Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet fighter pilot in Viet Nam. After 75 missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb parachuted down into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison.

One day, Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant when a man from another table came up and said “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Viet Nam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”

“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb.

“I packed your parachute,” the man replied. “I guess it worked”. Plumb assured him, “It sure did. If your chute（降落伞） hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, “I kept wondering what he looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said ‘Good morning. How are you?’ or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was ‘just a sailor’”.

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds(伞罩) and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn’t know.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes.

1.Why didn’t Plumb say hello to the sailor each time he passed him on the Kitty Hawk?

A. He thought the sailor was just an unimportant man.   

B. He didn’t like him at that time.

C. He was very busy then. 

D. He didn’t know him well then.

2. What did the sailor do on the Kitty Hawk at the Viet Nam War?

A. weaved clothes for the pilots.          B. repaired the wooden table in the ship.

C. helped the jets start.                  D. packed the parachutes for the fighter pilots.

3. What does the writer think we should do?

A. We should help each other if they are in trouble. 

B. We shouldn’t look down upon the sailors.

C. We should be thankful to others’ help.

D. We should be honest to our friends.

4. Which is the best title for the passage?

A. A story about a sailor.                       B. Who pack your parachutes?

C. Don’t forget your past!                      D. Never forget your friends!

(2013·高考山东卷)I used to be a very self?centered person，but in the past two years I have really changed.I have started to think about other people ____ I think about myself.I am happy that I am becoming a ____ person.

I think my ____ started when I was at Palomar College.At first，I just wanted to get my ___ and be left alone.I thought I was smarter than everyone else，so I hardly ever ___ to anyone in my classes.By the end of my first semester，I was really ____.It seemed as if everyone but me had made friends and was having fun.So I tried a(n)____.I started asking people around me how they were doing，and if they were having trouble I ____ to help.That was really a big ____ for me.By the end of the year，I had several new friends，and two of ____ are still my best friends today.

A bigger cause of my new ____，however，came when I took a part?time job at Vista Nursing Home.One old lady there who had Alzheimer’s disease became my ____.Every time I came into her room，she was so ____ because she thought I was her daughter.Her real daughter never ____ her，so I took her place.She let me ____that making others feel good made me feel good too，when she died，I was ____，but I was also very grateful to her.

I think I am a much ____ person today than I used to be，and I hope I will not ____ these experiences.They have ____ me to care about other people more than about myself.I ____ who I am today，and I could not say that a few years ago.

1.A.since?? B．before

C．or?? D．unless

2.A.famous? B．simple

C．different?? D．skilled

3.A.education?? B．career

C．tour? D．change

4.A.balance? B．homework

C．degree? D．interest

5.A.talked?? B．wrote

C．lied?? D．reported

6.A.careful? B．lonely

C．curious? D．guilty

7.A.argument?? B．game

C．experiment?? D．defence

8.A.dared?? B．offered

C．hesitated?? D．happened

9.A.dream?? B．problem

C．duty?? D．step

10.A.us? B．which

C．them?? D．whom

11.A.attitude?? B．hobby

C．hope?? D．luck

12.A.friend? B．partner

C．guide?? D．guest

13.A.polite? B．happy

C．strange?? D．confident

14.A.bothered?? B．answered

C．visited?? D．trusted

15.A.explain? B．guess

C．declare? D．see

16.A.homeless? B．heartbroken

C．bad?tempered?? D．hopeless

17.A.quieter? B．busier

C．better?? D．richer

18.A.forget?? B．face

C．improve?? D．analyze

19.A.forced?? B．preferred

C．ordered?? D．taught

20.A.miss? B．like

C．wonder?? D．expect

My heart sank when the man at the immigration counter gestured to the back room. I was born and raised in America, and this was Miami, where I live, but they weren’t quite ready to let me in yet.

　 “Please wait in here, Ms. Abujaber,” the immigration officer said. My husband, with his very American last name, accompanied me. He was getting used to this. The same thing had happened recently in Canada when I’d flown to Montreal to speak at a book event. That time they held me for 45 minutes. Today we were returning from a literary festival in Jamaica, and I was shocked that I was being sent “in back” once again.

　　The officer behind the counter called me up and said, “Miss, your name looks like the name of someone who’s on our wanted list. We’re going to have to check you out with Washington.”

　　“How long will it take?”

　　“Hard to say…a few minutes,” he said, “We’ll call you when we’re ready for you.” After an hour, Washington still hadn’t decided anything about me.

“Isn’t this computerized?” I asked at the counter, “Can’t you just look me up?”

“Just a few more minutes,” they assured me.

　　After an hour and a half, I pulled my cell phone out to call the friends I was supposed to meet that evening. An officer rushed over. “No phones!” he said, “For all we know you could be calling a terrorist cell and giving them information.”

　　“I’m just a university professor,” I said. My voice came out in a squeak.

　　“Of course you are. And we take people like you out of here in leg irons every day.”

　　I put my phone away.

　　My husband and I were getting hungry and tired. Whole families had been brought into the waiting room, and the place was packed with excitable children, exhausted parents, and even a flight attendant.

　　I wanted to scream, to jump on a chair and shout: “I’m an American citizen; a novelist; I probably teach English literature to your children.”

After two hours in detention (扣押), I was approached by one of the officers. “You’re free to go,” he said. No explanation or apologies. For a moment, neither of us moved. We were still in shock. Then we leaped to our feet.

　　“Oh, one more thing,” he handed me a tattered photocopy with an address on it, “If you aren’t happy with your treatment, you can write to this agency.”

　　“Will they respond?” I asked.

　　“I don’t know—I don’t know of anyone who’s ever written to them before.” Then he added,” By the way, this will probably keep happening each time you travel internationally.”

　　“What can I do to keep it from happening again?”

　　He smiled the empty smile we’d seen all day, “Absolutely nothing.”

　　After telling several friends about our ordeal, probably the most frequent advice I’ve heard in response is to change my name. Twenty years ago, my own graduate school writing professor advised me to write under a pen name so that publishers wouldn’t stick me in what he called “the ethnic ghetto”—a separate, secondary shelf in the bookstore. But a name is an integral part of anyone’s personal and professional identity—just like the town you’re born in and the place where you’re raised.

　　Like my father, I’ll keep the name, but my airport experience has given me a whole new perspective on what diversity and tolerance are supposed to mean. I had no idea that being an American would ever be this hard.

1.The author was held at the airport because ______.

A. she and her husband returned from Jamaica

B. her name was similar to a terrorist’s

C. she had been held in Montreal

D. she had spoken at a book event

2.She was not allowed to call her friends because ______.

A. her identity hadn’t been confirmed yet

B. she had been held for only one hour and a half

C. there were other families in the waiting room

D. she couldn’t use her own cell phone

3.We learn from the passage that the author would ______ to prevent similar experience from happening again.

A. write to the agency?????????? B. change her name??

C. avoid traveling abroad??????? D. do nothing

4.Her experiences indicate that there still exists ______ in the US.

A. hatred???????????????????? B. discrimination?????

C. tolerance?????????????????? D. diversity

5.The author sounds ______ in the last paragraph.

A. impatient?? B. bitter???????? C. worried??????????? D. ironic (具有讽刺意味的)