“Mom, I have cancer.” These four words catapulted my son and me on a journey that lasted two years. On that day I felt a wave of paralyzing fear.

Scott was the oldest of my four children. He was 33 years old and a successful assistant principal at SamRayburn Hifht School in Pasadena, Texas. He and his wife Carolyn were busy raising four active children. Scott was 6’2’’, weighed 200 pounds and had never been sick a day in his life.

A few month earlier a mole（痣）on his neck had changed color. “Dr.Warner called,” Scott said that spring morning. “It’s melanoma.（黑素瘤）” I tried to comfort him, naming all the people I knew who had survived skin cancer. Yet, I felt small tentacles of fear begin to wrap around my chest.

Our next stop was MDAnderson, the famous cancer hospital in Houston. Scott had surgery at the end of May and was scheduled for radiation treatments over the summer recess. “There is an 80 percent chance it won’t reoccur,” the doctors said. At the end of summer, all his tests came back negative and Scott was back at school in the fall. However, in December, Scott discovered a lump on his neck. It was examined and the result came back “malignant.（恶性的）” We now realized that Scott fell into the 20 percent category. I could feel the tentacles tightening around my chest. He entered the hospital for an aggressive treatment, a combination of interferon and interleukin.

After five months of treatment, he had radical surgery on his neck. The test results were encouraging, only three of the 33 lymph nodes（淋巴结） removed were malignant. We were very hopeful.

For the next six months, Scott’s follow-up visits went well. Then in October, X-ray revealed a spot on his lung. The spot was removed during surgery and the doctors tried to be optimistic. It was a daily battle to control the fear and panic each setback brought.

In January, he was diagnosed as having had a “disease explosion.” The cancer had spread to his lungs, spine and liver and he was given three to six months to live. There were times during this period when I felt like I was having a heart attack. The bands constricting my chest made breathing difficult.

When you watch your child battle cancer, you experience a roller coaster of emotions. There are moments of hope and optimism but a bad test result or even an unusual pain can bring on dread and panic.

Scott was readmitted to the hospital for one last try with chemotherapy. He died, quite suddenly, just six weeks after his last diagnosis. I was completely destroyed. I had counted on those last few months.

The next morning I was busy notifying people and making funeral arrangements. I remember having this nagging feeling that something was physically wrong with me. It took a moment to realize that the crushing sensation in my chest was gone. The thing every parent fears the most had happened. My son was gone. Of course, the fear had been replaced by unbearable sorrow.

After you lose a child, it is so difficult to go on. The most minimal tasks, combing your hair or taking a shower, becoming monumental. For months I just sat and stared into space. That spring, the trees began to bloom; flowers began to pop up in my garden. Friendswood was coming back to life but I was dead inside.

During those last weeks, Scott and I often spoke about life and death. Fragments of those conversations kept playing over and over in my mind.

“Don’t let this ruin your life, Mom.”

“Make sure Dad re models his workshop.”

“Please, take care of my family.”

I remember wishing I could have just one more conversation with him. I knew what I would say, but what would Scott say? “I know how much you love me, Mom. So just sit on the couch and cry.” No, I knew him better than that. Scott loved life and knew how precious it is. I could almost hear his voice saying, “Get up Mom, Get on with your life. It’s too valuable to waste.”

That was the day I began to move forward. I signed up for a cake decorating class. Soon I was making cakes for holidays and birthdays. My daughter-in-law told me about a writing class in Houston. I hadn’t written in years, but since I was retired I decided it be time to start again. The local college advertised a Life Story Writing class that I joined. There I met women who had also lost their children. The Poet Laureate of Texas was scheduled to speak at our local Barnes and Noble. I attended and joined our local poetry society. I never dreamed that writing essays and poems about Scott could be so therapeutic. Several of those poems have ever been published. In addition, each group brought more and more people into my life..

I don’t believe you ever recover from the loss of a child. Scott is in my heart and mind every day. However, I do believe you can survive.

Scott fought so bravery to live and he never gave up. He taught me that life is a gift that should be cherished, not wasted. It has taken years to become the person I am today. The journey has been a difficult, painful process but certainly worth the effort and I know that my son would be proud.

1.How old was Scott probably when he died?

A．33               B．35                 C．37           D．40

2.What does the underlined sentence “ The bands constricting my chest made breathing difficult” probably imply?

A．It implies that Scott’s mother was likely to have a heart attack.

B．It implies that there was something wrong with Scott’s mother’s chest.

C．It implies that Scott’s mother was very upset and panic because of Scott’s severe illness.

D．It implies that the cancer had spread to her chest just like her son.

3.Which of the following statements best shows the author’s feeling about Scott’s death?

A．It was a daily battle to control the fear and panic each setback brought.

B．She felt a wave of fear.

C．She felt a feeling of fear begin to wrap around her chest.

D．The fear had been replaced by unbearable sorrow.

4.From Scott and his mother’s conversation, we can know that Scott is ________.

A．considerable      B．humorous         C．determined      D．sensitive

5.The author intends to tell us that___________.

A．it takes a long time to make a person recover from the shock of losing a child

B．Scott is proud of his mother

C．life is full of happiness and sorrow.

D．We’d better make our life count instead of counting your days.

6.What might be the best title of the passage ?

A．Life is valuable                         B．Grieving and Recovery

C．Love and sorrow                        D．Alive or dead

“Mom, I have cancer.” These four words catapulted my son and me on a journey that lasted two years. On that day I felt a wave of paralyzing fear.
Scott was the oldest of my four children. He was 33 years old and a successful assistant principal at SamRayburn Hifht School in Pasadena, Texas. He and his wife Carolyn were busy raising four active children. Scott was 6’2’’, weighed 200 pounds and had never been sick a day in his life.
A few month earlier a mole（痣）on his neck had changed color. “Dr.Warner called,” Scott said that spring morning. “It’s melanoma.（黑素瘤）” I tried to comfort him, naming all the people I knew who had survived skin cancer. Yet, I felt small tentacles of fear begin to wrap around my chest.
Our next stop was MDAnderson, the famous cancer hospital in Houston. Scott had surgery at the end of May and was scheduled for radiation treatments over the summer recess. “There is an 80 percent chance it won’t reoccur,” the doctors said. At the end of summer, all his tests came back negative and Scott was back at school in the fall. However, in December, Scott discovered a lump on his neck. It was examined and the result came back “malignant.（恶性的）” We now realized that Scott fell into the 20 percent category. I could feel the tentacles tightening around my chest. He entered the hospital for an aggressive treatment, a combination of interferon and interleukin.
After five months of treatment, he had radical surgery on his neck. The test results were encouraging, only three of the 33 lymph nodes（淋巴结） removed were malignant. We were very hopeful.
For the next six months, Scott’s follow-up visits went well. Then in October, X-ray revealed a spot on his lung. The spot was removed during surgery and the doctors tried to be optimistic. It was a daily battle to control the fear and panic each setback brought.
In January, he was diagnosed as having had a “disease explosion.” The cancer had spread to his lungs, spine and liver and he was given three to six months to live. There were times during this period when I felt like I was having a heart attack. The bands constricting my chest made breathing difficult.
When you watch your child battle cancer, you experience a roller coaster of emotions. There are moments of hope and optimism but a bad test result or even an unusual pain can bring on dread and panic.
Scott was readmitted to the hospital for one last try with chemotherapy. He died, quite suddenly, just six weeks after his last diagnosis. I was completely destroyed. I had counted on those last few months.
The next morning I was busy notifying people and making funeral arrangements. I remember having this nagging feeling that something was physically wrong with me. It took a moment to realize that the crushing sensation in my chest was gone. The thing every parent fears the most had happened. My son was gone. Of course, the fear had been replaced by unbearable sorrow.
After you lose a child, it is so difficult to go on. The most minimal tasks, combing your hair or taking a shower, becoming monumental. For months I just sat and stared into space. That spring, the trees began to bloom; flowers began to pop up in my garden. Friendswood was coming back to life but I was dead inside.
During those last weeks, Scott and I often spoke about life and death. Fragments of those conversations kept playing over and over in my mind.
“Don’t let this ruin your life, Mom.”
“Make sure Dad re models his workshop.”
“Please, take care of my family.”
I remember wishing I could have just one more conversation with him. I knew what I would say, but what would Scott say? “I know how much you love me, Mom. So just sit on the couch and cry.” No, I knew him better than that. Scott loved life and knew how precious it is. I could almost hear his voice saying, “Get up Mom, Get on with your life. It’s too valuable to waste.”
That was the day I began to move forward. I signed up for a cake decorating class. Soon I was making cakes for holidays and birthdays. My daughter-in-law told me about a writing class in Houston. I hadn’t written in years, but since I was retired I decided it be time to start again. The local college advertised a Life Story Writing class that I joined. There I met women who had also lost their children. The Poet Laureate of Texas was scheduled to speak at our local Barnes and Noble. I attended and joined our local poetry society. I never dreamed that writing essays and poems about Scott could be so therapeutic. Several of those poems have ever been published. In addition, each group brought more and more people into my life..
I don’t believe you ever recover from the loss of a child. Scott is in my heart and mind every day. However, I do believe you can survive.
Scott fought so bravery to live and he never gave up. He taught me that life is a gift that should be cherished, not wasted. It has taken years to become the person I am today. The journey has been a difficult, painful process but certainly worth the effort and I know that my son would be proud

1. 1.

   How old was Scott probably when he died?

   1. A.
      33
   2. B.
      35
   3. C.
      37
   4. D.
      40
2. 2.

   What does the underlined sentence “ The bands constricting my chest made breathing difficult” probably imply?

   1. A.
      It implies that Scott’s mother was likely to have a heart attack
   2. B.
      It implies that there was something wrong with Scott’s mother’s chest
   3. C.
      It implies that Scott’s mother was very upset and panic because of Scott’s severe illness
   4. D.
      It implies that the cancer had spread to her chest just like her son
3. 3.

   Which of the following statements best shows the author’s feeling about Scott’s death?

   1. A.
      It was a daily battle to control the fear and panic each setback brought
   2. B.
      She felt a wave of fear
   3. C.
      She felt a feeling of fear begin to wrap around her chest
   4. D.
      The fear had been replaced by unbearable sorrow
4. 4.

   From Scott and his mother’s conversation, we can know that Scott is ________

   1. A.
      considerable
   2. B.
      humorous
   3. C.
      determined
   4. D.
      sensitive
5. 5.

   The author intends to tell us that___________

   1. A.
      it takes a long time to make a person recover from the shock of losing a child
   2. B.
      Scott is proud of his mother
   3. C.
      life is full of happiness and sorrow
   4. D.
      We’d better make our life count instead of counting your days
6. 6.

   What might be the best title of the passage ?

   1. A.
      Life is valuable
   2. B.
      Grieving and Recovery
   3. C.
      Love and sorrow
   4. D.
      Alive or dead

完形填空（共20小题；每小题1. 5分，满分30分）
请阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36~55各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该选项的标号涂黑。
It was Lin Tao’s first visit to England. He was looking   36  to his first journey on London’s Underground Railway. Against   37  of his friends he decided to go alone.
He   38  the station shortly after five o’clock in the afternoon. This is a   39  time to travel in London because too many people go home   40  work at this hour. He had to join a long line of people   41  were waiting for tickets. When   42  his turn came, he had some difficulty in making himself understood by the man   43  tickets. However, he got the right   44   in the end and by asking people the   45  he also found the right platform. It was crowed with people. He did not manage to get on the first train,   46  he was able to move nearer the edge of the platform so as to be in a better position to   47  the next one.
When this train came in, Lin Tao was swept forward on to the train by the rush of people from behind. The doors   48  and the train moved off. He was   49  to see the names of the stations   50  the train stopped, but he knew that the station he wanted was the sixth stop along the line. When the train reached the sixth station, Lin Tao got off,   51  glad that his journey had been so easy. But he suddenly   52  that he had come to a station he   53 ! He explained his difficulty to a man standing on the platform. With a smile   54  his face, the man told Lin Tao that he   55  a train going in the opposite direction. The train had come to a small town, the name of which sounded very strange.

                                                                                               Dec. 24, 1848

Dear Johnston,

       Your request for eighty dollars, I do not think it best to satisfy now. At the various times when I have helped you a little, you have said to me, “We can get along very well again,” but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can only happen by some fault in your behavior. What that fault is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler(游手好闲). I doubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day’s work, in any other day. You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it.

This habit of uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty; it is vastly important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should break this habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it, easier than they can get out after they are in.

You are now in need of some ready money; and what I suggest is, that you shall go to work hard, for somebody who will give you money for it.

Let father and your boys take charge of your things at home-prepare for a crop, and make the crop, and you go to work for the best money wages, or to pay back any debt you owe. And to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise you that for every dollar you will, between this and the first of May, get for your own labor, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your work.

Now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next year you will be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for $ 70 or $80. Then you value your place in Heaven cheaply, for I am sure you can with the offer I make you get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months’ work. You say if I furnish you the money you will deed(抵押) me the land, and if you don’t pay the money back, you will deliver possession-Nonsense! If you can’t now live with the land, how will you then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not now mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eight time eighty dollars to you.

               Affectionately

  Your brother

   A. Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln wrote the letter to Johnston mainly to ________.

A. show his concern for him                 B. recommend him to save money

C. decline his request and motivate him              D. introduce him a new job

What’s the problem with Johnston, according to Lincoln?

A. He was very lazy.                                 B. He wasted time a lot.

C. He couldn’t get much from work.           D. He disliked working.

In the letter Lincoln suggested that Johnston should ________.

A. keep himself from getting into trouble    B. go to work hard for somebody

C. manage well the things at home             D. keep the children out of the idle habit

If Johnston got one dollar for his work, Lincoln promised to _________.

A. reward him with labor                           B. pay off his debt

C. hire him at 10 dollars a month                      D. give him another dollar

In order to get 80 dollars from Lincoln, Johnston promised to ________.

A. take away his place in Heaven                B. deed Lincoln the land

C. live without the land                                    D. do good work every day 

It’s been claimed that playing a musical instrument makes you smarter．

New research suggests that regularly playing a musical instrument changes the shape and power of the brain, and may be used in therapy (疗法) to improve cognitive (认知) skills．

Experts say there is growing evidence that musicians have brains that are structurally and functionally different from those of non-musicians, especially in the areas of the brain used in processing (处理信息)

The parts of the brain that control motor skills, the storage of audio information, hearing and memory become larger and more active when a person learns how to play an instrument and can apparently improve the alertness (警觉) and planning．

Lutz Jancke, a psychologist at the University of Zurich, said, “Leaning to play a musical instrument has great benefits and can increase IQ by seven points in both children and adults．We found that even people over the age of 65, after four or five months of playing an instrument for an hour a week, had strong changes in the brain.” The parts of the brain that control hearing and memory, and the part that controls the hands, among others, all become more active.

“Of course music isn’t the only answer, but I do believe that it should be used in addition to other things.”

Mr．Jancke also said that learning a musical instrument could also make it easier to learn foreign languages and make one more sensitive to understanding the emotions of others．“So not only does this make it easier to pick up other languages and have a better memory of one’s own, we have also seen musicians are able to pick out exactly what others are feeling just by the tones of their voices—sympathy, disappointment, that kind of things.”

He added, “Several studies indeed show that playing music increases memory and language skills, but more research is needed.”

1．What is the passage mainly about?

       A．How to use musical instruments.

       B．How music affects the brain.

       C．How playing music makes people smarter.

       D．The development of research into music.

2．Compared with non-musicians, __________.

       A．musicians are better at foreign languages

       B．musicians are more active in sports

       C．musicians have stronger emotions

       D．musicians’ brains work differently in processing

3．Which of the following is NOT a benefit of playing an instrument?

       A．It makes it easier for one to pick up foreign languages.

       B．It allows one to show his feelings more exactly to others．

       C．It gives one a better memory in one’s own language．

       D．it makes one understand others’ feelings better．

4．From Luz Jancke we lean that _________．

         A．playing an instrument benefits children more than adults

       B．playing an instrument has no benefits for people over 65

       C．some studies show playing music can increase memory

       D．he will do more research into brain development and music