Some time ago ,I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn’t think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended ,as there are a whole lot of antique shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception. I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair.

The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth - so I decided that my approach must be wrong.

I went into the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper,“ Would you like to buy a chair?” He looked it over carefully and said,“ Yes, not a bad chair. How much do you want for it, sir?” “Twenty pounds,”I said. “OK, ”he said, “I’ll give you twenty pounds. ”“It ‘s got a slightly broken leg,”I said. “Yes, I saw that, it's nothing.”

Everything was going according to plan and I was getting excited. “What will you do with it?”I asked. “Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done. ”“I'll buy it,”I said. “What do you mean？ You’ve just sold it to me,”he said. “Yes, I know but I’ve changed my mind. I'm sorry, I'll give you twenty -seven pounds for it. ”“ Your must be crazy, ”he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. “I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair. ”“ You’re right, ”I said. “And what would you have done if I had walked in and said,Would you mend this chair for me?I wouldn't have agreed to do it,” he said. “We don’t do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I’ll mend this for you, shall we say for a fiver?”He was a very nice man and was greatly amused by the whole thing.

1.We can learn from the text that in the first shop the writer ________.

A. was rather impolite               　　   B. was warmly received

C. asked the shopkeeper to repair his chair      D. asked the shopkeeper to buy his chair

2.The expression “the penny dropped” in the last paragraph means the shopkeeper ________.

A. changed his mind　　　　　　　       B. accepted the offer

C.decided to help the writer　　　　       D. saw the writer’s purpose

3.How much did the writer pay?

　A.　 ￡ 5.　　B. ￡ 7.　　    C. ￡ 20.　　　　D. ￡ 27.

4.From the text, we can learn that the writer was ________

　A. honest　　　　B. careful　　　　 C.　 funny　　 D. smart　

Fourteen – year – old Richie Hawley had spent five years studying violin at the Community School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles when he took part in a violin contest. Ninety two young people were invited to the contest and Hawley came out first．

　　The contest could have been the perfect setup for fear, worrying about mistakes, and trying to impress the judges. But Hawley says he did pretty well in staying calm. “I couldn’t be thinking about how many mistakes I’d make — it would distract me from playing,” he says. “I didn’t even remember trying to impress people while I played. It’s almost as if they weren’t there. I just wanted to make music.”

Hawley is a winner. But he didn’t become a winner by concentrating on winning. He did it by concentrating on playing well．

　　“The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part,” said the founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin. “The important thing in life is not the triumph (胜利) but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

　　A characteristic of high performers is their intense, pleasurable concentration on work, rather than on their competitors or future glory or money, says Dr. Charles Garfield, who has studied 1,500 achievers in business, science, sports, the arts, and professions. “They are interested in winning, but they are most interested in self - development, testing their limits.”

　　One of the most surprising things about top performers is how many losses they’ve had and how much they’ve learned from each. “Not one of the 1,500 I studied defined losing as failing,” Garfield says. “They kept calling their losses ‘setbacks’.”

　　A healthy attitude toward setbacks is essential to winning, experts agree．

　　“The worst thing you can do if you’ve had a setback is to let yourself get stuck in a long depression. You should analyze carefully what went wrong, identify specific things you did right and give yourself credit for them.” Garfield believes that most people don’t give themselves enough praise. He even suggests keeping a diary of all the positive things you’ve done on the way to a goal．

1.Hawley won the contest because ________．

A. he put all his mind to his performance

B. he cared much about the judges’ feelings

C. he tried his best to avoid making mistakes

D. he paid close attention to the people around

2.According to the passage, successful people concentrate on ________．

A. challenging their own limits                              B. learning from others

C. defeating their opponents                                    D. avoiding setbacks

3.The passage tells us that “praise” in times of trouble ________．

A. helps people deal with their disappointment

B. makes people forget their setbacks

C. makes people regret about their past

D. helps people analyze what went wrong

______ you understand the rule, you can do it well.

　 A. For 　 B. As  C. Once 　 D. While