64．The underlined phrase “mess up” in Paragraph 3 probably means ________.

A．put into disorder　 B．forget about　　　　 C．stop halfway　　　　 D．do well in

63. The author was nervous before the performance because _______.

　　 A. his or her mother and father weren’t present

　　 B. the strong spotlight was shining onto the stage

　　 C. he or she hadn’t mastered the entire piece

　　 D. he or she had never performed in public before

62．It can be inferred that _________.

　　 A．when somebody is conscious, he or she usually can’t learn new words by heart

　　 B．we must use the words as often as possible in order to master them

　　 C．it’s the best way to learn new words that one should only guess their meanings from the context

　　 D．only dictionaries can help us learn language well

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 C

　　 My first performance in front of an audience was coming up soon.

　　 I tried as hard as I could to remain calm, but my heart was racing. I stared down at my sweat-covered, shaking hands.

　　 I looked up again at the audience, realizing that these were real people. They were not just my mum and dad, who would say, “Good job!” even if I messed up the entire piece.

　　 What if I had the wrong music? What if I played the wrong notes?

　　 As it turned out, I was never able to answer these questions because the spotlight (聚光灯) was waiting for me. I grasped my hands tightly together, drying off the sweat.

　　 Slowly I walked to the mud-brown piano in the center of the room. It contained 88 demanding keys, which were waiting impatiently to be played. I swallowed the golf-ball-sized lump (隆起部分) in my throat and sat down. Slowly, I opened the music. Next, I rested my still shaking hands on the ivory (象牙色的) keys.

　　 As my fingers played across the keys, I was becoming more unsure of my preparation for this moment. But the memory of my years of training came flooding back. I knew that I had practiced this piece so many times that I could play it backwards if requested.

　　 Although at one point I accidentally played two keys instead of the intended one, I continued to move my fingers automatically (自动地).

　　 My eyes burned holes into (were fixed on) the pages in front of me.

　　 There was no way that I was going to lose my concentration. To keep this to myself, I leaned forward and focused carefully on the music.

　　 When I came to the end of the page, a warning went off inside my head: DON’T MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN YOU TURN THE PAGE!

　　 Needless to say, I obeyed myself with all my heart and mind. And, proud of my “page-turning” feat (技艺), I finished the rest of the piece without making a single mistake.

　　 After the final note died away, a celebration went into action inside my head. I had finished. I had mastered the impossible.

61．Which of the following is most likely NOT true?

　　 A．Some of the words the writer knows must have been misunderstood.

　　 B．Most of the 30,000 words the writer learned are frequently used ones.

　 　 　C．How many words the writer got wrong are not known.

　　 D．All the words the writer knows were learned by reading them.

60．The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refers to _________.

　　 A．the 30,000 words　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B．English teachers

　　 C．misunderstood words　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D．frequently used words

59．It is certain that the best way to learn new words is _____________.

　　 A．to learn them by oneself

　　 B．to learn by living in an English-speaking world and using them frequently

　　 C．to guess them from the context

　　 D．to get more separate meanings of each word

58．From the passage we can see that the boat company __________.

　　 A．isn’t an old one　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B．is a world-famous one

　　　 C．is developing slowly　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D．has to advise customers to buy its boats

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　B

　　 There is no doubt about it. The best way to learn new words is to do it unconsciously. I don’t mean while you’re unconscious. I mean while you are unconscious of the fact that it is sinking in.

　　 That is how I learnt the 30,000 words in my vocabulary by living in an English-speaking world, mother tongue. I just pick them up. But some of them may be misunderstood. Now, to misunderstand does not mean not to understand. To misunderstand is to understand but incorrectly.

　 The 5 % mislearnt of all the words we “know” will be the least frequently used words, as the more frequently used words are less likely to be mislearnt. Some of the misunderstandings may live with all our lives, without knowing that we got them wrong.

　　 Many English teachers think that this natural method of learning words in one’s own mother tongue can be used for a second language learning. They teach their students how to play the Guessing Game. “There is no time to look up in your dictionaries all the new words you come across,” they will say. “You have to practise guessing what the word means from the context.”

　　 This method of guessing in a second language learning does not work. It may succeed in many cases, but results in hundreds or thousands of wrongly-guessed meanings of words.

　　 And what’s more, there are more separate meanings than there are words themselves. Our learners’ dictionaries usually have many meanings. A good dictionary is what makes self-learning possible.

　　 Don’t guess! Look it up!

57．The underlined word “contracts” means ________.

A．application forms from the buyers　　　　

B．letters sent by the sellers

C．formal agreements having the force of law　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

D．designs of a new product

56．The main aim of the letter Tony wrote to Mr. Perkins is to __________.

　　 A．tell him to sign the contracts　　　　　　　　 B．thank him for buying a new boat

　　 C．tell about something of his company　　　 D．ask him to pay for his boat right away