OnSeptember22,1986,JayBrunkell-优题课

“The first and best of victories for a man is to conquer himself; to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the most shameful,” says Plato. Self-control is at the root of all the advantages. Let a man give in to his impulses (冲动) and feelings, and from that moment he gives up his moral freedom.
A single angry word has lost many friends. When Socrates found in himself any temper or anger, he would check it by speaking low in order to control himself. If you are conscious of being angry, keep your mouth shut so that you can hold back rising anger. Many a person has dropped dead in great anger. Fits of anger bring fits of disease. “Whoever the gods would destroy they first make them mad.” “Keep cool,” says Webster, “anger is not argument.” “Be calm in arguing,” says George Herbert, “for fierceness (狂怒) makes error a fault.”
To be angry with a weak man is to prove that you are not strong yourself. “Anger,” says Pythagoras, “begins with foolishness and ends with regret.” You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he conquers, not by the power of those which conquer him.
Self-control is man’s last and greatest victory.
If a man lacks self-control he seems to lack everything. Without it he can have no patience, no power to govern himself; he can have no self-confidence, for he will always be controlled by his strongest feeling. If he lacks self-control, the very backbone and nerve of character are lacking too.
79. What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. Self- control is important for a man.
B. We should learn to be strong.
C. A man who keeps cool won’t lose any game.
D. The great heroes in history knew how to control themselves.
80. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. If you are mad, the gods will kill you.
B. If you lose your temper first, gods will kill you first.
C. If you can’t control yourself, you will be crazy.
D. If the gods want to kill you, they will make you mad first.
81. Which of the following is NOT true, according to passage?
A. The first and best of victories for a man is to conquer himself.
B. You will make a small mistake serious if you don’t keep cool.
C. You must measure a man’s strength by the power of the feelings which conquer him.
D. Anger begins with foolishness and ends with regret.
82. Which of the following can’t help you avoid anger, according to the passage?
A. Being calm in arguing.
B. Checking your temper or anger by speaking low.
C. Keeping your mouth shut.
D. Trying to make the other angry first.

Even before my father left us, my mother had to go back to work to support our family. Once I came out of the kitchen, complaining, “Mom, I can’t peel potatoes. I have only one hand.”
Mom never looked up from sewing. “You get yourself into that kitchen and peel those potatoes,” she told me. “And don’t ever use that as an excuse for anything again!”
In the second grade, our teacher lined up my class on the playground and had each of us race across the monkey bars, swinging from one high steel rod to the next. When it was my turn, I shook my head. Some kids behind me laughed, and I went home crying.
That night I told Mom about it. She hugged me, and I saw her “we’ll see about that” look. The next afternoon, she took me back to school. At the deserted playground, Mom looked carefully at the bars.
“Now, pull up with your right arm,” she advised. She stood by as I struggled to lift myself with my right hand until I could hold the bar with my other elbow （肘）. Day after day we practiced, and she praised me for every rung （横档）I reached. I’ll never forget the next time, crossing the rungs, I looked down at the kids who were standing with their mouths open.
One night, after a dance at my new junior high, I lay in bed sobbing. I could hear Mom come into my room. “Mom,” I said, weeping, “none of the boys would dance with me.”
For a long time, I didn’t hear anything. Then she said, “Oh, honey, someday you’ll be beating those boys off with a bat.” Her voice was faint. I peeked out from my covers to see tears running down her cheeks. Then I knew how much she suffered on my behalf. She had never let me see her tears.
74. Which can be used to describe Mom’s attitude when she made the child peel potatoes?
A. Cruel. B. Favourable. C. Strict. D. Sympathetic.
75. From the passage, we know monkey bars can help a child train ______.
A. the strength and skill to hang and sway
B. the speed of one’s hand movement
C. the skill to throw and catch things
D. the bodily skill to rotate round a bar
76. What does the sentence “I saw her ‘we’ll see about that’ look” imply?
A. Mom believed every aim could be achieved if you stuck to it.
B. The race across monkey bars was not difficult enough for a child to give up.
C. Mom was determined to prove she herself was better than the teacher.
D. What the child had said brought Mom great attraction and curiosity.
77. When the author looked down at the kids, they were standing with their mouths open because
_______.
A. they felt sorry for what they had done before
B. they were afraid the author might fall off and get hurt
C. they wanted to see what the author would do on the bars
D. they were astonished to find the author’s progress
78. The most probable conclusion we can draw after reading the passage is ______.
A. the last incident was sad enough to make Mom weep
B. the child’s experience reminded Mom of that of her own
C. Mom could solve any problem except the one in the last paragraph
D. in fact Mom suffered more in the process of the child’s growth

第三部分：阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题纸上将该项涂黑。
Bill Javis took over our village’s news-agency at a time of life when most of us only wanted to relax. He just thought he would like something but not too much to do, and the news-agency was ready-made. The business produced little enough for him, but Bill was a man who only wanted the simplicity and order and regularity of the job. He had been a long-serving sailor, and all his life had done everything by the clock.
Every day he opened his shop at 6:00 a. m. to catch the early trade; the papers arrived on his doorstep before that. Many of Bill’s customers were city workers, and the shop was convenient for the station. Business was tailing off by 10 o’clock, so at eleven sharp Bill closed for lunch. It was hard luck on anybody who wanted a paper or magazine in the afternoon, for most likely Bill would be down on the river bank, fishing, and his nearest competitor was five kilometers away. Sometimes in the afternoon, the evening paper landed on the doorway, and at 4 o’clock Bill reopened his shop. The evening rush lasted till seven, and it was worthwhile.
He lived in a flat above the shop, alone. Except in the very bad weather, you always knew where to find him in the afternoon, as I have said. Once, on a sunny afternoon, I walked home along the river bank from a shopping trip to the village. By my watch it was three minutes past four, so I was astonished to see Bill sitting there on his little chair with a line in the water. He had no luck, I could see, but he was making no effort to move.
“What’s wrong, Bill?” I called out from the path.
For answer, he put a hand in his jacket and took out a big, golden object. For a moment I had no idea what it could be, and then it suddenly went off with a noise like a fire engine. Stopping the bell, Bill held the thing up and called back, “Ten to four, you see, and this is dead right.”
I had never known anyone carrying a brass alarm clock round with him before.
71. Bill Javis became a news-agent when _______.
A. he needed the money
B. he was quite an old man
C. he decided to take up fishing
D. he gave up clock-repairing
72. Bill opened the shop so early in the day because _______.
A. he liked to do as much as possible before he went to work
B. the shop had to be open when the morning papers came
C. he was never sure of time
D. it was then that he did a lot of business
73. From the information given in the passage, who or what do you think was wrong?
A. The bell was－it must have gone off at the wrong time.
B. Bill was－he had dropped off to sleep.
C. The writer’s watch was－it was fast.
D. Bill’s clock was－it was old.

My secret of staying young is quite simple：devote your attention to the part of you that’s young and growing—your brain. Keep your mind awake and you will stay young all over. These are exciting times. Take an interest in the world around you，and make a point of learning one new thing every day.
No matter how old you are ，it’s not too late to make your life more interesting. I know a housewife without knowledge in the past who made herself into an excellent industrial designer. I know an old electrical engineer who has become a highly paid artist.
Get over the idea the you are too old to go back to school. I know a man who entered a medical college at 70. He got his degree with honors and became a famous doctor. Another man went to a law school at 71 and now is an active lawyer.
No matter how old people are，staying young is easy for those who live in the future. You can do it if you are active enough to try. Keep your mind active and awake：that’s the only youth elixir.
54. Which of the following best express the main idea of this passage？
A.Staying young is the only youth elixir.
B.Learning at least one new thing every day.
C.Never too late to go back to school.
D.The secret of staying young.
55. If you wish to stay young，above all ，you should .
A. keep your mind awake and active B. make your life more interesting
C. keep your mind from being harmed D. keep in tough with other people
56. The implied meaning of the passage is that .
A. anyone can learn to do something no matter how old they may be.
B. the electrical engineer learned to be an artist to become famous.
C. the man who entered the medical collage at 70 came out at the top of the list.
D. every one can be successful if you try to learn no matter how old he may be
57. The word “elixir”in the last sentence probably means something that can keep people .
A. healthy B. wealthy C. young D. happy

All over the world people enjoy sports. Sports help to keep people healthy ,happy and help them to live longer.
Sports change with the season.People play different games in winter and summer.
Games and sports often grow out of people’s work and everyday activities. The Arabs use horses or camels in much of their everyday life ；they use them in sports ，too.
Some sports are so interesting that people everywhere go in for them. Football，for example ，has spread around the world . Swimming is popular in all countries near the sea or in those with many rivers.
Some sports or games go back to thousands of years，like running or jumping . Chinese boxing，for example ，has a very history . But basketball and volleyball are quite new .Neither one is a hundred years old yet . People are inventing new sports or games all the time.
People from different countries may not be able to understand each other，but after a game they often become good friends .Sports help to train a person’s character （性格）.One learns to fight hard but fight fair，to win without pride and to lose with grace（体面）.
50. The writer didn’t tell us in the passage that .
A. basketball was invented in America
B. sports change with the season
C. games and sports often grow out of people’s work and everyday activities
D. football is played all over the world.
51. People all over the world enjoy sports because .
A. sports are interesting
B. sports help to keep people healthy ，happy and help them to live longer
C. Sports help to train a person’s character
D. All of the above
52. From this passage we can see that .
A. sports and games are unimportant things that people do
B. sports and games should be treated only as amusement
C. Sports and games are useful to the old
D. none of the above is true
53. Sports and games can help people from different countries .
A. to be enemies B. to understand each other better
C. to be partners D. to dislike each other