閱讀下面短文，掌握其大意，然后從36-55所給的四個選項（A、B、C、D）中，選出最佳選項。
There is a beautiful story about a child playing with a vase his mother had left on the table for a few moments. When the mother turned   16  the sound of her son’s crying she saw that his  17   was in the vase and was apparently stuck. She   18  to help him and pulled and pulled until the child cried out   19 . But the hand was stuck fast（牢固地）. How would they get it out? The father suggested   20  the vase but it was quite valuable and the child’s hand might be cut in the   21 _. Yet he knew that if all else   22  there would be no other alternative.
So he said to the boy, “Now, let’s make one more   23 . Open your hand and stretch your   24  out straight, as I’m doing, and then pull!” “  25  Dad,” said the boy, “if I do that I’ll   26  my penny!”
The boy had had a coin in his hand   27  and was holding it   28 in his tight little fist. And he wasn’t   29  to open his hand and lose it. But  30  he opened his hand it came out of the vase easily.
The father said to the boy, “What are you holding onto so tightly as to hinder (阻礙) your walk with God? That vase can be  31  to the entrance to the Kingdom of God. It is narrow yet quite  32   to pass in, but first you must open your hand to God and   33  earthly（世俗的）things to fall. If we keep our fists   34  and hold fast to what we have and keep it for ourselves, we will be unable to   35  hold of the hand of God. Open your hand to the hand of God and you will see great things take place.”

閱讀下面短文，掌握其大意，然后從36-55所給的四個選項（A、B、C、D）中，選出最佳選項。

There is a beautiful story about a child playing with a vase his mother had left on the table for a few moments. When the mother turned   16  the sound of her son’s crying she saw that his  17   was in the vase and was apparently stuck. She   18  to help him and pulled and pulled until the child cried out   19 . But the hand was stuck fast（牢固地）. How would they get it out? The father suggested   20  the vase but it was quite valuable and the child’s hand might be cut in the   21 _. Yet he knew that if all else   22  there would be no other alternative.

So he said to the boy, “Now, let’s make one more   23 . Open your hand and stretch your   24  out straight, as I’m doing, and then pull!” “  25  Dad,” said the boy, “if I do that I’ll   26  my penny!”

The boy had had a coin in his hand   27  and was holding it   28 in his tight little fist. And he wasn’t   29  to open his hand and lose it. But  30  he opened his hand it came out of the vase easily.

The father said to the boy, “What are you holding onto so tightly as to hinder (阻礙) your walk with God? That vase can be  31  to the entrance to the Kingdom of God. It is narrow yet quite  32   to pass in, but first you must open your hand to God and   33  earthly（世俗的）things to fall. If we keep our fists   34  and hold fast to what we have and keep it for ourselves, we will be unable to   35  hold of the hand of God. Open your hand to the hand of God and you will see great things take place.”

完形填空（共20小題；每小題1分，滿分20分）
閱讀下面短文，掌握其大意，然后從各題所給的A、B、C、D四個選項中，選出可以填入空白處的最佳選項，并在答題紙上將該項涂黑。
There is a beautiful story about a child playing with a vase his mother had left on the table for a few moments. When the mother turned   36  the sound of her son’s crying she saw that his   __37   was in the vase and was apparently stuck. She   38  to help him and pulled and pulled until the child cried out   39_ . But the hand was stuck fast（牢固地）. How would they get it out? The father suggested   40  the vase but it was quite valuable and the child’s hand might be cut in the   41 _. Yet he knew that if all else   42  there would be no other alternative.
So he said to the boy, “Now, let’s make one more   43 . Open your hand and stretch your  44  out straight, as I’m doing, and then pull!” “  45  Dad,” said the boy, “if I do that I’ll   46  my penny!”
The boy had had a coin in his hand   47  and was holding it   48 in his little fist(拳頭). And he wasn’t   49  to open his hand and lose it. But  50  he opened his hand it came out of the vase easily.
The father said to the boy, “What are you holding onto so tightly as to hinder (阻礙) your walk with God? That vase can be  51  to the entrance to the Kingdom of God. It is narrow yet quite  52   to pass in, but first you must open your hand to God and   53  earthly（世俗的）things to fall. If we keep our fists   54  and hold fast to what we have and keep it for ourselves, we will be unable to   55  hold of the hand of God. Open your hand to the hand of God and you will see great things take place.”

【小題8】

A．chance B．choice C．try D．force

Robert Owen was born in Wales in 1771. At the age of ten he went to work. His employer had a large private library so Owen was able to educate himself. He read a lot in his spare time and at nineteen he was given the job of superintendent (監(jiān)工) at a Manchester cotton mill. He was so successful there that he persuaded his employer to buy the New Lanark mill in Scotland.

When he arrived at New Lanark it was a dirty little town with a population of 2,000 people. Nobody paid any attention to the workers’ houses or their children’s education. The conditions in the factories were very bad. There was a lot of crime and the men spent most of their wages on alcoholic drinks.

Owen improved the houses. He encouraged people to be clean and save money. He opened a shop and sold the workers cheap, well-made goods to help them. He limited the sale of alcoholic drinks. Above all, he fixed his mind on the children’s education. In 1816 he opened the first free primary school in Britain.

People came from all over the country to visit Owen’s factory. They saw that the workers were healthier and more efficient than in other towns. Their children were better fed and better educated. Owen tried the same experiment in the United States. He bought some land there in 1825, but the community was too far away. He could not keep it under control and lost most of his money.

Owen never stopped fighting for his idea. Above all he believed that people are not born good or bad. He was a practical man and his ideas were practical. “If you give people good working conditions,” he thought, “they will work well and, the most important thing of all, if you give them the chance to learn, they will be better people.”

For Owen, his greatest achievement in New Lanark was ______.

A. improving worker’s houses                           B. helping people to save money

C. preventing men from getting drunk         D. providing children with good education

Owen’s experiment in the United States failed because ______.

   A. he lost all his money as he expected          B. he did not buy enough land for his future plan

   C. people who visited it were not impressed   D. it was too far away for him to organize it properly

Owen did the following things EXPECT _______.

  A. educate himself in his spare time                B. buy the New Lanark mill in Scotland

C. encourage people to save money                 D. improve people’s working condition