Some time ago ,I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn’t think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended ,as there are a whole lot of antique（古董）shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception（接待）. I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't oven look at my chair.

　　The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth - so I decided that my approach must be wrong.

　　I went into the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper,“ Would you like to buy a chair?” He looked it over carefully and said,“ Yes, not a bad chair. How much do you want for it, sir?” “Twenty pounds,”I said. “OK, ”he said, “I’ll give you twenty pounds. ”“It ‘s got a slightly broken leg,”I said. “Yes, I saw that, it's nothing.”

　　Everything was going according to plan and I was getting excited. “What will you do with it?”I asked. “Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done. ”“I'll buy it,”I said. “What do you mean？ You’ve just sold it to me,”he said. “Yes, I know but I’ve changed my mind. I'm sorry, I'll give you twenty -seven pounds for it. ”“ Your must be crazy, ”he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. “I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair. ”“ You’re right, ”I said. “And what would you have done if I had walked in and said,’Would you mend this chair for me　I wouldn't have agreed to do it,” he said. “We don’t do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I’ll mend this for you, shall we say for a fiver?”He was a very nice man and was greatly amused（感到有趣）by the whole thing.

　　We can learn from the text that in the first shop the writer ________.

　　A. was rather impolite

　　B. was warmly received

　　C. asked the shopkeeper to buy his chair

　　D. asked the shopkeeper to repair his chair

　　The expression “the penny dropped” in the last paragraph means the shopkeeper ________.

　　A. changed his mind　　　　　　　 B. accepted the offer

　　C. saw the writer’s purpose　　　　　D. decided to help the writer

　　How much did the writer pay?

　　A. ￡ 5.　　　　B. ￡ 7.　　　　 C. ￡ 20.　　　　D. ￡ 27.

　　From the text, we can learn that the writer was ________

　　A. hanest　　　　B. careful　　　　C. smart　　　　 D. funny

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。

        One day before Christmas, all of us children from the Children's Home Society Orphanage(孤儿院) were taken to the Mayflower Hotel in downtown to attend a Christmas party.

After the man on the stage said a prayer       （祈祷）, we were told to  　36　 . Within minutes we were   37    a meal which was fit for a king. I ate   38  I could eat no more. As we ate, Santa Clause came walking out onto the  39  . The kids cheered with  40  . Everyone began clapping their hands and yelling as   41  as they could.

I too was excited   42   but I knew better than to yell（叫喊）out loud or to jump up and scream. Mrs. Winters, the head matron, sat only three seats from me. She had   43   it very clear to everyone that we were to behave ourselves in "a proper manner" and that there was to be "no yelling or shouting".

One orphan   44  was led up onto the stage and each kid was handed a   45   by Santa Claus himself.

As the line became shorter and shorter my   46   finally came. He smiled at me. Then he reached over and handed me a   47   box which had two gold ribbons(丝带) on it. As I leaned(向前倾) to take the box I tripped and I   48  to my knees. Santa reached over and helped me to my feet.

"Move  49   Kiser." called out Mrs. Winters.

I was now leaning against Santa Claus' leg and I was looking   50   into his eyes. His face was less than an inch from mine.

"Can I   51   you Santa?" I asked him.

The next thing I knew Mrs. Winters had caught me up by my shirt collar and was  52   me away from the line of children.

I sat down in my chair just crying. Once in a while I would  53   at the stage to see if my gift was still sitting by Santa Claus.

When we all lined up waiting, I  54  "HO HO HO" coming from behind me.

As I   55  , there stood Santa Claus holding my large box. Then he knelt down and he hugged my neck as hard as he could.

36. A. stand up            B. go out               C. sit down            D. keep silent

37. A. taken                B. served               C. brought             D. supplied

38. A. until                  B. unless               C. before               D. after

39. A. table                   B. hotel                 C. seat                   D. stage

40. A. encouragement  B. excitement        C. disappointment D. astonishment

41. A. loud                  B. big                   C. high                  D. low

42. A. outside               B. beside              C. aside                 D. inside

43. A. took                  B. made             C. demanded         D. warned

44. A. at a time           B. at one time        C. at time’s            D. at time

45. A. favor                       B. box                 C. gift                  D. medal

46. A. turn                   B. way                 C. chance              D. gift

47. A. golden                      B. yellow              C. small                D. large

48. A. sat                     B. fell                  C. dropped            D. turned

49. A. by                     B. on                  C. in                    D. out

50. A. quickly             B. directly            C. immediately      D. finally

51. A. tell                            B. call                  C. hug                  D. leave

52. A. pushing              B. keeping             C. stopping            D. pulling

53. A. look                  B. jump               C. put                  D. stand

54. A. watched            B. found               C. heard                      D. observed

55. A. turned around      B. turned up          C. turned away       D. turned down

Hi! Have you ever suddenly felt that someone you knew was in trouble — and was he? Have you ever dreamed something that came true later? Maybe you have ESP (超感觉知觉).

　　ESP stands for Extrasensory Perception. It may be called a sixth sense. It seems to let people know about events before they happen, or events that are happening some distance away.

　　Here's an example. A woman was ironing clothes. Suddenly she screamed, "My father is dead! I saw him sitting in the chair!" Just then, a telegram came. The woman's father died of a heart attack. He died sitting in a chair.

　　There are thousands of stories like this one on record. Scientists are studying them to find out what's behind these strange mental messages. Here's another example—one of hundreds of dreams that have come true.

　　A man dreamed he was walking along a road when a horse and carriage came by. The driver said, "There's room for one more." The man felt the driver seemed dead, so he ran away. The next day, when the man was getting on a crowded bus, the bus driver said, "There's room for one more."

　　Then the man saw that the driver's face was the same face he had seen in the dream. He wouldn't get on the bus. As the bus drove off, it crashed and burst into flames. Everyone was killed!

　　Some people say stories like these are coincidences. Others, including some scientists, say that ESP is real. From studies of ESP, we may someday learn more about the human mind.

1.According to the passage, the author believes that the sixth sense is ________.

　　A. in existence         B. imaginative     C. not real         D. impossible

2.ESP lets people know _________.

A. about events before they happen      　

B. about events after they happen

C. about events that are happening some distance away     

D. A and C

3.By studying ESP, scientists may get to ________.

　　A. learn how people tell lies           B. know more about human dreams

　　C. know more about human mind    D. learn how strange things happen

4.In the last paragraph the underlined word "coincidences" probably means _______.

A. things that may not happen          B. things that happen in a dream

C. things that must happen             D. things that happen by accident