Alan took an early interest in gardening---first on his grandfather’s Yorkshire allotment in Ilkley, and then in his parents’ back garden. Small polythene（聚乙烯）greenhouses appeared in the back garden, and cacti（仙人掌）were bought from church markets.
Alan left school at fifteen with one `O’ level in Art and took a job as an apprentice（學徒）gardener in Ilkley Parks Department nursery, studying for his City and Guilds in Horticulture（園藝）in the evening.
He went on to horticultural college at Oaklands in Hertfordshire where he studied for one year full-time, being awarded the National Certificate in Horticultural. This was followed by three years at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, resulting in the award of the Kew Diploma.
After two years as supervisor of staff training at Kew, Alan entered journalism where he became first a gardening books editor, and then Deputy Editor of Amateur Gardening magazine. He appeared regularly on BBC Radio and Television in programs such as Nationwide , Breakfast Time, Open Air, Pebble Mill, Songs of Praise, Titchmarsh’s Travels, and the Chelsea Flower Show. He presented the 100th edition of The Word for Channel 4, and hosted the quiz show Ask the Family.
Gardeners’ World and the hugely popular Ground Force, second only to Easterners in the BBC1 ratings, are broadcast as far as Australia, New Zealand and North America. After leaving both programs, Alan worked on two other series for the BBC to be transmitted in 2003 and 2004, one of them a landmark series on the natural history of Britain. Alan writes for the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Radio Times and BBC Gardeners’ World magazine, and has more than thirty gardening books to his credit. His four novels, as well as a book about his own life, have been best sellers.
Alan, 53, gardens organically, and lives with his wife, two daughters and a medley of animals.
小題1:We know that Alan ______in his school days.
| A．was good at writing novels | B．loved Horticulture very much even |
| C．didn’t do so well in his studies | D．decided to be an apprentice |
小題2:According to this passage, we can learn that______.
| A．Alanaccepted little education | B．Alan wrote many books about food |
| C．Alan had never been married | D．Alan was first a gardening books editor |
小題3:Though the author doesn’t tell us directly, we can conclude that______.
| A．Alan’s school teachers were not good at teaching the subject: Botany |
| B．when Alan was successful he was working as a journalist of the time |
| C．Alan had had four years of training in Horticulture before being a journalist |
| D．born as a man of many talents, Alan didn’t realize the fact until years later |
小題4:Which of the following four programs is more popular than Ground Force in the BBC1 ratings?
| A．Breakfast Time. | B．Radio Time. | C．Gardeners’ World. | D．Easterners. |
小題5: What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．A Man of Many Talents. | B．Botany Makes Him What He Is Today. |
| C．No Pains, No Gains. | D．Can’t a Poorly-graded Student Be Successful? |
erself a bookworm.
ill be a lawyer in the future
d payment all at the same time. If depositors should come to fear that a bank is not safe, that it cannot pay off all its depositors, then that fear might cause all the depositors to appear on the same day. If they did, the bank could not pay all accounts. However, if they did not all appear at once, then there would always be enough money to pay those who wanted their money when they wanted it. M
rs. Elsie Vaught has told us of a terrifying bank run that she experienced. One day in December of 1925 several banks failed to
open i
n a city where Mrs. Vaught lived. The other banks expected a run the next day, and so the officers of the bank in which Mrs Vaught worked as a teller had enough money on hand to pay off their depositors. The officers simply told the tellers to pay on demand. The next morning a crowd gathered in the bank and on the sidewalk outside. The length of the line made many think that the bank could not possibly pay off everyone. People began to push and then to fight for places near the tellers’ windows. The power of the panic atm
osphere was such that two tellers, though they knew that the bank was quite all right and could pay all depositors, drew their own money from the bank. Mrs Vaught says that she had difficulty keeping herself from doing the same.
that Mrs. Vaught showed
an five drops at a time.
a few times to put an end to his life. His family especially his wife did their best to tend and comfort him. By and by he finally regained the courage to live on.
ruck down to the ground by a lightning. The witnesses thought him dead but he woke up some 20 minutes later lying face down in muddy water below the tree. He felt that he was trembling badly, but when he opened his eyes ,he didn’t dare to believe that he saw a plough (梨子) lying near the wall. When Mrs Edwards came running up to him, she shouted their neighbours for help. And he saw her and heard her voice for the first time in nearly ten years.
ppy that he regained them.
