I have this old clock that belonged to my mom. My dad gave it to me years ago after mom passed away.
I have mixed feelings about having the clock. I love it because it was my mom’s, but it also holds some bad memories.
You see, it chimes. It counts out the hour and rings once on the half hour. Or at least it used to. Now you never know what number it will ring.
When my mother was at home dying from cancer, she asked for the clock to be unplugged. Hearing the hours count down really angered and frightened her.
Mom passed away. I decided I wanted to get the clock fixed so I could remember the good hours we had with her.
I took it to a local clock shop the other day.
“I know this has no particular value as a clock, but it was my mom’s and I need to get it fixed,” I said to the shop owner.
I went on to describe the problem.
“We get a lot of these in,” he told me. “Here’s what I do. We remove the clock works (机件) and replace it with a battery-operated movement (机芯) that chimes electronically,” he told me.
“You can’t fix this?”
“No, we don’t have the time nor the parts.”
I thanked him and went home. I called a few other places and was told the same thing.
“How incredibly sad,” I told the last one disappointedly.
How incredibly sad that we have become a society that replaces craftsmanship with convenience and easy fixes. We copy the original instead of creating something new. We duplicate (复制); we don’t originate (发明).
Sadly, the same goes for our attitude to life itself.
Each of us is an original, one of a kind. But we find it so much easier to copy another style than to develop our own.
We are wannabes (崇拜别人的人) rather than hey-world-look-at-mes.
We fail to see the real value in who we are, so we spend our lives trying to be someone else.
【小题1】 Why did the author decide to get the clock fixed?

    I was 9 years old when I found out my father was ill. It was 1994, but I can remember my mother's words as if it were yesterday: “Kerrel, I don't want you to take food from your father, because he has AIDS. Be very careful when you are around him.”

    AIDS wasn't something we talked about in my country when I was growing up. From then on, I knew that this would be a family secret. My parents were not together anymore, and my dad lived alone. For a while, he could take care of himself. But when I was 12, his condition worsened. My father's other children lived far away, so it fell to me to look after him.

    We couldn't afford all the necessary medication for him, and because Dad was unable to work, I had no money for school supplies and often couldn't even buy food for dinner. I would sit in class feeling completely lost, the teacher's words muffled as I tried to figure out how I was going to manage.

    I did not share my burden (负担) with anyone. I had seen how people reacted to AIDS. Kids laughed at classmates who had parents with the disease. And even adults could be cruel. When my father was moved to the hospital, the nurses would leave his food on the bedside table even though he was too weak to feed himself.

    I had known that he was going to die, but after so many years of keeping his condition a secret, I was completely unprepared when he reached his final days. Sad and hopeless, I called a woman at the nonprofit National AIDS Support. That day, she kept me on the phone for hours. I was so lucky to find someone who cared. she saved my life.

I was 15 when my father died. He took his secret away with him, having never spoken about AIDS to anyone, even me. He didn't want to call attention to AIDS. I do.

60. What does Kerrel tell us about her father?

    A. He had stayed in the hospital since he fell ill.

    B. He depended on the nurses in his final days.

    C. He worked hard to pay for his medication.

    D. He told no one about his disease.

61. What can we learn from the underlined sentence?

A. Kerrel couldn't understand her teacher.          

B. Kerrel had special difficulty in hearing.

    C. Kerrel was too troubled to focus on the lesson.

    D. Kerrel was too tired to hear her teacher's words.

62. Why did Kerrel keep her father's disease a secret?

    A. She was afraid of being looked down upon.             B. She thought it was shameful to have AIDS.

    C. She found no one willing to listen to her.          D. She wanted to obey her mother.

63. Why did Kerrel write the passage?

    A. To tell people about the sufferings of her father.

    B. To show how little people knew about AIDS.

C. To draw people's attention to AIDS.              

D. To remember her father.

I was 9 years old when I found out my father was ill. It was 1994, but I can remember my mother's words as if it were yesterday: “Kerrel, I don't want you to take food from your father, because he has AIDS. Be very careful when you are around him.”
AIDS wasn't something we talked about in my country when I was growing up. From then on, I knew that this would be a family secret. My parents were not together anymore, and my dad lived alone. For a while, he could take care of himself. But when I was 12, his condition worsened. My father's other children lived far away, so it fell to me to look after him.
We couldn't afford all the necessary medication for him, and because Dad was unable to work, I had no money for school supplies and often couldn't even buy food for dinner. I would sit in class feeling completely lost, the teacher's words muffled as I tried to figure out how I was going to manage.
I did not share my burden (负担) with anyone. I had seen how people reacted to AIDS. Kids laughed at classmates who had parents with the disease. And even adults could be cold. When my father was moved to the hospital, the nurses would leave his food on the bedside table even though he was too weak to feed himself.
I had known that he was going to die, but after so many years of keeping his condition a secret, I was completely unprepared when he reached his final days. Sad and hopeless, I called a woman at the nonprofit National AIDS Support. That day, she kept me on the phone for hours. I was so lucky to find someone who cared. She saved my life.
I was 15 when my father died. He took his secret away with him, having never spoken about AIDS to anyone, even me. He didn't want to call attention to AIDS. I do.
【小题1】Which of the following statements about Kerrel’s father is true?

I have this old clock that belonged to my mom. My dad gave it to me years ago after mom passed away.

I have mixed feelings about having the clock. I love it because it was my mom’s, but it also holds some bad memories.

You see, it chimes. It counts out the hour and rings once on the half hour. Or at least it used to. Now you never know what number it will ring.

When my mother was at home dying from cancer, she asked for the clock to be unplugged. Hearing the hours count down really angered and frightened her.

Mom passed away. I decided I wanted to get the clock fixed so I could remember the good hours we had with her.

I took it to a local clock shop the other day.

“I know this has no particular value as a clock, but it was my mom’s and I need to get it fixed,” I said to the shop owner.

I went on to describe the problem.

“We get a lot of these in,” he told me. “Here’s what I do. We remove the clock works (机件) and replace it with a battery-operated movement (机芯) that chimes electronically,” he told me.

“You can’t fix this?”

“No, we don’t have the time nor the parts.”

I thanked him and went home. I called a few other places and was told the same thing.

“How incredibly sad,” I told the last one disappointedly.

How incredibly sad that we have become a society that replaces craftsmanship with convenience and easy fixes. We copy the original instead of creating something new. We duplicate (复制); we don’t originate (发明).

Sadly, the same goes for our attitude to life itself.

Each of us is an original, one of a kind. But we find it so much easier to copy another style than to develop our own.

We are wannabes (崇拜别人的人) rather than hey-world-look-at-mes.

We fail to see the real value in who we are, so we spend our lives trying to be someone else.

1. Why did the author decide to get the clock fixed?

A．Because it was a really old and valuable clock.

B．Because it was the only thing that her mother had left her.

C．Because it brought her memories of being with her mother.

D．Because it left the author with mixed feelings.

2. What did the clock shop owners tell the author?

A．The parts that the clock needed were electronic.

B．It would cost a lot to repair the clock.

C．They had never repaired a clock like this before.

D．They could only make the clock electronic.

3. The author intends to ________.

A．criticize the irresponsible clock shop owners

B．criticize people who do not value things with a history

C．criticize people who do not have a creative attitude toward life

D．criticize people’s ignorance of traditional craftsmanship

第二节 完形填空（共20小题；每小题1．5分，满分30分）
阅读下面短文，从短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
When I began my high school years, I was quite interested in biology. I read lots of books of my father’s about animals, and I was   36   much educated about such matters as a 16-year-old could be.
One Sunday afternoon, I was   37  with friends about animals. I said the whale（鲸鱼）was  __38  a mammal animal. They disagreed. Finally, I called a   39  over to help settle the matter. I knew I was  40 , so I was looking forward to the teacher  41   I was right. My friends were eager for an opposite answer. We asked her   42 the whale was a mammal. “No, the whale is a fish,” she said without a moment’s   43  .
You could have knocked me over with a feather. My   44   was hurt because I lost the argument, but that wasn’t the main reason I was too  45 to speak. I still knew I was right, which   __46  the teacher was wrong. Not only was she wrong,   47  she was completely ignorant（无知的） about something I thought was   48   knowledge. But she was a teacher who had taught a long time. Everyone   49   her and no one else thought she could be wrong.
__50  that, I hadn’t known grown-ups could be wrong. This   51  shaped the way I viewed people as I grew up.   52   I found anyone treated another person with too much respect and admiration, I thought——and still think——“   53  silly.” From that point on, I had no  54__ for authority（权威）. To earn my respect, you have to be smart or  55   . I’ll never respect you just because you happen to be in charge or have a degree.
36. A. as  B. so       C. too          D. very
37. A. meeting       B. working     C. arguing      D. staying
38. A. about    B. like         C. beside      D. above
39. A. professor     B. biologist     C. librarian     D. teacher
40. A. clever   B. fight       C. creative    D. silly
41. A. proving       B. finding       C. promising   D. hoping
42. A. how     B. why        C. if      D. when
43. A. doubt   B. silence       C. regret  D. hesitation
44. A. heart    B. mind   C. pride   D. feeling
45. A. foolish  B. anxious      C. serious       D. astonished
46. A. meant   B. suggested   C. admitted     D. concluded
47. A. and         B. but     C. for           D. or
48. A. special  B. normal       C. regular       D. common
49. A. pleased B. admired     C. believed     D. loved
50. A. Before  B. After   C. Until   D. Since
51. A. fairly    B. properly     C. nearly D. greatly
52. A. Whenever    B. Although    C. While D. Whether
53. A. I’m         B. that’s  C. he’s    D. you’re
54. A. idea      B. respect       C. choice D. question
55. A. energetic      B. patient       C. talented      D. diligent