The drug store was closing for the night and Alfred Higgins was about to go home when his new boss approached him.

“Empty your pockets please, Alfred,” Sam Carr demanded in a firm voice.

Alfred pretended to be shocked but he knew he had been caught. From his coat he withdrew a make-up kit, a lipstick and two tubes of toothpaste.

“I’m disappointed in you, Alfred!” said the little gray-haired man.

“Sorry, sir. Please forgive me. It’s the first time I’ve ever done such a thing,” Alfred lied, hoping to gain the old man’s sympathy.

Mr Carr’s brow furrowed as he reached for the telephone, “Do you take me for a fool? Let’s see what the police have to say. But first I’ll call your mother and let her know her son is heading to jail.”

“Do whatever you want,” Alfred shot back, trying to sound big. But deep down he felt like a child. He imagined his mother rushing in, eyes burning with anger, maybe in tears. Yet he wanted to come quickly before Mr. Carr called the police.

Mr. Carr was surprised when Mrs. Higgins finally arrived . She was very calm, quiet and friendly. “Is Alfred in trouble?” she asked.

“He’s been stealing from the store,” the old man coolly replied.

Mrs. Higgins pulled out her hand and touched Mr. Carr’s arm with great gentleness as if she knew just how he felt. She spoke as if she did not want to cause him any more trouble. “What do you want to do, Mr.Carr?”

The woman’s calm and gentle manner disarmed the once-angry store-owner, “I was going to get a cop. But I don’t want to be cruel. Tell your son not to come back here again and I will let it go.” Then he warmly shook Mrs. Higgins’ hand.

Mrs. Higgins thanked the old ma for his kindness, then mother and son left. They walked along the street in silence. When they arrived home his mother simply said, “Go to bed, you fool.”

In his bedroom, Alfred heard his mother in the kitchen. He felt no shame, only pride in his mother’s actions. “She was smooth!” he thought. He went to the kitchen to tell her how great she was, but was shocked by what he saw.

His mother’s face looked frightened, broken. Not the cool, bright face he saw earlier. Her lips moved nervously. She looked very old. There were tears in her eyes.

This picture of his mother made him want to cry. He felt his youth ending. He saw all the troubles he brought her and the deep lines of worry in her grey face. It seemed to him that this was the first time he had ever really seen his mother.

1.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

2.What does the underlined word “disarmed” probably mean?

3.What was the mother’s attitude towards Alfred?

4.What impressed Alfred most about his mother at the drugstore was_______.

5.From the last paragraph, we know Alfred________.

“Earthquake!” The word flashed in my brain. A roaring sound filled my ears . I tried to slide beneath my desk. The desk did a wild tap dance, slipping and sliding towards the centre of the room. I twisted my body and grabbed at the window sill behind me, somehow kicking free of my dancing chair. I tried to stand. My legs skated away as if on a bucking escalator.
My fingers shook, grasped and held the window sill tightly. Somewhere through the roar sounded the terrified scream of some wounded animal. I looked behind me and tried to steady my gaze on the other kids but the scene was a dizzy nightmare. Some of the class was sitting in the middle of the room, surrounded by chairs and desks. One girl was screaming. A boy was trying to claw his way across the floor to the door in a crazy overarm crawl.
My grip froze me to the window sill.
I cried aloud, “I’m going to die. I’m going to die. Save me, I’ m not ready to die, I’m not ready!”
I hunched forward on my knees and pressed my face against my clenched fingers. I looked at the backs of my fingers and stupidly noticed the fragile pale hairs growing out of the pores. The fingers would soon cease to exist. Somehow the impending horror of my death was too terrible to even cry about.
Suddenly, I became aware that the rocking had ceased. Perhaps I wasn’t going to die.
72. The roaring sound was made by ______.
A. a wounded animal          B. people screaming
C. children running            D. an earthquake
73. When the narrator clenches his fingers he is ______
A. afraid     B. angry     C. injured     D. impatient
74.Pararaph Two describes the _______.
A. injuries suffered by the narrator     B. effects of a bad nightmare
C.disorder in the classroom           D. narrator’s fear of death
75. At the end of the passage there is a felling of ______.
A. panic    B. hope     C. sorrow     D.  excitement

Sir William Osler has a few words for you: “In the Life of a young man, the most essential thing for happiness is the gift of friendship.” Truer words were never spoken. For what more could you ask than comradeship during the peaks and valleys of life? To whom else but a close, valuable friend can you show off your successes and complain about your failures or losses?

What is a “good friend”? How is he best described? Well, it has been my observation that although many will cry with you, few can sincerely rejoice (欣喜) with you. Therefore, in my opinion, a good friend is one who can enjoy your successes without envy; one who can say, “That was wonderful! You can do it again, even better if you want!” and mean it. Nothing taxes a friendship more than the success of one and not the other. Even the closest of friendships often cannot resist such pressure and fail. No wonder many minor friendships go down day by day for the same reason.

A person of good character and sound moral, of honor and humor, of courage and belief is a friend to be sought and treasured — for there are few. Too often we hear, “If you can count your good friends on more than one hand, consider yourself blessed.”

What makes a friendship last? Well, I don’t know all the answers, but one of my observations is that most good friends usually have similar tastes. They generally like and dislike many of the same things. There also usually seems to exist a similarity of personality types — especially in the fundamental values of life such as honesty, sincerity, loyalty, and dependability. More often than not, birds of a feather do fly together. I don’t think it matters a lot whether one prefers jazz or hockey to another’s Mozart or ballet. Much other matters far more: relying, sharing, giving, getting, enjoying; a sympathetic ear always there; criticism when it can help; praise — even if only because it would help. With not many people on this earth will you find this much in common. When you find one, hang on to him, for a good friend found is a rare treasure.

The function of Paragraph 1 is to introduce ______.

A. a famous saying 

B. the topic for discussion

C. a famous person 

D. two different attitudes

What is the meaning of the underlined sentence in Paragraph two?

A. People don’t have to pay taxes to develop friendship with others.

B. Success of one person can promote his friendship with others.

C. Friendship can be affected by the difference in success between friends.

D. Nothing can affect friendship because it has gone through the peaks and valleys of life.

What is the main idea of Paragraph three ?

A. One is lucky to have many friends.

B. A friend should have a good character.

C. We should count our friends on more than one hand.

D. A true friend should be treasured because there are few.

According to the passage, which of the following plays the LEAST important role in a long-lasting friendship?

A. Hobbies.    B. Tastes. C. Personality.       D. Sympathy.

It was eleven o'clock that night when Mr. Pontellier returned from his night out. He was in an excellent humor, in high spirits, and very talkative. His entrance awoke his wife, who was in bed and fast asleep when he came in. He talked to her while he undressed, telling her anecdotes and bits of news and gossip that he had gathered during the day. She was overcome with sleep, and answered him with little half utterances.

　　He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, showed so little interest in things which concerned him and valued so little his conversation.

　　Mr. Pontellier had forgotten the candies and peanuts that he had promised the boys. Still, he loved them very much and went into the room where they slept to take a look at them and make sure that they were resting comfortably. The result of his investigation was far from satisfactory. He turned and shifted the youngsters about in bed. One of them began to kick and talk about a basket full of crabs.

　　Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit his cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it.

　　Mrs. Pontellier was quite sure Raoul had no fever. He had gone to bed perfectly well, she said, and nothing had made him sick. Mr. Pontellier was too well familiar with fever symptoms to be mistaken. He assured her the child was burning with fever at that moment in the next room.

　　He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his business. He could not be in two places at once; making a living for his family on the street, and staying home to see that no harm done to them. He talked in a dull, repeated and insistent way.

　　Mrs. Pontellier sprang out of bed and went into the next room. She soon came back and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning her head down on the pillow. She said nothing, and refused to answer her husband when he questioned her. When his cigar was smoked out, he went to bed, and in half a minute was fast asleep.

　　Mrs. Pontellier was by that time thoroughly awake. She began to cry a little, and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her nightdress. She went out on the porch, where she sat down and began to rock herself in the chair.

　　It was then past midnight. The cottages were all dark. There was no sound except the hooting of an old owl and the everlasting voice of the sea, which broke like a mournful lullaby (催眠曲) upon the night.

　　The tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontellier's eyes that the damp sleeve of her nightdress no longer served to dry them. She went on crying there, not caring any longer to dry her face, her eyes, her arms.

　　She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as had just happened were not uncommon in her married life. They seemed never before to have weighed much against the abundance (充足) of her husband's kindness and a uniform devotion which had come to be self-understood.

　　An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with vague pain. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing across her soul's summer day. It was strange and unfamiliar; it was a mood. She did not sit there inwardly scolding her husband, expressing sadness about Fate, which had directed her footsteps to the path which they had taken. She was just having a good cry all to herself.

　　The mosquitoes succeeded in driving away a mood which might have held her there in the darkness half a night longer.

　　The following morning Mr. Pontellier was up in good time to take the carriage which was to convey him to the ship. He was returning to the city to his business, and they would not see him again at the Island till the coming Saturday. He had regained his calmness, which seemed to have been somewhat weakened the night before. He was eager to be gone, as he looked forward to a lively week in the financial center.

1.Mr.Pontellier comes back home from his night out in a/an ______state of mind.

A. excited                   B. confused                                   C. depressed            D. disappointed

2. The writer would most likely describe Mr. Pontellier’s conduct during the evening as ______.

A. impatient and generous                                                  B. enthusiastic and responsible

C. concerned and gentle                        D. inconsiderate and self-centered

3.In paragraphs 8 to 13, Mrs. Pontellier’s reactions to her husband’s behavior suggest that ______.

A. she accepts unquestioningly her role of taking care of the children

B. this is one of the times she has acknowledged her unhappiness with her husband

C. her relationship with her husband is not what has made her depressed

D. she is angry about something that happened before her husband left

閱讀下面短文，從短文后各題所給的四個選項（A、B、C和D）中，選出可以填入空白處的最佳選項，并填寫在答題卡上。

After years of searching，a truth seeker was told to go to a cave，in which he would find a well．“Ask the well what is   36  ”，he was advised．‘'and the well will reveal it to you’． Having found the well，the seeker asked that most basic and important  37  ．And from the depths came the answer：“Go to the village crossroad，and there you shall find what you are seeking．”

    Full of    38  the man ran to the crossroad to find only three rather _____39____ shops．One shop was selling pieces of metal，another sold  40  ，and thin wires were for sale in the third．Nothing and no one there seemed to  41  much to do with the revelation of truth．

    Disappointed，the seeker returned to the well to demand an  42  ，but he was told only：“You will  43  in the future．”

    As years went by, the  44  of his experience at the well gradually  45  until one night，while he was walking，the sound of sitar(一種弦樂器)music  46  his attention．It was wonderful and it was   47   with great skill and inspiration．

     Deeply  48  ，the truth seeker felt drawn towards the  49    ．He looked at the fingers dancing over the strings．And then suddenly he let out a cry of joyful  51  ：the sitar was made out of wires and pieces of metal and wood just like  51  he had once seen in the three stores．

    At last he understood the  52  of the well：we have already been given everything we

need：our  53  is to assemble and use them in the proper way．Nothing is  54  so long as we recognize only fragments(碎片)．But as soon as the pieces arc put together, something new appears．whose nature we could not have  55  by considering the fragments alone．  

A．truth          B．hope              C．future              D．music

A．fact               B．reason              C．question           D．well

A．energy       B．hope                C．mystery           D．surprise

A．interesting   B．small               C．uninteresting       D．family-run

A．instruments  B．clothing            C．food                D．wood

A．connect      B．have                C．prepare            D．offer

A．explanation  B．a(chǎn)dvice              C．excuse             D．opportunity

A．succeed      B．discover        C．pay   D．understand

A．bitterness   B．failure           C．memory   D．secret

A．doubled    B．forgot           C．faded       D．recovered

A．paid         B．lost       C．split D．caught

A．played      B．broadcast      C．enjoyed    D．conducted

A．a(chǎn)nnoyed    B．moved          C．confused D．frightened

A．a(chǎn)dviser    B．director        C．composer  D．player

A．a(chǎn)dmiration B．distinction    C．recognition      D．imagination

A．what        B．that       C．it      D．which

A．secret       B．message        C．theory      D．benefit

A．target       B．difficulty      C．task D．shortcoming

A．interesting B．meaningful     C．a(chǎn)ccessible        D．successful

A．foreseen   B．decided         C．judged     D．formed