I still remember the days when l was a youthful student in an engineering school．I lived a casual life，without caring about the future．I smoked，drank with friends and made girl friends．Little did I realize that casualness would certainly lead to loss．

    Two years had passed and l was staring down a report card that highlighted FAII in more than half the subjects．I didn’t care，at least not till my dad found out about it．You see．I studied in India and unlike the United States where the students are expected to finance their own education，my dad financed me．

    Then came the day when my dad found out my habit of smoking．He lost his temper but he just told me，“Son，your allowance is cut in half from this moment on”．It hit me like a roundhouse kick（回旋踢） from Bruce Lee．I was jolted（震摇）out of my bones！I couldn’t comprehend how to pay off the debts that I had accumulated in college．I owed everybody money：the grocery store，the bars．the restaurants，my friends，etc．I was living a life filled with credit．

    When I went back to college，I knew that if I don’t change the way I live my life I won’t be able to pay everybody off．So I decided to make some changes．drastic changes．I quit smoking，cut off from my friends who led me down the wrong road，starting hanging out in libraries and reading my engineering books．

    One year later，I went from a miserable failure to a magna curn laude（优等成绩）．Life was never the same again．This incident made me know that anything is possible if you take action and do something about it，however small or large．Even today it still motivates me when I feel that l’m about to lose or give up．It reminds me that I can do it！

1.The author wrote this text with the purpose of       ．

    A．introducing his university life to the teenage readers

    B．showing you can overcome any difficulty if you take action

    C．calling on the readers not to develop bad habits in college

    D．introducing his university life to the teenage readers

2.The author didn’t care about his study until      ．

    A．he was in heavy debt he couldn’t bear             B．he decided to give up smoking

    C．his allowance was cut in half   D．he entered the engineering school

3.The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means that the author      ．

    A．removed his bad habits and didn’t lead a casual life

    B．never hung out with his friends but studied all day

    C．began to live a happy life due to his good grades

    D．paid off his debt and life wasn’t hard for him any more

4.Which of the following statements is TRUE？

    A．The author did well in making good friends in the school．

    B．The author made great progress with the help of his friends．

    C．Students were encouraged to do part-time jobs in Indian schools．

    D．Students tended to earn money for college expenses in America．

I was being interviewed by a senior manager for a big company, I told him honestly that the principal reason that I was interviewing with them was my need to keep my family in Boston. My wife had recently died of a heart attack. A job in Boston would help me reduce some pain for my 16-year-old daughter and me. It was important to me to keep her present high school.
Bruce, the interviewer, was politely kind, but he didn’t search any further. He acknowledged(承认) my loss and, with great respect, moved on to another subject. After the next round of interviews, Bruce took me to lunch with another manager. Then he asked me to take a walk with him. He told me that he had lost his wife. And, like me, he had also been married 20 years and had 3 children. I realized that he had experienced the same pain as I had and it was almost impossible to explain to someone who had not lost a loved one. He offered his business card and home phone number and suggested that, should I need help or just want someone to talk to, I should feel free to give him a call. Whether I got the job or not, he wanted me to know that he was there if I ever needed help.
From that one act of kindness, when he had no idea if we could ever see each other again, he helped our family deal with one of life’s greatest losses. He turned the normally cold business interview process into an act of caring and supporting for another person in a time of extreme need.
【小题1】According to the passage, the interviewer, Bruce, was very _______.

One bitterly cold day, a snowstorm blew into our area. Needing firewood, I quickly set out with my best friend, Bruce, to look for a tree to cut down. I was glad to have Bruce along. Cutting down a tree in a snowstorm can be dangerous. So it was important to have a friend who could warn me of dangers.
When I chose a big 23-meter-tall tree and prepared to cut it down, my best friend suddenly warned me, “Don’t cut down that tree! It’s too close to the power line!” I wasn’t sure about it. So I decided to disregard his warning. I wanted to finish the job quickly and go home. So I began cutting down the tree. When the tree fell, there was no longer any doubt that my friend was right.
The tree caught the power line, bringing it to the ground. I considered cutting the tree off the line. After all, electricity can’t travel through wood, so I could safely remove the tree. As I reached out my finger to touch the tree, pain ran up my arm and through my head. I had been shocked!
After I returned home and told my mother what had happened, she quickly called the power company. Workers from the power company soon arrived on the scene. One of them asked if I had touched the tree, and when I told him I had, his face turned pale.
“You should have been killed,” he said.
So why am I still alive? It was my boots that saved my life.
Within two hours, the workers removed the tree. Soon the snowstorm calmed down—but not my mother.
Even though she was glad I wasn’t hurt, my mother was well serious with me. After all, I shouldn’t have brushed off my friend’s warning.
Through this experience, I learned that it’s important to listen to people who offer a different perspective(观点). Taking the time to listen might actually save a lot of time and trouble. It certainly would have kept me from getting the “shock of my life”.
【小题1】The underlined word “disregard ” in the second paragraph means “________”.

下面几个人分别就父亲对自己的影响表达了看法。阅读下面所给的五个选项（A、B、C、D、E），选出符合各自看法的最佳选项。选项中有一项是多余选项。

1.Kitty: Dad encouraged me to keep great determination to do anything.

2.Kelly: Dad gave me a new life which is full of love and happiness.

3.Aidan: Dad is the person who introduced me to my sports career (生涯).

4.Bruce: Dad taught me to share housework and take family responsibility.

A．Dear Daddy, you stepped into my life years ago, and became my dad, a man who raised three fatherless kids and adopted (收养) another. You did everything for us, and you managed to have taken care of Mom, who has been sick, and the grandkids as well. Lessons learned are love, and kindness. We love you dearly.

B．My dad taught me how to play basketball. Now I am a professional player at basketball. Although I sometimes didn’t play well, my dad always encouraged me not to lose heart. Now I have a dream of being able to play basketball on the Celtics. I love my dad!

C．The most important thing that my dad ever taught me was “Never do anything halfway”. He always told me to do my best to show my ability and character. “It shows what kind of person you are,” my dad would say. “People will remember and respect you for that.”

D．My dad has taught me love, hope, respect and the value of hard work. He has taught me never to be afraid; he has taught me the value of a job well done; he has taught me how to ride a bike, then to drive a car. He always tells me that he believes in me and that I can manage to deal with the things around me.

E. My dad and I have a funny company called “Priority”. He has taught me how to take care of the pool (Priority Pool), how to plan family birthday parties (Priority Parties), and how to clean the computer (Priority Computers). The list goes on. I’m proud of my dad and grateful for my time with him. We have a lot of fun doing daily housework together.

My husband Ollie had retired from teaching and we were making plans to travel together to Florida. Then he was terribly ill and became very weak, hardly able to speak. Weeks passed and it became clear that Ollie was near death, but I prayed day and night that he could get better.

One of us was always in Ollie’s hospital room—either me, or our grown children, Bruce and Karen. One day, in his broken and weak speech, Ollie told Bruce, “Go home. You should be with Gwen.” Gwen was Bruce’s wife. They had been married for six years and lived hundreds of miles away. Gwen was about to have a baby. We felt an extra sadness, knowing Ollie would never see his first grandchild.

“I don’t want to leave you, Dad,” Bruce said. Ollie repeated, “You should be with Gwen.” Reluctantly, Bruce left. “When the baby comes,” he promised Ollie, “you will be the first to know.” A few days later, around 2 p.m., Ollie awoke from a sleep. He turned and looked at me. I sat close to hear his weak words. “The baby is coming now. It’s a boy,” he said. For a moment his eyes were filled with tears. Then he went back to sleep again. Not long after that, Karen ran into the room. “Bruce called,” she said, a smile lighting her face. “Gwen gave birth to a healthy baby boy around two o’ clock.”

Ollie smiled; he had been the first to know. That night, Ollie died in his sleep.

1.Ollie didn’t travel to Florida because________.

2.Why did Ollie want Bruce to be with Gwen?

3.The underlined word in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to_______.

4.What can we learn from the passage ?