Mark Twain was a great writer. He was from the USA. He was born in 1835. He was also a famous speaker. He was famous for his sense of humour. Many people liked to listen to him talk because he liked to tell some interesting stories to make people laugh all the time.

One day Mark Twain was going to a small town because of his writing. Before he was going to leave, one of his friends said to him that there were always a lot of mosquitoes in the town and told him that he’d better not go there. Mark Twain waved (摇动) his hand and said, “It doesn’t matter. The mosquitoes are no relatives of mine. I don’t think they will come to visit me.”

After he arrived at the town, Mark Twain stayed in a small hotel near the station. He went into his room, but when he was just about to have a rest, quite a few mosquitoes flew about him. The waiters felt very sorry about that. “I’m very sorry, Mr Mark Twain. There are too many mosquitoes in our town.” One of them said to him.

Mark Twain, however, made a joke, saying to the waiter, “The mosquitoes are very clever. They know my room number. They didn’t come into the wrong room.” What he said made all the people present laugh heartily.

But that night Mark Twain slept well. Do you know why? That was because all the waiters in the hotel were driving the mosquitoes away for him during the whole night.

1.That day Mark Twain went to the town _____.

A. to see one of his friends

B. because he wanted to do something there for his writing

C. because he was told there were a lot of mosquitoes there

D. to see one of his relatives

2.The waiters felt sorry because _____.

A. they did something wrong to Mark Twain

B. their hotel was too small

C. the room was not very clean

D. there were quite a few mosquitoes in Mark Twain’s room

3.All the people present laughed heartily because _____.

A. the mosquitoes were very clever and they didn’t come into the wrong room

B. the mosquitoes knew Mark Twain’s room number

C. Mark Twain gave the waiters some nice presents

D. Mark Twain made a joke

4.From the story we know _____.

A. no mosquitoes troubled Mark Twain in the night

B. the owner of the hotel told the waiters to look after Mark Twain well at night

C. Mark Twain didn’t have a good rest that night

D. there were not mosquitoes in the hotel any longer

In life, we will succeed and fail often for reasons that are entirely out of our control. For instance, we can be incredibly nice and love someone deeply, and they may not love us back. We can work harder than anyone else in the office and still not be promoted to management. We can eat healthy food, exercise and stay away from alcohol and cigarettes, and still get sick.

The bottom line is that life is not fair.

That is a tough pill to swallow for many of us. As a result, some people shut down after being hit by even one unfair blow from life. They can’t handle the fact that our efforts don’t always get the results that we expect. But if we let life’s unfairness defeat us, we will never receive the beautiful blessings (幸事) that life has in store for us.

For example, my first marriage ended in divorce. To me, it felt very unfair. I had worked hard to be a good wife and mother. However, no matter what I did, I could not make the relationship work.

I could have been shut down by that experience. I could have decided that if one person didn’t appreciate me as a wife, then no one would. I could have given up. But I knew that I wanted to be married. I knew that I wanted to experience traditional family life. So I didn’t let one seemingly unfair experience stop me from believing that I could one day be happily married. And then one day, I met this kind, thoughtful, generous man with whom I now have a wonderful friendship and marriage. But that wouldn’t have happened if I had decided to give up after one failed marriage.

What I’ve learned over the years is that we can do all the things that deserve a good outcome, but get bad things in return instead.

When we are faced with life’s seeming unfairness, our faith needs to jump in. When life doesn’t go according to plan, we have to let go of the outcome that we are looking forward to and keep trying, working hard and doing the right thing. Please don’t be discouraged. Accept that life is neither fair nor straightforward. And by knowing that if we remain confident, we can drive our unfair experiences away and use them for our benefit.

1.We can learn from the first three paragraphs that ______.

A. life doesn’t often turn out the way we expect

B. the author thinks life should reward us for our efforts

C. unsatisfactory results simply mean your effort is not enough

D. people should focus on the process rather than the outcomes

2.The author wrote about her unsuccessful marriage to ______.

A. complain about the unfairness of her life and marriage

B. tell readers how she met her second husband and became happily married

C. express how proud she is for not being shut down by a blow from life

D. show that we need to have faith and continue working for our goals

3.When we encounter unfairness in life, the author suggests we ______.

a. do nothing but accept them

b. be confident with ourselves

c. keep doing what we should do

d. find out what has gone wrong

A. ab B. ad

C. bc D. cd

4.The author wrote the article mainly to ______.

A. share her experiences of unfairness in life

B. tell us how to deal with life’s seeming unfairness

C. tell us that life has beautiful blessings in store for us

D. explain why life seems neither fair nor straightforward

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