When I was four years old I got ill. I took medicine twice

a day. The medicine had so a bitter taste that I took it mixed in   1. _____

orange juice. The problem was that I can’t still taste the medicine.2. ______

In a particular afternoon my mother brought the drink in. As       3. ____

she gave it to me, the phone rang and she went to answer           4. ____

it. I looked at the orange drink and decided I couldn’t face them, 5. ____

so I hid the glass behind a pile magazines. Of course, when        6. ____

my mother was asked, “Have you already taken your medicine?”     7. ____

I said, “Yes.” I felt very pleased with me. The next day, my     8. ____

mother found drink when she was doing the housework. She           9. ____

looked at me serious and said, “It’s bad to tell lies !”        10. ____

 

In 1974, after filling out fifty applications, going through four interviews, and winning one offer, I took what I could get ----- a teaching job at what I considered a distant wild area: western New Jersey. My characteristic optimism was alive only when I reminded myself that I would be doing what I had wanted to do since I was fourteen ------- teaching English.

School started, but I felt more and more as if I were in a foreign country. Was this rural area really New Jersey? My students took a week off when hunting season began. I was told they were also frequently absent in late October to help their fathers make hay on the farms. I was a young woman from New York City, who thought that “Make hay while the sun shines” just meant to have a good time.

But, still, I was teaching English. I worked hard, taking time off only to eat and sleep. And then there was my sixth-grade class ---- seventeen boys and five girls who were only six years younger than me. I had a problem long before I knew it. I was struggling in my work as a young idealistic teacher. I wanted to make literature come alive and to promote a love of the written word. The students wanted to throw spitballs and whisper dirty words in the back of the room.

In college I had been taught that a successful educator should ignore bad behavior. So I did, confident that, as the textbook had said, the bad behavior would disappear as I gave my students positive attention. It sounds reasonable, but the text evidently ignored the fact that humans, particularly teenagers, rarely seems reasonable. By the time my boss, who was also my taskmaster, known to be the strictest, most demanding, most quick to fire inexperienced teachers, came into the classroom to observe me, the students exhibited very little good behavior to praise.

My boss sat in the back of the room. The boys in the class were making animal noises, hitting each other while the girls filed their nails or read magazines. I just pretended it all wasn’t happening, and went on lecturing and tried to ask some inspiring questions. My boss, sitting in the back of the classroom, seemed to be growing bigger and bigger. After twenty minutes he left, silently. Visions of unemployment marched before my eyes.

I felt mildly victorious that I got through the rest of class without crying, but at my next free period I had to face him. I wondered if he would let me finish out the day. I walked to his office, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

He was sitting in his chair, and he looked at me long and hard. I said nothing. All I could think of was that I was not an English teacher; I had been lying to myself, pretending that everything was fine.

When he spoke, he said simply, without accusation, “You had nothing to say to them.”

“You had nothing to say to them”. he repeated.” No wonder they are bored. Why not get to the meat of literature and stop talking about symbolism. Talk with them, not at them. And more important, why do you ignore their bad behavior”? We talked. He named my problems and offered solutions. We role-played. He was the bad student, and I was the forceful, yet, warm, teacher

As the year progressed, we spent many hours discussing literature and ideas about human beings and their motivations. He helped me identify my weaknesses and strengths. In short, he made a teacher of me by teaching me the reality of Emerson’s words: “The secret to education lies in respecting the pupil.”

Fifteen years later I still drive that same winding road to the same school. Thanks to the help I received that difficult first year, the school is my home now.

1. It can be inferred from the story that in 1974 ________________.

A．the writer became an optimistic person

B．the writer was very happy about her new job

C．it was rather difficult to get a job in the USA

D．it was easy to get a teaching job in New Jersey

2.According to the passage, which of the following is most probably the writer’s problem as a new teacher?

A．She had blind trust in what she learnt at college.

B．She didn’t ask experienced teachers for advice.

C．She took too much time off to eat and sleep.

D．She didn’t like teaching English literature.

3.What is the writer’s biggest worry after her taskmaster’s observation of her class?

A．She might lose her teaching job.

B．She might lose her students’ respect.

C．She couldn’t teach the same class any more.

D．She couldn’t ignore her students’ bad behavior any more.

4.Which of the following gives the writer a sense of mild victory?

A．Her talk about symbolism sounded convincing.

B．Her students behaved a little better than usual.

C．She managed to finish the class without crying.

D．She was invited for a talk by her boss after class.

5.The students behaved badly in the writer’s classes because

A．They were eager to embarrass her.

B．She didn’t really understand them.

C．They didn’t regard her as a good teacher.

D．She didn’t have a good command of English.

6.The taskmaster’s attitude towards the writer after his observation of her class can be described as________________.

A．cruel but encouraging                    B．fierce but forgiving

C．sincere and supportive                   D．angry and aggressive

 

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

When I was in primary school, I got into a major argument (争论)with a boy in my class. I can't    what it was about, but I have never forgotten the    I learned that day.

        I was    that I was right and he was wrong—and he was sure that I was wrong and he was right. The    decided to teach us a very important lesson. She    both of us up to the    of the class and    him on one side of her desk and me on   . In the middle of her desk was a large, round object. I could    see that it was black. She asked the boy what    the object was. "White," he answered.

        I couldn't believe he said the object was white,    it was obviously black! Another    started between my classmate and me, this    about the color of the object.

        The teacher told me to go to stand where the boy was standing and told him to come to stand where I had been. We changed   , and now she asked me what the color of the object was. I   answer, "White." It was an object with two    colored sides, and from his side it was white.    from my side was the color black.

        My teacher taught me a very important lesson that day: You must    in the other person's shoes and look at the     through their eyes in order to    understand their view.

1.A. think                             B. suppose                 C. remind                   D. remember

2.A. lesson                         B. lecture                   C. class                        D. text

3.A. told                     B. wished                   C. certain                   D. allowed

4.A. officer                          B. teacher                  C. doctor                    D. parent

5.A. told                     B. came                      C. brought                  D. woke

6.A. back                             B. front                       C. middle                    D. side

7.A. planted                   B. placed            C. said                         D. fixed

8.A. the other               B. another                   C. other                      D. others

9.A. happily                   B. fortunately    C. clearly                    D. nearly

10.A. width                         B. shape                     C. color                       D. size

11.A. when                         B. unless           C. until                        D. if

12.A. fight                           B. argument               C. conversation         D. game

13.A. time                           B. year                        C. month           D. day

14.A. places                        B. seats                       C. attitudes                D. glasses

15.A. needed to                 B. was able to   C. hoped to                D. had to

16.A. similarly           B. differently        C. beautifully         D. surprisingly

17.A. Still                             B. Since                      C. Only                        D. Also

18.A. seat                            B. stand                 C. lie                             D. put

19.A. behaviour                 B. movement             C. condition               D. situation

20.A. unexpectedly           B. suddenly                C. quietly                    D. Truly

 

    I must have been about fourteen then, and I put away the incident from my mind with the

easy carelessness of  youth. But the words, Carl Walter spoke that day, came back to me years

later, and ever since have been of great value to me.

Carl Walter was my piano teacher. During one of my lessons he asked how much practicing I was doing. I said three or four hours a day.

"Do you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?"

"I try to."

"Well, don't," he exclaimed. "When you grow up, time won't come in long stretches.    Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks. Spread the practice through the day, and piano-playing will become a part of your life."

When I was teaching at Columbia, I wanted to write, but class periods, theme-reading, and committee meetings filled my days and evenings. For two years I got practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was that I had no time. Then I remembered what Carl Walter had said. During the next week I conducted an experiment. Whenever I had five minutes unoccupied, I sat down and wrote a hundred words or so. To my astonishment, at the end of the week I had a rather large manuscript ready for revision, later on I wrote novels by the same piecemeal method. Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than ever, in every day there were idle moments which could be caught and put to use. I even took up piano--playing again, finding that the small intervals of the day provided sufficient time for both writing and piano practice.

There is an important trick in this time--using formula: you must get into your work quickly. If you have but five minutes for writing, you can't afford to waste four chewing your pencil. You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes. Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of us realize.

I admit I have never learnt how to let go easily at the end of the five or ten minutes. But life can be counted on to supply interruptions. Carl Walter has had a tremendous influence on my life. To him I owe the discovery that even very short periods of time add up to all useful hours I need, if I plunge（投入）in without delay.

56．The meaning of “stretch” in the underlined part is the same as that in sentence “       ”.

A．The forests in the north of the province stretch for hundreds of miles.

B．Bob worked as a government official for a stretch of over twenty years.

C．My family wasn’t wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.

D．During his senior year his earnings far enough to buy an old car.

57．Which of the following statements is true?

　　A．The writer didn’t completely take the teacher’s words to heart at first.

　　B．Carl Walter has had a great influence on the writer's life since he became a student.

　　C．The writer owes great thanks to his teacher for teaching him to work in long stretches.

　　D．Rapid concentration is actually more difficult than most people imagine.

58．We can infer that the writer             . 

A．has new books published each year however busy his teaching is

B．is always tired of interruptions in life because his teaching schedule is always heavy

C．has formed a bad habit of chewing a pencil while writing his novels

D．can find sufficient time for mental preparations beforehand, so he's devoted to work   instantly

59．What is the best title of this passage?

A．Concentrate on Your Work           B．A Little at a Time

C．How I Became a Writer                 D．Good AdviceIs Most Valuable