In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh（法老）treated the poor message runner like a prince when he arrived at the palace, if he brought good news. However, if the exhausted runner had the misfortune to bring the pharaoh unhappy news, his head was cut off.

　　Shades of that spirit spread over today’s conversations. Once a friend and I packed up some peanut butter and sandwiches for an outing. As we walked light-heartedly out the door, picnic basket in hand, a smiling neighbor looked up at the sky and said, ”Oh boy, bad day for a picnic. The weatherman says it’s going to rain.”I wanted to strike him on the face with the peanut butter and sandwiches. Not for his stupid weather report, for his smile.

　　Several months ago I was racing to catch  a him As I breathlessly put my handful of cash across the Grey hound counter, the sales agent said with a broad smile ,”Oh that bus left five minutes ago.”Dreams of head-cutting!

　　It’s not the news that makes someone angry. It’s the unsympathetic attitude with which it’s the unsympathetic attitude with which it’s delivered. Everyone must give bad news from time to time, and winning professionals do it with the proper attitude. A doctor advising a patient that she needs an operation does it in a caring way. A boss informing an employee he didn’t get the job takes on a sympathetic tone. Big winners know, when delivering any bad news, they should share the feeling of the receiver.

　　Unfortunately, many people are not aware of this. When you’re tired from a long flight, has a hotel clerk cheerfully said that your room isn’t ready yet? When you had your heart set on the toast beef, has your waiter mainly told you that he just served the last piece? It makes you as traveler or diner want to land your fist right on their unsympathetic faces.

　　Had my neighbor told me of the upcoming rainstorm with sympathy, I would have appreciated his warming .Had the Greyhound salesclerk sympathetically informed me that my bus had already left, I probably would have said, ” Oh, that’s all right I’ll catch the next one.” Big winners, when they bear bad news ,deliver bombs with the emotion the bombarded（被轰炸的）person is sure to have.

1.In Paragraph 1,the writer tells the story of the pharaoh to ____.

A. make a comparison                      B. describe a scene

C. introduce a topic                 D. offer an argument

2.From “Dreams of head-cutting!”（Paragraph3），we learn that the writer___.

A. was mad at the sales agent

B. was reminded of the cruel pharaoh

C. wished that the sales agent would have had dreams

D. dreamed of cutting the sales agent’s head that night.

3.What is the main idea of the text?

A. Learning ancient traditions can be useful.

B. Receiving bad news requires great courage.

C. Helping others sincerely is the key to business success.

D. Delivering bad news properly is important in communication.

第二节：完形填空（共20小题，每小题1.5分，满分30分）

School children are now constantly asked by their parents and teachers to study harder and harder. And the competition 36    the students themselves is growing in most schools in China. In my opinion, the fierce（激烈的）  37  in school    38   more harm than good.

　　Visiting a German city, I was   39  to be present at a parent-teacher meeting at a school.   40  were told at the meeting that their children's school grades were held to be a personal information   41  by the law, and that the school would not disclose（透露）the students' marks,  42  would the school report them to the parents. It is their view that a   43  school should encourage children to learn  44 without pressure. A student's intelligence（智力）and ability will be  45  later by competition in society.

　　In China, ranking students according to their examination has been   46  as a means of encouraging students to study harder.

　　A friend told me about a parent-teacher meeting she  47  with her daughter who was in the second grade.

　　At the meeting, a teacher read aloud   48  students in the class and their marks for different   49  . Good students came at the top of the list and poor   50   at the bottom. And in front of everybody at the meeting, the teacher gave warning   51  those poor students and their parents.

　　From this comparison, I   52  that teachers and school leaders in China ought to learn   53  more about children's psychology（心理学）and show their students more   54  . Such competition among students is unhealthy and should not be  55 .

36．A．over         B．between           C．among                  D．beyond

37．A．pain         B．competition      C．study                    D．argument

38．A．makes      B. gives               C．lets                   D．does

39．A．forced      B．required        C．ordered                  D．invited

40．A．Parents     B．Children       C．Teachers                 D．Students

41．A．forbidden        B．permitted      C．allowed                      D．protected

42．A．so         B．such               C．nor                     D．or

43．A．successful B．well-known      C．excellent                 D．ordinary

44．A．happily     B．lazily               C．inactively                D．friendly

45．A．judged      B．decided         C．developed           D．trained      

46．A．stopped    B．used             C．controlled              D．improved

47．A．went        B．joined             C．attended                D．present

48．A．a lot         B．a list of            C  the number of           D．the mark of

49．A．subjects    B．classes             C．schools                 D．parents

50．A．these        B．those             C．one                     D．ones

51．A．from        B．to                  C．with                        D．off

52．A．conclude   B．guess              C．want                 D．wonder

53．A．a little             B．a few              C．a bit of                 D．a quantity of

54．A．marks       B．homework       C．books                 D．respect

55．A．discussed  B．removed          C．lasted                D．encouraged

In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh（法老）treated the poor message runner like a prince when he arrived at the palace, if he brought good news. However, if the exhausted runner had the misfortune to bring the pharaoh unhappy news, his head was cut off.
　　Shades of that spirit spread over today’s conversations. Once a friend and I packed up some peanut butter and sandwiches for an outing. As we walked light-heartedly out the door, picnic basket in hand, a smiling neighbor looked up at the sky and said, ”Oh boy, bad day for a picnic. The weatherman says it’s going to rain.”I wanted to strike him on the face with the peanut butter and sandwiches. Not for his stupid weather report, for his smile.
　　Several months ago I was racing to catch  a him As I breathlessly put my handful of cash across the Grey hound counter, the sales agent said with a broad smile ,”Oh that bus left five minutes ago.”Dreams of head-cutting!
　　It’s not the news that makes someone angry. It’s the unsympathetic attitude with which it’s the unsympathetic attitude with which it’s delivered. Everyone must give bad news from time to time, and winning professionals do it with the proper attitude. A doctor advising a patient that she needs an operation does it in a caring way. A boss informing an employee he didn’t get the job takes on a sympathetic tone. Big winners know, when delivering any bad news, they should share the feeling of the receiver.
　　Unfortunately, many people are not aware of this. When you’re tired from a long flight, has a hotel clerk cheerfully said that your room isn’t ready yet? When you had your heart set on the toast beef, has your waiter mainly told you that he just served the last piece? It makes you as traveler or diner want to land your fist right on their unsympathetic faces.
　　Had my neighbor told me of the upcoming rainstorm with sympathy, I would have appreciated his warming .Had the Greyhound salesclerk sympathetically informed me that my bus had already left, I probably would have said, ” Oh, that’s all right I’ll catch the next one.” Big winners, when they bear bad news ,deliver bombs with the emotion the bombarded（被轰炸的）person is sure to have

1. 1.

   In Paragraph 1,the writer tells the story of the pharaoh to______.

   1. A.
      make a comparison
   2. B.
      describe a scene
   3. C.
      introduce a topic
   4. D.
      offer an argument
2. 2.

   From “Dreams of head-cutting!”（Paragraph3），we learn that the writer______.

   1. A.
      was mad at the sales agent
   2. B.
      was reminded of the cruel pharaoh
   3. C.
      wished that the sales agent would have had dreams
   4. D.
      dreamed of cutting the sales agent’s head that night
3. 3.

   What is the main idea of the text?

   1. A.
      Learning ancient traditions can be useful
   2. B.
      Receiving bad news requires great courage
   3. C.
      Helping others sincerely is the key to business success
   4. D.
      Delivering bad news properly is important in communication

Some of the best-known names in the entertainment industry have taken part in an unprecedented telethon to help victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States.
The benefit(义演), called “America: a Tribute to Heroes,” was sponsored by all four major U.S television networks, ABC, CBS, FOIX and NBC. It was broadcast by three-dozen television, cable and radio networks across the country and aired live to more than a hundred countries around the world.
Hollywood stars joined music entertainers in asking listeners and viewers to pledge cash donations to charities helping the victims of the September 11^th attacks.
Actors, including Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise and Clint Eastwood, told stories of heroic acts by people who tried to save others from the burning World trade Center and the Pentagon. Former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali made a rare public appearance in show of support.
The appeals alternated with performances by such popular entertainers as Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Steve Wonder, Paul Simon and the rock band U—2.
They appeared on stages in New York, Los Angeles and London, decorated with hundreds of burning candles.
Singer Billy Joel sang “ New York State of Mind” with a New York City firefighter’s hat on his piano. Sting dedicated his song “ Gragile” to a friend who died in the World Trade Center. Stevie Wonder condemned(指责) hatred in the name of religion before singing his song “ Love’s in Need of Love today”. Pledge phones were manned by dozens of other celebrities, including Jack Nicholson, Meg Ryan, Whoopic Goldberg, Cindy Crawford, Al Pacino and Sylvester Stallone.
Organizers say the two-hour telethon raised millions of dollars. All participants, from stars to stagehands, worked without pay.
【小题1】 Those who appeared on stages were ______.
　     

Our quarrel with efficiency is not that it gets things done, but that it is a thief of time when it leaves us no leisure to enjoy ourselves, and that it strains our nerves when we try to get things done perfectly. In building bridges, American engineers calculate so finely and exactly as to make the two ends come together within one-tenth of an inch. But when two Chinese begin to dig a tunnel from both sides of a mountain both come out on the other side. --The Chinese’s firm belief is that it doesn’t matter so long as a tunnel is dug through, and if we have two instead of one, why, we have a double track to boot.
　　The pace of modern industrial life forbids this kind of glorious and magnificent idling. But, worse than that, it imposes upon us a different conception of time as measured by the clock and eventually turns the human being into a clock himself. (This sort of thing is bound to come to China, as is evident, for instance, in the case of a factory of twenty thousand workers. The luxurious prospect of twenty thousand workers coming in at their own sweet pleasure at all hours is, of course, somewhat terrifying.)Nevertheless, such efficiency is what makes life so hard and full of excitement. A man who has to be punctually at a certain place at five o’clock has the whole afternoon from one to five ruined for him already. Every American adult is arranging his time on the pattern of the schoolboy - three o’clock for this, five o’clock for that, six-thirty for change of dress, six-fifty for entering the taxi, and seven o’clock for arriving at the destination. It just makes life not worth living.
【小题1】The writer objects to efficiency mainly on the grounds that it ____.