“What is the most important thing you’ve done in your life?” The question was put to me during a presentation I gave to a group of lawyers.
The answer came to me in an instant. It’s not the one I gave, because the situation was not right. As a lawyer in the entertainment industry, I knew the audience wanted to hear some amusing stories about my work with well-known people. But here’s the true answer:
The most important thing I’ve ever done occurred on October 8, 1990. I began the day playing tennis with an old friend I hadn’t seen for a while. Between points we talked about what had been happening in each other’s lives. He and his wife had just had a baby boy, who was keeping them up at night.
While we were playing, a car came screaming up the road toward the courts. It was my friend’s father, who shouted to my friend that his baby had stopped breathing and was being rushed to the hospital. In a flash my friend was in the car and gone, disappearing in a cloud of dust.
For a moment I just stood there, paralyzed(呆若木鸡). Then I tried to figure out what I should do. Follow my friend to the hospital? There was nothing I could accomplish there, I convinced myself. My friend’s son was in the care of doctors and nurses, and nothing I could do or say would affect the outcome. Be there for moral support? Well, maybe. But my friend and his wife both had large families, and I knew they’d be surrounded by relatives who would provide more than enough comfort and support, whatever happened. All I could do at the hospital, I decided, was to get in the way. Also, I had planned a full day with my family, who were waiting for me to get home. So I decided to head back to my house and check in my friend later.
As I started my car, I realized that my friend had left his truck and keys at the courts. I now faced another problem. I couldn’t leave the keys in the truck. So I decided to go to the hospital and give him the keys.
When I arrived, I was directed to a room where my friend and his wife were waiting. As I had thought, the room was filled with family members silently watching my friend comfort his wife. I went in and stood by the door, trying to decide what to do next. Soon a doctor appeared. He approached my friend and his wife, and in a quiet voice told them that their son had died.
For a long time the two held each other and cried, unaware of the rest of us standing around in pained silence. After they had calmed themselves, the doctor suggested they spend a few moments with their son.
My friend and his wife stood up and walked past their families. When they reached the door, my friend saw me standing in the corner. He came over and hugged me and started to cry. My friend’s wife hugged me, too, and said, “Thanks for being here.”
For the rest of that morning, I sat in the emergency room of that hospital and watched my friend and his wife hold the body of their infant son, and say goodbye.
It’s the most important thing I have ever done.
The experience taught me two lessons.
First: The most important thing I’ve ever done happened when I was completely helpless. None of the things I had learned in university, in three years of law school or in six years of legal practice were of any use in that situation. Something terrible was happening to people Icared about, and I was powerless to change the outcome. All I could do was standing by and watching it happen. And yet it was critical that I do just that—just be there when someone needed me.
Second: The most important thing I’ve done almost didn’t happen because of things I had learned in classroom and professional life. Law school taught me how to take a set of facts, break them down and organized them. These skills are critical for lawyers. When people come to us for help, they’re often stressed out and depend on a lawyer to think logically. But while learning to think, I almost forget how to feel. Today I have no doubt that I should have leapt into my car without hesitation and followed my friend to the hospital.
From that one experience I learned that the most important thing in life isn’t the money you make, the status you attain or the honors you achieve. The most important thing in life is the kids’ team you coach or the poem you write—or the time when you’re just somebody’s friend.When he was asked about the most important thing he had done in life at a presentation, the author __________.
A felt it was not an interesting question
B. thought for a while and spoke his mind
C. gave an answer from a lawyer’s point of view
D. didn’t give the real answerWhen he saw his friend rush to the hospital, the author could not decide whether to follow mainly because he thought _________.
| A．he had to stay with his family | B．his friend did not need his help |
| C．he would not be of much help | D．the baby would be in the doctor’s care |
The purpose of the author’s description of the scene at the hospital is to inform us that ______.
| A．he found out that he was in the way |
| B．he would have felt guilty if he had not been there |
| C．he regretted that he went too later |
| D．his friend would have felt better if he had not been there |
Which of the following is conveyed in this story?
| A．Family and relatives can not take the place of friends. |
| B．More people are a great comfort when one is in trouble. |
| C．It is best to be here when someone needs you. |
| D．You can certainly help a friend if you want to. |
The author learned from his own experience that_______.
| A．what is taught in school is usually of no use |
| B．a lawyer cannot learn much in classrooms |
| C．a lawyer should know people’s feeling first |
| D．he needs to be able to feel as well as think logically |
I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent.
I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows(誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.
So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion(提升), the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(空闲), it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all.
I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion(热情) as it ought to be lived.The best title of this passage probably is
| A．Love your friends | B．Live a real life |
| C．Don't waste time | D．Be a good mother and wife |
The underlined sentence "It is so easy to exist instead of to live" in the fifth paragraph probably has the same meaning as
| A．it is so easy to keep alive but not to live a real life |
| B．it is very hard to live a real life |
| C．it is so easy to make a living |
| D．it is more difficult to exist than to live a happy life |
What's the author's attitude toward
work?
| A．Do it well to serve others. |
| B．To earn enough money to make life better. |
| C．Try your best to get higher position and pay. |
| D．Don't let it affect your real life. |
It can be inferred from the passage that
| A．the author is a success in personal life |
| B．the author didn't try her best to work well |
| C．the author spent all her time caring for her children |
| D．the author likes traveling very much |
.
For more than twenty years scientists have been searching for signs of life on other planets. Most of these searches have been done over the radio. The hope is that someone in outer space may be trying to get in touch with us. Scientists also have sent radio and television messages on spaceships travelling through space, on the chance that someone may be receptive to such message.
Scientists are using powerful radio telescopes to listen to signals from about 1,000 stars, all within 100 light years of Earth. In addition, they will scan the entire sky to "listen" for radio messages from more distant stars. Using a computer, they will be able to monitor more than eight channels at one time. Scientists are looking for any signal that stands out from the background noise.
Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, scientists find that five percent are like our sun. Perhaps half of them have a planet like Earth. Such a planet would be a reasonable distance from the star for temperatures to be right for the evolution (进化) of life. Based on the inhabitable (可居住的) planets in our galaxy, most scientists agree that chances are likely that one or more of these planets support some life.
However, many scientists wonder whether intelligent life exists on other planets. Some believe that twenty years of searching without any intelligible messages shows that no one is out there. They say that the evolution of intelligence comparable to ours is unlikely.
Other scientists believe that our search hasn’t been long enough to rule out the possibility that intelligent life exists in our galaxy. Although our sun family is only about five billion years old, our galaxy is about 20 billion years old. In that time, some scientists think it is likely that civilization much more advanced than ours have developed. Perhaps these civilizations send us no signals; perhaps we have not recognized the signals they have sent us. If we hope to find intelligent life, these scientists believe that we have to keep looking.
57. According to the passage, how many planets in our galaxy might be inhabitable?
A. 5 billion B. 10 billion C. 15 billion D. 200 billion
58. The first paragraph in this passage is mainly about __________.
A. how scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets
B. why scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets
C. where scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets
D. When scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets
59. The underlined word “monitor” in Paragraph two means “__________”.
A. find B. follow C. check D. form
60. Which of the following is TRUE based on the information in the passage?
A. The earth is the oldest planet in our galaxy.
B. All scientists believe that there is intelligent life on other planets.
C. Scientists are trying different ways to find signs of life on other planets.
D. Scientists will give up the search for signs of life on other planets.
.
How the iron of tomorrow (the first Self Cleaning Iron) can change your lifestyle today?
General Electric introduces the iron of tomorrow. The iron can clean itself every time you empty it. How? With a push of a magic blue button.
The magic blue button
The first thing you’ll notice that’s different about this iron is the blue button on the side. It’s marked “Self Clean”. Push this blue button, and you can wash out loose mineral deposits(沉淀物) that remain and block up inside. Push this button, and you’ve made life a lot easier.
Less chance of brown spots
Sure, the Self Cleaning Iron is going to cut down on brown spots (those ugly spots that happen on nice, cleanly pressed clothes) because a Self Cleaning Iron becomes clean quickly each time you press that magic blue button.
Steam better longer
Common sense tells you that if you’ve got an iron that blocks less often it has to stay younger for a long, period of time. In other words, it steams better longer. That’s another joy of owning General Electric’s Self Cleaning Iron.
What does it mean to you
Today you are doing so much more than just running a house and running after the kids. You’re working. You’re going to school. It’s all part of your lifestyle. The iron can change that lifestyle by giving you less trouble before you iron. If we can make it easier for you to be a better wife, a better mother, a better homemaker, we want to. The new Self Cleaning Iron is another one of Home-Makers from General Electric. ^*
53. This passage is mainly about __________.
A. an introduction to the General Electric
B. an operating instruction of the Self Cleaning Iron
C. an advertisement of the Self Cleaning Iron
D. a description of the change of lifestyle
54. This iron can clean itself by __________.
A. emptying itself B. washing out mineral deposits
C. blocking up mineral deposits D. giving off more steam
55. According to the passage, what is most likely to attract the customers?
A. It is made by General Electric.
B. The iron will not produce mineral deposits.
C. Their clothes will be cleaned at the same time.
D. There will be fewer brown spots on pressed clothes.
56. The Self Cleaning Iron can help change your lifestyle because __________.
A. you can run your house better B. you don’t have to run after the kids
C. you can use it while you are working D. we want you to be a better house maker
.
When Joe Bates was twelve years old, he lost interest in school. He stopped listening in his classes. Some of his teachers began to consider him a problem.
But a few of Joe’s teachers thought that Joe might have lost interest in schoolwork because he already understood it. They proposed that Joe try taking a university class in computer science. Joe did. He was the best student in the class. Later tests showed that his intelligence and knowledge were far greater than most children of his age. He entered university when he was thirteen, about four years earlier than most children. And by the time he was in his early twenties, Joe was teaching computer science at a university.
Joe’s story shows what can happen when a child’s unusual ability is recognized. Sadly, however, not all gifted children get this recognition. And educational experts say unusually gifted children may waste their abilities if they do not get help to develop them.
Studies show that almost twenty percent of students who fail to complete high school in the United States are gifted children.This is because gifted children can have special problems as well as special abilities. Teachers may not recognize their abilities or may not know how to keep them interested. Or they may consider such students to be troublemakers or rebels.
Gifted children may feel lonely or different because they do not know other children who share their interests.
Educators say there are more than two million gifted children in the United States today. But they say fewer than half are taking part in special education programs designed for them.
One of the most successful programs is held every summer at John Hopkins University in the state of Maryland, where Joe Bates went to school. It started in 1980 when educators saw that there must be many children like Joe.
At first, only 100 children took part in it, and now more than 1,000 children between the ages of nine and sixteen are students in the summer program.
The John Hopkins program provides studies in math and science. It also has classes for children with unusual ability in language and writing. The children study the same subject every day for several weeks. It could be biology, or history, or literature. In those few weeks, they learn as much as in a normal nine-month school year.
William Durden, the director says the program succeeds because it permits children to make progress more quickly than in a traditional program. And the children get to meet others like themselves.
49. Joe Bates stopped listening in his classes because __________.
A. he lost interest in school
B. he hated those teachers who considered him a problem
C. he had already understood what he was taught
D. he wanted to take a university class
50. When a child’s unusual ability is recognized, __________.
A. he can do whatever he likes
B. he will no longer be considered to be a troublemaker or rebel
C. he may have more success than most children of his age
D. he will certainly take part in a special education program
51. According to the passage, the most important thing is to __________.
A. recognize and develop gifted children’s unusual abilities
B. design and support special education programs for gifted children
C. help gifted children get to meet others who share their interests
D. encourage gifted children instead of treating them as a problem
52. Many gifted students fail to complete high school in the United States because _________.
A. they take part in traditional education programs
B. their unusual abilities are not recognized
C. their teachers don’t know how to keep them interested in schoolwork
D. they have special problems as well as special abilities.
.
In China he’s known as “the Flying Fish”; in America they call him ‘the Baltimore Bullet’.
Whatever you call him, American swimmer Michael Phelps looks destined (命中注定) to become a household name across the world after breaking the Olympic record for most gold medals in a single Games.
Phelps’s total of eight gold medals in Beijing put him one ahead of Mark Spitz’s previous record set in 1972.
Now people are already calling him the greatest Olympian of all time. But whether he is or not, what is it that makes Michael Phelps so good?
A good place to start might be his physique. Phelps has the perfect body shape for a swimmer: his arm span is longer than his height, he has very flexible joints, huge lungs, and his incredibly large feet (size 14 in the US, size 49 in China) act like flippers in the water.
To feed his huge swimmer’s body, Phelps eats an astonishing 12,000 calories a day, six times the average for a man of his age.
He then owes it to a swimsuit which has been making waves in the world of swimming. Designed by NASA, the American space agency, the suit is made of a special material which is said to help athletes swim 2% faster.
Michael Phelps should spare a thought for his mum, who first pushed him into swimming as a way of making friends, and who believed in him when one teacher said he would never be a success.
Whatever the reason for his success, Phelps admits there was perhaps also a bit of luck involved in winning his eight medals.
“I guess eight is a lucky number for me, too, now. The opening ceremony started on 8/8/08. Maybe it was meant to be.” he said.
45. How many gold medals did Mark Spitz's won?
A. 6 B. 7 C. 8 D. 9
46. What makes Michael Phelps so popular?
A. He has broken the Olympic record for most gold medals in a single Games.
B. He is equipped with the best swimsuit which is said to help athletes swim 2% faster.
C. He is a very lucky person and he has the perfect body shape for a swimmer.
D. He has a very good appetiteand he eats an astonishing 12,000 calories a day.
47. According to the passage, how many calories does a man need a day on average?
A. 4,000 B. 3,000 C. 2,000 D. 6,000
48. Which of the following is the reason for his success, in Phelps’ opinion?
a. his physique b. the swimsuit designed by NASA
c. his mother’s encouragement d. good luck e. his confidence
A. a, c, d, e B. a, b, c, e C. a, b, d, e D. a, b, c, d
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