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 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 seen me from a distance. I figured him for a thin retirement check, maybe a work-related 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 said, “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, or 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 amazed 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.
【小题1】Before his encounter with Mr. Ballou, the author used to read _____________.

阅读理解

　　Matt grows the nicest vegetables in the village. He grows fruits, too——big, sweet apples and oranges. And what else? Well, the biggest and the prettiest flowers.

　　Things grow in Mitt’s garden all through the year. He cuts some flowers for his sitting-room table; and, of course, he eats some fruit and vegetables. But he sells everything else in the market. Matt is not a poor man—oh, no, he isn’t poor.

　　I will tell you people do not understand him. And they do not understand has garden. “Why not?” you will ask, “It’s a good garden, isn’t it?”

　　It is a wonderful garden. Matt grows things in spring, summer, autumn and winter. After that he does very little work. He sits in the garden with his small radio. And everything grows.

　　People ask, “How does Matt grow these wonderful things? He waters the plants sometimes, but he doesn’t do anything else. He just sits under an orange tree with his radio. He listens to music nearly all day!” And that is all quite true. People cannot understand it, and so they don’t like it very much.

　　Mutt likes music. But what about the garden? Who does the work? I will tell you another truth: the music does the work. All plants love music; and Matt knows that.

　　Do you want big vegetables and the loveliest flowers? Well, just give your plants a lot of music.

1．Matt grows plants in his garden ________.

[　　]

A．when he is free

B．when he wants to make some money

C．only when it is warm

D．all the year round

2．Matt is not a poor man because ________.

[　　]

A．he sells most of what he grows in the market

B．he has no one to support

C．he grows a lot of fruit and he does not eat any

D．he has sold his sitting-room table in the market

3．Matt knows a few other gardeners ________.

[　　]

A．and they are his good friends

B．and they grow better lands than he does

C．who do not understand him

D．who buy all that he sells in the market

4．In fact, besides watering the plants sometimes ________ .

[　　]

A．Matt does nothing else at all

B．Matt gives them nothing but music

C．Matt does all he can to help them to grow faster

D．Matt tries to explain why his plants grow so well

5．Plants love music ________.

[　　]

A．and Matt knows that well

B．but Matt refuses to give his plants any

C．and everyone understands that

D．but the orange tree in Matt’s garden does not

Riding School:

You can start horse-riding at any age. Choose private or group lessons any weekday between 9 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. (3:30p.m. on Saturday). There are 10 kilometers of tracks and paths for leisurely rides across farmland and open country. You will need a riding hat.

Opening Hours: Monday through Friday: 9:00a.m. —8:30 p.m.

Phone: (412) 396—6754 Fax: (412)396—6752

Sailing Club:

Our Young Sailor’s Course leads to the Stage 1 Sailing qualification．You’ll learn how to sail safely and the course also covers sailing theory and first aid．Have fun with other course members , afterwards in the clubroom．There are 10 weekly two-hour 1essons (Tuesdays 6 p．m．—8 p．m．)．

Opening Hours：Tuesdays：6：00 p．m．—8：00 p．m．

Phone：(412)396—6644    Fax：(412)396—6644

Diving Centre:

     Our experienced instructors offer one-month courses in deep-sea diving for beginners. There are two evening lessons a week, in which you learn to breathe underwater and use the equipment safely. You only need swimming costume and towel. Reduced rates for couples.

     Opening Hours: Monday and Friday: 6∶30 p. m.—8∶30 p. m.

     Phone: (412) 396—6312    Fax: (412) 396—6706

Medical Center:

The staff of the Medical Center aim to provide convenient and comprehensive medical care to students and staff of the university．The center is well equipped and the staff here are trained to deal with a broad range of medical problems．Both female and male doctors as well as nursing staff are available for consultation．Also，all kinds of medicines are sold here and are cheaper for students than other drugstores．

Opening Hours：24 hour from Monday to Sunday

Phone：(412)396—6649  Fax：(412)396—6648

Watersports Club:

We are a two-kilometer length of river for speedboat racing, and water-skiing, A beginners’ course consists of ten 20-minute lessons. You will learn to handle boats safely and confidently, but must be able to swim. The club is in a convenient central position and is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with lessons all through the day.

Opening Hours: Monday through Friday: 9:00a.m. —4:00 p.m.

Phone: (412)396—6899  Fax: (412)396—6890

1.If you want to swim and enjoy activities which are fast and a bit dangerous, you should  join _____    ．

 A. Watersports Club    B. Diving Centre    C. Sailing Club      D. Riding School

2.If you want to experience a new activity in the countryside in the mornings, you may fax _____         

A. (412)396-6648      B. (412)396-6754    C. (412)396-6752      D. (412)396-6890

3.You want to do an activity one evening a week and get a certificate in the end, you can go to  _____ 

A. Watersports Club      B. Diving Center         C. Sailing Club         D. Riding School

4.Which is NOT the convenience that the Medical Center provides?

A. Good equipment．

B. Well trained staff members．

C. Various less expensive medicines．

D. Nursery for newly-born babies.

Animals are natural resources that people have wasted all through our history.

Animals have been killed for their fur and feathers, for food, for sport, and simply because they were in the way. Thousands of kinds of animals have disappeared from the earth forever. Hundreds more are on the danger list today. About 170 kinds in the United States alone are considered in danger.

Why should people care? Because we need animals. And because once they are gone, there will never be any more.

Animals are more than beautiful or interesting or a source of food. Every animal has its place in the balance of nature. Destroying one kind of animal can create many problems.

For example, when farmers killed large numbers of hawks(鹰), the farmers’ stores of corn and grain were destroyed by rats and mice. Why? Because hawks eat rats and mice. With no hawks to keep down their numbers, the rats and mice multiplied(繁殖) quickly.

Luckily, some people are working to help save the animals. Some groups raise money to let people know about the problem. And they try to get the governments to pass laws protecting animals in danger.

Quite a few countries have passed laws. These laws forbid the killing of any animal or plant on the danger list. Slowly, the number of some animals in danger is growing.

1.Why do people kill animals?

2. Animals are important to us mainly because ______.

3. Which of the following is NOT true?

A young boy loved football with all his heart. But being half the size of the other boys, this hopeful athlete  36   the bench and hardly ever played.

This young man was still the  37   of the class when he entered high school. He decided to try his best at every  38   , and perhaps he could play later. All through high school he   39   neither a practice nor a game, but   40    a bench-warmer all four years.

When the young man went to   41   , the coach kept him on the roster(候选名单)   42   he always put his heart and soul to every practice, and at same time,    43   the other members with the spirit they badly needed. But during his four years at college, he never   44   to play in a game,

In the last football match, the game was not going  45   . When the team was ten points  46   , the silent young man came to the coach and said “Coach, please let me  47   . Believe me.”  The coach pretended not to hear him . There was no  48   he wanted the worst player in this close playoff(决赛) game.

But the young man  49   , and finally the coach, feeling sorry for him,  50   . “All right,” he said. “You can go in.” Soon, the coach, the players and everyone in the   51   could not believe their eyes. This little   52  man, who had never played before, was doing everything right. The opposing team could not   53   him. He ran, he passed, blocked like a star.

The   54   was(were) soon tied, In the closing seconds of the game, he intercepted(拦截) a  55   and ran all the way for the winning touchdown(触地得分). The fans applauded(鼓掌) and his teammates raised him onto their shoulders. Such cheering he never heard.

1.A. stood by          B. sat on         C. carried up     D. moved away

2.A. smallest          B. smartest             C. bravest         D. biggest

3.A. risk              B. step             C . practice       D. match

4.A. missed             B. hated          C. joined            D. watched

5.A. forgot                B. earned               C. displayed      D. remained

6.A. his hometown          B. his coach’s   C. college          D. school

7.A. before               B. though               C. when        D. because

8.A. charged            B. applied         C. provided       D. changed

9.A. managed          B. persuaded   C. promised      D. wanted

10.A. any more                 B. badly         C. well           D . anyway

11.A. later                    B. above       C. behind           D. over

12.A. go             B. play           C. stay          D. think

13.A. idea                     B. doubt        C. way           D. need

14.A. won                     B. tolerated     C. scared           D. insisted

15.A. took in            B. broke in        C. sent in           D. gave in

16.A. families          B. stands      C. corners         D. queues

17.A. puzzled           B. unknown      C. boring            D. polite

18.A. accept            B. believe          C. defeat           D. stop

19.A. ball             B. judges      C. score        D. fans

20.A. fly               B. jump         C. pass           D. pause