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  In Glacier National Park, which is in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, there once roamed a little deaf Indian boy. He loved to wander in the forest, and made friends with the animals who lived there. Since he loved animals, he would observe them intently and learn their habits. This little Indian boy's name was John Lewis Clarke.

  John Lewis Clarke's grandfather was a graduate from West Point and a captain in the U. S. Army. He was married to the daughter of a Blackfoot Indian Chief and adopted by the tribe. His son, John Lewis Clarke's father, also married an Indian princess, the daughter of Chief Stands Alone. Sadly, John's grandfather was later killed by Indians of another tribe near Helena, Montana.

  John Lewis Clarke was not born deaf. He became ill at a young age with scarlet fever. Though he survived, he could no longer hear the sounds that the forest animals made. He could not hear his Indian friends when they called to him. Scarlet fever had caused him to lose his hearing. His Indian friends gave him the name Cutapuis (Cu-ta-pu-ee) which means, “man who talks not.”

  Because John could not talk, he could not tell his parents about his many animal friends in the forest and the exciting things that he saw, but he found another way to express himself. He made figures of them out of clay(粘土) from the river banks. Later, when he was older, he learned to carve things out of wood. He loved to carve animals. With an axe and a pocket knife, he carved a life-sized image of a bear from a cedar trunk. The bear looked so real, the only thing missing was its growl.

  When John was old enough to go to school, his parents sent him to the Fort Shaw Indian School. However, since he needed special education, he was transferred to a school for the deaf at Boulder, Montana. He also attended the School for the Deaf at Devil's Lake, North Dakota. When he was older, he enrolled at St. Francis Academy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he studied wood carving. While he was still in his teens, John returned to Montana and opened a studio. He began to carve all the animals he had known very well in his childhood, and offer them for sale. He made models of animals out of wood, clay, and stone. He painted pictures using water colors and oils, and did excellent pen and ink drawings. He began to make a name for himself as an artist.

  John spent most of his 89 years at his home studio in Glacier Park. Every year when the park season was over, he continued his work in Great Falls, Montana, his second home. Many important people bought John's work. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the famous multimillionaire, was one of them. John's work was on exhibit in many places in this country. John died on November 20,1970. In his life-time, he literally carved his way to fame.

1.John probably started to use American Sign Language as soon as ________.

[  ]

A.he became deaf

B.he entered a school for the deaf

C.he could make figures out of clay

D.his Indian friends taught him

2.The subject of his artwork was mostly animals. This is most likely because ________.

[  ]

A.the environment he grew up has influenced him

B.he was an Indian

C.it was his way of expressing ideas

D.he did not like people

3.“The bear looked so real. The only thing missing was its growl.” This phrase means ________.

[  ]

A.John forgot to add one more thing

B.the bear was missing

C.the bear missed growling

D.the bear looked perfect except that it could not make any sound

4.During the course of his education, John attended ________.

[  ]

A.two schools

B.only a residential school for the deaf

C.four different schools

D.a school in Maine

Below is adapted from an English dictionary

figure/fīg ?? / noun, verb                            

●noun 1. [C, often pl.] a number representing particular amount, especially one given in official information: the trade /sales figures

2. [C] a symbol rather than a word representing one of the numbers between 0 and 9: a six-figure salary 3. [pl] (informal) the area of mathematics that deals with adding, multiplying, etc 4. a person of the type mentioned: Gandhi was both a political and a religious figure in Indian history. 5. the shape of a person seen from a distance or not clearly 6. a person or an animal as shown in art or a story: a wall with five carved figures in it 7. [C] the human shape, considered from the point of view of being attractively thin: doing exercise to improve one’s figure 8. [C] a pattern or series of movements performed on ice: figure-skating [IDM] be/become a figure of fun: be/become sb. that others laugh at cut a…figure: (of a person) to have a particular appearance He cut a striking figure in his dinner jacket. put a figure on sth.: to say the exact price or number of sth.

 a fine figure of man/woman: a tall, strong-looking and well-shaped person figure of speech: a word or phrase used in a different way from its usual meanings in order to create a particular mental image or effect  figurehead: someone who is the head or chief in name only (with no real power or authority) ●verb 1. to think or decide that sth. will happen or is true: I figured that if I took the night train, I could be in Scotland by morning. 2. to be part of a process, situation, etc. especially an important part: My opinion of the matter didn’t seem to figure at all. 3. to calculate an amount or the cost of sth.: We figured that attendance at 150,000. [PHRV] 1. figure in: to include (in a sum): Have you figured in the cost of hotel? 2. figure on: to plan on; to expect sth. to happen: I haven’t figured on his getting home too late. 3. figure out: to work out; understand by thinking: Have you figured out how much the trip will cost? [IDM] It/That figures! (informal): That seems reasonable, logical and what I expect.

I didn’t really mean my partner is a snake; it was just a ______.

A. figure of eight     B. figure head     C. figure of speech     D. a fine figure     

—She was coming late again.

—______! That’s typical of her.

A. It figures her out   B. It figures    C. It cuts a poor figure  D. She is a figure of fun

What does “watch my figure” in the sentence “Don’t tempt me with chocolate; I am watching my figure.” mean?

A. add the numbers   B. have sports      C. try not to get fat    D. watch games

No one can figure out the reasons for the Poland president plane crash in 2010. Here figure out means:_________

A. watch out     B. work out     C. understand well    D. break out

—Promise you don’t wear this kind of clothes? People will play a joke on you.

—I don’t care whether I am________. I just want to keep warm.

A. a figure of fun    B. a healthy figure    C. a figure head      D. a bad figure

One day, a train was approaching the small town of Cheekyville. On the train was a   1  man with a big suitcase. He was called William Warbler and he looked very   2  indeed. But what made him most unusual was the fact that whenever he needed to   3  , he did so by singing opera. Even if someone said “good day” to him, he would clear his throat and   4  : “Goood dayyy to youuuuuu..... toooooo!”
Almost everyone considered William unusual, since no one could get a normal   5   word out of him. As no one knew how he made his living — he lived quite   6  , always wearing the same old second-hand suit — they often had no ___7__for him and sometimes even made fun of him.
William had been in Cheekyville for some years, when one day a rumor (谣言) spread that William had received a role in a very important   8  in the nation’s capital, that there had been posters everywhere advertising the event, and that it had been a great   9 . And to everyone’s surprise, when William was being interviewed by reporters, he answered their questions by speaking with good   10 , and with a clear and pleasant voice.
From that day on, William gave up   11  at all hours. Now he sang only during his stage appearances. People wouldn’t have thought him   12  if they had seen what William kept in his big suitcase. It was a large   13 , with a hand-carved message on it.
The message said, “Practice every second, for you never know when your   14   will come.” Little did people realize that he only got the role in the opera because the   15   had heard William singing while out buying a newspaper.
1. A. tall       B. sensitive    C. handsome    D. strange
2. A. common     B. concerned   C. wealthy     D. confident
3. A. appear     B. practice     C. communicate D. debate
4. A. whisper   B. respond      C. repeat     D. tease
5. A. advised   B. printed      C. written     D. spoken
6. A. simply     B. naturally    C. calmly      D. fortunately
7. A. mercy     B.  respect     C. trust       D. money
8. A. concert    B. documentary  C. opera      D. film
9. A. experience B. benefit      C. discovery   D. success 
10. A. movements B. manners     C. efforts    D. signs
11. A. pretendingB. recording   C. singing    D. wandering
12. A. mad       B. skillful    C. artificial  D. desperate
13. A. knife     B. stone        C. medal       D. diamond
14. A. solution  B. inspiration  C. performance D. chance
15. A. neighbor  B. visitor     C. director    D. Teacher

  A French billionaire used to have a rough time when he was young. Later he carved out a career for himself in the field of drawing sales. Within ten years, he had become a young media tycoon (大亨)in France. He died of cancer in 1998.

  A French newspaper published his will after his death, in which he claimed:“I was a poor guy. Before I reach the threshold (门槛) of heaven, I leave my secret of how to become rich to the world. Anyone who can answer the question 'What is the most absent for the poor? ' will have discovered my secret of becoming rich. He will have my congratulations. My deposit of one million francs in the private safe of my bank will be the prize for his wisdom in uncovering the riddle of poverty.”

  Many people responded to the publicized will. The answers, as one might imagine, were various. The majority of them thought the most absent for the poor was money. Some stated that what the poor most needed was opportunity. Still others thought that the poor needed skills to make money. The rest of the answers claimed that poverty could be attributed to the absence of help, love, attractiveness, name-brand clothes, and even a presidency of a state.

  On the first anniversary of the billionaire’s passing, his lawyer and representative opened his private safe in the bank; the secret of getting rich was unfolded. The billionaire believed that the most absent of the poor was the ambition of getting rich.

  It was a nine-year-old girl who hit the nail on the head. Why did she regard “ambition” as the most absent for the poor? The day she was officially awarded the one million francs, she said: “Every time my elder sister brought her boyfriend home, she always warned me not to be ambitious. Not to be ambitious! So, I thought perhaps ambition was something that brought what you wanted.”

61. According to the passage, which of the following is true about the French billionaire?

A. He died of cancer in 1998 and left nothing.

B. Later on, he took up drawing as his career.

C. Within a decade, he had became a young media tycoon in the world.

D. He did not have a happy life when he was young.

62. What will the winner get if he finds out the billionaire’s secret of becoming rich?

A. The billionaire’s francs      B. The billionaire’s private safe.

C. The billionaire’s ambition     D. All of the billionaire’s possessions.

63.What did most people think of the most absent for the poor?

A. Help     B. Money     C. Opportunity    D. Ambition

64. From the passage, we can infer that the little girl find the secret__________.

A. with her sister’s help       B. just on purpose

C. quite by accident         D. not mentioned

65. The underlined phrase “hit the nail on the head” in the last paragraph refers to ________.

A. she had got the ambition to become rich

B. she offered to tell her story publicly

C. she failed to get the prize of one million francs

D. she guessed right and knew the answer

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