As a youngster, there was nothing I liked better than Sunday afternoons at my grandfather’s farm in western Pennsylvania. Surrounded by miles of winding stone walls, the house and field provided endless hours of fun for a city kid like me. I was used to tidy living rooms that seemed to whisper, "Not to be touched!"
I can still remember one afternoon when I was eight years old. Since my first visit to the farm, I had wanted more than anything to be allowed to climb the stone walls surrounding the houses. My parents would never approve. The walls were old; some stones were missing, others loose and falling. Still, my idea to climb across those walls grew so strong that finally, one spring afternoon, I had all my courage to enter the living room, where the adults had gathered after Sunday dinner.
"I, uh-I want to climb the stone walls," I said. Everyone looked up. "Can I climb the stone walls? "Immediately voices of disagreement went up from the women in the room. "Heavens, no!" You'll hurt yourself!" I wasn't too disappointed; the response was just as I'd expected. But before I could leave the room, I was stopped by my grandfather's loud voice. "Now hold on just a minute," I heard him say. "Let the boy climb the stone walls. He has to learn to do things for himself."

Many years have passed since then, and today I host the television program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, seen by millions of children throughout America. There have been changes over the years, but one thing remains the same: my message to children at the end of almost every visit. "There's only one person in this whole world like you," the kids can count on hearing me say, "and people can like you exactly as you are.”
【小題1】When the writer was small, he lived        .

A．in the city	B．on the farm
C．with his grandparents	D．a(chǎn)way from his parents

【小題2】The writer enjoyed his visits to the farm because        .

A．there were old stone walls.	B．it was an exciting place for him.
C．he liked his grandfather.	D．the living room there was clean

【小題3】The underlined word “approve” in paragraph 2 means        .

A．prove

B．suppose

C．a(chǎn)llow

D．mind

【小題4】We can learn from the passage that the writer was        .

A．a(chǎn)dventurous

B．funny

C．smart

D．talkative

You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes(撞擊） through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead！Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars and run out of them even when they catch fire, are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks. There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress（床墊）. Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar! But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman’s success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.
Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff（懸崖）a thousand feet high. His parachute（降落傘）failed to open, and he was killed. In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls too.
【小題1】 Stuntmen are those who ______.

A．often dress up as actors

B．prefer to lead dangerous lives

C．often perform seemingly dangerous actions

D．often fight each other for their lives

【小題2】Stuntmen earn their living by ______.

A．playing their dirty tricks	B．selling their special skills
C．jumping out of high windows	D．jumping from fast moving trains

【小題3】 When a stuntman falls from a high building, ______.

A．he needs little protection	B．he will be covered with a mattress
C．his life is endangered	D．his safety is generally all right

【小題4】Which of the following is the main factor of a successful performance?

A．Strength.

B．Exactness.

C．Speed.

D．Carefulness

【小題5】What can be inferred from the author’s example of the Norwegian stuntman?

A．Sometimes an accident can occur to a stuntman.

B．The percentage of serious accidents is high.

C．Parachutes must be of good quality.

D．The cliff is too high.

根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，從下框的A-F選項(xiàng)中選出能概括每一段主題的最佳選項(xiàng)。選項(xiàng)中有一項(xiàng)為多余項(xiàng)。

A．The secret of the writer’s success

B．A writer with enduring popularity

C．Well-received creation to encourage Brits

D．The insight into human nature

E. Writing styles in different stages

F. The story appreciate for school students

1. ____________

Charles Dickens is often thought of as one of England’s great writers. Yet for many his language is old-fashioned and his story plots often improbable. Why, Dickens, out of so many other great English writers, has made the list? How then to explain Dickens’s enduring popularity?

2. _____________

One reason undoubtly is the British government’s insistence that every child studies a Dickens novel at school. Alongside Willian Shakespeare, Charles Dickens is a compulsory (必讀的)writer on every English literature school reading list. His stories, though often over-long by today’s standard, are superbly written moral tales. They are filled with colorful characters.

3. ______________

But what makes his books stand out from other English writers is his insight into human nature. Dickens, like Shakespeare, tells us truths about human behavior that are as true to citizens of the 21st century as they were to his readers in the 19th century. Readers have returned to Dickens’s books again and again over the years to see what he has to say about readers’ own time.

4. _______________

The BBC adapted one of his less well-known novels, Little Dorrit, into a popular television drama that introduced many Brits to the novel for the first time. A dark story about greed and money, it was the perfect story to illustrate the bad times. No surprise then that it was Dickens Britons turned to, during the economic crisis last year, to make sense of world rapidly falling apart.

5. _______________

Readers of the 19th and early 20th century usually prized Dickens’s earlier novels for their humor and pathos(悲痛). While recognizing the virtues of these books, critics today tend to rank more highly the later works because of  their formal coherence and acute perception(洞察力) of the human condition. For as long as Dickens’s novels have something to say to modern audiences, it seems likely that he will remain one of Britain’s best loved writers.

 

Many of us don’t like what we see around us but the last thing we do is to change it. I think that is the beginning of failure and that is why what we hate remains around us. If you don’t want to see things around you, don’t just hope it’ll change.
We have such an amazing power of creativity inside us to change the way things work around us. Only lazy people go about and say that is the way things have been working. I’ve come to discover that things around us depend on our actions and inactions. What I mean is that the circumstances that we like depend only on the things we do and the things we don’t do.
Do you want your country to change? Start by changing the small things around you. Before you think too far about any small thing to change, your habit should be the first thing to change. Change what you think about and talk about. Can you remember how difficult it was for you to break a habit that you desired to break some years back? If so, then you must accept that things aren’t just going to change by a magic thought. If it isn’t so easy to change yourself when you want to, it isn’t going to be so easy to change the people around you.
I think the best way I’ve changed people around me is that I changed myself. When you change, they’ll change. Just change yourself and see how many people will tell you later that you are the one who changes them. That’s one simple way young people can change their nations.
【小題1】 According to the text, why do we fail to change what we don’t like? _______

A．Because we lack the power of creativity.

B．Because we never plan to change them.

C．Because they cannot be changed.

D．Because we don’t have the ability.

【小題2】The author can change people around him because he has realized that 　　　　.

A．things around us decide what we do

B．the further you think, the better

C．his actions can affect things around him

D．he has to change the nation first

【小題3】The third paragraph aims at 　　　　.

A．telling readers one of the author’s interesting experiences

B．giving an example to show how to change things around us

C．showing readers how to change a nation

D．a(chǎn)sking us to remember to change our nation

【小題4】What can we learn from the text? ________

A．Circumstance creates a person.

B．It is never too late to change your habits.

C．A long journey begins with the first step.

D．Changing ourselves means changing others.

A punctual person is in the habit of doing a thing at the proper time and is never late in keeping an appointment.

　   The unpunctual man，on the one hand，never does what he has to do at the proper time._ 1._There is a proverb saying, “Time flies never to be recalled”. This is true. __2.__Time is more valuable than material things. In fact，time is life itself. The unpunctual man is for ever wasting and mismanaging his most valuable possessions as well as other's. The unpunctual person is always complaining that he finds no time to answer letters，or return calls or keep appointments promptly.. __3.__He knows that he can not get through his huge amount of work unless he faithfully keeps every piece of work when it has to be attended to. __4.__If a person is invited to dinner and arrives later than the appointed time，he keeps all the other guests waiting for him. Usually this will be regarded as a great disrespect to the host and all other guests present.

　   Unpunctuality，moreover，is very harmful when it comes to do one's duty，whether public or private. Imagine how it would be if those who are put in charge of important tasks failed to be at their proper place at the appointed time.__ 5.__

A. He is always in a hurry and in the end loses both time and his good name

B. They appear to be busy but never get well organized

C. Maybe everybody minds being kept waiting at a party

D. A lost thing may be found again，but lost time can never be regained.

E. But the man who really has a great deal to do is very careful of his time and seldom complains of want of it

F. After all, man who is known to be habitually unpunctual is never trusted by his friends or fellow men.

G. Failure to be punctual in keeping one's appointments is sign of disrespect towards others.