It took me a long time before I was able to fully appreciate what they _____ for me.

A. had done   B. did    C. would do   D. were doing

    Getting paid to talk about the World Cup is a great job. I' m not a football commentator (评论员), though --just an English teacher in Japan.

    I came to Japan two years ago, and did’t think I would stay, but Japan has that effect on you. People often end up living here longer than they planned. I think it' s best to teach, in a bigger city where there are other foreigners to mix with, rather than a small town where English teachers often complain of feeling like a goldfish in a bowl. Many people choose to live in Tokyo, of course, which is good for tile nightlife factor. But I' d say that for general quality of living, cities of neither too large nor too small, like Sapporo where I live, are better choices.

    I teach English privately, which means I' m my own boss. If you want to devote yourself to private teaching, it's well worth doing a TEFL course first, because your lessons will be much better for it. The problem with private teaching is finding students; it took me a year to build up a full schedule (日程表) of private lessons, so I started out teaching in schools part-time.

    Most of my foreign friends here work full-time for big English conversation schools. The salary is fine to live on, but whether you can save money depends on how much going out and traveling you do here.

    The schools are reluctant to take time off -- even teachers with tickets for the England-Argentina game had trouble getting the day off.

56. From the passage we know in Japan the writer likes to live in ________.

  A. Tokyo                       B. a small town

  C. a city of middle size            D. a big city

57. According to the writer, one had better ________ first to do private teaching better.

  A. take a TEFL course             B. decide his or her own lessons

  C. find students                  D. build up a full schedule

58. The underlined sentence in the second paragraph implies that ________.

  A. there are many foreigners in Japan

  B. Japan is good for nightlife

  C. they can teach English privately in Japan

  D. Japan has something more attractive than expected

59. The underlined word "reluctant" in the passage may probably mean ________.

  A. kind         B. unwilling          C. free           D. careless

Some years ago I heard Salome Bey sing for the first time. The moment was exciting. Salome’s  36  filled the room and brought the theater to life. I was so  37  that I decided to write an article about her.

I   38  Salome Bey, telling her I was from Essence magazine, and that I wanted to meet her to talk about her career. She  39  and told me to come to her studio next Tuesday. When I hung up, I was scared out of my mind. I   40  I was lying. I was not a writer at all and hadn’t even written a grocery list.

I interviewed Salome Bey the next Tuesday. I sat there  41  , taking notes and asking questions that all began with, “Can you tell me…” I soon realized that  42   Salome Bey was one thing, but writing a story was just impossible. The  43   was almost unbearable. I    44   for days with draft after draft（草稿）. Finally I put my article into a large envelope and dropped it into a mailbox.

It didn’t take long. My article   45  . How stupid of me! I thought. How could I  46   in a world of professional writers? Knowing I couldn’t   47   the refusal letter, I threw the unopened envelope into a drawer.

Five years later, while   48  my apartment, I came across the unopened envelope. This time I opened it and read the editor’s letter in   49  :

Dear Ms Profit,

Your story on Salome Bey is nice. Yet we need some   50   materials. Please add those and return the article immediately. We would like to  51   your story soon.

Shocked, it took me a long time to   52  . Fear of refusal cost me dearly. I lost at least five hundred dollars. More importantly, I lost years of   53   writing. Today, I have become a full-time writer. Looking back on this   54  , I learned a very important lesson: You can’t   55  to doubt yourself. 

A. joy                    B. voice           C. speech           D. smile

A. proud              B. active               C. satisfied            D. moved    

A. visited            B. ordered              C. phoned               D. interviewed

A. agreed             B. refused              C. hesitated            D. paused

A. admitted           B. discovered          C. explained            D. knew

A. seriously              B. patiently       C. nervously       D. quietly

A. blaming            B. fooling          C. inviting         D. urging

A. hardship               B. failure              C. comment          D. pressure

A. struggled               B. painted              C. wore             D. kept

A. disappeared        B. returned             C. spread               D. improved

A. compare             B. board            C. survive          D. compete

A. ignore              B. deliver              C. face                 D. receive

A. decorating         B. repairing        C. cleaning             D. leaving

A. disbelief              B. anxiety          C. horror           D. panic

A. subjective             B. related              C. private              D. reliable

A. broadcast           B. create               C. publish              D. judge

A. recover            B. prepare              C. escape           D. concentrate

A. steady             B. endless              C. typical              D. enjoyable

A. experience             B. success              C. benefit              D. accident

A. attempt            B. afford           C. expect           D. pretend

Mike did the homework _______ it took me.

A．one-third a time                        B．one-third the time

C．a one-third time                        D．one-third time

For many years, I was convinced that my suffering was due to my size. I believed that when the weight disappeared, it would take old wounds, hurts, and rejections with it.

Many weight – conscious people also mistakenly believe that changing our bodies will fix everything. Perhaps our worst mistake is believing that being thin equals being loved, being special, and being cherished. We fantasize（梦想）about what it will be like when we reach the long – awaited goal. We work very hard to realize this dream. Then, at last, we find ourselves there.

But we often gain back what we have lost. Even so, we continue to believe that next time it will be different. Next time, we will keep it off. Next time, being thin will finally fulfill its promise of everlasting happiness, self–worth, and, of course, love.

It took me a long while to realize that there was something more for me to learn about beauty. Beauty standards vary with culture. In Samoa a woman is not considered attractive unless she weighs more than 200 pounds. More importantly, if it’s happiness that we want, why not put our energy there rather than on the size of our body? Why not look inside? Many of us work hard to change our body, but in vain. We have to find a way to live comfortable inside our body and make friends with and cherish ourselves. When we change our attitudes toward ourselves, the whole world changes.

1. The passage tries to tell us the importance of           .

    A．body size                        B.attitudes

    C．culture difference                                 D.different beauty standards

2. What does the word “everything” in paragraph 2 mean?

    A．All the problems.                                  B．All the properties

    C．The whole world                                    D．The absolute truth

3. What can be inferred about the author?

    A．The author is a Samoan

    B．The author succeeded in losing weight

    C．The author has been troubled by her/his weight.

    D．The author probably got wounded in wars or accidents.

4.. According to the author, what is the common view of those who have lost some weight first and gained it back later?

    A．They feel angry about the regained weight

    B．They are indifferent to the regained weight

    C．They feel optimistic about future plans on weight control.

    D．They think they should give up their future plans on weight control.