When I was 16 years old, a boy gave me an important present.   1._____   
     It was the early autumn of my first year at a junior high school, and my old school was far away.     
      2._____    I was very lonely, and afraid to make friends with anyone. Every time I heard the other 
students talking and laughing, I felt my heart broken, I couldn't talk with anyone about my problems.
 And I didn't want my parents to worry about me. Then one day, my classmates talked happily with their
 friends, but I sat at my desk unhappily as usual.     3._____     I didn't know who he was. He passed me
 and then turned back. He looked at me, with a smile on his face. Suddenly, I felt the touch of something 
bright and friendly. It made me feel happy, lively and warm.    
     4._____    I started to talk with other students and made friends. Day by day, I became closer to 
everyone in my class. The boy with the lucky smile has become my best friend now!     
     5._____     I believe that the world is what you think it is. If you think it lonely, you might always be 
alone. So smile at the world and it will smile back.

A. At that moment, a boy entered the classroom. 
B. He's living in Australia now and he loves it.
C. It doesn't matter because all the dark days have gone.
D. It was a smile. E. That smile changed my life.
F. It's impossible to make friends here.
G. As a result, no one knew who I was.

     The Peales were a famous family of American artists. Charles Willson Peale is best remembered for
 his portraits of leading figures of the American Revolution. He painted portraits of Franklin and Jefferson
 and over a dozen of George Washington. His life-size portrait of his sons Raphaelle and Titian was so
 realistic that George Washington reportedly once tipped his hat to the figures in the picture.     
     Charles Willson Peale gave up painting in his middle age and devoted his life to the Peale museum, 
which he founded in Philadelphia. The world’s first popular museum of art and natural science mainly
 covered paintings by Peale and his family as well as displays of animals in their natural settings. Peale 
found the animals himself and found a method to make the exhibits more lifelike. The museum’s most
 popular display was the skeleton (骷髏) of a huge, extinct elephant, which Peale unearthed on a New 
York farm in 1801.    
      Three of Peale’s seventeen children were also famous artists. Paphaelle Peale often painted still lives
 of flowers, fruit, and cheese. His brother Rembrandt studied under his father and painted portraits of
 many noted people, including one of George Washington. Another brother, Rubens Peale, painted 
mostly landscapes and portraits.     
     James Peale, the brother of Charles Willson Peale, specialized in miniatures (小畫像). His daughter 
Sarah Miriam Peale was probably the first professional female portrait painter in America.

1. What is the main topic of the passage?   

A. The life of Charles Willson Peale.
B. Portraits in the 18th century.   
C. The Peale Museum.
D. A family of artists.

2. The author mentions in Paragraph 1 that Washington tipped his hat to the figures in the
     painting to show that _______.  

A. Charles Willson Peale’s painting was very lifelike   
B. Washington respected Charles Willson Peale’s work   
C. Washington was friendly with Raphaelle and Titian Peale
D. the painting of the two brothers was very large

3. Which of the following is NOT the child of Charles Willson Peale?

A. Titian Peale.    
B. Rubens Peale.
C. Raphaelle Peale.
D. Sarah Miriam Peale.

4. The author’s attitude toward the Peales is in general _______.

A. puzzled 
B. excited 
C. admiring 
D. disappointed

     College graduation brings both the satisfaction of academic achievement and the expectation of a 
well-paid job. But for 6,000 graduates at San Jose State this year, there's uncertainty as they enter one
 of the worst job markets in decades. Ryan Stewart has a freshly minted(新興的) degree in religious 
studies, but no job prospects.    
     "You look at everybody's parents and neighbors, and they're getting laid off and don't have jobs,"
 said Stewart. "Then you look at the young people just coming into the workforce... it's just scary."    
     When the class of 2003 entered college, the future never looked brighter. But in the four years 
they've been here, the world outside has changed dramatically.    
     "Those were the exciting times, lots of dot-com opportunities, exploding offers, students getting top
 dollar with lots of benefits," said Cheryl Allmen-Vinnidge of the San Jose State Career Center. "Times
 have changed. It's a new market."   
      Cheryl Allmen-Vinnidge ought to know. She runs the San Jose State Career Center, sort of a 
crossroads between college and the real world. Allmen-innidge says students who do find jobs after 
college have done their homework.   
      "The typical graduate who does have a job offer started working on it two years ago. They've 
postured(定位)themselves well during the summer. They've had several internships(實(shí)習(xí))," she said. 
And they've majored in one of the few fields that are still hot, like chemical engineering, accounting, or 
nursing, where average starting salaries have actually increased over last year. Other popular fields (like 
information systems management, computer science, and political science) have seen big declines in 
starting salaries.   
      Ryan Stewart (he had hoped to become a teacher) may just end up going back to school. "I'd like 
to teach college some day and that requires more schooling, which would be great in a bad economy," 
he said.    
     To some students, a degree may not be a ticket to instant wealth. For now, they can only hope its 
value will increase over time.

1. The expression "dot-com" in the fourth paragraph probably means " _____  ".   

A. a well-known website
B. jobs related to high-technology    
C. a company making dots
D. teaching on the Internet

2. What does Cheryl Allmen-Vinnidge mean when she says students have "done their  homework"?

A. They have spent time preparing themselves to find a job.   
B. They have gone to summer school for further studies.   
C. They are good students who have finished their homework on time.   
D. They have found full-time jobs as their future career before graduation. 

3. The purpose of a college career center is probably to  ____.   

A. help students do their homework    
B. find jobs for students while they are in school   
C. prepare students to find jobs after they graduate    
D. help high school students get accepted to college 

4. Ryan Stewart is probably going to  _____ .   

A. change his major
B. become a religious leader   
C. get a job teaching
D. go back to school 

5. What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph mean?  

A. Having a college degree does not provide travel discounts.   
B. A college degree doesn't promise a person a high-paid job.    
C. Most students with degrees will be able to find jobs.    
D. The best way to get rich is to get a college degree. 

     When you're lying on the white sands of the Mexican Riviera, the stresses (壓力) of the world seem
a million miles away. Hey. stop! This is no vacation - you have to finish something!
     Here lies the problem for travel writer and food critic (評論家) Edie Jarolim. "I always loved traveling and always liked to eat, but it never occurred to me that I could make money doing both of those things."
Jarolim said. Now you can read her travel advice everywhere-in Arts and Antiques, in Brides, or in one
of her three books The Complete Idiot Travel Guide to Mexico's Beach Resorts.
     Her job in travel writing began some eight years ago. After getting a PhD in English in Canada. she
took a test for Frommer's travel guides, passed it, and got the job. After working at Frommer's, Jarolim
worked for a while at Rough Guides in London, then Fodor's, where she fell so in love with a description
of the Southwest of the U.S. that she moved there.
     Now as a travel writer, she spends one-third of her year on the road. The rest of the time is spent
completing her tasks and writing reviews of restaurants at home in Tucson, Arizona.
As adventurous as the job sounds, the hard part is fact-checking all the information. Sure, it's great to
write about a tourist attraction, but you'd better get the local (當(dāng)?shù)氐? museum hours correct or you
could really ruin someone's vacation.

1. Which country does Jarolim live in now?  

A. Mexico.          
B. The U.K        
C. The U.S.      
D. Canada

2. What is most difficult for Jarolim?

A. Working in different places to collect information
B. Checking all the facts to be written in the guides.  
C. Finishing her work as soon as possible.      
D. Passing a test to write travel guides

3. What do we know about Jarolim from the text?

A. She is successful in her job.
B. She finds her life full of stresses.
C. She spends half of her time traveling.
D. She is especially interested in museums.

4. What would he the best titlefor the text?

A. Adventures in Travel Writing  
B. Working as a Food Critic                                                                
C. Travel Guides on the Market  
D. Vacationing for a Living

     There was a gardener who looked after his garden with great care. To water his flowers, he used two
buckets. One was a shiny and new bucket. The other was a very old and dilapidated one, which had
seen many years of service, but was now past its best.
     Every morning, the gardener would fill up the two buckets. Then he would carry them along the path,
one on each side, to the flowerbeds. The new bucket was very proud of itself. It could carry a full
bucket of water without a single drop spilled (溢出). The old bucket felt very ashamed because of its
holes: before it reached the flowerbeds, much water had leaked along the path.
     Sometimes the new bucket would say, "See how capable I am! How good it is that the gardener has
me to water the flowers every day! I don't know why he still bothers with you. What a waste of space
you are!"
     And all that the old bucket could say was, "I know I'm not very useful, but I can only do my best. I'm
happy that the gardener still finds a little bit of use in me, at least."
     One day, the gardener heard that kind of conversation. After watering the flowers as usual, he said,
"You both have done your work very well. Now I am going to carry you back. I want you to look
carefully along the path."
     Then the two buckets did so. All along the path, they noticed, on the side where the new bucket was
carried, there was just bare (光禿禿的) earth; on the other side where the old bucket was carried, there was a joyous row of wild flowers, leading all the way to the garden.

1. What does the underlined word "dilapidated" probably mean?

A. Dirty        
B. Dark        
C. Worn-out        
D. Plain-looking.

2. What was the old bucket ashamed of?

A. His past.      
B. His aging.    
C. His manner.      
D. His leaking.

3. Why was the old bucket still kept by the gardener?

A. Because it was used to keep a balance  
B. Because it stayed in its best condition
C. Because it was taken as a treasure      
D. Because it had its own function