Tick, tock, tick, tock. I’m sitting here, watching the movements of my existence pass slowly away. My house has been  36 for such a long time，and I’m lonely and forgotten. Sitting here, by myself, all that I can do is   37   and think about my past. I could tell you stories that only  38  would know. But walls can’t speak.
I came to this place many years ago，along with an old man….  39  , he was with me for on1y three short years before he passed on….
For a time, I was left alone, while people came and  40  the house….  Then, one day a nice couple moved in with a young son.   41 , their son Danny liked to stay with me, and I was completely  42  with him. He always looked as if he loved the stories I told, most of which began with. ‘‘Back in my day…” and ‘‘When I was  43  .…” I sometimes had the kind of idea that he didn’t really understand what I was saying, but it felt good to be  44 .  When Danny went off to college，my heart broke. Soon afterward,   45  sold the house.…
New owners came and  46 . Then, One day it so happened that I was in when a new family was moving into the house. You can’t even imagine my  47  when, unexpectedly, Danny walked through the front door. He had a  48  and kids now. I was so overjoyed when I saw him that I put all my  49  into my daily activities. ... I spent the next twenty years watching his kids grow up, with a mixture of pride and  50  about what would happen next.
The kids finally became  51   and Danny sold the house. That was about five years ago…. Some of the local kids have started the rumor that the house is haunted（闹鬼的）--- and, in a way, it is. It is haunted by   52 of all the people who have lived in it. Every second has  53  me so much. I have been   54 them all day and they are almost up for me.... I hope that someday somebody will  55  me, and drop in on me again. Maybe then I’ll get a new home and an opportunity for a whole new set of memories.

I will never forget what my old headmaster taught me. Normally when you are only 15          years of age you do not remember most of the things that are taught by your teachers. But this particular story is one such lesson that I will never forget. Every time I drift off course, I get reminded of this story.
It was a normal Monday morning, and he was making a speech to the students on important things in life and about devoting ourselves to what is important to us. This is how the story went:
An old man lived in a certain part of London, and he would wake up every morning and go to the subway. He would get the train right to Central London, and then sit at the street corner and beg. He would do this every single day of his life. He sat at the same street corner and begged for almost 20 years. His house was dirty, and a stench(恶臭)came out of the house and it smelled horrible. The neighbors could not stand the smell any more, so they asked the police officers to clear the place. The officers knocked down the door and cleaned the house. There were small bags of money all over the house that he had collected over the years.
The police counted the money, and they soon realized that the old man was a millionaire. They waited outside his house to tell the good news to him. When he arrived home that evening, he was met by one of the officers who told him that there was no need for him to beg any more as he was a rich man now, a millionaire. He said nothing at all; he went into his house and locked the door. The next morning he woke up as usual, went to the subway, got into the train, and sat at the street corner and continued to beg. Obviously, this old man had no great plans, dreams or anything important for his life. We learn nothing from this story other than staying focused on the things we enjoy doing.
59. The headmaster told the story to the students to__________.
A. make the students relaxed in the lesson             B. remind the students to think deeply
C. show how poor the old man was                            D. encourage the students to become rich
60. After hearing what the officer said, the old man_________.
A. believed the officer was playing a joke on him. B. didn't know many people respected him a lot.
C. was very angry to find his house broken into.     D. was not so excited as the officer had expected.
61. What did the author learn from the story?
A . One should devote himself to his dream.            B. The old man was foolish not to stop begging.
C. What the headmaster taught was very important.
D. People must have a plan before taking action.
62. Which word can best describe the author's attitude towards the old man?
A. Pity.           B. Disappointment.                 C. Respect.          D. Anger.
63. We know from the passage that ___________________.
the author had a big dream at the age of 15.         
B. the headmaster was popular with the students.
the old man begged every day without stopping.  
D. the neighbors took great pity on the old man.
BDACC 

完形填空（共20小题，每小题1.5分；满分30分）
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36—55各题所给的四个选项中，选出一个最佳答案。
When I walked into the living-room, my 12-year-old son looked ___36_at me and said “I love you”. I didn’t know what to say. ___37____ several seconds I stood there and ____38___ down at him. My first thought was that he must need__39____ while doing his homework___40 ___ he was trying to prepare me for some __41_____.
“___42____,” he said, “My teacher said we should tell our parents that we love them and see what they say. It’s an experiment.”
The next day I __43____ his teacher at my office to find out more about this “____44___ ” and how the other parents had responded (反应).
“__45_____, most of the fathers did the same as you ,” the teacher explained, “Feeling___46___ is an important part of___47____ . It’s something all human beings___48___. What I’m trying to tell the children is that it’s too ___49____ that we don’t express those feelings. A boy should be __50__ to tell his dad that he loves him.”
The teacher, a middle-aged man, understands how dilficult it is for ___51___ of us to say the things that would be good for us to say.
When my son came to me ___52____ , I held on to him for an extra second. And just___53___ he pulled away, I said in my deepest, most manly__54_____, “Hey, I love you.”
I didn’t know if  saying that would make___55___of us healthier, but we did feel pretty better.

Pop singer Peng Tan has tasted the joys of being at the top of the world. He has also  36  life’s lows too. This  37  him that having a  38  picture of oneself is the key to  39_ .
"I grew  40  at the peak of my career, and I began to lose faith when things turned  41_   me," he said."
"Then I realized that dreams will  42  only if I put myself in the  43  place."
Peng, 29, will  44  at the Beijing Pop Festival at Chaoyang Park in Beijing held on September 8 to 9. He has  45   his first album Teen Spirit after he went solo from the rock band Dada. As the name  _46  the album is about his reflection on his youth.
"The _47  years is a special restless period in life, with lots of confusion, sensations, with wise and ridiculous ideas colliding," said Peng.
When younger, he first  48  of being a painter, until one day the  49  singing of Cui Jian lit up his passion, for rock music. In 1996, he became the  50  singer in the band Dada, which he set up with his  51  from junior school.
Soon, they topped the music charts and  52  most of the "’Best Newcomer of the Year" awards. However, the good days didn’t last. The band  53 . Peng became depressed and began  54  his own ability. He then went to the Beijing Pop Festival last year and saw his favorite foreign band, Super Grass. This changed everything. After that, he was back on track and found his confidence.
"When you  55  to your position well in life, opportunities will come to you naturally.” he said.

For a while, my neighborhood was taken over by an army of joggers．(慢跑者). They were there all the time—early morning, noon, and evening. There were little old ladies in gray sweats, young couples in Adidas shoes, middle-aged men with red faces. “Come on!” My friend Alex encouraged me to join him as he jogged by my house every evening. “You'll feel great.”
Well, I had nothing against feeling great and if Alex could jog every day, anyone could. So I took up jogging seriously and gave it a good two months of my life, and not a day more. Based on my experience, jogging is the most overvalued form of exercise around, and judging from the number of the people who left our neighborhood jogging army. I'm not alone in my opinion.
First of all, jogging is very hard on the body. Your legs and feet a real pounding (沉重的脚步) running down a road for two or three miles. I developed foot, leg, and back problems. Then I read about a nationally famous jogger who died of a heart attack while jogging, and I had something else to worry about. Jogging doesn't kill hundreds of people, but if you have any physical weaknesses, jogging will surely bring them out, as they did with me.
Secondly, I got no enjoyment out of jogging. Putting one foot in front of the other for forty-five minutes isn't my idea of fun. Jogging is also a lonely pastime. Some joggers say, “I love being out there with just my thoughts.” Well, my thoughts began to bore me, and most of them were on how much my legs hurt.
And how could I enjoy something that brought me pain? And that wasn't just the first week: it was practically every day for two months. I never got past the pain level, and pain isn't fun. What a cruel way to do it! So many other exercises, including walking, lead to almost the same results painlessly, so why jog?
I don't jog any more, and I don't think I ever will. I'm walking two miles three times a week at a fast pace, and that feels good. I bicycle to work when the weather is good. I'm getting exercise, and I'm enjoying it at the same time. I could never say the same for jogging, and I've found a lot of better ways to stay in shape.
【小题1】From the first paragraph, we learn that in the writer's neighborhood ________.