完形填空

　　The media has a great effect on us in our daily life．Believe it or not．I will tell you a true story of my own．

　　Last evening I was watching the evening news on television．The news was about a prize for scientific 　　1　　; I forgot what it was．The announcer, whose name was Ralph Story, said something, that caught my 　　2　　．“All great discoveries,” he said, “are made by people between the ages of twenty-five and thirty．” 　　3　　 a little over thirty myself, I wanted to disagree with him．　　4　　 wants to think that he is past the age of making any discovery．The next day I happened to be in the public library and spent several hours looking up the 　　5　　 of famous people and their discoveries．Ralph was right．

　　First I looked at some of the 　　6　　 discoveries．One of the earliest discoveries, the famous experiment that proved that bodies of different 　　7　　 fall at the same speed, was made by Galileo when he was 26．Madam Curie started her research that 　　8　　 to a Nobel Prize when she was 28．Einstein was 26 when he published his world changing theory of relativity．Well, 　　9　　 of that．Yet．I 　　10　　, if those “best years” were true in other 　　11　　．How about the field of 　　12　　? Surely it needed the wisdom of age to make a good leader．Perhaps it 　　13　　, but look when these people 　　14　　 their career．Winston Churchill was elected to the House of Commons at the age of 26．Abraham Lincoln 　　15　　 the life of a country lawyer and was elected to the government at what age? Twenty-six．

　　But why 　　16　　 the best years come after thirty? After thirty, I 　　17　　, most people do not want to take risks or try 　　18　　 ways．Then I thought of people like Shakespeare and Picasso．The former was writing wonderful works at the ripe age of fifty, while the latter was 　　19　　 trying new ways of painting when he was ninety!

　　Perhaps there is still 　　20　　 for me．

阅读理解

　　It gives me great pleasure today to say a few words in praise of a man we will all miss very much．To be honest, I can’t imagine we will do without him when he’s gone．Bill Masters almost single?handed built up our sales force in the Houston area and developed the market position that we enjoy today．In only six years, he has brought the firm from a very low fifth position in the area sales to the point where we now outsell all but one of our competitors．Not only have we got 37 per cent of the market under Bill’s leadership; we are increasing our share with each passing month．

　　As you know, the company has moved Bill to northern California to work his sales magic in one of this company’s most competitive areas．But we know that if anyone can do it, Bill Masters can, and I know you all join me in wishing him the best of luck in his new work．