【推荐1】“Tell me the story of me, Momma,” my daughter Sophie always asks when we sit on my grandmother’s rocking chair at the end of the day. “The first time I saw your beautiful face, it was nearly covered by a blue-and-white hat. You were surrounded by a soft blue blanket (毛毯). All I could see was a rosy face.” “And I looked like a tiny fairy baby?” she asks. “You did, and you weren’t older than a minute,” I always answer. “The nurse handed a tiny little girl to me, and I was so surprised because you felt so light. I thought if I threw off the blanket, I’d find no baby there at all, only air.”

From that moment, I became a mother. But that moment was just special and magical as if she’d come from my body directly into my arms. From that day on, she was my daughter in every way that mattered.

It’s easy sometimes to forget there was another mother out there with whom I share my title. Sophie’s birth mother, who was also my friend, lost her life to cancer not long after giving birth to Sophie. And I’ll never forget that it was her difficult decision — her tears and her pain — that made me a mom.

As my daughter grows, she will understand that sometimes life is a relay race (接力赛), and you never know who in this world will hand you your baton (接力棒). It could be someone you know for years, or it could be someone who you even never meet, someone you will never be able to repay for giving you the life you always wanted.

1. How does the author start the text?

A．By remembering her grandmother.

B．By asking her daughter questions.

C．By describing her past life.

D．By showing a conversation.

2. What can we learn about Sophie?

A．She was given up by her birth mother.

B．She and the author aren’t related by blood.

C．She had a hard time growing up.

D．She hated her birth mother.

3. How does the author feel towards Sophie’s birth mother?

A．Disappointed.

B．Worried.

C．Thankful.

D．Surprised.

【推荐2】It was Thanksgiving morning. I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags huddling together on the top step.
“Any old papers, lady?” asked one of them.
I was busy. I wanted to say “no” until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals （凉鞋）, wet with heavy snow.
“Come in and I’ll make you a cup of hot cocoa.”
They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I saved them cocoa and bread to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started cooking.
The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, “Lady, are you rich?”
“Am I rich? Pity, no!”
I looked at my worn-out slipcovers （椅套）. The girl put her cup back in its saucer （茶碟）carefully and said, “Your cups match your saucers.” They left after that, holding their papers against the wind. They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful.
Plain blue china cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they matched.
I tasted the potatoes and stirred the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof over our heads, my man with a regular job, these matched, too.
I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy marks of little sandals were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a while, I thought, just in case I should begin to forget how rich I am.
1. The writer let the two children come in and served them well because ______.

A．she wanted to sell old papers to them

B．she wanted to give them some presents

C．she showed great pity and care on them

D．she wanted to show her thanks to them

2. The writer left the muddy marks of little sandals on the floor for a while to _______.

A．show that she was a kind-hearted lady

B．remind her she shouldn’t forget how rich she was

C．leave room for readers to think about what being rich is

D．call up her memories of the good old days

3. It can be inferred from the text that whether you are rich depends on _______.

A．how much money you have made

B．what attitude you have had toward life

C．the way you help others

D．your social relationship

【推荐3】When I was a boy, we had several gardens around our old house. The largest one of all was used just for growing potatoes.

I can still remember those potato-planting days. The whole family helped. After my father had tilled (犁地) the soil, my mother, brothers and I went to work. It was my job to drop the little seed potatoes in the rows while my mother dropped handfuls of fertilizer (肥料) beside them. My brothers then covered them with the freshly turned earth.

For months afterward I would glance over the garden while I played outside and wonder what was going on underneath the ground. When the harvest time came, my father pulled them out of the soil. I was amazed at the huge size of the potatoes. Those little seeds had grown into huge delicious potatoes.

They would be turned into all kinds of delicious food: baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes. And my personal favorite: potatoes slow cooked in spaghetti sauce (意大利酱). They would keep the entire family well fed throughout the whole year. It truly was a miracle (奇迹).

Thinking back on those special times makes me wonder how many other seeds I have planted in the hearts and minds of others. Every single day, we plant seeds that can grow into something wonderful. I hope that you plant only goodness, peace and happiness in the lives of everyone you meet. I hope that every day you help miracles to grow.

1. What was the author’s job when they were planting potatoes?

A．Tilling the soil.	B．Watering the seeds.
C．Dropping the seeds.	D．Covering the seeds with earth.

2. Why was the author surprised when he saw the potatoes pulled out of the soil?

A．He had never seen so many potatoes.	B．It was very hard to pull them out.
C．One potato could be made into a meal.	D．The little seeds had grown into big potatoes.

3. Why did the author say it was a miracle in the fourth paragraph?

A．The potatoes could turn out to be different kinds of food.

B．He had eaten different kinds of food made of potatoes.

C．The potatoes could feed their family for the whole year.

D．The potatoes in their garden were delicious.

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Memories of Planting Potatoes	B．How to Plant Potatoes
C．Make Life a Miracle	D．Plant Good Seeds in Life

【推荐1】After learning about these famous women, you’ll know you can do a lot for society no matter what. You don’t need to be in a specific field, time or environment to make a difference to the world in your lifetime.

Amelia Earhart (1897－1937)

Amelia Earhart was the first woman who ever flew alone across the Atlantic in 1932. She became the first woman pilot in 1935 after flying from Hawaii to California. She began her lifelong dream of flying across the world in 1937. However, her flight went missing on that trip and she was never seen again.

Helena Rubinstein (1870－1965)

Helena Rubinstein moved to Australia in 1902 without the ability to speak English. Later, she founded one of the world’s first cosmetic (化妆品) companies after mixing lanolin, which is an oil that comes from sheep’s wool, with flowers. Because of that, she became the world’s richest woman at the time.

Katharine Hepburn (1907－2003)

Katharine Hepburn was known for playing strong­willed women in her films. She won four Academy Awards for Best Actress, the most an actress has ever won. Her new dress style made wearing trousers acceptable to women, which wasn’t allowed at that time.

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858－1928)

Emmeline was an influential woman activist, who helped British women  get the right to vote. She fought along with her husband for the rights of women all the time in the late 19th century and early 20th century. After she lost her husband, she teamed up with her three daughters and formed The Women Social and Political Union, which was best known as the suffragettes (women’s right to vote).

1. What was the problem for Helena at first when she moved to Australia?

A．She didn’t know how to make up.	B．She didn’t have money.
C．She didn’t have work experience.	D．She couldn’t speak English.

2. Which of the following words can be used to describe Emmeline Pankhurst?

A．Patient.

B．Friendly.

C．Honest.

D．Determined.

3. What do the four women in the text have in common?

A．A pioneering spirit.

B．A creative mind.

C．A good education.

D．A warm heart.

【推荐3】Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas, in 1892. Her mother was African American. Her father was part African American, part an American Indian. Her family was poor. Bessie had to walk more than six kilometers to go to school.

Bessie had to pick cotton and wash clothes to help earn money for her family. She was able to save a little money and went to college in the state of Oklahoma. She was in college only one year because she did not have enough money to complete her studies. But during that year, she learned about flying. She read about the first flight of the Wright brothers and the first American female pilot, Harriet Quimby.

When she was twenty-three, Bessie Coleman moved to Chicago, Illinois to live with two of her older brothers. There she heard stories from pilots who were returning from World War I. She decided she was going to learn how to fly airplanes. But she soon found this to be almost impossible. What flight school would admit a black woman? Bessie learned that she would have a better chance in Europe. She began to study French at a language school in Chicago.

Soon after the end of World War One, Bessie Coleman left for France. She attended the famous flight school, Ecole d' Aviation des Freres Caudron. She completed seven months of flight training. Bessie Coleman earned her international permit to fly in 1921 and she became the first black woman ever to earn an international pilot's license.

Bessie returned to Chicago. She was the only black female pilot in the United States. So her story became popular in the African American newspapers. She was asked by the Dallas Express newspaper in Texas why she wanted to fly. She said that women and blacks must have pilots if they were to keep up the times.

1. Why did Bessie walk to school?

A．She couldn’t afford to take the bus.	B．She was stronger than others.
C．She wanted to do physical exercise.	D．She liked walking.

2. Bessie came to know something about flying_________

A．when she was in high school.	B．after she graduated from college.
C．when she was in college.	D．during the World War I.

3. What does the underlined word “this” in the third paragraph refer to ?

A．Going to Europe.	B．Attending flight school.
C．Living with her brothers.	D．Learning French in Chicago.

4. What happened during Bessie Coleman's stay in France?

A．She made a large amount of money.	B．She served as a solder in the war.
C．She made many good foreign friends.	D．She received a pilot's license as a black.