When I was about six years old, my mother came home one day and found that I had collected half dozen babies of the neighborhood----all of them too young to walk----and had them sitting before me on the floor while I was teaching them to wave their arms．When she asked the explanation of this, I informed her that it was my school of dance．She was amused, and placing herself at the piano, she began to play for me．This school continued and became very popular．Later on, little girls of the neighborhood came and their parents paid me a small sum to teach them．This was the beginning of what afterwards proved a very well-paid occupation．

My mother took me to a famous ballet teacher, but his lessons did not please me． When the teacher told me to stand on my toes, I asked him why, and when he replied “Because it is beautiful,” I said that it was ugly and against nature and after the third lesson, I left his class, never to return．This stiff（僵硬的）and commonplace gymnastics which he called dancing only disturbed my dream．I dreamed of a different dance．I did not know just what it would be but I was feeling out towards an invisible world into which I guess I might enter if I found the key．

My art was already in me when I was a little girl, and it was owing to the heroic and adventurous spirit of my mother that it was not stifled（窒息）．I believe that whatever the child is going to do in life should be begun when it is very young．I wonder how many parents realize that by the so-called education they are giving their children, they are only driving them into the commonplace, and refuse them of any chance of doing anything beautiful or original．

1．The attitude of the author’s mother toward her school of dance was ______．

     A．negative             B．neutral        C．supporting           D．indifferent

2．The author thought that ballet was ______．

     A．elegant, graceful and gentle                 B．stiff, ugly and unnatural

     C．charming, attractive and cool                D．touch, inviting and challenging

3．From this passage we know that the author owed her success in art to ______．

     A．her strict and adventurous ballet teacher

B．the good training that her parents gave her

     C．the support and understanding of her mother

     D．the inspiration gained from the neighborhood babies

4．The key message we may get from the passage is that ______．

     A．parents should help to develop the natural gift of their kids

     B．parents should give a hand to their kids doing something original

     C．a good mother should be both heroic and adventurous in education

     D．ballet is no good as a form of dance and thus should be forbidden

“Today is the day I start the big diet （节食）,” I told my wife as I raised my hand and   1  , “No chocolate today!”

“Oh, has the hospital gift shop   2   selling it?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “I’ll just have to   3   my strong determination.”

But when I arrived at the hospital, my little friend Benton has been there   4  . I knew my promise would   5   disappear. Because if Benton had things his way, I’d always be eating a piece of candy from the  6   bag he often shared with me.

Benton was an eight – year – old boy who was  7   because of a kind of cancer, which cause him to live in the darkness, when he was fifteen  8   old. For the next twenty – six months, he was in and out of our hospital. For nearly four years, it seemed   9   Benton could beat the disease, until one Friday afternoon in April 2009, when he  10  a headache and lost   11   on his right side. His mom   11  him to the hospital.

Over the next several months, Benton came to our   13   many more times. Each time he came, we   14   say hello, while Benton answered the   15   by holding out a candy from his bag.

So, on that first day of my diet, I went to his room and found Benton lying in his bed, his eyes   16   but not looking into this world.

“We brought his candy bag with us. Would you like to have some?” his mother asked.

Without thinking of my diet, I   17   into the bag and pulled out the first piece my fingers touched. It was my favorite as if Benton had saved one last piece   18   me. At home that evening, I answered a phone about Benton’s   19  . As I   20   it up, I opened the candy and ate it.

1．A．shouted                 B．answered             C．stated                  D．promised

2．A．stopped                 B．continued            C．kept                    D．tried

3．A．base on                 B．depend on            C．insist on              D．keep on

4．A．one                       B．yet                      C．again                   D．early

5．A．suddenly               B．quickly                C．quietly                 D．shortly

6．A．bottomless            B．countless             C．endless                D．belt less

7．A．ill                         B．injured                 C．deaf                    D．blind

8．A．years                    B．seasons               C．months               D．days

9．A．even though          B．as though            C．if only                 D．as with

10．A．found                  B．developed            C．managed             D．provided

11．A．movement           B．touch                  C．motion                D．sight

12．A．hurried                B．brought               C．rushed                D．carried

13．A．home                  B．room                   C．office                  D．hospital

14．A．would                 B．could                  C．should                 D．must

15．A．meeting               B．greeting               C．encouraging         D．praising

16．A．closed                 B．glimpsed              C．glared                 D．opened

17．A．ran                     B．touched               C．reached               D．felt

18．A．at                       B．for                      C．with                    D．on

19．A．illness                 B．blindness             C．death                  D．sadness

20．A．put                     B．hung                   C．set                      D．gave