shoes, he at first told me: "I haven"t time. Take them to the other fellow on the main street; he"ll fix them
for you right away. "
But I"d had my eye on his shop for a long time. Just looking at his bench loaded with tools and pieces
of leather, I knew he was a skilled craftsman (手艺人). "No," I replied, "The other fellow can"t do it well."
"The other fellow" was one of those shopkeepers who fix shoes and make keys "while-U-wait" -without
knowing much about mending shoes or making keys. They work carelessly, and when they have finished
sewing back a sandal strap (鞋带) ,you might as well just throw away the pair.
My man saw I wouldn"t give in, and he smiled. He wiped his hands on his blue apron (围裙), looked
at my shoes, had me write my name on one shoe with a piece of chalk and said, "Come back in a week."
I was about to leave when he took a pair of soft leather boot off a shelf.
"See what I can do " he said with pride. "Only three of us in Paris can do this kind of work."
When I got back out into the street, the world seemed brand-new to me. He was something out of an
ancient legend, an old craftsman with his way of speaking familiarly, his pride in his craft.
These are times when nothing is important but the bottom line, when you can do things any old way as
long as it "pays", when, in short, people look on work as a path to ever-increasing consumption (消费)
rather than a way to realize their own abilities. In such a period,it is a rare comfort to find a cobbler who
gets his greatest satisfaction from pride in a job well done.
B. He was the only cobbler in the Marais.
C. He was proud of his skills.
D. He was a native Parisian.
B.it was difficult to communicate with this man
C. the man was very strange
D. the man was too old
B. gain happiness
C. make money
D. gain respect
B. whatever you do, do it well
C. craftsmen need self-respect
D. people are born equal
A few years ago, when I was still in high school, I met a wonderful and warm teacher. At that time
in my life, there were many changes to adjust to, apart from the usual teenage troubles. My parents had
divorced, so my elder brother and I had chosen to stay with my dad. Due to the fact that he was keeping
the house, we didn"t have to move.
During this time, my teacher took a special interest in me. Being my English teacher, she encouraged
my mind to travel to creativity I had long given up. She brought me out of the shell I built.
She became my mother, my older sister, my friend and my teacher. The one thing she couldn"t do though
was to make me more girly as growing up with only my dad and brother made me a real tomboy.
Sometimes, I would be really immature(不成熟的), especially if she was scoring me less than others on
purpose. She knew I could do better than what I was handing in and so pushed me to extend
further than limits.
When I finished school and then after college I was about to leave my hometowns she gifted me a
watch that every second, with my pulse, should remind me of the one person who will forever wait and
love me without reservation.
Time has passed and our friendship is distant, but in my heart, soul and mind, she is the closest I ever
got.
B.they didn"t have to move out of their house
C. they hated their mother remarried
D. they had a closer relationship with their father
B.She was getting along well with her studies.
C. She had some trouble with her studies.
D. She lacked interest in creativity.
B.she wanted to learn from her father and brother
C. she lived with only men all the time
D. her English teacher didn"t care about her
B.She valued it very much.
C. She kept it very well.
D. She wanted to do something later in return for it.
was obviously her son-were 1 because he had walked away from her. The boy returned, his
eyes downcast (沮丧的).
Not a 2 moment, perhaps. 3 small moments sometimes last a very long time. And a
few words -though they mean 4 at the time to the people who say them-can have great 5 .
I recently heard a story from a man named Malcolm Dalkoff. For the last 24 years he has
been a professional 6 . Here is what he told me:
As a boy in Rock Island, Dalkoff was terribly 7 . He had few 8 and no self-confidence
(自信心). One day, his English teacher, Ruth Brauch, gave the class an assignment(作业). The
students had been reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Now they were to write their own chapter that
would 9 the last chapter of the novel. Dalkoff wrote his chapter and turned it 10 . Today he
can not recall(回忆起) anything 26about the chapter he wrote, or what 11 Mrs. Branch gave
him. What he does remember is the four words Mrs. Brauch wrote in the margin (空白处) of the
paper: "This is 12 writing."
Four words. They 13 his life.
" 14 I read those words, I had no idea of who I was or 15 I was going to be," he said.
"After reading her note, I went home and wrote a short story, something I had always been
16 of doing but never believed I could do."Over the rest of that year in school, he wrote many
short stories and always brought them to school for Mrs. Brauch to evaluate (评价). She was
17 , tough and honest. "She was just what I 18 ," Dalkoff said.
His confidence 19 . Dalkoff believes that none of this would have happened, had that woman
not written those four words in the margin of his paper.
( )2. A. wonderful
( )3. A. Yet
( )4. A. much
( )5. A. meaning
( )6. A. writer
( )7. A. sorry
( )8. A. books
( )9. A. follow
( )10. A. on
( )11. A. common
( )12. A. signs
( )13. A. poor
( )14. A. changed
( )15. A. Unless
( )16. A. what
( )17. A. tired
( )18. A. strict
( )19. A. feared
( )20. A. grew
B. difficult
B. Although
B. little
B. power
B. player
B. proud
B. ideas
B. match
B. in
B. stupid
B. remark
B. serious
B. damaged
B. Until
B. how
B. fond
B. kind
B. needed
B. lifted
C. funny
C. For
C. more
C. force
C. poet
C. sick
C. friends
C. decide
C. out
C. special
C. prize
C. good
C. affected
C. When
C. where
C. proud
C. encouraging
C. expected
C. appeared
D. big
D. Therefore
D. most
D. sense
D. singer
D. shy
D. chances
D. improve
D. down
D. different
D. grades
D. silly
D. improved
D. While
D. which
D. dreaming
D. praising
D. loved
D. returned
My wife and I now find ourselves among those unfortunates feeling that 1 .
At the end of last year, our customers just 2 . We had to make the painful decision to 3 our office
and put our house up for 4 . We haven"t lived in it for two years yet and expected it would be the 5 one for a long time. How 6 this world economic mess is changing our lives!
As I get older, I find moving less adventurous and more 7 . This time, we"re in the process of moving
without knowing where we"ll 8 next. Job searching has been thrown into the quagmire(困境) of an
unsettled life. Both my wife and I had been feeling pretty 9 from all this. I"ve been challenged to find the
positive in all this down that"s 10 us.
But then it happened while I watched my wife 11 things up. She"s an absolute whiz(能手) when it
comes to packing. I took delight in watching her 12 just the right boxes for 13 in front of her and filling
in the 14 with pillows and towels. I began feeling something like a wind lift me up and sail me through my
own 15 of the packing and loading.
Some friends will be helping us with the 16 . I"ve told them that they"re not 17 friends but gaining
some new vacation spots.
I have 18 that we"ll get through this transition finally. We all will always have work to do, by choice
or 19 , and we can also consciously make the effort to create a sense of 20 in a new place.
( )1. A. pressure ( )2. A. stayed up ( )3. A. open ( )4. A. help ( )5. A. last ( )6. A. little ( )7. A. dangerous ( )8. A. return ( )9. A. relaxed ( )10. A. improving ( )11. A. packing ( )12. A. bring up ( )13. A. others ( )14. A. cars ( )15. A. boat ( )16. A. settling ( )17. A. valuing ( )18. A. idea ( )19. A. otherwise ( )20. A. panic | B. pleasure B. turned up B. close B. comparison B. next B. quickly B. common B. arrive B. excited B. encouraging B. washing B. keep up B. nothing B. gaps B. share B. cooking B. losing B. faith B. indeed B. connection | C. heat C. dried up C. visit C. decoration C. only C. frequently C. stressful C. study C. ashamed C. beating C. pulling C. size up C. another C. tanks C. wish C. cleaning C. inviting C. feeling C. worse C. humor | D. chance D. came up D. paint D. sale D. special D. well D. interesting D. prepare D. depressed D. killing D. dividing D. set up D. everything D holes D. promise D. moving D. making D. opinion D. rather D. home |
阅读理解。 | |||
One night, as Diaz stepped off the train and onto a nearly empty platform, a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife. "He wanted my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, "Here you go "" Diaz says. As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you"re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm." The robber looked at him puzzled, saying, "Why are you doing this?" Diaz replied, "If you"re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me….." Diaz says he and the teen went into a diner and sat in a booth. "The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. The kid said, "You know everybody here. Do you own this place?" "No, I just eat here a lot," Dias said. "But you"re even nice to the dishwasher," he said. Diaz replied, "Well, haven"t you been taught you should be nice to everybody?" "Yea, but I didn"t think people actually behaved that way," the teen said. When the bill arrived, Diaz said, "You"re going to have to pay for this bill because you have my money and I can"t pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I"ll gladly treat you." The teen returned it immediately. "I gave him $20…I figure maybe it"ll help him." Diaz says he asked for something in return--- the teen"s knife--- "and he gave it to me." Afterwards, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You"re the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch." "I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It"s as simple as it gets in this complicated world." | |||
1. What did Diaz do to the teen? | |||
A. He gave the teen a new wallet B. He treated the teen to dinner C. He gave his coat to the teen D. He taught the teen a lesson | |||
2. From the passage we can infer that the boy _______. | |||
A. expressed his gratitude for Diaz"s kindness B. gave up the idea of robbing in the end C. wasn"t taught how to be nice to everybody D. gave the knife to Diaz in return for his forgiveness | |||
3. For what Diaz did, his mother showed an attitude of _______. | |||
A. complaint B. concern C. criticism D. praise | |||
4. By telling the story of Diaz, the author intends to tell us ______. | |||
A. to keep calm in danger B. not to go out alone at night C. to treat others kindly D. not to harm others on purpose | |||
完形填空。 | |||
Whatever misfortune you face, just hold up your head and face it with a smile! I got to know this from a musical soul. The other day I was feeling quite 1 , having just been laid off from my job. With so many 2 to pay, I was wondering what was going to happen to my family. I got off the bus when I heard piano music and singing rising above the noise of the 3 . I walked a bit slower, trying to find out where it was coming from. Through the 4 I saw a young lady sitting at a piano with a box next to her. She was singing songs about love and her sweet voice 5 me a bit. Then I stood there watching her playing, thinking that it must take 6 to perform on her own in front of hundreds of people she didn"t know. She might have felt my 7 for she occasionally looked in my direction. By now I was telling myself that I could at least tell her how good she sounded. I walked 8 and put some money in her box and she expressed her thanks with a smile on her face. I asked her 9 , "Why are you playing the piano in the middle of this crowded place?" She explained to me that she sees so many 10 people in the world that she is trying to relieve the pain by 11 motivational music. Instead of continuing my way home, I said to her, "I have been going through a 12 time lately, but you"ve made me 13 again." "I"m happy that I could be 14 to you," she replied. "Why are you so sad?" I told her my story and said, "I"m not so 15 about what to do…." "You see, here"s the 16 ," she responded. "When you were walking, your head was down." She looked me in the eyes and went on, "Don"t look defeated, because 17 comes in different ways and if your head is down you might never see it. You should 18 more …lift your head up." I was really 19 by what she said! I did hold my head up and soon got through the difficult time. So 20 in trouble, just face it bravely and you are sure to overcome your difficulty sooner or later. | |||