When I was an official of a school in Palo Alto, California, Polly Tyner, the president of our board, wrote a letter that was printed in the Palo Alto Times. Polly’s son, Jim, had great difficulty in school. He was classified as the educationally handicapped and required a great deal of patience on the part of his parents and teachers. But Jim was a happy kid with a great smile that lit up the room. His parents knew his difficulties, but they always tried to help him see his strengths so that he could walk with pride. Shortly after Jim finished high school, he was killed in a motorcycle accident. After his death, his mother submitted this letter to the newspaper.

“Today we buried our 20-year-old son. He was killed in a motorcycle accident on Friday night. How I wish I had known that the last time I had talked to him would be the last time. If I had only known that, I would have said to him, ‘Jim, I love you and I’m always so proud of you.’ I would have taken the time to count the many blessings he had brought to the lives of the people who loved him. I would have taken the time to appreciate his beautiful smile, his laughter, and his genuine love to other people.

“When I put all the good things on the scale and try to balance them with all the irritating (恼人的) things such as the radio that was always too loud, the haircut that wasn’t to our liking, the dirty socks under the bed, etc., I find that the irritations really don’t amount to much.

“I won’t get another chance to tell my son all that I would have wanted him to hear, but, other parents, do have a chance. Tell your young people what you would want them to hear as if it may be your last conversation. The last time I talked to Jim was the morning of the day when he died. He called me to say, ‘Hi, Mom! I just called to say I love you. You have to go to work now. Bye.’ That day, he gave me something to treasure forever. ”

If there is any purpose at all for Jim’s death, maybe it is to make others appreciate life more and to tell people, especially family members, that they should take the time to let each other know just how much they care. You may never have another chance. Do it today!

1.Who was Jim?

2. What’s the meaning of the underlined phrase “the educationally handicapped”?

3.According to the writer, which of the following about Jim is TRUE？

4.The purpose of Polly’s letter is to                .

With parents who taught at school, Sophia received a fairly good education. She would have achieved   36   in a career, but she   37   to spend most of her marriage in the  38   role of wife and mother,   39   herself to her husband and her three children.
At the beginning of their family life, Sophia took on the   40  for running the house in order for her husband to   41   his personal interest: writing novels. However, things weren’t going as   42   as expected. Nate’s writing failed to     43  the whole housekeeping. He had to take a position in the government to    44   for his family. Sophia tried to persuade Nate to give up his    45   for full-time writing, but he didn’t listen to her. He took his job   46    because it promised the family would be prevented from being   47 . That accounted for the shocking   48  he suffered when he lost his job. That day, he said to Sophia in a    49  , “I got fired. I am a    50   failure.”“Now you can focus your mind   51 your writing.” she responded. To make Nate believe money was no longer the major   52  ， Sophia took out a box that was full of   53  . She explained that she got the money for their hand-painted lampshades.
The unemployed husband did   54   a book that was a(n)   55  hit and is a long-lasting literary masterpiece. The story of Sophia’s turning her husband into a world famous writer has been widely talked about ever since then.

Young Jack moved to a new house. When entering his new bedroom, he saw that it was full of toys but it was tidy. That day he played all he liked, but went to bed without tidying up.

The next morning, when Jack got up, he found all the toys had been put back in their proper places. He was sure that no one had entered his bedroom, but the boy didn’t pay much attention to it. The exact same thing happened that day, and the next day. But on the fourth day when he went to get his favourite toy, the toy jumped out of his hands and said, “I don’t want to play with you!”

Jack felt surprised, but the same happened with every toy he touched. Finally, one toy said to him:

“We don’t want to play with you. You always leave us so far away from our proper places. You don’t know how arduous it is for us to climb back up onto the shelves, or jump into the box. We feel most uncomfortable and unhappy. You don’t know how uncomfortable and cold the floor is! We don’t play with you any more if you don’t promise to leave us in our proper places before you go to bed.”

Jack remembered how comfortable he felt in his bed and how bad he felt when he had once slept in a chair. He realized how badly he had treated his friends, the toys. He asked for their forgiveness(原谅)， and from that day on he always put his toys nicely in their proper places before he got into bed.

1.when Jack moved into his bedroom,           .

A．it needed to be cleaned                  B．he found lots of toys

C．he brought lots of toys                   D．he put away his toys

2.Why did all the toys refuse to play with Jack?

A．because he always broke them.

B．because he didn’t like them any more.

C．because he only played with his favourite one.

D．because he did’t put them in their proper places.

3.The underlined word “arduous” in Para.4 probably means         .

A．difficult           B．easy              C．regular           D．useful

4.The purpose of the text is to tell us that          .

A．we should have a good sleep

B．we should be fair to every friend

C．we should treat our friends well

D．we should always keep our rooms tidy

1. ________

In 1973, Jimmy Carter, ex-president of the United States, saw a UFO—an Unidentified Flying Object. There were about 20 other people with him at the time, and they all watched the strange object for several minutes.

2. ________

Does this surprise you? It’s not unusual. About 15 million people all over the world think that they have seen a UFO, a recent report says.

3._______

UFOs have become very popular. There are books and films about UFOs, we can watch imaginary flying saucers and visitors from space on television, and there are stories in the newspapers about strange objects. Some of the stories are very silly. Clearly, some of these “UFOs” were aircraft, birds, the moon, lights on the clouds, and so on. But some people believe that spaceships come from other planets, and some of the reports aren’t easy to explain.

4. ______

In 1947 an American businessman was flying his own plane during the day. Mr. Arnold was a sensible man and a pilot with many years’ experience. That day, he saw a row of strange flying objects. He could see them clearly, and he watched them for some time. Later he said that they moved “like saucers over water.” The name “flying saucer” was invented. The newspapers loved the story, of course, and they all wrote long reports about it.

5. ______

During World War II, pilots had reported strange round flying objects. Sometimes these objects flew beside their planes and followed them. At first, the pilots were afraid: they thought these objects were a new weapon. But the “weapon” didn’t harm them. The officers said the pilots were imaging things. The pilots got used to the strange objects.

第三部分 阅读理解（共20小题，每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并填在答卷卡上。
A guitarist was pleasantly surprised to hear from New York City police that his valuable guitar had been found. It disappeared almost a year ago when he got out of a taxi and forgot to take the guitar with him. Laurence Lennon, 44, said he was running late that day. He was talking to his manager on his cellphone when he rushed out of the taxi. He said that he gave the driver $60 and told him to keep the change. He walked through the front doors of the concert hall, still talking on the phone to his manager.
Upon discovering his loss, Lennon used his cellphone to call the police. The policewoman asked him for the name of the taxi company, the number of the taxi, and the name of the driver. He said that she must have been joking.
She told Lennon that he could apply for a missing item report online. Lennon asked for address. It was www.nypd.gov/toprotectandtoserve/haveaniceday. She told him that finding the guitar might take a couple of years for finding guitars was not as important as finding murderers and marijuana （大麻）smokers. Then she told him to have a nice day.
“This year has been depressing,” said Lennon.  “I had to put off the recording of two new CDs. I’ve been using borrowed guitars. And I was losing hope of ever recovering my guitar.”
Lennon was reunited with his $100,000 guitar yesterday. The guitar had been discovered in the corner of a coffeehouse only two blocks from where Lennon had lost it. Lennon had offered a $10,000 reward for its return. He said he would give the reward to the coffeehouse owner, who had informed the police.
1. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. Careless guitarist surprised.           B. Valuable guitar found.
C. Coffeehouse owner rewarded.         D. Taxi driver still unknown.
2. In the first paragraph, the author explained ________.
A. how costly the guitar was            B. how important the concert was
C. why the guitarist was late            D. why the guitar was left behind
3. By saying “she must have been joking” in Para 2, the guitarist probably means ________.
A. it was impossible for him to answer her questions
B. there must have been something she felt funny
C. she didn’t believe at all that he had lost his guitar
D. she must have felt that his behavior was funny
4. In the policewoman’s opinion, finding the lost guitar _________.
A. was not important at all              B. wouldn’t be done online
C. could be a long time hunting          D. only depended on the driver