I was sitting in class one day when a new kid came in , He was called Christian and he was short and wore a pair of glasses, He walked up to the teacher and told her ,very  36   ,that he was new , The teacher  37  to the empty desk next to me . He sat down , looked briefly at me ,and then looked  38   . I didn’t think he was very nice , and certainly not the   39  I would like to become friends with ,

Over the year，I 40 talked to him，but he smiled at me when our eyes met, always shyly, He never talked to anybody   41 me.

But one day I  42  the unkind kids who were teasing him．We made fun of him   43  in my head I knew it was wrong . “Haven’t you got any friends ?”A kid asked Christian，who had walked past us  44   .“No，he hasn’t got any friends．He’s too  45   .”I said．

Then Christian looked up at me with the saddest eyes I had ever seen. My heart    46 .

In the weeks that followed, he never met my47 in class and never smiled at me. It was really hard for me to  48  to write him a note asking him to   49  it . I knew I had to because I couldn’t    50 the guilt and sadness that I felt  51  I saw him .

The next day in class, I wrote him a note   52 . About five minutes later .I turned and saw tears in his eyes. Later he told me that I would never realize how much my apology had  53   to him. Over the years at high school, we became    54 friends.

Apologies can really change your life , so never55  a chance to tell somebody you are sorry,

My newly-rented small apartment was far away from the centre of London and it was becoming essential for me to find a job, so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the underground. They were looking for guards, not drivers. This suited me. I couldn’t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train, and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations. The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors. T.S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company. I’d be a subway guard. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis（艰难危险时期）. Obviously I’d be overqualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges — those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre.

The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after about half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about fifty candidates. The interviewer sat at a desk. Candidates were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.

I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job?” “Why did you leave your job before that?” “And the one before that?” I can’t recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You’ve failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position.”

Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such jobs — being a postman is another one I still desire — demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.

The writer applied for the job chiefly because _________.

A．he wanted to work in the centre of London    

B．he could no longer afford to live without one

C．he was not interested in any other available job 

D．he had received some suitable training

The writer thought he was overqualified for the job because _________.

A．he often traveled underground           B．he had written many poems

C．he could deal with difficult situations    D．he had worked in a company

The length of his interview meant that _________.

A．he was not going to be offered the job    B．he had not done well in the intelligence test

C．he did not like the interviewer at all      D．he had little work experience to talk about

What does the writer realize now that he did not realize then?

A．How unpleasant ordinary jobs can be.   B．How difficult it is to be a poet.

C．How unsuitable he was for the job.    D．How badly he did in the interview.

What’s the writer’s opinion of the psychologist?

A. He was very aggressive（有进取心的）.      B. He was unhappy with his job.

C. He was quite inefficient.                    D. He was rather unsympathetic.

基础训练篇（23）

There was once a teacher in a village. He was a man named Goldsmith. He was a kind-hearted man. He was always poor (1)___________. He taught himself  (2)___________, so sometimes people called him Doctor Goldsmith. One day a poor woman asked Mr. Goldsmith to go and see her husband, because he was very ill and couldn’t get up. Mr. Goldsmith did (3)____________. He found that the family needed help very much. The man had been out of work for a long time, but he was not (4)__________. He was just hungry because there was no food in his house.

“Come to my room this (5)_________”said Mr. Goldsmith to the woman, “I will give you some medicine for your husband.”

In the evening the woman came. Mr. Goldsmith gave her a little paper box.

“(6)__________is the medicine,” he said.” Take it and it will (7)_________ your husband a great deal of good, but don’t open the box until you get home.”

“What are the directions for (8) _________ it?” asked the woman.

“You will find them inside the box.” he answered.

When the woman (9)_______________ home, she sat down by her husband’s side, and they opened the box. They found it was full of money. And on the top were the (10)______________(direction)：“TAKE IT WHEN YOU NEED IT.”

Goldsmith had given all the money he had.

Keving Rogers used to be my boss.At that time he always told us to sell more.As soon as I could,I left his shop and got a new job in another place.The last time I saw Rogers was more than ten years ago.At least that’s what I thought.But now I am not so sure.

I was on my way to my office in the centre of town.There is a small park nearby,which I sometimes walk through after lunch.The park was almost empty except for a shabby-looking man on one of those benches（凳子）.The man looked about fifty years old and was wearing an old gray coat.It was cold and windy,and he was trembling(哆嗦).

“It’s a long time since I had a meal.Can you help me?”he said.There was something about his voice that sounded familiar.I gave him a few pennies.As he went past me I looked at his face closely.I wondered where I had seen him before.Then it suddenly came to me.Could it possibly be…? No!Impossible,I thought.I watched him walking away.He was the same height as Rogers but looked a lot thinner than I remembered.

Yesterday I ran into someone who had worked for Rogers at the same time as I did,and had stayed on longer.I started telling him about the man I had seen in the park.”For a moment I thought it was our old boss.But it couldn’t have been.Rogers must be the head of a company now.”I said.

My ex-workmate shook his head,”I thought you knew.” “Knew?Knew what?What are you talking about?”

“Rogers was sent to prison six years ago.He’s probably been out by now.For all I know he is sleeping on park benches and begging money from passers-by.”

1.Where did the writer last meet Rogers?

2.Which of the following happened first?

3.The sotry doesn’t mention anything about______.

4.The reason why the man was trembling was that______.

At two o’clock a bank robber stole in.“This is a holdup,” the man said loudly. He took a gun from under his jacket, pointing to George.“Hand it over!” George reached into his money-box and took all the bills from the top part-close to six thousand dollars. The robber took them and turned to leave.

　　Then, while everyone watched the robber, George calmly lifted the top part of the money-box, took bills from the bottom part and put them into his own pocket secretly.

　　The door was shut and the bank robber was gone. George fainted（晕倒）.

　　As soon as he was safely behind his bedroom door, George counted the money. He had eight thousand dollars. He was very happy.

　　The next morning, while the others were examining the bank's records, George was called into Mr Burrow's office and was introduced to Mr. Carruthers, who used to be president of the bank.

　　“Good morning, George, I was sorry to give you a hard time yesterday, but with all the banks being robbed these days I thought it would be a good idea to prove that our little bank can be robbed too. I have retired（退休）, but I’m always thinking of our bank. That's why I played my little game yesterday, just to keep everyone on his toes（趾）. Now, I have put the money back in your money-box all six thousand.”

This passage tells us ______.

A. a serious case            B. one part of a play

C. a humorous story          D. a meaningful story

Which of the following do you think is true?

A. George wanted to protect the money for the bank.

B. George had been thinking of taking money away.

C. This bank had been robbed several times.

D. Nobody knew the bank would be robbed that day.

Why was George called into Mr. Burrow’s office?

A. His stealing money was disclosed.

B. Mr. Burrow wanted to say sorry to him.

C. Mr. Carruthers wanted to explain the whole thing to him.

D. Mr. Burrow wanted to tell him the money had been put back.

In this article “to keep everyone on his toes” means “______”.

A. to make everyone work hard

B. to keep everyone standing straight

C. to make everyone do a kind of exercise

D. to keep everyone paying attention to the coming danger

Which sentence can be used to end the story?

A. George turned cold with fear.          B. George turned red with anger.

C. George was pleased with the end.       D. George was disappointed with the end.