My brother, John, is a college student. Last year he went to Italy and stayed for two months. I was surprised that John was able to have such a long holiday, because he never had any money.

“How did you manage it, John?” I asked.“I thought you were going to stay for two weeks.”

“It was easy,” John answered.“I got a job.”

“A job?” I asked in surprise.“What did you do?”

“I gave English lessons to a shop manager,” John answered.

“His name is Luigi. We have become good friends.”

“But you’re not a teacher,” I said.

“I told Luigi I couldn’t teach,” John explained.“But he insisted on having conversation(会话) lessons. He wanted to practise his English. He had a lot of American customers, so it was important for him to speak English. I spent three hours a day talking to him. In return he gave me a room, three meals a day and a little pocket of money.”

“Did your pupil learn much English?” I asked.

“I don’t know,”John said,“but I learnt a lot of Italian.”

61.The writer was surprised that John was able to stay in Italy for ______.

A. a week      B. two months   C. two weeks         D. two years

62.John was able to have a long holiday in Italy because ______.

A. he was a shop manager         B. he had a lot of money

C. he taught a shop manager to learn English

D. he worked in a shop as an assistant

63.John’s pupil was ______.

A. an American                            B. an Englishman

C. a Chinese                                    D. an Italian

64.How long did John spend talking to his pupil every day?_______.

A. Two hours.                                         B. Twenty minutes.

C. Three hours.                                      D. Thirty minutes.

65.Why did the shop manager ask John to teach him English?

Because______.

A. he was an Italian                     B. he liked English very much

C. he was a shop manager    D. he had many American customers

 

William Shakespeare was a writer of plays and poems. Some of his most famous plays are Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth. He wrote thirty-seven plays in all. They are still popular today.

He was born in England. At school he liked watching plays. He decided to be an actor when he finished school at the age of fourteen. In 1582,he married a farmer’s daughter. She was eight years older than he was. Their first child was a daughter. Later they had twins.In 1585,Shakespeare left his hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon. His wife and children stayed behind. No one knows why he left or what he did between 1585 and 1592.

At twenty-eight, he moved to London and joined a theatre company which opened the Globe Theatre in 1599.He became an actor, and he also wrote plays. He usually acted in his own plays. He made almost no money from his writing. But he made a lot of money from acting. With the money he bought a large house in his hometown.

At the age of forty-nine, Shakespeare retired（退休）and went to live in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died at the age of fifty-two in 1616. He left his money to his family. He left the genius（天才）to the world. You still see his plays in English and in many other languages. He is one of the most famous writers in the world.

1.Shakespeare wrote many famous plays except        .

A. Hamlet   B. Macbeth  C. Romeo and Juliet           D. Man and Superman

2.Shakespeare decided to be an actor in        .

A.1578                                  B.1582                                  C.1599                         D.1616

3. In 1585,Shakespeare left his hometown Stratford-upon-Avon        .

A. with his wife     B. with his daughter  C. with his wife and children   D. alone

4.Shakespeare got much money from        .

A. writing                              B. plays                                 C. acting                                D. retirement

5.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A. Shakespeare had two children.

B. Shakespeare wrote both plays and poems.

C. Shakespeare left his money to the Globe Theatre.

D. Shakespeare wrote plays in English and some other languages.

 

One evening two young men were walking in the street together. They tried to find a chance to steal something. The clock struck twelve. Most of the people went to bed. Quickly they came to a house and it seemed that everyone in the house had fallen asleep. Standing at the front gate, one said in English to the other in a low voice, "You wait here. I'll go around to the back door and then get into the house. "Sud­denly out of the house ran a dog, barking at them. The two men were very frightened and ran away as fast as they could. Finally, they stopped at a lonely place. The man said breathlessly, "It's too bad. I hadn't expected(期望)that the dog could understand English. "
【小题1】Why did the two men walk in the street one evening? Because.       .

A．they couldn’t fall asleep

B．they wanted to steal something

C．they would like to take a walk

D．they went to visit their friends

【小题2】"One said in English to the other in a low voice. "From the above sentence we know        .

A．he didn't know English

B．he liked speaking English quietly

C．he couldn't speak aloud

D．he was afraid of waking up others

【小题3】The dog ran out of the house and barked at them only because.        .

A．it understood English	B．it knew them
C．it found someone outside	D．Both B and C

【小题4】At last the two young men        .

A．stole nothing	B．stole something expensive
C．were bitten by the dog	D．were caught by the police

【小题5】What did the owners do while the dog was barking?

A．They stopped it.	B．They got up quickly.
C．They shouted for help.	D．The story didn't tell us.

In one way, it may be thought that failure is a part of life. In another, failure may be regarded as a step towards success.

The “spider story” is often told as an example of this. Robert Bruce, leader of the Scots in the 13th century, was hiding in a hole on a hill from the English. He watched a spider(蜘蛛) making a web（网）. Bruce is said to have got confidence from this and to have gone on to beat the English. Edison, too, the inventor of the light bulb(电灯泡), made hundreds of models that failed before he found the right way to make one.

So what? First, always think about your failure. What caused it? Were you in high spirit then? What can you change so that things will go right the next time?

Second, is the goal you are trying to reach the right one? Try to do some thinking about what your real goal may be. Think about this question: If I am successful in this, where will it get me?” This may help to prevent failure in the things you shouldn’t be doing anyway.

The third thing to remember about failure is that it’s a part of life. Learn to “live with yourself!” even though you may have failed. Remember, “You can’t live with them all.”

1.Robert Bruce was mentioned in the passage to show that ___________.

A．people who failed are not lonely

B．animals can help people sometimes

C．nature will help if we are hard—working

D．confidence is important for one to be successful

2.Edison’s example shows us that __________.

A．he liked to do other kinds of work

B．he invented many kinds of light bulbs

C．failure may be a way towards success

D．he was a man of many important inventions

3.If you are not sure about what success will get you, you’d better ______.

A．change your goal

B．go on with your goal

C．not care for that

D．work even harder on your goal

4.It can be learned from the passage that __________.

A．one should try not to fail

B．one’s failure is another’s success

C．one should take failures seriously

D．one should learn lessons from failures

5.This passage is mainly about _________.

A．two great men

B．two sides of failure

C．ways to keep away from failure

D．the right attitude (态度) towards failure