Every year on my birthday, from the time 1 turned 12, a white gardenia（栀子花）was sent to my house. It did not come with a card or note of any kind, but I loved the beauty and sweet smell of the flower.

And I never stopped imaging who the giver might be. My mother helped me to imagine. She’d ask me if I had done something kind for anyone. Perhaps the neighbor I’d helped carry heavy bags for, or one of my classmates who I helped the lessons with. As a teenager, though, I had more fun thinking that it might be a boy I liked at school.

When I was 17, a boy broke my heart and I cried myself to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, there was a message on my mirror, “If we let sadness go, happiness will surely come to you.” I thought about those words for a long time. When I finally went to get the glass cleaner, my mother knew everything was all right again.

One month before I finished high school, my father left us forever. I lost interest in all the celebrating activities such as the class play, taking photos with classmates before leaving the high school where I had studied for three years. Although my mother was very sad, she still encouraged me to take part in all those. She wanted her child to have a sense that there was still beauty in the face of bad luck, just like the gardenia—lovely, strong and perfect.

My mother died 10 days after I was married. I was 26. That was the year gardenias stopped coming.

51. From the age of ________，the writer began to receive a gardenia every year on her birthday.

A. 17         B. 12        C. 26        D. 10

52. What can we infer(推断) from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3?

A. Mother was clever.        B. I was still sad.

C. The glass was dirty.        D. Mother really understood me.

53. The writer lost interest in activities before leaving high school because ________.

A. no flowers were sent to her  B. a boy broke her hear

C. her father died            D. there was no beauty in her life

54. In fact it was ________ who sent the flowers.

A. the writer’s father          B. the writer’s mother

C. a boy classmate            D. one of the neighbors

55. The passage mainly talks about ________.

A. mother’s love   B. the writer’s bad luck

C. teenagers’ problems while growing up   D. how to pace difficulties

阅读理解

　　Man has been traveling into space for more than forty years. Even though today, very few people get the chance to be an astronaut, about thirty per year. This is mainly because of the expense. It costs millions of yuan to train and send astronauts into space. Very few countries can afford this.

　　This why American businessman Dennis Tito paid 20000000 US dollars to the Russian space agency to go into space. He visited the International Space Station. His trip making him the first ever space tourist, took eight days in total. He spent most of his time taking photos, looking at earth and listening to music on his once-in-a-lifetime trip.

　　After landing safely back on earth, Mr Tito thought the trip was worth the money. The only difficulty he had was walking but this is normal for anyone who's been in zero gravity.

　　Some people especially in the American space agency, argue that you must be professional to go into space. They worried about the safety of other astronauts. However, Mr Tito received training before he left. He also helped to prepare food for the others while in space. They told him what to do and where he was allowed to go.

　　A survey carried out soon after Tito landed showed that seventy-five percent of American supported space tourism. Some people are bored of all the places on the earth. They are looking for a new adventure and space is the place.

　　The money Mr Tito gave the Russians paid for twenty percent of their annual budget. If we want to see men on Mars and other planets, we may need rich people like Mr Tito to help us pay for it. The Russians have more rich people who want to become space tourists. They should take them.

l．How many people have flown in space?

[　　]

A．About thirty.

B．More than one thousand and two hundred.

C．Thousands.

D．About twelve thousand.

2．The Russians want Dennis Tito to go into space because ________.

[　　]

A．they want to work with an American

B．they want him to have a once-in-a-lifetime trip

C．they want him to take photos of earth

D．they want his money

3．The differences between Mr Tito and the other astronauts ________.

[　　]

A．none

B．only Tito was allowed to cook

C．Tito couldn't go everywhere on the space station

D．Tito received training before he flew in space

4．What does the writer think about Dennis Tito?

[　　]

A．He helped Russia keep going into space.

B．He was not a good astronaut.

C．He couldn't help the Russians much.

D．He shouldn't be allowed into space again.

5．The writer thinks the problem for space tourists is ________.

[　　]

A．people's legs take time to get used to earth again

B．none

C．there is not much to do, only take photos and listen to music

D．tourists need to learn Russian before they go