51. A. risky B. inconvenient C. embarrassing D. boring

52. A. abandon B. abolish C. cause D. prevent

53. A. However B. Therefore C. Besides D. Instead

54. A. disadvantages   B. feelings C. mistakes D. dangers

55. A. motivations B. possibilities C. reputations D. consequences

第三部分：阅读理解(共20小题; 每小题2分，满分40 分)

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中， 选出最佳选项。

A

It was blazing hot, just like most July days. I stepped into a tiny ice-cream shop to cool off with a chocolate ice-cream. It was an old woman bent over a table near the door. Her back was so badly twisted that her face nearly touched the tabletop. I sat down facing her a couple of tables away.

“Poor woman,” I thought, “What does she get out of life? Why God let people live so long past their prime?”

As I thought, another aged lady entered the shop and sat down with her. Soon the two of them were talking about childhood days. They talked of how little the shop had changed in 70 years... In minutes, the two of them were trembling with laughter.

I looked again at the first woman, then in the mirror on a nearby wall, catching a picture of myself. I was wearing a dirty shirt. She was well dressed in white, her hands sparking with gold rings. I was sad. She was laughing, smiling. I was putting the pieces of my life together. She had millions of wonderful memories to recall. I sat alone. She was sharing the day with a good friend. I was secretly worried about getting old. She was old, but it wasn’t hurting her.

As I left the shop, I thought of my foolish question about God letting people live past their prime. Why, that woman was more alive, more sensitive to life than I was. Age has not bent her spirit.

56. From the passage we know that the ice-shop _________.

A. changed a lot in the past            B. started its business 70 years ago

C. had only a couple of tables          D. had only women shoppers.

57. The writer implies all of the following except that _________.

A. the old lady had lived a full and satisfying life

B. the writer had more problems than the old lady

C. the old lady was very lonely and sad

D. the old lady had learned to enjoy the simple things in life

58. What is the meaning of the underlined word “prime” in this passage?

A. miserable life                  B. wonderful experience

C. long career                    D. time of great strength, beauty, vigor(活力)

59. Which of the following is the conclusion the writer made about the old lady?

A. She was more alive and sensitive to life than the writer.

B. She considered the young man pitiable.

C. She was to be pitied for her old age.

D. People should not be allowed to live when they are too old.

60. Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?

A. To tell us the life of old people

B. To show that old age does not mean being short of spirit.

C. To show the difference between the old and the young.

D. To make the reader have a pity on the old people.

B

You may not pay much attention to your daily elevator ride. Many of us use a lift several times during the day without really thinking about it. But Lee Gray, PhD, of the University of North Carolina, US, has made it his business to examine this overlooked form of public transport. He is known as the “Elevator Guy”.

“The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette (礼仪) is sort of odd (奇怪的),” Gray told the BBC. “They [elevators] are socially very interesting but often very awkward places.”

We walk in and usually turn around to face the door. If someone else comes in, we may have to move. And here, according to Gray, liftusers unthinkingly go through a set pattern of movements. He told the BBC what he had observed.

He explained that when you are the only one inside a lift, you can do whatever you want – it’s your own little box.

If there are two of you, you go into different corners, standing diagonally (对角线地) across from each other to create distance.

When a third person enters, you will unconsciously form a triangle. And when there is a fourth person it becomes a square, with someone in every corner. A fifth person is probably going to have to stand in the middle.

New entrants to the lift will need to size up the situation when the doors slide open and then act decisively. Once in, for most people the rule is simple – look down, or look at your phone.

Why are we so awkward in lifts?

“You don’t have enough space,” Professor Babette Renneberg, a clinical psychologist at the Free University of Berlin, told the BBC. “Usually when we meet other people we have about an arm’s length of distance between us. And that’s not possible in most elevators.”

In such a small, enclosed space it becomes very important to act in a way that cannot be construed (理解) as threatening or odd. “The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye contact,” she said.

61.The main purpose of the article is to _____.

A. remind us to enjoy ourselves in the elevator

B. share an interesting but awkward elevator ride

C. tell us some unwritten rules of elevator etiquette

D. analyze what makes people feel awkward in an elevator

62. According to Gray, when people enter an elevator, they usually _____.

A. turn around and greet one another        B. look around or examine their phone

C. make eye contact with those in the elevator

D. try to keep a distance from other people

63. Which of the following describes how people usually stand when there are at least two people in an elevator?

A. Door             B. Door            C. Door           D.Door

(The point in the chart refers to one person.)

64. The underlined phrase “size up” in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to _____.

A. judge    B. ignore   C. put up with   D. make the best of

65. According to the article, people feel awkward in lifts because of _____.

A. someone’s odd behaviors     B. the lack of space

C. their unfamiliarity with one another   D. their eye contact with one another

C

From now on, never spend your precious time thinking of reasons for your failures and shortcomings. Instead, realize that the seeds of success were planted within you when you were born. Only you have the power to make those seeds grow.

The seeds, and the power to grow them,  are contained in the most awesome machine ever created：the human mind. Success is a choice and not a chance. You were born a winner. You were born rich. You can be a success if only you make the right choice.

You cannot be successful without first developing your self-esteem. Your level of self-esteem is always based on the degree of control that you are able to exercise over yourself, and thus over your life. People with low self-esteem are people who do not believe that they have any power, or responsibility for their lives. They are the perennial(长期的) victims and martyrs(殉道者). They are leaves tossed(摇摆) by the winds of chance blown about with any sudden change in the weather.

You can exercise control over your life only to the degree that you believe that you are responsible for everything that happens in your life. Failures think that everything happens by accident and chance. Successful people realize that they are responsible.

Everything happens as a result of something. If we can identify the cause, we can control the effect. We are responsible for what we choose to think and believe. One generally rises to the level that one expects. We are responsible for setting our expectations. Our success is dependent upon our level of confidence.

If you associate with positive-thinking people, you are definitely going to achieve success. On the contrary, the opposite happens. We are responsible for finding, planting, and nurturing the seeds that contain future victory, born from setbacks.

In short, in all areas of your life, whether they be financial, physical, emotional, or spiritual, you are responsible. Once you recognize this, accept it, and firmly believe it, you are on the road to success.

66. People with low self-esteem are compared to leaves because they ______.

A. can’t exercise control over themselves   B. are ready to change their minds

C. don’t have the power to face their fate   D. are easily affected by windy weather

67. Losers would think that ______.

A. success is the result of hard work          B. their failure is only because of bad luck

C. working hard will lead to success      D. they don’t make efforts to succeed

68. It can be inferred from paragraph 5 that ______.

A. setting our expectations is essential before taking action

B. developing confidence is the key to future success

C. thoughts and beliefs are the result of creative mind

D. whether we will succeed depends on our attitudes

69. The last paragraph serves as ______.

A. the proof of the author’s points                B. an introduction to another topic

C. the conclusion of the argument                D. a comparison between two views

70. Which is the best title for the text?

A. Develop our confidence.                       B. The secrets of success.

C. How to achieve success.                D. Success is a choice.

D

Janelle was running late for work, so she just had time for a quick look at herself in the mirror as she was going out. What she saw there made her stop dead in her tracks.

Being a busy college student just one year removed from her teenage years, she wasn’t exactly obsessive-compulsive(有强迫观念和行为的) about the neatness of her clothes. But her boss at the restaurant where she works saw things a little differently. He had recently lectured the entire staff on the importance of appearance, and had specifically mentioned the need for servers to wear clean, unwrinkled blouses. As an assistant manager, Janelle felt it was important to set an example for the other employees. But if she stopped to iron the blouse normally, she would be late —and arriving at the right time was an area of even greater concern to her boss.

So she grabbed her iron and plugged it in and set it for low  heat. Carefully holding her blouse away from her body, she continued to iron it while she was wearing it. It seemed like a logical answer to an urgent problem.

And it seemed to be working until Janelle tried to iron the collar and accidentally ironed her neck by mistake. Then it suddenly seemed like a really stupid idea and a really painful one as well. It took more time to treat her burn than it would have taken to iron her shirt properly. And she spent a miserable shift dealing with the pain of the burn.

We’ve all been there, haven’t we? For me it was cutting my own hair. For a former roommate it was trying to pull his own wisdom teeth. For another college acquaintance, it was trying to change the oil in his car while the motor was still running.

“There’s a right way and a wrong way of doing things,” Dad used to tell me whenever I’d spoil the look of our yard by trying out a faster, easier and more creative way of pulling weeds or edging the lawn. “If a thing is worth doing,” he said, “it’s worth doing it right.” There’s a reason why certain things are done in certain ways. Those old, boring, predictable ways work.