Pete Richards was the loneliest man in town on the day that little Jean Grace opened the door of his shop.

         Pete's grandfather had owned the shop until his death. Then the shop became Pete's. The front window was full of beautiful old things: jewelry of a hundred years ago, gold and silver boxes, carved figures from China and Japan and other nations.

         On this winter afternoon, a child stood there, her face close to the window. With large and serious eyes, she studied each piece in the window. Then, looking pleased, she stepped back from the window and went into the shop. Pete himself stood behind the counter. His eyes were cold as he looked at the small girl. “Please,” she began, “would you let me look at the pretty string of blue beads in the window?” Pete took the string of blue beads from the window. The beads were beautiful against his hand as he held the necklace up for her to see.

         “They are just right,” said the child as though she were alone with the beads. “Will you wrap them up in pretty paper for me, please? I've been looking for a really wonderful Christmas present for my sister.”

         “How much money do you have?” asked Pete.

         She put a handful of pennies on the counter. “This is all I have,” she explained simply. “I've been saving the money for my sister's present.”

         Pete looked at her, his eyes thoughtful. Then he carefully closed his hand over the price mark on the necklace so that she could not see it. How could he tell her the price? The happy look in her big blue eyes struck him like the pain of an old wound.

         “Just a minute,” he said and went to the back of the shop. “What's your name?” he called out. He was very busy about something.

         “Jean Grace,” answered the child.

         When Pete returned to the front of the shop, he held a package in his hand. It was wrapped in pretty Christmas paper.

         “There you are,” he said. “Don't lose it on the way home.”

         She smiled happily at him as she ran out of the door. Through the window he watched her go. He felt more alone than ever.

         Something about Jean Grace and her string of beads had made him feel once more the pain of his old grief. The child's hair was as yellow as the sunlight; her eyes were as blue as the sea. Once upon a time, Pete had loved a girl with hair of that same yellow and with eyes just as blue. And the necklace of blue stones had been meant for her.

         But one rainy night, a car had gone off the road and struck the girl. After she died, Pete felt that he had nothing left in the world except his grief. The blue eyes of Jean Grace brought him out of that world of self-pity and made him remember again all that he had lost. The pain of remembering was so great that Pete wanted to run away from the happy Christmas shoppers who came to look at his beautiful old things during the next ten days.

         When the last shopper had gone, late on Christmas Eve, the door opened and a young woman came in. Pete could not understand it, but he felt that he had seen her before. Her hair was sunlight yellow and her eyes were sea-blue. Without speaking, she put on the counter a package wrapped in pretty Christmas paper. When Pete opened the package, the string of blue beads lay again before him.

         “Did this come from your shop?” she asked.

         Pete looked at her with eyes no longer cold. “Yes, it did,” he said.

         “Are the stones real?”

         “Yes. They aren't the best turquoise(绿松石), but they are real.”

         “Can you remember to whom you sold them?”

         “She was a small girl. Her name was Jean. She wanted them for her sister's Christmas present.”

         “How much were they?”

         “I can't tell you that,” he said. “The seller never tells anyone else what a buyer pays.”

         “But Jean has never had more than a few pennies. How could she pay for them?”

         “She paid the biggest price one can ever pay,” he said.

         For a moment there was no sound in the little shop. Then somewhere in the city, church bells began to ring. It was midnight and the beginning of another Christmas Day.

         “But why did you do it?” the girl asked.

         Pete put the package into her hands.

         “There is no one else to whom I can give a Christmas present,” he said. “It is already Christmas morning. Will you let me take you to your home? I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas at your door.”

         And so, to the sound of many bells, Pete Richards and a girl whose name he had not yet learned walked out into the hope and happiness of a new Christmas Day.

1.When Pete saw Jean Grace, he was ______.

A. very enthusiastic, hoping for some business to be done

B. cold but he still served the young customer

C. cold, unwilling to serve the young customer

D. very warm to the young customer though he did not want to sell anything to her

2.Pete did not say the price of the necklace because ______.

A. the seller never tells anyone else what a buyer pays

B. he priced the necklace too high

C. he knew it would disappoint the girl

D. he didn't want to sell the necklace

3.The eyes of Jean Grace brought Pete out of his world of self-pity and he ______.

A. tried to forget the memory of his sweetheart

B. began to look at the world optimistically

C. remembered his lost love

D. no longer felt the pain in him

4.A young woman came into the shop because ______.

A. she was afraid that there might be some mistake

B. she thought that the stones she had bought were not real

C. she was not sure if she could get more stones like those

D. she did not like what she had once bought

5.By saying “She paid the biggest price one can ever pay,” Pete meant that Jean Grace     .

A. gave the most money for the necklace

B. gave all she had with her for the necklace

C. appreciated the value of the necklace

D. wanted to have the best thing in the shop

6. At the end of the story we see that Pete _____.

A. found another girl that he could trust

B. met someone who truly loved him

C. found a place to go at last

D. regained his ability to love

 

第二节:下面采访中有5处(第61 – 65题)需要添加信息。请从以下选项中(A, B, C, D, E和F)中选出符合各段意思的选项,并在答题纸上将相应选项的标号涂黑。选项中有一项是多余选项。

A.Do established musicians have a responsibility to guide and assist young up-and–coming musicians?

B.Did anyone promote your musical education when you were growing up?

C.What kind of “world music” do you enjoy?

D.What’s your comment on pop music?

E.Does the contemporary music press give jazz the coverage it deserves?

F.What’s wrong with the music on the radio?

An interview with Wynton Marsalis, a noted jazz musician

1._________________________________

         There were the older jazz musicians who hung around our house when I was young. I saw how much they practiced, how serious they were about their art. I knew then I had to work just as hard if I wanted to succeed. Of course, my father inspired me a lot, and many teachers took the time to nurture my talent and the talents of other students in our school.

2._____________________________

         Yes. We’ve done such a poor job with music education because, as a society, we haven’t maintained the kind of education that a true artist and musician needs. Young people haven’t been able to equate romance and talent with music. For instance, most of the people who make it in the music industry today have to look good. How they sound is secondary. Sarah Vaughan, Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald — those big, romantic queens of jazz music wouldn’t make it in today’s music industry, and that’s a shame. We need to teach young people about the alternatives.

3.______________________________

         Around the world people make music that, if you listen carefully to it, sounds a little like the cadence of their language. I’d call it folk music. When I’m away from home, I make a point of listening to regional folk music, not what’s on the radio.

4._______________________________

         The same music is on the radio all over the world, and the American sound is overwhelming. Even the pop music that’s produced and created in foreign countries has that American beat, which underscore funk. As a musician, I’m not interested in hearing recycled versions of the same genre over and over. Any music that doesn’t have a development section just isn’t interesting to me.

5._________________________________

         The music press has so much to introduce these days, and jazz is just a small fraction of it. Because some people are intimidated by jazz, they don’t cover it unless it’s a big name. New jazz musicians don’t get much of break. A lot of editors don’t say anything about jazz these days unless it’s Marsalis. That’s a shame. What VH1 is doing with their Save the Music campaign is phenomenal. They’re getting all these instruments out to needy kids. It’s the kind of thing all networks should be doing.

 

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