A year after graduation, I was offered a position teaching a writing class. Teaching was a profession I had never seriously considered, though several of my stories had been published. I accepted the job without hesitation, as it would allow me to wear a tie and go by the name of Mr. Davis. My father went by the same name, and I liked to imagine people getting the two of us confused. “Wait a minute,” someone might say, “are you talking about Mr. Davis the retired man, or Mr. Davis the respectable scholar?”

   The position was offered at the last minute, and I was given two weeks to prepare, a period I spent searching for briefcase (公文包) and standing before my full-length mirror, repeating the words, “Hello, class. I’m Mr. Davis.” Sometimes I would give myself an aggressive voice. Sometimes I would sound experienced. But when the day eventually came, my nerves kicked in and the true Mr. Davis was there. I sounded not like a thoughtful professor, but rather a 12-year-old boy.

   I arrived in the classroom with paper cards designed in the shape of maple leaves. I had cut them myself out of orange construction paper. I saw nine students along a long table. I handed out the cards, and the students wrote down their names and fastened them to their breast pockets as I required.

   “All right then,” I said. “Okay, here we go.” Then I opened my briefcase and realized that I had never thought beyond this moment. I had been thinking that the students would be the first to talk, offering their thoughts and opinions on the events of the day. I had imagined that I would sit at the edge of the desk, overlooking a forests of hands. Every student would yell. “Calm down, you’ll all get your turn. One at a time, one at a time!”

   A terrible silence ruled the room, and seeing no other opinions, I inspected the students to pull out their notebooks and write a brief essay related to the theme of deep disappointment.

1.The author took the job to teach writing because ______.

   A. he wanted to be expected

   B. he had written some storied

   C. he wanted to please his father

   D. he had dreamed of being a teacher

2.What can we learn about the author from Paragraph 2 ?

   A. He would be aggressive in his first class.

   B. He was well-prepared for his first class.

   C. He got nervous upon the arrival of his first class.

   D. He waited long for the arrival of his first class.

3.Before he started his class, the author asked the students to ______.

   A. write down their suggestions on the paper cards

   B. cut maple leaves out of the construction paper

   C. cut some cards out of the construction paper

   D. write down their names on the paper cards

4.What did the students do when the author started his class?

   A. They began to talk.        B. They stayed silent.

   C. They raised their hands.     D. They shouted to be heard.

5.The author chose the composition topic probably because ______.

   A. he got disappointed with his first class

   B. he had prepared the topic before class

   C. he wanted to calm down the students

   D. he thought it was an easy topic

  The Pathfinder

    When we found him, he was a sorry sight. His clothes were torn, his hands bleeding. Before we reached him, we saw him fall. He lay a moment. Then he pulled himself to his feet, walked unsteadily a few yards through the woods and fell again.

         After we got him out, we went back to find the gun that he had thrown down. His tracks showed that for two days he had circled in the forest, within 200 yards of the road. His senses were so dulled by fear and tiredness that he did not hear the cars going by or see the lights at night.

         We found him just in time.

         This man, like others before him, had simply been frightened when he knew he was lost. What had been a near disaster might have turned out as only a pleasant walk, had he made a few preparations before he stepped from the highway or off a known path.

         Whatever sense of direction that a man may have, it’s still largely a question of observation. A skilled woodsman always keeps an eye on his surroundings. He notes that the shape of a mountain, the direction water flows through a swamp, and the way a tree leans across a path. With these in mind, he may be turned around many times, but he is seldom lost.

         There are exceptions, of course, and once in a while a man does come across some strange problem that puts him into the “lost” situation. A rainstorm or sudden blizzard may catch him without a compass（指南针）in his pocket. Darkness may find him in a rough area, where travel is dangerous without a light.

         When this happens, the normal first reaction（反应）is the fear of being laughed at as a result of his poor knowledge in the woods. He may also be concerned about the inconvenience that he will cause his friends when he doesn’t show up. This false pride may lead him to keep on the move in a false effort to find his way against all difficulties.

         The person who thinks ahead is seldom in great danger. He’ll be safe if he observes carefully, thinks ahead, and remains calm.

1 The author suggested that if the man had not been found, he would have __________.

         A. been shot by a gun                   B. become confused

         C. been attacked by wild animals           D. been in great danger

2. According to the passage, if a person gets lost in the forest, at the very beginning, he would __________.

         A. worry about being laughed at    

B. push himself to find his way out

         C. feel it is convenient to ask for help from his friends

         D. be concerned about being frightened by wild animals

3. When a person tries to find his way in the woods, __________ is the most important 

A. intelligence  B. observation       C. direction      D. chance

4. The author tells the story of the lost man as an example of people who __________.    

A. go into the woods by themselves

         B. don’t know how to signal for help properly

         C. are frightened when they think they are lost

         D. notice everything when stepping from the highway

I was tired and hungry after a long day of work.

When I walked into the living room, my 12-year-old son 36 up at me and said,“I love you.”I didn't know what to say. For several   37 all I could do was to  38 there and looked down at him.My first thought was that he must need   39 with his homework or he was trying to  40 me for some news.

Finally I asked,“What was that all about?”

“Nothing,”he said.“My teacher said we should   41 our parents that we love them and see what they say.It is  42 .”

The next day I called his teacher to find out more about this “experiment”and how the other parents had  43

“Most of the fathers had the   44 reacting（反应）as you did ,”the teacher said.“When I first  45we try this , I asked the children what they thought their parents would say . Some of them thought their parents would have heart trouble.“The 46 is,”the teacher explained, “feeling loved is an important part of  47.It is something all people 48 .What I'm trying to tell the children is that it's too  49 we don't all express those feelings.A boy should be  50 to tell his dad he loves him.”

The teacher, a middle-aged man , understands how  51 it is for some of us to say the things that would be good for us to say.

When my son came to me that evening ,I held on to(抱着)him for  52 second.And just before he  53 away, I said in my deepest, most manly(男子气慨)voice,“Hey, I love you ,too.”

I don't know if saying that made either of us healthier, but it did feel pretty good(感觉很好)，Maybe next time one of my children said“I love you”，it wouldn't take me a whole  54 to think of the right 55 .

The young boy saw me, or rather, he saw the car and quickly ran up to me, eager to sell his bunches of bananas and bags of peanuts. Though he appeared to be about twelve, he seemed to have already known the bitterness of life. “Bananas 300 naira. Peanuts 200 naira.” He said in a low voice. I bargained him down to 200 totals for the fruit and nuts. When he agreed, I handed him a 500 naira bill. He didn’t have change, so I told him not to worry. He said thanks and smiled a row of perfect teeth.

When, two weeks later, I saw the boy again, I was more aware of my position in a society where it’s not that uncommon to see a little boy who should be in school standing on the corner selling fruit in the burning sun. My parents had raised me to be aware of the advantage we had been afforded and the responsibility it brought to us.

I pulled over and rolled down my window. He had a bunch of bananas and a bag of peanuts ready. I waved them away. “What’s up?” I asked him.

“I…I don’t have money to buy books for school.” I reached into my pocket and handed him two fresh 500 naira bills. “Will this help?” I asked. He looked around nervously before taking the money. One thousand naira was a lot of money to someone whose family probably made about 5,000 naira or less each year. “Thank you, sir.” he said. “Thank you very much!”

When driving home, I wondered if my little friend actually used the money for schoolbooks. What if he’s a cheat? And then I wondered why I did it. Did I do it to make myself feel better? Was I using him? Later, I realized that I didn’t know his name or the least bit about him, nor did I think to ask.

Over the next six months, I was busy working in a news agency in northern Nigeria. Sometime after I returned, I went out for a drive. When I was about to pull over, the boy suddenly appeared by my window with a big smile ready on his face.

“Oh, gosh! Long time.”

“Are you in school now?” I asked.

He nodded.

“That’s good,” I said. A silence fell as we looked at each other, and then I realized what he wanted. “Here,” I held out a 500 naira bill. “Take this.” He shook his head and stepped back as if hurt. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “It’s a gift.”

He shook his head again and brought his hand from behind his back. His face shone with sweat. He dropped a bunch of bananas and a bag of peanuts in the front seat before he said, “I’ve been waiting to give these to you.”

1.What was the author’s first impression of the boy?

A. He seemed to be poor and greedy.

B. He seemed to have suffered a lot.

C. He seemed younger than his age.

D. He seemed good at bargaining.

2.The second time the author met the boy, the boy ______.

A. told him his purpose of selling fruit and nuts

B. wanted to express his thanks

C. asked him for money for his schoolbooks

D. tried to take advantage of him

3.Why did the author give his money to the boy?

A. Because he had enough money to do that.

B. Because he had learnt to help others since childhood.

C. Because he held a higher position in the society.

D. Because he had been asked by the news agency to do so.

4.Which of the following best describes the boy?

A. Brave and polite.           B. Kind and smart.

C. Honest and thankful.        D. Shy and nervous.

You may have never heard of Ladislao Biro, but you have certainly heard of the pen he invented—the ballpoint pen, or biro. Before Biro invented his pen, people wrote with fountain pens. The ink smudged(弄脏) and blotted and the pens sometimes leaked. In the 1930s Biro was a magazine editor in Budapest in Hungary. He noticed that the inks which the magazine’s printers used dried very quickly. Biro wondered if quick-drying inks could be used in pens. He came up with the idea of a tube of ink with a free-moving ball on the end. As a person wrote, the ball collected ink from the tube and rolled it on to the paper. The pen would be cheap and could be thrown away when the ink ran out.

Biro began to work on his invention, but before he could patent it the Second World War broke out. Biro left war-torn Europe and fled to Buenos Aires in Argentina. There, he and his brother Georg, who was a chemist, began to improve the pen. In the early 1940s Biro began to manufacture his new pen, the biro. In 1944, he sold his invention to another company, who began to mass-produce the pen for the British and American armed forces.

Biro was pleased that his pen was popular, but he did not gain much from his invention. The biro was later sold to the French firm, Bic, who now sell twelve million pens a day. Biro sank into obscurity in South America. His name, however, has become a household word.

48. The reasons for the popularity of ballpoint pens are these EXCEPT that_______.

A. the inks dried very quickly                      B. they were cheap

C. they were easy to carry around           D. they were mass-produced

49. Which of the following is the correct order of the events that happened to Biro?

a. applied for patent for first ballpoint pen

b. began to manufacture pens

c. fled from Hungary to escape Nazis

d. sold his invention

A. a c d b                    B. c d a b           C. a c b d           D. c a b d

50. The underlined part “sank into obscurity”(last paragraph) is closest in meaning to“_______”.

A. became unknown to many people       B. became popular with people

C. lost interest in business                         D. lost a lot of money

51. What does the passage mainly tell us about Biro?

A. He is successful in business.                 B. He is an important inventor.

C. He is a famous magazine editor.         D. He is a popular writer.