I was too excited ______ .

When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings.
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. At last, I became very angry. 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 Daddy. 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】Which do you think would be the best title for this passage?

A．Week by week she discovered more shortcomings of mine and pointed them out to me.

B．She had made a list of my shortcomings and she kept on adding new ones to it so that it was growing longer and longer.

C．I was having more and more shortcomings as time went on.

D．Week by week, my shortcomings grew more serious.

I can still remember when I met my best friend．She had just moved into the neighborhood and her grandmother brought her down to   1  me．I hid behind my mother she hid behind her grandmother，   2   to look at each other．Soon we lost the    3 and started playing with each other．

In the 7^th grade，I first intentionally distanced myself from her．At that time, she was  4  family problems and I deserted her to be with me because she got _  5 than ever before．None of my new friends liked her as much as I did because they knew she had_  6 ．However，every summer we couldalways sit at each other’s house and watch soap operas，and talk about all the boys we liked．

It was last year when I noticed the problem．I guess I was too devoted in high school to    7   she needed someone there for her．Anyway，she made a new best friend and so did I．Then I didn’t know why，but she started cutting herself!

She then was diagnosed（诊断）with clinical depression．At first，I was very 8 ，but we still stayed in  __9___．I wanted to be there for her since her new best friend basically  10 __ her and people were calling her  11 ．

Yesterday she came to me and said：“I never knew what a best friend was until you were the only person that would stop me cutting．I  12 you so much，and you didn’t even know you were ___13 me．”

We both cried．And a kind of  14 that I learn from my life so far is never to give up on your friends．Even if they aren’t as warm as others，or people think they are crazy，they need someonethere．If you desert them，you will only be  15 yourself.

My First Job

Jay Leno is a very famous TV host in NBC．He started his talk show titled The Jay Lena Show in September 2009．It was a very popular TV programm in America．Here is the story of his first job．

I gained a very strong work concept from my parents, both of whom lived through a hard period of time-the Great Depression           （大萧条）．They couldn't ___36___ people who didn't work regularly．I once told my mom that Sylvester Stallone was getting $12 million for ten weeks of work．"What's he going to do the rest of the _37__?" she asked．

I took my first job at Wilmington Ford near my homerown of Andover, Massachusetts, when I was 16．I worked until five or six o'clock on school days and __38____ 12-hour days during the summer as a prepper（擦洗汽车的小工）．This meant washing and polishing the new cars, and making sure the paper floor mats were in __39__．Another responsibility was taking off the hubcaps (车轮毂盖） at night, so they wouldn't get stolen, and    40   them the next day．This was    41    work because we had about seven acres of   42 One day, carrying an armful of hubcaps    43   a corner, I almost __44__ our new general manager．Scared, I dropped them all．He __45 me on the spot．

I was too ashamed to tell my parents．Every day for about two weeks, I stayed __46  until evening．Then I would go home and say I had a ．__47___ day at work．

Trying to make a last    48   ,  I wrote a letter to Henry Ford II and told him what happened．I said that we were a reliable Ford family and that when I was old enough, I was going to buy a Mustang． __49__ the owner of the dealership(经营店） called．"I don't know who you know in Detroit．" he said．"but if you want your job back, you've  50 it.”

Later, during college, I wanted to work at a Roils-Royce dealership, but the owner said there were no openings．So 1 started washing cars there anyway．When the ___51__ noticed me, I said I was working until he _52__ me．He did．And the second day, I started to work there as a sales clerk．

It   53   persistence (坚持） to succeed．Attitude    54_ matters．I have never thought I was better than anyone else, but I have always believed I couldn't be _ 55  ．

1.                A．see            B．know           C．understand    D．love

2.                A．day            B．month          C．week D．year

3.                A．put in          B．took up         C．gave out  D．stuck to

4.                A．place          B．need           C．shape    D．fashion

5.                A．changing        B．selling          C．replacing D．cleaning

6.                A．hard           B．normal         C．regular   D．plain

7.                A．mats           B．cars            C．areas D．floors

8.                A．at             B．in             C．beyond   D．around

9.                A．broke into      B．looked across    C．crashed into   D．came across

10.               A．fired           B．left            C．punished  D．forgot

11.               A．calm           B．busy           C．still   D．alone

12.               A．stressful        B．relaxing        C．bad  D．great

13.               A．effort          B．change         C．dialogue   D．decision

14.               A．Gradually       B．Eventually       C．Temporarily    D．Hopefully

15.               A．reached        B．passed         C．got   D．caught

16.               A．prepper        B．owner         C．clerk D．customer

17.               A．helped         B．tired           C．hired D．called

18.               A．makes         B．shows          C．carries    D．takes

19.               A．also           B．even           C．never D．ever

20.               A．followed        B．scolded        C．defeated  D．interrupted

The clock struck eleven at night. The whole house was quiet. Everyone was in bed except me. Under the strong light，I looked sadly before me at a huge pile of that troublesome stuff（东西） they call “books”。

I was going to have my examination the next day.  “When can I go to bed？” I asked myself. I didn’t answer，In fact I dared not.

The clock struck twelve. “ Oh，dear！” I cried. “Ten more books to read before I can go to bed！” We pupils are the most wretched creatures（生物） in the world. Dad does not agree with me on this. He did not have to work so hard when he was a boy.

The clock struck one. I was quite desperate（绝望的）now. I forgot all I had learned. I was too tired to go on. I did the only thing I could. I prayed，“Oh，God，please help me pass the exam tomorrow. I do promise to work hard afterwards，Amen.” My eyes were so heavy that I could hardly open them. A few minutes later，with my head on the desk，I fell asleep.

1.The underlined word “wretched”in Paragraph 3 probably means _______ .

A．very happy.                            B．disappointed.

C．very unhappy.                          D．hopeful.

2.Reviewing his lessons didn’t help him because        .

A．it was too late at night.

B．he was very tired.

C．his eye lids were so heavy that he couldn’t keep them open.

D．he hadn’t studied hard before the examination.

3.What do you suppose happened to the author？

A．He went to a church to pray again.

B．He passed the exam by sheer luck.

C．He failed in the exam.

D．He was punished by his teacher.

4.The best title for the passage would be __________ .

A．The Night Before the Examination.

B．Working Far into the Night.

C．A Slow Student.

D．Going Over My Lessons.