The 1____ picked up the thermos and poured some hot water into the tea-cup and placed it on the small table in front of his 2____, who were a father and daughter, and put the lid on the cup with a clink. Obviously 3_____ of something, he hurried into the inner room, leaving the 4 _____ on the table. His two guests heard a box of drawers opening and a rustling(飒飒地响).

They 5 _____ sitting in the living-room, the 10-year-old daughter, looking at the flowers outside the window. The father was just about to take his cup when the 6 ____ came, right there in the living room. Something was hopelessly broken.

It was the thermos, which had fallen to the floor. The girl looked 7 ____ her shoulder at once, startled(吓一跳), 8_____. It was 9 _____.Neither of them had touched it, not even a little bit. The sound caused the host to rush back from the inner room. He looked at the 10_____ floor and blurted out（脱口而出）, “It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter!”

The father started to say something. Then he muttered（嘀咕）, “ Sorry, I 11_____ it and it fell.”

“It doesn’t matter,” the host said.

Later, when they left the house the daughter said, “Daddy, I saw your 12 ____ in the windowpane(玻璃窗). You were sitting perfectly13____. Why did you say…?”

The father 14____, “What then would you 15____ as the cause of its fall?”

“It fell by itself. The floor is uneven(不平). It wasn’t steady when Mr Li put it there.”

“It won’t 16_____, girl. It sounds more 17_____ when I say I knocked it down. There are things people accept less the more you 18_____them. The truer your story is, the less true it sounds.”

The daughter was 19_____ in silence for a while. Then she said, “Can you 20____ it only this way?”

“Only this way,” the father said.

A.owner          B. host          C. guest         D. master

A.friends         B. neighbors     C. children       D. guests

A.knowing        B. remembering  C. hearing        D. thinking

A.thermos        B. cup          C. lid           D. tea

A.enjoyed         B. remained     C. imagined      D. hated

A.stranger        B. host          C. crash         D. noise

A.around         B. at           C. behind         D. over

A.staring          B. watching     C. shouting        D. crying

A.helpless         B. exciting      C. strange         D. terrible

A.broken         B. streaming    C. dirty           D. flooded

A.touched        B. used         C. hit            D. moved

A.faced          B. shadow       C. reflection      D. action

A.calm          B. still          C. silent          D. straight

A.shouted        B. murmured     C. laughed       D. repeated

A. tell           B. make         C. accept         D. give

A.do            B. help          C. go            D. fit

A.comfortable    B. friendly       C. acceptable      D. agreeable

A.defend        B. support        C. discuss         D. argue

A.kept          B. shut           C. worried         D. lost

A.do            B. explain        C. make           D. manage

It was 4 o'clock in the morning when I received the phone call．
“This is the emergency room calling and your son was just  41 in with severe burns on his face，neck and arms．We have called for a（n）  42  and are going to fly him to the burn unit in Seattle．” Seattle was 350 miles from his college，so we knew immediately this was  43 ．
The doctor described the  44 ，which caused the burns．At 6 am，our son and his friends decided to barbecue hamburgers in the courtyard of their apartment．When they   45  the charcoal（木炭），it burst into flames because they had sprayed too much gasoline（petrol）．The flames  46 my son’s shirt tail and shot from his waist to well over his head．
  47 ，one of the boys was quick-minded，grasped my son，and  48 him on the grass．While it saved his life，it was not in  49  to save him from severe burns and the terrible scars（伤疤）．
After he  50 from the treatments，the doctors told him they would not do plastic surgery（整容）for 6 months  51 it takes that long for the skin to stop shrinking and wrinkling．So，he had to return to college with scars typical of severe burns．
When I was a child, my mother told my sister，who had a 10-inch, very  52__ scar on her arm，“Nancy，if you ignore the scar，other people will ignore it．It does not mean they will not  53 it，but it means it will not matter to them if it doesn’t matter to you．’’
I  54  this wisdom on to my son．He took my advice to  55 and returned to school with his head held high--glad he was alive．
By the end of the six-month waiting period，he decided that the scars did not  56 , so he made the  57 to give up any plastic surgery．
We all have “scars” that we believe  58 people to keep away from us．And we spend a lot of time thinking that if only we looked different，or dressed differently，people would like us better． 
But you see，people will only judge you by your looks，or your clothes，if you are judging yourself by these same  59 standards．Put your imperfections out of your mind and concentrate on what you value  60 yourself，and your beauty will shine through．

It was 4 o'clock in the morning when I received the phone call．
“This is the emergency room calling and your son was just  36 in with severe burns on his face，neck and arms．We have called for a（n）  37  and are going to fly him to the burn unit in Seattle．” Seattle was 350 miles from his college，so we knew immediately this was  38 ．
The doctor described the  39 ，which caused the burns．At 6 am，our son and his friends decided to barbecue hamburgers in the courtyard of their apartment．When they   40  the charcoal（木炭），it burst into flames because they had sprayed too much gasoline（petrol）．The flames  41 my son’s shirt tail and shot from his waist to well over his head．
  42 ，one of the boys was quick-minded，grasped my son，and  43 him on the grass．While it saved his life，it was not in  44  to save him from severe burns and the terrible scars（伤疤）．
After he  45 from the treatments，the doctors told him they would not do plastic surgery（整容）for 6 months  46 it takes that long for the skin to stop shrinking and wrinkling．So，he had to return to college with scars typical of severe burns．
When I was a child, my mother told my sister，who had a 10-inch, very 47__ scar on her arm，“Nancy，if you ignore the scar，other people will ignore it．It does not mean they will not  48 it，but it means it will not matter to them if it doesn’t matter to you．’’
I  49 this wisdom on to my son．He took my advice to 50 and returned to school with his head held high--glad he was alive．
By the end of the six-month waiting period，he decided that the scars did not  51 , sohe made the  52 to give up any plastic surgery．
We all have “scars” that we believe  53 people to keep away from us．And we spend a lot of time thinking that if only we looked different，or dressed differently，people would like us better． 
But you see，people will only judge you by your looks，or your clothes，if you are judging yourself by these same  54 standards．Put your imperfections out of your mind and concentrate on what you value  55 yourself，and your beauty will shine through．

Beijing, June 10 (Xinhua) --- Torrential (倾泻的) rains that troubled southern China for days have killed 66 people and resulted in 12 missing by 6:00 p.m. (Beijing time) on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. “Floods caused by heavy rains have affected about 294,800 hectares of crops, completely destroying 53,000 hectares of them,” said an official with the ministry. The floods have torn down 48,000 and damaged 94,000 houses in southern China, and forced about 591,000 people to move from their homes, the official said.
From Wednesday to Saturday, continuous torrential rains, mudslides and floods hit Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Fujian, affecting more than 8.97 million people. The disasters have caused an overall economic loss of more than 2.9 billion yuan, according to the ministry. The ministry has sent rescue teams to the disaster areas to assist relief work. In Guangdong, heavy rains have killed 18 people and left four missing by 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, according to local authorities. A total of 1.72 million people were affected in the province.
Floods have damaged 49 roads in the seriously affected Meizhou City, of which 29 remained closed to traffic by 7:00 p.m. The number of people who died in floods in Guangxi has reached 13 and one remained missing by Sunday, according to local civil affairs authority. More than 1.97 million people have been affected after the floods caused by continuous heavy rains hit some 40 counties since Wednesday.
According to the local civil affairs bureau, 9,200 houses were knocked down and 75,181 hectares of crops were affected, resulting in 529 million yuan in direct economic losses. There are fewer rainstorms and the rain belt is moving out of Guangxi, but the water levels in major rivers will keep rising in next few days, according to the latest forecast of the region’s meteorological bureau on Sunday afternoon.
【小题1】 The underlined phrase “torn down” (para. 1) is closest in meaning to _______.

A．Hubei is one of the provinces struck by the torrential rains.

B．The floods have caused a total loss of nearly 3 billion yuan.

C．13 people died in Guangdong province as a result of the floods.

D．The rain belt will remain in Guangxi in the next few days.

A. concentrated     B. possible      C. revised       D. applications     E. figures    F. connect         G. benefits       H. global        I. associate        J. tops

More than two million people in Europe now have fiber broadband（光纤宽带）direct to their home, suggests a survey. The latest    1.   on superfast broadband delivered by fiber to the home (FTTH) show 18% growth over the last survey compiled in late 2008.

The continued growth suggests that the    2.    economic decline has not hit plans to build fiber networks. Sweden    3.   the list of nations applying the technology, with 10.9% of its broadband customers using fiber. Karel Helsen, president of Europe’s Fiber-To-The-Home Council, said the growth matched predictions that were    4.    when the credit crisis started to make itself felt. “The numbers in 2009 are in line with the latest forecasts,” said Mr. Helsen.

By 2013, the FTTH Council expects that 13 million people across 35 European nations will have their broadband delivered by fiber. Such services would start at a speed of 100 megabits per second (mbps), said Mr. Helsen. Around Europe more than 233 projects were underway to lay the fibers that would    5.   homes or buildings to the net, said Mr. Helsen. Many of those, he said, were being operated by local governments or smaller net firms. Local governments were interested in FTTH because of the economic and social    6.    it brought in its wake, said Mr. Helsen.

The low delay in high-speed fiber networks made    7.    new uses of broadband, he said. “No delay is very important,” he said, “specifically if you talk about   8.   that are time-dependent such as personal communications, conference calls or video calls where delays cause a lot of trouble.” While early FTTH services were    9.    in cities, said Mr. Helsen, many more were reaching out to rural areas for e-health and e-learning projects.