He lived his whole life as a poor man. His art and talent were recognized by almost no one. He suffered from a mental（精神的）illness that led him to cut off part of his left ear in 1888 and to shoot himself two years later. But after his death, he achieved world fame. Today, Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh is recognized as one of
the leading artists of all time.
　　Now, 150 years after his birth on March 30, 1853, Zundert, the town of his birth, has made 2003 “The van Gogh Year”in his honor. And the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, home to the biggest collection of his masterpieces, is marking the anniversary（周年纪念）with exhibitions throughout the year. The museum draws around 1.3 million visitors every year. Some people enjoy the art and then learn about his life. Others are first interested in his life, which then helps them understand his art.
Van Gogh was the son of a pastor（牧师）. He left school when he was just 15. By the age of 27, he had already tried many jobs including an art gallery（画廊）salesman and a French teacher. Finally in 1880, he decided to begin his studies in art.
Van Gogh is famed for his ability to put his own emotions into his paintings and show his feelings about a scene. His style is marked by short, broad brush strokes（笔画）.“Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes, I use color more freely, in order to express myself more forcibly,” he wrote in a letter to his brother in 1888.
Van Gogh sold only one painting during his short life. He relied heavily on the support from his brother, an art dealer who lived in Paris. But now his works are sold for millions of dollars. His portrait of Dr. Gacher sold for $89.5 million in 1990. It is the highest price ever paid for a painting. “I think his paintings are powerful and the brilliant colors in them are attractive to people,” said a Van Gogh’s fan.
【小题1】All through his life, Van Gogh __________.

The way people hold to the belief that a fun - filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain.
As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably(不可避免的)brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment (义务), self - improvement.
Ask a bachelor(单身汉)why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.
Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three - day vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates（解放） time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.
1. According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because _______ .
A. he finds more fun in dating than in marriage
B. he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single
C. he is reluctant to take on family responsibilities
D. he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement
2. Raising children, in the author’s opinion is ________ .
A. a rewarding task                  B. a thankless job
C. a moral duty                     D. a source of inevitable pain
3. From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from(由…造成)________ .
A. hatred　　 B. ignorance      C. prejudice(偏见)　　　D. misunderstanding
4. To understand what true happiness is one must ________ .
A. have as much fun as possible during one’s lifetime
B. be able to distinguish happiness from fun
C. put up with pain under all circumstances
D. make every effort to liberate oneself from pain
5. What is the author trying to tell us?
A. It is important to make commitments     B. One must know how to attain happiness.
C. Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain.   D. It is pain that leads to happiness.

 I live in Hollywood. You may think people in such an attractive, fun-filled place are _________ than others. If so, you have some ________ ideas about the nature of happiness.

　　Many intelligent people still equate(同等看待) happiness with ________. The _______ is that fun and happiness have ______ or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is ________ we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more lasting emotion.www.zxxk.com

Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun ______ that help us relax, ________ forget our problems and maybe even ________. But they do not bring happiness, because their _______ effects end when the fun ______.

    I have often thought that ______ Hollywood stars have a role to ________, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful individuals have constant _________ to glamorous parties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that spells “happiness”.

    But celebrities reveal(揭露) the ________hidden beneath all their fun: depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children and profound loneliness.

    The way people stick to the _______ that a fun-filled, pain-free life equates happiness actually _____ their chances of ever obtaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equated with happiness, then pain ______ be equated with unhappiness. But, _______, the opposite is true: More times than not, things that lead to happiness _______ some pain.

    As a result, many people avoid the very efforts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment, civic or charitable work, and self-improvement.www.zxxk.com

1.A. luckier               B. happier                 C. richer                             D. tougher

2.A. mistaken                    B. right                      C. desperate                     D. shallow

3.A. wealth                       B. fame             C. fun                        D. pleasure

4.A. state                                     B. belief                    C. tendency             D. truth

5.A. a little               B. some                    C. little                               D. much

6.A. which                 B. that              C. what                      D. as

7.A. activities                     B. occasions    C. periods                          D. games

8.A. gradually                    B. temporarily         C. consequently               D. thoroughly

9.A. change              B. enjoy                     C. refresh                          D. laugh

10.A. special                     B. deep                     C. strong                            D. positive

11.A. comes             B. ends             C. lasts                                 D. returns

12.A. when                        B. as                          C. once                      D. if

13.A. play                                    B. make            C. reach                              D. expect

14.A. signature                 B. participation       C. access                            D. appearance

15.A. secrets                    B. unhappiness       C. presentation                D. disagreement

16.A. prejudice                B. sense                     C. theory                            D. belief

17.A. reduces                    B. robs                      C. consumes                     D. increases

18.A. may                                     B. must             C. can                                  D. will

19.A. as usual                    B. as a result    C. in fact                            D. in a word

20.A. abuse                        B. involve                 C. cause                             D. equal

　　Treasure hunts（寻宝）have excited people's imagination for hundreds of years both in real life and in books such as Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. Kit Williams, a modern writer, had the idea of combining the real excitement of a treasure hunt with clues（线索）found in a book when he wrote a children's story, Masquerade, in 1979.The book was about a hare, and a month before it came out Williams buried a gold hare in a park in Bedfordshire. The book contained a large number of clues to help readers find the hare, but Williams put in a lot of "red herrings", or false clues, to mislead them.

　　Ken Roberts, the man who found the hare, had been looking for it for nearly two years. Although he had been searching in the wrong area most of the time, he found it by logic（逻辑）, not by luck. His success came from the fact that he had gained an important clue at the start. He had realized that the words: "One of Six to Eight "under the first picture in the book connected the hare in some way to Katherine of Aragon, the first of Henry VIII's six wives. Even here, however, Williams had succeeded in misleading him. Ken knew that Katherine of Aragon had died at Kimbolton in Cambridge shire in 1536and thought that Williams had buried the hare there. He had been digging there for over a year before a new idea occurred to him. He found out that Kit Williams had spent his childhood near Ampthill, in Bedfordshire, and thought that he must have buried the hare in a place he knew well, but he still could not see the connection with Katherine of Aragon, until one day he came across two stone crosses in Ampthill Park and learnt that they had been built in her honor in 1773.

　　Even then his search had not come to an end. It was only after he had spent several nights digging around the cross that he decided to write to Kit Williams to find out if he was wasting his time there. Williams encouraged him to continue, and on February 24th 1982, he found the treasure. It was worth ￡3000 in the beginning, but the excitement it had caused since its burial made it much more valuable.

67. The underlined word "them"（Paragraph 1）refers to ____.

　　A. red herrings                    B. treasure hunts

　　C. Henry VIII's six wives     D. readers of Masquerade

68. What is the most important clue in the story to help Ken Roberts find the hare？

　　A. Two stone crosses in Ampthill.

　　B. Stevenson's Treasure Island.

　　C. Katherine of Aragon.

　　D. Williams’ home town.

69. The stone crosses in Ampthill were built ____.

　　A. to tell about what happened in 1773

　　B. to show respect for Henry VIII's first wife

　　C. to serve as a road sign in Ampthill Park

　　D. to inform people where the gold hare was

70. Which of the following describes Roberts’ logic in searching for the hare?

　　a. Henry VIII's six wives

　　b. Katherine's burial place at Kimbolton

　　c. Williams’ childhood in Ampthill

　　d. Katherine of Aragon

　　e. stone crosses in Ampthill Park

　　A. a-b-c-e-d       B. d-b-c-e-a

　　C. a-d-b-c-e       D. b-a-e-c-d

71. What is the subject discussed in the text？

　　A. An exciting historical event.

　　B. A modern treasure hunt.

　　C. The attraction of Masquerade.

D. The importance of logical thinking.

What color do you like best? Do you like yellow, orange and red? If you do, you must be an optimist, a leader, or an active person who enjoys life, people and excitement. Do you prefer grey and blue? Then you are probably quiet, shy and you would rather follow than lead. If you love green, you are likely to be strong-minded and determined. You wish to succeed and want other people to see you are successful. At least this is what psychologists （心理学家）tell us. They have been seriously studying the meaning of color preference, and the effects that colors have on human beings. They tell us that we don’t choose our favorite color as we grow up. If you happen to love brown, you do so as soon as you open your eyes, or at least as soon as you could see clearly.
　　Black is depressing while light and bright colors make people not only happier but more active. A yellow room makes us feel more cheerful and more comfortable than a dark green one does, and a red dress adds warmth and cheer to sad winter days. It is a fact that factory workers work better, harder and have fewer accidents when their machines are painted orange rather than black or dark grey.
　　Remember, then, that if you feel low, you can always brighten your day or your life with a few colorful things. Also remember that you will know your friends (and your enemies) better when you find out what colors they like and dislike. And don’t forget that anyone can guess a lot about you when you choose a piece of handkerchief.
67. 【小题1】According to the passage, men’s 110-meter hurdles Olympic champion and world record holder Liu Xiang is most likely to love the color ______.