When I was a child, I had an old neighbour named Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any other doctor I’ve ever known. He never  11__ at us for playing in his yard. I remembered him as a kind and  _12_ person

   When Dr. Gibbs didn’t work, he planted trees. His house covered an area of ten acres, and his life’s goal was to make it _ 13_ .

   He had some interesting _ 14 _ concerning planting. He belonged to the “No pains, no gains”  __15  of plant growing. He never watered his new trees. Once I asked  _16__, he said, “Watering plants will spoil them, and if you water them, each successive tree_ 17_ will grow weaker and weaker. So you have to make things 18__for them and weed out the weak ones.” So he never watered his trees. He would _19__a pine, and instead of _20__it every morning, he beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. I __21__ him why he did so, and he said it was to get the tree’s _22__.

   I planted a couple of trees a few _23__ ago. I carried water to them for a solid summer, sprayed them and prayed over them. Two years of careful tending has _24__ in trees that expect to be _25__ to hand and foot. Whenever a cold wind blows in, they tremble their branches.

   Dr. Gibbs passed away a _26__of years after I left home. Now and then, I walked by his house and looked at the trees. They’re _27__ now, big and healthy.

   Funny things about Dr. Gibbs’ trees. Hardship and difficulty seemed to benefit them _28__

comfort and ease never could.

   Life is tough, whether we want 29_ to be or not. Too many times we pray for ease, but that’s a prayer seldom met. What we need to do is to pray for 30_ that reach deep into the earth, so when the rains fall and the winds blow, we won’t be swept away.

1.A. shouted       B. shot             C. aimed            D. pointed

2. A. cruel             B. greedy           C. pleasant         D. disciplined

3.A. museum         B. park             C. playground       D. forest

4. A. features          B. theories         C. characters       D. instructions

5.A. class              B. college          C. school           D. university

6.A. what          B. when             C. how             D. why

7. A. image             B. product          C. generation       D. species

8.A. cheap         B. easy             C. expensive        D. rough

9. A. paint             B. plant            C. uproot           D. establish

10.A. starving          B. beating          C. watering         D. feeding

11.A. asked             B. told             C. informed        D. demanded

12.A. approval          B. attention        C. pain             D. communication

13. A. weeks            B. months           C. years            D. days

14.A. resulted          B. produced         C. believed         D. spent

15.A. treated           B. tended           C. supported        D. attended

16.A. number            B. couple           C. row             D. period

17.A. trembling         B. dying            C. strong          D. intelligent

18.A. while             B. though           C. as               D. and

19. A. them             B. that             C. it               D. this

20.A. trunks           B. roots            C. branches          D. Leaves