For a while, my neighborhood was taken over by an army of joggers．(慢跑者). They were there all the time—early morning, noon, and evening. There were little old ladies in gray sweats, young couples in Adidas shoes, middle-aged men with red faces. “Come on!” My friend Alex encouraged me to join him as he jogged by my house every evening. “You'll feel great.”

    Well, I had nothing against feeling great and if Alex could jog every day, anyone could. So I took up jogging seriously and gave it a good two months of my life, and not a day more. Based on my experience, jogging is the most overvalued form of exercise around, and judging from the number of the people who left our neighborhood jogging army. I'm not alone in my opinion.

    First of all, jogging is very hard on the body. Your legs and feet a real pounding (沉重的脚步) running down a road for two or three miles. I developed foot, leg, and back problems. Then I read about a nationally famous jogger who died of a heart attack while jogging, and I had something else to worry about. Jogging doesn't kill hundreds of people, but if you have any physical weaknesses, jogging will surely bring them out, as they did with me.

    Secondly, I got no enjoyment out of jogging. Putting one foot in front of the other for forty-five minutes isn't my idea of fun. Jogging is also a lonely pastime. Some joggers say, “I love being out there with just my thoughts.” Well, my thoughts began to bore me, and most of them were on how much my legs hurt.

    And how could I enjoy something that brought me pain? And that wasn't just the first week: it was practically every day for two months. I never got past the pain level, and pain isn't fun. What a cruel way to do it! So many other exercises, including walking, lead to almost the same results painlessly, so why jog?

    I don't jog any more, and I don't think I ever will. I'm walking two miles three times a week at a fast pace, and that feels good. I bicycle to work when the weather is good. I'm getting exercise, and I'm enjoying it at the same time. I could never say the same for jogging, and I've found a lot of better ways to stay in shape.

1.From the first paragraph, we learn that in the writer's neighborhood ________.

A. jogging became very popular

B. many people were encouraged to jog

C. Alex organized an army of joggers

D. jogging provided a chance to get together

2. The underlined word “them”(Paragraph 3) most probably refers to ________.

A. heart attacks   B. Back problems  

C. hundreds of people   D. physical weaknesses

3. From the author's experience, we can conclude that ________.

A. jogging can help people keep fit

B. many physical problems result from jogging

C. not everyone enjoys jogging

D. jogging makes people feel great

For some time I’ve had a church member provide me with a rose to pin on the lapel of my suit every Sunday.  1.  I always got a flower on Sunday morning, I really did not think much of it. It was a nice gesture that became routine. One Sunday,   2. , what I considered ordinary became very  3. .

As I was leaving the Sunday  4. , a young boy approached and said,” Sir, what are you going to do with your flower?” At first I was confused, but then I understood. “Do you   5. this?” I said as I  6. to the rose pinned to my coat. He said, “Yes sir. I would  7.  it if you are just going to throw it away.” The little boy said, “Sir, I’m going to give it to my granny. My mother and father got  8. last year. I was living with my mother, but I could not stay, so she  9. me to live with my grandmother. She has been so  10. to me that I want to give that pretty flower to her for  11. me.” When the little boy finished I could hardly   12. . My eyes were filled with tears and I knew I had been touched in the   13. of my soul. I reached up and unpinned my flower. With the flower in my hand, I looked at the boy and said, “Son, that is the nicest thing I have  14. heard, but you can’t have this flower because it’s not  15. . If you’ll look in front of the pulpit（布道讲坛）, you’ll see a big bouquet of flowers. Different families buy them for the  16. each week. Please take those flowers to your granny because she  17. the very best.”

18. I hadn’t been touched enough already, he made one last  19. and I will always cherish it. He said, ”What a wonderful day! I  20. one flower but got a beautiful bouquet!”

21.               A．Once          B．Because        C．For   D．While

22.               A．though         B．nevertheless    C．however  D．anyway

23.               A．meaningful      B．motivated       C．strange    D．special

24.               A．service         B．meeting        C．interview  D．visit

25.               A．notice         B．see            C．like   D．mean

26.               A．shaken         B．indicated       C．pointed   D．looked

27.               A．enjoy          B．appreciate      C．like   D．pick

28.               A．divorced       B．lost            C．troubled   D．disturbed

29.               A．advised        B．forced         C．sent  D．dismissed

30.               A．helpful         B．merciful        C．mean D．good

31.               A．loving          B．bringing        C．protecting D．choosing

32.               A．speak          B．move          C．refuse D．breathe

33.               A．place          B．depths         C．bottom    D．corner

34.               A．even          B．already         C．yet   D．ever

35.               A．fresh          B．expensive       C．enough   D．useful

36.               A．old            B．church         C．poor  D．relatives

37.               A．possesses       B．matches        C．deserves  D．suits

38.               A．Even if         B．As             C．Although  D．If

39.               A．promise        B．statement       C．comment  D．explanation

40.               A．asked for       B．looked for      C．cared for  D．searched for

At the time my son was born in 1956, I shared a hospital room with a young woman who bore a boy on the same day. Partly because my parents  46 a shop selling flowers, the room was soon  47  with the lovely scent of roses.

　  As the seventh floral arrangement was   48  , I was beginning to feel  49 , for no flowers had arrived for my roommate, Ann. She sat on the edge of her bed and leaned forward to admire the  50  bouquet. She was a pretty young woman, yet there was something about her large, brown eyes that made me think she had known too much  51 , too much sadness for one so young. I had the feeling she had always had to admire someone else’  52  .

　 “I’m enjoying every  53 of this”, she said as though she had read my   54  and was trying to reassure me. “Wasn’t I the lucky one to get you for a   55 ？”

　  I still felt uncomfortable, however.  56   there were some magic button I could push to  57   the sadness in her eyes. Well, I thought, at least,I can see that she has some flowers. When my mother and father came to see me that day, I asked them to send  58 some.

　　The flowers arrived just   59  Ann and I were finishing supper.

　　“More flowers for you,” she said,   60  .

　　“No, not this time,” I said, looking at the     61   “These are for you.”

　　Ann stared at the blossoms a long time, not saying anything. She ran her 62  across the pale blue bouquets and  63 touched each of the sweet roses as though trying to engrave（刻画） them on her 64 .

　　“How can I ever thank you” she said softly.

I was almost embarrassed. It was such a little    65  on my part.

While income worry is a rather common problem of the aged, loneliness is another problem that aged parents may face. Of all the reasons that explain their loneliness, a large geographical distance between parents and their children is the major one. This phenomenon is commonly known as “Empty Nest Syndrome”（空巢综合症）.
In order to seek better chances outside their countries, many young people have gone abroad, leaving their parents behind with no clear idea of when they will return home. Their parents spend countless lonely days and nights, taking care of themselves, in the hope that someday their children will come back to stay with them. The fact that most of these young people have gone to Europeanized or Americanized societies makes it unlikely that they will hold as tightly to the value of duty as they would have if they had not left their countries. Whatever the case, it has been noted that the values they hold do not necessarily match what they actually do. This geographical and cultural distance also prevents the grown-up children from providing response in time for their aged parents living by themselves.
The situation in which grown-up children live far away from their aged parents has been described as “distant parent phenomenon”, which is common both in developed countries and in developing countries. Our society has not yet been well prepared for “Empty Nest Syndrome”.
【小题1】According to the passage, the loneliness of aged parents is mainly caused by _________.