When I was fourteen, I earned money in the summer by cutting lawns（草坪）, and within a few weeks I had built up a body of customers. I got to know people by the flowers they planted that I had to remember not to cut down, by the things they lost in the grass or struck in the ground on purpose. I reached the point with most of them when I knew in advance what complaint was about to be spoken, which request was most important. And I learned something about the measure of my neighbors by their preferred method of payment: by the job, by the month—or not at all.

Mr. Ballou fell into the last category, and he always had a reason why. On one day, he had no change for a fifty, on another he was flat out of checks, on another, he was simply out when I knocked on his door. Still, except for the money apart, he was a nice enough guy, always waving or tipping his hat when he’d seen me from a distance. I figured him for a thin retirement check, maybe a work-related injury that kept him from doing his own yard work. Sure, I kept track of the total, but I didn’t worry about the amount too much. Grass was grass, and the little that Mr. Ballou’s property comprised didn’t take long to trim (修剪).

Then, one late afternoon in mid-July, the hottest time of the year, I was walking by his house and he opened the door, mentioned me to come inside. The hall was cool, shaded, and it took my eyes a minute to adjust to the dim light. 

“I owe you,” Mr Ballou said, “but…”

I thought I’d save him the trouble of thinking of a new excuse. “No problem. Don’t worry about it.”

“The bank made a mistake in my account,” he continued, ignoring my words. “It will be cleared up in a day or two. But in the meantime I thought perhaps you could choose one or two volumes for a down payment.

He gestured toward the walls and I saw that books were stacked (堆放) everywhere. It was like a library, except with no order to the arrangement.

“Take your time,” Mr. Ballou encouraged. “Read, borrow, keep, or find something you like. What do you read?”

“I don’t know.” And I didn’t. I generally read what was in front of me, what I could get from the paperback stack at the drugstore, what I found at the library, magazines, the back of cereal boxes, comics. The idea of consciously seeking out a special title was new to me, but, I realized, not without appeal--- so I started to look through the piles of books.

“You actually read all of these?”

“This isn’t much,” Mr. Ballou said. “This is nothing, just what I’ve kept, the ones worth looking at a second time.”

“Pick for me, then.”

He raised his eyebrows, cocked his head, and regarded me as though measuring me for a suit. After a moment, he nodded, searched through a stack, and handed me a dark red hardbound book, fairly thick.

“The Last of the Just,” I read. “By Andre Schwarz-Bart. What’s it about?”

“You tell me,” he said. “Next week.”

I started after supper, sitting outdoors on an uncomfortable kitchen chair. Within a few pages, the yard, the summer, disappeared, and I was plunged into the aching tragedy of the Holocaust, the extraordinary clash of good, represented by one decent man, and evil. Translated from French, the language was elegant, simple, impossible to resist. When the evening light finally failed I moved inside, read all through the night.

To this day, thirty years later, I vividly remember the experience. It was my first voluntary encounter with world literature, and I was amazed by the concentrated power a novel could contain. I lacked the vocabulary, however, to translate my feelings into words, so the next week. When Mr. Ballou asked, “Well?” I only replied, “It was good?”

“Keep it, then,” he said. “Shall I suggest another?”

I nodded, and was presented with the paperback edition of Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa (a very important book on the study of the social and cultural development of peoples—anthropology (人类学) ).

To make two long stories short, Mr. Ballou never paid me a cent for cutting his grass that year or the next, but for fifteen years I taught anthropology at Dartmouth College. Summer reading was not the innocent entertainment I had assumed it to be, not a light-hearted, instantly forgettable escape in a hammock (吊床) (though I have since enjoyed many of those, too). A book, if it arrives before you at the right moment, in the proper season, at an internal in the daily business of things, will change the course of all that follows.

1.Before his encounter with Mr. Ballou, the author used to read _____________.

A．anything and everything                  B．only what was given to him

C．only serious novels                      D．nothing in the summer

2.The author found the first book Mr. Ballou gave him _____________.

A．light-hearted and enjoyable               B．dull but well written

C．impossible to put down                   D．difficult to understand

3.From what he said to the author we can guess that Mr. Ballou _______________.

A．read all books twice                     B．did not do much reading

C．read more books than he kept             D．preferred to read hardbound books

4.The following year the author _______________.

A．started studying anthropology at college

B．continued to cut Mr. Ballou’s lawn

C．spent most of his time lazing away in a hammock

D．had forgotten what he had read the summer before

5.The author’s main point is that _____________.

A．summer jobs are really good for young people

B．you should insist on being paid before you do a job

C．a good book can change the direction of your life

D．books are human beings’ best friends

根据短文内容，从下框的A-F选项中选出能概括每一段主题的最佳选项。选项中有一项为多余项。

A．The secret of the writer’s success

B．A writer with enduring popularity

C．Well-received creation to encourage Brits

D．The insight into human nature

E. Writing styles in different stages

F. The story appreciate for school students

1. ____________

Charles Dickens is often thought of as one of England’s great writers. Yet for many his language is old-fashioned and his story plots often improbable. Why, Dickens, out of so many other great English writers, has made the list? How then to explain Dickens’s enduring popularity?

2. _____________

One reason undoubtly is the British government’s insistence that every child studies a Dickens novel at school. Alongside Willian Shakespeare, Charles Dickens is a compulsory (必读的)writer on every English literature school reading list. His stories, though often over-long by today’s standard, are superbly written moral tales. They are filled with colorful characters.

3. ______________

But what makes his books stand out from other English writers is his insight into human nature. Dickens, like Shakespeare, tells us truths about human behavior that are as true to citizens of the 21st century as they were to his readers in the 19th century. Readers have returned to Dickens’s books again and again over the years to see what he has to say about readers’ own time.

4. _______________

The BBC adapted one of his less well-known novels, Little Dorrit, into a popular television drama that introduced many Brits to the novel for the first time. A dark story about greed and money, it was the perfect story to illustrate the bad times. No surprise then that it was Dickens Britons turned to, during the economic crisis last year, to make sense of world rapidly falling apart.

5. _______________

Readers of the 19th and early 20th century usually prized Dickens’s earlier novels for their humor and pathos(悲痛). While recognizing the virtues of these books, critics today tend to rank more highly the later works because of  their formal coherence and acute perception(洞察力) of the human condition. For as long as Dickens’s novels have something to say to modern audiences, it seems likely that he will remain one of Britain’s best loved writers.

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项A、B、C、D中，选出最佳选项。

　　Albert Selmer, a German business man who speaks good English, was pleasantly surprised during his latest trip to Beijing. When he got into a taxi on Chang'an Avenue , the driver greeted him and asked where he would like to go—in English! “This was inconceivable eight years ago when I first visited Beijing. ” said the amazed Selmer.

　　Eight years ago Beijing failed in its bid for the 2000 Games. One of the reasons was that foreigners found it hard to communicate with Beijing residents, most of whom speak only Chinese. This time, the city is working to improve communications. One notable change has occurred within the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee (BOGBICO) : When reporting to IOC federation on Beijing's preparations, BOGBICO officials are speaking directly in English instead of using interpreters they did eight years ago. “Most of our staff are above the level of college English Test Band Ⅵ ,and some have had the experience of studying in English—speaking countries,”said Lei Jun, human resources director of BOGBICO. “Talking in fluent English is a piece of cake to them. ”

　　In addition to BOGBICO officials, Beijing residents are looking forward to the 2008 Games by actively learning the foreign languages. Free English classes offered in a number of Beijing communities are enjoying high attendance. Residents are taught useful expressions, greetings, how to give directions and how to introduce themselves. Shop assistants , bus and taxi drivers and even policemen are learning English. In five years, the percentage of Beijing residents who can speak English will be raised to around 30 per cent from the present 15 percent.

1．The word “inconceivable means”______.

[　　]

A．not able to be compared

B．not able to be thought of

C．able to be imagined

D．surprised

2．According to the passage, the officials who bid for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games had better speak in _______ when they report to IOC federation at Lausanne.

[　　]

3．The best title of the passage is ______.

[　　]

A．English is the most important in the world

B．Every Beijing resident should learn English

C．Beijing goes bilingual(双语)

D．How to bid for the 2008 Olmpic Games

4．Why are Beijing residents learning English actively?

[　　]

A．To show they are likely to make friends.

B．To show they are expecting the 2008 Games.

C．To make money easily.

D．To win in the 2008 Games