A professor I have worked pretty closely with has been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.It has been devastating for his family and heartbreaking for his students.

What made him extraordinary was not only that he was a rising star.He had only recently collected the highest honors for young researchers at the White House.We truly admired him—as someone put it, “He always has a smile and a kind word for everyone.” It is very hard to find someone who is extremely intelligent should be so nice a human being.

I decided that we needed him to know our_attitude and also how we are all praying for his recovery.I bought him a simple card which read, “Healing thoughts and wishes coming your way.” I met all the students he worked closely with and got them to sign on it.Each student in his laboratory signed and also added a message.“We love you so much”， “We miss you！We need you back here—get well soon”， “Please come back”， “Thank you for being such an inspiring teacher”， “I hope you recover soon”．..These were some of the messages that were written.Most of the students were really glad we were doing this and said it was a very good idea to give it to him.

He is still undergoing(经历) intense treatment，and along with his family is trying his best to stay optimistic and hopeful.I didn’t see a trace of self?pity or sadness when I met him last week.Instead，he paid attention to every word of my presentation and asked me several questions related to my work.I was amazed at how much he gave his 100% on that day in spite of being in pain because of chemotherapy(化疗)．He did not know if he even had another month to live.“I am trying to focus on staying positive，hoping to be back this summer，”he said.

Needless to say，I saw an expression of joy and hope on his face as he opened the card.He said he was truly touched to see the messages from the students he worked closely with.

There is one thing I learnt from last week：It is so important to tell people how much they mean to us and what an inspiration they are before it becomes too late.My professor，in spite of being too sick to teach classes，has managed to continue being a great teacher，introducing his last valuable message to us.

1.The professor was admired because ________.

A．he was very intelligent

B．he had won many honors

C．he had noble personalities

D．he was very determined

2. What do the underlined words “our attitude” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Our worry about his health.

B．Our pray for his health.

C．Our admiration for him.

D．Our pity for him.

3.When the writer visited the professor at hospital，what surprised him was that the professor ________.

A．was suffering from great pain

B．was still very confident

C．didn’t know he would die soon

D．still cared for others

4.Of the following statements，the writer may agree that ________.

A．the professor loves his job very much

B．few students supported the writer’s decision at first

C．the professor will go back to teach this summer

D．the professor often feels sorry for himself

Misery and setbacks are not always as terrible as one imagines. Hard times can offer new ways of looking at life that would otherwise never be known. And, if you are a writer, this can be the source of much of your success.
Popular British author, Charles Dickens' （1812-1870）family could hardly make ends meet. They could only afford to send one of their six children to school. Dickens was not that child. His parents chose to send a daughter, who had a talent for music, to an academy. Then at the age of 12, Dickens' life took another turn for the worse.
His father, a clerk, was placed in prison for unpaid debts. And, being the oldest male left at home, Dickens took up work at a factory. His horrible experience there became the fuel for his future writing. His father was freed three months later and inherited a small amount of money. Dickens was then sent to school.
From 1836 to 1837, he wrote a monthly series of stories. Thus the Pickwick Papers, came into being, which brought fame to the 23-year-old man.
Throughout his career, Dickens covers various situations in his novels. He wrote about the miserable lives of the poor in Oliver Twist, the French Revolution in Tale of Two Cities, and social reform in Hard Times. He also wrote David Copperfield, a book thought to be modeled on his own life.
“I do not write bitterly or angrily: for I know all these things have worked together to make me what I am,” he once said. His difficult childhood did indeed shape the person he became, as well as his writing career. There are shades of young Dickens in many of his most beloved characters, including David Copperfield and Oliver Twist.
Like the author, all these characters come from poor beginnings and are able to rise above their setbacks and achieve success. “Minds, like bodies, will often fall into an ill-conditioned state from too much comfort,” he once wrote. On June 9th, 1870, aged 58, Dickens died, leaving one unfinished work．The words on his tombstone read: “He was a sympathizer to the poor, the suffering and the oppressed, and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world.”
【小题1】The book that first called public attention to Dickens was ______.

Misery and setbacks are not always as terrible as one imagines. Hard times can offer new ways of looking at life that would otherwise never be known. And, if you are a writer, this can be the source of much of your success.
Popular British author, Charles Dickens' （1812-1870）family could hardly make ends meet. They could only afford to send one of their six children to school. Dickens was not that child. His parents chose to send a daughter, who had a talent for music, to an academy. Then at the age of 12, Dickens' life took another turn for the worse.
His father, a clerk, was placed in prison for unpaid debts. And, being the oldest male left at home, Dickens took up work at a factory. His horrible experience there became the fuel for his future writing. His father was freed three months later and inherited a small amount of money. Dickens was then sent to school.
From 1836 to 1837, he wrote a monthly series of stories. Thus the Pickwick Papers, came into being, which brought fame to the 23-year-old man.
Throughout his career, Dickens covers various situations in his novels. He wrote about the miserable lives of the poor in Oliver Twist, the French Revolution in Tale of Two Cities, and social reform in Hard Times. He also wrote David Copperfield, a book thought to be modeled on his own life.
“I do not write bitterly or angrily: for I know all these things have worked together to make me what I am,” he once said. His difficult childhood did indeed shape the person he became, as well as his writing career. There are shades of young Dickens in many of his most beloved characters, including David Copperfield and Oliver Twist.
Like the author, all these characters come from poor beginnings and are able to rise above their setbacks and achieve success. “Minds, like bodies, will often fall into an ill-conditioned state from too much comfort,” he once wrote. On June 9th, 1870, aged 58, Dickens died, leaving one unfinished work.The words on his tombstone read: “He was a sympathizer to the poor, the suffering and the oppressed, and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world.”

1. 1.

   The book that first called public attention to Dickens was ______.

   1. A.
      the Pickwick Papers
   2. B.
      Oliver Twist
   3. C.
      Tale of Two Cities
   4. D.
      David Copperfield
2. 2.

   The phrase “shades of” in bold means “_____”.

   1. A.
      various shapes of
   2. B.
      situations of
   3. C.
      different experiences of
   4. D.
      reminders of
3. 3.

   How did Dickens see his childhood?

   1. A.
      He felt grateful for it.
   2. B.
      He felt it a pity that things weren’t in his favor.
   3. C.
      He loved writing about it.
   4. D.
      He chose to forget the bitterness about it.
4. 4.

   From the story, we can see Dickens’ attitude towards an easy life is ______.

   1. A.
      to enjoy it
   2. B.
      to hate it
   3. C.
      not to abandon yourself to it
   4. D.
      to work hard for it

It was graduation day at the university where I work and a beautiful day quite unlike the first graduation I attended as a young professor. On that cold day years ago, as we watched the students walking into the hall, one of my colleagues turned to me and said, "Graduation will be one of the happiest and one of the saddest time of your life." At my inquiry, he answered, "Because the students you have gotten to know have to leave."
As years went by, my previous confusion about my colleague's words no longer existed. When I came across naughty students, I have had to rethink why I chose to be a teacher. It obviously isn't the money. Once a former computer science student of mine called me, asking me if I wanted to have a change. He was working at Nintendo Corporation. His salary was higher than my current one, though I have more education and have worked for over a decade. With my programming skills, he said he could get me hired. I thanked him, but declined his kind offer.
A few days before this current graduation, while working on final grades, I found a note a student had slipped in with her homework. She thanked me for being her teacher and said the things she had learned in my class — not about math, but about life — would be things she would remember long after the math skills had faded away. As I finished reading, I remembered why I had become a teacher.
Now, on this sunny graduation day, as I again observed the sea of blue hats and gowns, I did so with renewed dedication (奉献) and a deeper sense of satisfaction — I will always be grateful that I am a teacher.
【小题1】Hearing his colleague's description of graduation for the first time, the author         .