I was shopping in the supermarket when I heard a young voice. “Mom, come here! There’s a lady here my size!” The mother rushed to her son; then she turned to me to apologize. I smiled and told her, “It’s okay.” Then talked to the boy, “Hi, I’m Darry Kramer. How are you?” He studied me from head to toe, and asked, “Are you a little mommy?” “Yes, I have a son,” I answered. “Why are you so little?” he asked. “It’s the way I was born,” I said. “Some people are little. Some are tall. I’m just not going to grow any bigger.” After I answered his other questions, I shook the boy’s hand and left.
My life as a little person is filled with stories like that. I enjoy talking to children and explaining why I look different from their parents.
It takes only one glance to see my uniqueness. I stand three feet nine inches tall. I was born an achondroplasia dwarf (侏儒). Despite this, I did all the things other kids did when I was growing up.
I didn’t realize how short I was until I started school. Some kids joked on me, calling me names. Then I knew. I began to hate the first day of school each year. New students would always stare at me as I struggled to climb the school bus stairs.
But I learned to smile and accept the fact that I was going to be noticed my whole life. I decided to make my uniqueness an advantage rather than a disadvantage. What I lacked in height, I made up for in personality.
I’m 47 now, and the stares have not diminished as I’ve grown older. People are amazed when they see me driving. I try to keep a good attitude. When people are rude, I remind myself, “Look what else I have--a great family, nice friends.”
It’s the children’s questions that make my life special. I enjoy answering their questions. My hope is that I will encourage them to accept their peers (a person of the same age, class, position, etc.), whatever size and shape they come in, and treat them with respect.Why did the mother apologize to the author?
| A．Because the boy studied the author from head to toe. |
| B．Because the boy laughed at the author. |
| C．Because they boy said the author was shorter than him. |
| D．Because the mother thought the boy’s words had hurt the author. |
When did the author realize that she was too short?
| A．When she grew up. |
| B．When she began to go to school. |
| C．When she was 47 years old. |
| D．When she met the boy in the supermarket. |
Which of the following word can best replace the underlined word “diminished”?
| A．doubted | B．decreased |
| C．remained | D．improved |
Which is NOT true about the author according to the passage?
| A．She suffered lots of discrimination when growing up. |
| B．She is grateful for what she has. |
| C．She doesn’t see herself different. |
| D．She thinks people should be treated equally. |
Do you know what it means when somebody tells you that he had “a catch-22 experience”?
The phrase “catch-22” comes from a book of the same title by the American writer Joseph Heller published in 1961．Catch-22 is a book of black humor．The author uses silly and even surreal(超现实的)events．It has a non-linear narrative structure(非线性的叙述结构)in which events follow the theme rather than the timing，to give us a very strange picture full of contradictions(矛盾)．
The story takes places in a bomber base in Italy during World WarⅡ．The main character, Captain Yossarian wants to leave the war．Unfortunately, every time he completes the number of tasks to be sent home，the number is raised 
and he is forced to continue fighting．It seems hopeless for him to go home under the very strange rule in this Air Force-catch-22：only when a soldier goes crazy can he be allowed to go home．But he has to go to the hospital to show the doctors that he is crazy．However, if he tells them he is crazy but is obvious healthy, he cannot go home．In short，catch-22 is“heads 1 win，tails I lose．If you can you can’t；and if you can’t，you can．”Whenever you try to behave correctly in a crazy world．There’s a catch(潜在的困难)．
During the Vietnam War, the phrase“catch-22”became a popular term for being caught in a no．win，circular dilemma and is now commonly used．
The Oxford English Dictionary explains catch．22 as“a set of circumstances in which one requirement，etc，is dependent upon another, which is in turn d
ependent upon the first．” Which of the following statements is right?
| A．Catch-22 is one of Heller’s experiences during World War II． |
| B．Catch-22 is one of Yossarian’s experiences during the Vietnam War． |
| C．The events in catch-22 follow the theme． |
| D．The events in catch-22 follow the timing． |
Why did Captain Yossarian fail to leave the war?
| A．He wasn’t so anxious to leave the war． |
| B．He didn’t finish his tasks． |
| C．He was put into a catch-22 situation． |
| D．He wasn’t mad enough to be sent home． |
What does the underlined sentence most probably mean?
| A．Whenever and however you try, you are unable to reach the goal． |
| B．You can solve every problem you meet as long as you want to． |
C．You can’t solve a ny problem in your life． |
| D．If you can’t solve all the problems．you can solve none． |
The phrase“catch-22”came into being ________ _．
| A．in World War II | B．in the Vietnam War | C．in the 1950s | D．in the 1960s |
Imagine a boy from a small village in East Africa. He, since a very early age, has been looking after cattle. At twelve years old he knows more about cattle than most of you. However, he has never been to school. Has this boy had any education?
Education is discovering about ourselves and about the people and things around us. All the people who care about us — our parents, brothers, sisters, friends — are our 
teachers. In fact, we learn something from everyone we meet. We start learning on the day we were born, not on the first day we go to school. Every day we have new 
experiences, like finding a bird’s nest, discovering a new street in our neighborhood, making friends with someone we didn’t like before. New experiences are even more fun when we share them with other people.
Encouragement from the people around us enables us to exp
lore things as many as possible. As we grow up, we begin to find out what we are capable of doing. You may be good at cooking, or singing or playing football. You find this out by doing these things. Just thinking about cooking doesn’t tell you whether you are good at it.
We learn so much just living from day to day. So why is school important? Of course you can learn some things better at home than at school, like how to do the shopping, and how to help old or disabled people who can’t do everything for themselves. At school, teachers help us to read and write. With their guidance, we begin to see things in different ways. The writer takes the African boy as an example to show that _______.
| A．African children are very poor. | B．some children are unlucky. |
| C．there are many kinds of education. | D．schools are of great importance. |
In the opinion of the writer, .
| A．we have to learn from the people around us. | B．the school is not important at all. |
| C．only people who care for us can teach us. | D．education takes place everywhere. |
One can find out what he / she is good at by _.
| A．what people encourage him/ her to do. | B．the teachings of those he / she meets. |
| C．thinking about it when growing up. | D．trying and practising things. |
The passage tells us that _.
| A．everyone gets education from the day he or she was born. |
| B．different classes of people receive different kinds of education. |
| C．the school is absolutely necessary if one wants to understand the world. |
| D．everyone will find out what he or she is good at. |
According to the last paragraph, we know that .
| A．the school is not so important as our living places. |
B．the school enables us to understand the world in other ways. |
| C．the school teaches us things which are useless at home. |
| D．the school cannot prepare us for our daily lives. |
Casablanca, Sep. 24
A flash flood swept across the coastal plain about 100 miles southwest of here, killing hundreds of Moroccans in a market place yesterday morning.
Reports from the area said 218 bodies had been counted, and many of the people were missing.
The flood followed heavy rains, which filled the coastal plain and dried river beds and caused them to overflow. The flood crest, sev
eral feet high, hit the village of Khemis Nagua at midmorning yesterday as farmers from the surrounding area joined town people in an o
pen market place.
The roaring water swept the village’s living places, the market sheds (棚子), shoppers, cattle and farm tools for miles across the plain..
The flood was over almost as soon as it started, the reports said, as the cre
st swept out to sea. Rescue workers quickly moved into the area from Sari, about 25 miles further south. It can be learnt from the te
xt that _____.
| A．the news report is from Khemis Nagua | B．the flo od didn’t last long |
| C．hundreds of Moroccans were saved | D．Casablanca is a city in Africa |
The report mainly tells the public about _____.
| A．how the flood swept the coastal plain | B．why the terrible flood took place |
| C．the flash flood in the fall | D．a rescue attempt |
According to the text, which of the following maps may be correct?
(KN="Khemis" Nagua C="Casablanca" S=Safi)
I used to be a mortgage broker(贷款中间人) in the Phoenix area. In April 2007, the company that I had been with for a year went out of business. That was the latest of the four companies that I had worked for since 2000 .They all either went under or let most of the employees go, including me.
In December 2007, the bank took
back my house, and I had no choice but to move in with my parents, five miles away. My sister has three children, and she had no room. My fiancée(未婚妻), Brandi Wetch, and I have been living in my parents’ house for about a year and a half now.
My mother, Sue, works part-ti
me at a high school library. My father left for a job in the Marshall Islands a few months ago and will be gone for two years.
I’m trying to be patient with finding a new job, but it’s been hard. I check the Internet for jobs every morning. I have sent countless letters but have never got a job. I have no idea how many other people are applying for the same job.
I do the housework and washing, and 
I take care of the garden. Sometimes, I feel like the best part of my life is over. The worst part of the day is when I chat with my friends on the Internet. I’ve talked to about 10 old friends online. The f
irst thing they usually ask is what I’m doing now.
My mother, who is in her 60s, has been so patient and supportive. She acts like she’s happy to have us, not like we’re crowding her. We have learned what’s important since I lived here. We can infer that the writer is living a _________ life.
| A．busy | B．rich | C．difficult | D．hopeful |
How long has the writer been out of work?
| A．For more than a year | B．For a year and a half |
| C．For less than two years | D．For more than two years |
Which of the following types of work is NOT done by the writer in his parents’ house?
| A．Looking after children | B．Doing the housework. |
| C．Washing clothes and dishes | D．Applying for a job online. |
It can be learned from the passage that the writer now________.
| A．is preparing for his wedding | B．is fond of doing the housework |
| C．is patient with job-hunting | D．is afraid of being asked about work |
Who's in control of your life? Who is pulling your string? For the majority of us, it's other people-society, colleagues, friends, family or our religious community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we
learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde puts it, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry(模仿)，their passions a quotation.”
So when people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug－we are addicted to it and seek it out wherever we can. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their fix(一剂毒品)，we worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval.
But just as with any drug, there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom－the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot-control what other people think. People have their own agenda(日程安排), and they come with their own baggage and, in the end, they're more interested in themselves than in you. Furthermore, if we try to live by the opinions of others, we will build our life on sinking sand. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted and probable pleasing no one in the process.
So how can we take back control? I think there's only one way－make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values－not values imposed from the outside by others, but innate values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others, we will live a more authentic(真实的), effective, purposeful and happy life.What Oscar Wilde says implies that.
| A．most people's thoughts are controlled by others. |
| B．we have thoughts similar to those of others. |
| C．most people have a variety of thoughts. |
| D．other people's thoughts are more important. |
What does the author try to argue in the third paragraph?
| A．The price of taking the drug is freedom. |
| B．Changing opinions may cost us our freedom. |
| C．We may lose ourselves to please others. |
| D．We need to pay for what we want to get. |
It can be concluded from the passage that.
| A．it's important to accept others' opinions. |
| B．it's better to do what we like. |
| C．we shouldn't care what others think. |
D．we shouldn't change our won opinions. |
The author tries to persuade the readers to accept his arguments mainly by.
| A．making suggestions. | B．analyzing causes and effects. |
| C．providing examples and facts. | D．discussing questions |