第二部分：阅读理解（第一节20小题，第二节5小题，每小题2分，满分50分）

第一节：阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

A

I grew up in a small town. My father raised chickens and ran a construction company. I was only 10 years old when my dad gave me the responsibility of feeding the chickens and cleaning up the stable. He believed it was important for me to have those jobs to learn responsibility. Then, when I was 22, I found a job in Natchbill at a country music club called the Natchbill Palace. I washed dishes and cooked from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm and then went on stage and sang until 2:00 in the morning. It wasn’t long before I became known as a singing cook. I had been rejected so many times by record companies that it was hard not to be discouraged. One night, a woman executive(董事) from a company named Warner Brothers Records came to hear me sing. When the show was over, we sat down and talked and after she left, I said to myself it was one more rejection. A few weeks later, my manager received a phone call— Warner Brothers wanted to sign me to a record deal. Soon after, I released my first record in June, 1986. It sold over 2 million copies. My best efforts had gone into every job I’ve ever held. It was the sense of responsibility that made me feel like a man. Knowing that I had done my best filled me with pride. I still feel that way today, even though I have become a well-known singer.

41. Why was the writer once known as a singing cook?

A. He was a cook at a country music club.

B. He sang for guests while he worked as a cook.

C. He often sang while cooking.

D. He liked singing better than cooking.

42. Who first recognized his talents and helped make his career successful?

A. His brother.    B. His manager.    C. His father.    D. A businesswoman.

43. What made the writer proud of himself?

A. His ability to live independently.

B. His sense of responsibility in whatever he did.

C. His courage in the face of rejections.

D. His hard work in his early days.

44. We can infer from the passage that       .

A. the writer’s success is partly due to his father

B. the writer’s family was very poor

C. the writer succeeded easily

D. the writer’s first record was a total failure

B

Jane Austen, a famous English writer, was born at Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, and died on July 18, 1817. She began writing early in life, although the prejudices(偏见) of her times forced her to have her books published anonymously(匿名).

But Jane Austen is perhaps the best known and best loved of Bath’s many famous local people and visitors. She paid two long visits here during the last five years of the eighteenth century and from 1801 to 1806, Bath was her home. Her deep knowledge of the city is fully seen in two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, which are largely set in Bath. The city is still very much as Jane Austen knew it, keeping in its streets and public buildings the well-ordered world that she described so well in her novels. Now the pleasure of learning Jane Austen’s Bath can be enhanced(增强) by visiting the Jane Austen Centre in Gay Street. Here, in a Georgian town house in the heart of the city, you can find out more about Bath in Jane Austen’s time and the importance of Bath in her life and work.