Whenever I heard strangers singing out loud, whether it was in the supermarket or on the street, I used to think how annoying it was. That was until a few months ago.
Recently, my daughter Zoe started her second year of middle school with a new sense of awareness, asking me to fix the “little girl” pattern on her wheel-chair seat. Not wanting her to stand out at school, I spent hours filling in pale yellow stars with a black marker, eager to erase whatever childish signs I could.
Shortly after, Zoe got really sick and had to miss 20 days of school. This meant our days were filled with rushing between hospital appointments and meetings with the school, as we tried to make sure she didn’t fall behind on her schoolwork.
I felt pulled back to a time when she was little and her sickness was a huge part of her life. Back then, it seemed like Zoe lived in hospitals, as she spent so much time in them. No matter how sick she got, however, she always had a positive attitude.
But this was different: Zoe was no longer singing like she normally did. Zoe usually sang all the time, whether she was playing, riding in the car, or just doing her homework. There was no need for a radio in our house; Zoe provided the music for us.
Consumed (被折磨) with my motherly worries, it was more concerning to me than her sickness.
One day, however, I heard her beautiful voice as I was cooking dinner. I stopped what I was doing and just smiled. “Pure delight,” I thought to myself. Her voice slowly grew stronger, and soon, both the car and the house were filled with her music once more.
How had I not noticed her singing had completely stopped, weeks and weeks ago? Now, thankfully, she’s back in school, smiling and singing, and I’m thankful for each and every song she sings.
These days, whenever I hear a stranger singing a song to themselves, I don’t get mad. Instead, I smile, as I know that by singing out loud, they’re simply sharing their happiness with the world.
1. How did the author use to feel when she heard strangers singing? (no more than 5 words)2. What do you think Zoe was like? (no more than 10 words)
3. What does “it” in Paragraph 6 refer to? (no more than 10 words)
4. Why did the author say “There was no need for a radio in our house”? (no more than 15 words)
5. What does singing mean to people, according to the author? (no more than 15 words)
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【推荐1】On the day the tornado hit,there was no indication that severe weather was on its way—the sky was blue and the sun bad been out.The first alert my husband,Jimmy,67,and I,65,got came around 9 p.m.,from some scrolling text on the TV Jimmy was watching.He ran upstairs to find me in our third-floor bedroom,and we changed the channel from the presidential primary debate I had been watching to our local Pensacola,Florida,station.
No sooner had we found coverage of the tornado than it was on top of us.It was the loudest thing I have ever heard.The bones of the house shook,and the power went out.The wind began to roar through the house,most likely through blown-out windows and the door to our garage.We had three flights of steps to navigate to get to the relative safety of the first floor,because the cupboard down there is underneath a brick staircase.
I didn't know how or if we would make it down the steps.It felt as if there were no floor underneath me as the wind lifted me off my feet.I tried to move forward,but this intense pressure held me in place.
As we reached the last flight of steps,our front door blew out.Pieces of glass that looked like crushed ice flew everywhere.Suddenly,a three-foot-long tree branch crashed into the door frame.It flew over our heads,missing us by inches.Had we been one step up,it would have hit us.
By the time I reached the cupboard,the tornado had been over us for about a minute.Jimmy pushed me down to the cupboard floor,but he couldn't get inside himself because of the wind.I held Jimmy's arm and tried to bring Jimmy with it.My knees were full of glass,but at that moment,I felt no pain.If I had let go,Jimmy would have flown right out the back of the house and into the bay.
All of a sudden,Jimmy lifted off his feet like people in tornadoes do in the movies.I thought he was gone.And then everything stopped.He landed on his feet.In those first quiet moments,I couldn't believe it was over,Jimmy said he'd go outside to check."No,"I said."Don't leave me.Don't leave me."
Our neighbor says the storm lasted four minutes.In that time,four of the twelve town houses in our unit were completely destroyed.Of the houses left standing,ours suffered the most damage.Amazingly,none of us were severely injured.
1. What does the underlined word coverage mean?| A．power | B．description |
| C．arrival | D．delay |
| A．There was not any symbol of the tornado's coming. |
| B．A three-foot-long tree branch hit the couple. |
| C．Both of the couple couldn't get into the cupboard floor. |
| D．Jimmy didn't fly right out the back of the house. |
| A．Because she didn't get any hurt when the storm hit. |
| B．Because she was too scared to feel pain. |
| C．Because she devoted all her strength to holding on to her husband. |
| D．Because she had reached the cupboard and she was safe. |
| A．share with us her experience of surviving a tornado |
| B．warn us of the danger caused by tornados |
| C．show us how to fight against a tornado |
| D．tell us how to protect us from dangerous tornados |
【推荐2】I spend half of my life with my mother and the other half with my father. My father lives with a twenty-pound cat named Tofu. He calls me his favorite daughter. I am an only child.
My father's apartment is quite different from any other person's living space. Except for my room, there is no furniture. He doesn't like sofas or any comfortable chairs, so he has only a drawing table, a desk and his bed. He spends a lot of time lying on the studio floor. That's how he thinks, he says. Then he does yoga
He has a big kitchen, and on top of the refrigerator is an old clock he winds every week for good luck. The last time the clock stopped, my father's car was towed(被警察拖走) and some other terrible things happened, so he has become very superstitious (迷信的) . When he goes out of town, he hires someone to feed Tofu and wind the clock so it won't stop.
The one thing he has plenty of is house rules. You have to take off your shoes when you come in. He won't allow anyone who wears a baseball cap into his house. He says only baseball players should wear baseball caps and only the catchers should wear them backward. Every time I go to stay in his house, he makes up a new rule. “House rule number 579, no television programs with laugh tracks！”he will say. But then be can never remember the numbers, so they change constantly.
The rule that he always enforces is the one that requires me to write a two-page essay anytime I want something. He didn't speak English until he was sixteen, and he had a hard time learning to write it, so he wants me to become a good writer at an early age. This ritual（仪式）started when I asked him if I could have my ears pierced when I was nine. He said it was very cruel and told me I couldn't do it until I was thirty-five. But l kept asking him, and he finally said that if I wrote an essay and I could persuade him in writing why I wanted holes in my ears, maybe he would say okay. I wrote my first essay for my father, and after one month of writing and rewriting, he finally. gave me his permission.
1. What is unusual about the father's apartment?| A．It has a large kitchen. |
| B．The father does yoga at home. |
| C．It is scarcely furnished. |
| D．The father spends a lot of time on the floor. |
| A．Someone is hired to feed Tofu. |
| B．You can't wear shoes in the house. |
| C．Baseball players are not allowed into the apartment. |
| D．The writer can't watch television programs in the apartment. |
| A．It is not an automatic one. |
| B．Her father doesn't like the clock. |
| C．It can bring good luck to them. |
| D．Someone is hired to wind it every week. |
| A．was a famous writer |
| B．was born in the United States |
| C．was a caring and strict father |
| D．speaks more than one language |
【推荐3】When I was nine years old, I loved to go fishing with my dad. But the only thing that wasn’t very fun about it was that I couldn’t catch anything. I usually got pretty upset and kept asking him why. He always answered, “Son, if you want to catch a fish, you have to think like a fish.” I remember being even more upset then because I didn’t know how to think like a fish. Besides, I reasoned, how could what I think influence what a fish does.
As I got a little older I began to understand what my dad really meant. So, I read some books on fish. And I even joined the local fishing club and started attending the monthly meetings. I learned that a fish is a cold-blooded animal and therefore is very sensitive to water temperature. That is why fish prefer shallow water to deep water because the former is warmer. Besides, water is usually warmer in direct sunlight than in the shade. Yet, fish don’t have any eyelids (眼皮) and the sun hurts their eyes... The more I understood fish, the more I became effective at finding and catching them.
When I grew up and entered the business world, I remember hearing my first boss say, “We all need to think like sales people.” But it didn’t completely make sense. My dad never once said, “If you want to catch a fish you need to think like a fisherman.” What he said was, “You need to think like a fish.” Years later, with great efforts to promote long-term services to people much older and richer than me, I gradually learned what we all need is to think more like customers. It is not an easy job. I will show you how in the following chapters.
1. Why was the author upset about fishing when he was nine?| A．He could not catch a fish. |
| B．His father was not patient with him. |
| C．His father did not teach him to fish. |
| D．He could not influence a fish as his father did. |
| A．in deep water on sunny days | B．in deep water on cloudy days |
| C．in shallow water under sunlight | D．in shallow water under waterside trees |
| A．it easy to think like a customer | B．his father’s fishing advice inspiring |
| C．his first bosses sales ideas reasonable | D．it difficult to sell services to poor people |
| A．A fishing guide. | B．A popular sales book. |
| C．A novel on childhood. | D．A book about rich people. |
【推荐1】It was early spring and my mother worked the soil into a ridge (隆起部分) for sweet potatoes on the edge of her garden. She planted sweet comas next. When I saw the plants, I was really excited. I thought it was really amazing. This gave me an idea. So one day when my mother was working in the garden again, I said to her, “Mum, can I have some space in your garden?”
My mum looked as if she couldn’t believe her ears. I was just six years old then, after all.
“Why do you want some space?” she asked. “I want to grow some plants, too,” I said.
“What plants do you want to grow?” asked my mum.
I thought of some marigold (万寿菊) seeds I had saved from my grandma’s garden, so I told her I wanted to grow that kind of flower.
My mother didn’t answer me immediately. She looked at her plants. All that she had grown were vegetables. I didn’t know what she was thinking back then, but now I do. She didn’t want to waste her garden space. But at last she said, “OK. You can do that.”
I was very happy when I heard that. My mother then gave me a 4-by-4-foot square of space in the garden. With my mother’s guidance, I happily planted the seeds in my small “garden”. Then I watered them. In the following days I waited for the seedlings to appear. When I finally saw some, I let out cries of joy.
I have fallen in love with gardening ever since, I was lucky that I could work in a “garden” of my own when I was little. Today many children living in cities can’t have such fun. But their parents can still take them out to enjoy nature in the wild. It can bring them great joy, believe me!
1. What did the author want to do when she saw the plants grown by her mum?| A．To learn to grow vegetables. | B．To have her own garden space. |
| C．To observe the plants every day. | D．To help her mother in the garden. |
| A．Surprised. | B．Excited. | C．Interested. | D．Worried. |
| A．She should plant some flowers. | B．She should grow more vegetables. |
| C．She would have to waste some space. | D．She had a lot of garden space to spare. |
| A．To introduce marigolds to gardeners. | B．To show today’s children live a boring life. |
| C．To advise people to buy houses with gardens. | D．To encourage parents to take their kids to nature. |
My mother looked at the sitting room, its furniture disordered for a thorough sweeping. Again she cast a look toward the window. "Come on, girls! Let's take string to the boys and watch them fly the kites a minute."
On the way we met Mrs. Patrick, laughing guiltily as if she were doing something wrong, together with her girls.
There never was such a day for flying kites! We played all our fresh string into the boys' kites and they went up higher and higher. We could hardly distinguish the orange-colored spots of the kites. Now and then we slowly pulled one kite back, watching it dancing up and down in the wind, and finally bringing it down to earth, just for the joy of sending it up again.
Even our fathers dropped their tools and joined us. Our mothers took their turn, laughing like schoolgirls. I think we were all beside ourselves. Parents forgot their duty and their dignity; children forgot their everyday fights and little jealousies. "Perhaps it's like this in the kingdom of heaven," I thought confusedly.
It was growing dark before we all walked sleepily back to the house. I suppose we had some sort of supper. I suppose there must have been surface tidying-up, for the house on Sunday looked clean and orderly enough. The strange thing was, we didn't mention that day afterward. I felt a little embarrassed. Surely none of the others had been as excited as I. I locked the memory up in that deepest part of me where we keep "the things that cannot be and yet they are."
The years went on, then one day I was hurrying about my kitchen in a city apartment, trying to get some work out of the way while my three-year-old insistently cried her desire to "go park, see duck."
"I can't go!" I said. "I have this and this to do, and when I'm through I'll be too tired to walk that far."
My mother, who was visiting us, looked up from the peas she was shelling（去皮）. "It's a wonderful day," she offered, "really warm, yet there's a fine breeze. Do you remember that day we flew kites?"
I stopped in my dash between stove and sink. The locked door flew open and with it a rush of memories. "Come on," I told my little girl. "You're right, it's too good a day to miss."
Another decade passed. We were in the aftermath (余波) of a great war. All evening we had been asking our returned soldier, the youngest Patrick Boy, about his experiences as a prisoner of war. He had talked freely, but now for a long time he had been silent. What was he thinking of — what dark and horrible things?
"Say!" A smile sipped out from his lips. "Do you remember — no, of course you wouldn't. It probably didn't make the impression on you as it did on me."
I hardly dared speak. "Remember what?"
"I used to think of that day a lot in POW camp (战俘营), when things weren't too good. Do you remember the day we flew the kites?"
1. Mrs. Patrick was laughing guiltily because she thought_________.
| A．she was too old to fly kites |
| B．she should have been doing her housework then |
| C．her husband would make fun of her |
| D．her girls weren’t supposed to play the boy’s game |
| A．felt confused | B．looked on |
| C．went wild with joy | D．forgot their fights |
| A．The boys must have had more fun than the girls. |
| B．All the others must have forgotten that day. |
| C．Her parents should spend more time with them. |
| D．They should have finished their work before playing. |
| A．She suddenly remembered her duty as a mother. |
| B．She thought it was a great day to play outside. |
| C．She had finished her work in the kitchen. |
| D．She was reminded of the day they flew kites. |
| A．the writer was not alone in treasuring her fond memories |
| B．his experience in POW camp threw a shadow over his life |
| C．childhood friendship means so much to the writer |
| D．people like him really changed a lot after the war |
【推荐3】“Please, mother, do sit down and let me try my hand ."said Fred, a bright , active boy twelve years old. A look of relief came over his mother's face as she seated herself who looked pale and worn. Fred washed the dishes, swept the kitchen, and then set out for school. After school, he hurried home, set the table and again washed the dishes.
He kept on in this way for several days till his mother was able to resume her usual work and he felt fully rewarded when the doctor, who happened in one day, said, "well, madam, it's my opinion that you would be very sick if you had not kept quiet"
The boys missed Fred because he had been in the habit of going early to school and staying to play after it was dismissed. Their curiosity was excited when he would give no other reason than that he was "wanted at home". One boy secretly detected Fred washing dishes from his kitchen window and reported this at school and various were the greetings poor Fred received during break. "Well, you are a brave one to stay at home washing dishes." “Girl boy!" "Pretty Bessie!" "Lost your apron, haven't you, Polly!"
Fred was not wanting either in spirit or courage, and he was strongly tempted to resent（对....气愤）these insults and to fight some boys. But his consciousness of right and his love for his mother helped him.
While he was struggling for self mastery, his teacher appeared at the door of the schoolhouse. Fred caught his eye, and it seemed to look, if it didn't say, "Don't give up! Be really brave!" He knew his teacher had heard the insulting remarks of his thoughtless schoolmates.
The hoys received notice during the day that Fred must not be teased in any manner. They knew that the teacher meant what he said.
1. How do we understand the doctor's words?| A．The mother was sick because she didn't keep quiet |
| B．Encourage more children to learn from Fred. |
| C．The mother recovered due to her remaining quiet |
| D．Hope the mother would exercise more than keep quiet. |
| A．Teases. | B．Admiring remarks. |
| C．Criticisms. | D．Sympathetic remarks. |
| A．Fred's courage enabled him to tight. |
| B．Fred's love for mother helped him fight. |
| C．Fred had neither spirit nor courage to fight. |
| D．Fred's a flection for mother stopped him fighting. |
| A．A considerate teacher helped Fred. |
| B．A strong-willed boy overcame himself. |
| C．A sick mother recovered finally. |
| D．A thoughtful boy helped a sick mother. |
