AmericanmagicianDavidBlainelef-优题课

The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.She said, “Hi, girl! My name is Rose. I’m 87 years old. Can I give you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked. She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel!”
“No seriously,” I said. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon（偶像）and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she revealed in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the semester(学期) we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us.
“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only two secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die!” she said.
“There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn 20 years old.. If I am 87 years old, and stay in bed for a year, and never do anything, I will turn 88. Anybody can grow older. But every minute counts for young men,” she added.
“The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change. Have no regrets. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Song of Rose”. She challenged each of us to study the lyrics （歌词） and live them out in our daily lives.
At the year’s end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
60.Rose made herself known to the author in a ______ manner.
A.serious B.coldC.humorousD.crazy
61.From the information provided in the passage, we know ______.
A.Rose enjoyed her campus life very much
B.Rose did realize her dream of meeting a rich husband and getting married
through college education
C.Rose finished the college degree within a year
D.Rose grew so old that she stopped playing
62.Rose delivered（发表） the speech ______.
A.at the graduation
B.which she prepared carefully
C.ended with “The Song of Rose”
D.to challenge all the other speakers
63.According to her speech, ______.
A.whenever you have a dream, you succeed
B.all people don’t grow up while growing older
C.Rose usually regretted having done something
D.a nineteen-year-old is as old as a 87-year-old if he doesn’t do anything

第三部分:阅读理解(共20小题;每小题2分,满分40分)
Many teenagers feel that the most important people in their lives are their friends. They believe that their family members, especially their parents, don’t know them as well as their friends do. In large families, it is often for brothers and sisters to fight with each other and then they can only go to their friends for advice. It is very important for teenagers to have one good friend or many friends. Even when they are not with their friends, they usually spend a lot of time talking among themselves on the phone. This communication is very important in children’s growing up, because friends can discuss something difficult to say to their family members.
However, parents often try to choose friends for their children. Some parents may even stop their children from meeting their good friends. The question of “choice” is an interesting one. Have you ever thought of the following questions?
Who chooses your friends?
Do you choose your friends or your friends choose you?
Have you got a good friend your parents don’t like?
56.Many teenagers think their _________ know them better than their parents do.
A.friends B.teachers C.brothers and sistersD.classmates
57.When teenagers stay alone, the usual way of communication is to _________.
A.go to their friendsB.talk with their parents
C.have a discussion with their family
D.talk with their friends on the phone
58．Which of the following sentences is TRUE?
A.Teenagers can only go to their friends for help.
B.Parents should like everything their children enjoy.
C.In all families, children can choose everything they like.
D.Parents should try their best to understand their children better.
59．The main idea of this passage is that _________.
A.Teenagers need good friends
B.Friends can give good advice
C.Parents often choose friends for their children
D.Good friends can communicate with each other

A story from the Bible tells of old Babylon, where the men decided to build a tower that would touch the sky. But God was unhappy, and he made them speak different languages. They couldn’t understand each other, so their dream never came true.
Yet the dream remains alive: if all men speak the same language, they can do anything. L. L. Zamenhof from Poland was among the men who pursue this dream. He developed Esperanto（世界语）between 1877 and 1885.
As the most successful man-made world language, it is spoken by over two million people around the world. Last month, the World Esperanto Congress（大会）, dealing with language rights, ended in Sweden. Most Esperanto speakers are in Central and Eastern Europe and in East Asia, particularly Chinese mainland.
Esperanto has two advantages. First, it’s easy. Each letter has exactly one sound and there are just 16 basic grammar rules. The second advantage is that it belongs to no one country. But Esperanto has only reached a small number of people compared with natural languages widely used around the world---such as English or Chinese. While these languages are deeply connected with their nations and cultures, Esperanto doesn’t have this background.
Will Esperanto really become a global language? It remains a question.
72. The writer tells us a story at the beginning to___________.
A.explain why men have been making the effort to create a language shared by all
B.explain why men now speak different languages
C.show the relationship between man and God
D.prove that language is very important
73. What does the underlined word “pursue” in the second paragraph mean?
A.“realize”. B. “work for”. C.“be against”. D. “follow”.
74. What is the basic difference between Esperanto and other natural languages?
A.More people speak English than Esperanto.
B.Esperanto words are easier to spell.
C.Esperanto has fewer grammar rules.
D.Esperanto is not supported by any country or culture.
75. What does the story mainly talk about?
A.Advantages and disadvantages of Esperanto.
B.Man’s dream of sharing the same language has come true.
C.The most successfully planned language---Esperanto.
D.Comparison of Esperanto and other languages like English and Chinese.

When we do not understand each other’s language, we can talk with the help of signs.
A Frenchman was once traveling in England. He could not speak English at all. One day, he went into a restaurant and sat down at a table. When the waiter came, he opened his mouth, put his fingers in it and take them out again. He wanted to say, “Bring me something to eat.”
The waiter soon brought him a cup of tea. The man moved his head from side to side. The waiter understood him and took the tea away. In a moment he came with a cup of coffee and put it on the table. The man again refused his offer. He shook his head whenever the waiter brought him something to drink, for drinks are not food.
When the man was going away, another man came in. This man saw the waiter, and he put his hands on his stomach. This was enough. In a few minutes there was a large plate of meat and vegetables on the table in front of him.
So you see, we can understand the language of signs as well as we can understand the language of words.
68. A Frenchman signed to the waiter ______.
A. to translate B. to tell him what he said
C. to bring him a cup of tea D. to ask him for food
69. The waiter brought the Frenchman ______.
A. different kinds of drinks B. a large plate of meat and vegetables
C. another man to help him D. a piece of paper to write something on
70. By putting his hands on his stomach, the second man meant ______.
A. he was hungry B. he had had enough
C. he was very thirsty D. he had a stomachache
71. From the story, we learn that ______.
A. people can only understand the language of words
B. proper body language can help people to understand each other
C. waiters should understand body language
D. it is important to learn a foreign language

In some parts of the United States, farming is easy. But farming has always been difficult in the northeastern corner of the country, which is called New England.
New England has many trees and thin, rocky soil. Anyone who has wanted to start a new farm there has had to work very hard. The first job has been cutting down trees. The next job has been digging stumps (树桩) of the trees out of the soil. Then the farmer has had the difficult job of removing stones from his land.
The work of removing stones never really ends, because every winter more stones appear. They come up through the thin soil from the rocks below. Farmers have to keep removing stones from the fields. Even today, farms which have been worked on for 200 years keep producing more stones.
That is why stone walls are used instead of fences around New England fields. The stone walls are not high: A man can easily climb over them. But they keep the farmer’s cows from joining his neighbour’s cows.
64. New England is an area ______.
in the northeastern part of Britain
which has been newly discovered by the Englishmen
which lies between Australia and New Zealand
which lies in the northeastern part of the USA
65. According to the passage, farming is difficult in New England because ______.

A．the winter is very long there	B．the farms are very old
C．the soil is rocky and thin	D．there are not enough machines for farming

66. From this passage, we know the removing of stones ______.
must be done again and again
is usually done during the winter
is an interesting job children enjoy doing
was more difficult before machines were used
67. In New England, stone walls are used to ______.
keep dangerous beasts out
keep the farmer’s cows from wandering away
protect the farmers fields from thieves
provide comfortable living conditions for the farmer’s family

A．he had become blind	B．he had serious back pains
C．he lost his sense of taste	D．he was in weak health