Recently I spoke to some of my students about what they wanted to do after they graduated, and what kind of job prospects they thought they had.
Given that I teach students who are training to be doctors, I was surprised to find that most thought that they would not be able to get the jobs they wanted without “outside help”. “What kind of help is that?” I asked, expecting them to tell me that they would need a relative or family friend to help them out.
“Surgery(外科手术)”, one replied. I was pretty alarmed by that response. It seems that the graduates of today are increasingly willing to go under the knife to get ahead of others when it comes to getting a job. One girl told me that she was considering surgery to increase her height. “They break your legs, put in special extending screws, and slowly expand the gap between the two ends of the bone as it regrows, you can get at least 5cm taller!”
At that point, I was shocked. I am short, I can’t deny that, but I don’t think I would put myself through months of agony(痛苦) just to be a few centimeters taller. I don’t even bother to wear shoes with thick soles, as I’m not trying to hide the fact that I am just not tall!
It seems to me that there is a trend toward wanting “perfection”, and that is an ideal that just does not exist in reality.
No one is born perfect, yet magazines, TV shows and movies present images of thin, tall, beautiful people as being the norm. Advertisements for slimming aids, beauty treatments and cosmetic surgery clinics fill the pages of newspapers, further creating an idea that “perfection” is a requirement, and that it must be purchased, no matter what the cost. In my opinion, skills, rather than appearance, should determine how successful a person is in his chosen career.
【小题1】We can know from the passage that the author works as ______.

Recently I spoke to some of my students about what they wanted to do after they graduated, and what kind of job prospects they thought they had.

Given that I teach students who are training to be doctors, I was surprised to find that most thought that they would not be able to get the jobs they wanted without “outside help”. “What kind of help is that?” I asked, expecting them to tell me that they would need a relative or family friend to help them out.

“Surgery(外科手术)”, one replied. I was pretty alarmed by that response. It seems that the graduates of today are increasingly willing to go under the knife to get ahead of others when it comes to getting a job. One girl told me that she was considering surgery to increase her height. “They break your legs, put in special extending screws, and slowly expand the gap between the two ends of the bone as it regrows, you can get at least 5cm taller!”

At that point, I was shocked. I am short, I can’t deny that, but I don’t think I would put myself through months of agony(痛苦) just to be a few centimeters taller. I don’t even bother to wear shoes with thick soles, as I’m not trying to hide the fact that I am just not tall!

It seems to me that there is a trend toward wanting “perfection”, and that is an ideal that just does not exist in reality.

No one is born perfect, yet magazines, TV shows and movies present images of thin, tall, beautiful people as being the norm. Advertisements for slimming aids, beauty treatments and cosmetic surgery clinics fill the pages of newspapers, further creating an idea that “perfection” is a requirement, and that it must be purchased, no matter what the cost. In my opinion, skills, rather than appearance, should determine how successful a person is in his chosen career.

1.We can know from the passage that the author works as ______.

A．a doctor          B．a model           C．a teacher          D．a reporter

2.Many graduates today turn to cosmetic surgery to______.

A．marry a better man\woman               B．become a model

C．get an advantage over others in job-hunt     D．attract more admirers

3.According to the passage, the author believes that ______.

A．everyone should purchase perfection, whatever the cost

B．it’s right for graduates to ask for others to help them out in hunting for jobs

C．media are to blame for misleading young people in their seeking for surgery

D．it is one’s appearance instead of skills that really matters in one’s career

4.What does the author think of his height?

A．He hates to be called a short man.

B．He tries to increase his height through surgery.

C．He always wears shoes with thick soles to hide the fact.

D．He just accepts it as it is

完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）

  阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36-55各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

    Night after night, as was often the case, she’d lean down and push my long hair out of the   36  ,then kiss my forehead.

I don’t remember when it first started   37   me. But it did. Finally one night, I shouted out as her, “Don’t do that any more – your hands are too   38  ！” She didn’t say anything in reply. But never again did my mother   39   my day with that familiar   40   of her love.

With the years passing, my thoughts   41  to that night, when I missed my mother’s hands, missed her goodnight   42   on my forehead. Sometimes the incident seemed very   43  , while sometimes far away. But always it was hidden in the back of my   44  . Now Mom is in her seventies, and those hands that I   45   thought to be so rough are still doing things for me and my   46  . And now my own children are grown and gone. One Thanksgiving Eve,   47   I slept in the bedroom of my youth, a   48   hand hesitantly run across my face to   49   the hair from my forehead. Then a kiss, ever so   50  , touched my brow.

In my memory, for the thousandth time, I recalled the night and my young voice   51  . “Don’t do that any more – your hands are too rough!”   52  , I caught Mom’s hand in hand, saying how   53  I was for that night. I thought she’d remember, as I did. But Mom didn’t know   54   I was talking about. She had forgotten, and forgiven long ago.

That night, I fell asleep with a new   55   for my gentle mother and her caring hands. And the guilt that I had carried around for so long was nowhere to be found.

1.A．place            B．way            C．order          D．shape

2.A．pleasing         B．frightening    C．satisfying     D．annoying

3.A．sweet            B．tough          C．ugly           D．rough

4.A．take up          B．give up        C．end up         D．break up

5.A．expressionB．symbol                C．promise        D．experience

6.A．remained         B．returned       C．occurred       D．missed

7.A．story            B．greeting       C．kiss           D．song

8.A．close            B．serious        C．different      D．unusual

9.A．brain            B．mind           C．spirit         D．heart

10.A．once            B．even           C．still          D．always

11.A．husband         B．children       C．family         D．father

12.A．as              B．before         C．although       D．since

13.A．rough           B．reliable       C．thin           D．familiar

14.A．tidy            B．touch          C．brush          D．wiped

15.A．gently          B．friendly       C．closely        D．weakly

16.A．wept            B．whispered      C．complained     D．struggled

17.A．On time         B．All at once    C．Once again     D．As usual

18.A．grateful        B．anxious        C．sorry          D．excited

19.A．where           B．why            C．what           D．whom

20.A．memory          B．sense          C．pleasure       D．appreciation

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，掌握其大意，然后从16-35各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

I still remember the day I was driving to the supermarket I own. When I came out, I found a boy 16 my car with a brush. I went over and patted (拍) him 17 the shoulder, which surprised him very much. In no time he began to 18 at me, so I was sure he   19 some money. From the shoes he was wearing I could hardly imagine how 20 he was. So I offered him a $100 bill. To my great surprise, he 21 to take it. When I was wondering what he was doing, he said, “I was waiting here for 4 hours, waiting for you. Your 22 is so beautiful and I like it, but I don’t need that.” I knew he was mentioning the 23.

As he had refused the money, I offered to drive him around the town. The boy became so 24 that he got into the car at once, “Would you please drive me 25? It is only about 3 miles.” What the boy wanted to do was to show off to his friends and his family.

26 I stopped, he jumped out and ran into an old building, telling me to wait there for some time. Very soon he came out, saying to a little girl on his back, “Look at this beautiful car. I will buy you 27 some day.”

I noticed his sister had a pale (苍白的) face. 28, her legs were too thin, and she was unable to 29. 

After that day I went to his home several times. And I got to know more about him and his 30. Poor as they were, the boy 31 refused my money, and said, “I can   32 money by myself, thank you.”

Soon I 33 my manager of the supermarket that a boy would go to 34 here the next day.

No matter how poor we are, we would 35 give in (屈服) to ourselves.

16. A. repairing             B. cleaning         C. fixing            D. hitting

17. A. over               B. off              C. in                  D. on

18. A. shout                B. cry                     C. smile                D. throw

19. A. lost               B. got                     C. received             D. needed

20. A. rich              B. poor            C. handsome              D. brave

21. A. begged           B. agreed           C. allowed           D. refused

22. A. car               B. shoes             C. suitcase           D. clothes

23. A. box              B. wheel            C. paper                D. bill

24. A. unhappy             B. scared         C. excited                 D. unfriendly

25. A. yard          B. office                  C. school            D. home

26. A. As soon as       B. As long as       C. As well as          D. So far as

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

28. A. So                B. However         C. What’s worse             D. In general

29. A. run              B. jump            C. climb                 D. walk

30. A. brother       B. family            C. friend            D. boss

31. A. no longer           B. at last          C. at first                   D. once again

32. A. spend             B. save                 C. make               D. borrow

33. A. told          B. asked            C. answered          D. warned

34. A. shop         B. work             C. sleep                   D. buy

35. A. always       B. often             C. ever                D. never

第二部分 阅读（共两节，满分80分）

第一节：阅读理解（共35小题；每小题2分，满分70分）

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从21~55各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

　　August has always been difficult for me. It is the time when I realize that the books my English teacher assigned to me are not going to read themselves and that I have a difficult month in front of me.

　　You might think that I don’t want to spend my summer reading, but that’s not the problem: I love reading. On the first day of my summer holidays this year, I went to the library and got “A Gathering of Old Men” by African-American writer Ernest Gaines. I enjoyed it very much. I read all the magazines that my parents subscribe to and spend about 30 minutes every day with the morning paper. So why do I hate summer reading for school? Because the books on summer reading lists are often slow-going and just uninviting. Teachers and librarians don’t understand that summer reading can be entertaining as well as educational. They choose books that a friend of my mother’s calls “spinach books”: good for you, but not much fun to take in. Every summer, I read them, hate them and get bitter about the experience.

　　This bitterness started three years ago when I was about to begin high school. As preparation, my English teacher told me to read “The Age of Innocence” by American author Edith Wharton. I’m sure there are many people who enjoyed “The Age of Innocence” — some might even say it’s their favorite book.

　　But I don’t think any of these people read it as a 14-year-old boy on his summer vacation.

　　“The Age of Innocence” is the story of a forbidden romance in New York 100 years ago. At 14, my only experience with romance was my love for baseball. I couldn’t imagine being in love, much less being in love in 1900. “The Age of Innocence” was totally different to my life.

　　Most of my required summer reading has been like that — books written in a style that plays up the adjectives and plays down the verbs. I guess teachers don’t think exciting plots make for “good literature”. To me, though, a good writer describes events and characters in a way that makes the reader want to know what happens next.

　　If I were making up a summer reading list, it would include “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” by George V. Higgins, “The Right Stuff” by Tom Wolfe, and “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer. These are all books that have literary value but, just as important, can also entertain kids on vacation. If the teachers could stand a little fun in the books they assign, my Augusts would be a lot more enjoyable.

1. The author thinks he will have a difficult August because ____________.

A. he doesn’t like reading in summer vacation

B. he is to read the books boring and not right for kids

C. he hates the English teacher assigning homework

D. he hates August

2. What can make students interested in August reading ought to be ___________.

A. romantic                                                      B. out of date

C. entertaining and educational                            D. pure

3. The author listed such books as “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” because he thinks __________.

A. they can change his opinion                            B. he can learn a lot more from them

C. they are of literary value, and enjoyable    D. he has to do as teachers tell him to

4. In the opinion of the author of this passage, a good writer should be ___________.

A. one who describes events and characters in different ways

B. one who is full of imagination         

C. one who is learned

D. one who uses a way of describing that makes the reader wish to know what to happen next

5. Which of the following could be the best title of this passage?

A. Why Can’t Teachers Set Us Fun Books?

B. I Don’t Like Reading on the Vacation

C. Teachers, Don’t Set Us Any Reading Assignments

D. Teachers, Set Us Free