When I was about 13, my father would take me on short outings on Saturdays. On the way home, Dad  36  stopped at the Dairy Queen for 10-cent ice creams. I couldn’t  37 it, but I could pray from the   38  we started heading home to that corner where we would either go straight for the ice cream or  39  and go home empty-handed. That corner  40  either mouth-watering excitement or  41  .
On one special day, we were heading home, and again I was praying for the  42  sound of his offer. It   43 . “Would you like an ice cream today?” “That sounds great, Dad!” But then he said, “How would you like to  44  today?”
Twenty cents! My mind reeled（震惊）. I could afford it. I got a weekly allowance of 25 cents, plus some  45  for odd jobs（零活）. But  46 it was my money, ice cream wasn’t a good use of it. In a fit of  47 , I said, “Well, in that case, I guess I’ll   48  .”My father just said, “Okay, Son.”
But as we headed home, I realized how wrong I was and begged him to  49 . But he just said, “That’s okay, we don’t really need one.” I felt  50  for my selfishness and ungratefulness. He didn’t mind, or  51  act disappointed.
I   52 that generosity（慷慨）goes two ways and gratefulness sometimes costs more than “thank you”. On that day gratefulness would have cost 20 cents and it would have been the  53  ice cream I’d ever had.
I’ll tell you one more thing. We  54 another trip the next week. As we  55  the corner, I said, “Dad, would you like an ice cream today? My treat.”

【小题10】

A．extra B． limited C．little D．easy

The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”

“If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”

“I can’t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.”

I looked down on the computer and every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, “What do all your people do?”

“We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not.”

“So when it goes down, you go down with it.”

“That’s good, sir.”

“How long will the computer be down?” I wanted to know.

“I have no idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There’s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down it won’t answer us.”

After the girl told me they had no backup computer, I said. “Let’s forget the computer. What about your planes? They’re still flying, aren’t they?”

“I couldn’t tell without asking the computer.”

“Maybe I could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he’s flying to Washington, ” I suggested.

“I wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn’t take you if you didn’t have a ticket.”

“Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”

“I wouldn’t know, ” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only ‘IT’ knows. ‘It’ can’t tell me.”

By this time there were quite a few people standing in line. The word soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.

1.The best title for the article is _______.

A. When the Computer Is Down       B. The Most Frightening Words

C. The Computer of the Airport     D. Asking the Computer

2. What does the underlined words“ backup computer” probably mean?

A. A computer that will be brought back soon.  

B.A second-hand computer that is still in use.

C. An advanced computer that never breaks down..   

D. A computer ready for use when the main one does not work.

3. The last paragraph implies that _______.

A. a modern computer won’t be down.　　　　

B. computers can take the place of humans

C. sometimes a computer may bring suffering to people

D. there will be great changes in computers

A person may have a false idea about himself that will stop him from doing good work..
He may have the belief that he is unable to do it. A child may think he is  36  because he doesn’t understand how to make  37  use of his mental gifts. Old people may have a false idea that they are unable to learn new things because of their  38 .
A person who believes that he is stupid will not make a real  39  because he feels that it would be useless. He won’t go at a job with confidence necessary for  40 . Besides, he won’t work his hardest way, even though he may think he is doing so.  41 , he is likely to fail, and the failure will  42  his belief in his incompetence（无能）in turn.
Alfred Alder, a famous doctor, had  43  like this. When he was a small boy, he had a poor 44  in math. His teacher told his parents he had no ability in math in order that they would not  45  too much of him. In this way, his teacher and parents  46  the idea. He  47  their false judgment of his ability, feeling that it was useless to  48 . Then, he was very poor at math,  49  as they expected.
But one day everything changed. He worked out a problem which  50  of the other students had been able to solve. He  51  in solving the problem which gave him confidence. Soon he became especially good at  52 .
Alder now  53  with interest, determination and purpose. He not only proved that he could learn math well, but luckily he learned it  54 , not too late. From his own experience, we can tell that if a person goes at a job with determination and purpose, he may  55  himself as well as others by his ability.

    Homebuyers nationwide are watching housing prices going up, up, and up. “How high can they go?” is the question on everyone’s lips? “As long as interest rates stay around 5 percent, there’s no telling,” remarked one realtor in Santa Monica, California.

“It’s crazy,” said Tim, who is looking for a house near the beach. “In 1993, I bought my first place, a two-bedroom condominium in Venice, for $70,000. My friends thought then that I was overpaying. Five years later, I had to move. I sold it for $230,000, which was a nice profit. Last year, while visiting friends here, I saw in the local paper that the exact same condo was for sale for $510,000!”

It is a seller’s market. Homebuyers feel like they have to offer at least 10 percent more than the asking price. Donna, a new owner of a one-bedroom condo in Venice Beach, said, “That’s what I did. I told the owner that whatever anyone offers you, I’ll give you $20,000 more, under the table, so you don’t have to pay your realtor any of it. I was tired of looking.”

Tim says he hopes he doesn’t get that desperate. “Whether you decide to buy or decide not to buy, you still feel like you made the wrong decision. If you buy, you feel like you overpaid. If you don’t buy, you want to kick yourself for passing up a great opportunity.”

Everyone says the bubble(泡沫) has to burst sometime, but everyone hopes it will burst the day after they sell their house. Even government officials have no idea what the future will bring. “All we can say is that, inevitably, these things go in cycles,” said the state director of housing. “What goes up must come down. But, as we all know, housing prices always stay up a little higher than they go down. So you can’t lose over the long run. Twenty years down the road, your house is always worth more than you paid for it.”

60．If Tim had sold his flat last year, he could have earned          .

A．$ 510,000                B．$ 440,000                C．$ 280,000                D．$ 160,000

61．Donna paid another $ 20,000 to the owner secretly because          .

A．she felt like offering 10% more                    B．secret money made low price

C．the owner asked for the money                  D．she was bored with bargaining

62．We can infer from Tim’s words in paragraph 4 that           .

A．homebuyers feel hesitate facing rising house prices

B．buying a house is always a great opportunity

C．homebuyers never make the right decision

D．both sellers and buyers become desperate

63．What is the author’s opinion about the housing bubble?          

A．It is something everyone hates to see

B．Only experts know when it will burst

C．It is unavoidable in the regular circles

D．It usually stays for about twenty years

A person may have a false idea about himself that will stop him from doing good work．

       He may have the belief that he is unable to do it．A child may think he is  36  because he doesn’t understand how to make  37  use of his mental gifts．Old people may have a false idea that they are unable to learn things new because of their  38 ．

       A person who believes that he is stupid will not make a real  39  because he feels that it would be useless．He won’t go at a job with confidence necessary for  40 ．Besides, he won’t work his hardest way, even though he may think he is doing so． 41 , he is likely to fail, and the failure will  42  his belief in his incompetence（无能） in turn．

       Alfred Alder, a famous doctor, had  43  like this．When he was a small boy, he had a poor 44  in maths．His teacher told his parents he had no ability in maths in order that they would not  45  too much of him．In this way, his teacher and parents  46  the idea．He  47  their false judgment of his ability, feeling that it was useless to  48 ．Then, he was very poor at maths,  49  as they expected．

       But one day everything changed．He worked out a problem which  50  of the other students had been able to solve．He  51  in solving the problem which gave him confidence （信心）．Soon he became especially good at  52 ．

       Alder now  53  with interest, determination and purpose．He not only proved that he could learn maths well, but luckily he learned it  54 , not too late．From his own experience, we can tell that if a person goes at a job with determination and purpose, he may  55  himself as well as others by his ability．

1.A．clever        B．shy        C．useless          D．stupid

2.A．big          B．full       C．high       D．great

3.A．age           B．ability          C．brain     D．knowledge

4.A．decision     B．plan            C．effort           D．promise

5.A．work         B．study     C．improvementD．success

6.A．Truly         B．Really          C．However   D．Therefore

7.A．lead to     B．strengthen C．improve    D．get rid of

8.A．an experience       B．an example      C．a thought  D．a story

9.A．state          B．mind     C．start      D．ending

10.A．blame      B．expect          C．get        D．win

11.A．developed    B．organized  C．discovered       D．found

12.A．broke       B．refused     C．doubted    D．accepted

13.A．manage           B．argue    C．try        D．act

14.A．only        B．almost          C．just       D．then

15.A．none        B．all        C．some     D．most

16.A．broke       B．succeeded C．failed           D．believed

17.A．physics           B．medicine   C．English         D．maths

18.A．studies     B．works     C．plays          D．graduates

19.A．early        B．deeply          C．later       D．simply

20.A．discourage   B．love      C．surprise    D．disappoint