B

    When I was a little girl, my father loved to play catch (抛接球游戏) with me. I wasn't very good, but he would encourage me. He was always telling me “keep your eye on the ball” as I would not be able to catch even the easiest of throws.

    As I got older, we didn't play catch as much. If I had a problem, I would go to my father to ask for his advice. He would try to joke with me and say “keep your eye on the ball”. We would both laugh because usually that advice did not apply to(适用于) the problem, but he would try to make me smile.

    My father became ill in 1995 when I was 23. As he suffered from a stroke (中风), he could not speak. There weren't any more conversations. He could only mouth words, which were sometimes hard to understand. After a while, I seemed to be pretty good at reading his lips (嘴唇), even better than the nurses who were caring for him.

    During our last conversation, I was telling him about a problem I was having with my then boyfriend. Once again, I could read his lips： “Keep your eye on the ball.” We both smiled.

    That was the last time I saw my father before he passed away.

    Since then, when I get into a stressful situation I tell myself “keep your eye on the ball”.

阅读下列短文,从每小题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出一个最佳选项。

    The idea for the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone came to Joanne Kathleen Rowling in 1990. It took her seven years to finish writing it. During those seven years she had a number of jobs, including one job as an English teacher.

    Rowling sent the book to four publishers (出版社) before one of them bought it. She was very happy to sell her book because it was her life's dream to be a published writer. Before she sold her book, Rowling was living in a small apartment with her daughter and was so poor that she could not afford heat in the winter.

    Harry Potter became very successful with children and adults in England. The book also really took off in the United States. After her second and third books were published, the three Harry Potter books filled the top three places on many newspapers' lists of best-sellers. Then the books were made into popular movies. Without question, Rowling's life had completely changed, in just three years.

    Harry Potter books have now sold more than 30 million books around the world and have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. In 1997, Rowling was earning ￡70 a week.

    By the end of 2001, she had earned over ￡150 million, making her one of the most successful female writers of all time.

B

    People sometimes like to read stories of dogs very much. They think that dogs are much cleverer than cats, sheep, cows or other animals in their homes.

    One of my close friends, Bob, has a very large dog named Jack. Every Sunday afternoon, Bob and Jack have a walk in the park nearby. Jack likes these walks very much.

    One Sunday afternoon, I paid a visit to my friend. I stayed there for a long time and my friend and I had much more to talk with each other than ever before. Soon it was time for them to take a walk in the park. We forgot it. Jack became worried about it. He walked around the room several times and then sat down in front of me and looked at me. But we still paid no attention (注意) to him. I went on talking with my friend. At last, Jack could not wait any longer. He went out of the room and came back a few minutes later. He sat down in front of me again. But this time, he held my hat in his mouth. Suddenly, I understood what Jack meant and so did my friend.

    An American boy has made a cheap machine that can help blind people read.

    The blind can read by using Braille-a system of small bumps (隆起物) that the blind touch to read the letters. The machine that makes these small bumps usually costs at least $2,000. It is called Braille typewriter. The American schoolboy, Shu ham Banerjee, made a new Braille typewriter from a Lego tool that lets people create robots. Banerjee has called his new machine the Braigo-a combination(组合) of the words Braille and Lego. It costs just $350. It works by changing electronic texts into Braille and then printing it using a computer or a mobile machine.

    Banerjee designed (设计) his Braigo for a school science project. Since then, he has caught the interest of Silicon Valley in the USA. The big technology company Intel spent money on Banerjee's machine in November, but they did not say how much money they put in. Banerjee also got $ 35,000 from his father to help him start the project. His father works as a computer engineer (工程师) at Intel. He spoke about why he gave so much money to his son, saying, started to be interested more, thinking that he's on to something and this invention has to continue, dream would probably be having most of the blind people use my Braigo.

    As a student, I was the most afraid to answer questions in class, and I found that the students around were just like me. At the beginning of each class, when the teacher asked a question, I always lowered my head because I was afraid that the teacher would see me.

    One day, in a foreign language class, Mr. Black gave us a lesson, He wanted us to be active in class. So he asked us some questions, but no one answered. "Let me tell you a story first," he said. "When I went to the

United States to study, the university often invited famous people to make speeches. Before the beginning of every speech, I found an interesting thing.

    The students around me always took a cardboard folded(折叠的) in half wrote their names in bold with the most eye-catching colour, and then placed the cardboard on the seat. So when the speaker needed the answers from the students, he could see and call a listener's name directly.

I couldn't understand that. My classmate told me the speakers were all top people, who meant chances. When your answer was to his surprise, it meant he might give you more chances.

    In fact, I really saw a few students got great chances because of that after listening to the story, I understood that the chance will not find you itself. You must show yourself all the time so that you can find a chance.