When I was quite young, I discovered that somewhere inside the telephone lived an amazing  person - "Information Please" and there was nothing she did not know.　

One day while my mother was out, I hit my finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible, but there was no one home to give me any sympathy. I walked around the house, finally arriving at the telephone! Quickly, I called “Information Please" and told her what happened.  She told me to open the icebox and hold a little piece of ice to my finger.

After that, I called "Information Please" for everything. When my pet bird died, I told

"Information Please" the sad story. She tried to comfort me, she said quietly, "Paul, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in." Somehow I felt better. Another day I was on the telephone, “How do you spell ‘grateful’? ". All this took place in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. When I was 9, we moved to Boston.

A few years later, on my way to college, my plane put down in Seattle. I had about half an

hour or so between planes. Without thinking, I dialed my hometown operator and said, "Information, please."    　　

Surprisingly, I heard the small, clear voice I knew so well, "Information." I hadn't planned on

this but I heard myself saying, "Could you please tell me how to spell ‘grateful’?"  

There was a long pause. Then came the soft-spoken answer, "I guess your finger must have

healed by now."   I laughed. "So it's really still you," I said, "I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time."  I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and asked if I could call her again. "Please do," she said, "Just ask for Sally."　　

Three months later I was back in Seattle. A different voice answered me. I was told that Sally

passed away five weeks before.   　　

Before I could hang up she told me that Sally left a message for me—“Tell him I still say

there are other worlds to sing in. He'll know what I mean.”  I thanked her and hung up. I knew what Sally meant.

Never underestimate the impression you may make on others. Whose life have you touched

today?　

1.

What does “Information, Please” refer to in the passage?

A. An amazing girl.

B. A special kind of telephone.

C. A communication system.

D. A service that helps telephone users.

2.

What happened to the little boy one day when he was at home alone? 

A. He was amused by the telephone.

B. He hurt his finger with a hammer.

C. He found an amazing telephone.

D. He got a piece of ice from an icebox.

3.

What did “Information, Please” give the little boy whenever he was in trouble? 

A. Information and conversation.

B. Good memories and happiness.

C. Sympathy and information.

D. Friendship and cheers.

4.

When did the author get in touch with “Information, Please” again after he moved to

Boston?  

A. When he was in trouble on his way to college.

B. When his plane stopped in Seattle for half an hour.

C. When he went back to Seattle to visit his sister.

D. Three months later after he moved to Boston.

　　“First we make our habits，then our habits make us.”——Charles C．Noble
　　It’s such a simple concept，yet it's something we don’t always do. It’s not extremely difficult to do, and yet I think it’s something that would make a world of difference in anyone’s life. Break your goals into habits，and focus on putting those habits into autopilot. My belief is that having one goal to focus on is much more powerful than having many goals.
　　I try to turn my goals into habits，and in doing so，I put my goals on autopilot. Turning a goal into a habit means really focusing on it，seriously，for at least a month，to the exclusion of all else. The more you can focus on it, the more it’ll be put on autopilot. Let’s look at my marathon goal as an example. I was just starting out in running，and l had the brilliant idea to run a marathon within a year. But in order to achieve that goal，I broke it down into two habits：
　　1．I had to make running a daily habit.
　　2．I had to report to people in order to have accountability（责任）—I did this through family，friends and coworkers，through a blog，and through a column in my local newspaper every two weeks. With this accountability，there’s no way l would stop running.
　　The accountability habit took a couple of months，mainly because I didn’t focus on it too much while l was building the running habit. But it stuck，and for that first year of running，I would report to people I knew and blog about my running every day and I would write a column every two weeks for my local paper.
　　Once those two habits were firmly fixed，my marathon goal was pretty much on autopilot. I still had to do the work，of course，but it didn’t require constant focus. And eventually，I ran the marathon. I was able to achieve this because，all year long，I had the daily running habit and daily accountability habit. I put my marathon goal into autopilot，and that made it much easier--instead of struggling with it daily for an entire year，I focused on it for one month and was able to accomplish it while focusing on new habits and goals.
55．According to the passage，we can see the key to forming a habit is ______________.
A．to break the goals into habits
B．to report to other people about your plan
C．to set a reasonable goal first
D．to focus on the habit as much as possible
56．The author told people about his running in order to ______________.
A．get more support
B．ask for their opinions
C．carry out his plan better
D．earn more admiration
57．What do we know about the author？
A．He was a local athlete.
B．He often gave people advice.
C．He had no blogs before.
D．He wrote for a local newspaper.
58．The passage is mainly about ______________.
A．goals and habits
B．how to turn your goals into habits
C．habits and achievements
D．how to make running a good habit

Frankly，I appreciate myself very much.Yes，I admit I’m in many aspects not as good as other people，but I don’t think I’m always not good.When I find what I’ve done or written is okay，I’ll remain pleased with myself for quite a few days，and if I receive praise for it，I’ll even become so excited as to add a few words to reward myself.

True，I’m not modest at all.People may call me conceited(自负的)．But I think otherwise.

I appreciate other people.I appreciate anything good.Isn’t it unfair to forget appreciating myself while appreciating others?

We Chinese generally tend to be modest，and we take pride in being so.For example，a Chinese man will call his own wife zhuojing，meaning “my humble wife”，and his own writings zhuozuo，meaning “my poor writings”．But if you call his wife a “rustic(乡村的)woman”or his writings “trash”，he would，I’m sure，declare he would make a clean break with you angrily.As a matter of fact，there is probably no difference at all between what is said by him and you.

I don’t think it’s wrong of you to freely praise yourself if you’re really worthy of praise.As we know，there is an old Chinese saying disparaging(蔑视) a melon seller，named Lao Wang，who keeps praising his own goods.Well，why can’t he praise his melons if they are really sweet and juicy?

Lao Wang sells melons for a living.How could he carry on business if he，by imitating the affectations(装模作样)of us intellectuals，were to show false modesty about his melons？He would sure enough die of starvation.

Self?appreciation is therefore a key to professional dedication and enjoyment of work.Needless to say，the same is true of those who make a living with their pen.One will lose confidence in writing when he stops admiring his own essays.

1．We know from the first three paragraphs that the author________.

A．is modest in some way

B．is pleased to be a good writer

C．is too conceited

D．thinks it unfair to appreciate others

2．What do we know about the author’s attitude towards Chinese modesty according to Paragraph 4?

A．Supportive.　　　　　　　B．Negative.

C．Neutral.　 　　　　　　 D．Careless.

3．The author mentions the example of Lao Wang to prove that ________.

A．Lao Wang is very proud of himself

B．melon sellers should praise their goods

C．reasonable self?appreciation is good

D．writers should learn from Lao Wang

4．The purpose of the passage is to encourage readers to be________.

A．modest 　　　　　　　B．considerate

C．respectful 　　　　　 D．confident

For 52 years my father got up every morning at 5:30 a.m., except Sunday, and went to work. I__41__saw my father home from work ill. He had no hobbies, __42__taking care of his family.
For 22 years, __43__I left home for college, my father__44__me every Sunday at 9:00 a.m.. He was always interested in my__45__,or how my family was doing, and I never once heard him__46__about his lot (生活状况) in life. The calls even came when he and my mother were in other states.
Nine years ago when I__47__my first house, my father, 67 years old, spent three days__48__my house. He would not__49__me to pay someone to have it done. All he __50__was a cup of tea, a paint brush and to talk to him. But I was too__51__.I had a law practice to run, and I could not take__52__to hold the brush, or talk to my father.__ 53__things happened several times later.
The morning on Sunday. January 16, 1996, my father telephoned me__54__,this time from my sister’s home in Florida. But the__55__came again at 4:40 p.m. that day. My father was in the__56__in Florida with an aneurysm (动脉瘤)．I got on an airplane__57__, and on the way, I__58__of all the times I had not taken the time to talk to my father. I determined that when I arrived, I would__59__for the lost time, and have a nice long talk with him.
I arrived in Florida at 11:30 p.m., my father had__ 60__at 9:12 p.m.. This time it was he who did not have time to talk, or to wait for me.
【小题1】.
．

While I was in 9th grade, I built a circuit (电路装置) for the traffic system of our city. After getting the first prize, I got this valuable advice from my father: “Do whatever interests you, and don’t let the work challenge you, make sure you are challenging that work.” 
I have always preferred the projects which are challenging and related to real life problems. I clearly remember building a shipping program several years ago. I divided the whole project into several small sections. When I understood it clearly, I used my brainstorming skill on it, and gave some basic ideas. Then I asked my professor for help before jumping into coding (编码). At first, I did not know how to ask questions correctly and always asked the question “How do I do it?” As I kept working and discussed with my professor, I became more comfortable and those “how” questions soon turned into “what if I do this and that” types of questions.
It took me four days to write the code. The desire to solve the problem kept me sleepless all nights brainstorming in even greater details. Every time I saw my program running smoothly, I exploded with joy. I still remember the last day of my work. I was getting some problem and didn’t know what to do. At that moment, a man came in to clean. He had headphones, and he was dancing while cleaning the room. Seeing this, I burst out laughing. That moment calmed me. I regained energy and interest and started to work again, and soon I fixed the problem.　
My success in the project proved that breaking up a large problem into small parts could help find a possible solution. Discussing the problem with others was also very beneficial. Now I have gained the confidence to attempt any kind of project.　
【小题1】According to the passage, the writer was interested in ______.

A．he had no clear idea about his program	B．he was too shy to express himself
C．he wanted to be understood easily	D．he preferred this kind of question

A．would benefit people a lot	B．was done together with others
C．was difficult and needed patience	D．cost much money and energy