered in exchange

C. people practiced a simple process of exchange

D. the exchange of one thing for another became too complicated

What was used for trade according to the text?

A. Shells                        B. Tea                                C. Salt                           D. Horses