I had an experience some years ago, which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I had to hold two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died “ full of years”, as the Bible would say. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence(吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon.

At the first home, the son of the deceased(已故的)woman said to me, “ If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today. It’s my fault that she died.” At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, “ If only I hadn’t insisted on my mother’s going to Florida, she would be alive today.That long airplane ride, the sudden change of climate, was more than she could take. It’s my fault that she’s dead.”

You see that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out bad, they believe that the opposite course—keeping Mother at home, putting off the operation—would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?

There seem to be two elements involved in our willingness to feel guilty. The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens that leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds.

The second element is the view that we are the cause of what happens , especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believe that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood.

A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to its tasks. He cries, and someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him , and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow that childish view that our wishes cause things to happen.

46. What is said about the two deceased elderly women?

A. They lived out a natural life.

B. They died of exhaustion after the long plane ride.

C. They weren’t used to the change in weather.

D. They died due to lack of care by family members.

47. The author had to conduct the two women’s funerals probably because ______.

A. he wanted to comfort the two families

B. he was an official from the community

C. he had great pity for the deceased

D. he was minister of the local church

48. People feel guilty for the deaths of their loved ones because _____.

A. they couldn’t find a better way to express their sorrow

B. they believe that they were responsible

C. they had neglected the natural course of events

D. they didn’t know things often turn in the opposite direction

49. According to the passage, the underlined part in paragraph 4 probably means that_____.

A. everything in the world is predetermined

B. the world can be explained in different ways

C. there is an explanation for everything in the world

D. we have to be sensible in order to understand the world

50. What’s the idea of the passage?

A. Life and death is an unsolved mystery.

B. Every story should have a happy ending.

C. Never feel guilty all the time because not every disaster is our fault.

D. In general, the survivors will feel guilty about the people who passed away.

   Soong Mei-ling was one of the most well-known Chinese women of the twentieth century.

   Mei-ling was born in Hainan in 1898, the youngest daughter of Charlie Soong. At the age of 8, she was sent to the United States to go to school, where she did well. She graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1917 with a degree in English Literature. Because of her education Mei-ling spoke excellent English.

   After graduation Mei-ling returned to China and she met Chiang Kai-shek(蒋介石) in 1920. She married him in 1927 after his divorce. During the war against Japan, Mei-ling acted as her husband’s interpreter and translator. She worked hard to promote the Chinese cause during the war, especially in the United States. In 1943 she became the first Chinese national and only the second woman to speak before the US Congress(国会).

After the defeat(溃败) of her husband’s government in 1949, Mei-ling moved to Taiwan. She lived there until her husband’s death in 1975. She then emigrated to the USA and lived on her family’s estate(别墅) in Lattington, Long Island, near New York. She spent much of time painting.

Mei-ling died peacefully at her apartment in New York on October 23, 2003 at the age of 105.

41.  Mei-ling was born in ______

A.  1920      B.  1927       C.  1917       D.  1898

42.  After graduation Mei-ling_______

A.  went back to China B.  studied English Literature

C..  lived in Massachusetts   D.  spoke little English

43.  During the war against Japan, Mei-ling________

A.  was her husband’s interperter and translator

   B.  toured the United States

C.  spent her time in Long Island

D.  lived in Tai’wan

44.  Soong Mei-ling ______

A.  was the oldest Soong sister    B.  loved money

C.  died in the USA     D.  married Dr Sun Yat-sen(孙中山)

阅读下面的短文,然后按照要求写一篇150词左右的英语短文。

Dear Ms Jordan,

 I am sorry for misbehaving in class .I won't do it again.

                                               Tyler Vincent Turner

This is a letter of apology that my six-year-old son Tyler wrote to his teacher .It was simple enough and took less than five minutes to write, but I hoped the message I was sending to Tyler was one that would have a lasting effect.

When I made the decision, I hoped it was the right thing to do .It turned out that Ms Jordan was thrilled when she received the note . She told me that in her 25 years as a teacher no student had ever written her a letter of apology for misbehavior . She literally looked like she was going to cry.

I want him to realize that he is responsible for his behavior, good or otherwise .That’s why I decided to make him write the letter of apology .I didn’t tell him what to write--- the words were his own. And he did so without any reluctance and gave it to his teacher this morning with a verbal apology.If it happens again, he’ll have to write another letter. Taking responsibility for your own actions should start as young as possible and a six-year-old boy is certainly old enough.

 [写作内容]

以约30词概括短文的要点。

    2. 然后以120词就“道歉信”这一主题发表看法,并包括如下要点:

        1)你曾经写过道歉信给老师吗?

        2)假如你在课堂违反了纪律,你会给老师写道歉信吗?为什么?

 [写作要求]

1. 可以使用实例或其他论述方法支持你的论点,也可以参照阅读材料的内容,但不得直接引用原文中的句子;

2. 文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称;

3. 标题自定。

[评分标准]

概括准确,语言规范,内容合适,篇章连贯。

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