There is a boy called Bill in my gym class who has unbearably yellow teeth that almost make everyone feel unpleasant. Recently another boy told Bill that he should “go Ajax” his teeth. Bill was crushed. If the other boy had been thinking, he would have realized that there is a better way to handle such a situation. He could have dealt with it with tact. He could have showed this hurtful truth in a more careful, sensitive way—that’s “tact”.

    If a person isn’t sensitive to another’s feelings, there is no way he or she can be tactful. Yesterday, my 5-year-old brother proudly announced that he had cleaned the screen on our television set. Unfortunately, he used furniture polish, which produced an oily film on the television screen. My mother smiled arid thanked him for his efforts—and then showed how to clean the screen properly. Her sensitivity enables my brother to keep his self-respect. Yet, sensitivity alone does not make tact.

    “Tactfulness” also requires “truthfulness”. Doctors, for example must be truthful. If a patient has just been disabled in an accident, a tactful doctor will tell the truth—but express it with sensitivity. The doctor may try to give the patient hope by telling them curing techniques under study or about advanced equipment now available. Doctors must use tact with patients’ relatives as well. Instead of bluntly saying, “Your husband is disabled,” a doctor might say, “I’m sorry, but your husband has lost feeling in his legs and. . .”

    Tact should not be confused with trickery. Trickery occurs when a nurse is about to give a patient an injection（注射） and says, “This won’t hurt a bit. ” Instead of trickery, the nurse might guarantee the patient that the discomfort of the injection is a small thing compared to the benefits of it. It would also be thoughtful for the nurse to tell the patients about some of these benefits.

    Tact is a wonderful skill to have, and tactful people are usually admired and respected. Without tact our society would become an intolerable place to live in.

1..

 The underlined word “crushed” in the first paragraph probably means         .

    A. surprised                            B. cheated         C. regretful        D. painful

2..

 According to the author, his mother’s praise for the brother is         .   A. sensitive and tactful                                       B. sensitive but not tactful enough

    C. truthful but not tactful enough                      D. sensitive but trickish

3..

 Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?

I’ll never forget my first daughter, who died too early from a bad accident. During those years, life was   36  . One Christmas I found my 3-year-old daughter   37  with a roll of golden wrapping paper. I had bought the paper to finish a rather important project. So I became   38  and scolded her loudly, “You are not good. And you are   39  your father’s money. You don’t know how hard your parents are working.” She was   40  and cried bitterly, running away.

    41 , she brought a gift, a golden   42  made of golden wrapping paper to me the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.” I was   43  of my earlier hurting words, but my anger rose again when I found out the box was   44 . I shouted at her, “Don’t you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside?” She   45  at me with tears in her eyes and cried, “Oh, Daddy, it’s not empty at all. I blew   46  into the box. They’re all for you, Daddy.”

I was completely   47 . I put my arms around her and begged for her   48 . A year later, a serious   49  took the life of my daughter. I was so sad that I   50  in bed for three days and three nights, saying nothing with tears rolling down my cheek. From then on, I hated cars and kept the golden box by my bed for many years. Whenever I was   51  , I would take out an imaginary kiss and   52  the love of my daughter who had put it there.

In a very real   53  , each one of us, as humans beings, has been given a golden container   54  with unconditional love and kisses ... from our children, family members, friends, and God. There are   55  no other possessions that anyone could hold more precious than this.

第二节   完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）

    阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Yesenia is a brave and nice person who has passed challenges in her life. And learning from

the past always makes her a focused person. Are you _____21_____ to know more about hts mysterious girl? Then let’s get started here.

First, her life was ______22______ for a girl of her age at that time because her childhood wasn’t as ______23_______ as other girls. It _______24________ with the death of her grandmother with whom she had a great relationship. Then, when she was eight years old, her ______25____ left because he had a fight with her mother over another woman. So she didn’t have a _____26____ family to raise her.

But, ______27______ time passed, she forgot her sadness and became the same girl again. After that, she had a(n) ________28_________ when she was in her grandmother’s house. It ______29_______ when she was playing with a lighted candle, and _______30______, the candle fell onto the table. The tablecloth caught fire and the flames ________31_______ her on the chest and on the arm.

No matter what happened, however, she continued to _______32______ in school. She graduated from school in 2000 and got the _______33_______she had expected. Then, she moved to America for ______34_______ study. English was very _____35____ for her because she had never studied it before. _____36_____, she worked as a volunteer in a hospital because she didn’t want to see people _____37_____ from accidents. This experience _____38_____ her braver.

Yesenia is a girl who has experienced ___39______ sufferings in her life but who I think will be happy in the USA and she really ______40______ it.

21. A. confused           B. serious          C. curious          D. tired

22. A. difficult            B. lucky               C. dull             D. disappointing

23. A. happy              B. equal                C. real             D. surprising

24. A. ended              B. started              C. combined         D. mixed

25. A. grandfather          B. sister               C. brother           D. father

26. A. complete            B. big                 C. modern           D. comfortable

27. A. after                B. as                 C. since              D. for

28. A. story                B. experience          C. accident          D. lesson

29. A. showed up           B. appeared            C. happened         D. took place

30. A. unacceptably         B. undoubtedly          C. unnaturally       D. unfortunately

31. A. hit                  B. exploded              C. spread           D. burned

32. A. live                 B. work                 C. study            D. calm

33. A. prize                B. diploma              C. reward           D. praise

34. A. farther              B. further               C. farthest          D. furthest

35. A. difficult             B. pleasant               C.  easy           D. popular

36. A. However            B. Thus                  C. Also             D. Therefore

37. A. benefit              B. suffer                C. lose              D. recover

38. A. kept                B. made                 C. forced            D. drove

39. A. many               B. little                 C. few              D. much

40. A. satisfies             B. catches               C. suits              D. deserves

In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child’s acquisition of each new skill-the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing．It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child: This might happen at any stage．A baby might be forced to use a toilet too early, a young child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads．On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself．

Patents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children．Some may be especially strict in money matters．Others are severe over times of coming home at night or punctuality for meals．In general, the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child’s own happiness．

As regards the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching．To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality．Also, parents should realize that “example is better than precept”．If they are not sincere and do not practice what they teach, their children may grow confused, and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled．

A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents’ principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment．

1.Eagerly watching the child’s acquisition of new skills _________．

2.In the process of children’s learning new skills, parents ______．

3.The second paragraph mainly tells us that __________．

4.In moral matters, parents should __________．

Joanne was stuck in a traffic jam in central Birmingham at 5: 30 and at 6: 30 she was expected to be chairing a meeting of the tennis club. At last, the traffic was moving. She swung quickly racing to her house. As she opened the door, she nearly tripped(绊) over Sheba.

    “Hey, Sheba,” she said, “I've got no time for you now, but I'll take you out as soon as I get back from tennis club.” Then she noticed Sheba seemed to be coughing or choking. Obviously, she could hardly breathe. Immediately, Joanne realized she would have to take her to the vet(兽医).

When she got there, the vet was just about to close for the day. Seeing the state of Sheba, Dr. Sterne brought her quickly into his office.

    “Listen, doctor, I’m really in a rush to get to a meeting. Can I leave her with you, and go and get changed? I'll be back in ten minutes to pick her up, and then I'll take her on to the meeting with me. Is that OK?”

“Sure.” said the doctor.

    Joanne made the quick trip back to her house in a couple of minutes. As she was once more entering the hallway, the phone by the door began to ring.

    “This is Dr. Sterne,” said an anxious voice. “I want you to get out of that house immediately,” said the doctor's voice. “I'm coming round right away, and the police will be there any time now. Wait outside!”

    At that moment, a police car screeched to a stop outside the house. Two policemen got out and ran into the house. Joanne was by now completely confused and very frightened. Then the doctor arrived.

    “Where’s Sheba? Is she OK?” shouted Joanne.

    “She’s fine, Joanne. I took out the thing which was choking her, and she’s OK now.”

    Just then, the two policemen reappeared from the house, half-carrying a white-faced man, who could hardly walk. There was blood all over him.

    “My God,” said Joanne, “how did he get in there? And how did you know he was there?”

    “I think he must be a burglar.” said the doctor. “I knew he was there because when I finally removed what was stuck in Sheba’s throat: it turned out to be three human fingers.”

1.Joanne wanted to get back to her home again _____.

A. to dress up for the meeting              B. to phone the police station

C. to catch the badly hurt burglar          D. to wait for her dog to be cured

2.From the passage, we can infer that _____.

A. Sheba fought against the burglar

B. the police found the burglar had broken in

C. Joanne had planned to take her dog to the meeting

D. the doctor performed a difficult operation on the dog

3.In this passage, the writer intends to tell us that the dog is _____.

A. clever               B. friendly         C. frightening      D. devoted