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

Growing old is something that nobody can understand until they experience it for themselves．I may not be "old" but I am certainly beginning to  36   it? turned 18 just over a week ago．I am now an adult．

As a child you  37   adults—or "grown-ups" as I used to call them—to always be in control．to know what is right and wrong． 38   as a teenager, I thought that when I reached 18 I would be far more  39   in many aspects of life．But now that I am 18, 1 know that is not true．

It is clear to me now that you do not   40   learning when you are 18．Every day you learn

something  41   , no matter what your age．However, I do understand when you become an adultyou have to  42  more responsibility．

Whereas before I seldom had to clean the dishes, set the table or help out around the house, now I do all of those．I have already  43   myself the nickname "housekeeper"．

I can even drive now, which is pretty   44  , because of the frequency of accidents．But that's not to say that 18 is not   45  to be．Not only can I drink alcohol, but I can also  46 ．In fact, being 18 has made me really interested in politics because it now means that I can change things on  47  Day．More and more of my friends want to become politicians, and it is great to

think that they can change things for the better．

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