本文作者： 北京 郭文华
A

Years ago, I drove into a service station to get some gas. It was a beautiful day, and I was feeling great. As I walked into the station to 1 the gas, the owner said to me, “How do you feel?” That seemed like a 2 question, but I felt fine and told him 3 .

“You don’t look well,” he replied. This 4 me completely by surprise. A little less 5 , I told him that I had never felt better. Without 6 , he continued to tell me how bad I looked and that my skin appeared 7 .

By the time I left the service station, I was feeling a little 8 . About a block away, I 9 to the side of the road to look at my face in the mirror. How did I feel? Was I sick? Was everything all right? By the time I got home, I was beginning to feel a little ill. Did I have hepatitis (肝炎)? Had I 10 some rare disease?

The next time I went into that gas station, feeling fine again, I 11 what had happened. The place had recently been painted a bright yellow, and the light 12 off the walls made everyone inside look as though they had hepatitis! I wondered how many other folks had 13 the way I did. I had let one short conversation with a total stranger change my 14 for an entire day. He told me I looked sick, and before long, I was 15 feeling sick. That single 16 observation had a strong effect on the way I felt and 17 .

A little while later I saw how 18 the incident was, although on that day when the man had told me how ill I looked, I was 19 frightened. I wonder how many other people that man had told they were ill 20 he realized that the service station had had a paint job!

1. A. ask for B. search for C. hope for D. pay for

2. A. strange B. simple C. common D. familiar

3. A. this B. not C. so D. such

4. A. made B. put C. caused D. took

5. A. anxiously B. confidently C. carefully D. seriously

6. A. doubt B. certainty C. hesitation D. difficulty

7. A. pale B. yellow C. brown D. colorless

8. A. positive B. relaxed

C. unconscious D. uneasy

9. A. pulled over B. pulled in

C. got across D. ran over

10. A. took up B. picked up

C. referred to D. recovered from

11. A. made sure B. thought up

C. called up D. figured out

12. A. reflecting B. shining C. coming D. falling

13. A. impressed B. influenced C. behaved D. reacted

14. A. idea B. mind C. attitude D. plan

15. A. completely B. naturally C. actually D. easily

16. A. strange B. careful C. opposite D. negative

17. A. did B. performed C. acted D. worked

18. A. annoying B. funny C. boring D. disappointing

19. A. never B. ever C. really D. hardly

20. A. after B. before C. until D. when

B

Lonnie Ali was six years old and had just gotten home from school in Louisville, Kentucky, when she saw a crowd of boys 1 around a handsome young man 2 a white shirt, a bow tie, and black dress pants. “Look,” said her mother, standing in the doorway, “that’s Cassius Clay.”

Clay, who would soon 3 the first of three heavyweight boxing titles and take the Muslim name Muhammad Ali, made a 4 of calling the shy little girl over. When she was 17, Lonnie says, she realized that she would 5 him someday – “I knew it was 6 ,” she says. Twelve years later, she did, becoming the boxer’s fourth wife. Muhammad had recently been told he had Parkinson’s disease, but the diagnosis didn’t 7 Lonnie.

She had to learn to 8 what she can’t control. Muhammad is still a big man, the result of 9 every day. But his disease means that this man of unparalleled physical gifts now walks with 10 ; once famous for his jokes, he often sits in 11 . “I’ve been with him for so long, I can basically look at him and 12 what he wants and needs,” Lonnie says.

Yet the illness can 13 only so much, and Muhammad still has plenty he wants to do. A quarter of a century into his 14 with Parkinson’s disease, he’s taking piano lessons. Early in his disease, Muhammad 15 the spotlight. “He used to play to the camera, but the camera was no longer his friend,” Lonnie says. But then he made a(n) 16 with Michael J. Fox, also a Parkinson’s sufferer, who has been open about his own movement problems.

Now Muhammad Ali doesn’t 17 what people think when they see him. Early this year, in a(n) 18 for National Public Radio’s “This I Believe,” the boxing legend wrote about carrying the Olympic torch to light the cauldron at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta and realizing that his shaking had taken over. “I heard a rumble in the stadium that became a pounding roar and then turned into a 19 applause,” he wrote. He understood then that Parkinson’s had not 20 him.

1. A. gathered B. drove C. looked D. moved

2. A. at B. with C. on D. in

3. A. offer B. win C. lose D. achieve

4. A. choice B. plan C. point D. note

5. A. marry B. serve C. assist D. hurt

6. A. luck B. preference C. accident D. fate

7. A. trick B. affect C. fool D. amaze

8. A. accept B. suffer C. avoid D. enjoy

9. A. staying up B. making up C. working out D. crying out

10. A. ease B. concern C. difference D. difficulty

11. A. silence B. darkness C. peace D. excitement

12. A. say B. speak C. ask D. tell

13. A. steal B. involve C. endure D. produce

14. A. contact B. struggle C. access D. cure

15. A. kept up withB. got along with C. looked out for D. shied away from

16. A. appearance B. story C. plan D. journey

17. A. suppose B. hate C. expect D. care

18. A. interview B. essay C. program D. concert

19. A. quiet B. noisy C. deafening D. sharp

20. A. defeated B. prevented C. cheated D. interrupted