A little girl was given so many picture books on her seventh birthday that her father. Who should have run his office and let her mother run the home, thought his daughter should give one or two of her new books to a little neighbor boy named Robert, who had visited their home sometimes.

   Now, taking books, or anything else, from a little girl is like taking sweets from a baby, but the father of the little girl had his way and Robert got a couple of her books. “After all, that leaves you with nine,” said the father, who thought he was a child psychologist（心理学家）,and couldn’t shout his big stupid mouth on the subject.

  A few weeks later, the father went to his library to look up “father” in The Oxford English Dictionary, eager to enjoy the praise of fatherhood through the centuries, but he couldn’t find volume（册）F-G and then he discovered that others were missing too. A-B,L-M, V-Z. He looked everywhere for them, and learned what had happened to the four missing volumes.

   “A man came to the door this morning” said the little daughter, “and he didn’t know how to get from here to Torrington or from Torrington to Wintec, and he was a kind man, much nicer than Robert, and so I gave him four of your books After all, there are thirteen volumes in the Oxford English Dictionary, and that leaves you with nine.

According to the writer’s opinion,      

A. a mother should keep house and father educate the children

B. A father should run the home as well as his office

C. A father should run his office and leave his children to his wife

D. A father shouldn’t only run his office but educate his children

“The father of the little girl has his way” means       

the father went out to work in his office 

B. the father decided to the girl a lesson

C. the father still did what he wanted to.

Considering himself a psychologist, the father        

couldn’t stop discussing the subject    

B. couldn’t helping（禁不住）talking about the subject

couldn’t refuse to listen to the subject  

D. couldn’t give an explanation of he subject

What’s still unclear to us in the story?

A. The exact number of the picture books the girl had received.

B. How many volumes the Oxford English Dictionary includes.

C. Whether each volume of the dictionary includes entries beginning with two letters.

D. Whether the father knew his daughter’s mind well

What do we know about the little girl?

A. She liked Robert very much.            B. She liked reading dictionary

She dislikes what her father did to her picture books.  

D. She is a kind and helpful girl.

When Ben Franklin was only a boy, he always wanted to know about things. He was always asking his father and brothers “What?” and “How?” and “Why?”

They couldn’t always tell him what he wanted to know.

When they couldn’t tell him, Ben tried to find out for himself.

Many times Ben did find out things that no one knew before. The other boys would say, “That Ben Franklin! He’s always finding out something new!”

Ben lived close to the water. He liked to go there to see the boats. He saw how the wind blew them across the water.

One day Ben said to himself, “Why can’t the wind help me float across the water? And I’m going to try.” Ben got his big kite. He took hold of the kite string and ran with it. The wind took the kite up into the air. Then Ben jumped into the water.

The wind blew the kite high into the air. Ben began to float across the water. Soon he was on the other side, and he had not worked at all.

One boy shouted, “Look at Ben floating across the water! His kite takes him to the other side without any work!”

“Yes,” said another. “He’s always finding new ways to do things.”

1.When he was only a child, Ben             .

2. His father and brothers           .

3.How did Ben Franklin float across the water?

4.He found out many things that            .

When middle-aged Alex quit his job and made up his mind to become a self-employed writer, no one could tell for sure whether he would succeed or not．He found a cold storage room in a building, set up a used typewriter and settled down to work．

After a year or so, however, Alex began to doubt himself．He found it was difficult to earn his living by selling what he wrote．But Alex determined to put his dream to the test—even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure．This is the shadowland（虚幻世界）of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there．

One day Alex got a call,“We need an assistant, and we're paying $ 6,000 a year．” $ 6,000 was real money in 1960．It would enable Alex to get a nice apartment, a used car and more．Besides, he could write in his spare time．As the dollars were dancing in Alex's head, something cleared his senses．He had dreamed of being a writer? Full time．“Thanks, but no,” Alex said firmly and swiftly, “I'm going to stick it out and write．”

After Alex got off the phone, he pulled out everything he had: two cans of vegetables and 18 cents．Alex put the cans and cents into a paper bag, saying to himself, “There's everything you've made of yourself so far．I'm not sure I ever felt so low.”

Finally his work was published in 1970．Instantly he had the kind of fame and success that few writers ever experienced．The shadows had turned into focus of attention．

Then one day, Alex found a box filled with things he had owned years before．Inside was a paper bag with two cans and 18 cents．Suddenly he pictured himself working in that cold storage room．It reminds Alex, and anyone with a dream, of the courage and persistence it takes to stay the course in the shadowland．

1.Why did Alex give up his job?

2.What did Alex express when he answered the call?

3.What kind of person is Alex?

4.Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality (理性), but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any reasonable student with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, many famous professors and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that's not what I did.

I chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts (文科) university that doesn't even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my job. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by communicating with people who weren't studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a wise choice. They told me I was wise and grown-up beyond my 18 years, and I believed them.

　I headed off to the college and sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering "factories" where they didn't care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical expert and excellent humanist all in one.

　Now I'm not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideas crashed into reality, as all noble ideas finally do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal-arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile engineering with liberal-arts courses in college.

　The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don't mix as easily as I supposed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult.

1.Why did the author choose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts university?

2.According to the author, by communicating with people who study liberal arts, engineering students can ___________.

3. Which word below can replace the underlined word “reconcile”?

4.The underlined sentence in 1st paragraph means ___________.

5. The author suggests in this passage that ___________.

A boy was walking home from school when he saw a large, tempting （诱人的）apple on one of the branches of an apple tree hanging out over a tall fence. The boy wasn’t much of a fruit-eater,  36  a bar of chocolate if given the choice,     37    , as they say, the forbidden fruit can be tempting. Seeing the apple, the boy wanted it. The more he looked at it, the    38    he felt and the more he wanted that apple.

39   as high as he could, but even as his tallest  40  he was unable to touch It. He began to  41  up and down , as high as he could, at the  42  of each jump stretching his arms to get the apple . Still it remained out of  43  .   Not giving up , he though , if only he had something to  44  on . His school bag wouldn’t give enough height and he didn’t want to  45   the things inside , like his lunch box , pencil case , and Gameboy. Looking   46  , he hoped he might find an old box , a rock , or ,   47  luck , even a ladder , but it was a tidy neighborhood and there was nothing he could use. He had tired everything he could think to do.   48   seeing any other choices , he gave up and started to walk   49  . At first he felt angry and disappointed thinking about how hungry he had become from his  50  , and how he really wanted that apple . The more he  51  like this , the more unhappy he became.

52   ,the boy of our story was a pretty smart guy, even if he couldn’t always get what get he wanted .He started to say to himself . This isn’t    53     ,I   don’t have the apple and I’m feeling miserable as well.There’s  54   more I can do to get the apple-that is unchangeable-but we are supposed to be able to  55  our feelings. If that’s the case, what can I do to feel better?

1.A. preferring    B. offering   C. receiving     D. allowing

2.A. so          B. then      C. but           D or

3.A.sadder    B. angrier      C. hungrier        D. tastier

4.A. expanding    B. stretching    C. swinging   D. pulling

5. A. strength    B. length       C.  range      D. height

6.A.jump     B. look        C. walk       D. glance

7.A.  tip       B. stage      C. top      D.  level

8.A hope       B. hand        C.  sight      D.  reach

9.A. put         B. stand         C. get   D.  hold

10.A. break     B.  shake         C. take  D.  strike

11.A.  up       B. forward       C. down D.  around

12.A.for           B. with           C. on  D. of

13.A. After      B. Through     C .Without  D. Upon

14.A. back      B.  away      C. up      D. down

15.A. wishes      B.  beliefs     C. efforts   D. goals

16.A. thought     B. imagined     C. tried   D. claimed

17.A.Therefore     B. However     C. Moreover  D. Otherwise

18.A. skilful    B. cheerful      C. harmful   D.  helpful

19.A. something    B. anything    C. everything    D. nothing

20.A．change   B. express   C. forget   D. describe