Last night, when I was driving back home, I noticed a hitchhiker(搭便车的人) who was having no luck getting a ride. I rolled down my__ 21  and signed to the man to my car. I asked him where he was   22   and he told me he needed a    23   to his doctor’s office which would close in 15 minutes. I told him to   24   and he gratefully did so.

25   he got in he told me that he was a   26   and went out to sea for weeks at a time. He took medicine for his nerves and  27   to get another prescription(处方) before he left on the boat. He said that he had prayed (祈祷) 28   would stop for him so he could be there before the   29   office closed. With some 30   driving we managed to make it there in about 10   31 . I then asked him how he   32   on getting back home and he said he could walk. “I’ll patiently 33   for you and bring you back,” I told him. He 34   me and said he should only be about 15 minutes.

Afterwards he got back in my   35  and tried his hardest to pay me back: offering me dinner, gas money, even offering to ship me 40 lbs of scallops (海扇贝)! I  36  refused, gave him a smile card and asked him to help someone else the next time he had a  37 . I drove him back to where I had picked him up and  38   one more “thank you” he was on his way.

I feel that the world  39  offers us what we need. In the man’s  40   it was a ride, in mine the chance to help someone else.

One topic is rarely mentioned in all the talk of improving standards in our schools: the almost complete failure of foreign-language teaching. As a French graduate who has taught for more than twenty-five years, I have some ___1_____ of why the failure is so total.  2  the faults already found out in the education system as a whole, there have been several serious  3  which have a direct effect on language teaching.

The first is the removal from the curriculum (课程) of the thorough teaching of English  4?????? . Pupils now do not know a verb from a noun or the subject of a sentence from its object.

Another important error is mixed-ability teaching, or teaching in ability groups so  5  that the most able groups are  6  and are bored while the least able are lost and  7  bored.

Progress depends on memory, and pupils start to forget immediately they stop having 8  lessons. This is why many people who attended French lessons at school have forgotten it a few years later.

Most American schools have accepted what is necessary and  9  modern languages, even Spanish, from the curriculum. Perhaps it is time for Britain to do the same, and stop 10  resources on a subject which few pupils want or need.

A. questions   B. evidences     C. ideas          D. knowledges

A. Due to      B. In addition to        C. Instead of        D. In spite of

A. errors       B. situations             C. systems               D. methods

A. vocabulary   B. culture          C. grammar             D. sentences

A. wide        B. similar                C. separate               D. unique

A. kept out    B. turned down        C. held back            D. left behind

A. surprisingl   B. individually     C. equally              D. hardly

A. extra          B. traditional          C. basic                   D. regular

A. restored      B. absorbed            C. prohibited           D. remove

A. wasting      B. focusing          C. exploiting            D. sharing