The first time I saw Carlos I would never have believed he was going to change my life．I had my arms full of books and I was rushing into the classroom when 1 ran into something solid. It was Carlos.

"My... you're tall," he said. The whole class burst out laughing .

“Take that seat,” Mr. McCarthy told the cocky(骄傲自大的) newcomer Carlos，pointing to the only empty one , in the back of the room.

Carlos laughed widely. "But I need a couple of dictionaries."

The bell rang for classes. As I stood up to go, I saw Carlos coming toward me. "I'm sorry I embarrassed you," he said . I looked straight ahead over the top of his black hair. "That's all right."

"I ought to know better." He was still blocking my way. "What's your name?" "Karen Forbes." He held out his hand. Unwillingly, I shook hands with him. He looked up at me seriously with his brown eyes. " I am Carlos . I don't see why you're so touchy."

It was the school elections that made me think of Carlos again. Carlos was voted vice-president．“How come ?”I kept asking myself, "How come this shrimp（虾）who’s only been in town for a little over a month gets to be so popular?"

So on that morning，I stopped Carlos and said，“It doesn't seem to bother you — being short.” He looked up at me, "Of course I mind being short．But there isn’t anything I can do about it. When I realized I was going to have to spend my life in this undersized skin, I just decided to make the best of it and concentrate on being myself." "You seem to get along great,” I admitted, "But what about me? The trouble with you is you’re afraid to be yourself. You’re smart. And you could be pretty. In fact, you might be more than pretty.” I felt myself turning red…

1.It is a story about a short boy who            .

2.From the text, we can see Carlos is          .

3.The underlined word "touchy" in paragraph 8 probably means          .

4.According to the text, which is the most likely ending?

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分40分）

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

The Pillow

At the age of sixteen, I joined a volunteer group with my dad. I went on my first volunteer project in West Virginia. On the night we arrived, we discovered that “our family” was living in a trailer(拖车) that was in poor condition. A crew had been working on it for two weeks, but every time they finished one problem, another surfaced.

We decided the only reasonable solution was to build a new house – something unusual but necessary under these circumstances. The family was overjoyed with their new house that was twenty by thirty feet with three bedrooms, a bath and a kitchen.

On Tuesday of that week, while we ate lunch together, I asked the family’s three boys, Josh, Eric and Ryan, "What do you want for your new room?" Expecting toys and other gadgets that children usually ask for, we were surprised when Josh responded, "I just want a bed."

The boys had never slept in a bed! They were accustomed to plastic mats. That night we had a meeting and decided that beds would be the perfect gift. On Thursday night, a few adults in our group drove to the nearest city and bought beds and new bedding.

When we saw the delivery truck coming, we told the family about the surprise. We could hardly contain ourselves. It was like watching excited children on Christmas morning.

That afternoon, as we fitted the frames of the beds tog tether, Eric ran into the house to watch us. Too dirty to enter his room, he observed with wide-eyed enthusiasm from the doorway.

As my father slipped a pillowcase onto one of the pillows, Eric asked, "What is that?"

    "A pillow," she replied.

    "What do you do with it?" Eric continued to ask.

    "When you go to sleep, you put your head on it,” I answered softly. Tears came to our eyes as she handed Eric the pillow.

    "Oh . . . that's soft," he said, hugging it tightly.

Now, when my sister or I start to ask for something that seems urgent, my Dad gently asks, "Do you have a pillow?"

We know exactly what he means.

1．The writer’s first volunteer project was         .

        A．working on a poor trailer  B．helping a poor family

         C．donating beds and bedding       D．dealing with a housing problem

2．On bearing Josh’s answer, the writer was shocked because         .

         A．the family lived in a trailer         B．he expected to get some toys

         C．he didn’t know what a bed was         D．the boys had no bed to sleep in

3．From the passage, we can learn that Eric had never seen       before.

         A．a trailer      B．a truck        C．a pillow      D．a house

4．By saying “Do you have a pillow?”, the writer’s father means that        .

        A．what they want to get may be unnecessary

         B．they should not waste money on small things

         C．they should do more volunteer work for the poor

D．what he will buy is not what they want but a pillow

I was painfully shy as a child. In high school I would avoid participating in class discussions. I was too afraid to talk to anyone but my closest friends~ I would think about being less shy, wanting the courage not only to ask a girl out, but to speak up in class and say what I was thinking. Yet, it never happened. Fears showed themselves in such self-conscious questions as, " What will other people think?  What if she says no?" I felt a dark presence in my mind holding me back.

This shyness continued into college. One day, the question occurred to me: Is life shy?

The thought surprised me ! Think of the leaves bursting out in the spring time, the bird singing at dawn, the sheer number of different forms of life, all expressing the wideness and scope of divine life. There's nothing shy about it. Life is everywhere and attention-grabbing (引人注意的). So, if my creator isn't shy about all the life that needs expressing, I don't need to be either.

I realized that if I wanted to overcome fear and shyness, I would have to put this law of life into practice~ Shyness, fear, and loneliness were hindering me from living my life as life: God wanted me to live it. Therefore, I decided to live how life saw me.

One example: I wrote a note to a girl, asking her out on a date. Even as I was writing it, the fears of disaffirmation and unworthiness came to me. This time however, instead of shrinking back and hiding from the fear, I put the note in the campus mail in spite of myself. I thought: whether she says yes or no, it's still right for me not to be shy. I can live with the confidence sent from the source of my life. The girl saw me in class the next day and told me that she would love to go out with me. I should not have been so surprised!

Bit by bit, I was proving that the limited view of myself no longer had control over me.  After college, I worked as a newspaper reporter, earned an advanced degree in theater, became a productive writer (a lifelong dream), met a special woman whom I married, and even got a job teaching at a university.

1.The writer was shy as a child because of______.

A．awareness that life is shy

B．lack of courage to speak out in public

C．fear of others' attitude and reaction

D．failure in his participation in class discussion

2."The law" in Paragraph 4 refers to the fact that______.

A．life is attention-grabbing and divine

B．God treats everything and everyone fairly

C．everything in nature is in the favour of God

D．the creator of life which needs expressing isn't shy

3.It can be learnt from Paragraph 5 that the writer______.

A．didn't hesitate before sending the note

B．wouldn't regret sending the note despite the result

C．was not surprised when the girl agreed to go out

D．believed in God and felt encouraged by the wideness of life

4.The underlined word "disaffirmation" in Paragraph 5 probably means______.

A．rejection          B．laughter           C．regret            D．horror

5.The purpose of writing the text is to______.

A．blame those who are shy and unconfident

B．persuade people to have confidence in their career

C．share the personal experience with the readers

D．prove that the overcome of shyness helps achieve success

Two sons worked for their father on the family farm. For some years, the 16 brother had been given more 17 to do than the older one. The older brother couldn’t 18 why, so one day he asked his father the 19 why he always trusted (信任) his younger brother to do more work.

The father said, "Go to the Kelly’s 20 nearby and see if they have any 21 to sell."

The older brother soon 22 with the answer, "Yes, they have five ducks they can 23 to us."

That father then said, "Good, now please ask them the 24 for the ducks."

The son returned, "The ducks are ￡10 each."

The father asked, "25 can they deliver (交付) the ducks?"

The son returned, "They can deliver the ducks tomorrow."

The father asked the older brother to 26 and watch. He then said to the younger brother, "Go to the Davidson’s Farm and see if they have any ducks for sale."

The younger brother soon returned with the 27 , "Yes, they have 28 ducks for ￡10 each, 29 ten ducks for ￡8 each; and they can 30 them tomorrow —I asked them to deliver the five ducks 31 I told them not to in the next hour. We agreed that if I wanted the 32 five ducks I could buy them at ￡6 each."

The father 33 the older son, who nodded his head. He now 34 why his brother was given more work. His younger brother was actually 35 at it than he was.

One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river. When he began crying, God appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying?"

The woodcutter told him that he had dropped his axe into water. God went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe.

"Is this your axe?" God asked.

The woodcutter said "No."

God again went down and came up with a silver axe." Is this your axe?" God asked.

The woodcutter said "No."

God again went down and came up with a iron axe." Is this your axe?" God asked.

The woodcutter said "Yes."

God was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all the three axes.

The woodcutter went home happily. One day while he was walking with his wife along the river, his wife fell into the river. W hen he began crying, God appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying?"

"My wife has fallen into water."

God went down into the water and came up with Jennifer Lopez.

"Is this your wife?" God asked him.

 "Yes." he said.

God was furious(狂怒的),"YOU CHEAT !Now I am going to curse you."

The woodcutter quickly said, “Forgive me my lord. It is a misunderstanding. IF I say 'No' to Jennifer Lopez, you will come up with Catherine Zeta Jones, If I also say 'No' to her, you will finally come up

With my wife and I will say, 'Yes.' Then you will give all the three to me .I am a poor man .I will not be able to look after all the three. So that's why I've to say 'Yes' "

1.Which of the following best describes the author's tone in telling the story?

A. Optimistic    B. Humoristic   C. Objective   D. Critical

2.The impression that the woodcutter makes on you is that he is -----

A. foolish but honest           B. foolish and honest

C. smart but honest            D. smart and honest

3.What can you infer about Jennifer Lopez and Catherine Zeta Jones?

A. They are the secret lovers of the woodcutter

B. They look much like the woodcutter's wife.

C. They are both rich women with a lot of gold and silver.

D. They are both popular with women, much worthy than his wife