A few years ago, I had the opportunity to play the character of Ronald McDonald for the McDonald's Corporation.
One day each month，we visited hospitals bringing a little happiness to the children there. But there were two rules placed on me during a visit. First, I could not go anywhere in the hospital  without permission. And second, I could not physically touch anyone within the hospital. They did not want me to carry germs(细菌)from one patient to another. Breaking either of these rules, I was told, I could lose my job. One day, as I was heading down a hallway and on my way home, I heard a little voice coming through a half­opened door，“Ronald，Ronald.”
I stepped in and saw a boy，about five years old, lying in his dad's arms, Mom with a nurse on the other side. I knew by the feeling in the room that the situation was grave. I asked his name. He told me it was Billy and that I did a few simple magic tricks for him. As I stepped back to say good­bye, he asked me “Ronald, would you hold me？”
At such a simple request, my heart was screaming, “Yes！”But my mind was screaming louder. “No！You are going to lose your job！”
“Hold me” was such a simple request, and yet I searched for any reasonable excuses that allowed me to leave, but none. It took me a moment to realize that in this situation, losing my job may not be the disaster I feared. Then, I picked up this little boy. He was so weak and so scared. We laughed and cried for 45 minutes. With tears in my eyes, I left them. Less than 48 hours later, I received a phone call from Billy's mom that Billy had passed away. She and her husband simply wanted to thank me for making a difference in their little boy's life.
Billy's mom told me shortly after I left the room. Billy looked at her and said, “Momma, I don't care any more if I see Santa this year because I was held by Ronald McDonald.”
For the record, McDonald's Corporation did find it out, but, given the situation，permitted me to go on with my job. I continued as Ronald for another year before leaving the corporation to share the story of Billy and how important it is to take risks.
【小题1】The underlined word “grave” in Paragraph 3 means “________”.

 A well-known English magazine invited five people to answer a series of

questions. One of the questions is: Do you enjoy foreign food? Match the name of each person to one of the statements given below.

56. John Harvey:

  In fact if you go out to a restaurant, it’s very difficult to find the “British” cooking, but you can find almost anything else: French, Italian, Chinese, Indian and so on. London is full of foreign restaurants. I love trying “new dishes.” I think you can understand a lot about another culture from its food.

57. Jo Baker:

  I like foreign food, but not all. I particularly do not like Indian food, although I quite enjoy a mild curry I make myself. I like most European dishes, but Spanish food is quite low down on my list. However, I think you have to travel a long way to beat good old English cooking. What can be nicer than the aroma of a piece of beef roasted in the oven, surrounded by crisp roast potatoes and served with piping hot Yorkshire puddings, vegetables and gravy? From my point of view, I think foreign food is all right when you are abroad. You see, that’s just part of the enjoyment of travelling to another country. Foreign food is also fine for an odd night out to restaurant, but for every day please give me good old English food.

58. Gabby Macadam:

  On the whole I enjoy foreign food, but having said that I can think of dozens of foreign dishes which I simply can’t stand. You see, they have fish in some way or other and I never eat fish in any form. I have found that many foreign dishes are served with a kind of sauce. I think it is the accompanying sauce that hides all sorts of problems. I am not so sure that I would be as fond of them as I am if they were served without the sauce.

59. Len Dangerfield:

  When we English people travel abroad, we always make a great fuss about studying the menu but always end up with steak. You see, when I’m abroad I always miss our home cooking. I mean, I’m used to English food. Sometimes I do go to restaurant to taste some exotic dishes, but most of the time I still prefer to have English food. You know, it’s always difficult to get used to food in other countries.

60. Peter Hawke:

  I like foreign food. I particularly like Indian food. Well, I’m married to an Indian girl. She is a good cook. I’m so lucky to have her cook for me every day. I think Indian food as well as other foreign foods is generally tastier and spicier than English food. Traditional English dishes, like roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and fish and chips, are quite well-known abroad. But I must say as a nation we are not particularly good at catering. As far as I’m concerned, I think we should learn to cook more interesting dishes and make our food tastier and more varied.

A. Cooking varies from country to country even though the basic gradients may be very much the same.

B. I can’t stand those foreign dishes which contain fish in some way or other, and I’m not so sure that I’m fond of many foreign dishes which are served with a kind sauce.

C. I think foreign food is all right when you are abroad, but for every day, traditional English food is always my first choice.

D. Foreign dishes can be tasted occasionally, but I find it difficult to adjust to the tastes. So I still prefer English food.

E. I love foreign food, and I think people can understand a lot about another culture from what they eat.

F. English people should learn to cook more attractive dishes and make their food more delicious and varied.

It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas — oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it — overspending... the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma — the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.

As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.”

Mike loved kids — all kids — and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent the anonymously to the inner-city church.

On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years.

For each Christmas, I followed the tradition — one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.

The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn’t end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more.

Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.

55.　 Why did Mike get so bored with Christmas at first?

A.　 People would pour into stores to blindly purchase gifts over Christmas.

B.　 He wasn’t satisfied with the Christmas presents he had ever received.

C.　 People couldn’t come up with any fantastic ideas for Christmas gifts.

D.　 The true meaning of Christmas remained unchanged in people’s minds.

56．The writer mentions what the two teams wore in Paragraph 4 in order to _______.

A.　 show her pride in her children’s present living conditions

B.　 explain the reason why her son’s team won the match

C.　 reflect the financial difficulty of the inner-city church

D.　 express the shock those lower-class teenagers brought her

57. What did Mike mean by saying “losing like this could take the heart right out of them”

(Paragraph 6)?

A．They didn’t care whether they could win the match or not.

B．They didn’t acknowledge the defeat because of the unfairness.

C．Being defeated in this way could make them lose confidence.

D．Being defeated in this way could inspire them to train harder.

58．Mike’s bright smile at the note suggests.
A．what his wife had done as against the Christmas spirit.
B．he thought the very Christmas gift had real significance
C．what was written on the note was easy to understand
D．he was amused by the Christmas tradition of his family.
59．What happened at the first Christmas after Mike’s death?
A．The writer asked her children to follow their family tradition.
B．All the children stood around the Christmas tree with expectation.
C．The writer removed the Christmas tree to avoid thinking of Mike.
D．The children each put an envelope on the Christmas tree for their dad.
60．In the writer’s eyes, the white envelope is a symbol of　　　　 .
A．Mike’s spirit　　　　　 B．children’s love　　　　 C．unusual ideas　　　　　 D．special gifts

The iPhone has become one of the most popular mobile phones in the United States. An 18-year-o1d student in California has used his knowledge of the device to create his own business,gaining national recognition for his work.
Vincent Quigg is the CEO of TechWorld. His company is kind of like a hospital for iPhones,specializing in customizing and repairing iPhones. Vincent Quigg launched TechWorld while in high school. “My mom became single a couple of years ago and I had to grow up. And in order to keep my lifestyle, I had to find different ways to keep my phone, keep a car, transportation and all that stuff. So I had to find ways to be entrepreneurial.” An organization cal1ed the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. or NFTE, helped the young man get started. His mother, Carla Quigg: “He quit the class, which made me very disappointed.”
“It was extremely hard for myself to find a business to start and run with it. But once I had that ‘aha moment’or what I knew I wanted to go with, it was really easy and extremely fun.”
At the time, Vincent worked for the electronics store BestBuy. He says people always came into the store with broken electronic devices. He decided that repairing those devices was what he wanted to do. He not only re-registered for the NFTE class, but he also won the organization’s national competition for best young entrepreneur.His business has grown through word-of-mouth. Vincent says he now fixes up to l0 phones per week. He earns about $l,500 each month in sales. TechWorld has two other employees. Kacee Wheeler is one of them. He works on the technical side of the business while Vincent Quigg now deals with finances and planning. He says he wants to continue to grow his business.
【小题1】What is Vincent Quigg’s company specialized in?

The iPhone has become one of the most popular mobile phones in the United States. An 18-year-o1d student in California has used his knowledge of the device to create his own business,gaining national recognition for his work.

Vincent Quigg is the CEO of TechWorld. His company is kind of like a hospital for iPhones,specializing in customizing and repairing iPhones. Vincent Quigg launched TechWorld while in high school. “My mom became single a couple of years ago and I had to grow up. And in order to keep my lifestyle, I had to find different ways to keep my phone, keep a car, transportation and all that stuff. So I had to find ways to be entrepreneurial.” An organization cal1ed the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. or NFTE, helped the young man get started. His mother, Carla Quigg: “He quit the class, which made me very disappointed.”

“It was extremely hard for myself to find a business to start and run with it. But once I had that ‘aha moment’or what I knew I wanted to go with, it was really easy and extremely fun.”

At the time, Vincent worked for the electronics store BestBuy. He says people always came into the store with broken electronic devices. He decided that repairing those devices was what he wanted to do. He not only re-registered for the NFTE class, but he also won the organization’s national competition for best young entrepreneur.His business has grown through word-of-mouth. Vincent says he now fixes up to l0 phones per week. He earns about $l,500 each month in sales. TechWorld has two other employees. Kacee Wheeler is one of them. He works on the technical side of the business while Vincent Quigg now deals with finances and planning. He says he wants to continue to grow his business.

1.What is Vincent Quigg’s company specialized in?

A．Customizing and repairing iPhones.          B．Advertising and selling iPhones.

C．Helping students set up business.           D．Offering people medical advice.

2.What drove Vincent to start his own business?

A．His special family education background.

B．The need to keep his former way of 1ife.

C．The desire to be the CEO of a company.

D．The encouragement from another company.

3.What does the underlined phrase “aha moment” probably mean?

A．The moment to celebrate success.

B．The moment to comp1ain hardship.

C．The moment to have a great idea.

D．The moment to have great fun.

4.What can we 1earn from the text?

A．Vincent started his own business with the help of his col1ege.

B．Vincent went through great difficulty in the beginning.

C．Vincent promotes his business by large scale advertisements.

D．Vincent’s mother was disappointed by his achievement.