If you want to stand out, there is no alternative but hard work.
Once a boy in ____clothes full of patches ran to ask a successful building contractor (承包商) in a construction site, “How could I become as _____as you when I grow up ?”
With a _____ at the boy, the contractor replied, “There is a story about three diggers .The first digger liked holding a spade without doing anything but saying that he wanted to be a (n) ___ in the future. The second always liked ____ about the work and his low ____. The third digger liked ______ devoting himself to digging. Later, the first was still holding his spade in the ____ place and the second took an excuse for early _____. Only the third became a boss. Do you understand the _____ of this story? Just go to buy a _____ shirt and work hard .”
The little boy was ____. So he asked the contractor to explain further. ____ the working builders, the contractor replied, “Look at my workers! I can’t remember all their names, and even I have no ____ of some of them. Most of them wear blue shirts. But if you look _____, you will notice a sunburned man in red. He seems to be working harder than others. He is always the first one to work while the last one to leave. It is exactly his red shirt that makes him _____. Soon he will be _____ to my assistant. You know, that is also how I got _____ I am now. I worked hard and wore a striped shirt. My boss ______ me. I also became a boss eventually.”
Success can only ____ action. Working hard is all winners’ shared experience for achieving their dreams.
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阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从1-20各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项
I finished my last work of the week and could hardly wait to get home, take off my nursing shoes, and relax.
As I __ my car, I saw one of my _ standing by the bus stop. I thought it would only take a couple of extra minutes to give her a ride home, and _ , it was too cold to be standing outside on the coldest _ in January. I didn’t know where she lived, but I was __ I would be able to find my way back.
We __ about our work as I drove and __ we knew it, we arrived at her house. I started driving back. _ looked familiar, but at first that didn’t __ me. But soon I __ something wrong. I recognized nothing. But I told myself to stay _ .
I was __ neighborhoods, streets and even streetlights. I no longer knew where I was now. How could I be so stupid! I looked down at my __ . It was now 2:30 a.m. My gas was slowly running out. I __ _ the car and turned off the engine. In total defeat, I put my head down on the wheel, __ . Then I raised my head and saw a(n) _ down the road in front of me. I turned my headlights on. A car! I drove a little _ _, got out of my car and knocked on the window of that car. An elderly man _ rolled his window down.
I said that I didn’t know how to get back into town. In silence, he started driving. I ran back to my car and drove behind him. Finally I __ a familiar street. As I turned to head home, the car disappeared. Then I _ my driveway (车道) when the warning light for my gas tank (汽油箱) turned on.
Though so many years have passed, I still thank the old man from my deepest heart.
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Do you remember the name of your kindergarten teacher? I do，mine. Her name was Mrs. White. And I thinking she must be some older relation of Walt Disney’s Snow White， she had the same bright blue eyes，short dark hair，red lips and fair skin.
I don’t remember much about what we in her class，but my mother once told me that we used to a lot. And I would bring back what I wrote and she would look at it and see there were so many . But no red corrections. And always a star. Sometimes a Good! But it my mother， so one day when she met Mrs. White at a Parent-Teacher meeting，she asked her why she never my mistakes and why she never red-pencilled in the right of words or pointed out grammatical errors.
And Mrs. White said “The children are just beginning to get about using words，about forming sentences. I don’t want to dampen that enthusiasm with ink. Spelling and grammar can wait but the wonder of words …” I grew up learning to use words with loving like that.
I now and think she must have been a rather teacher — to exercise such red-pen restraint (克制)，to the joy，wonder and excitement of expression to flower — however faultily — like that，because to bloom is better than not to bloom.
I used to beautiful a lot. Never could I quite remember that the e went the a. Eventually the e and a settled into their right places. I am glad I didn’t wait on them though. Pretty is easier to spell but it doesn’t hold as much as you sometimes.
And thanks to Mrs. White I felt no about writing what I meant even if I couldn’t quite spell it out. Because Life isn’t Pretty. It’s Beautiful.
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I had a lot on my mind as I picked up the pieces of what had once been my teddy bear on the snowiest day last year. Only twenty-four hours before, I had been with it in our farmhouse. How quickly things ! The house I had lived in disappeared. The fire had all those things with my memories.
I have never known my mother to be . In fact, my whole family has always been . But when picking up my ashen (灰白色的) clothing on this cold winter morning, she moved with emptiness. The was so heavy to us.
Days passed and the situation didn’t become . After moving to the temporary house, my father told me dealing with this would cost money. It brought about a wave of and life became a struggle.
“Hey, Tony,” a classmate came up to me at lunchtime with a box in her hands. , all my classmates stood up. “Tony, we know what a few days ago. This is not something you have to go through . Alex, Phoebe and I started up the Shoebox Fund for you. Almost every student in our school . We love you and we want you to have this. ” She me with the box. I opened it to find piles of twenty-dollar bills and notes of love.
My eyes were filled with , and I had never been so moved. I had felt so lonely for the days after the fire that I became , unwilling to communicate with others. But these people looked past the rudeness I had them. They were my true friends and by sharing this , they were my family.
Yes, things are getting back to . But what I learned from this journey of discovery will with me forever.
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Many Tuesday mornings.I have coffee with my father.Although my fatheris a man of few words.I really the time along with him.
One recent Tuesday, I found it a bit when I rang the doorbell, no oneseemed to be home.I climbed in through the window, noticing the lights thatshone from the kitchen, and that my dad must be there, but he wasn't.I through his home, checking every room.I tried not to _.Yet.upstairs.downstairs, no Dad anywhere.
I was worried. , my father was seventy-one years old.Anything could have happened to him.Then, I got in my car and drove to my mother’s aerobics（有氧运动）class.
On the drive, I thought a lot about my father and our together.Suddenly, I was three years old and he was me up to the living room window to see the Christmas lights.In his , I was safe and secure.At age ten, he used to wake me up with warm breakfast in bed.Then I was twelve and my dad was ___ all the kids at my birthday party with his magic tricks.I was so of my father for being so and talented.He’d made my party a .
As I entered my mother’s class, I was nervous.My mom looked at me in .
“Mom, where’s Dad?” I asked, “He’s working in the on the side of the house!” she answered.
And I hurried to my car and back to the yard.“Hey, Dad!” I yelled out and told him about my fears of the last half hour.My dad laughing his typical laugh that was always .I was so thankful that I still had my daddy.And so , as I the door to my father’s house, we went inside for our usually cup of coffee.
Thanks, Daddy, for all the and more importantly, for all your love.
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Freshmen in high school can be cruel and we certainly were to a young man named Matt who was in my class.We teased（取笑） him about his .He was at least fifty pounds overweight.He felt the pain of being the last one to play basketball or football.Matt will always remember the endless that were played on him.
One day he sat near me in gym class.Someone him and he fell on me and knocked my foot quite .With the whole class watching，I chose to fight in order to keep my image intact (not spoiled).I , “C’mon, Matt, let’s fight!” He said he didn’t want to.But he had to come toward me with his fists（拳头）in the .I bloodied his nose with one hit and the class went .Just then the gym teacher walked into the room.He saw us fighting and he us out to the running track.
He followed us with a on his face and said, “I want you two guys to go out there and run that mile holding each other’s hands.” The exploded into laughter.The two of us felt beyond belief, but Matt and I went out to the track and ran our mile — hand in hand.
At some point during the of our run, I remember looking over at him, with blood trickling（滴） from his nose and his weight him down.I suddenly realized that here was a(n) , not all that different from myself.We both each other and began to laugh.In time we became good friends.
Going around that track, hand in hand, I no longer saw Matt as fat or .He was a human being.I found it after I was told to go hand in hand with someone for only one mile.For the rest of my I have never so much as raised a hand against another person.
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Don’t let Aurora’s small stature（身材）fool you—her spirit is strong. She is one of 140 chickens from a farm. When we saved her, she was tiny and sick and it seemed that she would survive. Having never got the right , many of the chickens were sick and some died.
At a young age, Aurora and her sisters and brothers were by their mom. Luckily, another mother their care. Aurora seemed the last to food and attention. She grew at a much slower than her brothers and sisters. Everything seemed her.
At the young age of seven months, Aurora had lost two moms and was to find a place with the other chickens.
Aurora found comfort with an old chicken named Margaret, staying under her wings during the cold nights, Margaret was so old that a few months later she died. Aurora, in her own way, thinks of Margaret. Every evening, you will find her in the spot where she kept Margaret company. when the other chickens try to her away, Aurora comes back.
As Aurora grew, we became at her love to simply live. Nothing her.
So remember, when life seems so that you can’t take it, think of Aurora. She has lost two moms, watched her sisters and brothers die, and from serious illnesses. Yet she enjoys the small, sweet life has offered—safety, food, warmth and good friendships.
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Some years ago when I was in my first year in college, I heard Salome Bey sing for the first time. The moment was exciting. Salome’s filled the room and brought the theater to life. I was so that I decided to write an article about her.
I Salome Bey, telling her I was from Essence magazine, and that I wanted to meted her to talk about her career. She and told me to come to her studio next Tuesday. When I 45, I was scared out of my mind. I I was lying. I was not a writer at all and hadn’t even written a grocery list.
I interviewed Salome Bey the next Tuesday. I sat there , taking notes and asking questions that all began with, “ Can you tell me…” I soon realized that Salome Bey was one thing, but writing a story for a national magazine was just impossible. The was almost unbearable. I struggled for days draft after draft. Finally I put my manuscript（手稿）into a large envelope and dropped it into a mailbox.
It didn’t take long. My manuscript . How stupid of me! I thought. How could I in a world of professional writers? Knowing I couldn’t the rejection letter, I threw the unopened envelope into a drawer. Five years later, I was moving to California, While cleaning my apartment, I the unopened envelope. This time I opened it and read the editor’s letter in .
Dear Ms Profit,
Your story on Salome Bey is fantastic. Yet we need some materials. Please add those and return the article immediately. We would like to your story soon.
Shocked, it took me a long time to . Fear of rejection cost me dearly. I lost at least five hundred dollars and a chance of having my article appear in a major magazine. More importantly, I lost years of enjoyable writing. Today, I have become a full-time writer. my experience, I learned a very important lesson: You can’t to doubt yourself.
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A compare B. struggle C. compete D. survive
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阅读下面短文， 从短文后各题的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出适合填入对应空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑。
Two years ago, a restaurant had fallen upon hard times. Only five were left: the manager and four others, all over 60 years old.
In the town near the restaurant there ___ ___ a successful businessman who was good at managing business, so the manager to ask the businessman if he could offer any advice that might the restaurant. The manager and the businessman talked for a long period of time, when he was asked for advice, the businessman for a while and then said, “I have no ______ to give. The thing I can tell you is that the saver(救星) is one of you.”
The manager, returning to the restaurant , told the other people what the businessman had said. In the months that followed, the old restaurant workers thought ______ of the words of the businessman, “The saver is one of us?” they asked themselves. As they about this possibility, they all began to treat each other with respect. And thinking that each of themselves be the saver, they also began to treat themselves with more care.
______ time went by, people coming to the restaurant that some respect and warm kindness were around the five old members of the small restaurant. Hardly knowing , more people began to come back to the restaurant. They began to their friends, and theirs brought more friends. Two years later, the small restaurant had once again a big food company, thanks to the businessman’s . They understood that it was they themselves that were the _______.
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A. money B. advice C food D. clothes
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阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填人空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
It was the golden season. I could see the yellow leaves in the cool . In such a season, I liked walking alone in the leaves, listening to the sound of them. Autumn is a season and life is uninteresting. The free days always make me . But one day, the sound of a violin into my ears like a stream flowing in the mountains. I was so surprised that I jumped to see what it was. A young girl, standing in the wind, was in playing her violin. I had seen her before. The music was so attractive that I listened quietly. Lost in the music, I didn’t realize that I had been there for so long but my did not seem to disturb her. Leaves were still falling. Every day she played the violin in the corner of the building. I went downstairs to watch her performance, I was the only audience. The autumn seemed no longer lonely and life became . we didn’t know each other, I thought we were already good friends. I believed she also liked me. Autumn was nearly over. One day, when I was listening devotedly, the sound suddenly stopped. To my , the girl came over to me.
“You must like violin, ” she said.
“Yes. And you play very well. Why did you stop?” I asked.
Suddenly, a expression appeared on her face and I could feel something unusual.
“I came here to see my grandmother, but now I must leave. I once played very badly. It was your listening every day that me. ” she said.
“In fact, it was your playing gave me a meaningful autumn. ” I answered. “Let us be friends. ”
The girl smiled and I smiled.
I never heard her play again in my life. I no longer went to listen like before. Only thick leaves were left behind. But I will always remember the fine figure of the girl. She is like a goddess; so short, so bright, like a shooting star giving off so much light that it makes the autumn beautiful. There are many kinds of friends. Some are always you, but don’t understand you. Some say only a few words to you, but are close to you. Many people will step in your life, but only friends leave footprints.
I shall always recall the autumn and the girl with the . She will always bring back the friendship between us. I know she will always be my best friend.
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阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
I was having my dinner at McDonald's one evening when an old couple slowly walked in. They _______ their meal, took a table near the window and started _______ food out of the plate. There was one hamburger, one order of French fries(炸薯条) and one drink. The man _______ the food into two halves and carefully placed _______ before his wife.
He took a sip(一小口) of the drink. His wife also took one and then _______ the cup down between them. "That _______ old couple! All they can _______ is one meal for the two of them, "thought I. _______ the man began to eat his French fries, I _______ to my feet, went over and said that I was _______ to buy another meal for them. But he _______ refused me and said that they made it a ______ to share everything.
_____, the lady didn't take a bite. She sat there _____ her husband eat, and taking turns sipping the drink. Again I ______ to buy them something but was refused. When the man finished eating and was ______ his face with a napkin. I ______ no longer stand it. I made an offer to them a third time. ______ being politely refused. I asked the lady _____, "Madam, why aren't you eating You said that you share everything. _______ is it that you are waiting for " "The teeth," she answered.
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阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
In my class, there was a really weak-looking guy. I don’t know if his name was Vit or Wit. I will him as Wit in this story of mine. He was a pale, thin guy. Not only his build looked weak, the way he was also weak. He walked slowly but he tried to stay off of everyone’s way. The friends in my class, Jean and Ingrid, would him. Truth to be told,
I them as well. We did things like taking his stuff, like his pens and pencils, and them somewhere in the school.
Wit was also really of insects, even butterfly. Jean, Ingrid, and I often put beetle on his clothes and he would run around, trying to it off. There were many beetles in the school so that was the insect we used to scare him with. Other insects such as butterfly were hard to so we pretty much gave up on it. We would often take the when Wit was off-guard and put the insects on him. it was on him, he would run around or jump about. He was too scared to it and pull it off.
Suddenly one day, we were by the school. When I walked into the room, Wit’s mother, as well as Ingrid’s mother, Jean’s father, and mine were in the room silently. Wit’s mother said that Wit went home and the sandbag shouting “Jean!!! Ingrid!!! Archer!!!” every day. I wanted to laugh but didn’t with all the she was putting on us. She asked many things, including things I had no idea about such as “Who put Wit’s bag in the girl toilet?” Apparently, it was Jean who did it. Jean seemed to have bullied Wit quite a lot and got quite a(n) from Wit’s and her own mother.
I think it should have been quite guilty for to see us scolded by the parents. However, we decided to stop bullying Wit and be friendly to him.
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阅读下面短文,从短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中,选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
I have recently moved across the country to the West Coast. I started feeling a little ____ and missing my friends and family.
I'm an extrovert(外向型人)and I love to___; that's why I enjoy going to school so much— it gives me the ____ to meet new and different people. I love talking with and learning about people from different ways of life，religions and age groups. The elderly and children are the most interesting to me. The elderly can tell me all about everything ____ children look at everything with __35__ full of wonder.
Recently，while riding a bus I struck up a(n)___ with an elderly woman who had been born and ____ in the Pacific North West. She had so many stories about the area and how it had once been. I ____ had a wonderful time talking to her. A few days later，I got ____ the bus and there she was again. She smiled when she saw me and patted the ____ next to her. I sat with her and we picked up the conversation where we had ____. Over the next few days whenever I got on the bus she was ___ there and we would talk.
I have returned to work and have been ____ an earlier bus and haven't seen ____ of my “new old friend”．Then I __ her at the transit(运输)station and she cheered up. This really ____ my heart.
Finally my “new old friend” asked me if she may have my number so that we could chat when she didn't have the pleasure to see me on the bus.
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阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C 和D）中，选出最佳选项。
The Parking-Lot Sweeper
Both my parents came from towns in Mexico. I was born in E1 Paso, Texas, and when I was four, my family moved to a housing project in East Los Angeles.
Even though we struggled to make ends meet, my parents stressed to me and my four brothers and sisters how we were to live in a great country with limitless opportunities. They us with the ideas of family, faith and love.
I got my first job when I was ten. My dad injured his back working in a cardboard-box factory and was retrained as a hairstylist. He space in a little shopping center and gave his shop the flowery name of Mr. Ben’s Coiffure. The owner of the shopping center my Dad’s payment for cleaning the parking lot three a week, which getting up at 3 a.m. Mom and I helped dustbin and pick up rubbish by hand. It took two to three hours to clean the lot. I sleep in the car on the way home.I did this for two years, but the lessons I learned have a lifetime. I obtained discipline（自律）and the importance of work, and learned at a(n) age the importance of balancing life’s competing interests——in my , school, homework and a job. This helped during my school years, when I worked 40 hours at a fast-food restaurant while taking a full of college preparation courses.
The hard work off. I attended the U.S. Military Academy and went on to graduate degrees in law and business from Harvard. , I joined a big Los Angeles law firm and was elected to the California state assembly（州议会）. In these jobs and in everything else I’ve done, I have forgotten those nights in the parking lot. The experience taught me that there is value in all work and that if people are working to for themselves and their families, that is we should honor.
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阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
Once a wise man was walking from one town to another with a few of his students. While they were travelling, they happened to pass a lake. They ____ there and the wise man told one of his students, “ I am _____. Get me some water from the lake there.”
The student _____ up to the lake. When he reached it, he ______ that some people were ______ clothes in the water, and, right at that moment, a cart (四轮车) started ______ the lake. As a result, the water became very ______. The student thought, “ How can I give this muddy water to my teacher to drink!” So he ______ and told the wise man, “ The water there is very muddy. I don’t think it is ______ to drink.”
After about half an hour, again the wise man asked the _____ student to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The student obediently (顺从的) went back to the lake. This time he found that the lake had absolutely ______ water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to drink. So he ______ some water in a pot and took it to his teacher.
The wise man looked at the water, and then he looked up at the student and said, “ See _____ you did to make the water clean. You let it be … and the mud ______ on its own --- and you got clear water… Your mind is also like that. When it is ______, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to ______ any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.”
What did the wise man _______ here? He said, “ It is effortless.” ______ peace of mind is effortless process. When there is peace inside you, that ______ permeates (蔓延) to the outside. It ______ around you and in the environment, so that people around start feeling that peace and grace.
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