— Look! How long ________ like this?

   —Three weeks! It’s usual here that rain _______ without stopping these days of the year.

       A. has it rained; pours                         B. has it been raining; pours

      C. is it raining; is pouring                   D. does it rain; pours

— Look! How long ________ like this?

   —Three weeks! It’s usual here that rain _______ without stopping these days of the year.

A. has it rained; pours                 B. has it been raining; pours

C. is it raining; is pouring            D. does it rain; pours

       Like many lovers of books, Mary and her husband, Richard Goldman, seldom walked past a bookstore without stopping to look inside. They often talked of opening their own store one day.

       When Mary was hospitalized with heart trouble in 1989, they decided it was time to get serious. Richard, who worked for a business company, was eager to work for himself, and Mary needed to slow down from her demanding job.

       They started by talking to bookstore owners and researching the industry. “We knew it had to be a specialty store because we couldn’t match the big chains dollar for dollar,” says Mary. One figure caught her attention: She’d read somewhere that roughly 20 percent of books sold were mysteries （推理小说）, and many buyers spent more $300 a year on books. She and Richard were themselves mystery readers.

       On Halloween 1992, they opened the Mystery Lovers Bookshop and Café near their home. With three children in college, the couple could not spend all the family’s money to start a shop. To cover the $100,000 cost, they drew some of their savings, borrowed from relatives and from an bank.

       The store merely broke even in its first year, with only $120,000 in sales. But Mary was always coming up with new ways to attract customers. The shop had a coffee bar and it offered gifts to mystery lovers and served dinners for book clubs that met in the store. She also invited dozens of writers to discuss their stories.

       Today Mystery Lovers makes sales of about $420,000 a year. After paying taxes, business costs and the six part-time sales clerks, Richard and Mary together earn about $34,000.

       “The job you love may not go hand in hand with a million-dollar income,” says Richard. “This has always been about an enjoyable life for ourselves, not about making a lot of money.”

72．When Mary was in hospital, the couple realized that ____.

       A. they had to put their plan into practice

       B. health was more important than wealth

       C. heart trouble was a serious illness

       D. they both needed to stop working

73．After Mary got well from her illness they began _____.

       A. to study industrial management  

       B. to buy and read more mystery books

       C. to do market research on book business

       D. to work harder to save money for the bookstore

74．How did their bookstore do in the first year?

       A. They had to borrow money to keep it going.

       B. They made just enough to cover all the costs.

       C. They succeeded in earning a lot of money.

       D. They failed though they worked hard.

75．According to Richard, the main purpose of running the bookstore is _____.

       A. to pay for their children’s education      

       B. to get to know more writers

       C. to set up more bookstores 

       D. to do what they like to do

Like most July days, it was hot．I stepped into a tiny ice-cream shop to cool off with a chocolate ice-cream．It was a very   21   store with little round tables and chairs．

       As I entered, I found a very old woman bent over a  22   near the door．Her back was so  23  twisted （扭曲） by some misfortune that her face nearly  24  the tabletop．1 sat down  25  her a couple of tables away．

       "Poor woman," I thought．"What does she  26  life? Why does God let people live so long past their prime （盛年）?"

       As I thought, another  27  lady entered the shop and sat down with her．Soon the two of them were  28   childhood days．They talked of how little the shop had changed in 70 years．In minutes, the two of them were shaking with  29  .

       I looked again at the first woman, then in the  30  on a nearby wall, catching a picture of myself．I was wearing a dirty shirt．She was  31   dressed in white, her face carefully made up and her hands  32   with gold rings．I was  33 ．She was laughing．I was putting the   34   of my life together．She had millions of   35  memories to recall．  36  I was worried about getting old．She was old, but it wasn't   37   her．As I left the shop, I thought of my  38   question about God letting people live past their prime．Why, that woman was more  39   to life than I was．Age has not  40  her spirit． 

A．expensive         B．large                C．splendid        D．old-time

A．window        B．pillow             C．table           D．bench

A．badly              B．nearly           C．actually         D．fully

A．broke            B．touched            C．hit             D．fixed

A．facing           B．greeting            C．following       D．serving

A．look out of         B．get out of           C．learn about    D．devote to

A．aged             B．dirty               C．pretty          D．poor

A．speaking out       B．talking about         C．thinking over  D．planning for

A．food             B．fear                C．cold           D．laughter

A．newspaper       B．window            C．mirror       D．picture

A．just             B．well                C．poorly         D．quickly

A．shining         B．shaking             C．waving        D．wiping

A．happy          B．wrong              C．right         D．sad

A．periods          B．pieces              C．points          D．goals

A．terrible          B．difficult            C．wonderful       D．fresh

A．As a result        B．Above all           C．In a word     D．In secret

A．pleasing          B．hurting             C．envying      D．punishing

A．good             B．simple             C．foolish              D．interesting

A．alive            B．changeable           C．hopeful         D．interesting

A．bent             B．left                C．cut            D．took

Like most people, I was brought up to look upon life as a process of getting. It was not until in my late thirties that I made this important  36  : giving-away makes life so much more exciting. You need not worry if you  37  money.

       This is how I   38  with giving-away. If an idea for improving the window display of a neighborhood store  39  to me, I step in and make the suggestion to the   40  . If an accident takes place, the  41  of which I think the local police could use, I  42  him up and tell him about it, though I am not in   43  here. One discovery I made about this world is to give  44  getting something back, though the  45  often comes in an unexpected form.

       One Sunday morning the local post office delivered an important  46  letter to my home, though it was   47  to me at my office. I wrote the postmaster a note of   48  . More than a year later I needed a post-office box for a new business I was  49  . I was told at the window that there were  50  boxes left, and that my name would have to go on a long  51  list. As I was about to  52  , the postmaster appeared in the   53  .“Wasn’t it you that wrote us that letter a year ago about delivering a special delivery to your home?” I said it was. “Well, you certainly are going to have a box in this post office  54  we make one for you. You don’t know what a letter like that means to us. We usually get  55  but complaints（投诉）.”

36．A．decision                  B．research                  C．speech                    D．discovery

37．A．earn                       B．lack                        C．spend                     D．steal

38．A．experienced            B．connected               C．combined                D．agreed

39．A．happens                  B．flashes                    C．sticks                      D．leads

40．A．postmaster              B．headmaster              C．storekeeper             D．policeman

41．A．story                      B．damage                   C．challenge                D．material

42．A．call                        B．hold                       C．break                      D．pick

43．A．need                       B．trouble                   C．common                 D．charge

44．A．within                    B．without                   C．for                         D．before

45．A．process                   B．goal                       C．return                     D．concern

46．A．curious                   B．immediate               C．special                    D．heavy

47．A．realized                  B．addressed                C．forgotten                D．brought

48．A．invitation                B．apology                  C．instruction                     D．appreciation

49．A．dealing                   B．providing                C．operating                D．starting

50．A．enough                   B．some                      C．no                          D．more

51．A．admitting                B．relating                   C．examining               D．waiting

52．A．leave                      B．shout                      C．guess                      D．conduct

53．A．window                  B．doorway                 C．library                    D．yard

54．A．in case                   B．now that                 C．even if                    D．as if

55．A．anything                 B．everything                     C．nothing                   D．something