While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of courage.
The event was swimming and started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them false started, so they were disqualified. That left only one to compete. It would have been difficult enough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock is important.
I watched the man dive off the block and knew right away that something was wrong. I’m not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was evident that the man was not out for gold – his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle. The crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.
I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was worn out.
But in those few awful strokes, the crowd had changed.
No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and shout “Come on, you can do it!” and he did.
A clear minute past the average swimmer, this young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought that he had won the gold, and he should have. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.
Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to Sydney.
In a competition where athletes remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act so proudly in front of their competitirs, it is nice to watch an underdog.
【小題1】From the passage we can learn that the young man        .

I will never forget what my old headmaster taught me. Normally when you are only 15          years of age you do not remember most of the things that are taught by your teachers. But this particular story is one such lesson that I will never forget. Every time I drift off course, I get reminded of this story.

It was a normal Monday morning, and he was making a speech to the students on important things in life and about devoting ourselves to what is important to us. This is how the story went:

An old man lived in a certain part of London, and he would wake up every morning and go to the subway. He would get the train right to Central London, and then sit at the street corner and beg. He would do this every single day of his life. He sat at the same street corner and begged for almost 20 years. His house was dirty, and a stench(惡臭)came out of the house and it smelled horrible. The neighbors could not stand the smell any more, so they asked the police officers to clear the place. The officers knocked down the door and cleaned the house. There were small bags of money all over the house that he had collected over the years.

The police counted the money, and they soon realized that the old man was a millionaire. They waited outside his house to tell the good news to him. When he arrived home that evening, he was met by one of the officers who told him that there was no need for him to beg any more as he was a rich man now, a millionaire. He said nothing at all; he went into his house and locked the door. The next morning he woke up as usual, went to the subway, got into the train, and sat at the street corner and continued to beg. Obviously, this old man had no great plans, dreams or anything important for his life. We learn nothing from this story other than staying focused on the things we enjoy doing.

59. The headmaster told the story to the students to__________.

A. make the students relaxed in the lesson             B. remind the students to think deeply

C. show how poor the old man was                            D. encourage the students to become rich

60. After hearing what the officer said, the old man_________.

A. believed the officer was playing a joke on him. B. didn't know many people respected him a lot.

C. was very angry to find his house broken into.     D. was not so excited as the officer had expected.

61. What did the author learn from the story?

A . One should devote himself to his dream.            B. The old man was foolish not to stop begging.

C. What the headmaster taught was very important.

D. People must have a plan before taking action.

62. Which word can best describe the author's attitude towards the old man?

A. Pity.           B. Disappointment.                 C. Respect.          D. Anger.

63. We know from the passage that ___________________.

the author had a big dream at the age of 15.         

B. the headmaster was popular with the students.

the old man begged every day without stopping.  

D. the neighbors took great pity on the old man.

BDACC 

Egypt: Bridging the Gap between School English and Real English

Teaching English in Egypt in general and in my town Damietta in particular, is mainly directed towards helping students to pass their final exams. Unfortunately, most teachers do not adopt a long -term approach that guarantees that their students will be able to use English outside the classroom. So students only concentrate on one skill which is writing. Thus their listening and speaking skills are disabled. What is important to them is to pass the exam which is primarily based on writing .Teachers are not only concentrated with providing their students with questions that are similar to those of the final exam, particularly General Secondary Education Certificate (GSEC) Examination, so students spend most of their time answering typical exam questions.

Most students' scores are high; a lot of students get full marks. However, few students are able to communicate in English because their role plays. As a result, a lot of students complain that they are unable to understand and talk fluently with native speakers of English.

To enable students to communicate freely and spontaneously(自然地) in English, I bring features of real communication into language practice, I always ask students about their own experiences, and suggest groups of students practice what they have learned outside the classroom. This helps lower-achieving students absorb language. Furthermore, role play is a very effective way to improve speaking skills particularly if it is connected to the experience of the students.

1.Who probably write this passage?

A. a teacher    B. a governor    C. a student    D. a reporter

2.In Egypt, the students only concentrate on ------

A. listening skill        B. speaking skill    C. reading skill         D. writing skill

3.The teachers question their students based on -------

A. what they learn in the class

B. What their parents expect

C. The questions that  are similar to those of GSEC

D. The ability that will be used outside the classroom

4.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A. Most of the students can't get high marks but can communicate with the native speakers of English.

B.  Communicating skill is more important than writing skill.

C. Role play connected to the speaker's experience is more effective

in improving his skill.

D. The lower--achieving students can do better in speaking skill than the upper achieving students.

5.Who will responsible for the gap between school English and real English?

A. Their parents      B. The students    C. The school          D. The education sys tem

Egypt: Bridging the Gap between School English and Real English
Teaching English in Egypt in general and in my town Damietta in particular, is mainly directed towards helping students to pass their final exams. Unfortunately, most teachers do not adopt a long -term approach that guarantees that their students will be able to use English outside the classroom. So students only concentrate on one skill which is writing. Thus their listening and speaking skills are disabled. What is important to them is to pass the exam which is primarily based on writing .Teachers are not only concentrated with providing their students with questions that are similar to those of the final exam, particularly General Secondary Education Certificate (GSEC) Examination, so students spend most of their time answering typical exam questions.
Most students' scores are high; a lot of students get full marks. However, few students are able to communicate in English because their role plays. As a result, a lot of students complain that they are unable to understand and talk fluently with native speakers of English.
To enable students to communicate freely and spontaneously(自然地) in English, I bring features of real communication into language practice, I always ask students about their own experiences, and suggest groups of students practice what they have learned outside the classroom. This helps lower-achieving students absorb language. Furthermore, role play is a very effective way to improve speaking skills particularly if it is connected to the experience of the students.
【小題1】Who probably write this passage?

B
The following passage is a healthy prescription (處方) of how we can approach life. It is not about being famous or being wealthy or about our good looks. Truly, it is all about love. There are times when we feel as if we are separated from the rest. This feeling creates a mental prison. Therefore, we should try to work hard to internally (內(nèi)在地) liberate ourselves by widening our circle of pity to accept all living things.
“Open your heart to others and try to understand,
When someone reaches for you, hold out to them your hand,
Follow your heart, no matter what other people say,
Do things that make you able to smile throughout your day,
Treat other people, the way you would like them to treat you,
Do what you know is right and to your heart and self stay true,
Remember what life is all about, it is how you make people feel,
What you do, where you go, and making dreams become real,
Helping people through, in hard times of pain and strife,
What you do for others, is what is important in this life.
Look deeper and don’t judge people by what is on the outside,
It is what is inside that counts and what people often hide,
Care, help, love, be honest, and be kind,
With purity and goodness within yourself, it is happiness you will find.
Do all you can in the time you have, you won’t always be around,
Recapture the joy of little things, that once were easily found,
And if you can do all this and live a life of love,
You will be helped through life, by all those up above.”
I will leave you with the inspiring words of our late genius, Albert Einstein:
“There are two ways to live life. One is as though nothing is a miracle (奇跡). The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
60. The passage is mainly about ______.
A. living a life of love                 B. helping those in need
C. taking back the joy of life            D. separating ourselves from others
61. According to the passage, which statement is true?
A. Treating others the way others treat you is right for your life.
B. Making your dream become real is selfish in your life.
C. Judging people by what is inside counts.
D. Doing what you can makes yourself happy.
62. The underlined sentence in the last paragraph probably means _________.
A. Different ways of life lead to completely different results
B. Life is not always full of miracles
C. There are two kinds of miracles in life
D. Looking for miracles in life helps people find happiness