I was bleeding now. My ears were red, my nose was broken, and the pain of failure was beginning. I had lost. It was over. The match was stopped. The world seemed to stand still for a moment as I looked at who had beaten me. “I’ve lost,” I said in m mind. “The last chance to win and I had lost.” It was the final round of wrestling. It was my last year at camp and I wanted to have an undefeated season. But now, I had lost in the tournament（锦标赛）.

    My coach came over to help me up. He saw that my nose was broken and realized that the match had to be stopped. He helped me up and I got small applause from my teammates. People on the other team just stared. Coach walked me over to the locker room to work on my nose.

    “I’ll stop the bleeding,” Coach Matt said. His voice was cold and empty. He had expected me to win—he knew I could have won—but now he saw it was over. I had lost.

    “Hey, Steve. You did good, man, He, well, he just…” my friend Paul couldn’t find what to say.

    “Forget it, man.” I said, my nose still bleeding.

    “Don’t talk or it won’t stop bleeding. Just relax and breath through your mouth.” Coach Matt’s voice was still cold, but warming slowly. He was like a father to me. He had been there through all my years of wrestling, all my wins and losess , all my hopes and dreams—and now he was there, fixing my smashed nose.

    “This must have happened during that last throw. You fell too much on your face. You should’ve turned and tried to escape. You gotta think more.” Coach Matt began, his voice now warm like an old friend trying to give good advice.

    “I wanted this so badly.” I said.

    “Maybe we can get another contest because of the nose. You can still go undefeated! You can still do it…” Paul continued.

    No, I lost. Nothing was left for me to do this year. This was supposed to be the year—no loses.” I said, cutting him off before he finished.

    “Steve, you did your best. Come on. Let’s go and get your medal,” Coach said. He looked at me right in the eyes. “You gave it your all. You deserved that trophy(战利品), not the silver medal. You deserve it, but he is getting it. You really won and the whole team is proud.”

    I walked up to get my medal, my head held high. I shook the hands of the judges and my opponent, took m medal and saw that, in the eyes of everyone, I had really won. No matter what trophy or medal my opponent took home, no matter what. He may have had my trophy, but he could never have my will.

    1. The word “applause” in the second paragraph means _____.

    A. cheers and hand—clapping                                   B. shouts and crying

    C. screaming and laughing                                      D. noises and whistling

    2. “You gave it your all.” means that _____.

    A. you tried to win but you failed                    B. you have done your best to do it

    C. you never gave up doing it                         D. you succeeded in everything

    3. The hero lost his match. Both his coach and friends thought that _____.

    A. he really showed his strength in it

    B. he shouldn’t be encouraged and thought highly of

    C. he could not match his opponent

    D. he had lost heart at the end of the competition

4. According to the hero, at the end of the passage, we can suppose that____.

    A. he had made up his mind to win all the matches the next season

    B. he looked down upon his opponent and though nothing of it

    C. he had strong will to become the best wrestler in the world

    D. he wanted to end his career as a professional wrestler

Parents and kids today dress alike, listen to the same music, and are friends. Is this a good thing? Sometimes, when Mr. Ballmer and his 16-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, listen to rock music together and talk about interests both enjoy, such as pop culture, he remembers his more distant relationship with his parents when he was a teenager.

“I would never have said to my mom, ‘Hey, the new Weezer album is really great. How do you like it?’” says Ballmer. “There was just a complete gap in taste.”

Music was not the only gulf. From clothing and hairstyles to activities and expectations, earlier generations of parents and children often appeared to move in separate orbits.

Today, the generation gap has not disappeared, but it is getting narrow in many families. Conversations on subjects such as sex and drugs would not have taken place a generation ago. Now they are comfortable and common. And parent—child activities, from shopping to sports, involve a feeling of trust and friendship that can continue int0 adulthood.

No wonder greeting cards today carry the message, “To my mother, my best friend.”

But family experts warn that the new equality can also result in less respect for parents. “There’s still a lot of strictness and authority on the part of parents out there, but there is a change happening,” says Kerrie, a psychology professor at Lebanon Valley College. “In the middle of that change, there is a lot of confusion among parents.”

Family researchers offer a variety of reasons for these evolving roles and attitudes. They see the 1960s as a turning point. Great cultural changes led to more open communication and a more democratic process that encourages everyone to have a say.

“My parents were on the ‘before’ side of that change, but today’s parents, the 40-year-olds, were on the  ‘after’ side,” explains Mr. Ballmer. “It’s not something easily accomplished by parents these days, because life is more difficult to understand or deal with, but sharing interests does make it more fun to be a parent now.”

The underlined word gulf in Para.3 most probably means _________.

A. interest       B. distance     C. difference       D. separation

Which of the following shows that the generation gap is disappearing?

A. Parents help their children develop interests in more activities.

B. Parents put more trust in their children’s abilities.

C. Parents and children talk more about sex and drugs.

D. Parents share more interests with their children.

The change in today’s parent-child relationship is _________.

A. more confusion among parents            B. new equality between parents and children

C.1ess respect for parents from children

D. more strictness and authority on the part of parents

By saying “today’s parents, the 40-year-olds, were on the ‘after’ side.” the author means that today’s parents _________.

A. follow the trend of the change            B. can set a limit to the change

C. fail to take the change seriously           D. have little difficulty adjusting to the change

The purpose of the passage is to _________.

A. describe the difficulties today’s parents have met with

B. discuss the development of the parent—child relationship

C. suggest the ways to handle the parent—child relationship

D. compare today’s parent—child relationship with that in the past

Joanne was stuck in a traffic jam in central Birmingham at 5:30 and at 6:30 she was expected to be chairing a meeting of the tennis club．At last，the traffic was moving．She swung quickly racing to her house. As she opened the door，she nearly tripped over Sheba．

“Hey，Sheba,” she said，“I’ve got no time for you now，but I’ll take you out as soon as I get

back from tennis club.” Then she noticed Sheba seemed to be coughing or choking. Obviously，she could hardly breathe．Immediately, Joanne realized she would have to take her to the vet(兽医)

When she got there，the vet was just about to close for the day. Seeing the state of Sheba，Dr. Sterne brought her quickly into his office．

“Listen，doctor，I’m really in a rush to get to a meeting. Can I leave her with you，and go and get changed? I’ll be back in ten minutes to pick her up，and then I’ll take her on to the meeting with me. Is that OK?”

“Sure.” said the doctor.

Joanne made the quick trip back to her house in a couple of minutes．As she was once more

 entering the hall，the phone by the door began to ring．

“This is Dr. Sterne,” said an anxious voice. “I want you to get out of that house immediately,” said the doctor’s voice．“I’m coming round right away，and the police will be there any time now．Wait outside!”

At that moment，a police car screeched to a stop outside the house．Two policemen got out and ran into the house．Joanne was by now completely confused and very frightened．Then the doctor arrived．

“Where’s Sheba? Is she OK?” shouted Joanne．

“She’s fine，Joanne．I took out the thing which was choking her, and she’s OK now．”

Just then, the two policemen reappeared from the house, half-carrying a white-faced man，who could hardly walk. There was blood all over him．

“My God,” said Joanne，“how did he get in there? And how did you know he was there?”

“I think he must be a burglar.” said the doctor. “I knew he was there because when I finally removed what was stuck in Sheba’s throat：it turned out to be three human fingers.”

Joanne wanted to get back to her home again            ．

A．to dress up for the meeting    B．to phone the police station

C．to catch the badly hurt burglar       D．to wait for her dog to be cured  

From the passage we can infer that          ．

A．Sheba fought against the burglar

B．the police found the burglar had broken in

C．Joanne had planned to take her dog to the meeting at first

D．the doctor performed a difficult operation on the dog

The underlined word a burglar in the last paragraph probably means ____________.

A. a cleaner         B. a physician        C. a thief           D. a murderer

In this passage, the writer intends to tell us that the dog is            ．

A．clever   B．friendly        C．frightening      D．devoted

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Many people find it hard to make friends.  61  All it takes is for you to get out of your shell and remember that if you love yourself, others will too. Especially being a teen, making friends can be hard or easy depending on several factors．

Relax. It’s all about confidence---if you are nervous or try too hard to look cool you’ll just act strange. So you won’t make many friends. You will stand out as overdoing(做得过分) something．

You have to act as you have had plenty of friends in the past, so even the “cool” ones will want to speak to you. 62  Be relaxed．People will like you for passing a peaceful energy．

Make the first move. Don’t be shy because it won’t help you in anything. Look around for people that seem interesting, and go up to talk to them. A good subject to talk about to anyone is music because almost everybody likes music. 63 Try not to get deep when you are first meeting somebody.

64  Everyone likes to be heard. So give attention to what others say, look straight in their eyes and show you’re paying attention. If this person feels that you’re listening to him, your new friend will enjoy your company more．

Develop friendships. You may talk to someone now but soon they’ll forget you if you stop． 65  Say their name as often as you can. When you greet them, say things like, “Hey Alex!”，“What’s going on, Sarah?’’ If you do that every day, they’ll be happy that you care about them and remember them, so they won’t forget you and you will be good friends．

A．It is really not．

B．Be a good listener．

C．Other topics could be movies or sports．

D．Making one or two best friends is usually enough．

E. Invite your new friends to go out together with you．

F. Think of good reasons why someone would like to meet you．

G. You’d better take a time to say hi to them every day and ask how they are doing．

 

--Hey, Mary, you are wanted on the phone.

---________I’m coming.

A．So what?          B．Hang on a minute.   C．That’s a good point. D．What a shame！