Dinah is one of the most good-natured children that ever lived, but she is very, very lazy. There is nothing she likes, or used to like, so much as to curl up in some warm corner in the sun and do nothing.

Dinah’s mother wished very much that her child should learn to read, but the lady who tried to teach her soon give it up. “It is no   16  ,” she said, “Dinah   17  not learn. She is not stupid, but too lazy.”

It happened soon that a young man from Massachusetts came to the house where Dinah lived. He brought with him something no one else in the neighborhood had ever seen before－a pair of roller-skates.

When Dinah saw the young man going rapidly up and down the piazza (广场) on his skates she was so   18 . She ran after him like a cat, her black eyes shining.

One day the young man allowed her to   19  the skates. The child was too happy for words. Of course she fell down, but did not   20  at all.

“Look here, Dinah,” said the young man, “I understand that my aunt has been trying to teach you to read. Why didn’t you learn? Now, if you can read, I will send you a pair of good roller-skates.”

For a moment she said  21 , then exclaimed decidedly, “I’ll have those skates, sure.”

And she did. When she   22  her mind on her work, she could always do it well,  23  it was.

The lady who had before this found her   24   difficult a child to teach, now had no trouble. If Dinah showed the least   25  of her former laziness, the word SKATES was enough to draw her attention back to her lesson instantly.

On New Year’s morning she received a box marked in large printed letters:

MISS DINAH MORRIS,

Care of Mrs. Lawrence Delaney,

NEW ORLEANS, LA.

If she can read what is on the outside of this box she can have what is inside.

And as Dinah read every word clearly and quickly, of course she had the fine roller-skates the box held. And now sitting curled up in the sun, doing nothing, is not the thing she likes to do best.

　　The class teacher thought that hobbies were very important for every child．She encouraged all her pupils to have one, and sometimes arranged for their parents to come and see the work they had done as a result．

　　One Friday morning the teacher told the class that those of them who had a hobby could have a holiday that afternoon to get the things they had made as parts of their hobbies ready for their parents to see the following afternoon．

　　So on Friday afternoon, while those of the pupils who had nothing to show did their usual lessons, the lucky ones who had made something were allowed to go home, on condition that they returned before five o’clock to bring what they were going to show, and to arrange them．

　　When the afternoon lessons began, the teacher was surprised to see that Tommy was not there．He was the laziest boy in the class, and the teacher found it difficult to believe that he had a hobby．However, at a quarter to five, Tommy arrived with a beautiful collection of butterflies（蝴蝶）in glass cases．After his teacher had admired them and helped him to arrange them on a table in the classroom, she was surprised to see Tommy pick them up again and begin to leave．

　　“What are you doing, Tommy?” She asked．“Those things must remain here until tomorrow afternoon．That’s when the parents are coming to see them.”

　　“I know they are coming then, ” answered Tommy, “ and I will bring them back tomorrow, but my big brother doesn’t want them to be out of our house at night in case they are stolen.”

　　“But what has it got to do with your big brother?” asked the teacher, “Aren't the butterflies yours?”

　　“No, ” answered Tommy．“They belong to him.”

　　“But Tommy, you are supposed to show your own hobby here, not somebody else’s ! ”said the teacher．

　　“I know that , ” answered Tommy, “My hobby is watching my brother collecting butterflies．”

56．What’s the best title for this passage?

　　A. Important Hobbies　　　　　　　 B. Tommy’s Hobby

　　C. Different Hobbies　　　　　　　　 D. Hobby of Collecting Butterflies

57．The teacher________.

　　A. asked her pupils to bring something they had made that Saturday afternoon

B. was certain that her pupils were good at making things, so she wanted to show them to the parents.

　　C. invited the parents to come and see what the pupils had made

　　D. allowed the pupils who had hobbies not to go to class that Friday afternoon

58．After reading the passage the readers will laugh. Why?

　　A. Because Tommy was so lazy a boy.

　　B. Because the teacher knew so little about Tommy.

　　C. Because Tommy had made nothing at all.

D. Because Tommy had a strange idea about hobby.

During one of the toughest weeks of my life, I had the chance to experience surprising grace(善举).

I was in my office, when a young man came by. He was obviously very    36  and close to tears. He was an older student and always appeared like a tough guy,    37  showing emotion.

He had told me   38  that he was dealing with some difficult  39  problems. He was a caregiver for his sister who was ill. This day he came in, sat down and just sobbed(抽泣). I   40  while he told me how he had been up all night in the hospital with his sister and that was why he couldn’t take my exam that morning. I told him not to   41  it at all. He was clearly in no shape for an exam. I told him to go home and    42  . I reassured(使放心) him that I would do everything I could to help him get through the class.

I just sat there while he sobbed. “I think she might die,” he gasped(喘着气说). “What am I going to do?” It was clear to me that he had never   43  this fear out loud to anyone. I just sat there, fully focused on him and his  44 , and tried to offer some soft words of   45  .

After quite some time, he   46  himself. I reassured him again that it didn’t matter to me when he took his exam and that I would help him through. Then he left.

Afterwards, I felt like his    47  was a blessing(为人带来幸福的事). Being able to help him while I was in pain myself was the most valuable gift.

Life never gives more than we can handle.

When I was fourteen, I earned money in the summer by cutting lawns（草坪）, and within a few weeks I had built up a body of customers. I got to know people by the flowers they planted that I had to remember not to cut down, by the things they lost in the grass or struck in the ground on purpose. I reached the point with most of them when I knew in advance what complaint was about to be spoken, which particular request was most important. And I learned something about the measure of my neighbors by their preferred method of payment: by the job, by the month--- or not at all.

Mr. Ballou fell into the last category, and he always had a reason why. On one day, he had no  change for a fifty, on another he was flat out of checks, on another, he was simply out when I knocked on his door. Still, except for the money apart, he was a nice enough guy, always waving or tipping his hat when he’d see me from a distance. I figured him for a thin retirement check, maybe a work-relayed injury that kept him from doing his own yard work. Sure, I kept track of the total, but I didn’t worry about the amount too much. Grass was grass, and the little that Mr. Ballou’s property comprised didn’t take long to trim (修剪).

Then, one late afternoon in mid-July, the hottest time of the year, I was walking by his house and he opened the door, mentioned me to come inside. The hall was cool, shaded, and it took my eyes a minute to adjust to the dim light. 

“ I owe you,” Mr Ballou, “ but…”

I thought I’d save him the trouble of thinking of a new excuse. “ No problem. Don’t worry about it.”

“ The bank made a mistake in my account,” he continued, ignoring my words. “ It will be cleared up in a day or two . But in the meantime I thought perhaps you could choose one or two volumes for a down payment.

He gestured toward the walls and I saw that books were stacked (堆放) everywhere. It was like a library, except with no order to the arrangement.

“ Take your time,” Mr. Ballou encouraged. “Read, borrow, keep. Find something you like. What do you read?”

“ I don’t know.” And I didn’t. I generally read what was in front of me, what I could get from the paperback stack at the drugstore, what I found at the library, magazines, the back of cereal boxes, comics. The idea of consciously seeking out a special title was new to me, but, I realized, not without appeal--- so I started to look through the piles of books.

“ You actually read all of these?”

“ This isn’t much,” Mr. Ballou said. “ This is nothing, just what I’ve kept, the ones worth looking at a second time.”

“ Pick for me, then.”

He raised his eyebrows, cocked his head, and regarded me as though measuring me for a suit. After a moment, he nodded, searched through a stack, and handed me a dark red hardbound book, fairly thick.

“ The Last of the Just,” I read. “ By Andre Schwarz-Bart. What’s it about?” “ You tell me,” he said. “ Next week.”

I started after supper, sitting outdoors on an uncomfortable kitchen chair. Within a few pages, the yard, the summer, disappeared, and I was plunged into the aching tragedy of the Holocaust, the extraordinary clash of good, represented by one decent man, and evil. Translated from French, the language was elegant, simple, impossible to resist. When the evening light finally failed I moved inside, read all through the night,

To this day, thirty years later, I vividly remember the experience. It was my first voluntary encounter with world literature, and I was stunned (震惊) by the concentrated power a novel could contain. I lacked the vocabulary, however, to translate my feelings into words, so the next week. When Mr. Ballou asked, “ Well?” I only replied, “ It was good?”

“ Keep it, then,” he said. “ Shall I suggest another?”

I nodded, and was presented with the paperback edition of Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa ( a very important book on the study of the social and cultural development of peoples--- anthropology (人类学) ).

To make two long stories short, Mr. Ballou never paid me a cent for cutting his grass that year or the next, but for fifteen years I taught anthropology at Dartmouth College. Summer reading was not the innocent entertainment I had assumed it to be, not a light-hearted, instantly forgettable escape in a hammock (吊床) ( though I have since enjoyed many of those, too). A book, if it arrives before you at the right moment, in the proper season, at an internal in the daily business of things, will change the course of all that follows.

1..The author thought that Mr. Ballou was ______________.

A. rich but mean                         B. poor but polite

C. honest but forgettable                   D. strong but lazy

2.. Before his encounter with Mr. Ballou, the author used to read _____________.

   A. anything and everything                 B. only what was given to him

   C. only serious novels                     D. nothing in the summer

3.. The author found the first book Mr. Ballou gave him _____________.

   A. light-heated and enjoyable               B. dull but well written

   C. impossible to put down                  D. difficult to understand

4.. From what he said to the author we can gather that Mr. Ballou _______________.

   A. read all books twice                    B. did not do much reading

   C. read more books than he kept             D. preferred to read hardbound books

5.. The following year the author _______________.

   A. started studying anthropology at college    B. continued to cut Mr. Ballou’s lawn

   C. spent most of his time lazing away in a hammock

   D. had forgotten what he had read the summer before

6.. The author’s main point is that _____________.

   A. summer jobs are really good for young people

   B. you should insist on being paid before you do a job

   C. a good book can change the direction of your life

   D. a book is like a garden carried in the pocket.