【推荐1】Mr. Lee was in bed and was trying to go to sleep when he heard the bell ring. He turned on the light and looked at his clock. It was twelve o’clock. Who can it be at this time of night? He thought. He decided to go and find out. So he got off bed, put on his dressing gown (浴袍) and went to the door. When he opened the door, there was nobody there. That is very strange. Then he went back to his bedroom, took off his dressing gown, got back into bed, turned off the light and tried to go to sleep.

A few minutes later, he heard the bell again. Mr. Lee jumped out of bed very quickly and rushed to the door. He opened it, but again he found no one there. He closed the door and tried not to feel angry. Then he saw a piece of paper on the floor. He picked it up. There were some words on it: It is now after midnight, so it is April Fool’s Day. April fool to you.

Oh, it was the English boy next door! Mr. Lee exclaimed (惊叫) and almost smiled. He went back to bed and fell asleep at once. The bell did not ring again.

1. Mr. Lee was trying to go to sleep when he heard ________.

A．the telephone

B．the bell ring

C．someone knock at the door

D．someone shout

2. He turned on the light and ________.

A．got out of bed	B．looked out of the window
C．looked at his watch	D．looked at his clock

3. When he opened the door for the first time, there was ________ there.

A．a boy

B．a piece of paper

C．someone

D．nobody

4. The English boy rang the bell because he ________.

A．had something important to tell Mr. Lee	B．wanted to give Mr. Lee something
C．wanted to make fun of Mr. Lee	D．wanted to borrow Mr. Lee’s bell

5. In the end, what do you think of Mr. Lee’s feeling?

A．Happy.

B．Angry.

C．Sad.

D．Well.

【推荐2】In my childhood, my mother spent her evening hours doing something for someone else. Sometimes she knitted(编织)hats for babies, and at other times, she cooked chicken soup for sick neighbors. Therefore, I wasn’t surprised when one evening my mother announced she had undertaken a new project.

“I am going to telephone seniors,” said my mother. “Every night? But you don’t even know these people.” “It doesn’t matter,” she said, “What’s important is that I listen.”

I was sixteen years old and couldn’t understand why my mother was willing to spend her evenings talking to strangers. She had friends and my two older sisters to call if she felt lonely. “They will talk your ear off. Some people didn’t even stop to catch breath.” I said.

My attitude didn’t stop my mother’s enthusiasm for the project. That evening, she settled on the sofa and dialed. When she finished the call, I said, “Why do you care whether she had cookies or rice pudding for dessert? ” My mother grasped one of my hands and said in a proud tune, “I’m the only person she talked to today.”

It took me more than thirty years to fully understand the meaning of that statement. Now, as my mother is near eighty, I find myself thinking about those nightly calls she used to make. I am often the only person who telephones my mother, and sometimes I’m the only person she speaks to all day. I ask her what she cooked for dinner, but mostly I just listen as she describes a walk she took, or how her dog Lucky stole foods from the refrigerator. I realize that my mother’s calls were life lines that ensured housebound seniors remained connected to the world. Without her, their world would have been empty.

1. What is the mother’s purpose of calling the seniors?

A．To improve their living conditions.

B．To inquire their eating habits.

C．To ease their loneliness.

D．To teach them surviving skills.

2. What does the underlined part in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Speak all the time.	B．Blame others’ behaviours.
C．Miss important information.	D．Hurt your hearing.

3. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．The author started to telephone seniors as her mother.

B．The author realized the value of her mother’s efforts.

C．The author’s mother preferred to live alone.

D．The author’s mother remained connected to the world.

4. What is the suitable title for the passage?

A．Seniors’comfort

B．Mother’s evenings

C．Aging:my concern

D．Nightly calls, lifeline calls

【推荐3】My color television has given me nothing but a headache. I was able to buy it a little over a year ago because I had my relatives give me money for my birthday instead of a lot of clothes that wouldn’t fit. I let a salesclerk fool me into buying a discontinued model. I realized this a day later, when I saw newspaper advertisements for the set at seventy-five dollars less than I had paid. The set worked so beautifully when I first got it home that I would keep it on until stations signed off for the night. Fortunately, I didn’t get any channels showing all-night movies or I would never have gotten to bed.

Then I started developing a problem with the set that involved static(静电) noise. For some reason, when certain shows switched into a commercial, a loud noise would sound for a few seconds. Gradually, this noise began to appear during a show, and to get rid of it, I had to change to another channel and then change it back. Sometimes this technique would not work, and I had to pick up the set and shake it to remove the sound. I actually began to build up my arm muscles(肌肉) shaking my set.

When neither of these methods removed the static noise, I would sit helplessly and wait for the noise to go away. At last I ended up hitting the set with my fist, and it stopped working altogether. My trip to the repair shop cost me $62, and the set is working well now, but I keep expecting more trouble.

1. Why did the author say he was fooled into buying the TV set?

A．He got an older model than he had expected.

B．He couldn’t return it when it was broken.

C．He could have bought it at a lower price.

D．He failed to find any movie shows on it.

2. How did the author finally get his TV set working again?

A．By shaking and hitting it.	B．By turning it on and off.
C．By switching channels.	D．By having it repaired.

3. How does the author sound when telling the story?

A．Curious.	B．Anxious.
C．Cautious.	D．Humorous.

【推荐2】A Narrow Escape

Shortly after the war, my brother and I were invited to spend a few days’ holiday with an uncle who had just returned from abroad. He had rented a cottage in the country, although he hardly spent much time there. We understood the reason for this after our arrival: the cottage had no comfortable furniture in it. Many of the windows were broken and the roof leaked (漏水), making the whole house wet.

On our first evening, we sat around the fire after supper listening to the stories our uncle told of his many adventures in distant countries. I was so tired after the long train journey that I would have preferred to go to bed; but I could not bear to miss any of my uncle’s exciting stories. He was just in the middle of describing a rather terrifying experience he had once had when there was a loud crash from the bedroom above, the one where my brother and I were going to sleep.

When we got to the top of the stairs and opened the bedroom door, a strange sight met our eyes. A large part of the ceiling had fallen right on to the pillow of my bed.

1. The uncle disliked the rented cottage for the reason that________.

A．there were no beds in it

B．the windows were broken and the roof leaked

C．it was too old for him to live in

D．it was very rainy in the area

2. On the first evening, the writer was very sleepy, ________.

A．but he did his best not to miss any stories

B．so he had to go to bed early

C．because he was tired of his uncle’s stories

D．and he was gradually falling asleep while listening

3. The writer was attentively listening to a story________.

A．which his uncle read in a book

B．which was very funny

C．when his brother cried for being afraid

D．when he heard a loud crash from the bedroom

4. If the writer had not been able to stay up late,________.

A．his uncle would have stopped telling stories

B．his uncle would have been very sorry

C．he would have been injured or killed

D．his brother wouldn’t have been, either

5. A narrow escape means________.

A．A person runs away from a danger through a narrow door.

B．A person escapes a danger by luck.

C．A person escapes a danger easily.

D．A person runs away from a danger easily.