The nervous-looking young man had waited for a few moments—outside the jeweler’s before he got enough courage to enter. He was warmly greeted by a young assistant. James felt a rush of blood to his face as he explained he would be bringing in his future wife to choose a birthday present. The assistant listened carefully and told him he’d better buy a necklace. He wasn’t used to buying jewellery and was a little worried about over-spending. After some discussion as to a reasonable price and the type, the assistant showed him dozens of necklaces and helped him to choose. At last James chose one and left the shop promising to return at five o’clock. When, half an hour later than planned, James did return to the shop with his future wife, Laura, the assistant acted as if she had never seen him before. When she was asked to show them some necklaces, she first brought out some inexpensive ones for them to choose, and then gave them the one she had prepared. A choice was soon made and they went away satisfied. James would certainly come back to buy what he wanted.
52. A good title for this passage is________.
A. A Clever Assistant                 B. Buying a Birthday Present
C. How to Choose a Necklace          D. A Brave Young Man
53.The word “overspending” in this passage means__________.
A. spending too much money
B. spending too much time
C. spending more time than he planned
D. spending too much time and too much money
54. When James told the assistant why he wanted to buy a present, his face_______.
A. turned pale                   B. turned  red       C. turned yellow                 D. turned black
55. James and Laura reached the shop at        .
A. 4:30       B.5:00         C.5:30         D.6:00
56. James would come back to buy what he wanted because_______.
A. the assistant knew how to satisfy the people who came to buy things
B. the necklace was good
C. Laura liked the necklace
D. the assistant who served James was very beautiful

We were a very motley (混杂的) crowd of people who took the bus every day many years ago. During the early morning ride from the suburb, we sat drowsily (昏昏欲睡地) with our collars up to our ears.
A small grey man took the bus to the center for senior citizens every morning. No one ever paid very much attention to him. Then one July morning he said good morning to the driver before he sat down. The driver nodded guardedly. The rest of us were silent.
The next day, the old man boarded the bus energetically, smiled and said in a loud voice: "And a very good morning to you all!" Some of us looked up, amazed, and murmured "Good morning!" in reply.
The following weeks we were more surprised. Our friend was now dressed in a nice old suit and a wide out-of-date tie. He said good morning to us every day and we gradually began to nod and talk to each other.
One morning he had a bunch of wild flowers in his hand. The driver turned around smilingly and asked: "Have you got yourself a girlfriend, Charlie?" The man nodded shyly and said yes. Every morning after that Charlie always brought a flower.
The summer went by when one morning Charlie wasn't waiting at his usual stop. When he wasn't there the new day and the day after that, we started wondering if he was sick or – hopefully – on holiday somewhere, Later we were told one of his very close friends had died at the weekend. How silent we were the rest of the way to work. The next Monday Charlie was waiting at the stop, a little bit more grey. Inside the bus was a silence similar to that in a church. Even though no one had talked about it, all those of us sat with our eyes filled with tears and a bunch of wild flowers in our hands.
【小题1】From the first paragraph we can inter that the passengers ____.

When I was 11, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings(缺点). Week by week her list grew: I was very thin, I wasn’t a good student, I talked too much, I was too proud, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. In the end, I became so angry that I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.
He listened to me quietly, then he asked. “Are the things she says true or not? Janet, didn’t you ever wonder what you’re really like? Well, you now have that girl’s opinion. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said.” I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t change (like being very thin), but a good number I could—and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I go to fairly clear picture of myself.
I brought the list back to Dad. He refused to take it.” That’s just for you,” he said.
“You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to listen, not just close your ears in anger and feeling hurt. When something said about you is true, you’ll find it will be of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your duty. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do.”
Daddy’s advice has returned to me at many important moments. In my life, I’ve never had a better piece of advice.
【小题1】What did the father do after he had heard his daughter’s complaint? 

Jerry was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say.
One day, I went up to Jerry and asked him, “You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied, “Every time someone complains to me, I can choose to accept his complaints or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”
Several years later, I heard that Jerry was shot by three armed robbers. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the hospital. Finally Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. About six months after the accident, I saw him. I asked him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.
“The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I choose to live.”
“Weren’t you scared?”
Jerry continued, “The doctors and nurses were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“Well, there was a big, strong nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes’, I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’”
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
56. Which of the following words can be used to describe Jerry?
A. Impolite.             B. Concerned.               C. Stubborn.          D. Optimistic.
57. What did Jerry first think of when the robbery happened?
A. He might be shot by the armed robbers.   
B. He shouldn’t have left the back door unlocked.
C. How he could call the policemen.             
D. He might be robbed of many things.
58. From the expressions of the doctors and nurses, Jerry realized that _______.
A. they didn’t want to save his life            B. he wasn’t seriously wounded
C. they thought he had little chance to live     D. he was treated as a dead man

The professor’s house, big and untidy, stood alone at one end of a huge garden. The place was totally uncared for, quite __36__ and overgrown with all sorts of useless things. I __37__ my way through bushes and tall weeds to the front door and rang the bell.

I was glad that I found him. In twenty minutes he put me right on all the __38__ that had puzzled me. I was on the __39__ of leaving when I looked out of his study window and said, “You’re very fond of gardening, I see”

“No, I’m not,” he said. “__40__, I love this garden, though. It’s __41__ I always wanted it to be. I never touch it __42__ all.”

“It could be made lovely. It seems a pity to let all this ground go to __43__. But perhaps you don’t _ 44__ that way?” said I.

“I don’t. I lived here when I was a child, and I had   45  of gardening then. It was my father’s hobby, you see. Unfortunately, he wasn’t   46  _ enough to do it himself. My brother and I did all of it between us year after year. There was one right way and many wrong ways. Each blade (叶片) of grass was an enemy to be _ _47__ out by hand, not just cut off. I’ve spent a good part of life at work here.”

“I see. You took a dislike to it, and now you’re getting even！”

“I dislike it. Then, of course, I didn’t understand the effect it had. It used to __48__ me. It appeared in my __49__ ——— a mistake here, something not quite straight here, the enemy showing its head in a place I was __50__ to have cleaned. The work was too much. It seemed endless. The size of the place was itself a fight to a boy.”

“And now it’s yours, you’re just letting it go to ...”

“__51__?” he said. “No, I don’t agree with that. This garden and I are now the best friends. I like  _52__ it grow in its own way. I make no __53__ on it. I never disturb it, and it never disturbs me. It has _ 54__ at last, and so have I.”

“But the path is over grown. It’s __55__ for you, isn’t it?”

“That’s part of my pleasure，” he laughed. “You can go out the back way. The weeds are shorter there because they don’t get the sun.”                             

1.                A．wild           B．crazy           C．large D．nice

2.                A．lost            B．felt            C．made D．took

3.                A．gardening       B．problems       C．plants    D．solution

4.                A．time           B．request         C．permission    D．point

5.                A．Even so         B．So             C．As though D．Even if

6.                A．where         B．as             C．why D．whether

7.                A．after           B．of             C．at   D．in

8.                A．desert         B．trouble         C．garden   D．waste

9.                A．recognize       B．observe        C．know D．see

10.               A．much          B．enough         C．something D．nothing

11.               A．interested      B．excited         C．fit    D．demanding

12.               A．fought         B．ruled          C．rooted    D．cut

13.               A．worry          B．shock          C．astonish   D．disappoint

14.               A．life            B．dreams         C．house D．hands

15.               A．thought        B．expected       C．ordered   D．supposed

16.               A．Ruin           B．Develop        C．Grow D．Sell

17.               A．watching       B．attending       C．watering   D．noticing

18.               A．comments      B．difference      C．sense D．demands

19.               A．time           B．freedom        C．sunlight   D．space

20.               A．important       B．useless         C．inconvenient   D．previous