When I was fourteen, I earned money in the summer by cutting lawns(草坪), and within a few weeks I had built up a body of customers. I got to know people by the flowers they planted that I had to remember not to cut down, by the things they lost in the grass or struck in the ground on purpose. I reached the point with most of them when I knew in advance what complaint was about to be spoken, which particular request was most important. And I learned something about the measure of my neighbors by their preferred method of payment: by the job, by the month--- or not at all.
Mr. Ballou fell into the last category, and he always had a reason why. On one day, he had no  change for a fifty, on another he was flat out of checks, on another, he was simply out when I knocked on his door. Still, except for the money apart, he was a nice enough guy, always waving or tipping his hat when he’d see me from a distance. I figured him for a thin retirement check, maybe a work-relayed injury that kept him from doing his own yard work. Sure, I kept track of the total, but I didn’t worry about the amount too much. Grass was grass, and the little that Mr. Ballou’s property comprised didn’t take long to trim (修剪).
Then, one late afternoon in mid-July, the hottest time of the year, I was walking by his house and he opened the door, mentioned me to come inside. The hall was cool, shaded, and it took my eyes a minute to adjust to the dim light. 
“ I owe you,” Mr Ballou, “ but…”
I thought I’d save him the trouble of thinking of a new excuse. “ No problem. Don’t worry about it.”
“ The bank made a mistake in my account,” he continued, ignoring my words. “ It will be cleared up in a day or two . But in the meantime I thought perhaps you could choose one or two volumes for a down payment.
He gestured toward the walls and I saw that books were stacked (堆放) everywhere. It was like a library, except with no order to the arrangement.
“ Take your time,” Mr. Ballou encouraged. “Read, borrow, keep. Find something you like. What do you read?”
“ I don’t know.” And I didn’t. I generally read what was in front of me, what I could get from the paperback stack at the drugstore, what I found at the library, magazines, the back of cereal boxes, comics. The idea of consciously seeking out a special title was new to me, but, I realized, not without appeal--- so I started to look through the piles of books.
“ You actually read all of these?”
“ This isn’t much,” Mr. Ballou said. “ This is nothing, just what I’ve kept, the ones worth looking at a second time.”
“ Pick for me, then.”
He raised his eyebrows, cocked his head, and regarded me as though measuring me for a suit. After a moment, he nodded, searched through a stack, and handed me a dark red hardbound book, fairly thick.
“ The Last of the Just,” I read. “ By Andre Schwarz-Bart. What’s it about?” “ You tell me,” he said. “ Next week.”
I started after supper, sitting outdoors on an uncomfortable kitchen chair. Within a few pages, the yard, the summer, disappeared, and I was plunged into the aching tragedy of the Holocaust, the extraordinary clash of good, represented by one decent man, and evil. Translated from French, the language was elegant, simple, impossible to resist. When the evening light finally failed I moved inside, read all through the night,
To this day, thirty years later, I vividly remember the experience. It was my first voluntary encounter with world literature, and I was stunned (震驚) by the concentrated power a novel could contain. I lacked the vocabulary, however, to translate my feelings into words, so the next week. When Mr. Ballou asked, “ Well?” I only replied, “ It was good?”
“ Keep it, then,” he said. “ Shall I suggest another?”
I nodded, and was presented with the paperback edition of Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa ( a very important book on the study of the social and cultural development of peoples--- anthropology (人類學(xué)) ).
To make two long stories short, Mr. Ballou never paid me a cent for cutting his grass that year or the next, but for fifteen years I taught anthropology at Dartmouth College. Summer reading was not the innocent entertainment I had assumed it to be, not a light-hearted, instantly forgettable escape in a hammock (吊床) ( though I have since enjoyed many of those, too). A book, if it arrives before you at the right moment, in the proper season, at an internal in the daily business of things, will change the course of all that follows.
【小題1】.The author thought that Mr. Ballou was ______________.

A.rich but meanB.poor but polite
C.honest but forgettableD.strong but lazy
【小題2】. Before his encounter with Mr. Ballou, the author used to read _____________.
A.a(chǎn)nything and everythingB.only what was given to him
C.only serious novelsD.nothing in the summer
【小題3】. The author found the first book Mr. Ballou gave him _____________.
A.light-heated and enjoyableB.dull but well written
C.impossible to put downD.difficult to understand
【小題4】. From what he said to the author we can gather that Mr. Ballou _______________.
A.read all books twiceB.did not do much reading
C.read more books than he keptD.preferred to read hardbound books
【小題5】. The following year the author _______________.
A.started studying anthropology at collegeB.continued to cut Mr. Ballou’s lawn
C.spent most of his time lazing away in a hammock
D.had forgotten what he had read the summer before
【小題6】. The author’s main point is that _____________.
A.summer jobs are really good for young people
B.you should insist on being paid before you do a job
C.a(chǎn) good book can change the direction of your life
D.a(chǎn) book is like a garden carried in the pocket.


【小題1】.B
【小題1】.A
【小題1】.C
【小題1】.C
【小題1】.B
【小題1】C

解析【小題1】細節(jié)題:從第二段的前面四行,可知Mr. Ballou 是友好的吝嗇的。選B
【小題1】推理題:從第九段的內(nèi)容,可知作者在遇到Mr. Ballou之前是什么都讀。選.A
【小題1】推理題:從倒數(shù)第五段的內(nèi)容: Translated from French, the language was elegant, simple, impossible to resist. When the evening light finally failed I moved inside, read all through the night,可知作者放不下這本書了。選C
【小題1】從文章中倆個人的對話:“ You actually read all of these?” “ This isn’t much,” Mr. Ballou said. “ This is nothing, just what I’ve kept, the ones worth looking at a second time.”可知Mr. Ballou讀的書,比這些多。選.C
【小題1】推理題:從最后一段的句子:Mr. Ballou never paid me a cent for cutting his grass that year or the next,可知作者后面還是給Mr. Ballou除草。選 B
【小題1】從文章的最后一段的句子:A book, if it arrives before you at the right moment, in the proper season, at an internal in the daily business of things, will change the course of all that follows.可知作者認(rèn)為好的書對人的影響是很深的。選C

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科目:高中英語 來源:江蘇省木瀆高級中學(xué)2010屆高三下學(xué)期課堂測試練習(xí)試題英語(一) 題型:完型填空


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32. A.trouble           B.difficulties     C.things                  D.fun
33. A.write             B.speak           C.use                      D.read
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科目:高中英語 來源:2010年高考二輪復(fù)習(xí)完形填空模擬訓(xùn)練 題型:完型填空


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【小題1】
A.givenB.discoveredC.sentD.made
【小題2】
A.opportunitiesB.dangersC.diamondsD.chances
【小題3】
A.painfulB.stupidC.normalD.original
【小題4】
A.ballB.stoneC.paperD.flower
【小題5】
A.steppedB.dependedC.foughtD.based
【小題6】
A.stealingB.a(chǎn)cceptingC.recognizingD.realizing
【小題7】
A.purseB.pocketC.bagD.house
【小題8】
A.sellingB.buyingC.huntingD.casting
【小題9】
A.go offB.give inC.stay up D.watch out
【小題10】
A.buyerB.jobC.stockD.rock
【小題11】
A.sceneB.prizeC.reminderD.power
【小題12】
A.difficultiesB.hopesC.charactersD.cases
【小題13】
A.unlessB.thoughC.forD.if
【小題14】
A.happilyB.easilyC.luckilyD.dangerously
【小題15】
A.expressingB.satisfyingC.breakingD.experiencing

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科目:高中英語 來源:2011-2012學(xué)年江蘇省常熟中學(xué)高二上學(xué)期期中考試英語試卷 題型:完型填空

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請認(rèn)真閱讀下面短文,從短文后各題所給的A、B、C、D四個選項中,選出最佳選項,并在答題卡上將該項涂黑。
We often talk about ourselves as if we have permanent genetic defects (缺陷) that can never be changed. “I’m impatient.” “I’m always behind.” “I always put things   31 !” You’ve surely heard them. Maybe you’ve used them to describe   32 .
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Bob asked me how I knew I had no mechanical skills. I explained my life   42  and told him about my   43  performance on the Army test. Bob then asked, “  44  is it that you can solve   45  mathematical problems, but you can’t solve simple mechanical problems?”
Suddenly I realized that I didn’t  46  from some sort of genetic defect. I was just living out expectations that I had chosen to  47 . At that point, it wasn’t just my family and friends who had been  48  my belief that I was mechanically hopeless. And it wasn’t just the Army test, either. I was the one who kept telling myself, “You can’t do this!” I realized that as long as I kept saying that, it was going to remain true.   49  , if we don’t treat ourselves as if we have incurable genetic defects, we can do well in almost   50  we choose.

【小題1】
A.a(chǎn)way B.offC.up D.down
【小題2】
A.themB.myselfC.yourselfD.others
【小題3】
A.saidB.spokenC.spreadD.repeated
【小題4】
A.a(chǎn)s long asB.a(chǎn)s far back asC.a(chǎn)s well asD.a(chǎn)s much as
【小題5】
A.basisB.plotC.causeD.meaning
【小題6】
A.leadB.improveC.a(chǎn)ffectD.change
【小題7】
A.encouraged B.demandedC.hopedD.a(chǎn)greed
【小題8】
A.meansB.toolsC.goodsD.hammers
【小題9】
A.thereforeB.somehowC.insteadD.however
【小題10】
A.settledB.turnedC.tookD.got
【小題11】
A.passiveB.a(chǎn)ctiveC.negativeD.subjective
【小題12】
A.experiencesB.tripsC.roadsD.paths
【小題13】
A.unexpectedB.poorC.excellentD.a(chǎn)verage
【小題14】
A.WhenB.WhatC.How D.Why
【小題15】
A.complexB.a(chǎn)dvancedC.common D.primary
【小題16】
A.a(chǎn)riseB.separateC.sufferD.come
【小題17】
A.believeB.suspectC.a(chǎn)doptD.receive
【小題18】
A.weakeningB.strengtheningC.a(chǎn)bandoningD.a(chǎn)ccepting
【小題19】
A.As a resultB.At the same timeC.In additionD.On the contrary
【小題20】
A.a(chǎn)nything B.somethingC.nothingD.a(chǎn)ll

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