【推荐1】Zachariah Fike has an unusual hobby. He finds old military (军队的) medals for sale in antique stores and on the Internet. But unlike most collectors, Zac tracks down the medals’ rightful owners, and returns them.

His effort to reunite families with lost medals began with a Christmas gift from his mother, a Purple Heart with the name Corrado A. G. Piccoli, found in an antique shop. Zac knows the meaning of a Purple Heart—he earned one himself in a war as a soldier. So when his mother gave him the medal, he knew right away what he had to do.

Through the Internet, Zac tracked down Corrado’s sister Adeline Rockko. But when he finally reached her, the woman flooded him with questions: “Who are you? What antique shop?” However, when she hung up, she regretted the way she had handled the call. So she called Zac back and apologized. Soon she drove to meet Zac in Watertown, N.Y. “At that point, I knew she meant business,” Zac says. “To drive eight hours to come to see me.”

The Piccolis grew up the children of Italian immigrants in Watertown. Corrado, a translator for the Army during WWII, was killed in action in Europe.

Before hearing from Zac, Adeline hadn’t realized the medal was missing. Like many military medals, the one Zac’s mother had found was a family treasure. “This medal was very precious to my parents. Only on special occasions (场合) would they take it out and let us hold it in our hands,” Adeline says.

As a child, Adeline couldn’t understand why the medal was so significant. “But as I grew older,” Adeline says, “and missed my brother more and more, I realized that was the only thing we had left.” Corrado Piccoli’s Purple Heart medal now hangs at the Italian American Civic Association in Watertown.

Zac recently returned another lost medal to a family in Alabama. Since he first reunited Corrado’s medal, Zac says his record is now 5 for 5.

Where did Zac get a Purple Heart medal for himself?

A．In the army.

B．In an antique shop.

C．From his mother.

D．From Adeline Rockko.

【推荐3】About five weeks ago, I noticed the skin of our pet lizard (蜥蜴) was growing dusty. It worried me. I reported the strange surface on the skin of the lizard to my husband and children the next morning. Seconds later, our lizard emerged from its tank with its old skin flowing behind it.

I didn’t think about it much until a morning last week when I knocked my favorite teapot off the table. It burst into hundreds of pieces. As I swept up the mess, I wondered why we had been breaking so many things over the months.

The destruction started three months ago. It was my husband’s birthday. He had just lost his job. The uncertainty was starting to wear on us, so I wanted to do something special.

“Let’s make a cake for Dad!” I cried.

My kids screamed with joy. We baked, iced and sprinkled for most of the day. Candles on the cake! Balloons on the walls! Flowers on the table!

Two hours before my husband came back home from another job interview, my daughter climbed up to grab a glass vase from a high shelf. It fell and crashed beside the cake. Tiny pieces of glass were everywhere. She sobbed loudly as I threw the cake away. My husband had banana pudding for his birthday.

Three days ago, the light in our living room suddenly went out. After several frustrating hours of unsuccessful attempts to fix it, my husband suggested watching the Michael Jordan documentary (纪录片) series The Last Dance.

The poignancy (酸楚) of Jordan retiring from his beloved basketball to play baseball and what had pushed him to make such a tough decision took me by surprise. As I watched him take off his basketball uniform and replace it with a baseball uniform, I saw him leaving behind the layer that no longer served him, just as our lizard had. Neither of them chose the moment that had transformed them. But they had to live with who they were after everything was different. Just like us. I realized that we have to learn to leave the past behind.

Humans do not shed skin (蜕皮) as easily as other animals. The beginning of change is upsetting. The process is tiring. Damage changes us before we are ready. I see our lizard, raw and nearly new.

Jordan said that no matter how it ends, it starts with hope. With our tender, hopeful skin, that is where we begin.

The underlined part “leaving behind the layer” in Paragraph 8 can be understood as           .

A．letting go of the past

B．looking for a new job

C．getting rid of a bad habit

D．giving up an opportunity

【推荐1】读后续写

I was a single mother in my 30s who lived down and out with my daughter Peggy in a small apartment, struggling hard to make our needs meet.

One day, I headed to the downtown for an interview. I sat down in the streetcar, and there against the seat was a beautiful silk umbrella with a silver handle decorated with gold scrolls, among which there was a name carved.

On impulse (冲动) I determined to find the owner myself. I got off the streetcar in the heavy rain and thankfully opened the umbrella to protect myself . Then I searched a telephone book for the name, I found it immediately and called it, waiting patiently, and then a lady answered.

“Yes,” she said in surprise, with extreme excitement. “It was my umbrella which had been stolen a year ago.”

So appealing was her pleasure that I forgot I was looking for a job and went directly to her small house. She took the umbrella, with teary eyes, explaining with choking voice that the umbrella was given by her parents, now dead. Her happiness at retrieving (找回) this special possession was such that to have accepted her reward would have spoiled something, so I refused her offer and left.

The following months were hard. I could only obtain temporary employment, for a small salary. What was worse, I had just lost my last job before Christmas, with only fifteen dollars left. Unless a miracle happened, I would be homeless in January, foodless and jobless. I had prayed steadily for weeks, and there had been no answer but this coldness and darkness.

The air was full of Christmas merriment, with the bells ringing and children shouting in the bitter dusk of the evening. But there should be no Christmas for me, I knew, no gifts, no remembrance whatsoever.

Thinking of this, I couldn't control my tears on my way home, but I managed a smile so could greet my little daughter. She opened the door for me and threw herself in my arms, screaming joyously and demanding desirably for her Christmas gift. There I stood, frozen, overwhelmed by misery.

1. 续写以下两段

Suddenly, the doorbell rang and Peggy rushed to answer it, calling that it must be Santa Claus.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Suddenly, a note attached to one package caught my eye

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2. 选词填空（阅读上面文章，从所给的12个词中选出10个，用正确形式填入空格）

with     tear     desirable     job     temporary     green     spoil     fill     umbrella     determine     attach     steal
The Umbrella	Christmas gifts
·One day on my way to a job interview, I happened to find a beautiful silk umbrella ____ a silver handle decorated with gold scrolls	·The following months were hard. Before Christmas, with little money and ____ I was faced with but coldness and darkness.
·I got off the streetcar in the heavy rain and thankfully opened the ____ to protect myself.	·The air was ____ with Christmas merriment. But there should be no Christmas for me, let alone gifts.
· ____ to find the owner myself, I managed to get her number and get through to her. ·Surprised and excited, the owner said it was her umbrella which ____ a year before.	·Thinking of all this, I burst into ____ . But when my daughter opened the door, I forced a smile ____ hers.
·I went directly to her small bouse. ·She offered a reward but I declined it for fear of ____ something.	·When she demanded ____ for her gifts, I stood there, frozen. ·Suddenly the door bell rang. . .

3. Why didn't the writer accept the owner' reward?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Who was it that rang the doorbell? And for what?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
5. What might be written in the note?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
6. How would the writer feel after reading the note?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

【推荐3】Zak’s grandfather, Stan, was very famous. Why? Because he had a very, very, very long white beard(胡子).

One day, Zak asked his grandfather, “When you sleep，do you put your beard over or under the quilt(被子)?”“I’m not sure. I never care about that, ”said his grandfather. “I’ll look tonight.”

Stan got into bed that night and pulled up the quilt. Then he remembered his grandson’s question. Aha!His beard was under the quilt. But wait. Did that feel right?

He lifted his beard from under the quilt and put it above it. This also didn’t feel right. So he put the beard under the quilt again. But he soon felt it would be better if it were out. The beard went in and out—first under the quilt, then over it, under, over, all night long.

Stan spent a sleepless night.In the morning, he was so tired and unhappy that he cut his long beard right off!

Stan’s wife was so happy. She advised Stan to cut that beard off many times, but he never did it. Now a simple question made him do that．
根据上述内容，判断下列句子正误，正确的写“A”，错误的写“B”。
1. Stan was very famous for his long white beard.
2. Stan never cared about Zak, his grandson.
3. In the very beginning,Stan’s beard was under the quilt.
4. That night Stan was sleepless and tired because of the question.
5. Stan listened to his wife’s advice to cut the beard off.