My favorite English teacher could draw humor out of the driest material. It wasn't forced on us either.  He took Samuel Johnson's dictionary, Addison's essays, and many other literary wonders from the eighteenth century and made them hilarious, even at eight o'clock in the morning. The thing that amazed me most was that the first time I read these works on my own some of them seemed dead, but the second time, after his explanation, I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen the humor. The stories and poems and plays were suddenly filled with allusions (典故) and irony (反讽) and hilarious moments. I learned more from him than from any other teacher.

My least favorite English teacher also made people laugh. Some students found him to be funny. Many others did not. He assigned journals over a six week period, to be written every day. At the end of the six weeks I had a notebook full of bits and pieces about my ideas, short stories, reactions to what we had read, and so on. Our teacher announced that we would be grading each other's journals. Mine was passed to Joe, that class clown, who always behaved in a funny or silly way. He saw it fit to make joke of and said, " This writing isn't fit to line (衬垫) the bottom of a birdcage. " Our teacher laughed at that funny remark. It hurt me so much that the anger from it has driven my writing and teaching ever since.

So what makes the difference? Humor is one of the most powerful tools teachers or writers have. It can build up students and classes and make them excited about literature and writing, or it can tear them apart. It is true that humor is either productive or counter-productive and self-defeating.

1.The passage mainly discusses ________.

A. teaching         B. literature

C. humor            D. knowledge

2.The underlined word "hilarious" in Paragraph 1 probably means ________.

A. funny             B. tiring

C. inspiring         D. brilliant

3.The English teacher the writer disliked most ________.

A. was not able to make students laugh

B. hurt his students' feelings

C. didn't let his students do the grading

D. had no sense of humor

My favorite English teacher could draw humor out of the driest material. It wasn't forced on us either.  He took Samuel Johnson's dictionary, Addison's essays, and many other literary wonders from the eighteenth century and made them hilarious, even at eight o'clock in the morning. The thing that amazed me most was that the first time I read these works on my own some of them seemed dead, but the second time, after his explanation, I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen the humor. The stories and poems and plays were suddenly filled with allusions (典故) and irony (反讽) and hilarious moments. I learned more from him than from any other teacher.
My least favorite English teacher also made people laugh. Some students found him to be funny. Many others did not. He assigned journals over a six week period, to be written every day. At the end of the six weeks I had a notebook full of bits and pieces about my ideas, short stories, reactions to what we had read, and so on. Our teacher announced that we would be grading each other's journals. Mine was passed to Joe, that class clown, who always behaved in a funny or silly way. He saw it fit to make joke of and said, " This writing isn't fit to line (衬垫) the bottom of a birdcage. " Our teacher laughed at that funny remark. It hurt me so much that the anger from it has driven my writing and teaching ever since.
So what makes the difference? Humor is one of the most powerful tools teachers or writers have. It can build up students and classes and make them excited about literature and writing, or it can tear them apart. It is true that humor is either productive or counter-productive and self-defeating

1. 1.

   The passage mainly discusses ________

   1. A.
      teaching
   2. B.
      literature
   3. C.
      humor
   4. D.
      knowledge
2. 2.

   The underlined word "hilarious" in Paragraph 1 probably means ________

   1. A.
      funny
   2. B.
      tiring
   3. C.
      inspiring
   4. D.
      brilliant
3. 3.

   The English teacher the writer disliked most ________

   1. A.
      was not able to make students laugh
   2. B.
      hurt his students' feelings
   3. C.
      didn't let his students do the grading
   4. D.
      had no sense of humor

第二节：完形填空 (共20小题；每小题1.5分,满30分)

阅读下面短文,从短文后所给各题的四个选项(A、B、C、D)中, 选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

         Nearly two decades has passed, I still remember my favourite professor, James Sehwartz. Whenever he smiles ,it’s as if you’d just been told the funniest joke on earth .Almost all his students are his friends, and almost all his students know his life story.

         When James was a teenager, his father   31   him to a fur factory where he worked. This was during the Great Depression. The   32  was to get James a job.

         He entered the factory, and immediately felt as if the   33   had closed in around him. The room was dark and hot, the windows covered with dust, and the  34  were packed tightly together, running like trains. The fur hairs were flying,   35  a thickened air ,and the workers,   36   the pieces of fur together, were bent over their needles  37  the boss marched up and down the rows ,searching for them to go faster .James could hardly   38  . He stood next to his father, frozen with fear, hoping the boss wouldn’t  39  at him , too.

         During lunch break, his father took James to the boss and pushed him in front of him,   40 if there was any work for his son. But   41   there was barely enough   42   for the adult labours ,for no one would give it up once he takes a job.

         Thus, for James, it was a   43  . He hated the place. He made a   44   that he kept to the end of his like: he would never do any work that brought   45   to someone else ,and he would never allow himself to   46   money off the seat of others.

         “What will you do?” his mother, Eva, would ask him.

         “I don’t know,” he   47   say. He ruled out law, because he didn’t like   48   , and he ruled out medicine , because he couldn’t take the   49  of blood.

         “What will you do?”

50  , my best professor I ever had became he thought it was the job not to hurt anybody.

31．A．sent   B．took   C．carried       D．admitted

32．A．situation    B．condition   C．idea   D．attitude

33．A．lights B．floors C．chances     D．walls

34．A．goods         B．workers     C．machines   D．vehicles

35．A．creating     B．sending      C．taking         D．disturbing

36．A．collecting   B．pulling        C．drawing     D．sewing

37．A．as       B．after  C．if         D．though

38．A．breathe      B．see     C． walk          D．hear

39．A．attack         B．scold  C．defeat        D．scream

40．A．doubting    B．questioning        C．asking         D．demanding

41．A．also    B．still     C．yet     D．even

42．A．time   B．work  C．office D．occupation

43．A．comforting         B．regretting C．blessing     D．forgiving

44．A．request      B．promise     C．plan   D．arrangement

45．A．harm B．injury C．damage     D．inconvenience

46．A．pay     B．save   C．make D．let

47．A．should        B．would         C．could D． might

48．A．police          B．lawyers      C．judges        D．government

49．A．sight  B．feel    C．sense          D．scenery

50．A．Generally   B．Luckily         C．Eventually     D．Basically

Special Bridges Help Animals Cross the Road

-- Reported by Sheila Carrick

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.

Most people know this joke. But recently, some people have been much more concerned with how the grizzly bear and mountain lion can cross the road.

Millions of animals die each year on U.S. roads, the Federal Highway Administration reports. In fact, only about 80 ocelots, an endangered wild cat, exist in the U.S. today. The main reason? Roadkill.

"Ecopassages" may help animals cross the road without being hit by cars. They are paths both over and under roads. "These ecopassages can be extremely useful, so that wildlife can avoid human conflicts," said Jodi Hilty of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

But do animals actually use the ecopassages? The answer is yes. Paul Beier of Northern Arizona University found foot marks left by mountain lions on an ecopassage that went under a highway. This showed that the lion used the passage.

Builders of some ecopassages try to make them look like a natural part of an area by planting trees on and around them. Animals seem to be catching on. Animals as different as salamanders and grizzly bears are using the bridges and underpasses.

The next time you visit a park or drive through an area with a lot of wildlife, look around. You might see an animal overpass!

The writer uses the example of “ocelots” to show that_________.

A．wild animals have become more dangerous

B．the driving conditions have improved greatly

C．the measure for protecting wildlife fails to work

D．an increasing number of animals are killed in road accidents

From the news story, we know an ecopassage is_________.

A．an underground path for cars        B．a fence built for the safety of the area

C．a bridge for animals to get over a river D．a pass for animals to cross the road

When the writer says that animals seem “to be catching on”, he means_________.

A．animals begin to realize the dangers on the road

B．animals begin to learn to use ecopassages     

C．animals are crossing the road in groups

D．animals are increasing in number

The writer asks visitors and drivers to look around when traveling because_________.

A．wild animals may attack cars B．wild animals may jam the road

C．they may see wild animals in the park    D．they may see wild animals on ecopassages

When studying in a middle school，I read a quote that went something like：“If you live each day as if it were your last，someday you’ll most certainly be right. ”It made a deep   36  on me, and since then, for the past 33 years，I have  37  in the mirror every morning and asked myself：“If today were the last day of my life，  3 8  I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a  39 ，I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I’ll be  40  soon is the most important tool I’ve ever known to help me make the big  41  in life because almost everything falls away in the face of death，  42  only what is truly important.
About a year ago I was  43  with cancer. My doctor even advised me to go home and get my affairs   44  order，which is a doctor’s way of telling people to prepare to die. I  45  with that diagnosis all day.   46 ，at last an advanced test showed that it was a very rare cancer that is  47  with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
48  wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all  49  . No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be，because death is very likely the single best invention of  50  . It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to  51  for the new. Right now the new is you. But someday not too  52  from now，you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic，but it is quite true.
Your time is  53 ，so don’t waste it living someone else’s 1ife. Don’t be  54  by dogma(教条) —which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner  55  . And most importantly，have the courage to follow your heart.