第二部分：阅读理解：（共15小题，每小题2分，满分30分）

阅读下面的短文，然后从A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

A

My father came to the United States as a Ukrainian immigrant （移民）when he was 14 years old. Unable to speak English but willing to do anything to succeed, he learned the language, and became a barber. He put his two daughters, my sister and me, through college during a time when most people thought that women didn’t need an education and that they should be satisfied by getting married and having children.

I was preparing to get married and my father was trying to practice the polka, a must at any Ukrainian wedding. But he couldn’t do it! He had lost the mobility（活动能力）in his leg and suffered a brain tumor（瘤）. He was forced to retire as a result of paralysis（瘫痪）of his right arm and leg. Dad had always worked two jobs and spent his spare time working around the house. Now his life came to a sudden stop. Yet never once did he complain. He bought rubber balls and spent his days trying to regain his hand mobility by squeezing those balls over and over.

After his second brain operation, he chatted pleasantly in the hospital room until a nurse flew into the room, waving her finger at me, and yelling, “You’d better tell your father to stay in bed. He is paralyzed and will never walk again. I am sick of picking him up and you’d better warn him to stay put!” My father smiled. He spent a great deal of time on the floor that year, but he eventually got up and walked.

My father lived nineteen more years after that second brain operation. He bought himself a motorized scooter（单脚滑行车）and spent years moving around the streets of Philadelphia. He was proud, free and always smiling.

56.In what way was the father different from most other people in his time?

A. He succeeded immigrating to the US.     

B. He learned the new language easily and quickly.

C. He achieved his life goal by working as a barber.   

D. He tried to offer his daughters the education chance.

57.   The underlined word “polka” in Paragraph 2 probably refers to ________.

A. a song     B. a dance         C. a rubber ball       D. a new language

58.   The author’s father played with rubber balls to ________.

A. kill his too much spare time     B. reduce his work pressure

C. get his hand mobility back       D. recover from the brain tumor

59.   What can we learn from the passage?

A. Love can create wonders.          B. Failure is the mother of success.

C. Father’s love is the most valuable.   D. Never give up your life and dream.

Sports News of the Week

Bolt gains 100m title again in Moscow

    Last updated: Monday, Aug-12-2013, 08:54

USAIN BOLT of Jamaica won the men's 100 meters final during the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Moscow on Sunday．

Usain Bolt was made to look human by a combination of a Russian rainstorm and a fired-up Justin Gatlin on Sunday but the Jamaican superstar was still good enough to regain his world 100 meters title in a surging 9．77 seconds．

With former world and Olympic champion and twice-banned doper Gatlin leading at halfway, Bolt was forced to race a rival, rather than the clock．

Jason Dufner wins PGA Championship

    Last Updated: Monday, August 12, 2013, 10:38

Jason Dufner won his first major title at the 95th PGA Championship, the top U．S． golf competition, seizing an early lead on Sunday at Oak Hill, Texas and holding on for victory despite a bogey-bogey finish．

The 36-year-old American, who squandered a four-shot lead with four holes to play in losing the 2011 PGA Championship, fired a final-round two-under par 68 to finish on 10-under par 270 for 72 holes．

     Isinbaeva leads harvest day for host Russia at Moscow worlds

    Last updated: Wednesday, August 14, 2013, 10:35

Russia's "pole vault queen" Elena Isinbaeva ignited the Luzhniki stadium as she claimed her third world title on the fourth day of the 2013 IAAF World

Championships here on Tuesday, which saw host Russia harvested two gold and one silver medals in seven finals.

    Ireland's Heffernan wins world walk title at 35 Last Updated: Wednesday, August 14,2013,15:15

Ireland's Robert Heffernan won the world championship 50km walk title on Wednesday as the 35-year-old finally tasted glory after 13 years of heartbreak and near-misses．

Heffernan, fourth in the 2012 Olympic 50km and fourth in both walks at last year's European championships, broke clear of Mikhail Ryzhov after 35km to deny Russia a clean sweep of the walks after they took gold in both 20km events earlier in the week．

1.When did Bolt regain the men's 100 meters final?

A． August 11．     B． August 12．       C． August 13．     D． August 14．

2.Where is the PGA held?

A． Jamaica．   B． Russia．     C． America．   D． Ireland．

3.______ won the world championship at last after trying hard for 13 years．

A． Jason     B． Bolt      C． Isinbaeva       D． Heffernan

Childhood was an illusion (错觉）and the illusion was this: everything was bigger. No, I mean everything, not just houses and shops and grown-ups, but colors and flowers and journeys, especially journeys which seemed endless. “Are we there yet, Daddy?”

Funfairs (游乐场） were huge things that spread for miles around you with noise and lights and exciting danger. Rainy days at home when you were ill seemed to last for ever. Being a grown-up yourself was an unthinkable distant possibility. Every sound was louder, every game was grander, every pain unbearable.

     As I’ve grown old, life has become smaller. Tastes have dulled. Surprises have turned into shocks. Days go by unnoticed. How can I regain childhood when it was an illusion?

     I have only one repeatable and wonderful way and even in this way I can regain only part of that larger world. I can play upon the stage like a child and make the crowd laugh and laugh with them, sometimes helplessly like a child, and then, even though I’m a sixty-one-year-old man, I can almost catch the colors and sounds and stillness of those bigger years when I was little.

1.How does the author feel about his childhood?

A. It was endless.                   B. It was unpleasant.

C. He is glad that it is over.         D. He misses it as a grown-up

2.The author thinks that everything was bigger in childhood because ________

A. children could not make proper judgments.

B. children were curious and eager about life

C. things appeared really big in children’s eyes

D. to grow up seemed so long for children

3.The world seems to have become smaller to the author because _______.

A. life is disappointing               B. time goes by too fast

C. he has had too many surprises      D. foods no longer taste delicious

4.The author enjoys playing on the stage so as to _______.

A. act like a child            B. live an unusual life

C. make the crowd laugh     D. regain his childhood

   Probably many of you know the idiom “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. But do you believe a tooth for an eye? That’s something a little bit different.
This strange exchange is neither a form of retribution(报应) nor an unexpected gift from the Tooth Fairy --- it’s actually a very generous gift from a young Irishman, Robert McNichol, 23, to his formerly blind father, 57-year-old Bob McNichol.
In 2005, Bob McNichol’s sight was destroyed in an accident when his eyes were doused(溅在……上面)with liquid aluminum(铝). Doctors predicted that he would never be able to see again.
But McNichol never liked to take no for an answer: when he heard about a unique operation called Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis, he knew he had to give it a shot, even though the success rate was a mere 65 percent.
In the technique, the eye socket(眼窝) is rebuilt and implanted(植入) with a human tooth and part of the jawbone, to provide support for an artificial cornea(角膜). Luckily for McNichol, Robert was willing to sacrifice one of his teeth to help his father regain his sight.
The technique isn’t simple: McNichol’s first stint on the operating table lasted ten hours, with a five hour follow-up session at a later date. But thanks to his son’s gift, he’s already seeing astonishing results.
“Now I have enough sight for me to get around and I can watch television. I have come out from complete darkness.” he told his friends.
【小题1】Bob McNichol lost his sight ____ .

   Probably many of you know the idiom “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. But do you believe a tooth for an eye? That’s something a little bit different.

This strange exchange is neither a form of retribution(报应) nor an unexpected gift from the Tooth Fairy --- it’s actually a very generous gift from a young Irishman, Robert McNichol, 23, to his formerly blind father, 57-year-old Bob McNichol.

In 2005, Bob McNichol’s sight was destroyed in an accident when his eyes were doused(溅在……上面)with liquid aluminum(铝). Doctors predicted that he would never be able to see again.

But McNichol never liked to take no for an answer: when he heard about a unique operation called Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis, he knew he had to give it a shot, even though the success rate was a mere 65 percent.

In the technique, the eye socket(眼窝) is rebuilt and implanted(植入) with a human tooth and part of the jawbone, to provide support for an artificial cornea(角膜). Luckily for McNichol, Robert was willing to sacrifice one of his teeth to help his father regain his sight.

The technique isn’t simple: McNichol’s first stint on the operating table lasted ten hours, with a five hour follow-up session at a later date. But thanks to his son’s gift, he’s already seeing astonishing results.

“Now I have enough sight for me to get around and I can watch television. I have come out from complete darkness.” he told his friends.

1.Bob McNichol lost his sight ____ .

2.The underlined phrase “give it a shot” (in Paragraph 4) probably means “____”.

3.The tooth Bobert donated to his father is used to ____ .

4.What would be the best title for the passage?