I began working in journalism(新闻工作) when I was eight. It was my mother’s idea. She wanted me to “make something” of myself, and decided I had better start young if I was to have any chance of keeping up with the competition.
    With my load of magazines I headed toward Belleville Avenue. The crowds were there. There were two gas stations on the corner of Belleville and Union. For several hours I made myself highly visible, making sure everyone could see me and the heavy black letters on the bag that said THE SATURDAY EVENING POST. When it was supper time, I walked back home.
“How many did you sell, my boy?” my mother asked.
“None.”
“Where did you go?”
“The corner of Belleville and Union Avenues.”
“What did you do?”
“Stood on the corner waiting for somebody to buy a Saturday Evening Post.”
“You just stood there?”
“Didn’t sell a single one.”
“My God, Russell!”
    Uncle Allen put in, “Well, I’ve decided to take the Post.” I handed him a copy and he paid me a nickel(五分镍币). It was the first nickel I earned.
    Afterwards my mother taught me how to be a salesman. I would have to ring doorbells, address adults with self-confidence, and persuade them by saying that no one, no matter how poor, could afford to be without the Saturday Evening Post in the home.
    One day, I told my mother I’d changed my mind. I didn’t want to make a success in the magazine business.“If you think you can change your mind like this,” she replied, “you’ll become a good-for-nothing.” She insisted that, as soon as school was over, I should start ringing doorbells, selling magazines. Whenever I said no, she would scold me.
   My mother and I had fought this battle almost as long as I could remember. My mother, dissatisfied with my father’s plain workman’s life, determined that I would not grow up like him and his people. But never did she expect that, forty years later, such a successful journalist as me would go back to her husband’s people for true life and love.
56、 Why did the boy start his job young?

57、From the dialogue between the boy and his mother, we learn that the mother was _______.

 58、What did the mother do when the boy wanted to give up?

59、 What does the underlined phrase “this battle” refer to?

60、 What is the text mainly about?

On April 16th，don`t be surprised if the womann next to you on the subway looks like she forgot to get dlessed for work.She won`t be alone．People in their pajamas（睡衣裤）will be spotted all across the country一traveling on the subway,in line for their morning coffee,and even walking into office buildings．That`S because people will be trading in their business suits for pajamas and celebrating National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day．
There is nothng more comfortable than sitting at your desk in soft cotton flannel（法兰绒的）paiamas or wearing your favorite slippers while you deeply think about the day`s tasks,The PajamaGram Company,Which produces and sells pajamsa,believes that Americans need a break,especially the day aher income taxes are due．That`s why they are celebrating National wear Your Pajamas to Work Day．
Wearing pajamas to work can be relaxing and can actually help employees be more productive.David Alien，author of The Art of Stress-free Productivity,promotes（倡导）relaxation to increase Productivity．"Our ability to be Productive is directly proportional（成比例的）to our ability to relax,"said Allen."Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve stressftee productivity．"
At the Pajama Gram Company,it`s not unusual to find employees Wearing their pajamas at important meetings or at their desks.The Company even invented the term "life is bananas,send some pajamas," to describe how they feel about the world we live in.
The PajamaGrma Company offers over 100 styles of pajamas,robes,slippers and spa products．Each PajamaGram gift comes along with beautiful Pajamas，lavender（熏衣草）bath tea,Do-Not-Disturb sign for the door and a gift card.
61. On APril 16th，people in America often ____________.
A.forget to change pajamas for work
B.do pajama business on the way to Work
C.go to wook in their pajamas
D.celebrate their traditional festival
62. People celebrate this special day because they are expected to
A.Work in a more effective way
B.increase their ability to relax
C.spend less on their daily clothes
D.have more time to rest
63. The underlined word "bananaS" in the last paragraph can be replaced by ___________.
A.easy and free                   B.happy and interesting
C.crazy and busy           D.full of fruits
64. According to the passage，which gifts will you receive from the PaiamaGram Company？
a.a sleepwear  
b.a beautiful box    
c.a Do-Not-Disturb sign
d.lavder bath tea
e.a personalized gift card
A.c,d,e          B.a,c,d          C.b,c,d,e   D.a,c,d,e
65. The main purpose of the passage is to _________.
A.advertise the PajamaGram Company
B.introduce a special day in America
C.describe the busy life In America
D.advise people to buy more pajamas

Science can’t explain the power of pets，but many studies have shown that the company of pets can help lower blood pressure(血压) and raise chances of recovering from a heart attack，reduce loneliness and spread all-round good cheer．

    Any owner will tell you how much joy a pet brings．For some．an animal provides more comfort than a husband／wife．A 2002 study by Karen Allen of the State University of New York measured stress(紧张)1evels and blood pressure in people－half of them pet owners－while they performed 5 minutes of mental arithmetic(算术)or held a hand in ice water．Subjects completed the tasks alone，with a husband／wife，a close friend or with a pet．People with pets did it best．Those tested with their animal friends had smaller change in blood pressure and returned most quickly to baseline heart rates．With pets in the room，people also made fewer math mistakes than when doing in front of other companions．It seems people feel more relaxed(放松)around pets，says Allen，who thinks it may be because pets don’t judge．

    A study reported last fall suggests that having a pet dog not only raises your spirits but may also have an effect on your eating habits．Researchers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital spent a year studying 36 fat people and their equally fat dogs on diet-and-exercise programs；a separate group of 56 people without pets were put on a diet program．On average，people lost about 11 pounds，or 5％ of their body weight．Their dogs did even better，losing an average of 12 pounds，more than 15％of their body weight．Dog owners didn’t lose any more weight than those without dogs but，say researchers，got more exercise overall－mostly with their dogs--and found it worth doing．

1.What does the text mainly discuss?

    A．What pets bring to their owners．

    B．How pets help people calm down．

    C．People’s opinions of keeping pets．

D．Pet’s value in medical research．

2.We 1earn from the text that a person with heart disease has a better chance of getting well if        ．

    A．he has a pet companion

    B．he has less stress of work

    C．he often does mental arithmetic

    D．he is taken care of by his family

3.According to Allen，why did the people do better with pets around when facing stressful tasks?

    A．They have lower blood pressure．

    B．They become more patient．

    C．They are less nervous．

    D．They are in higher spirits．

4.The research mentioned in the last paragraph reports that       ．

    A．people with dogs did more exercise

    B．dogs lost the same weight as people did

    C．dogs liked exercise much more than people did

D．people without dogs found the program unhelpful

Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding of black culture in America.
During the 1940’s and the 1950’s, Gwendolyn Brooks used her poems to describe conditions among the poor, racial (种族的) inequality and drug use in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women.
But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience.
Gwendolyn Brooks once said that she wrote about what she saw and heard in the street. She said she found most of her materials through looking out of the window of her second-floor apartment in Chicago, Illinois.
In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago, where many black people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was “A Street in Bronzeville” that gained the attention of literary experts in 1945. Critics praised her poetic skills and her powerful descriptions about the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection.
In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She won the prize for her second book of poems called “Annie Allen”. “Annie Allen” is a collection of poetry about a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and a mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death and poverty (贫穷).
Gwendolyn Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life.
Her next work was a novel written in 1953 called “Maud Martha”. “Maud Martha” attracted little attention when it was first published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult lives of many women are popular among female writers today.
【小题1】Gwendolyn Brooks became world-famous because        .

“The Lord of the Rings”, one of the best sellers in the new millennium(千年), was made up of three parts—“The Fellow Ship of the Ring”, “Two Towers”, and “The Return of the King”. Millions upon millions of people have read it in over 25 different languages, but fewer know about the author and the history of the composition of the creative masterwork.

    John Ronald Refuel Tolkien was born in South Africa in 1892. His parents died when he was a child. Living in England with his aunt, Tolkien and his cousins made up play languages, a hobby that led to Tolkien’s becoming skilled in Welsh, Greek, Gothic, Old Norse and Anglo—Saxon.

    After graduating from Oxford, Tolkien served in World War I. In 1917, while recovering from trench fever he began composing the mythology for The Rings. As a professor of Anglo-Saxon in the 1930s at Oxford, Tolkien was part of an informal discussion group called the Inklings, which included several writers. The group was soon 1istening to chapters of Tolkien’s imaginative work “The Hobbit”.

    Hobbit was a name Tolkien created for people that could best be described as half-sized members of the English rural(乡村的)class. Hobbits live in hillside holes. One of them，Bilbo Baggins, looks for treasures with a group of dwarves(侏儒). On the way, he meets the twisted, pitiful creature Gollum, from whom he sees a golden ring that makes the holder invisible.

    One of Tolkien’s students persuaded her employer, publisher Allen & Unwind, to look at a draft (草稿). The chairman of the firm, Stanley Unwind, thought that the best judge for a Children’s book would be his ten-year-old son. The boy earned a shilling for reporting back that the adventure was exciting, and “The Hobbit” was published in 1937.

    It sold so well that Unwind asked for a continuation. Over a dozen years later, in 1954, Tolkien produced “The Lord of the Rings”, a series of books so creative that they hold readers both new and old -- after their publication.

1.What can we learn from the text?

A. “The Lord of the Rings” didn't sell well in the last millennium.

B. People know better about Tolkien himself than about his works.

C. Tolkien was quite familiar with Old English.

D. Tolkien knew very well about different kinds of local languages in Africa.

2.What can we learn about "Hobbit" that Tolkien created in his works?

    A. Hobbit was a race living in English downtown areas.

    B. Hobbit was a local people who were very tall and strong.

    C. Hobbit was a social group of people who lived in old castles.

    D. Hobbit was a group of people who were mostly dwarves.

3. Which of the following helped most in making “The Hobbit” published?

    A. One of Tolkien's students.           B. Stanley Unwind's son.

    C. Allen & Unwind.                  D. Bilbo Baggins.

4.What is mainly discussed in the text?

    A. “The Lord of the Rings” and its writer.

    B. A completely new masterwork in the new millennium.

    C. A famous professor at Oxford University.

    D. The power of the magic ring.

5. Which of the following shows the right order of Mr. Tolkien's life experience?

    a. He had his “The Hobbit” published.

    b. He became a member of the Inklings.

    c. He served in World War I.

    d. He became an undergraduate at Oxford.

    e. His work “The Lord of the Rings” came to the world.

    f. He moved to England to live with his aunt.

    A. f-d-b-c-a-e                     B. f-d-c-b-a-e

C. f-c-d-b-e-a                         D.d-f-c-a-b-e