An eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little ___1______ All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money left. When she heard her daddy say to her 2         mother with whispered desperation（絕望）, "Only a miracle（奇跡） can save him now", the little girl went to her bedroom and took out her piggy bank. She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Then she   3      her way six blocks to the local drugstore（藥店）.

"And what do you want?" asked the chemist.

    "It’s for my little brother," the girl answered back. "He’s really, really sick and I want to buy a  4        . His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my   5______says only a miracle can save him."

"We don’t sell miracles here, child. I’m sorry," the chemist said, smiling  6       at the little girl.

    In the shop was a   7       customer. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "What kind of miracle does your brother need?"

    "I don’t know," she replied. "He’s really sick and mommy says he needs   8      . But my daddy can’t pay for it, so I have brought my  9     ."

    "How much do you have?" asked the man.

    "One dollar and eleven cents, _____10 ____I can try and get some more," she answered quietly.

    "Well, what a coincidence（巧合）," smiled the man. "A dollar and eleven cents? The  11     price of a miracle for little brothers. Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents."

    That well-dressed man was Dr Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon（外科醫(yī)生）. The operation was completed without   12     and it wasn’t long before __13__________was home again and doing well.

The little girl was____14______. She knew exactly how much the miracle cost ... one dollar and eleven cents ... plus the  15     of a little child.

A dog          B sister            C brother.         D father

A. tearful            B. helpless               C. hopeful                 D. kind

A. followed        B. made                C. took                      D. found

A. favor       B. doctor                C. hope                   D. miracle

A doctor        B mum            C family           D daddy

A. gently         B. sadly                C. strangely        D. coldly

A. well-dressed  B. kind-hearted     C. well-behaved       D. good-looking

A. a doctor      B. a surgeon        C. an operation      D. a kindness

A. suggestions     B. wishes         C. ideas                D. savings

A but          B when           C so              D because

A. same        B. exact            C. proper                 D. necessary

A. difficulty      B. delay            C. charge            D. result

A the chemist    B  the doctor    C Andrew          D the girl

A satisfy         B happy         C frightened        D angry

A. cleverness     B. faith           C. courage            D. devotion

He's an old cobbler （修鞋匠） with a shop in the Marais, a historic area in Paris．When I took him my shoes, he at first told me: "I haven't time．Take them to the other fellow on the main street; he'll fix them for you right away．"

But I'd had my eye on his shop for a long time. Just looking at his bench loaded with tools and pieces of leather, I knew he was a skilled craftsman (手藝人). "No," I replied, "The other fellow can't do it well."

"The other fellow" was one of those shopkeepers who fix shoes and make keys "while-U-wait" -- without knowing much about mending shoes or making keys. They work carelessly, and when they have finished sewing back a sandal strap (鞋帶) ,you might as well just throw away the pair.

My man saw I wouldn't give in, and he smiled. He wiped his hands on his blue apron (圍裙), looked at my shoes, had me write my name on one shoe with a piece of chalk and said, "Come back in a week."

    I was about to leave when he took a pair of soft leather boot off a shelf.

    "See what I can do " he said with pride. "Only three of us in Paris can do this kind of work."

When I got back out into the street, the world seemed brand-new to me. He was something out of an ancient legend, an old craftsman with his way of speaking familiarly, his pride in his craft.

These are times when nothing is important but the bottom line, when you can do things any old way as long as it "pays", when, in short, people look on work as a path to ever-increasing consumption (消費) rather than a way to realize their own abilities. In such a period,it is a rare comfort to find a cobbler who gets his greatest satisfaction from pride in a job well done.

Which of the following is true about the old cobbler?

    A．He was equipped with the best repairing tools.

    B．He was the only cobbler in the Marais.

    C．He was proud of his skills.

    D．He was a native Parisian.

The sentence "He was something out of an ancient legend." ( paragraph 7 ) implies that         .

    A．nowadays you can hardly find anyone like him

        B． it was difficult to communicate with this man

    C．the man was very strange

    D．the man was too old

According to the author, many people work just to         .

    A．realize their abilities B．gain happiness

    C．make money           D．gain respect

This story wants to tell us that       .

    A．craftsmen make a lot of money    B．whatever you do, do it well

    C．craftsmen need self-respect D．people are born equal

Happiness is U-shaped, for we are happier at the start and end of our lives but hit a slump when we are middle-aged, British and US researchers say.

Economists from the University of Warwick, central England, and from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, looked at data on the mental health of two million people from 80 countries.

In Britain, the probability of depression for men and women peaks at around 44 years of age, Warwick University said in a press release.

In the United States, though, ________________________between men and women. Among women, unhappiness peaked at around the age of 40, whereas among men, it was about 50.

But the U-shape of happiness is constant around the world, and mid-life depression occurs regardless of marital status（婚姻狀況）, changes in job or income.

The study appears in Social Science & Medicine, published by the Dutch publishing house Elsevier.

"It happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor, and to those with and without children.” said co-author Andrew Oswald.

One possibility may be that people realize they won't achieve many of their ambitions at middle age. The researchers said.

Another reason could be that after seeing their fellow middle-aged peers begin to die, people begin to value their own remaining years and embrace life once more.

But the good news is that if people make it to aged 70 and are still physically fit, they are on average as happy and mentally healthy as a 20-year old.

"For the average persons in the modern world, the dip in mental health and happiness comes on slowly, not suddenly in a single year," Oswald said. "Only in their fifties do people emerge from this low period.”

1. Which sentence in the passage is the closest in meaning to the following one?

There are chances that the middle-aged people will realize their ideal is likely to be unattainable.

__________________________________________________________________________

2. Fill in the blank in Paragraph 3 with a proper sentence．（within 10 words）

__________________________________________________________________________

3. How do you understand the sentence that “Happiness is U-shaped”? （within 20 words）

__________________________________________________________________________

4. Is mid-life depression a common Phenomenon in the world? How do you know? （within 15 words）

__________________________________________________________________________

5. Translate the underlined sentence in the last paragraph into Chinese

__________________________________________________________________________

How many people have I met who have told me about the book they have been planning to write but have never yet found the time ? Far too many.

    This is Life, all right, but we do treat it like a rehearsal (排演) and, unhappily, we do miss so many of its best moments.

    We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families always making ourselves believe that this style of life is merely a temporary state of affairs along the road to what we really want to do. Then, at 60 or 65, we are suddenly presented with a clock and several grandchildren and we look back and realize that all those years waiting for Real Life to come along were in fact real life.

    In  America they have a saying much laughed at by the English：“Have a nice day” they speak slowly and seriously in their shops, hotels and sandwich bars. I think it is a wonderful phrase, reminding us, in effect, to enjoy the moment: to value this very day.

    How often do we say to ourselves, "I'll take up horse-riding (or golf, or sailing) as soon as I get a higher position," only to do none of those things when I do get the higher position.

    When I first became a reporter I knew a man who gave up a very well paid respectable job at the Daily Telegraph to go and edit a small weekly newspaper. At the time I was astonished by what appeared to me to be his completely abnormal (反常的) mental state. How could anyone turn his back on Fleet Street in central London for a small local area？I wanted to know.

    Now I am a little older and possibly wiser, I see the sense in it. In Fleet Street the man was under continual pressure. He lived in an unattractive London suburb and he spent much of his life sitting on Southern Region trains.

1.

 The first paragraph of the passage tells us that          .

A. we always try to find some time to write a book

B. we always make plans but seldom fulfill them

C. we always enjoy many of life's best moments

D. we always do what we really want to do

2.

 The underlined phrase "turn his back on" (paragraph 6) most probably means         .

A. leave for           B. return to           C. give up           D. rely on

3.

 The man ( paragraph 6) left his first job partly because he was           .

A. in an abnormal mental state                B. under too much pressure

C. not well paid                            D. not respected

4.

 What is probably the best title for the passage?

A. Provide Homes For Our Family             B. Take Up Horse-riding

C. Value This Very Day                      D. Stay Alive

 

He's an old cobbler （修鞋匠） with a shop in the Marais, a historic area in Paris．When I took him my shoes, he at first told me: "I haven't time．Take them to the other fellow on the main street; he'll fix them for you right away．"

But I'd had my eye on his shop for a long time. Just looking at his bench loaded with tools and pieces of leather, I knew he was a skilled craftsman (手藝人). "No," I replied, "The other fellow can't do it well."

"The other fellow" was one of those shopkeepers who fix shoes and make keys "while-U-wait" -- without knowing much about mending shoes or making keys. They work carelessly, and when they have finished sewing back a sandal strap (鞋帶) ,you might as well just throw away the pair.

My man saw I wouldn't give in, and he smiled. He wiped his hands on his blue apron (圍裙), looked at my shoes, had me write my name on one shoe with a piece of chalk and said, "Come back in a week."

   I was about to leave when he took a pair of soft leather boot off a shelf.

   "See what I can do " he said with pride. "Only three of us in Paris can do this kind of work."

When I got back out into the street, the world seemed brand-new to me. He was something out of an ancient legend, an old craftsman with his way of speaking familiarly, his pride in his craft.

These are times when nothing is important but the bottom line, when you can do things any old way as long as it "pays", when, in short, people look on work as a path to ever-increasing consumption (消費) rather than a way to realize their own abilities. In such a period,it is a rare comfort to find a cobbler who gets his greatest satisfaction from pride in a job well done.

1.Which of the following is true about the old cobbler?

   A．He was equipped with the best repairing tools.

   B．He was the only cobbler in the Marais.

   C．He was proud of his skills.

   D．He was a native Parisian.

2.The sentence "He was something out of an ancient legend." ( paragraph 7 ) implies that         .

   A．nowadays you can hardly find anyone like him

   B． it was difficult to communicate with this man

   C．the man was very strange

   D．the man was too old

3.According to the author, many people work just to         .

   A．realize their abilities          B．gain happiness

   C．make money                       D．gain respect

4.This story wants to tell us that       .

   A．craftsmen make a lot of money    B．whatever you do, do it well

   C．craftsmen need self-respect      D．people are born equal