Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience." How right they were!
"Nothing great was ever done without enthusiasm," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste (浆
糊) that helps you hang in there when the things get tough. It is the inner voice that tells you, "I can do it!" when others shout, "No, you can"t!" It took years and years for the early work of Barbara McClintock, a
geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn"t stop
working on her experiments.
We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is the childlike wonder that gives
enthusiastic people such youthful air, whatever their age. At 90, cellist Pablo Casals would start his day
by playing the cello (大提琴). As the music flowed through his fingers, his shoulders would straighten and
joy would reappear in his eyes. As writer and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote, "Years wrinkle (起皱纹)
the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."
Enthusiastic people also love what they do, not considering money or title or power. Patricia Mellratl,
a retired director in Kansas City, was once asked where she got her enthusiasm. She replied, "My father,
long ago, told me, "I never made any money until I stopped working for it.""
We can"t afford to waste tears on "might-have-been". We need to turn the tears into sweat (汗水)as
we go after "what-can-be". We need to live each moment whole-heartedly, with all our senses finding
pleasure in the sweet of a backyard garden, the simple picture of a six-year-old, and the beauty of a
rainbow.
B. Enthusiasm can give people more success and fame
C. Enthusiastic people will never get old
D. Enthusiasm can make you succeed and enjoy life.
B. he is getting old
C. he can do what he love
D. he has succeeded
B. music can arouse people"s enthusiasm
C. enthusiasm can give people inspiration needed to succeed
D. enthusiasm can keep people healthy
B. Four
C. Five
D. Six
B. Don"t cry over the spoiled milk
C. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
D. Love me, love my dog
Suddenly a crow (乌鸦) landed on their window.
The father asked his son, "What is that?"
The son replied, "That is a crow."
After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, "What is this?"
The son said, "Father, I told you just now. It"s a crow."
After a little while, the father asked his son the same question for the third time, "What is
this?"
This time, the son said to his father in a low and cold tone, "It"s a crow, a crow."
After a moment, the father yet again asked his son for the fourth time, "What is this?"
This time his son shouted at his father, "Why do you keep asking me the same question
again and again? I have told you already, "IT IS A CROW". Are you not able to understand
this?"
A minute later the father went to his room and came back with a diary, which he had kept
since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page.
Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa when a crow suddenly landed
on the window edge. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied him 23 times that it
was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question. I didn"t at all feel
angry, but instead felt affection for my son.
If your parents reach old age, do not look at them as a burden, but speak to them gently,
and be kind to them. From today say this aloud, "I want to see my parents happy forever. They
have cared for me ever since I was a little child. They have always showered me with love. I will
take care of my old parents in the best way no matter how they behave."
B. call on us to love our parents
C. teach us what a crow is
D. introduce a pair of son and father
B. hatred(恨)
C. worry
D. love
B. three
C. thirty-eight
D. forty-five
B. he would like his son to read it
C. it could remind himself of the past
D. he wanted to find what a crow was
A Gift of God
One fine summer morning-it was the beginning of harvest, I remember-Mr. Earnshaw came
down stairs, dressed for a journey; after he had told Joseph what was to be done during the day,
he turned to Hindley and Cathy, and me-for I sat eating my porridge with them-and speaking to
his son, he said:
"Now, I"m going to Liverpool today. What shall I bring you? You may choose what you like;
only small things, for I shall walk there and back; sixty miles each way, that is a long time!"
Hindley named a fiddle (a kind of violin), and then he asked Miss Cathy. She was hardly six
years old, but she could ride any horse in the stable. She chose a whip(鞭子).He did not forget
me; for he had a kind heart, though he was rather serious sometimes. He promised to bring me
a pocketful of apples and pears. Then he kissed his children good-bye and set off.
The three days of his absence seemed a long while to us all. Mrs. Earnshaw expected him by
supper-time on the third evening. She put off the meal hour after hour. There were no signs of his
coming, however. About eleven o"clock the door opened and in stepped the master. He threw
himself into a chair, laughing and groaning, and told them all to stand off, for he was nearly killed.
He would never again have another such walk for whatever reasons.
Opening his great coat, which he held bundled up in his arms, he said: "See here, wife. I was
never so beaten with anything in my life. But you must take it as a gift of God though it"s as dark
almost as if it came from the devil."
We crowded round him. And over Miss Cathy"s head, I had a look at a dirty, ragged, black-haired
child-big enough both to walk and talk-yet, when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and
repeated over and over again some strange words that nobody could understand. I was frightened,
and Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to throw it out of doors. She did get angry, asking why he should have
brought that gipsy child into the house when they had their own kids to feed and look after? What he
meant to do with it?
The master tried to explain the matter though he was really half dead with tiredness. All that I could
make out, among her scolding, was a story of his seeing it starving, and homeless, and almost dumb
(哑的) in the streets of Liverpool where he picked it up and inquired for its owner. But not a person
knew to whom it belonged. He said that as both his money and time was limited, he thought it better
to take it home with him at once than run into vain expenses there. Anyway he was determined he
would not leave it as he found it.
Well, finally Mrs. Earnshaw calmed down, and Mr. Earnshaw told me to wash it, give it clean things,
and let it sleep with the children.
Hindley and Cathy then began searching their father"s pockets for the presents he had promised
them. But when Hindley drew out what had been a fiddle, crushed (压坏) to pieces in the great coat,
he cried loudly. And Cathy, when she learned her father had lost her whip in attending on the stranger,
showed her feeling by spitting at the gipsy child, earning herself a sound blow from Mr. Earnshaw to
teach her cleaner manners.
(Adapted from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte)
B. An hour after the meal time.
C. When it was getting dark.
D. Not until it was nearly midnight.
B. he found that the starving child was a dumb boy.
C. he couldn"t afford to stay longer to look for the child"s parents.
D. he couldn"t leave the starving child without anyone caring for it.
B. Cathy was very disappointed and she turned her anger at her father.
C. Mrs. Earnshaw agreed to keep the gipsy child in spite of everything.
D. Hindley was good-humoured even if he didn"t get his present.
was going on in their 2 . I remember a girl who started 3 there a few months after me. We seldom
talked but we always 4 each other and smiled.
She always smiled in a really happy way 5 one day when we got to work in the 6 department.
She smiled as if she was the 7 girl in the world. I went up to her and asked, "What"s wrong with
you?" She answered, "Why?" I said, "I could feel you"re very 8 , but you"re always trying to 9 it."
Her mouth just dropped as if I had 10 her deepest secret, so we started talking. She told me 11 she was feeling unhappy and why she was trying to 12 that nothing was wrong. Time went by and we
became good friends. She"d always tell me I had 13 her life in so many ways.
Today that girl is one of my best 14 . I really don"t know what I would do 15 her. She has been
there for me in every 16 way a friend could be.
What I"m trying to say is that you never know 17 you"re helping yourself. I helped this girl never
knowing that at the same time I was helping myself by finding a __18 _ friend.
So the next time you see a 19 and he needs someone who will 20 to him, wait and let him say
what he wants to say. You never know, you might just end up helping yourself.
( )2. A. lives
( )3. A. shopping
( )4. A. assisted
( )5. A. though
( )6. A. similar
( )7. A. quietest
( )8. A. sad
( )9. A. keep
( )10. A. caught
( )11. A. when
( )12. A. pretend
( )13. A. protected
( )14. A. customers
( )15. A. without
( )16. A. simple
( )17. A. before
( )18. A. truthful
( )19. A. stranger
( )20. A. belong
B. jobs
B. talking
B. looked at
B. since
B. nearby
B. happiest
B. angry
B. stop
B. discovered
B. how
B. become
B. recovered
B. friends
B. for
B. possible
B. since
B. useful
B. worker
B. refer
C. studies
C. going
C. realized
C. until
C. same
C. busiest
C. happy
C. hide
C. controlled
C. why
C. make
C. supported
C. neighbors
C. upon
C. strange
C. because
C. hopeful
C. passenger
C. listen
D. marriages
D. working
D. stared at
D. unless
D. different
D. luckiest
D. surprised
D. show
D. checked
D. what
D. admit
D. changed
D. classmates
D. with
D. perfect
D. when
D. careful
D. visitor
D. turn
limping (跛行).
"What"s wrong?" I said. "Oh, it"s my knee. They want me to really appreciate the operation I"m about to have, so they delayed it another month, so I would suffer more," he replied.
It was then for the first time I actually showed my scar to someone. "Look, I had an operation on my
arm." My wife has been telling me that it really didn"t look bad. It healed very nicely. When I showed it to
the doctor and his assistant, they said, "That"s terrible!"
That"s when I discovered something.
"Doctor, when I was a kid, I fell. I remember showing the scar to all my friends because I thought it
was "cool". Having a scar at that age was like having a battle injury."
"Then I went into the young adulthood and vanity (虚荣心) took over. I was in a band and never
wanted anything to scar my beautiful face. Now, at 59, I just joined that group of older folks who are
proud to compare operations, aches and pains," I said struggling to get it out without laughing.
The winner is the one who is in the worst shape, I guess. Then there are those at any age, who use their scars as an excuse. The kind of excuse holds them back, limits them and provides a crutch for why they
aren"t happy. "Too short"... "too fat"... "my family"... "ever since we had children" and so on.
All scars never heal because we keep picking at (扯拉) them. I promised I"d never do that, yet today I didn"t even hesitate to show the doctor my scar. It"s okay. I see it as returning to my childhood. What
scars do you have?
B. his operation was put off
C. he was proud to suffer from it
D. he was too busy to receive the operation
B. a teenager
C. a young adult
D. a middle-aged man
B. was proud to wear a scar
C. often fought with other kids
D. had an operation on his forehead
B. injury
C. experience
D. chance
B. fight against our scars
C. be optimistic about our scars
D. show off our scars to others
snap(断裂声), and the _1 could be heard throughout the auditorium (礼堂). The audience _2 knew that
a string(弦) had broken. They all _3 the concert to stop for a short time _4 another instrument was brought
to the musician.
But instead, the _5 calmed herself down and then signaled the conductor to start again. The orchestra
continued where they had _6 and the musician played the music on three strings. In her mind she _7 new
fingering to make up for the missing string. A work that few people could play _8 on four strings, the
violinist played on three.
When she _9 and bowed(鞠躬) to the audience, there was a silence in the hall. And then the crowd rose
to their feet and cheered wildly. The violinist 10 and wiped sweat from her forehead. When 11 returned
to the hall, she explained 12 she had continued to play although there was a 13 string. "You know," she
said, "sometimes it is the artist"s 14 to find out how much music they can still 15 with what has been
left."
Maybe we"ve _16 most of our lives and we have only a little time left. Maybe disease has robbed(夺走)
us of our capacity to work. Or perhaps a financial loss has left us very 17 . Can we still make "music"?
There will come a time when we all 18 loss. Can we find the courage to discover how much "music" we
can still make with what has been left, just like the violinist? And if it takes extra courage to make the
"music", others will applaud (拍手称赞)your _19_. Some people have lost more than others, 20 they
are brave enough to face it. They inspire the rest of us to reach greater heights.