Lifeguard, sportscaster, movie star, governor, president——there wasn’t much Ronald Reagan didn’t do in life.

    “The world was a vast opportunity for him,” Lou Cannon wrote in his biography（传记） of the former US president, who died on June 5，2004， aged 93.

    Reagan’s final years saw him fight a losing battle against Alzheimer’s disease（老年痴呆症）. But his positive attitude toward life has given hope to many people.

    Born in 1911 to a poor family in a small town in Illinois, his father was a failed salesman who drank too much. It was in these difficult times, though, that Reagan developed the powerful optimism（乐观） that would serve him so well. He always believed better times lying ahead, and this was reflected in his high school yearbook entry. “Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music,” he wrote.

    As a teenager, Reagan spent summers working as a lifeguard at a local beach, saving 77 lives in seven years. He graduated from college in 1932 with a degree in economics and sociology. But America was still in the middle of the Great Depression, and jobs were hard to find. Reagan finally found work as a radio sports announcer and this road led him to Hollywood in 1937.

    During the 20---year film career, he never became a leading star. As in his lifeguard days, Reagan loved to play the hero and only took the role of a bad guy once in more than 50 films.

    A talented speaker who was always able to connect with his audience, Reagan became involved in politics in the 1950s. This popular touch led to him being elected the governor of California in 1967.

    All the while Reagan was in California, he had his eye on the White House. In 1980, aged 69, he became the oldest man ever elected president.

    He held office from 1981 to 1989, the first president to serve two complete terms after World War Ⅱ. When he left, aged 77, he held the highest popularity rate of any retiring president in US history.

    He remained positive even when he discovered he had an illness that would destroy him. “I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal（永恒的optimism(乐观) for its future,”he wrote.

1.Reagan can be best described as a man with ______.

A. firmness  B. humour   C. optimism  D. talent

2.What didn’t Reagan do in his life time?

A. Playing the role of a bad guy.

B. Being a leading star of the film.

C. Saving people’s lives.

D. Working as a radio sports announcer.

3.Which is the correct order of events described in the passage?

a. Reagan fought a losing battle against Alzheimer’s disease.

b. Reagan became an actor.

c. Reagan worked as a lifeguard.

d. Reagan graduated from college.

e. Reagan was elected the governor of California.

A. a, c, d, e ,b           B. e, c, d, b, a

C. b, a, c, d, e           D. c, d, b, e, a

4.When the writer of Reagan’s biography says “The world was a vast opportunity for him,” he really means that _______.

A. Reagan achieved much in his whole life

B. Reagan could have done much better

C. Reagan did much for America and the world

D. Reagan was a very lucky man

---He was nearly drowned in a pool.  

---Oh, when was ___ exactly?

  --- It was in 1983 ____ he was swimming with his friends.

A. this; that           B. that; when         C. that; that          D. what; when

 — Where did you meet your middle school teacher?

— It was in the supermarket ______ I was doing some shopping with my son.

A. that                                  B. where                    C. when                               D. which

Though it was in the midnight, ________ there were a lot of people in the street.

A. and        B. but       C. yet        D. however

Even people who don’t understand English can enjoy Chaplin’s films because they are mostly silent. It isn’t what he says that makes us laugh. It depends upon actions which mean the same thing to people all over the world. He is master of the art – a kind of world language.
As a young man, he and his brother traveled to America in a small company of actors. Chaplin was then invited to join a new company that was making film comedies. Very soon he had made dozens of short films for this company. And it was in his second film that he wore the clothes which made his reputation – black hat, tight coat, baggy trousers, huge shoes, moustache and walking stick. He intended simply to make people laugh. But the odd make-up made him look both comic and sad.
By the time he was thirty, Chaplin was the greatest, best known and best loved comedian in the world. He received thousands of dollars for each film he made. He had formed his own manner of acting. He was welcomed by excited crowds wherever he went. But he worked very hard and had few close friends. Perhaps that is why the sad side of the little tramp began to show more clearly in the films he made. The little man began to want more than food and a roof over his head. He began to want love.
In one of his most famous films “The Gold Rush” a girl plays tricks on the little man. Then she begins to feel sorry for him and treats him kindly. He mistakes her pity for love. The girl in “City Lights” is blind. She thinks he is the most wonderful man she has ever met. But then she recovers her sight and sees what a foolish figure he is. This sadness gives Chaplin’s films a depth of human experience which few comedians can equal.
After living in America for forty years he moved to Switzerland. There he died on Christmas Day 1977. He once described himself as a citizen of famous pictures that were made during the 1920s and 1930s, the time of the silent films. But, to many people all over the world Chaplin will always be the king of comedy.
【小题1】What’s the meaning of the underlined word in the first paragraph?