My husband Sid and I were never able to have children. I had always wanted a family and that feeling  36  after his death. He was all I had. When he  37 , I felt like I had lost my entire family. I never  38  I would finally get the family I had always wished for. A few years later I met Tom. When we married, I  39  got four grown children and eight grandchildren.

I was  40  about my first meeting with his children. My worries melted away when I realized that they  41  me and were more than willing to bring me into their family. And when his daughters  42  me if their children could call me “Mimi,” I was excited, Tom was divorced, and  43  I was also concerned about the  44  that the children already had two grandmothers. Would the little ones understand  45  I fit into the family？

At our first extended family gathering, I  46  our six-year-old grandson Jim staring at me with a  47  look. He seemed to be thinking about something serious.  48  sporting a big grin(咧嘴笑)，he jumped and said, “I know who you are! You are our  49  grandma!” At that moment, I know it was time to just relax and enjoy my new  50 .

People say when a door close, God opens a window. Now I know what that  51 . I lost so much joy when Sid died,  52  now I have a new happy life. I am enjoying so many things I  53  got to experience before like reading bedtime stories. My refrigerator is covered with drawings, and my walls are  54  with photos of the kids. I may be an instant “extra” grandma in Jim’s eyes, but I am just as  55  any other “regular” grandma I know.

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’d 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 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 Pare.4, we can infer that Dr. Gibbs’moto（座右铭）may be_____

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

     C. ”Practice makes perfect”     D. “No pains, no gains”

.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 the passage?

   A. A Nice Doctor                      B. The Deep Roots  

C. Adversity and Suffering              D. My Childhood Memory

短文改错（共10小；每小题1分；满分10分）
此题要求改正所给短文中的错误。对标有题号的每一行作出判断：如无错误，在该行右边的横线上画一个勾(√)；如有错误(每行只有一个错误)，则按下列情况改正：
该行多一个词：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉，在该行右边横线上写出该词，并也用斜线(＼)划掉。
该行缺一个词：在缺词处加一个漏词符号(∧)，在该行右边横线上写出该加的词。
该行错一个词：在错的词下划一横线，在该行右边横线上写出改正后的词。
原行没有错的不要改。?
注意：本题所有的标记和答案都写在答题纸上。
Today I was having a PE lesson while I fell down and hurted my foot. I was in great pain at that moment, but I tried to act as if nothing happened until the class was over. Though I had difficulty walk back to my classroom, but I still didn’t tell anyone and even refused the offer of help from my classmates. As the result, the hurt on my foot became worse. Now I know I am wrong. We can tell others our need for help and accept their help. Someday we can help him in return. In this way, we can get along each other happily and peacefully.

Now I know that we black people are much more likely to have high blood pressure and diabetes(糖尿病) than white people. And they often lead to heart attacks and other untreated diseases. For example, black people are three to four times more likely than white people to have high blood pressure and twice as likely as the white population to die of a stroke(中风).

New research has found out the surprisingly high levels of salt in many of black people’s favorite meals. I stopped putting extra salt in my food at the table long ago and I try to cut down on the salt I use in cooking. The recommended daily level of salt for adults is 6 grams. It is easy to see that if you avoid processed(加工过的) foods and use salt in your cooking within the limit, you won’t exceed the daily level.

The research showed how much salt there is in some foods that we buy from restaurants and takeaways. An average salad with rice and peas has 6.2 grams of salt. This is more salt than you are supposed to eat for the whole day.

A researcher talked about the importance of home cooking rather than take-outs. At home, he pointed out, not only can you hold control of the salt shaker, but also you can create tasty food which is low on salt. The researcher later provided curry goat and rice and peas. They were low on salt, but completely delicious.

I do not suppose Jamaicans are going to stop buying takeaways soon. But if you suffer from high blood pressure, it is probably better not to buy them often.

1.The underlined word “they” in Paragraph 1 refers to ______.

A．white people                          B．black people

C．untreated diseases                      D．high blood pressure and diabetes

2.What has the new research found out according to Paragraph 2?

A．Black people take in too much salt.

B．Black people’s meals are very special.

C．Processed foods have too much salt in them.

D．6 grams of salt per day is enough for an adult.

3.What would the writer probably suggest black people do?

A．Order no salad in a restaurant.             B．Take in no salt for several days.

C．Stop cooking their favorite meals.           D．Eat less takeaways.

4.The researcher provided curry goat and rice and peas in order to ______.

A．thank those who came to his home for his research

B．let people know that eating less salt makes one healthier

C．show that tasty food with less salt can be made at home

D．prove the less salt the food has the more delicious it is

5.What would be the best title for this passage?

A．Watch the salt.                         B．Take care, black people.

C．Say no to takeaways.                     D．Say no to high blood pressure.

I was sitting in the surgical waiting area at the hospital waiting for word of my wife's operation. The small room was filled with other families and friends, who were ___36___ waiting to hear how their loved ones were doing.
There was a young boy sitting quietly in the ___37___ . He held a small box of ___38___ in one hand and a tablet(写字板) in the other. Every so often he'd place the tablet on his lap and draw something. As the hours passed I began to see the room almost ___39___ . And there was a strange silence.
"Daddy, when is Mommy going home?" the young boy asked, breaking the ___40___.
"Tomorrow." his father replied. The boy picked up his crayons and ___41___ something on the tablet.
I ___42___ him as he moved his feet back and forth, looking up at the ceiling and then toward the sunshine-filled window. "When's ___43___, Daddy?" he asked. His father ___44___ him over to sit by him. "Come, ___45___ here next to me," he said with a gentle tone in his voice.
___46___ his things, the little boy walked slowly to his father's side from the corner.The man ___47___ out and held his son by his shoulder.
"There are three days in life. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. One is over and done, one we live in, the other we ___48___ . We can't live in yesterday, but if we are happy enough today, we will be even happier tomorrow," he said in an attempt to ___49___ the boy.
The little boy looked at him for a moment and said, "If Mommy is going home tomorrow, I'll be ___50___. So, I want it to be tomorrow already, Daddy."
Now hanging on every word of this ___51___ , I leaned forward to hear his response. It was ___52___.
"Son, the one great thing about today is once it ___53___, it is already almost tomorrow."
I thought about how ___54___ it was. Even in my adult life, I still live waiting for what tomorrow may ___55___. Now I know that it is already "almost tomorrow".