阅读理解

　　Matt grows the nicest vegetables in the village. He grows fruits, too——big, sweet apples and oranges. And what else? Well, the biggest and the prettiest flowers.

　　Things grow in Mitt’s garden all through the year. He cuts some flowers for his sitting-room table; and, of course, he eats some fruit and vegetables. But he sells everything else in the market. Matt is not a poor man—oh, no, he isn’t poor.

　　I will tell you people do not understand him. And they do not understand has garden. “Why not?” you will ask, “It’s a good garden, isn’t it?”

　　It is a wonderful garden. Matt grows things in spring, summer, autumn and winter. After that he does very little work. He sits in the garden with his small radio. And everything grows.

　　People ask, “How does Matt grow these wonderful things? He waters the plants sometimes, but he doesn’t do anything else. He just sits under an orange tree with his radio. He listens to music nearly all day!” And that is all quite true. People cannot understand it, and so they don’t like it very much.

　　Mutt likes music. But what about the garden? Who does the work? I will tell you another truth: the music does the work. All plants love music; and Matt knows that.

　　Do you want big vegetables and the loveliest flowers? Well, just give your plants a lot of music.

1．Matt grows plants in his garden ________.

[　　]

A．when he is free

B．when he wants to make some money

C．only when it is warm

D．all the year round

2．Matt is not a poor man because ________.

[　　]

A．he sells most of what he grows in the market

B．he has no one to support

C．he grows a lot of fruit and he does not eat any

D．he has sold his sitting-room table in the market

3．Matt knows a few other gardeners ________.

[　　]

A．and they are his good friends

B．and they grow better lands than he does

C．who do not understand him

D．who buy all that he sells in the market

4．In fact, besides watering the plants sometimes ________ .

[　　]

A．Matt does nothing else at all

B．Matt gives them nothing but music

C．Matt does all he can to help them to grow faster

D．Matt tries to explain why his plants grow so well

5．Plants love music ________.

[　　]

A．and Matt knows that well

B．but Matt refuses to give his plants any

C．and everyone understands that

D．but the orange tree in Matt’s garden does not

　The way people hold to the belief that a fun - filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain.

　　As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment （预担的义务）, self - improvement.

　　Ask a bachelor（单身汉） why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.

　　Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three - day vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.

　　Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.

According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because ________ .

　　A. he is reluctant to take on family responsiblilities

　　B. he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single

　　C. he finds more fun in dating than in marriage

　　D. he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement

　Raising children, in the author’s opinion is ________ .

　　A. a moral duty

　　B. a thankless job

　　C. a rewarding task

　　D. a source of inevitable pain

From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from ________ .

　　A. hatred　　　　　　　　　　　　B. misunderstanding

　　C. prejudice　　　　　　　　　　　D. ignorance

To understand what true happiness is one must ________ .

　　A. have as much fun as possible during one’s lifetime

　　B. make every effort to liberate oneself from pain

　　C. put up with pain under all circumstances

　　D. be able to distinguish happiness from fun

When I was young， my father used to grow carnations (康乃馨).His carnations were red， pink and white. Everyone who saw them admired them for their beauty.

 He took care of them with so much love and    　36　    . Every day he came home from work， he went   straight    to see them. He 　37　 watching them every day. We the kids did too. But he used to tell us， “No one should touch my flowers.”

One day my younger sister， who loved my dad very much， had wanted to help him and she    　38　     the carnations from their stems (枝干) one by one and arranged them   　39　      . She believed that he would be very    　40　    to see them that way.

When mom and I realized what my sister had done， we became completely hopeless. However， my sister had no idea why no one showed her any appreciation. When my dad arrived he went， 　41　， straight to see the flowers. When he saw his flowers    lying     on the floor like dead animals， he was 　42　 at first. He looked towards the street， to see if it was any of the   　43　    children who could have done it. Then he entered the living room and looked at mom in silence.

Finally mom， who always taught us to    　44　    no matter what， looked at dad and said： “We have no bad neighbors in our area”. Then with a nice tone she continued： “No outsider did this great job， only your lovely daughter Clémence.” My dad’s face   changed     into 　45　 and then he said： “Do I have a better    　46　     than my lovely daughter？” My younger sister smiled and   　47　    dad tightly.

1.A. devotion     B. spirits          C. gratitude       D. expectation

2.A. hated        B. approved       C. enjoyed        D. committed

3.A. divided      B. watered         C. cut            D. cleaned

4.A. by the window B. in the vase      C. on the desk      D. on the floor

5.A. surprised     B. pleased         C. disappointed     D. worried

6.A. as usual      B. at first          C. as well          D. at last

7.A. frightened    B. relieved         C. disappointed     D. shocked

8.A. enemies’     B. friends’         C. families’         D. neighbors’

9.A. say the truth  B. behave ourselves  C. follow the rules   D. keep secret

10.A. sadness     B. smiles          C. anger           D. depression

11.A. kid        B. flower          C. helper           D. gift

12.A. hugged     B. kissed          C. grasped         D. patted

When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never yelled at us for playing in his yard. I remember him as someone who was a lot nicer than most of the adults in our community.

When Dr. Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. His house sat on ten acres, and his life’s goal was to make it a forest.

The good doctor had some interesting theories concerning plant care and growth. He never watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants spoiled them so that each successive tree generation would grow weaker and weaker. So you have to make things rough for them and weed out(淘汰) the weaker trees early on. He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of moisture. I took him to mean that deep roots were to be treasured.

So he never watered his trees. He planted an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. Smack! Slap! Pow! I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s attention.

Dr. Gibbs passed away a couple of years after I left home. Every now and again, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I’d watched him plant some twenty-five years ago. They’re extremely tall, big and robust since they have deep roots now. However, the trees in my garden trembled in a cold wind although I had watered them for several years.

It seems that adversity(逆境) and suffering benefit these trees in ways comfort and ease never could. I stood there deep in thought.

Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch their little bodies, the rising and falling of life within. I often pray for them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But I think that it’s time to change my prayer(祷词) because now I know my children are going to encounter hardship.

According to Dr. Gibbs’ theories, trees will become weaker if they _________.

A. are lack of care　　　　　B. are watered      C. are weeded out　　　　　D. are beaten

According to Para.3 and Para.4, we can infer that Dr. Gibbs’ motto(座右铭) may be       .

A. “Seeing is believing”                                    B. “Put everything in proper use”

C. “Practice makes perfect”                               D. “No pain, no gain”

The underlined word robust in Para.5 most probably means _________.

A. strong　　                      B. strange　　       C. deep　　                        D. old

Which of the following may be the author’s best prayer for his two sons now?

A. I wish them strong wings, with which they can fly higher and touch the sky.

B. I wish them nice fortune so that they can meet people like Dr. Gibbs in the future.

C. I wish them deep roots into the earth since the rains fall and the winds blow often.

D. I wish them great shades under the tree since the sunlight is always sharp and bitter.

Which of the following can be the best title of this passage?

A Nice Doctor  B. The Deep Roots  C. Adversity and Suffering  D. My Childhood Memory