There was a gardener who looked after his garden with great care. To water his flowers, he used two buckers. One was a shiny and new bucket. The other was a very old and dilapidated one, which had seen many years of service, but was now past its best.
Every morning, the gardener would fill up the two buckets. Then he would carry them along the path, one on each side, to the flowerbeds. The new bucket was very proud of itself. It could carry a full bucket of water without a single drop spilled . The old bucket felt very ashamed because of its holes: before it reached the flowerbeds, much water had leaked along the path.
Sometimes the new bucket would say, “See how capable I am! How good it is that the gardener has me to water the flowers every day! I don't know why he still bothers with you. What a waste of space you are!”
And all that the old bucket could say was, “I know I’m not very useful, but I can only do my best. I’m happy that the gardener still finds a little bit of use in me, at least.”
One day, the gardener heard that kind or conversation. After watering the flowers as usual, he said, “You both have done your work very well. Now I am going to carry you back. I want you to look carefully along the path.”
Then the two buckets did so. All along the path, they noticed, on the side where the new bucket was carried, there was just bare earth; on the other side where the old bucket was carried, there was a joyous row of wild flowers, leading all the way to the garden.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “dilapidated” probably mean?

Mr. and Mrs. Moore were invited to a Christmas party at a hotel one year. They      their car outside and went in. Mr. Moore had never got drunk (醉) before, so he was      not to drink too much,        his friends asked him to drink more        .

　　 During the party, Mrs. Moore found that she had      to bring her bag, so she asked her husband to go out to the car and       it for her. He      so, but on his way back to the hotel gate, he heard a car horn(喇叭) blowing near his own car. He thought        might be in need of help and went over to the car with the      . He found a small black bear sitting in the driving-seat and blowing the horn.

　　 When Mr. Moore        the party, he told several people about the bear, but of course they did not believe him and thought he was drunk. When he took them out of the hotel to        that his story was      , he found that the car with the       in it had gone. There were so many____about Mr. Moore's black bear during the next week that he at last put an advertisement(广告) in the newspaper;“If anyone saw a black bear blowing the horn in a car outside the Century Hotel       the evening of Christmas Day, please tell…”

　 Two days later      Mrs. Richards called him and said that she and her husband had left their pet (宠物) bear in their car outside the Century Hotel for a few minutes that evening, and that       he had blown the horn.

Mrs. Richards did not      to think there was anything     about that.“Our bear likes blowing car horns,”she said,“and we don't       when we are not driving the car.”

1.A. pulled          B. stayed             C. left          D. hid

2.A. polite           B. careful            C. glad                  D. afraid

3. A. whether              B. until                C. Or                  D. though

4. A. all along        B. once again          C. just then     D. for ever

5. A. learned                 B. known            C. remembered       D. forgotten

6.A. buy           B. get               C. send               D. return

7.A. said    B. went               C. did                  D. thought

8. A. on                    B. someone           C. his wife      D. the bear

9.A. noise                   B. voice             C. cry                  D. shout

10.A. was sent to       B. was seated at       C. got rid of   D. got back to

11.A. show                B. notice             C. require             D. promise

12.A. interesting     B. correct            C. true                 D. exciting

13.A. horn                 B. bear               C. bag                 D. driving-seat

14. A. laughs    B. shouts        C. smiles   D. calls

15. A. for                   B. at                 C. in                   D. on

16. A. the                  B. a                  C. /            D. some

17.A. quickly                 B. completely         C. maybe              D. almost

18.A. mean               B. have              C. know              D. seem

19.A. useful                 B. strange              C. common            D. bad

20.A. agree                B. like                  C. mind                D. worry

Once upon a time there was a wise man that used to go to the sea to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day he was walking along the shore. As he looked down at the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought that someone would dance on the beach. So he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn’t dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and throwing it into the ocean. As he got closer, he called out, “Good morning! What are you doing?’’

The young man paused, looked up and replied, “Throwing starfishes (海星) in the ocean.”

“I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfishes in the ocean?”

“The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don’t throw them in, they’ll die”.

“But, young man, don’t you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfishes all along it. You can’t possibly make a difference!”

The young man listened politely. Then he bent down, picked another starfish and threw it into the sea, and said, “It made a difference for that one.” There is something very special in each and every one of us. We have all been gifted with the ability to make a difference. And if we can know that gift, we will gain through the strength of our vision of the power to shape the future.

We must each find our starfish. And if we throw our starfish wisely and well, the world will be better. 

1.One day, the wise man saw a young man _____.

A. dancing along the beach     

B. walking with a dancer

C. picking up starfish for sale  

D. trying to save as many starfishes as possible

2.The underlined words “something very special” refers to _____. 

A. the gifts from friends   

B. the strength of making decision

C. our own starfish 

D. the ability to make a difference

3.From the last two paragraphs, we can learn that _____.

A. the wise man realized something new and important

B. the wise man thought it was foolish of the young man to throw starfishes in the ocean

C. the young man had the ability to make a difference

D. it is necessary for us to save starfish on the beach

4.The writer told this story to show us _____.   

A. how and where we can write a good article  

B. everyone can do something for the future

C. wise men are sometimes stupid           

D. young men are in fact wiser than old people

Once there was a young woman who didn’t like her job. Everyday when she came home from work, she told her husband how terrible her day had been, how tiring the work and how unreasonable her boss. “Leave that job,” her husband told her.
“Oh, I will,” she said. “But not yet. I have too many friends there for me to leave.” And so she remained unhappy at work until the years became decades and her children had children. “Leave that job,” her grandchildren told her. “Oh, I will,” she said. “But not yet. There are only seven more years until I reach thirty years of service and can retire. So I can’t just yet.”
I know this woman. And her story reminds me of an old dog half asleep on the porch of a general store, moaning and groaning in the sun. “Why is your dog acting that way?” a customer asked the store owner. “Oh,” answered the man. “He’s lying on a nail.” “Well, why doesn’t he move?” “Because it’s not hurting him bad enough.”
That’s true for people, too. We convince ourselves the pain is not bad enough to leave the workplace we know. But we’re wrong. Prolonged work pain is continuing. Some work pain damages our self-esteem, kills our passion or destroys our dreams.
Wilbur Wright once commented, “We could hardly wait to get up in the morning. I know that exhilarating feeling of being so passionate about something I was working on that I couldn’t wait to get back to work. And people who are winning at working know that kind of passion, too.”
They get excited about work. They offer their unique gifts and talents eagerly. And when things don’t change as they sometimes will, they refuse to let environment hijack(劫持) their self-esteem, passion or dreams.
【小题1】The woman complained to her husband every day because   .

Are you an optimist? Do you look at your glass and see it as half full? Do you believe that every cloud has a silver lining and that generally things turn out for the best? Do you believe that if something is meant to be, it will be? If you reply “yes” to all of these questions, then you are an optimist. You probably are enthusiastic, cheerful and outgoing. You may well be successful atwork and in love.

But you may be misguided because things don’t turn out for the best. You may believe that when one door closes another one opens (for example，you may fail to obtain a new job，another chance will come around soon), Wrong. When one door closes, another door slams in your face. That's bitter reality.
Now a book has been published which confirms what we pessimists(悲观者）have suspected all along. It's called The Positive Power of Defensive Pessimism. Its author argues that defensive pessimism can lead to positive results. Defensive pessimism is a strategy used to manage fear, anxiety and worry. Defensive pessimists prepare for things by setting low outcomes for themselves. They carefully consider everything that may go wrong and plan for ways to handle these problems. And this gives them a sense of control. Lawrence Sanno, a psychology professor, says, “What’s interesting about defensive pessimists is that they tend to be very successful people, so their low opinion of the situation’s outcomes is not realistic. They use it to motivate themselves to perform better. ”
So far, so good. This is not rocket science. Defensive pessimists prepare carefully and consider what might go wrong, whether at work, on a date or even in a sports game. It makes sense to have a back-up plan. There are many sayings in English urging caution. For example, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” and “ Don’t count your chickens until they hatch. “ To have a confident and optimistic approach to life’s problems is good. But listen to what Woody Alien，the American comedian says, ”Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem.”
There are pros and cons to being an optimist and a pessimist. Don’t feel bad if you see the glass half empty. You are a realist. But lighten up and hook up with someone who sees the same glass half full.
【小题1】What is the passage mainly about?