When I was young, I really doubted whether there was love between my parents. Every day they were busy earning money so that they could   41  the high tuition my brother and I needed. They didn’t   42  in the romantic ways that I read in books or saw on TV.
One day, Mom was sewing a quilt（被子）. I  43 sat down beside her. “Mom, I have a  44  here,” I said after a while. “Is there love between you and Dad?” I asked her in a very　45 voice.
Mom stopped her work and raised her head with   46  in her eyes. She didn’t answer immediately. She bent her head and continued to sew the quilt. I was   47  if I had hurt her. I was in great embarrassment and I was at a loss what to do. But at last she said, very   48  , “Susan, look at this   49 . Sometimes it appears, but most of it disappears in the quilt. The thread really makes the quilt strong and lasting. If   50  is a quilt, then love should be a thread. It can hardly be seen, but it’s really there.   51  is inside.”
I listened carefully but I couldn’t understand her until years later.
One day, Dad accidentally got　  52  while on duty. Ever since then he could no longer　  53　properly. Every morning and dusk Mom would help Dad walk slowly on the country road. Along the country road, there were beautiful flowers, green grass and trees. The leaves were gently glistening（发光）   54  the sun shining upon them. All of these made up the most beautiful   55  in the world.
“Dad, how are you feeling now?” I asked him one day. “Susan, don’t worry about me,” he said gently. “I just like walking with your mom. I like this kind of life.” Looking into his eyes, I  56　what they meant.
The doctor had said Dad would   57 in two months. But that day never came. He   58 away in peace.
59 I thought love meant flowers, gifts and sweet kisses. But from this   60 , I understand that love is just a thread in the quilt of our life, which makes life strong and warm…

I grew up poor---living in the housing projects (住房) with six brothers, three sisters, a varying assortment (各式各样东西的混合) of foster kids (养子), my father, and a wonderful mother, Scarlette Hunley. We had little money and few worldly goods, but plenty of love and attention. I was  36  and energetic. I understood that no matter how poor a person was, he could still  37  a dream.
My dream was  38 . By the time I was sixteen, I could crush a baseball, and hit anything that moved on the baseball field. I was also  39 : My high school coach Jarvis, who not only believed in me, but taught me how to believe in myself. He  40  me the difference between having a dream and showing conviction (信念). One particular incident with Coach Jarvis changed my life forever.
It was the summer between my junior and senior years, and a friend  41  me for a summer job. This meant a chance for money in my pocket—cash for dates with girls, certainly, money for a new bike and new clothes, and the start of savings for a  42  for my mother. The prospect of a summer job was attractive and interesting, and I wanted to jump at the opportunity. Then I realized I would have to  43  summer baseball to handle the work schedule, and that meant I would have to tell Coach Jarvis I wouldn’t be playing.
When I told Coach Jarvis, he was  44  as I expected him to be. “You have your whole life to work，” he said. “Your  45  days are limited. You can’t afford to waste them.”
I stood before him with my head hanging, trying to think of the words that would explain to him why my dream of buying my mom a house and having money in my pocket was worth facing his  46  to me.
“How much are you going to make at this job, son?” He demanded. “3.5 dollars an hour.” I replied. “Well,” he asked, “Is $3.5 an hour the price of a dream?”
That question, the plainness of it, laid bare for me the difference between wanting something right now and having a goal. I dedicated myself to sports that summer and with the year I was hired by the Pittsburgh Pirates to play baseball, and was  47  a $20,000 contract. I signed with the Denver Broncos in 1998 for $1.7 million, and bought my mother the house of my dreams.

完型填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）              
阅读下面的短文，掌握其大意，然后从每题所给的A、B、C、D 四个选项中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A girl complained to her father about her hard life. She didn’t know what she could do and wanted to ___1__. She was tired of fighting and fighting. One problem had been settled, but __2___ appeared.
Her father, a cook, took her into the __3___. He poured water into three pots and boiled it. After the water came to a boil, he put some ___4__ in the first pot, eggs in the second and coffee in the last. He waited for them for a few minutes __5___ any words.
The girl closed her mouth and waited, impatient and __6___ by what her father was doing. After about 20 minutes, her father ___7__ the stove, took out the carrots and put them in a bowl. He took the eggs and put them in another bowl. After that he ___8___ the coffee into a cup. Turning back to his ___9___ , he asked, “Sweetheart, what do you see?”
“Carrots, eggs and coffee,” she replied.
Her father asked her to __10 the carrots. She did and felt that the carrots were ___11___.
__12__ he asked her to take the eggs and break them. After peeling them, she felt the eggs were hard.
Last, her father asked her to smell the coffee.
She asked, “What does this _13___, Father?”
He __14_ that each of the things had felt the same unfortunate fate. They were all boiled in ___15___, but with a ___16___ result. The strong and hard carrots became soft and weak after being boiled. The fragile eggs became _17___ after cooking. Coffee grounds were very unique. They could change the water.
“___18___ one are you?” asked her father. “When calamity（不幸的事） __19___ on your door, what will your ___20__ be? Are you carrots, eggs of coffee?”