“Everything happens for the best,” my mother said whenever I faced disappointment. “If you can carry on, one day something good will happen. And you’ll   16  that it wouldn’t have happened if not for that previous   17 .”
Mother was right,   18  I discovered after   19  from college in 1932. I had decided to try for a job in radio, then work my way   20  sports announcer. I hitchhiked（搭便車） to Chicago and knocked on the door of   21   station—and got   22  every time. In one   23 , a kind lady told me that big stations couldn’t   24  hiring inexperienced persons. “Go out in the sticks and find a small station that’ll give you a   25 .” she said.
I thumbed home to Dixon, Illinois. While there was no radio-announcing jobs in Dixon, my father said Montgomery Ward had opened a store and wanted a local   26  to manage its sports department. Since Dixon was where I had played high school football, I   27 . The job sounded just right for me.   28  I wasn’t hired.
My disappointment must have shown. “Everything happens for the best,” Mom   29  me. Dad   30  me the car to job-hunt. I tried WOC Radio in Davenport, Iowa. The program director, a wonderful Scotsman named Peter MacArthur, told me they had   31  hired an announcer.
As I left his office, my   32  boiled over. I asked aloud, “How can a fellow get to be a sport announcer if he can’t get a job in a radio station?” I was waiting for the elevator   33  I heard MacArthur calling, “What was that you said about sports? Do you know anything about football?” Then he stood next to me before a microphone and asked me to broadcast an   34  game.
On my way home, as I have many times since, I thought of my mother’s words: “if you carry on, one day something good will happen. Something wouldn’t have happened if not for that previous disappointment”. I often   35  what direction my life might have taken if I’d gotten the job at Montgomery Ward.

Perhaps the only test score that I remember is the 41. I was in high school. The test was the final for the class. It was a rather  36 test. I didn’t know how  37 I had done but I knew there were things on   38  that I didn’t know.
I remember   39   waiting for the result. When Mr. Bales  40 my paper on my desk, I was   41   . There in big  42  numbers, circled to draw attention, was my grade — 41! I  43 my paper so that others couldn’t see it. A 41 was not   44  that you wanted your classmates to see. Finally, Mr. Bales stood behind the desk and   45  the class. “The grades were not very good;   46 of you passed,” he announced. “ The highest grade in the class was a 41, so all of you failed.”
A 41. That was me. Suddenly my dismal(陰沉的) face didn’t look quite so bad. I had the highest grade. I felt a lot   47  . As soon as I got home, my mother asked me, “How did you do on your test?” “I made a 41,” I said. My mother’s    48  changed suddenly. “You failed.” “But I had the highest grade in the class!” I replied. “ I don’t    49  what everyone else had. You failed. It doesn’t matter if everyone else failed too; what matters is what you do,” my mother  50  answered.
For years, I thought that was a harsh judgment. My mother was always that 51 . It didn’t matter what the other kids did; it only mattered what I did and  52 I did it excellently.
We often don’t understand the wisdom of good parents until we ourselves stand   53 the parenting shoes. My mother’s philosophy（人生態(tài)度）has   54   me throughout life. The path of the crowd is wide but the path to pass the tests of life is   55  and there are very few people on it.

閱讀下面短文，掌握其大意，然后從16-35各題所給的A、B、C、D四個選項(xiàng)中，選出最佳選項(xiàng)。
She always wore a flower in her hair．Mostly I thought it looked    16 ．A flower to work? But no one questioned the young woman why a flower _17  her to work each day．In fact, we probably would have been more curious if she had    18  without it．
She did so one day _19 she delivered a project to my office．“I _20 there is no flower in your hair today," I said  _21 ．"I'm so used to seeing you wear one  _22 it almost seems as if something is _23．” “Oh, yes," she replied quietly, in a rather sad voice．This was far from her _24_ bright personality．I knew l had questioned something _25  than a lost flower．
“Today is the anniversary of my mother's death．I__26 her so much that I'm very sad．When I was a little girl, my mother would often _27_ flowers in my hair．But when I was 15 she died of cancer．I've just always worn a flower in my hair since then and _28 made me feel as though she__29  with me．Today, however, I think she would like a   30 that I am becoming self-dependent, after ten years of her death．And it seems that it is the flower that has to__31  ．”
She met my eyes and then smiled sadly．“I needn't wear a flower to be _32  of her．It was just an outward sign of my treasured _33   they're still there even with the flower gone…Oh, here's the 34  I hope it meets with your agreement．" She  _35 me the neatly prepared document, signed with a hand-drawn flower below her name．

The summer of 1975 I’d just graduated from college in Southern California and received a Ford Car for a   36  present. I had my first job, in Los Angeles. One Sunday night, thinking myself a very   37  gown-up, I   38  my uncle’s place in South Laguna after a visit,   39 admitting to him that I had less than an eighth of a tank of gas and no   40  to buy more on the way to L.A. I pulled onto the Pacific Coast Highway and watched the   41  move down as I headed north. When the engine started giving off strong smells, I   42   into a gas station. There was no self-serve then; there were no credit cards, no ATMs.
I   43   the guy at the station. I could write him a check for gas, I said, or I could   44 in my car and try to walk to a town with a   45   the next morning. As he was informing me that I could sleep in my car but he’d have me arrested, a station wagon pulled up to the next 46 . The driver—a thin, plain, middle-aged guy—overheard the tail end of my   47   request. As the attendant went to   48  him, he nodded at me. “  49   her tank first,” he said.
“Really?” I said.   50   bloomed. “Oh, thank you. Thank you. But please. I just need two 51   worth. I just need to get home.”
“Fill it,” he   52  to the attendant. Then he turned to me, “You’ll do the same one day, for someone else.”
I keep looking for someone unlucky, hoping to save her   53   on the road. Meanwhile, in case she never shows up, I try for other acts of   54   kindness. That quiet driver is always at the pump a few feet away, instructing the attendant to fill mine   55 .

In the clinic, I asked if Michael could be retested, so the specialist tested him again. To my _36_, it was the same score.
Later that evening, I _37_ told Frank what I had learned that day. After talking it over, we agree that we knew our _38_ much better than an IQ test. We _39_ that Michael’s score must have been a _40_ and we should treat him _41_ as usual.
We moved to Indiana in 1962, and Michael studied at Concordia High School in the same year. He got _42_ grades in the school, especially _43_ biology and chemistry, which was a great comfort.
Michael _44_ Indiana University in 1965 as a pre-medical student, soon afterwards, his teachers permitted him to take more courses than _45_. In 1968, he was accepted by the School of Medicine, Yale University.
On graduation day in 1972, Frank and I _46_ the ceremony at Yale. After the ceremony, we told Michael about the _47_ IQ score he got when he was six. Since that day, Michael sometimes would look at us and say _48_, “My dear mom and dad never told me that I couldn’t be a doctor, not until after I graduated from medical school!” It is his special way of thanking us for the _49_ we had in him.
Interestingly, Michael then _50_ another IQ test. We went to the same clinic where he had _51_ the test eighteen years before. This time Michael scored 126, an increase of 36 points. A result like that was supposed to be _52_.
Children often do as _53_ as what adults, particularly parents and teachers, _54_ of them. That is, tell a child he is“ _55_”, and he may play the role of a foolish child.

One of my. next-door neighbor is a sweet 92-year-old Polish lady. A few days ago, I came back from a trip. As I was  16 . my clothes in my room, I heard a(n)  17  , frantic(發(fā)瘋的) knock on the door. It was 10:30 pm, and I wasn’t sure who it could be. I went downstairs and  18  the peephole, and saw that it was our sweet next-door neighbor.
I quickly  19  the door, and she seemed really distressed and kept  20 , Please help me. I need your help. The fire alarm won’t go off. Please help me.” I  21  told her that everything would be okay, and  22  her to her house to see what was going on  23  the fire alarm.
She  24  that the alarm had been going on and off inconsistently(反復(fù)無常的) for the past two hours, and that her  25  to call her daughter to come and fix it was fruitless. So I took a chair from her dining room table,  26  it, and looked at the tire alarm.
After twisting the fire alarm off, I blew into it, because sometimes  27  causes it to make strange noises. She seemed  28  but was literally shaking out of fear. I asked her  29  she was okay, and she said she was  30  , so I gave her a hug. I felt her shaking in my embrace, and held her  31  for a few minutes until she stopped shaking and sighed a breath of relief.
We then  32  and talked for ten minutes, until I felt that she was okay. and safe to sleep. She was so generous with  33  for being with her, but I thanked her for  34  me that hugs are indeed good tools! So, sometimes, a(n)  35  hug is a good and powerful way to hold someone going through a difficult period.

The rain was coming down heavily and I was going to be late for an important conference. Dressing up quickly, I called for a taxi,        that it would be faster than the subway.
It wasn't.
After a long wait, I finally got one, but the traffic was heavy. I looked at my       from time to time. Just as the traffic started moving, the driver        a man up ahead in a wheelchair.
“Wouldn't he be cold sitting right there!” the driver cried and began to       .
I could see there would be another 20 minutes'       —        him into the cab, folding up his chair and putting it into the taxi's small      , then dropping him off who knows where.
“What are you doing?” I shouted to the driver.
As the       came out, I wanted to take them back. The wrongness of my       to the driver shocked me. Why did I let out the shout?
The driver      me and we continued the journey. Eventually I got out of the taxi and
    to the office. As I ran, I understood that, though it wasn't my duty to take the time to help others, I shouldn't have        the driver's stopping. I should have been able to see beyond my impatience to notice what was most inerrant (不會錯的). Whenever I think of this incident, this is my   : I am not a       self-centered person, but I still feel       
of being self-centered. Living a busy life in a fast-paced big city, do we still need to stop to help those who are in need of help?

I believe that families are not only blood relatives, but sometimes people who show up and love you when no one else will.
In May 1977, I was living in a Howard Johnson’s motel off Interstate 10 in Houston. My dad and I  21  a room with two double beds and a bathroom which was too  22  for a 15-year-old girl and her father. Dad’s second marriage was   23  and my stepmother had   24  us both out of the house the previous week. Dad had no   25_  what to do with me. And that’s when my other family   26 .
Barbara and Roland Beach took me into their home   27  their only daughter, Su, my best friend, asked them to. I   28  with them for the next seven years.
Barb washed my skirts the same as Su’s. She   29  I had lunch money, doctors’ appointments, help with homework and nightly hugs. Barbara and Roland attended every football game where Su and I were being cheerleaders.  30 I could tell, for the Beaches there was no  31 between Su and me; I was their daughter, too.
When Su and I  32 college they kept my room the same for the entire four years I attended school. Recently, Barb presented me with an insurance policy they bought when I first moved in with them and had continued to pay on for 23 years.
The Beaches knew  33 about me when they took me in – they had heard the whole story from Su. When I was seven, my mother died and from then on my father relied on other people to _34 his kids. Before I went to live with the Beaches I had believed that life was entirely   35__ and that love was shaky and untrustworthy. I had believed that the only person who would take care of me was me.
 36 the Beaches, I would have become a bitter, cynical (憤世嫉俗的) woman. They gave me a(n)  37 that allowed me to grow and change. They kept me from being paralyzed(使癱瘓 ,使麻痹 ,使無能力)by my _38   , and they gave me the confidence to open my heart.
I   39  family. For me, it wasn’t the family that was there on the day I was   40  , but the one that was there for me when I was living in a Howard Johnson’s on Interstate 10.

閱讀下面短文，從短文后各題所給的四個選項(xiàng)中，選出可以填入空白處的最佳選項(xiàng)，并在答題卡上將該項(xiàng)涂黑。
The Man was very sad. He knew that the Cat's days were  31 . The doctor had said there wasn't anything more that could be done, that he should take the Cat home and make him as  32 as possible.
The man put the Cat on his lap and 33  .The Cat opened his eyes, purred and looked up at the Man. A tear
  34 down the Man's cheek and   35  on the Cat's forehead. The Cat gave him a slightly annoyed look.
" Why do you cry, Man?" the Cat asked. "Because you can't   36 the thought of losing me? Because you think you can never replace me?" The Man  37 "yes".
"And where do you think I'll be   38  I leave you?" the Cat asked. The Man shrugged helplessly. " 39 
your eyes, Man," the Cat said. The Man gave him a questioning look, but did as he was told.
"What color are my eyes and fur?" the Cat asked. " Your eyes are gold and your fur is a rich, warm brown," the Man replied.
"And where is it that you most often   40  me?" asked the Cat. “I see you. . . on the kitchen window
  41  the birds …,on my favorite chair. . . on my desk lying on the papers I need. . . on the pillow next to my
  42 at night. " "Then, whenever you wish to see me, all you must do is close your eyes," said the Cat.
“Pick up that piece of string from the floor——there, my ‘toy’ .” he Man opened his eyes, then  43 over and picked up the string. It was about two feet long and the Cat had been able to   44  himself                                                                                                                                                                                                    
for hours with it. '"Now take each end of the string in one hand," the Cat ordered. The Man did so.
"The end in your left hand is my birth and the end in your right hand is my   45 . Now bring the two ends together," the Cat said. The Man obeyed.
"You have made a continuous  46  ," said the cat. "Does any point along the string appear to be different, worse or better than any other part of the string?" The Man inspected the string and then   47  his head " no".
The Man shut his eyes hard as the tears poured down his face. He saw the Cat on the  48  , then in his bed, then lying across his important papers. He saw him on the pillow next to his head, saw his bright gold eyes and darkest brown on his nose and ears. He opened his eyes and  49 his tears looked over at the circle of string he still held in his hand.          
One day, not long after, there was a new Cat on his lap. She was lovely and white…very different from his earlier   50 Cat and very much the same.

閱讀下面短文，掌握其大意，然后從各題所給的四個選項(xiàng)（A、B、C和D）中，選出最佳選項(xiàng)。
Five-year-old Marry loved to play in the street with her friends. This made her parents __41__. They did __42__ to keep her off the street. __43__, day after day they found her out there. Thankfully, the street wasn’t very __44__. But it was often traveled by soldiers and sometimes they would drive very fast.
Every time he drove by the lifeless animal that had __45__ in the road, Steven __46__ think of his daughter. And so he continued trying to teach her the __47__— with little __48__. Then one day as Steven was driving home, he saw something that helped __49__ an idea, which became an action by the time he got home. He walked over to where Marry was playing.
“Come on, sweetheart,” he said. “You and Daddy are going for a __50__.”
They drove back along the way he had just traveled, finally __51__ just behind a mound (堆) of something.
“What is it, Daddy?” Marry asked as they got out of the __52__.
“Look __53__, but don’t touch it,” Steven said. “Can’t you tell what it is?”
She studied it for a few minutes, unsure of its __54__ until she picked out its familiar ears. “A rabbit! What happened?” Marry asked.
“It was playing in the road, and a car came along and ...”
“... and squished (壓扁) it?” Marry broke __55__.
“That’s right,” Steven said. “It got squished because it was playing in the road.”
“Yuck!” Marry said. For the first time, Steven saw __56__ in his daughter’s eyes.
The next evening, when Steven drove by a group of children playing in the street, he __57__ what Marry was shouting from the sidewalk.
“Come on, you guys! Stop playing in the street, __58__ you’ll get squished!”
So, if your message isn’t getting through to others, no matter how many times you __59__ it, you should try something __60__. This is Steven’s lesson.