Growing up is not always easy. When facing difficulties, courage and a spirit of independence can be more useful than crying for __36___! That’s what Hong Zhanhui’s story of__37__ boy to man with family hardships tells us.
Hong was born in 1982 in a poor family in Xihua County, Henan Province. When he was ___38___ 11, his father became mentally ill and one day came back with an abandoned baby girl. A year later, Hong’s mother and younger brother both ___39__home because of poverty and pressure from his sick father.
Their burdens fell onto the 12-year-old’s shoulders: to treat his father’s illness, to ___40___ the adopted sister Chenchen, and to go on to study.
Hong didn’t __41___ . Since a young age, he has worked in part-time jobs to feed his family. At the same time, he has studied at college. To take care of Chenchen , he worked hard to___42__a room near his campus for her, and send her to school.
After Hong’s story went public, people were ___43___to tears by his unselfishness. Hard __44__ his life was, Hong didn’t abandon his father and the adopted ___45__, because they needed his help. With his hard-won money, he even aided other students ___46__against misfortunes.
Today when many tend to worry more about their own happiness, Hong’s deeds ___47__ us of what we usually neglect: Love and care for others. Without these, ___48___ of us could survive.
Hong ___49__ donations from others. He said that he felt encouraged by kind offers, but he could ___50__ his own work. Short of money to buy food, the boy climbed tall trees to get birds’ eggs for his baby sister. He walked two hours at weekends to buy different things to ___51__ around his school to earn money. Through his hard life, the boy developed ___52___ against misfortune that made him a hero in people’s eyes.
Hong’s story shows that with love and willpower, no hardship can ___53__ a person but himself. So when facing difficulties, don’t ___54__ about bad luck. Consider what more you could do for your family and society ___55___ you’ll find the world smiling back.

The greatest recent changes have been in the lives of women, during the twentieth century there was an unusual shortening of the time of a woman’s life spent in caring for children. A woman marrying at the end of the 19th century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, of whom four or five lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which custom, chance and health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman’s youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty five and is likely to take paid work until retirement at sixty. Even while she has the care of children, her work is lightened by household appliances （家用电器）and convenience foods.
This important change in women’s way of life has only recently begun to have its full effect on women’s economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left school at the first opportunity and most of them took a full time job. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age, and though women tend to marry younger, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Very many more afterwards, return to full or part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with both husband and wife accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfaction of family life, and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money and running the home, according to the abilities and interest of each them.
【小题1】 According to the passage, around the year1990 most women married       .
A. at about twenty five       B. in their early fifties
C. as soon as possible after they were fifteen D. at any age from fifteen to forty five
【小题2】We are told that in an average family about1990        .

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。

  During my second year of college I had to look for another place to live in. One Sunday after church the pastor(牧师)   36   me to stay in his daughter’s room because she was studying abroad for one year.

  To be honest, I really didn’t want to stay with the pastor’s family.   37   then he old me how much rent would be—a very   38__ figure that included one home-cooked meal a day. I thought about it and    39   to move in.

   At the end of the term I had planned to make   40   living arrangements, since the daughter was to   41   home. But they suggested I   42   a room with their son. By this time I seemed to have been adopted（收养）into their  43   -- her people became my people. I   44   accepted the offer.

   As I emptied the daughter’s bedroom, I thought it might be   45   to have a little sister. But when I later met her, I   46   that this idea of looking after her might be more interesting than I first   47   .

   We finally fell in love, married, and have been   48   one another for many years. There have been times that life turned out to be   49   than either of us could have known. But we have always been able to go   50 _  largely because we knew that somebody deeply cared.

   It isn’t about marriage—it’s about   51 _  . It’s about mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers and special friends who are as   52 _ as family. It’s about anybody who can say, “I’ll be   53   -- you can count on me. I’ll try to look after you and   54   I will need you to look after me.”

   Is there somebody you can   55  ? And is someone counting on you? We travel the path of life best when there is someone to look after, and when someone is looking after us.

A. required       B. told           C. warned         D. reminded

A. But           B. And           C. So            D. Or

A. high          B. low            C. familiar        D. fair

A. helped        B. refused         C. admitted        D. decided

A. other         B. extra           C. different        D. similar

A. reach         B. sell            C. return          D. leave

A. spare         B. share           C. separate        D. divide

A. house         B. family          C. life            D. group

A. happily       B. sadly            C. curiously       D. nervously

A. strange       B. uneasy           C. nice           D. boring

A. predicted      B. doubted          C. proved         D. realized

A. knew         B. imagined         C. planned        D. promised

A. watching over  B. taking over       C. looking after    D. looking for

A. smoother      B. more challenging  C. flatter          D. more interesting

A. forward       B. backward        C. up             D. down

A. friendship      B. relation         C. love            D. couple

A. perfect        B. lucky           C. distant          D. close

A. away         B. out             C. in              D. around

A. always        B. sometimes       C. never           D. ever

A. believe in      B. depend on       C. take care of      D. watch out for

The days of elderly women doing nothing but cooking huge meals on holidays are gone. Enter the Red Hat Society—a group holding the belief that old ladies should have fun.

  “My grandmother didn’t do anything but keep house and serve everybody. They were programmed to do that,” said Emily Cornette, head of a chapter of the 7-year-old Red Hat Society.

  While men have long spent their time fishing and playing golf, women have sometimes seemed to become unnoticed as they age. But the generation now turning 50 is the baby boomers (生育高峰期出生的人), and the same people who refused their parents’ way of being young are now trying a new way of growing old.

  If you take into consideration feminism (女权主义), a bit of spare money, and better health for most elderly, the Red Hat Society looks almost inevitable (必然的). In this society, women over 50 wear red hats and purple (紫色的) clothes, while the women under 50 wear pink hats and light purple clothing.

  “The organization took the idea from a poem by Jenny Joseph that begins: “When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple. With a red hat which doesn’t go,” said Ellen Cooper, who founded the Red Hat Society in 1998. When the ladies started to wear the red hats, they attracted lots of attention.

  “The point of this is that we need a rest from always doing something for someone else,” Cooper said. “Women feel so ashamed and sorry when they do something for themselves.” This is why chapters are discouraged from raising money or doing anything useful. “We’re a ladies’ play group. It couldn’t be more simple,” added Cooper’s assistant Joe Heywood.

1..  The unlined word “chapter” in Paragraph 2 means ___.

   A. one branch of an organization             B. a written agreement of a club

   C. one part of a collection of poems         D. a period in a society’s history

2..  From the text, we know that the “baby boomers” are a group of people who ___.

   A. have gradually become more noticeable     B. are worried about getting old too quickly

   C. are enjoying a good life with plenty of money to spend

   D. tried living a different life from their parents when they were young

3.. It could be inferred from the text that members of the Red Hat Society are ___.

   A. interested in raising money for social work   B. programmers who can plan well for their future

   C. believers in equality between men and women D. good at cooking big meals and taking care of others

4... Who set up the Red Hat Society?

   A. Emily Cornette        B. Ellen Cooper     C. Jenny Joseph     D. Joe Heywood

5... Women join the Red Hat Society because ___.

   A. they want to stay young                   B. they would like to appear more attractive

   C. they would like to have fun and live for themselves  D. they want to be more like their parents

   It was a winter morning, just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2005. While most people were warming up their cars, Trevor, my husband, had to get up early to ride his bike four kilometers away from home to work. On his arrival, he parked his bike outside the back door as he usually does. After putting in 10 hours of labor, he returned to find his bike gone.

   The bike, a black Kona 18 speed, was our only transport. Trevor used it to get to work, putting in 60-hour weeks to support his young family. And the bike was also used to get groceries（食品杂货），saving us from having to walk long distances from where we live.

   I was so sad that someone would steal our bike that I wrote to the newspaper and told them our story. Shortly after that, several people in our area offered to help. One wonderful stranger even bought a bike, then called my husband to pick it up. Once again my husband had a way to get to and from his job. It really is an honor that a complete stranger would go out of their way for someone they have never met before.

   People say that a smile can be passed from one person to another, but acts of kindness from strangers are even more so. This experience has had a spreading effect in our lives because it strengthened our faith in humanity（人性）as a whole. And it has influenced（影响）us to be more mindful of ways we, too, can share with others. No matter how big or how small, an act of kindness shows that someone cares. And the results can be everlasting(持久的，永久的).

52. Why was the bike so important to the couple?

A. The man’s job was bike racing.                  B. It was their only possession(财产).

C. It was a nice Kona 18 speed.                   D. They used it for work and daily life.

53. We can infer from the text that ____________.

A. the couple worked 60 hours a week.       B. people were busy before Christmas

C. a wonderful stranger bought a bike.      D. life was hard for the young family.

54. How did people get to know the couple’s problem?

A. From radio broadcasts.                               B. From a newspaper. 

C. From TV news.                                          D. From a stranger.

55. What do the couple learn from their experience?

A. Strangers are usually of little help.           B. One should take care of their bike.

C. News reports make people famous.     D. An act of kindness can mean a lot.