One day, Raul was miles away from the small ranch（牧场）house in a large valley.    36     seemed to be all right,yet he felt strange and somewhat uneasy. The wind had picked up,and angry,dark clouds    37      across the sky. He could smell the rain coming. And it did.   38   , the lightning flashed through the clouds, nearly    39     Raul. The thunder（雷声）was so loud that he buried his    40     in his hands and rubbed his eyes. Then he heard it. Hoofbeats (蹄声). He   41   . There before him stood a tall, white    42    . An old man stared down at him from its back.
“Wh-wh-who are y-y-you?” asked Raul. “My name is Gray Cloud,” the old man answered   43  , “Come with me.”
Raul followed on his horse. A    44     feeling came over him. All    45     them the rain was pouring down,   46     not a drop fell on them. They seemed to be    47     back toward Raul’s home. Raul lost track of time. Then all at once he found    48     at the ranch gate. The old man turned his horse,   49      his hand, and smiled. Lightning flashed again. The old man and his horse were    50    .
Raul’s father ran out across the yard to    51     him. “We have been    52     sick about you. Are you okay? Hurry. Let’s get in out of the    53   .”
“Wait,” said Raul. “Have you ever heard of an old man called Gray Cloud?”
“Can’t say I…wait. I    54     my great-grandfather used to tell stories about a man called Gray Cloud. He died a long time ago. They say he was    55     by lightning during a terrible thunderstorm. Why do you ask?”
36. A. Something     B. Everything         C. Anything          D. Nothing
37. A. dropped         B. fell               C. rolled            D. covered
38. A. Suddenly        B. Strongly           C. Quickly           D. Hardly
39. A. beating          B. blinding           C. burning                  D. touching
40. A. nose            B. hair              C. neck              D. head
41. A. looked up        B. woke up          C. lay down                 D. sat down
42. A. tiger            B. horse             C. lion              D. elephant
43. A. lazily           B. angrily             C. coldly            D. slowly
44. A. natural          B. common          C. strange             D. bad
45. A. around          B. beside            C. through           D. above
46. A. yet              B. for                      C. so                 D. or
47. A. walking         B. leading           C. heading           D. returning
48. A. them          B. themselves          C. him              D. himself
49. A. shook          B. waved            C. held              D. took
50. A. gone          B. left                C. followed          D. lost
51. A. see             B. meet             C. beat              D. ask
52. A. waited          B. thought           C. worried            D. excited
53. A. yard            B. wind             C. grass               D. rain
54. A. believe          B. consider            C. doubt              D. forget
55. A. defeated         B. caught             C. damaged          D. struck
第三部分      阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分,满分40分）
A
I was the middle child of three, but there was a gap of five years on either side,and I hardly saw my father before I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely. I had the lonely child’s habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons,and I think from the very start my literary ambitions（文学志向）were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated（孤独）and undervalued. I knew that I had a natural ability with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts,and I felt that this created a sort of private world in which I could get my own back for my failure in everyday life.
However, the quantity of serious writing which I produced all through my childhood would not add up to half a dozen pages. I wrote my first poem at the age of four or five,my mother taking it down to dictation. I cannot remember anything about

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