A few months ago, I was picking up the children at school. Emily, another mother that I knew well, rushed up to me. She was full of __41__.
“Do you know __42__ you and I are?” she asked. __43__ I could answer, she gave out the reason for her question. She had just returned from renewing her driver’s license at a government office. The woman __44__ desk asked her what her “occupation” was. Emily hesitated, __45__ how to answer it. “What I mean is,” explained the woman, “do you have a job, or are you just a ...?”“Of course I have a job,” answered Emily. “I’m a (an) __46__.”“We don’t __47__ ‘mother’ as an occupation ... ‘housewife’ covers it,” she said.
I forgot all about her story __48__ one day I found myself in the same situation. This time it was at our own Town Hall. The clerk was a woman.
“And what is your occupation?” she asked. What __49__ me say it, I do not know. The words simply jumped out. “I’m ... a (an) ___50___ in the field of Child Development and Human Relations.”
The clerk stopped, her ball-point pen ___51__ in mid-air. She looked up __52__ she had not heard right. I repeated the title slowly.
“Might I ask,” said the clerk with new interest, “just what you do in your ___53__?” Coolly, I heard myself ___54__, “I have a continuing program of research in the
laboratory and in the field. I’m working for my masters (the whole family) and already have __55__ credits (令人增光的人或事物) (all daughters). I often work 14 hours a day (24 is more like it). The job is more challenging than most jobs and the __56__ are in satisfaction rather than just money.”
There was an increasing note of __57__ in the clerk’s voice as she __58__ in the form. As I drove into our driveway(私家车道), I was __59__ by my lab assistants — ages 13, 7, and 3. Inside the house I could hear our new experimental model (six months) in the child-development program.
I felt successful. Motherhood...what a great __60__.

A lot of children are used to ______ their time ______ up by their parents and they simply  don’t know ______ with their spare time themselves.

A few months ago, I was picking up the children at school. Emily, another mother that I knew well, rushed up to me. She was full of __41__.

“Do you know __42__ you and I are?” she asked. __43__ I could answer, she gave out the reason for her question. She had just returned from renewing her driver’s license at a government office. The woman __44__ desk asked her what her “occupation” was. Emily hesitated, __45__ how to answer it. “What I mean is,” explained the woman, “do you have a job, or are you just a ...?” “Of course I have a job,” answered Emily. “I’m a (an) __46__.” “We don’t __47__ ‘mother’ as an occupation ... ‘housewife’ covers it,” she said.

I forgot all about her story __48__ one day I found myself in the same situation. This time it was at our own Town Hall. The clerk was a woman.

“And what is your occupation?” she asked. What __49__ me say it, I do not know. The words simply jumped out. “I’m ... a (an) ___50___ in the field of Child Development and Human Relations.”

The clerk stopped, her ball-point pen ___51__ in mid-air. She looked up __52__ she had not heard right. I repeated the title slowly.

“Might I ask,” said the clerk with new interest, “just what you do in your ___53__?” Coolly, I heard myself ___54__, “I have a continuing program of research in the

laboratory and in the field. I’m working for my masters (the whole family) and already have __55__ credits (令人增光的人或事物) (all daughters). I often work 14 hours a day (24 is more like it). The job is more challenging than most jobs and the __56__ are in satisfaction rather than just money.”

There was an increasing note of __57__ in the clerk’s voice as she __58__ in the form. As I drove into our driveway(私家车道), I was __59__ by my lab assistants — ages 13, 7, and 3. Inside the house I could hear our new experimental model (six months) in the child-development program.

I felt successful. Motherhood...what a great __60__.

1. A. surprise          B. anxiety          C. anger            D. excitement

2. A. who               B. what             C. how          D. why

3. A. When              B. As               C. Before           D. Since

4. A. at                B. after                C. by           D. around

5.A. nervous            B. sure             C. anxious      D. uncertain

6.A. mother         B. worker               C. teacher      D. doctor

7. A. think             B. list             C. expect           D. give

8. A. since             B. unless               C. until            D. when

9.  A. got              B. caused               C. permit       D. made

10. A. researcher           B. manager          C. expert           D. scholar

11. A. dropped          B. floated              C. frozen           D. broke

12. A. so that          B. even though      C. as though        D. because of

13.A. family            B. subject              C. study            D. field

14. A. words                B. reply                C. shout            D. whisper

15. A. two              B. three                C. four         D. five

16. A. rewards          B. awards               C. profits          D. benefits

17. A. interest         B. respect              C. doubt            D fear

18.A. explained         B. passed               C. completed        D. filled

19.A. accepted          B. greeted          C. recognized       D. refused

20. A. person           B. award                C. career           D. business

One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift . Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap(包装).
On September 11^th ，1958，Mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my lap, saying, “I promised you a gift , and here it is.” What an honor！I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told it stories .I told it over and over how much I loved it!
One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it. Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing bad been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days I Heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as “hopeless”, “pitiful”, and “dying”, which sounded ominous.
Christmas was coming. “Don’t expect any presents this year,” Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room. “If your baby brother lives, that’ll be Christmas enough.” As he spoke, his eyes filled with tears. I’d never seen him cry before .
The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say, “What? He’s all right?” He hung up and shouted upstairs. “The hospital said we can bring Richard home !”
“Thank God !” I heard Mum cry .
From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them so happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I ran downstairs. My socks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty; they were filled with love!
【小题1】what happened to the author on September 11^th , 1958?

Playing with toy blocks (积木) may lead to improved language development in young children, a new study reported.
Early childhood is an important period in the development of young minds. The newborn brain grows three times in size between birth and age 2. Scientists have said that certain activities during this important period may promote (促进) healthy development while others may hold it back, and development of memory and language may especially be helped by imaginative play.
After six months, language scores among half of the 175 children aged 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 who were sent plastic blocks were 15 percent higher than a matched group that did not receive the free blocks, according to the study by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Parents were given ideas about how to help their children play with the blocks, then were told to keep diaries of their children’s activities over four days. Finally, all the parents filled out questionnaires that judged their children’s vocabulary, grammar, and other language abilities. Study author Dimitri Christakis said unstructured play with blocks motivated children’s thinking, memory and physical skills at a time when a child’s brain is growing rapidly. “They are the foundation of thought and language,” he wrote of the skills learned from building blocks. “Older children begin to make up stories for these objects .”
Such play may also take the place of less helpful activities such as watching TV, he said, adding parents ought to have doubts about some toy-makers’ words. “An increasing number of media-based products are making ungrounded (无根据的) claims that they can make children smarter, more literate, and more musical,” Christakis said.
【小题1】What can we learn from the second paragraph?