Back in 2007, I rented（租） a room in Johor Bahru, Malaysia while studying for my Masters programmed（碩士課程） in Singapore. I travelled daily by   36  across the Johor- Singapore Causeway(穿越濕地的堤道) for my   37 , which were usually in the evening. It was quite   38 
by the time I got back to the bus station in Johor Bahru, and I would still need to take another bus home.
One night, I   39  the last bus and didn’t have enough money to take a taxi. With no other choice, I decided to    40  the two-kilometer journey home, which would have been fine    41 
I were not so tired that day. It also didn’t    42  that the route was pretty rough（凹凸不平的）and dark. But I walked forward with   43  , with the promise of a night’s rest    44  me on. After walking for a few minutes, a car   45  in front of me. The driver, who looked   46 , asked where I was headed. “Not many people walk through here,” he said, and   47   me a ride. He really    48  me up as he went out of his way to get me to my apartment.
What was more   49  , however, was the story behind it. During the ride, the driver told me that when he saw me walking, it made him think of his   50  who used to walk to work by the
  51  road and though he often saw his uncle on the way, he had    52  offered a ride as he was headed in a different direction.    53  his uncle passed away because of an illness, and until today he still feels   54  for not being kinder to his uncle. So when he    55  me walking that night, he just had to stop and help.

Mrs Amatuli was my teacher in the fourth grade. One day at lunch time, Mrs Amatuli asked me if she could  36 my sandwiches. She explained that I could use the money to buy a   37 lunch from the cafeteria（自助餐廳）. I was   38. I never bought my lunch at the cafeteria. It was  39  expensive for my family, and I always carried my lunch and brought the bag back home to   40 again the next day.
You can understand my   41  when I had the opportunity to buy a hot lunch. Kids always  42 about the cafeteria food but I was very  43 of them.
When we  44 lunch that day, Mrs Amatuli took me aside and said she wanted to   45 why she had bought my sandwiches. I really didn’t care why,   46 it gave me a few minutes of her precious  47  so I was very quiet as she explained.
You  48 , she was a Catholic(天主教徒) and she told me that Catholics didn’t eat red meat on Fridays—they ate  49 on Fridays.
Oh, I couldn’t   50 to get home and tell my Mom that from then on I wanted fish on Fridays.  51 my Mom understood why, she gladly fixed fish for me on Fridays. From then on, every Friday I could get in  52 with the rest of the kids for a hot lunch. I didn’t care how many of the kids complained about the cafeteria food—it  53 great to me!
I realize now that Mrs Amatuli   54  have fixed herself a fish sandwich on Fridays. She bought my sandwiches because she saw a little girl who was pleased over the simple
   55 of having a hot lunch.

Last Sunday turned out to be more exciting than I had expected. We were at our grandparents’ house for a visit as     31   . My cousin and I had made an appointment to go in-line skating in the nearby park. He could do some neat stunts (特技)and had promised to show me     32   .
We managed to persuade our parents to    33    us go in-line skating on our own.   34    it soon started to rain and we had to seek shelter on the empty deck (place) of a block of flats. It really dampened my     35   .
Suddenly, we heard a    36    and saw a man dashing out of a lift. Just as he ran   37     us, we saw an old woman coming out of the same lift and crying, “Thief! Thief!” My cousin immediately went after the thief in his    38    . To be honest, I was extremely    39    at the beginning .Then I heard a honk. It was my uncle and aunt. I jumped into their car and told them about the robbery. We   40   off in the thief’s direction while my aunt stayed with the old woman.
Soon, we    41  up with my cousin. He was still in hot pursuit of the thief. Seeing his 42    , my uncle sped up and turned suddenly to the right to   43   just in front of the thief. The man was   44   and fell to the ground. My uncle got out of the car and   45   the man down with his body.
By this time, we could hear the siren of a police car approaching,   46  , my aunt had phoned the police and told them the   47   in which we were heading, so they were able to locate us .
We handed the thief over to the police officers who took down our names and    48  . They informed us that we would be called up to give our   49   . After that, we returned to the empty deck in our uncle’s car to  50    my aunt up .
When we reached there, the old woman had already left to give a report to the police. Our family members were all proud of us for our courageous deed.

I was very fond of hunting when I was a young man. In the autumn of 1915, I was __16__ in the northwest of India. One evening, after hunting in the forest all __17__， I was returning alone to the place where I had __18__ up my tent. I was tired __19__ hungry. It was getting __20__ and darker, and I was walking slowly __21__ a narrow path. On my right was a wide river; on my left, a __22__， dark forest. All of a __23__ I saw two green eyes looking at me from among the trees. I knew it __24__ be a man-eating tiger. The tiger was getting ready to __25__ on me.
My heart __26__. What could I do? Should I jump __27__ the river and hope to save my life __28__ swimming? I looked to the __29__. In the river there was a __30__ crocodile waiting to welcome me with its mouth __31__ open. I was so  __32__ that I shut my eyes. And I thought it would be the end of my __33__. I heard branches moving __34__ the tiger roared (咆哮) and jumped. __35__ then I opened my eyes. What do you think had happened? The tiger had jumped right over me and now in the jaws (嘴) of the crocodile.

【小題12】

A．a(chǎn)cross B．over C．into D．from

Not long before, my daughter's shoes were scratched with a knife．She burst into   36 ．I took them to the shoemaker to get them   37 ．
The young apprentice （學(xué)徒） glanced at the opening and said, " 38  I can do except replace the upper．" His master looked at them and said to me, "If you   39  me, I will add more scratches on both of the shoes．" _K^S*5U.C#O%
I was   40  and asked why．
He explained, "As if the openings were made   41  for the sake of special style and reuse．"
Two days later I found there were indeed more scratches on   42  shoe, but all the openings were patched （打補(bǔ)丁） by soft red leather with edges sewed by thick thread,   43 more unique and interesting than ever．I couldn't help but   44  the master's skill．
Another time, my wife's sister's white blouse had been torn, leaving a large opening on the back．My wife   45  the blouse carefully, and then said, "Let me take it   46 _ and mend it．"
Seeing the blouse again, I was shocked: all the torn parts had been sewed up by thin and   47  thread and they   48  a look of ice crystal （冰晶） hanging from a winter's branch． 49  , she had attached a snowman and a cabin made of flowery cotton rags onto the shirt．I 50  with praise, "It's just as beautiful as a piece of   51  !"
"I was inspired by that craftsman．Patches are supposed to be   52 , but a skillful craftsman can make it take on a kind of perfection," replied my wife．
Her words inspired me even more: Perfection is   53  to achieve in everything; Patches are unavoidable, so is human's life．Since you can't   54  the existence of wound, you should not expect people's   55  by exposing the wound, which reveals nothing meaningful．

When I began married life more than 17 years ago, I weighed 118 pounds. After having two children, and years of ____21____ eating, I weighed 180 pounds. I was unhappy. I considered going on a ____22____, so I gathered information about it.
I ____23____ the South Beach Diet and how well it was ____24____ for some people in our area. I looked it up online and ____25____ for it. Even though I knew my husband loved me no matter how I ____26____ or how much I weighed. I decided that it would be a wonderful ____27____ for my husband to come home and see a new ____28_____, so I kept my South Beach experience a ____29____ from him. Later he left home for a two-week business trip.
I was surprised at all the ____30____ I could eat. It was great to have breakfast, ____31____ and dinner. The food was difficult to eat at first ____32____ I usually didn’t like such food. This made the daily menus hard, ____33____ I overcame (克服) the challenge.
The first two weeks there really ____34____ me change the way I thought about ____35____. It wasn’t chocolate or cheese or candy I ____36____, but fruit! Before my husband’s return, my children and I were amazed at how quickly the ____37____ was lost.
When my husband returned, I had ____38_____more than 30 pounds. When I saw my husband’s reaction at the airport I thought it was worth every minute on the diet! I have ____39_____ to lose weight and I am now less than 10 pounds from my final ____40____. I feel better than I have in years and I’m enjoying life much more!

I had planted different hot peppers in my garden. A Mexican fellow called Sam worked for me. He_36_ hot peppers, too. It was late summer and a beautiful sunny day. My son, Marcus, eight, and my daughter, Ellen, ten, picked several 37 hot peppers and entered our workroom, with their             38 ．They wanted to see if Sam could   39  more hot peppers than I.  After a little joking with them we agreed to the contest but they had to   40 ，too. That was not  41 terms for them so they left the room.
They  42  about an hour later with a new proposal and new hot peppers they had just picked．  43 they had reasoned that when a pepper was  44 in color it was the hottest kind. Marcus and Ellen would eat the green colored peppers   45 Sam and I would eat the red colored peppers. Giving Sam a wink（使眼色），we  46 . Showing good sportsmanship（體育精神），I had the kids  47 the peppers that Sam and I would eat.  They picked the largest two red peppers.  Then they picked a  48  green one for themselves. Knowing what was going to  49 ，I told them I would make it  50  for them.  I cut one pepper in half and removed the  51  to reduce the heat a little. The contest was one of speed rather than  52 ．Each child had pepper in hand and was  53 to start .
Looking at my  54  I said, OK, on three. One, Two, THREE. So much happened all at once. Tears, screams and spitting running around, the children  55  their mouth with fast waving hands.  A short time later, Sam and I agreed that the red tasted better than the green.

I was brought up by my grandparents for the first years of my life. We   36  in a very small community and all of my aunts and uncles lived   37_ . Everyone had a hand in taking care of my safety. Of course in those days   38  everyone in the community spoke the beautiful language of my childhood. When my grandfather spoke I would _ 39_ him carefully.
Then at age six my father   40  from the army. I was forbidden to speak that 41  ever again. My grandfather was   42  . He couldn’t speak English, so my grandmother would   43  for him whenever he spoke to me. With my mother and father we   44 from that small community. I was about to enter public school so I had to learn English. My grandfather   45  when I was eight and we returned to that small community for his funeral. He was   46  in the living room, as was the tradition. I went and stood by him and   47  no one was around I spoke to him in a whisper   48  that beautiful language of my childhood. That was the   49  time I spoke those words.
Almost fifty years later, _ 50 _ I had forgotten the beautiful language of my childhood, I had the opportunity to   51  a newly written paper of it. On my first look at it I recognized   52  . I must have looked it over several times in the following weeks. Then one day I read out loud a word from my past. I almost cried. I was   53 reading over other words. Words came   54  back to me after all these years. When receiving something from someone, you don’t take it from their hand, rather you let them lay it in your hand. For me it was   55  ---The beautiful language of my childhood was Michif. It was not only a language but also a way of life.