Several witnesses gave accounts of what they had seen. It took many hours to _______ the court of the driver's guilt.?

A. prove  B. convince    C. persuade    D. demonstrate

The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read beneath the long branches of an old willow tree.   31   at life, I have a good reason to frown, for the world was intent on   32   me down.

And if that weren't enough to ruin my day, a young boy out of breath   33  me, all tired from play. He stood   34   in front of me with his head tilted down and said with great excitement, "Look what I found!" In his hand was a   35  . What a pitiful sight, its petals were all worn - not enough rain, or too little light. Wanting him to take his dead flower away and go off to play, I   36   a small smile and then looked away.

But instead of   37   , he sat next to my side and placed the flower to his nose and   38   loudly with certainty, "It sure smells pretty and it must be beautiful, too. That's why I picked it; here, it's for you." The weed before me was dying or dead, not vibrant of   39  , orange, yellow or red. But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave. So I  40  for the flower, and replied, "Just what I need." Again,  41   placing the flower in my hand, he held it mid-air without reason or plan. It was then  42  I noticed for the very first time that the boy could not see: he was  43 .

I heard my voice trembling. Tears shone like the sun as I thanked him for picking the very best one. "You're welcome," he smiled, and then ran off to play, not realizing the  44  he'd had on my day. I sat there and wondered how he managed to see a  45   woman beneath an old willow tree. How did he 46  my self-indulged plight(困境)? Perhaps he'd been  47  with true sight from his heart by God.

Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I could see, the problem was not with the world; the problem was me. For all of those times I myself had been blind. I decided to see beauty, and  48  every second that belongs to mine.  49  I held that dead flower up to my nose and breathed in the  50  of a beautiful rose , I smiled as that young boy. Another flower in his hand was about to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.

The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read beneath the long branches of an old willow tree.   31   at life, I have a good reason to frown, for the world was intent on   32   me down.

And if that weren't enough to ruin my day, a young boy out of breath   33  me, all tired from play. He stood   34   in front of me with his head tilted down and said with great excitement, "Look what I found!" In his hand was a   35  . What a pitiful sight, its petals were all worn - not enough rain, or too little light. Wanting him to take his dead flower away and go off to play, I   36   a small smile and then looked away.

But instead of   37   , he sat next to my side and placed the flower to his nose and   38   loudly with certainty, "It sure smells pretty and it must be beautiful, too. That's why I picked it; here, it's for you." The weed before me was dying or dead, not vibrant of   39  , orange, yellow or red. But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave. So I  40  for the flower, and replied, "Just what I need." Again,  41   placing the flower in my hand, he held it mid-air without reason or plan. It was then  42  I noticed for the very first time that the boy could not see: he was  43 .

I heard my voice trembling. Tears shone like the sun as I thanked him for picking the very best one. "You're welcome," he smiled, and then ran off to play, not realizing the  44  he'd had on my day. I sat there and wondered how he managed to see a  45   woman beneath an old willow tree. How did he 46  my self-indulged plight(困境)? Perhaps he'd been  47  with true sight from his heart by God.

Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I could see, the problem was not with the world; the problem was me. For all of those times I myself had been blind. I decided to see beauty, and  48  every second that belongs to mine.  49  I held that dead flower up to my nose and breathed in the  50  of a beautiful rose , I smiled as that young boy. Another flower in his hand was about to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.

Recently, one of my best friends, whom I've shared just about everything with since the first day of kindergarten, spent the weekend with me. Since I moved to a new town several years ago, we've both always ___1___ the few times a year when we can see each other.

Over the ___2___, we spent hours and hours, staying up late into the night, talking about the people she was ___3__ around with. She started telling me stories about her new boyfriend, about how he experimented with ___4___ and was into other ___5___ behavior. I was blown away! She told me how she had been ___6___ to her parents about where she was going and even sneaking out to see this guy because they didn't want her ___7___ him. No matter how hard I tried to tell her that she ___8__ better, she didn't believe me. Her self-respect seemed to have disappeared.

I tried to ___9___ her that she was ruining her future and heading for big trouble. I felt like I was getting ___10___. I just couldn't believe that she really thought it was ___11__ to hang with a bunch of losers, especially her boyfriend.

By the time she left, I was really worried about her and ___12___ by the experience. It had been so frustrating, I had come ___13___ to telling her several times during the weekend that maybe we had just grown too far apart to ___14___ our friendship - but I didn't. I put the power of ___15___ to the ultimate test. We'd been friends for far too long. The chance was that she ___16___ me enough to know that I was trying to save her from hurting herself. I wanted to believe that our friendship could ___17___ anything.

A few days later, she called to say that she had thought long and hard about our ___18___, and then she told me that she had ___19___ with her boyfriend. I just listened on the other end of the phone with tears of joy running down my face. It was one of the truly ___20___ moments in my life. Never had I been so proud of a friend.

1. A. worried about B. looked forward to      C. paid attention to        D. think of

2. A. weekend        B. months                     C. years                       D. days

3. A. working        B. falling in love            C. hanging                    D. keeping in touch

4. A. books                  B. girls                         C. friends                         D. drugs

5. A. self-destructive      B. self-respecting          C. self-confident           D. self-defensive

6. A. explaining             B. reasoning                  C. declaring                  D. lying

7. A. on                        B. beside                      C. around                         D. to

8. A. did                       B. deserved                   C. had                          D. got

9. A. told                   B. convince                  C. force                       D. warn

10. A. somewhere         B. everywhere               C. nowhere                   D. anywhere

11. A. acceptable           B. believable                  C. reliable                     D. admirable

12. A. exhausted            B. surprised                  C. satisfied                   D. terrified

13. A. almost                B. nearly                       C. close                        D. over

14. A. stop                    B. continue                   C. start                         D. make

15. A. love                    B. friendship                 C. truth                        D. justice

16. A. thought               B. remembered              C. valued                   D. hated

17. A. mean                  B. conquer                    C. tell                           D. prove

18. A. friendship            B. relationship               C. quarrel                         D. conversation

19. A. broke away         B. broke down                  C. broke up                  D. broke out

20. A. demanding          B. challenging            C. frustrating             D. rewarding

It’s useless trying to _________ her that she doesn’t need to lose any weight.

A.believe        B.convince            C.warn           D.ensure