Once there was a young woman who didn’t like her job. Everyday when she came home from work, she told her husband how terrible her day had been, how tiring the work and how unreasonable her boss. “Leave that job,” her husband told her.

“Oh, I will,” she said. “But not yet. I have too many friends there for me to leave.” And so she remained unhappy at work until the years became decades and her children had children. “Leave that job,” her grandchildren told her. “Oh, I will,” she said. “But not yet. There are only seven more years until I reach thirty years of service and can retire. So I can’t just yet.”

I know this woman. And her story reminds me of an old dog half asleep on the porch of a general store, moaning and groaning in the sun. “Why is your dog acting that way?” a customer asked the store owner. “Oh,” answered the man. “He’s lying on a nail.” “Well, why doesn’t he move?” “Because it’s not hurting him bad enough.”

That’s true for people, too. We convince ourselves the pain is not bad enough to leave the workplace we know. But we’re wrong. Prolonged work pain is continuing. Some work pain damages our self-esteem, kills our passion or destroys our dreams.

Wilbur Wright once commented, “We could hardly wait to get up in the morning. I know that exhilarating feeling of being so passionate about something I was working on that I couldn’t wait to get back to work. And people who are winning at working know that kind of passion, too.”

They get excited about work. They offer their unique gifts and talents eagerly. And when things don’t change as they sometimes will, they refuse to let environment hijack(劫持) their self-esteem, passion or dreams.

1.The woman complained to her husband every day because   .

2.From the second paragraph we can know that the woman   .

3.The underlined word “Prolonged” (in Paragraph 4) means   .

4.People who are getting along well with their work     .

Do you know of anyone who uses the truth to deceive (欺骗)? When someone tells you something that is true, but leaves out important information that should be included, he can give you a false picture.

For example, someone might say, I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery. It was great. I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for one hundred dollars!

This guy's a winner, right? Maybe, maybe not. We then discover that he bought $ 200 worth of tickets, and only one was a winner. He’s really a big loser!

He didn’t say anything that was false, but he left out important information on purpose. That’s called a half-truth. Half truths are not technically lies, but they are just as dishonest.

Some politicians often use this trick. Let’s say that during Governor Smith’s last term, her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs. Then she seeks another term. One of her opponents (对手) says, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state lost one million jobs!” That’s true. However, an honest statement would have been, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state had a net gain of two million jobs.”

Advertisers  will sometimes use half-truths. It’s against the law to make false statements so they try to mislead you with the truth. An advertisement might say, “Nine out of ten doctors advised their patients to take Yucky Pills to cure toothache.” It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky Company.

This kind of deception happens too often. It’s a sad fact of life: Lies are lies, and sometimes the truth can lie as well.

1.How much did the lottery winner lose?

2.We may infer that the author believes people should ______.

3.What do the underlined words “net gain” in Paragraph 5 mean?

4.What can we know from the example of the Yucky Pill advertisement?

A friend of mine, in response to a conversation we were having about the injustices of life, asked me the question, “Who said life was going to be fair, or that it was even meant to be fair?” Her question was a good one. It reminded me of something I was taught as a youngster: life isn’t fair. It’s a disappointment, but it’s absolutely true. One of the mistakes many of us make is that we feel sorry for ourselves, or for others, thinking that life should be fair, or that someday it will be. It’s not and it won’t be.

One of the nice things about surrendering(屈从) to the fact that life isn’t fair is that it keeps us from feeling sorry for ourselves by encouraging us to do the very best we can with what we have. We know it’s not “life’s job” to make everything perfect: it’s our own challenge. Surrendering to this fact also keeps us from feeling sorry for others because we are reminded that everyone is dealt a different hand; everyone has unique strengths and problems in the process of growing up, facing the reality and making decisions; and everyone has those times that they feel unfairly treated.

The fact that life isn’t fair doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do everything in our power to improve our own lives or the world as a whole. To the contrary, it suggests that we should. When we don’t recognize or admit that life isn’t fair, we tend to feel pity for others and for ourselves. Pity, of course, is a self-defeating emotion that does nothing for anyone, except to make everyone feel worse than they already do. When we do recognize that life isn’t fair, however, we feel compassion(热情)for others and for ourselves. And compassion is a heartfelt emotion that delivers loving-kindness to everyone it touches. The next time you find yourself thinking about the injustices of the world, try reminding yourself of this very basic fact. You may be surprised that it can make you out of self-pity and into helpful action.

1.The writer thought of his friend’s question as a good one because    .

2.The second paragraph of the passage mainly tells us that   .

3.From the passage, we can learn that the author’s attitude to life is     .

4.Which of the following could be the best title of the text?

阅读下列各小题，根据句后的汉语提示，用句末括号内的英语单词完成句子。

1.His teacher as well as his parents _________________ his mistake, because they have emphasized this for several times. (annoy)

老师和父母对他的错误感到非常生气，因为他们已经对此强调了许多遍了。

2.The first thing I __________was all the vivid colors surrounding us –purples ,reds , oranges ,yellows and greens .(aware)

我首先意识到的是我周围那些鲜艳的色彩—紫色，红色，橘色，明黄和绿色等。

3.___________________________ , he has recovered from the operation soon. (accompany)

在妻子的陪伴下， 他很快就从手术中痊愈了。

4.She found it was difficult ________________her personal feeling to help her opponent. (set)

她发现很难撇开她的个人情感去帮助她的对手。

5.Each time he gets his marks, he will regret ______________ his lessons. (focus)

每次拿到分数，他都会后悔没有集中心思学习。

6.What do you think of Jack’s suggestion __________this Friday evening ?(hold)

你认为Jack提出的本周五晚我们开个舞会的建议如何？

7.The newly-built hospital is reported __________________________ the latest instruments made in the USA. (equip)

据报道新建的医院配备了美国生产的最新设备。

8.You can’t imagine what trouble I had _____________to stop smoking. (persuade)

你无法想像我花了多大的劲说服他将烟戒掉。

9.Those who cannot remember the past _______________________ to repeat it. (condemn)

忘记过去的人注定会重蹈覆辙。

10.The old temple, ___________________________ Tang Dynasty, has a history of more than one thousand years.（date）

这座古庙可以追溯到唐朝，到现在已有一千多年的历史。

请根据以下提示，结合你校园中的一个事例，就“失败”这一话题，用英语写一篇短文。

Everyone has experienced failure. In face of failure, people act differently. Some simply give up, while some still stick to what they are doing. How we respond to it decides whether we’ll succeed.

注意：①无须写标题，不得照抄英语提示语；

②除诗歌外，文体不限；

③内容必须结合校园生活中的一个事例；

④文中不得透露个人姓名和学校名称；

⑤词数120左右。

—I must apologize for ______ ahead of time.

—That’s all right. 

   A. not letting you to know            B. not letting you know

   C. letting you know not               D. letting not you know

With a lot of difficult problems ______, the newly-elected president is having a hard time.

   A. settled         B. settling        C. to settle       D. being settled

The teacher, with 6 girls and 8 boys of her class, ______ visiting a museum when the earthquake struck.

   A. would be        B. were            C. had been        D. was

Helen ______ her keys in the office so she had to wait until her husband ______ home.

   A. has left; comes                    B. left; had come

   C. had left; came                     D. had left; would come

Many of them turned a deaf ear to his advice, _______ they knew it to be valuable.

   A. as if           B. even though     C. now that        D. so that