B

For 52 years my father got up at 5:30 a.m. every morning, went to work, and returned home at 5:30 pm. I never saw my father stayed home from work ill, nor did I ever see my father lay down to take a nap(打盹). He had no hobbies, other than taking care of his family. All he asked from me, his daughter, was to help him while he was repairing something, so we could have some time to talk.

     For 22 years, after I left home for college, my father called me at 9:00 a.m. every Sunday. Nine years ago when I bought my first house, my father, 67 years old, spent eight hours a day for three days in the 80-degree Kansas heat, painting my house. He would not allow me to pay someone to have it done. All he asked for was a glass of iced tea. Five years ago, at age 71, my father spent five hours putting together a swing set for my daughter. Four years ago, my father drove all the way from Denver to Topeka, with an eight-foot Colorado Blue Spruce（云杉）in his truck, so that we could have a part of Colorado growing on our land. 

    On the morning of January 16, 1996, my sister telephoned me; my father was in the hospital with an aneurysm（动脉瘤）in Florida. I got on an airplane immediately, and on the way I realized that I hadn’t communicated with him as much as I’d always wanted to. I vowed（发誓） that when I arrived, I would have a long talk with him. I arrived in Florida at 1 a.m., only to find that my father, at the age of 76, had died at 9:12 p.m. This time it was he who did not have time to talk, or time to wait for me. 

55. From the first paragraph we can infer that the author’s father ______.

  A. was a good driver       B. sometimes fell ill   

  C.  was in good health     D. didn’t like sleeping

56. According to the last paragraph, we can know that the author’s father was born in ______.

  A. 1916           B. 1918             C.  1922      D. 1920 

57. The author wrote the passage in order to ______.

A. remember her father         B. praise her father  

C. introduce her father     D. make her father known

C

“How are you?” is a nice question. It’s a friendly way that people in the United States greet each other. But “How are you?” is also a very unusual question. It’s a question that often doesn’t have an answer. The person who asks “How are you?” hopes to hear the answer “Fine.”, even if the person’s friend isn’t fine. The reason is that “How are you?” isn’t really a question and “Fine.” isn't really an answer. They are simply other way of saying “Hello!” or “Hi!”.

Sometimes, people also don’t say exactly what they mean. For example, when someone asks, “Do you agree?”, the other person might be thinking, “No, I disagree. I think you’re wrong…” But it isn’t very polite to disagree strongly, so the other person might say “I’m not sure…”. It’s a nice way to say that you don’t agree with someone.

People also don’t say exactly what they are thinking when they finish talking with other people. For example, many talks over the phone finish when one person says “I’ve to go now.” Often, the person who wants to hang up gives an excuse, “Someone is at the door.” “Something is burning on the stove.” The excuses might be real, or it might not. Perhaps the person who wants to hang up simply doesn’t want to talk any more, but it isn’t polite to say that. The excuse is more polite, and it doesn’t hurt the other person.

When they are greeting each other, talking about an idea, or finishing a talk, people often don’t say exactly what they are thinking. It’s an important way that people try to be nice to each other, and it’s also a part of the game of language.

58. When a person in the United States asks “How are you?”, he or she wants to hear “______”.

A. How are you? B. Hello! C. I don’t know. D. Fine.

59. When a person wants to disagree with someone, it is polite to say “_____”.

A. You’re wrong. I disagree. B. I’m not sure.

C. I’m sure I disagree. D. No, I disagree.

60. When a person says “I’ve to go now. Someone is at the door.”, he or she may be _____.

A. giving an excuse B. hurting someone’s feeling

C. talking to a person at the door D. going to another place

61. One of the rules of the game of language is probably “________”.

A. Always say what you mean.

B. Don’t disagree with people.

C. Never say exactly what you’re thinking.

D. Being polite is the best policy.
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