Farmers, as we all know, have been having a hard time of it lately, and have turned to new ways of earning income from their land. This involves not only planting new kinds of crops, but some __1__ ways of making money, the most unusual of which has got to be sheep racing. Yes, you heard me __2__! A farmer now holds sheep races on a regular basis, and during the past year over 100 000 people have __3__ to watch the race. “I was passing the farm on my way to the sea for a holiday,” one punter (赛马经纪人) told me, “and I thought I’d have a look. I didn’t believe it was serious, to tell you the truth.” According to a regular visitor, betting on sheep is more interesting than betting on horses. “At proper horse races everyone has already studied the form of the horse __4__, and there are clear favourites. __5__ nobody has heard anything about these __6__! Most people find it difficult to tell one from another in any case.” I stayed to watch the races, and I must admit that I found it quite __7__. In a usual sheep race, half a dozen sheep race down hill over a course of about half a mile. Food is waiting for them at the other end of the __8__ just to give them some encouragement, I ought to add! The sheep run surprisingly fast. __9__ they have probably not eaten for a while. Anyway, the crowd around me were obviously enjoying their day out at the races, __10__ by their happy faces and the sense of excitement.
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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，选出最佳选项。
There was once a boy who was very rich and clever but nothing could make him feel happy. He had almost everything a boy could ever want, so he was only ________ in the most rare objects. One day his parents bought him a very strange ________ . When the boy went to see his reflection (映像) in it, he looked very ________. He tried smiling, ________ his reflection continued with its sad expression.
________ , the boy went off to buy sweets and lots of toys. He came home as happy as he could be, but he ________ looked sad in that mirror.
“What a(n) ________ mirror! It’s the first time I’ve seen a mirror that didn’t ________ properly!”
That afternoon he went out to buy some toys and on his way he saw a little girl who was ________. The boy went over to see what had________ to her. The little girl said that she couldn’t find her parents.
Together the two children set off ________them. As the little girl wouldn’t stop crying, the boy spent all of his money buying her sweets to________her up. After much walking, they ________ her parents who were looking for her, very worried.
Then the boy said ________ to the family. When seeing the time, he ________ to head for home, without toys and without ________ In his room, to his great surprise, he found a(n)________face in the mirror. And so he understood the ________ of that mirror. The mirror could only reflect the________ feelings of its owner. He felt really happy at having ________ that little girl.
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阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从1~20各小题所给的四个选项A、B、C和D中，选出一个最佳答案。
One effective way of destroying happiness is to look at something and focus on even the smallest fault. It’s like looking at the tiled(铺瓦) ceiling and concentrating on the space where one tile is .
Once I heard a bald man said, “whenever I enter a room I see is hair.” Once you’ve what your missing tile is, explore whether acquiring it will make you happy. Then do one of the three things: Get it, replace it with a different , or forget about it and the tiles in your life that are not missing.
We all know people who have a relatively life, yet are essentially unhappy while people who have suffered a great deal but remain happy.
The first is gratitude. All happy people are . Ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to , but it’s truer to say that complaining leads people to becoming unhappy.
The second secret is that happiness is a byproduct of something else. The most obvious________ are those pursuits that give our lives purpose—anything studying insects to playing baseball. The more passions we have, the more happiness we are ________ to experience.
Finally, the belief that something permanent goes beyond us and that our ________ has some larger meaning can help us to feel happier. We ________ a spiritual faith, or a philosophy; it should ________ this truth: if you choose to find the ________ in every situation, you will be blessed, and if you choose to find the awful, you will be cursed. As with happiness itself, this is ________ your decision to make.
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请认真阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Before I turned 29, my parents moved to Queensland, where I arrived for a visit six months later.
I upon my mother with hugs, and for the first time in my life I said, “I love you, mom!” Then I gently , expecting some kind of reciprocation. But it never came. Instead, she appeared in horror.
When I was back at work, I overheard a workmate on a call to her mother and she concluded it with “I love you, Mum.” As as that. Why wasn’t it like that in mine? Something had to be done about this situation once and for all.
My came the next Sunday during my weekly phone call to my mother. After we had shared our usual pleasantries and , I took a deep breath and asked, “Do you love me, Mum?” After a short , she replied, “I love you. Don’t be silly. You know we never said things like that in my family.”
“Well, I want it to be said in ours. From now on I want to our conversations with ‘I love you.’”
In May 2000 my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was to hospital, and I phoned every day to her. One evening when I rang, a nurse answered the phone and regretfully informed me that my mother’s condition had rapidly worsened. She wasn’t expected to it through the night.
Knowing I couldn’t get a flight in time, I asked the nurse to put the phone next to my mother’s ear so I could talk to her. “She’s conscious,” the nurse replied. “It’s unlikely she’ll hear you.” But I didn’t care. I wanted to do it .
she’d placed the phone by my mother’s ear, I started and telling Mum over and over again that I loved her. At first, all I could hear was “Hmmmm” — but then, like a miracle, with a deep she said, “Love you … love you, darling.” It was the last thing she said before drifting into .
Although I was overwhelmed by her death, the surprising part was how well I . Of course, losing a parent is extremely painful and I shed many tears, but receiving those lovely last words made it much more . I had closure in the best possible way.
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完形填空
The famous composer(作曲家)，Albert Roussel，didn’t have a good start in this career. However，he achieved a great deal of success as a result of a ．
Roussel's parents died when he was eight and he went to live with his ．As a little boy，he fell in 1ove with music and himself about it by reading through the family collection that his mother kept． which there were a lot of related books．
Three years later．Roussel’s grandfather died，and his mother’s sister decided to him．Her husband was a kind man and for young Roussel’s music lessons．One summer vacation at a Belgian seaside added a second to his life—the sea．Then he studied to be a naval cadet(海军学员)，but still took time to study ．
In the French Navy，he and two friends found the time to a band，playing the works of Beethoven and other ．Roussel also began composing．On Christmas day 1892，he had his first chance to as a composer，which turned out to be a success．
That success Roussel to write a wedding march(婚礼进行曲)，and one of his navy friends________ to show it to a famous conductor，Edouard Colonne．When Roussel’s friend with the manuscript(手稿)，he reported that Colonne had advised Roussel to his naval career and devote his life to music．
Not long ，at the age of 25，Roussel decided to Edouard Colonne’s advice．He gave his heart and soul to his composing and a major force in the twentieth century’s French music．Because of Eduoard Colonne’s inspiring ，Roussel devoted his life to music，but Rousssel’s friend later admitted that he had made it up．He said he had never even shown Roussel’s manuscript to the famous conductor．
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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。
It was a dark, wet November morning. It seemed like it would take a million years to get to summer again. I thought bears have got it right - what a idea to sleep through the worst part of the year and wake up when spring comes!
“Want some words of encouragement?” a co-worker, seeing my mood, kindly . “You don’t think they would you up?”
“ Today ? No.” I shook my head.
“I used to think so too,” he said, “ I realized the effect my words had on a certain person. Well, it was someone I knew pretty well. I have to say I him rather badly.”
“ You ? you are always so positive! How did you do that?”
“I told him I did not like anything about him, really. I told him I did not like his name. In fact, it wasn’t only what I said. I also did pretty bad things to him. When he was hungry, I did not give him the chance to eat food. When he felt like doing something fun, I said to him that having fun was not worthwhile. And worst of all, when he was sick and needed , I did not care. I told him to get up and get to work. And when he did, I never told him he did good work. I was so ashamed him,” he said. “that I wanted to him, but couldn’t.”
“But that was !”
He nodded. “Then one day it all . I stood there in front of the bathroom mirror in the morning. I saw the dark circles under his eyes. I saw the excess weight. I saw the long hair that needed . And I saw the eyes that once had looked at the world . Now they were so sad and tired. And there and then I realized he better. So I told the man I had disliked for so many years that he was a good person .”
My dropped. I looked at him, full of positive energy, in good shape, always ready to others.
“Wow...”
He looked at me. “So how about having a little conversation with the bathroom mirror? The person in there has the greatest effect on you!”
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