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中，选出最佳选项，并在答题纸上将该选项标号涂黑。
A
Nate suffered a hard blow when he lost his job. His boss had spoken rudely, “Your services are no longer needed.” Nate left the building filled with despair. By the time he reached home, he was in a deep depression. When he entered his house, he blurted out to his wife Sophia, “I lost my job. I am a complete, utter failure.” A tense silence followed. Then a smile crept across Sophia’s face. “What great news!” she responded.
“Now you can write the book you have always wanted to write.”
“But I have no job and no prospect of a job,” YC he objected, completely without hope. “If I struggle to be an author, then what will we live on? Where will the money come from?” Sophia took her husband by the hand and led him to the kitchen. Opening a drawer, she took out a box that was full of cash. “Where on earth did you get this?” Nate gasped. “To whom does it belong?”
“It’s ours!” Sophia replied. “I always knew that one day you would become a great writer if only you were given the chance. From the money you gave me for housekeeping every week, I have saved as much as I could so you would have your chance. Now there is enough to last us a whole year.”
What a surprise! What encouragement! What a wife! The unemployed husband did concentrate on writing that year, and the novel he wrote became a literary masterpiece. The book is The Scarlet Letter. Sophia had an even greater achievement, and she turned Nathaniel Hawthorne from a poor clerk into a world famous master.
41．Which of the following can be inferred from the first paragraph?
A．Sophia was very disappointed to hear the news
B．Nate was too sad to speak any more
C．Sophia was thinking of how to encourage Nate
D．Neither husband nor wife had any idea what to do
42．Sophia saved money because ______.
A．she knew her husband would lose his job one day
B．she knew their life would be in difficulty
C．she was very careful with money
D．she was trying to help her husband in every possible way
43．From the passage we can know that Sophia was ______.
A．kind and brave B．careful and encouraging
C．friendly and warm-hearted D．honest and determined
44．What would be the best title for the passage?
A．Sophia’s Achievement. B．A great writer’s struggle to success.
C．Great encouragement in hard times. D．Failure is the mother of success.