“What is the most important thing you’ve done in your life?” The question was put to me during a presentation I gave to a group of lawyers.
The answer came to me in an instant. It’s not the one I gave, because the situation was not right. As a lawyer in the entertainment industry, I knew the audience wanted to hear some amusing stories about my work with well-known people, but here’s the true answer:
The most important thing I’ve ever done occurred on October 8,1990. I began the day playing tennis with an old friend I hadn’t seen for a while. Between points we talked about what had been happening in each other’s lives. He and his wife had just had a baby boy, who was keeping them up at night.
While we were playing, a car came screaming up the road toward the courts. It was my friend’s father, who shouted to my friend that his baby had stopped breathing and was being rushed to the hospital. In a flash my friend was in the car and gone, disappearing in a cloud of dust.
For a moment I just stood there, paralyzed(呆若木鸡). Then I tried to figure out what I should do. Follow my friend to the hospital? There was nothing I could accomplish there, I convinced myself. My friend’s son was in the care of doctors and nurses, and nothing I could do or say would affect the outcome. Be there for moral support? Well, maybe. But my friend and his wife both had large families, and I knew they’d be surrounded by relatives who would provide more than enough comfort and support, whatever happened. All I could do at the hospital, I decided, was to get in the way. Also, I had planned a full day with my family, who were waiting for me to get home. So I decided to head back to my house and check in my friend later.
As I started my car, I realized that my friend had left his truck and keys at the courts. I now faced another problem. I couldn’t leave the keys in the truck. So I decided to go to the hospital and give him the keys.
When I arrived, I was directed to a room where my friend and his wife were waiting. As I had thought, the room was filled with family members silently watching my friend comfort his wife. I went in and stood by the door, trying to decide what to do next. Soon a doctor appeared. He approached my friend and his wife, and in a quiet voice told them that their son had died.
For a long time the two held each other and cried, unaware of the rest of us standing around in pained silence. After they had calmed themselves, the doctor suggested they spend a few moments with their son.
My friend and his wife stood up and walked past their families. When they reached the door, my friend saw me standing in the corner. He came over and hugged me and started to cry. My friend’s wife hugged me, too, and said , “Thanks for being here.”
For the rest of that morning, I sat in the emergency room of that hospital and watched my friend and his wife hold the body of their infant son, and say goodbye.
It’s the most important thing I have ever done. The experience taught me two lessons.
First: The most important thing I’ve ever done happened when I was completely helpless. None of the things I had learned in university, in three years of law school or in six years of legal practice were of any use in that situation. Something terrible was happening to people I cared about, and I was powerless to change the outcome. All I could do was standing by and watching it happen. And yet it was critical that I do just that--- just be there when someone needed me.
Second: The most important thing I’ve done almost didn’t happen because of things I had learned in classroom and professional life. Law school taught me how to take a set of facts, break them down and organized them. These skills are critical for lawyers. When people come to us for help, they’re often stressed out and depend on a lawyer to think logically. But while learning to think, I almost forget how to feel. Today I have no doubt that I should have leapt into my car without hesitation and followed my friend to the hospital.
From that one experience I learned that the most important thing in life isn’t the money you make, the status you attain or the honors you achieve. The most important thing in life is the kids’ team you coach or the poem you write----or the time when you’re just somebody’s friend.
【小题1】 When he was asked about the most important thing he had done in life at a presentation, the author _______.

When Jackie Robinson walked onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, on April 15, 1947, he changed baseball forever. As the first African American to play in the Major League in modern times, many believe he changed the country forever.
Robinson was born in 1919. He lived in a time when rules controlled what African Americans could do. He was a top athlete, playing football, basketball and baseball. But playing for a major League team was off limits to Robinson because of his race.
Branch Rickey, president and manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed (和……签约) Robinson in 1947. He believed that Robinson not only had the skills, but the courage to face the challenge of becoming modern baseball’s first black player.
It wasn’t easy. Robinson sometimes faced boos (嘘声) from fans. But he became a star, anyway. In 1962, he became the first African-American player chosen to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2005, he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award Congress can give to an American.
By breaking baseball’s color barrier (肤色障碍), Robinson opened the door for many to follow his footsteps, not only in baseball, but in other areas of life as well. After he stopped playing the game, Robinson worked as a manager for a coffee company. He wrote a newspaper column (专栏). He also  started a bank.
【小题1】Before Jackie Robinson, no African-American players could __________.

It must have been around nine o’clock when I drove back home from work because it was already dark． As I came near to the gates I turned off the head lights of the car so as to prevent the beam from swinging (摆动) through the window and waking Jack, who shared the house with me． But I needn’t have done so． I noticed that his light was still on, so he was awake anyway—unless he had fallen asleep while reading． I put the car away and went up the steps．
Then I opened the door quietly and went to Jack’s room． He was in bed awake, but he didn’t even turn towards me．
“What’s up, Jack﹖” I asked．
“For God’s sake, don’t make a noise,” he said．
The way he spoke reminded me of someone in pain who is afraid to talk in case he does himself serious injury．
“Take your shoes off, Neville,” Jack said．
I thought that he must be ill and that I had better give way to him to keep him happy． “There is a snake here,” he explained． “It’s asleep between the sheets． I was lying on my back reading when I saw it．I knew that moving was out of the question． I could not have moved even I’d wanted to．” I realized that he was serious． “I was depending on you to call a doctor as soon as you came home,” Jack went on． “It has not bitten me yet but I dare not do anything to upset it． It might wake up． I’m sick of this,” he said．“I took it for granted that you would have come home an hour ago．”
There was no time to argue or apologize for being late．I looked at him as encouraging as I could and went to telephone the doctor．
【小题1】When he got home, Neville found that ＿＿＿＿＿．

Shane Thomas is a 10-year-old pianist from England. He’s being called the next Mozart because of his amazing abilities.
He has only been having piano lessons for four months, and practices four hours a week, but he has already played difficult classical pieces. He was just seven when he sat down at the piano, and could play at once. He also says he never gets nervous.
When Shane was three years old, he said that he could play the piano, but nobody took him seriously. At school, he could listen to the teacher and do his work while composing (作曲) in his head. Shame remembers all the melodies（旋律）,and when he gets home he plays them on the piano, while his father records them. Shane loves playing the piano, and when he grows up he wants to be a composer.
His tutor, Richard Goffin-Lecar, says he is like Amadeus Mozart, who lived during the 18^th century in Salzburg, Austria, and was one of the most famous composers ever. Mr. Goffin-lecar says, “I don’t teach Shane very much. I just give him directions, then sit back and watch.”
His father, a single parent with two other children, says that although he has little money, he wants to send Shane to a good music school. “I’m a single father, but I have this gifted child. I don’t have much money, but I want to give him the best teachers, and also take him into a studio to record.”
【小题1】When did Shane tell others that he could play the piano?

D
KIDS in a Sudanese refugee camp raise a cloud of dust as they kick around a football. NBA superstar Traey Mc Grady watches from a distance before offering to buy the kids a grass patch for $1,000.
Perhaps he sees a Ronaldinho rising up out of the African soil. Or maybe he just wants to do something—anything—to give these children some hope. But he is told, politely, that grass is not what the kids need.
Mc Grady, 29, writes on his website that he traveled to Africa because he was tired of only reading about it in the news.“Who are the faces behind the statistics?” he said.“I need to see it for myself.” And he did. He stepped out of his beautiful house and flew to a place torn to bits by war and famine(饥荒). He slept in a tent. He talked with people who had suffered. And he swallowed his pride.
But no one should blame Mc Grady for wanting to buy the kids a patch of grass. Sport gave him a chance, so perhaps he thought it would do the same for the refugees.
Mc Grady was eyed by NBA scouts as a teenager and he didn’t bother going to college. Instead, he leaped right into the NBA. Since that move, basketball has given him a handsome living, but one very far removed from the lives of ordinary people. As Mc Grady would learn in Africa, most people see sport as just a break from life’s difficulties. They don’t mistake it for life itself. Only Mc Grady knows how the trip to Africa changed him, but I’d bet that, at the very least, it has given him a new sense for what is truly meaningful.
Mc Grady doesn’t own an NBA championship ring. He hasn’t risen to the heights of Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan. But, perhaps, now he knows he doesn’t have to in order to truly make a difference in the world.
63.The refugee children most probably need______.
A.clean drinking water           B.a grass football patch
C.necessities of survival          D.a tent to sleep in
64.What can we learn about Mc Grady from the passage?
A.Basketball made him what he is today.
B.He is an NBA superstar as great as Kobe or Jordan.
C.He didn’t show his talent for basketball as a teenager.
D.He taught children to play football in a refugee camp.
65.What does the underlined part “scouts” in Paragraph 5 probably mean?
A.players.      B.fans.         C.audience.       D.hunters.
66.Mc Grady learned from his visit to Africa that______.
A.he needn’t improve his basketball skills to reach the heights of his seniors
B.sport gave him a chance and means everything to him
C.people in hunger can never understand the importance of sport
D.what’s truly meaningful can be a world of difference to different people