The Quiet Hero 沉默的英雄

    It was Mother’s Day, the day we celebrate everything mothers are and everything we do. But I’ll   1    that Sunday in 2000 was bittersweet for me. As a single mother I   2    to think of my shortcomings — how many evenings I couldn’t spend with my children, and how many things I couldn’t   3    my waitress’ salary to buy.

    But what   4    kids I had! My daughter Maria was a senior in college, and Denny was home visiting from his freshman year at Harvard University. They were   5    impolite enough to complain, but there was so much more I   6    I had done for them. I just hoped they   ___7  .

As I walked into the   8    quietly to start breakfast, I was greeted by a vase   9    a dozen red roses! When had Denny possibly slipped down to leave them? But even their delicate beauty was overshadowed by the note sitting beside them, in the quick, manly   10    of an eighteen-year-old. It was about a story that happened between Denny and me long ago. It   11  :

She took a day off from her busy   12    to take the boy to see his hero in the flesh at the stadium. It took 3.5 hours just to get there, and they had to be there early   13    he could see his hero take batting practice.   14    their arrival, she took her hard-earned money to buy an overpriced T-shirt on which was   15    his hero making a diving catch. After the game, of course he had to   16    his hero’s signature, so she stayed with the little boy    17    one in the morning…

   It took me long enough to   18    it, but I finally know who the   19    hero is. Mom, I love you!

   And suddenly, it was a   20    Mother’s Day, after all.

A. admit                 B. adopt                    C. deny                    D. refuse

A. intended              B. liked                     C. tended                     D. hesitated

A. stress                  B. spare                     C. strengthen             D. spend

A. poor            B. great                     C. faithless                   D. pretty

A. merely               B. usually                  C. never                       D. often

A. wished               B. hoped                C. expected                  D. desired

A. supported            B. understood             C. approved                 D. disgusted

A. 1iving-room          B. kitchen                  C. bed loom                 D. study

A. including            B. containing             C. possessing             D. pinning

A. handwriting      B. description             C. tone                        D. scratch

A. wrote                B. recorded                C. memorized              D. read

A. event         B. content             C. schedule                  D. circumstance

A. or                    B. for                        C. but                          D. so

A. At                    B. In                         C. On                          D. By

A. impressed         B. printed                      C. presented                 D. pressed

A. buy                  B. abandon                C. get                          D. swap

A. before              B. until                     C. after                        D. when

A. see                   B. hear                      C. realize                     D. tell

A. actual               B. true                      C. imaginary             D. visual

A. sad            B. bitter                    C. happy                      D. exciting

I went to Beijing this National holiday, and it was an interesting experience of my life.
My friends told us that taking the “hard   16 ” to Beijing would be really terrible. So we didn’t know what to   17 . But we were pleasantly surprised when we finally boarded the   18 , which was relatively modern and   19 . During the 14-hour ride we ate peanuts and talked. It was not   20  at all.
It was morning when we arrived. We stepped out of the railway station, having sat in hard seats and not getting much   21 . However, we had energy. First, we tried to get return tickets to Shanghai, but the tickets seller   22  us that tickets would not be on   23  for another two days. We were a little worried about getting   24  , but we made up our minds to   25  for the hotel to put our bags down. After fighting our way   26  the “gypsy” taxi driver who tried to   27  one hundred yuan for the ride, we found another taxi and it   28  cost us thirty yuan to get   29  we had planned to go. When we reached the hotel, there was a window for airplane and train tickets.   30 , the man behind the counter could get tickets that day, which we   31 . The most important lesson about China I ever   32  is to get someone to do your work for you, and it seems to work out much   33 . We were not able to get tickets, but the   34  agents could.
While in Beijing we saw a lot of places of interest, most of which were very   35 . It was fun to be with thousands of people in one place. There aren’t any words to describe it.

The 1____ picked up the thermos and poured some hot water into the tea-cup and placed it on the small table in front of his 2____, who were a father and daughter, and put the lid on the cup with a clink. Obviously 3_____ of something, he hurried into the inner room, leaving the 4 _____ on the table. His two guests heard a box of drawers opening and a rustling(飒飒地响).

They 5 _____ sitting in the living-room, the 10-year-old daughter, looking at the flowers outside the window. The father was just about to take his cup when the 6 ____ came, right there in the living room. Something was hopelessly broken.

It was the thermos, which had fallen to the floor. The girl looked 7 ____ her shoulder at once, startled(吓一跳), 8_____. It was 9 _____.Neither of them had touched it, not even a little bit. The sound caused the host to rush back from the inner room. He looked at the 10_____ floor and blurted out（脱口而出）, “It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter!”

The father started to say something. Then he muttered（嘀咕）, “ Sorry, I 11_____ it and it fell.”

“It doesn’t matter,” the host said.

Later, when they left the house the daughter said, “Daddy, I saw your 12 ____ in the windowpane(玻璃窗). You were sitting perfectly13____. Why did you say…?”

The father 14____, “What then would you 15____ as the cause of its fall?”

“It fell by itself. The floor is uneven(不平). It wasn’t steady when Mr Li put it there.”

“It won’t 16_____, girl. It sounds more 17_____ when I say I knocked it down. There are things people accept less the more you 18_____them. The truer your story is, the less true it sounds.”

The daughter was 19_____ in silence for a while. Then she said, “Can you 20____ it only this way?”

“Only this way,” the father said.

A.owner          B. host          C. guest         D. master

A.friends         B. neighbors     C. children       D. guests

A.knowing        B. remembering  C. hearing        D. thinking

A.thermos        B. cup          C. lid           D. tea

A.enjoyed         B. remained     C. imagined      D. hated

A.stranger        B. host          C. crash         D. noise

A.around         B. at           C. behind         D. over

A.staring          B. watching     C. shouting        D. crying

A.helpless         B. exciting      C. strange         D. terrible

A.broken         B. streaming    C. dirty           D. flooded

A.touched        B. used         C. hit            D. moved

A.faced          B. shadow       C. reflection      D. action

A.calm          B. still          C. silent          D. straight

A.shouted        B. murmured     C. laughed       D. repeated

A. tell           B. make         C. accept         D. give

A.do            B. help          C. go            D. fit

A.comfortable    B. friendly       C. acceptable      D. agreeable

A.defend        B. support        C. discuss         D. argue

A.kept          B. shut           C. worried         D. lost

A.do            B. explain        C. make           D. manage

A couple of years ago, I went to a lady's house to buy some vitamins. Upon entering the house, I   16  that there was an electronic keyboard on a stand, leaning   17  the wall. Being a piano music lover and   18  , I asked if the woman played. She nodded and added that she had been   19  lessons--at age 54! I told her that it was very   20  that she was pursuing (追求) her   21  to play the piano.
Then she asked me the same question.
"I have been playing for 8 years now," I answered.
"Then you must play a song for me before you leave," she requested.
I   22   she was kidding and I simply smiled. At the end of the   23  of the vitamins, she 24  me of our musical "  25 ". She then showed me to an old upright piano in the living room and asked me to play a song for her. I thought   26   and decided to play David Lanz's "Return to the Heart", since she had so much passion for    27  , and it was my soul-searching song.
I played the song to the best of my  28 , and with my emotions pouring into it as possible. She loved it.  29 I was about to step out of the door, I heard a weak voice calling out, "Young man!"
I turned around. And there was an old lady   30 one little step at a time with the help of another woman. "I wanted to come out to   31 you for the beautiful song that you played. I have been very sick, and it's very hard for me to  32  my bed, but I really wanted to thank you for the song. It made me feel good..." she said. With that, she turned around and walked   33  back to her room.
I was deeply touched by her  34  and felt a deeper understanding for the song. It served its purpose beautifully, returning to one's   35  for peace and joy.