In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some   36    it highly, believing that it is   37   for social progress and prosperity. Others say that   38   is bad, that it sets one person against another; that it   39   unfriendly relationship between people. 

I have taught many children who held the   40   that their self-worth relied on how well they   41    at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and –death affairs.  In their single-minded   42   of success, the development of many other human qualities is   43   forgotten.  

   44   , while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take a(n)   45   attitude. In a culture valuing only the winner and   46   to the ordinary players, they strongly   47   competition. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or   48   success.  By not trying, they always have a(n)   49  ：“I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter   50   I really didn’t try.”   51    , this belief is the same as    52   of the true competitors trying to prove themselves. Both are based on the   53   belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in    54   with others.  Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve（缓解）  55   a new meaning in competition.  

36．A．benefit                   B．influences             C．value                     D．impress

37．A．cheerful                 B．meaningful             C．comfortable            D．responsible

38．A．competition            B．ability                    C．knowledge             D．challenge

39．A．runs into            B．leads to                  C．comes from            D．begins with

40．A．promise              B．belief                    C．dream                    D．task

41．A．planned                 B．performed              C．delivered               D．practiced

42．A．pursuit                   B．memory                  C．behalf                    D．search

43．A．shyly                     B．cheerfully              C．sadly                     D．faithfully

44．A．Therefore               B．Meanwhile             C．However            D．Afterwards

45．A．proper                    B．suitable                   C．confident                   D．opposite

46．A．paying no attention        B．pays less attention  C．paid more attention        D．pays no attention

47．A．excuse                   B．blame                    C．charge                   D．trust

48．A．enjoy                     B．apply                   C．receive                   D．achieve

49．A．opinion                  B．explanation            C．excuse                   D．reason

50．A．unless                    B．so                          C．while                     D．because

51．A．Firmly                   B．Naturally                    C．Unfortunately       D．Clearly

52．A．that                      B．one                        C．it                           D．this

53．A．mistaken            B．different                 C．single                    D．common

54．A．consequence           B．comparison            C．connection             D．common

55．A．we can discover       B．can we discover      C．can discover            D．we discover

阅读下面短文，根据所读内容在表格中的空白处填入恰当的单词。

注意：每个空格只填一个单词。

Invention is a creative process. An open and curious mind enables one to see beyond what is known. Seeing a new possibility, a new connection or relationship can spark(引发) an invention. Inventive thinking frequently involves combining concepts or elements from different fields that would not normally be put together. Sometimes inventors skip over the boundaries between separate fields. Ways of thinking, materials, processes or tools from one field are used as no one else has imagined in a different field.

  Play can lead to invention. Childhood curiosity like playing in a sand box, imagination can develop one’s play nature—an inner need according to Carl Jung. Inventors feel the need to play with things that interest them, and to explore, and this internal drive brings about interesting creations.

  Inventing can also be an obsession(痴迷). Inventors often imagine a new idea, seeing it in their mind’s eye. New ideas can arise when the conscious mind turns away from the subject or problem; or when the focus is on something else; or even while relaxing or sleeping. An unusual idea may come all of a sudden! For example, after years of working to figure out the general theory of relativity, the solution came to Einstein suddenly in a dream “like a giant die making an unforgettable impress, a huge map of the universe summarized itself in one clear vision”.

  Invention can also be accidental. Insight(洞察力) is also an important element of invention. It may begin with questions or doubt. It may begin by recognizing something unusual. It may be useful and it could open a new way for exploration. For example, the odd metallic color of plastic made by accidentally adding too much catalyst(催化剂) led scientists to explore its metal-like properties(性能). They then invented electrically conductive plastic and light emitting(散发) plastic—an invention that won the Nobel Prize in 2000 and has led to new kind of lighting, display screens, wallpaper and much more.

Title:    1. 

I consider myself something of an expert on apologies. A quick temper has   36  me with plenty of opportunities to make them. In one of my earlier   37 , my mother was telling me “Don’t watch the   38  when you say, ‘I’m sorry’. Hold your head up and look at the person in the   39 , so he’ll know you   40  it.”
My mother thus made the key point of a(n)   41  apology: It must be direct. You must never   42  to be doing something else. You do not   43  a pile of letters while apologizing to a person   44   in position after blaming him or her for a mistake that turned out to be your   45 . You do not apologize to a hostess, whose guest of honor you treat   46 , by sending flowers the next day without mentioning your bad   47 .
One of the important things we should do for an   48  apology is a readiness to   49  the responsibility for our careless mistakes. We are used to making excuses, which leaves no   50  for the other person to   51  us. Since most people are open-hearted, the no-excuse apology leaves both parties feeling   52  about themselves. That , after all, is the   53  of every apology. It   54  little whether the apologizer is wholly or only partly at fault. Answering for one’s   55  encourages others to take their share of the blame.

完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）
Another person’s enthusiasm was what set me moving toward the success I have achieved. That person was my stepmother.
I was nine years old when she entered our home in rural Virginia. My father  __36__  me to her with these words: “ I would like you to meet the fellow who is ­­­­­__37__ for being the worst boy in this country and will probably start throwing rocks at you no __38__ than tomorrow morning.”
My stepmother walked over to me, __39__ my head slightly upward, and looked me right in the eye. Then she looked at my father and replied, “You are __40__. This is not the worst boy at all, __41__ the smartest one who hasn’t yet found an outlet(释放的途径) for his enthusiasm.
That statement began a(n) __42__ between us. No one had ever called me smart. My family and neighbors had built me up in my __43__ as a bad boy. My stepmother changed all that.
She changed many things. She __44__ my father to go to a dental school, from which he graduated with honors. She moved our family into the county seat, where my father’s career could be more __45__ and my brother and I could be better __46__.
When I turned fourteen, she bought me a secondhand __47__ and told me that she believed that I could become a writer. I knew her enthusiasm, I __48__ it, and I saw how it had improved our lives. I accepted her __49__ and began to write for local newspapers. I was doing the same kind of _ 50__ that great day I went to interview Andrew Carnegie and received the task which became my life’s work later. I wasn’t the __51__ beneficiary (受益者). My father became the __52__ man in town. My brother and stepbrothers became a physician, a dentist, a lawyer, and a college president.
What power _53__ has! When that power is released to support the certainty of one’s purpose and is __54__ strengthened by faith, it becomes an irresistible(不可抗拒的) force which poverty and temporary defeat can never __55__ .
You can communicate that power to anyone who needs it. This is probably the greatest work you can do with your enthusiasm.

Everyone has experienced trying, but failing to master a difficult book that was begun with the hope of increasing one's understanding. When that happens, it is ?　36　?to think that it was a mistake to try to read it, but that was not the mistake. The mistake was in ?　37　? too much from the first reading of a(n) ?　38　? book. If you read it in the right way, no book written for the ?　39　?reader, no matter how difficult, need be a cause for despair(令人失望).

What is the right method? The ?　40　? is an important and helpful rule of reading that is either not ?　41　? or often forgotten. That rule is simply this: when reading a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever ?　42　? to think about the things that you do not understand immediately.

Do not be stopped by what you ?　43　? understand. Read through the difficult ?　44　?,and you soon come to things that you do understand. Read these ?　45　?.You will have a much better chance of understanding all of the book when you read it again, but that ?　46　? you to have read the book through once ?　47　?.

What you understand by reading the book through to the ?　48　? will help you when you try later to read the places that you did not ?　49　? in your first reading. Or if you never re-read the book, understanding half of it is much better than understanding ?　50　? of it, which will happen ?　51　? you allow yourself to be stopped by the first difficult part of the book.?

Most of us were taught to ?　52　? the things that we do not understand. We were told to find the ?　53　? of unfamiliar words, and to try to find an explanation in another ?　54　? for anything that we did not understand in the book that we were reading. But when these things are done before the proper time, they only ?　55　? our reading, instead of helping it.

36. A. necessary     B. useful C. natural       D. effective?

37. A. learning       B. wanting      C. accepting    D. expecting?

38. A. easy     B. difficult     C. important   D. correct?

39. A. ordinary      B. young C. serious       D. sincere?

40. A. method B. question     C. answer       D. problem?

41. A. taught  B. known       C. sure    D. perfect?

42. A. starting B. hesitating   C. Stopping    D. repeating?

43. A. can't     B. won't  C. mustn't       D. wouldn't?

44. A. words   B. articles       C. parts   D. points?

45. A. quickly B. immediately      C. clearly       D. carefully?

46. A. requires       B. causes C. advises       D. allows?

47. A. later     B. after   C. before D. again?

48. A. top       B. end     C. bottom       D. cover?

49. A. see       B. turn    C. Notice D. understand?

50. A. anything      B. everything  C. nothing      D. something?

51. A. if B. so that C. whenever   D. as though?

52. A. put away     B. put down    C. think of      D. think about?

53. A. uses     B. Meanings   C. Spellings    D. troubles?

54. A. thinking      B. reading      C. Book  D. way?

55. A. harm    B. increase      C. Improve     D. prevent??