When I was in seventh grade, I was a candy striper (护士助手) at a local hospital in my town. I volunteered about 30 to 40 hours a week during the summer. Most of the time I spent there was with Mr. Gillespie. He never has any visitors, and nobody seemed to care about his condition. I spent many days there holding his hand and talking to him, helping with anything that needed to be done. He became a close friend of mine, even though he responded with only an occasional squeeze (紧握) of my hand. Mr. Gillespie was in a coma (昏迷).

I left for a week for a vacation with my parents, and when I came back, Mr. Gillespie was gone. I didn’t have the courage to ask any of the nurses where he was, for fear they might tell me he had died. So with many questions unanswered, I continued to volunteer there through my eighth-grade year.

Several years later, when I was a junior in high school, I was at the gas station when I noticed a familiar face. When I realized who it was, my eyes were filled with tears. He was alive! I got up the nerve to ask him if he was Mr. Gillespie, and if he had been in a coma about five years ago. With an uncertain look on his face, he replied yes. I explained how I knew him, and that I had spent many hours talking to him in the hospital. His eyes welled up with tears, and he gave me the warmest hug I had ever received. He began to tell me how, as he lay there comatose (昏睡的), he could hear me talking to him and could feel me holding his hand the whole time. He thought it was an angel, who was there with him. Mr. Gillespie firmly believed that it was my voice and touch that had kept him alive. Then he told me about his life. We exchanged a hug, said our good-byes and went our separate ways.

Although I haven’t seen him since, he fills my heart with joy every day. I know that I made a difference between his life and his death. As importantly, he has made a great difference in my life. I will never forget him and what he did for me: He made me an angel.

21. When the author volunteered at a local hospital, she        .

A. mainly helped the nurses with their paper work

B. made up her mind to become a nurse herself one day

C. spent most of her time taking care of a man in a coma

D. became friends with Mr. Gillespie’s visitors

22. The author didn’t ask where Mr. Gillespie had gone because        .

A. she knew for sure that he had recovered

B. she forgot all about him when she returned to the hospital

C. she had been concerned that he might stay in coma forever

D. she feared that he might have died

23. Judging from the article, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. The author continued her volunteer work in the hospital until eighth-grade.

B. The author met Mr. Gillespie at a gas station several years later.

C. Mr. Gillespie recognized the author’s voice the moment he met her.

D. No one in the hospital believed that Mr. Gillespie would recover from his coma.

24. Which of the following statements best summarizes the point of the story?

A. Those with faith in themselves will succeed.

B. If you spread happiness you will be happy yourself.

C. Respect people and they will try hard to improve.

D. Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.

Good readers know that reading isn’t just about knowing words — it’s a way of thinking. Smart readers think before, during and after reading. Here are some tips that may be of some help.

    Think before you read. Before you read the text, ask yourself the questions why you are reading it and what you want to get from it. Answering the questions will help you choose what words you need to know and what words you can skip or scan.

    Think while you are reading. Can you get the meaning of the text without looking up new words in a dictionary? Are there any clues in the text? A text will often give examples that may help you understand what some of the words mean. Let’s take the following sentence for example: Many large Russian cities, such as Chelyabinsk and Irkutsk, have taken steps to protect their culture. The words “Chelyabinsk” and “Irkutsk” may be new to us, but the sentence tells us that they are examples of ______.

    Think after you read. Do you understand the text? What is the main idea of the text? Can you guess the meaning of the new words? Which words do you need to look up? Is the text too easy or too hard for you?

    If you practice reading and thinking in this way you will become a smarter reader and you will learn faster and better.

25. This passage is probably taken from _______.

A. a newspaper for general readers     B. a magazine for language teachers

C. a book for language learners          D. an advertisement for a new book

26. Which of the following can best be put in the blank in the passage?

A. countries             B. mountains             C. rivers             D. cities

27. The author of the passage advises us to do all the following EXCEPT_______.

A. we should think before, while and after we read a passage

B. we’d better look up every new word in a dictionary

C. we should learn to guess the meanings of new words

D. the clues in a passage should be made use of

Shopping for clothes is not the same experience for a man as it is for a woman. A man goes shopping because he needs something. His purpose is settled and decided in advance. He knows what he wants, and his objective is to find it and buy it; the price is a secondary consideration. All men simply walk into a shop and ask the assistant for what they want. If the shop has it in stock, the salesman promptly produces it, and the business of trying it on goes forward at once. All being well, the deal can be and often is completed in less than five minutes, with hardly any chat and to everyone's satisfaction. For a man, slight problems may begin when the shop does not have what he wants, or does not have exactly what he wants. In that case the salesman, as the name implies, tries to sell the customer something else, he offers the nearest he can to the article required. No good salesman brings out such a substitute without least consideration; he does so with skill and polish（完美）: “I know this jacket is not the style you want, sir, but would you like to try it for size. It happens to be the color you mentioned." Few men have patience with this treatment, and the usual response is: “This is the right color and may be the right size but I should be wasting my time and yours by trying it on.

    Now how does a woman go about buying clothes? In almost every respect she does so in the opposite way. Her shopping is not often based on need. She has never fully made up her mind what she wants, and she is only “having a look round". She is always open to persuasion: indeed she sets great store by what the saleswoman tells her, even by what companions tell her. She will try on any number of things. Uppermost in her mind is the thought of finding something that everyone thinks suits her. Contrary to a lot of jokes, most women have an excellent sense of value when they buy clothes. They are always on the lookout for the unexpected bargain. Faced with a roomful of dresses, a woman may easily spend an hour going from one rail to another, to and fro often retracing her steps, before selecting the dresses she wants to try on. It is a tiresome process, but apparently an enjoyable one. Most dress shops provide chairs for the waiting husbands.

28. According to the passage, a man’s shopping is based on _______.

29. Why does a lady welcome suggestions from anyone while buying a dress?

30. Which of the following statements is TURE according to the passage?

31. The passage mainly talks about the ______ between men shoppers and women shoppers for clothes.

As any homemaker who has tried to keep order at the dinner table knows, there is far more to a family meal than food. Sociologist Michael Lewis has been studying 50 families to find out just how much more.

Lewis and his co-workers carried out their study by videotaping (录像) the families while they ate ordinary meals in their own homes. They found that parents with small families talk actively with each other and their children. But as the number of children gets larger, conversation gives way to the parents’ efforts to control the loud noise they make. That can have an important effect on the children. “In general the more question-asking the parents do, the higher the children’s IQ scores,” Lewis says. “And the more children there are, the less question-asking there is.”

The study also provides an explanation for why middle children often seem to have a harder time in life than their siblings (兄弟姐妹). Lewis found that in families with three or four children, dinner conversation is likely to center on the oldest child, who has the most to talk about, and the youngest, who needs the most attention. “Middle children are invisible,” says Lewis. “When you see someone get up from the table and walk around during dinner, chances are it’s the middle child.” There is, however, one thing that stops all conversation and prevents anyone from having attention: “When the TV is on,” Lewis says, “dinner is a non-event.”

32. The writer’s purpose in writing the text is to _________.

   A. show the relationship between parents and children

   B. teach parents ways to keep order at the dinner table

   C. report on the findings of a study.   D. give information about family problems

33. Parents with large families ask fewer questions at dinner because _________.

   A. they are busy serving food to their children

   B. they are busy keeping order at the dinner table

   C. they have to pay more attention to younger children

   D. they are tired out having prepared food for the whole family

34. By saying “Middle children are invisible” in paragraph 3, Lewis means that middle children _________.

   A. have to help their parents to serve dinner

   B. get the least attention from the family

   C. are often kept away from the dinner table

   D. find it hard to keep up with other children

35. Which of the following statements would the writer agree to?

Everyone wants to be self-confident, but maybe we just don’t know how to be. Here are some tips on how you can feel more confident about yourself.

71   Everyone has shortcomings. When you have found your shortcomings, work to overcome them. If you are a shy person, take part in social activities, such as parties, and speak to at least one or two people there.

Second, try to spend more time with positive people. Successful and confident people have their own ways of settling problems.   72   

Third, set goals for yourself. With each goal you achieve, your self-confidence will increase.   73   We are afraid that we might lose. Stop thinking like that and give yourself a chance. 

Fourth, start each day with a sense of opportunity. 74   Think positively about yourself.  

    Actually everyone has his or her own way of becoming confident.  75  Friends might have useful suggestions, too. In short, as long as you try new things, you are sure to become more confident.

    A. Pay attention and learn from them.

    B. You should talk with your friends.

    C. First, don’t think about your weak points.

    D. It’s not always right to ask friends for help.[

    E. Sometimes We might be afraid of trying new things.

    F. Start your day by reading something encouraging.

    G. First, you should know what your weak points are.