A month after Hurricane Katrina, I returned home in New Orleans. There lay my house,

reduced to waist-high ruins, smelly and dirty.

Before the trip, I’d had my car fixed. When the office employee of the garage was writing up

the bill, she noticed my Louisiana license plate. “You from New Orleans?” she asked. I said I was,

“No charge.” She said, and firmly shook her head when I reached for my wallet. The next day I

went for a haircut, and the same thing happened.

As my wife was studying in Florida, we decided to move there and tried to find a rental house that we could afford while also paying off a mortgage（抵押贷款）on our ruined house. We looked at many places, but none was satisfactory. We’d began to accept that we’d have to live in extremely reduced circumstances for a while, when I got a very curious e-mail from a James Kennedy in California. He’d read some pieces I’d written about our sufferings for Slate, the online magazine and wanted to give us (“no conditions attached”) a new house across the lake from New Orleans.

It sounded too good to be true, but I replied, thanking him for his exceptional generosity, that we had no plan go back. Then a poet at the University of Florida offered to let his house to me. While he want to England on his one-year paid leave. The rent was rather reasonable. I mentioned the poet’s offer to James Kennedy, and the next day he sent a check covering our entire rent for eight months.

Throughout this painful experience , the kindness of strangers has done much to bring back my faith in humanity .It’s almost worth losing you worldly possessions to be reminded that people really when given half a chance.

56.The garage employee’s attitude toward the author was that of _______.

A.unconcern                              B.sympathy                        C.doubt                      D.tolerance

57.What do we know about James Kennedy?

A.He was a writer of an online magazine.                 B.He was a poet at the University of Florida

C.He offered the author a new house free of charge.  

D.He learned about the author’s sufferings via e-mail.

58.It can be inferred from the text that _______.

A.the author’s family was in financial difficulty

B.rents were comparatively reasonable despite the disaster

C.houses were difficult to find in the hurricane-stricken area

D.the mortgage on the ruined house was paid off by the bank

59.The author learned from his experience that _______.

A.worldly possessions can be given up when necessary

B.generosity should be encouraged some cases           C.people benefit from their sad stories

D.human beings are kind after all.

完形填空（共20小题；每小题1. 5分，满分30分）

请阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36~55各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该选项的标号涂黑。

It was Lin Tao’s first visit to England. He was looking   36   to his first journey on London’s Underground Railway. Against   37   of his friends he decided to go alone.

He   38   the station shortly after five o’clock in the afternoon. This is a   39   time to travel in London because too many people go home   40   work at this hour. He had to join a long line of people   41   were waiting for tickets. When   42   his turn came, he had some difficulty in making himself understood by the man   43   tickets. However, he got the right    44    in the end and by asking people the   45   he also found the right platform. It was crowed with people. He did not manage to get on the first train,   46   he was able to move nearer the edge of the platform so as to be in a better position to   47   the next one.

When this train came in, Lin Tao was swept forward on to the train by the rush of people from behind. The doors   48   and the train moved off. He was   49   to see the names of the stations   50   the train stopped, but he knew that the station he wanted was the sixth stop along the line. When the train reached the sixth station, Lin Tao got off,   51   glad that his journey had been so easy. But he suddenly   52   that he had come to a station he   53  ! He explained his difficulty to a man standing on the platform. With a smile   54   his face, the man told Lin Tao that he   55   a train going in the opposite direction. The train had come to a small town, the name of which sounded very strange.

A. forward                     B. toward                    C. upward                    D. downward

A. an advice                   B. the advice                C. advice                     D. advise

A. arrived                       B. got                          C. hurried                     D. entered

A. short                          B. well                         C. good                        D. bad

A. for                               B. at                                   C. from                        D. before

A. who                      B. whom                      C. whose                      D. which

A. at first                        B. at last                       C. at least                            D. at most

A. sell                       B. to sell                      C. selling                      D. sold

A. platform                     B. station                     C. ticket                             D. taxi

A. road                      B. way                         C. path                         D. means

A. and                            B. or                           C. but                          D. so

A. get on                          B. get off                            C. get up                      D. get down

A. open                            B. opened                     C. close                        D. closed

A. able                            B. unable                      C. sure                         D. possible

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

A. feeling                 B. felt                          C. fell                          D. fallen

A. recognized                    B. understood               C. realized                    D. felt

A. have never listened to    B. had never heard of   C. had never listened     D. has never heard

A. in                               B. on                           C. of                            D. to

A. had bought                  B. had sat                            C. had driven                      D. had caught

More than 12 300 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless after a powerful undersea earthquake unleashed giant tsunami waves that crashed into the coasts of south and southeast Asia.

The 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra early on Sunday was the biggest in 40 years.It triggered waves that reared up into walls of water as high as 10 meters(30 feet) as they hit coastlines in Indonesia,Sri Lanka,India and Thailand.

Aid agencies rushed staff,equipment and money to the region,warning that bodies rotting in the water were already beginning to threaten the water supply for survivors.

Rescue workers also spoke of bodies still caught up on trees after being flung inland by the waves.

“I just couldn’t believe what was happening before my eyes,”Boree Carlson said from a hotel in the Thai resort of Phuket.

“As I was standing there,a car actually floated into the lobby and overturned because the current was so strong,”said the 45-year-old Swede.

“I heard an eerie sound that I have never heard before.It was a high pitched sound followed by a deafening roar,”said a 55-year-old Indian fisherman who gave his name as Chellappa.

“I told everyone to run for their life.”

In Indonesia,an archipelago of 17 000 islands,one official said nearly 4500 people had died.The worst affected area was Bands Aceh,the capital of Aceh Province,where 3000 were killed.More than 200 prisoners escaped from a jail when the tsunami knocked down its walls.In Sri Lanka（斯里兰卡）,the death toll also reached 4500 and 1 million people,or 5 percent of its population,were affected.It was the worst natural disaster to hit Sri Lanka.Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans sheltered in schools and temples overnight,and officials expected the death toll to rise further once rescuers resumed searches after daybreak.In southern India,where at least 3000 were estimated to have died,beaches were littered with submerged cars and wrecked boats.Shanties on the coast were under water.

Thai government officials said at least 392 bodies had been retrieved and they expected the final toll to approach 1000.

The earthquake,of magnitude 8.9 as measured by the U.S. Geological Survery (news-web sites),struck at 7:59 a.m.(1959EST).It was the world’s biggest since 1964,said Julie Martinez at the USGS(news-web sites).

The tsunami was so powerful it smashed boast and flooded areas along the east African coast,3728 miles away.

What does the underlined word “tsunami” probably mean?

A.Tidal wave.                                                  B.Wave.

C.Earthquake.                                                  D.A man who kills many persons.

What does the passage mainly talk about？

A.Asian tsunami kills many people,and many more become homeless.

B.An earthquake happens.

C.The tsunami was so powerful that it smashed boats and people.

D.It was the biggest earthquake in 40 years.

The sea waves hit coastlines in _________.

A.Indonesia                         B.Sri Lanka           C.India and Thailand     D.All of above

The workers ___ busily when the boss came to look for something she ___ in the office.

A.had worked; had left   B. were working; had left  C. working; had left  D. had worked; left

Last week my youngest son and I visited my father at his new home in Tucson, Arizona.

    He moved there a few years ago, and I was eager to see his new place and meet his friends.

    My earliest memories of my father are of a tall, handsome successful man devoted to his work and family, but uncomfortable with his children. As a child, I loved him; as a school girl and young adult I feared him and felt bitter about him. He seemed unhappy with me unless I got straight A's and unhappy with my boyfriends if their fathers were not as "successful" as he was.

    Whenever I went out with him on weekends, I used to struggle to think up things to say, feeling on guard.

    On the first day of my visit, we went out with one of my father's friends for lunch at an outdoor cafe. We walked along that afternoon, did some shopping, ate on the street table, and laughed over my son's funny facial expressions. Gone was my father's critical (挑剔的) air and strict rules. Who was this person I knew as my father, who seemed so friendly and interesting to be around? What had held him back before?

    The next day my dad pulled out his childhood pictures and told me quite a few stories about his own childhood. Although our times together became easier over the years, I never felt closer to him at that moment After so many years, I'm at last seeing another side of my father. And in so doing. I'm delighted with my new friend. My dad, in his mew home in Arizona, is back to me from where he was.

Why did the author feel bitter about her father as a young adult?

    A. He was silent most of the time. B. He was too proud of himself..

    C. He did not love his children.. D. He expected too much of her.

When the author went out with her father on weekends, she would feel________.

    A. nervous                     B. sorry

    C. tired                       D. Strict and hare-working.

What does the author think of her father after her visit to Tucson?

    A. More critical.              B. More tallkative.

    C. Gentle and friendly.        D. Strict and hard-working.

The underlined words "my new friend" in the last paragraph refer to .

    A. the author's son                    B. the author's father

    C. the friend of the author's father   D. the café owner