A year ago, August, Dave Fuss lost his job driving a truck for a small company in west Michigan. His wife, Gerrie, was still working in the local school cafeteria, but it was for Dave to find work, and the price of everything was rising. The Fusses were at the risk of joining the millions of Americans who have their homes in recent years. Then Dave and Gerrie received a timely —$7,000, a legacy(遗产) from their neighbors Ish and Arlene Hatch, who died in an accident. “It really made a difference when we were meeting difficulty.” says Dave.
But the Fusses weren’t the only folks in Alto and the neighboring town of Lowell to unexpected legacy from the Hatches. Dozens of other families were by what the Hatches had done. In some cases, it was a few thousand dollars; in , it was more than $100,000.
It nearly everyone that the Hatches had so much money, more than $3 million—they were an elderly couple who lived in an old house on what was left of the family farm.
Children of the Great Depression, Ish and Arlene were known for their habit of . They preferred comparison shopping and would go from store to store, checking prices before making a new purchase.
Through the years, the Hatches paid for local children to attend summer camps when their parents couldn’t it. “Ish and Arlene never asked if you anything,” says their friend Sandy Van Weelden, “They could see things they could do to make you happier, and they would do them.”
Even more extraordinary was that the Hatches their farmland. It was the Hatches’ wish that their legacy—a legacy of kindness as much as one of dollars and cents—should the whole community and last for generations to come.
Neighbors helping neighbors—that was Ish and Arlene Hatch’s story.
A．happy B．hard C．easy D．nice
A．lost B．bought C．left D．wanted
A．gift B．money C．encouragement D．package
A．accept B．defeat C．win D．receive
A．amazed B．excited C．upset D．touched
A．the other B．another C．other D．others
A．surprised B．frightened C．pleased D．encouraged
A．kind B．generous C．living D．saving
A．afford B．buy C．offer D．keep
A．suffered B．enjoyed C．needed D．did
A．put away B．put up C．gave up D．gave away
A．enrich B．bless C．brighten D．expand
第二节完形填空（共20小题，每小题1．5分，满分30分）
阅读下面短文，从短文后面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。
With time flying, people become aged．Then many people even in their middle age often start to notice that their memory and mental clarity are not what they used to be．We suddenly can' t remember we put the keys just a moment ago, or an old friend' s name, or the name of an old band we used to love．As the brain , we refer to these occurrences as "senior moments．" seemingly innocent, this loss of mental focus can potentially have a（n） effect on our social and well—being．
Neuroscientists,-experts who study the nervous system, are increasingly showing that there' s actually a lot that can be done．It out that the brain needs exercise in much the same way our muscles do, and the right mental can significantly improve our basic cognitive（ 认知 ） ．Thinking is basically a of making connections in the brain．To a certain ;extent, our ability to in making the connections that drive intelligence is inherited（继承） , be-cause these connections are made through effort and practice, scientists believe that intelligence can expand and wave mental effort．
Now, a new Web-based company has taken a step and developed the first "brain training program" designed to actually help people improve and their mental sharpness．
The Web-based program you to systematically improve your memory and attention skills．The program keeps a（ n） of your progress and provides detailed feedback（反馈） your performance and improvement．Most importantly, it changes and improves the games you play to up the strengths you are developing—much like a（ n ） exercise routine which requires you to increase resistance and vary your muscle use．
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Do you ever feel like you are studying a mad rush of one subject after another? When things happen at such a pace, it is easy to lose sight of what you are learning. It is important to every now and then to think about what you have been learning.
Self reflection(反思)means stopping the mad rush and yourself so that your brain can evaluate what it has already .Some people prefer to do their self reflections _ _, while others keep a journal. Either method can work, depending on what your own personal is.
School textbooks are often divided into units. This can make it for someone to begin the process of self reflection. Watch for the times when you complete a unit of study. Sometimes you are reminded that the unit is _ because there is some kind of test or quiz. Use these natural as opportunities to stop and reflect.
You should find a place---anywhere without noise is OK. This can even be sitting at your desk at school when you finish something and the other students are still working. If you are going to take notes, take out your journal Write down some notes on things that you learned in this unit. Let your mind think about the notes you have written and make some .
Sometimes just pausing to think deeply allows your brain to make connections _ new information can quickly appear when you it again. Next, think about things that you still wonder about. , maybe you learned about a certain body system, but you don't how it works with the other body systems. Maybe you learned a new way to solve a math problem, but you are not sure when to use it. Writing down your will help you remember to continue seeking answers the next time your the same topic.
Self reflection is an essential skill for a student. If you have never taken the time to reflect, try it now.
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I sat with my friend in a well-known coffee shop in a neighboring town of Venice. As we our coffee, a man came in and sat at a(n) table beside us. He called the waiter and placed his saying, “Two cups of coffee, one of them there on the wall”. We this order with rather interest and observed that he was with one cup of coffee but he paid for two. As soon as he left, the waiter a piece of paper on the wall saying “A Cup of Coffee”.
While we were still there, two other men and ordered three cups of coffee, two on the table and one on the wall. They had two cups of coffee but for three and left. This time also, the did the same; he put up a piece of paper on the wall saying, “A cup of coffee.” It seemed that this gesture was a at this place. , it was something unique and puzzling for us. Since we had to do with the matter, we our coffee, paid the bill and left.
After a few days, we again had a(n) to go to this coffee shop. While we were enjoying our coffee, a man walked in. The way this man was dressed did not the standard nor the atmosphere of this coffee shop. Poverty was from the looks on his face. he seated himself, he looked at the wall and said, “One cup of coffee from the .” The waiter served coffee to this man with and dignity. The man had his coffee and left without paying. We were amazed to watch all this when the waiter a piece of paper from the wall and threw it into the dustbin.
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All of us go through some difficult times as we approach teenage years. It's the age when we have to deal with the most in our life. This transition (过渡) from childhood to adulthood is for some, but rough for others. The most important thing about being a teenager is . When we are teenagers, we would get blamed or even punished for anything wrong we do.
It's all not so about being a teenager though. We don't have to have our take us to somewhere we want to go or we couldn't go before. We can have with friends or even alone, which we couldn’t have because we were too to know what pleasure is! It’s a very enjoyable time of life. During this age, we are old enough to what is good for us, and make decisions without others.
But like the saying goes, “All good things must come to an end, but all bad things can continue .” During this period, we are having much for our studies. If we don’t pass, we won't get jobs, and things will take a turn for the . With the present world economy in , we have to do really, really well in our 49 for a job. Adults say that their is the hardest part of life. But I think the transition from a kid to an adult is much than being already an adult. What we do in our teenage years will what we become and how we lead our life in the future.
In conclusion, it is quite that parents put much pressure on an already stressed out teenager. If they realized that, living condition for teenagers would be much better. for the teens ourselves we should get to know what is best for us. What’s more, we should understand the right of life we choose at this age can make us happy for the rest of our existence.
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B
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 (铺瓦的) ceiling and concentrating on the space where one tile is____.
Once I heard a bald man said, "Whenever I enter a room, all I see is hair." Once you've ____what your missing tile is, explore whether acquiring it will completely 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 had a relatively ____ life, yet are essentially unhappy while people who have suffered a great deal but generally remain happy.
The first secret is gratitude. All happy people are ___. Ungrateful people cannot be happy.The second is ___that happiness is a byproduct of something else. The more passions we have, the more happiness we are likely to experience.Finally,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 for happiness itself, this largely depends on your decision to make.
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