Being on the road at 3:15 a. m. to drive 450 kms wasn’t in my plans for the weekend. I had been looking forward to a couple of   1  days to prepare myself for the following busy   2 .
My son, Simon, and his good friends were heading for the  3. Due to the last-minute issue（問題）with transportation, I   4  my car to make sure that everyone could get to the   5  point so that they could get together and enjoy their week’s   6  by snowboarding and skiing.
The only thing that   7  to me on my journey was that no sooner had I   8  and said goodbye than I would make the trip   9 ，in total, a round trip of 900 kms in just 10 hours. Such a long drive in one day was frightening,   10  as I was looking forward to relaxationSimon and I   11 , on our way, about his break and a whole lot of his school subjects. It was great to have this time with him as we   12  spent five continuous hours together, other than when we played Saturday cricket (板球).
On my return trip, I   13  a strange sense of loneliness in some heavy morning   14 . Within an hour it   15 . I spent the next four hours listening to some CDs and enjoying the scenery. Surprisingly, after my long trip home I was   16  refreshed and energized even though I was physically exhausted. And I knew that I would have a(n)    _17   sleep that evening.
A change  18 your environment, no matter how great, can provide you with the opportunity to  19_  something from different angles（角度）, as well as to be refreshed and energized.
Now I’m looking forward to my next   20  event and many more opportunities to spend quality time with those who are important to me and make my life more rewarding.

The purpose of a letter of application(求職信) is to help you to "sell" yourself. It should state   36  the job you want, and should tell what your abilities are and what you have   37 . It should be simple, human, personal and brief without   38  out any necessary facts.
In writing a letter of application, keep in   39  that the things a possible employer is most   40  to want to know about are your qualifications(條件), your achievements and your aims. The opening paragraph is perhaps the most important part.   41  the first few sentences fail to   42  the reader’s attention, the rest of the letter may not be   43  at all. Try to key your opening remarks to the needs or interests of the employer not   44  your own need or desires. For example, instead of beginning with “I saw your   45  in today’s newspaper,” you might say “I have made a careful   46  of your advertising during the past six months” or “I have made a survey in my neighborhood to find out how many housewives   47  your product and why they like it.”
Try to   48  generalities(概述). Be clear about the kind of job for which you are now   49 . College graduates looking for their first positions often ask “What can I  50 in a letter? Employers want experience—which, naturally, no   51 has.” The answer is that everything you have ever done is   52 .
It is important to write a good strong closing for your letter.   53  a specific request for an interview or give the possible employer something definite to do or expect. An excellent   54  is to enclose(內附) a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your letter. That makes it   55  for a possible employer to get in touch with you.

Sometimes, people are required to fill in personal information when they register online, which may lead to some unexpected trouble. Recently, the BBC is reporting that a 17-year-old girl in Australia posted a(n) 【小題1】  of her grandmother at home counting a large sum of cash that she  【小題2】  hidden in the house. Just eight hours later, two armed men  【小題3】  the girl’s house. They demanded to speak to her to find out where the grandmother’s house was,   【小題4】  they could get the money they had seen.   【小題5】 , the girl was not home at the time, so the robbers 【小題6】 a small amount of cash from the mother and left.
Because the 【小題7】 is still under investigation(調查), local police aren’t saying 【小題8】 else about it. It’s not known yet whether the girl had used privacy setting on the Facebook profile page, and even whether the robbers 【小題9】 the girl in the past.
Two other 【小題10】 were at home then, a 58-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy, the girl’s father and brother. Luckily, no one was 【小題11】 . The robbers left peacefully after  【小題12】  that the girl was not home and that no one else there knew anything about the  【小題13】  that had appeared in the photo.
Police in both Britain and Australia are using the case to 【小題14】  citizens of the dangers of posting personal information on social networks and to suggest users of websites  【小題15】   doing so. The police say it is  【小題16】  that the girl posted a comment in the past that gave clues to the address,    【小題17】  that the robbers knew the girl in another way.    【小題18】  , they suggest, a posting by a friend on their site could have   【小題19】  such information. To find it, the robbers would only have had to search for those posting on other pages that  【小題20】  the girl’s name.

Things of Value
Our area was just a few miles from the largest wildfire in Colorado’s history. We were on “evacuation alert (疏散警報)”. If we got the   1  to evacuate, we would have to leave immediately.
We   2  suitcases with some clothes and set them by the door. We didn’t  3 these things were valuable, but time was. We moved the computers, with which I wrote for newspapers and made a   4 . We took family pictures off the   5  and packed them in boxes. These were truly valuable and could not be replaced.
Then we took a hard look at all that   6 . There was a lamp that belonged to my great grandmother. It was a   7  to my family. And there was the piano my wife   8  to play when she was a little girl. Not of great   9  in itself, but another family connection. It was impractical to move everything from our home and store them for an indefinite (無限的) time. Some important items would have to stay behind.
The thought of   10  something passed down from our families saddened me deeply,   11  I’d never been much attached to things. It’s about what they   12  —family and love. They each had a(n)   13  to tell, and some of them spoke in the   14  of our parents and grandparents.
The fire   15  reached our home. We were lucky. And though I felt grateful that all was   16 , I also realized just how fortunate I had been   17 . I saw just how rich my life had been.
Someone  18 said, “There are people so poor that the only thing they have is money.” And now I  19  I was indeed rich. I was rich in family, rich in memories, rich in everything that really  20 to me. I am wealthier than I ever believed possible.
It took a fire to teach me, I wonder if there is any other kind of wealth worth seeking.

One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students. To make the point 1, he used an illustration.
As he stood in front of the group, he said, “Okay, time for a quiz.” He then pulled out a wide-mouth jar and set it on the table. Then he 2 placed about a dozen fist-sized rocks, one by one, into the jar.
When the jar was filled to the 3 and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar 4?” Everyone in the class said, “Yes.”
“Really?” Then he 5 under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel(石子), dumped some in and 6 the jar, causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces 7 the big rocks. Then he asked the group the same question. “Probably not,” one of them answered. “Good!”  He replied.
He reached under the table and 8 a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all the 9 left between the rocks and the gravel. 10 he asked the question. “No!” the class shouted. “Good!” Then he grabbed a can of water and began to pour it in 11 the jar was filled to the brim.
Then the expert in time management looked at the class and asked, “What is the 12 of this illustration?” It is such a seemingly easy question that one 13 student raised his hand and said, “It is, however full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always 14 some more things in it.
“No,” the speaker replied. “The truth it teaches us is that you will 15 get them in at all if you don't put the big rocks in first. 16 the big rocks in your life are, do things that you love and 17 for yourself. In your schedule if you value the little stuff then you’ll fill your life with 18 things and you will never have the real quality time you need to spend on the big, important stuff. So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are 19 on this short story, ask yourself what the ‘big rocks’ in your life are. Then put those in your 20 first. ”

My wife called,“will you come here and make your darling daughter eat her food ？I rushed to the scene. My only daughter,Sindu , 1 frightened. In front of her was a bowl filled with rice. She  2 disliked rice .
“Sindu ,why don’t you take a few 3of this ？ Just for Dad ’sake . If don’t ,your mom will shout at me .”Sindu softened a bit and 4 her tears with the back of her hands.“OK,Dad.I will eat .But you should ……”Sindu hesitated.“Dad ,if I eat the rice ,will you give 5 I ask for ？”“Oh,sure .”She 6 eating the whole quantity . After the ordeal was through ,Sindu came to me ,“Dad ,I want to have my  7 shaved off this Sunday ！
“Darling ,we will be sad  8 you with a clean-shaved head .”“Dad ,you saw how difficult it was to eat the rice .”Sindu was in tears.“ 9 you promised to give me whatever I ask for.”
It was  10 for me to call the shots .“Our promise must be  11 .”
With her head clean-shaven ,Sindu had a round face .On Monday morning , I dropped her at her  12 .Just then , a boy  shouted ,Sindu please wait for me ！13  struck me was the hairless head of that boy .
“Sir , your daughter Sindu is great  14 .”a lady said to me ,“That boy who is walking along with your daughter is my son Harish .He is 15 from leukemia（白血�。�. He lost all his hair due to the side  16 of the chemotherapy(化療).He refused to  17 to school for fear of being laughed at . Sindu visited him last week , and promised him that she will take care of the teasing issue. But , I  18 imagined she would sacrifice her lovely hair for the sake of  19 ” .
“My little angel , you are teaching me  20 selfless real love is ！” I wept.

完形填空（共20小題：每小題1. 5分，滿分30分）
閱讀下面短文，從短文后所給的四個選項（A、B、C、D）中，選出最佳選項。
It was to be our second Christmas in Germany and we decided to avoid the naked tree problem the year before. We wrote to my father, and he  1 to purchase a tree for us in States. He would ship it to us in several smaller  2 .
Two days before Christmas we were in a   3 .All the boxes had arrived except for one. The tree trunk and stand were still  4 .We decided to wait one more day.
  5 , in Bremerhaven, a young mail clerk  6 a long thin box under a counter. He picked it up and saw the customs tag(標簽)which  7 “artificial（人造的）Christmas tree trunk and stand”. He realized that someone in Mannheim would be  8 a tree for Christmas. He felt  9for them, but there wasn’t much he could do. There was no  10 on Christmas.
He put the package on the  11 shelf and headed for the coffee bar. The place was 12 and he ended up sharing a table. Two men were speaking and the clerk  13 that one of his companions at the table was stationed in Mannheim. He had just picked up the  14 he had shipped from the States and was driving back that afternoon. The clerk thought of the 15 and said to the man,“You could really  16 Santa for someone in Mannheim tonight if you’d like to.”He explained about the lost tree trunk and stand. The man agreed.
The following day, my husband was reaching for his coat  17 the doorbell rang. There stood a  18 holding a long thin carton, our tree trunk and stand. He explained about the clerk and the coffee bar meeting. We invited him in,  19 it was Christmas Eve and he left in a hurry.
The next day as we celebrated the Christmas with the beautiful tree, I whispered：“Bless those two strangers who  20 our Christmas with their kindness.”

People do not analyze every problem they meet．Sometimes they try to remember a solution from the last time they had a   36  problem．They often accept the opinions or ideas of other people．Other times they begin to act without thinking; they try to find a solution by trial and error．  37  , when all of these methods fail, the person with a problem has to start analyzing．There are six   38  in analyzing a problem．
First the person must recognize that there is a problem．For example, Sam's bicycle is broken, and he cannot ride it to class as he usually does．Sam must   39  that there is a problem with his bicycle．
Next the person must   40  the problem．Before Sam can repair his bicycle, he must know why it does not work．For example, he must   41  the parts that are wrong．
Now the person must look for   42  that will make the problem clearer and lead to 43  solutions．For example, suppose Sam decides that his bike does not work because there is something wrong with the brakes．  44  , he can look in his bicycle repair book and read about brakes,   45  his friends at the bike shop, or look at his brakes carefully．
After   46   the problem, the person should have   47  suggestions for a possible solution．Take Sam as an example   48  , his suggestions might be: tighten or loosen the brakes; buy new brakes and change the old ones．
In the end, one   49   seems to be the solution to the problem．Sometimes the   50 idea comes quite   51  because the thinker suddenly sees something new or sees something in a   52  way．Sam, for example, suddenly sees there is a piece of chewing gum（口香糖）stuck to a brake．He   53  hits on the solution to his problem: he must   54  the brake．
Finally the solution is   55  ．Sam does it and finds his bicycle works perfectly．In short, he has solved the problem．

Are you   1  for a place in the southwest of China? If your answer is “yes”, why not pay a trip to Shangri-la, which is   2  mysteries and beauty.
The world “Shangri-la” first appeared in the 1993 novel Lost Horizon   3  the British writer James Hilton. He described a beautiful kingdom where three rivers   4  together and snow-capped mountains reached to the sky, with fields of long grass covering the earth. In this perfect world lived people who had discovered how to stay   5  forever.
Three mountains are covered with snow and tower   6  the land. These snowy mountain tops form   7  beautiful picture that we can’t wait to fly there.
Lakes,   8  by vast grasslands, look like diamonds. Sheep, cows, horses and animals feed   9  on the green grass and the forests around are   10  to lots of birds and animals. In this heavenly world, people live in perfect harmony with nature.

My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat which was hanging at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass. While the other coats drooped(低垂), this one looked as if it were   36  itself up. The coat had beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and a(an)   37  price of $28, which was popular just then with   38 , but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better, bearing that   39  of classic elegance（優(yōu)雅）. John tried it on and the fit was perfect.
John   40  the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big smile. “Did the kids like your coat?” I asked. “They loved it,” he said,   41  folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. Over the next few weeks, a   42  came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness (作對) and reasoned discussion replaced fierce   43 . He became more mannerly and   44 , eager to please. He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him   45  his behavior.
When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and   46  what caused the changes, she said laughing. “It   47  be his coat!” Another teacher told him she was giving him a good   48  not only because he had earned   49  but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend “Could this be John?” he asked surprisingly,   50  John’s new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.
John and I both know we should never   51  a person’s clothes for the real person within them.   52  there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see and for   53  what is on the inside to what is on the outside.
For John it is a time when it is as easy to try on different approaches to   54  as it is to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast landscape   55  all the doors are open. And he could picture himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful, magical coat.