Driving home from work one evening in the heavy rain, I found a very wet, injured cat on the side of the road. He looked up at me, meowing pitifully. A car must have hit it so it wasn’t able to move. I stopped my car and carried the cat in and went on driving.
At the nearest vet clinic, the vet gently examined it. "He's about eight months old and has two broken legs, but I would need X-rays to know how serious the damage is," he told me. "As he's not your cat, I don't know if you want to go ahead with this. It could be rather expensive."
I knew it would cost me hundreds of dollars, but I agreed with his advice. The following morning the vet rang to say the X-rays confirmed two bad breaks in his legs. "I'll operate on his legs and put metal pins in them to keep them fixed." he told me.
That afternoon I went to pick up my little friend. There I could hardly recognize him. His previously dirty fur was now a beautiful silver grey. His front legs were in two casts and he lay there looking at me, purring(发咕噜声) happily.
I thanked the doctor and went out to pay the bill. "I think you've given me the wrong account," I said to the clerk. "This is only $85. He's had X-rays and an operation on his legs." "No, that's right," she replied. "The vet has only charged you for the medication. There's a message on the bottom."
Written under the total were the words "SPECIAL RATE FOR ADOPTIONS." I was speechless at his kind and generous gesture. I paid the account and under his message I wrote "WITH GRATEFUL THANKS, CAT AND MUM."

1. 1.

   Why didn’t the vet give the cat X-rays immediately?

   1. A.
      The damage was not serious at all.
   2. B.
      The cat was too young to be X-rayed.
   3. C.
      The doctor wasn’t sure whether the author would like to cover the expenses.
   4. D.
      The examination was too expensive for the author to afford.
2. 2.

   What do we know about the author?

   1. A.
      The author was a caring and generous lady.
   2. B.
      The author often adopted animals.
   3. C.
      The author’s workplace was far from home.
   4. D.
      The author only worked at night.
3. 3.

   Which of the following is true of the cat?

   1. A.
      He was deserted by his owner and nearly starved to death.
   2. B.
      He was saved on a dark and stormy night.
   3. C.
      He was a lively creature with beautiful brown fur.
   4. D.
      His back legs were broken and had to have an operation.
4. 4.

   Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

   1. A.
      The adventure of a cat
   2. B.
      An impressive vet
   3. C.
      An unforgettable night
   4. D.
      Love in relays

Last Christmas was a very difficult time for me. My family and all of my close friends were back home in Florida, and I was all alone in a rather cold California. I was working too many hours and became very sick.
I was working a double shift at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter, it was about 9:00 PM on Christmas Eve, and I was feeling really miserable inside. There were a few of us working and very few customers waiting to be helped. When it was time for me to call the next person to the counter, I looked out to see the sweetest-looking old man standing with a cane. He walked very slowly over to the counter and in the faintest voice told me that he had to go to New Orleans. I tried to explain to him that there were no more flights that night and that he would have to go in the morning. He looked so confused and very worried. I tried to find out more information by asking if he had a reservation or if he remembered when he was supposed to travel, but he seemed to become more confused with each question. He just kept saying, “She said I have to go to New Orleans.”
After much time, I was able to at least find out that this old man had been dropped off at the curb on Christmas Eve by his sister-in-law and told to go to New Orleans, where he had family. She had given him some cash and told him just to go inside and buy a ticket. When I asked if he could come back tomorrow, he said that she was gone and that he had no place to stay. He then said he would wait at the airport until tomorrow. Naturally, I felt a little ashamed. Here I was feeling very sorry for myself about being alone on Christmas, when this angel named Clarence MacDonald was sent to me to remind me of what being alone really meant. It broke my heart.
Immediately, I told him we would get it all straightened out, and our Customer Service agent helped to book him a seat for the earliest flight the next morning. We gave him the senior citizen’s fare, which gave him some extra money for travelling. About this time he started to look very tired, and when I stepped around the counter to ask him if he was all right, I saw that his leg was wrapped in a bandage. He had been standing on it that whole time, holding a plastic bag full of clothes.
I called for a wheelchair. When the wheelchair came, we all stepped around to help him in, and I noticed a small amount of blood on his bandage. I asked how he hurt his leg, and he said that he had just had bypass surgery and an artery was taken from his leg. Can you imagine? This man had had heart surgery, and then shortly afterward, was dropped off at the curb to buy a ticket with no reservation to fly to New Orleans, alone!
I never really had a situation like this, and I wasn’t sure what I could do. I went back to ask my supervisors if we could find a place for him to stay. They both said yes, and they obtained a hotel voucher for Mr. MacDonald for one night and a meal ticket for dinner and breakfast. When I came back out, we got his plastic bag of clothes and cane together and gave the porter a tip to take him downstairs to wait for the airport shuttle. I bent down to explain the hotel, food and itinerary (行程) again to Mr. MacDonald, and then patted him on the arm and told him everything would be just fine.
As he left he said, “Thank you,” bent his head and started to cry. I cried too. When I went back to thank my supervisor, she just smiled and said, “I love stories like that. He is your Christmas Man.”
【小题1】Last Christmas the writer had a miserable time because ______.

I was in a strange city I didn’t know at all, and what’s more, I could not speak a word of the language. On my second day I got on the first bus that passed, rode on it for several stops, then got off and walked on. The first two hours passed pleasantly enough, then I decided to turn back to my hotel for lunch. After walking about for some time, I decided I had better ask the way. The trouble was that the only word I knew of the language was the name of the street in which I lived, and even that I pronounced badly. I stopped to ask a newspaper-seller. He handed me a paper. I shook my head and repeated the name of the street and he put the paper into my hands. I had to give him some money and went on my way. The next person.I asked was a policeman. He listened to me carefully, nodded and gently took me by the arm. There was a strange look in his eyes as he pointed left and right and left again. I nodded politely and began walking in the direction he pointed.?

　　About an hour passed and I noticed that the houses were getting fewer and fewer and green fields were appearing on either side of me. I had come all the way into the countryside. The only thing left for me to do was find the nearest railway station.

1.The writer preferred to walk back to his hotel because.

A．he had no money to buy a ticket

B．he wanted to lose himself in the city

C．he tried to know the city in this way

D．it was late and there were no buses passing by

2.From the story we know that the policeman______.

A．was kind but didn’t understand the writer

B．told the writer where to take a train

C．knew what the writer really meant

D．was cold-hearted and didn’t help the writer

3.What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．The writer got close to the hotel where he stayed.

B．The writer got to the hotel with the policeman’s help.

C．The writer found he was much farther away from the hotel.

D．The writer found the hotel in the direction the policeman pointed.

4.In your opinion, what was the writer’s real trouble?

A．He didn’t know the city at all.             B．He couldn’t speak the language.

C．He went too far in the wrong bus.           D．He followed the policeman’s direction.

Willy, a merchant, returned home to his own country from a faraway continent, where he had succeeded making a small fortune by hard work. He found on arriving at the port that all his relatives were having a large party.
He was in such a happy mood and in the joy of the moment, he did not even bother changing his grey flannel（法兰绒）suit which had become a little worn during the trip home.
When he entered the brilliantly lit room, his relatives and friends gave him a rather cold welcome because they had noticed his modest suit and immediately imagined that he had come back a poor man.
A young man who happened to be accompanying him was quite irritated at this and said to Willy, “What a wonderful reception you have received from these people. They have not even the intention of shaking your hand after all these years that you have been away from home.”
“Just wait and see!” whispered Willy, “They will soon change their looks!” Saying this he slipped a precious ring on his finger. All of a sudden the faces of all those present lit up and immediately Willy was surrounded by so many people that he didn’t know what to do. A man shook his hand, a cousin threw his arms around him, and he had so many invitations from the people present that he thought he would be unable to make any other appointments for several years.
“Has this beautiful, precious ring of yours the power of magic people?” asked the young man.
“Oh, no!” replied Willy, “They see in this glittering diamond ring something that makes them think I am rich, and, unfortunately, they place wealth above everything else.”
"What blind people!" exclaimed the young man. “It is not the ring that has drawn them to you but their desire for riches. Is it possible to appreciate more a piece of yellow metal surrounded by little stones than the goodness of my Lord? And indeed how foolish are people who place their trust in riches rather than in virtues（美德）!”
【小题1】 In what way did Willy go to attend the party held by his relatives and friends?

B

It was 1961 and I was in the fifth grade. My marks in school were miserable and, the thing was, I didn’t know enough to really care. My older bother and I lived with Mom in a dingy multi-family house in Detroit. We watched TV every night. The background noise of our lives was gunfire and horses’ hoofs from “Wagon Train” or “Cheyenne”, and laughter from “I Love Lucy”, or “Mister Ed”. After supper, we’d sprawl on Mon’s bed and stare for hours at the tube.

But one day Mom changed our world forever. She turned off the TV. Our mother had only been able to get through third grade. But, she was much brighter and smarter than we boys know at the time. She had noticed something in the suburban houses she cleaned books. So she came home one day, snapped off the TV, sat us down and explained that her sons were going to make something of themselves. “You boys are going to read two books every week,” she said. “And you’re going to write a report on what you read.”

We moaned and complained about how unfair it was. Besides, we didn’t have any books in the house other than Mom’s Bible. But she explained that we would go where the books were: “I’ll drive you to the library.”

So pretty soon there were these two peevish boys sitting in her white 1959 Oldsmobile on their way to Detroit Public Library. I wandered reluctantly among the children’s books. I loved animals, so when I saw some books that seemed to be about animals, I started leafing through them.

The first book I read clear through was Chip the Dam Builder. It was about beavers. For the first time in my life I was lost in another world. No television program had ever taken me so far away from my surroundings as did this verbal visit to a cold stream in a forest and these animals building a home.

It didn’t dawn on me at the time, but the experience was quite different from watching TV. There were images forming in my mind instead of before my eyes. And I could return to them again and again with the flip of a page.

Soon I began to look forward to visiting this hushed sanctuary form my other world. I moved from animals to plants, and then to rocks. Between the covers of all those books were whole worlds, and I was free to go anywhere in them. Along the way a funny thing happened: I started to know things. Teachers started to notice it too. I got to the point where I couldn’t wait to get home to my books.

Now my older brother is an engineer and I am chief of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. Sometimes I still can’t believe my life’s journey, from a failing and indifferent student in a Detroit public school to this position, which takes me all over the world to teach and perform critical surgery.

But I know when the journey began the day Mom snapped off the TV set and put us in her Oldsmobile for that drive to the library.

46. We can learn form the beginning of the passage that ___________.

A. the author and his brother had done well in school

B. the author had been very concerned about his school work

C. the author had spent much time watching TV after school

D. the author had realized how important schooling was

47. Which of the following is not true about the author’s family?

A. He came from a middle-class family.

B. He came from a single-parent family.

C. His mother worked as a cleaner.

D. His mother had received little education.

48. The mother was ____________ to make her two sons switch to reading books.

A. hesitant               B. unprepared        C. reluctant                   D. determined

49. How did the two boys feel about going to the library at first?

A. They were afraid                                    B. They were reluctant.

C. They were impatient.                               D. They were eager to go.

50. The author began to love books for the following reasons EXCEPT that ___________.

A. he began to see something in his mind

B. he could visualize what he read in his mind

C. he could go back to read the books again

D. he realized that books offered him new experience