I started winning competitions. We still had very little money -- my father had to borrow $5,000 to pay for a trip to the International Young Pianists Competition in Ettlingen, Germany, in 1994, when I was 12. I realized later how much pressure he was under. Tears streamed down his face when it was announced that I'd won -- earning enough money to pay back our loan.

It was soo n clear I couldn't stay in China forever. To become a world-class musician, I had to play on the world's big stages. So in 1997, my father and I moved again, this time to Philadelphia, so I could attend The Curtis Institute of Music. Finally our money worries were easing. The school paid for an apartment and even lent me a Steinway（斯坦威钢琴）.At night, I would sneak into the living room just to touch the keys.

Now that I was in America, I spent two years practicing, and by 1999 I had worked hard enough for fortune to take over. The Chicago Symphony orchestra heard me play and liked me, but orchestra schedules were set far in advance. I thought I might join them in a few years.

The next morning, I got a call. The great pianist Andre Watts, who was to play the "Gala Benefit Evening" at Chicago's Ravinia Festival, had become ill. I was asked to replace him. That performance was, for me, the moment. After violinist Isaac Stern introduced me, I played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. My father's mouth hung open throughout the entire song.

I played until 3:30 a.m. I felt something happening. Sure enough, it was a great success. Still, my father kept telling me, "You'd better practice!" But living in America with me was beginning to relax him. In Beijing I'd been fat -- he made sure I ate -- and he'd been skinny. Now I was getting thin. He wasn't.

My father and I had often practiced a piece called "Horses," a fun version for piano and erhu. One night in Carnegie Hall, after I played Chopin and Liszt, I brought Dad out on the stage, and we played our duet（二重奏）. People went crazy -- they loved it. My father couldn't sleep for days. He was too happy to sleep.

There have been lots of concerts in Carnegie Hall, but for me playing there was especially sweet when I remember the cold days in Beijing. Together, my father and I worked to reach the lucky place where fortune spots you, and lets you shine.

1.In the first paragraph his father cried when it was announced that he'd won mainly because__________.

A.his father was excited that his son succeeded at last.

B.his father was under too much pressure.

C.they could pay back the loan with the prize.

D.his father was proud of him.

2. Tell the order of the events.

a. He and his father moved to Philadelphia.

b. He was asked to replace the great pianist Andre Watts.

c. He and his father played “Horses” together.

d.The Chicago Symphony orchestra heard his performance.

e. The Curtis Institute of Music lent him a Steinway

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

3. Which of the following statements agrees with the author?

A. The writer’s father had been very fat before they went to America.

B. The writer thought he would be one of them soon when he knew the Chicago Symphony orchestra heard him play and liked him.

C. The Curtis Institute of Music finally eased their money worries.

D. One can achieve his dream if he is lucky enough.

4. The underlined word there in the last paragraph refers to_________.

A. America     B. Beijing.   C. Carnegie Hall  D. All the places he went to. 

5. What is the best title of the passage?

A. I Took Off!                          B. When Fortune Spots Me.

C. No Pain, No Gain.                    D. My father and I

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从11~25各题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

eBooks still some way away from students

Twelve-year-old Tang Yin is one of the earliest students to test a digital textbook in China. The boy said he was a little  11   when he received the monochromatic(单色的) flat device in April, 2010, because he thought it should be a “   12    cool” laptop. But Tan still cherishes(珍爱) his new equipment like “protecting my  13  ,” said the fifth grader. After all, not every student has the opportunity to  14   the eBook, which is worth $294 (￥2,000 yuan), he said.

The 50 eBooks,   15   by Taiwan eBook manufacturer Chuanqi Photoelectric Technology in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, enables one class at Yangzhou Sanyuanqiao Elementary School to be the   16   group of students in the Chinese mainland to replace their regular textbooks with   electronic ones. Out of 1000 students, Tang’s class was the lucky   17    .

“Our school could not   18   the project without the company’s donation,” said Yuan Shishan, vice-headmaster of the primary school.   19   the digital book is considered environmentally friendly, because it replaces paper books and saves money in the long run, the price is much higher than most Chinese   20   can afford. Also, some technical defects, the   21   of taking notes and monochromatic display, make the eBook fail to meet the expectations of students and teachers.

“There’s still a/an    22   way to go before the eBook really plays an important role in education,” said the headmaster.

According to Yuan, the annual average income of a   23    family in Yangzhou is about 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, and neither the parents nor the school can afford the 2,000 yuan  24  book.

The school doesn’t allow the students to take their eBooks to their homes. The devices are   25   after class, and are locked in the headmaster’s office.

A. excited               B. interested               C. confused           D. disappointed

A. normal                  B. super                       C. light                 D. thin

A. eyes                     B. grades                    C. friendship          D. class

A. buy                     B. give                              C. use                   D. expect

A. donated                B. manufactured         C. invented          D. designed

A. original                 B. first                        C. second                     D. final

A. characters             B. inspect       ors                C. recipients      D. devotees

A. support               B. introduce                  C. determine          D. afford

A. After                     B. As if                        C. Now that           D. Although

A. families              B. classes                      C. schools              D. provinces

A. unfamiliarity       B. inconvenience       C. discomfort       D. dislike

A. effective                  B. practical                  C. long               D. narrow

A. common                  B. local                       C. small                D. general

A. digital                B. regular                   C. new                 D. pleasant

A. put on                B. taken in                  C. looked on          D. handed in

A turkey named Courage gave thanks to President Obama for saving his life on the day before Thanksgiving. Honouring a 62-year-old tradition, the President pardoned the bird on Thanksgiving eve.

   The tradition of a turkey pardon at Thanksgiving began with President Truman in 1947. Courage comes from Ellsworth, Iowa. The name Courage was chosen by voters (投票人)who took part in a survey posted on the White House website. The lucky turkey walked on the lawn of the Rose Garden and posed for the cameras at the presidential podium(讲台).

   The dinner that has become known as the First Thanksgiving was actually a harvest festival celebrated in December of 1621. That’s when English settlers in Plymouth, Massachusetts, gave thanks for the progress they had made after a hard winter in their new country. As America grew, Thanksgiving customs also spread and got bigger. George Washington declared that the first national Thanksgiving would be on November 26, 1789. In the decades to follow, however, people celebrated Thanksgiving locally, with no official date. President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November 1863 a national day of Thanksgiving. It stayed that way until 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it one week earlier. He wanted to lengthen the shopping period before Christmas to encourage gift-buyers and to help businesses. So Congress（议会） ruled that, after 1941, Thanksgiving would be an official federal holiday falling on the fourth Thursday of November.

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, November. Millions of Americans got together to give thanks with friends and family. The lucky turkey, Courage, was one of them. After his pardon, Courage would be sent to Disneyland Resort in California, where he would be the grand assemble of Disney’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

1.That the turkey Courage was pardoned was decided by ________.

A. George Bush                 B. Congress                        C. President Truman        D. the public

2.The first Thanksgiving Day was held to ________.

 A. celebrate the harvest of British settlers

 B. celebrate the progress of Americans

 C. encourage the struggle with British settlers

 D. celebrate the joy of all Americans after a hard winter

3.In 1939, President Roosevelt put forward the national day of Thanksgiving to ________.

 A. encourage the economy                                   B. help the poor

 C. please Congress                                               D. lengthen the summer holidays

4.We can infer from the passage that ________.

 A. President Obama pardoned a turkey before Thanksgiving because of the economic crisis

B. the turkey named Courage was pardoned by President Roosevelt before Thanksgiving

 C. the pardoned turkey walked on the lawn of the Rose Garden on Thanksgiving eve

 D. the pardoned turkey will appear in a celebrating parade of Thanksgiving Day

“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity,” said the American talk show host Oprah Winfrey. I’ve never watched her show, but when a self-made billionaire gives life advice it’s probably worth listening to.

Her point is that blind luck is very rare. You may have to be lucky to find a good job these days but that does not mean you should sit at home waiting for the opportunity to come to you. If you’re a Chinese, you may already be familiar with the tale of a farmer waiting by a tree stump(树桩) for a rabbit to run out and break its neck.

A book by the UK psychologist Richard Wiseman, called The Luck Factor, argues we can all make ourselves luckier. It’s not about going to a temple to burn some incense(香) hopes that the gods will give you good fortune; it’s practical advice you can follow each day.

Wiseman conducted an experiment as part of his studies. First he divided volunteers into two groups; those who said they were lucky in life and those who said they were not. He gave everyone a newspaper and asked them to look through it to count how many photographs it had inside. On average, the unlucky people took about two minutes to count the photographs while the lucky people took just seconds. Why? On the second page of the newspaper, a command, “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper,” was written in big letters. The unlucky people mostly did not spot the message.

It’s easy to compare this situation to a young person looking for jobs in a local paper. They might search so hard for one type of position that they miss an even better opportunity. People who are “lucky”, in fact, keep an open mind and don’t go through the same routine every day.

I first came to China in 2002 when it was considered a rather strange thing to do. Like many foreigners, my plan was to teach English for one year. Seven years later, and still here, I’ve had many great opportunities such as writing for newspapers and magazines. I did not dream these would have been possible. I’ve also never been sick, had an accident, got into a fight or had problems with the police. Coincidence? After reading about Professor Wiseman’s studies I think not.

As Wiseman advises, I usually trust my own judgment. Your friends and parents may give you advice based on rational thinking, but it’s important to consider how you feel about each choice you make. Your feeling acts as a warning for a potential problem.

Finally, try to turn bad luck into good. Even if you do fall down and break a leg, the time spent at home can be used wisely to study English.

1.Which of the following proverbs most agrees with the writer’s point?

  A. Make the best of a bad job.

B. Rome was not built in a day.

C. All is not gold that glitters.

D. A good heart conquers ill fortune.

2.What do you know about Oprah Winfrey?

  A. She became famous through her family background.

B. She is a British talk show host.

C. She became successful by her own effort.

D. She was very lucky and seldom suffered setbacks in her life.

3.The writer quoted the Chinese tale of a farmer in order to show __________.

  A. man can conquer nature

B. luck is in your own hand

C. bad luck can turn into good

D. you should not sit at home waiting for the opportunity to come to you

Opening week specials（大特惠） at Munchies Food Hall.

At the corner of Green and Brown Streets in the city

Monday 7th of January until Sunday.13rd of January 2008