“Mum, what does it mean when someone tells you that they have a skeleton (骨骼) in the closet (衣橱)？”Jessica asked. “A skeleton in the closet?” her mother paused thoughtfully, “Well, it’s something that you would rather not have anyone else know about. For example, if in the past, someone in Dad’s family had been arrested
for stealing a horse, it would be ‘a skeleton in his family’s closet’. He really wouldn’t want any neighbor to know about it.”
“Why pick on my family?” Jessica’s father said with anger. “Your family history isn’t so good, you know. Wasn’t you great – great grandfather a prisoner who was transported to Australia for his crimes?” “Yes, but people these days say that you are not a real Australian unless your ancestors arrived as prisoners.” “Gosh, sorry I asked. I think I understand now,” Jessica cut in before things grew worse.
After dinner, the house was very quiet. Jessica’s parents were still quite angry with each other. Her mother was ironing clothes and every now and then she glared at her husband, who hid behind his newspaper pretending to read. When she finished, she gathered the freshly pressed clothes in her arms and walked to Jessica’s closet. Just as she opened the door and reached in to hang a skirt, a bony arm stuck out from the dark depths and a bundle of white bones fell to the floor. Jessica’s mother sank into a faint (晕倒), waking only when Jessica put a cold, wet cloth on her forehead. She looked up to see the worried faces of her husband and daughter.
“What happened? Where am I?” she asked. “You just destroyed the school’s skeleton, Mum,” explained Jessica. “I brought it home to help me with my health project. I meant to tell you, but it seemed that as soon as I mentioned skeletons and closets, it caused a problem between you and Dad.” Jessica looked in amazement as her parents began to laugh madly. “They’re both crazy,” she thought.
1. According to Jessica’s mother, “a skeleton in the closet” means .| A．a family honor | B．a family secret |
| C．a family story | D．a family treasure |
| A．knocked | B．frightened |
| C．injured | D．surprised |
| A．She was curious about it. |
| B．She planned to keep it for fun. |
| C．She needed it for her school task. |
| D．She intended to scare her parents. |
| A．they were crazy |
| B．they were overexcited |
| C．they realized their misunderstanding |
| D．they both thought they had won the quarrel |
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【推荐1】Flower Power
When her grandmother’s health began to worsen last autumn, Mary would make the drive from Washington, DC to Winchester, VA every few days.
She hated highway driving, finding it ugly and boring. She preferred to take winding country roads to her grandmother’s hospital. When she drove through the rocky town of Harpers Ferry, the beauty of the rough waters was always appealing to her.
Toward the end of her journey, Mary had to get on highway 81. It was here that she discovered a surprising bit of beauty during one of her trips. Along the shoulder of the highway, there was a long stretch of wild flowers. They were thin and delicate and purple, and moved back and forth in the wind as if whispering poems to each other.
The first time she saw the flowers, Mary was seized by an uncontrollable urge to pull over on the highway and pull a bunch from the soil. She carried them into her grandmother’s room when she arrived at the hospital and placed them in a vase by her bed.
For a moment her grandmother seemed more lucid（清醒的）than usual. She thanked Mary for the flowers, commented on their beauty and asked where she had gotten them. Mary was overjoyed by the ability of the flowers to wake something up inside her sick grandmother.
Afterwards, Mary began carrying scissors in the car during her trips to visit her grandmother. She would quickly glide onto the shoulder, jump out of the car, and clip a bunch of flowers. Each time Mary placed the flowers in the vase, her grandmother’s eyes would light up and they would have a splendid conversation.
One morning in late October, Mary got a call that her grandmother had taken a turn for the worse. Mary was in such a hurry to get to her grandmother that she sped past her flower spot. She decided to turn around, head several miles back, and cut a bunch.
Mary arrived at the hospital to find her grandmother very weak and unresponsive. She placed the flowers in the vase and sat down to hold her grandmother’s hand. She felt a squeeze on her fingers. It was the last conversation they had.
1. Mary preferred to take country roads to the hospital because she could ________.| A．get on highway 81 more easily | B．enjoy the natural view along the roads |
| C．pick wild flowers for her grandmother | D．spend less time driving to the destination |
| A．came alive at the sight of the flowers | B．commented on Mary’s beauty |
| C．was overjoyed by the flowers | D．was curious about the type of the flowers |
| A．Mary discovered the wild flowers along the country roads |
| B．Mary’s grandmother had passed away before she arrived at the hospital |
| C．Mary’s last conversation with her grandmother was a silent one |
| D．Mary headed several miles back because she sped past the hospital |
| A．Beauty in nature can be powerful. | B．Love has no beginning or ending. |
| C．Life is as beautiful as summer flowers. | D．Flowers have the magic to cure diseases. |
【推荐2】My father Earl was to take two-lane highways all the way from Chicago to New York. "This way," he explained, "we’ll actually see where we’re going. I hate turnpikes (收费高速公路), Virgil." There were other reasons for taking highways: no fee to pay, cheaper gas stations, and a chance to shop for food.
He had me laughing from the moment we left town. I’d never seen him in better spirits. He did imitations, told stories and made remarks to the waitresses in the restaurants we’d stopped in every three hours, highly praising their cooking skills.
Earl asked me to keep an eye out for hitchhikers (搭便车的人), so we might have someone to share the driving. My father had, however, tough standards of selecting hitchhikers. We passed teenagers, soldiers and old men, and each time Earl had a different excuse for not stopping.
Finally, my heart was filled with uncontrollable anger. "Why don’t you ever stop? It’s not fair to look at people and then not stop."
Earl looked at my face. "I don’t know. Virgil," he said. "I think the reason is that I don’t want anyone in the car. We never have any time alone and I like it with just the two of us.”
Hearing what he said, I felt tears welling up in my eyes. How wonderful, yet disturbing and unprepared I was to hear it.
We pulled in for the night some twelve hours after leaving Chicago and checked into a nameless motel. It was in this motel that my father and I spent one of the best nights of our lives. He watched TV with me for a while and he begged a pack of cards from the motel manager and did card tricks for me — a skill I had no idea he possessed. Then my father and I played a card game and we were so comforted by the game that we took the pack with us when we drove out for a late night snack of ham and eggs.
The sky was filled with stars. After turning off all the lights, we whispered to each other in bed, like boys who fear they might be overheard. I don’t remember what I said, but I was sure he was listening.
1. Why did Earl refuse to take those hitchhikers?| A．He was doubtful about them. |
| B．He wanted to be with his son alone. |
| C．They didn’t meet Earl’s tough standards. |
| D．He had to reach New York as soon as possible. |
| A．Playing cards. |
| B．Watching TV. |
| C．Telling stories. |
| D．Enjoying snacks. |
| A．The clear sky that night. |
| B．His father’s affection for him. |
| C．The thrill of visiting new places. |
| D．The card tricks Earl did that night. |
| A．To describe a beautiful night. |
| B．To reflect on a difficult decision. |
| C．To acknowledge a lifelong regret. |
| D．To share a memorable experience. |
【推荐3】Twenty-five years ago on July 1, 1997, I woke up very late in my apartment in Singapore. I jumped out of bed in a little bit of panic. I woke up my 8-year-old daughter Avy, who was not exactly in a hurry to get out of bed. “We’re late for school,” I half-yelled at her. I finally got her into the shower, dressed her hurriedly and made it to the nearby bus stop in time. Thankfully, the school was only two stops away. We got in, rubbing our eyes as the sunlight streamed into the bus.
Her mom had flown to Hong Kong several days earlier on assignment for a newspaper to cover the handover of the city’s return to China.
I had taken off from work for a week to help look after our daughter. I would pick up my daughter from school around midday. At the end of the day, I would watch the news on TV, which would lead the entire week with the historic events happening in Hong Kong. I would wonder where my wife was in the crowd that was gathered to witness the handover.
The year, 1997, was tense because the Asian financial crisis began. The Thai baht(泰铢) was hit, followed by the South Korean won(韩元) and, like a contagious virus which spreads rapidly, the financial system seized up. For that week though, that was the least of my worries. I just made sure we did not have a repeat of July 1, when we were nearly late for school. My wife was very busy during the handover, chasing down stories in Hong Kong as the British flag was lowered for the last time.
I later spent a few years working in Hong Kong, but my enduring memory of the days surrounding its return to China was the time I spent as a babysitter, although it is kind of hard to call an 8-year-old a baby. The whole thing was a lifetime ago. But it is a good memory.
1. What was the author’s day like on July 1, 1997?| A．He and his daughter woke up in panic. |
| B．He barely got his daughter on time. |
| C．It was his first babysitting day. |
| D．His daughter went to school energetically. |
| A．He wanted to witness the historic events. |
| B．He needed to take care of his daughter. |
| C．He drove his daughter to school and pick up her back around midday. |
| D．He accompanied his daughter to find her mother on TV in the evening. |
| A．The events happening in Hong Kong. |
| B．The crowd gathered to see the handover. |
| C．The spread of the Asian financial crisis. |
| D．The 8-year-old daughter I was babysitting. |
| A．The historic events in 1997. |
| B．Life of a journalist’s husband. |
| C．A working dad’s way of babysitting children. |
| D．Bitter sweet memory with daughter alone. |
【推荐1】Since moving to New Zealand from Australia to raise our new family, my husband Mike and I have been living on a small income, as he is the only one who is working full time. Neither of us have debt, nor do we use credit cards to buy things. In doing so, we are doing fairly well. We have savings(存款), but this could change very quickly if we’re not careful.
So how do we manage?
We sat down and really looked at what we could afford to spend each month on rent, food, baby things, and anything extra. We were pretty astonished at how little we would have left at the end of each month.
Mike suggested we eat only vegetable meals at home, so for the past four months we’ve been on a vegetable diet. I was really impressed when he suggested this, as it also betters our health and helps the environment.
We’re active gardeners and we recently start to grow our own vegetables. The growing season is long here, so we’re pretty excited when imagining eating good home-grown vegetables all the year round.
We hardly ever eat out now and on most weekends we can be found picking up fresh vegetables from the local farmers’ market. Except getting some fried fish, we’re really turning into home cooking—and this is a huge difference from our time in Perth.
Thankfully, our life on a small income has been an eye opener in such a positive way. We’re really pleased we’ve managed to get through our first year without turning to our savings. We are really looking forward to what the future holds for us here in New Zealand.
1. What can we learn about the author’s family according to the first paragraph?| A．They move from New Zealand to Australia. |
| B．They are enjoying a rich life happily. |
| C．They have to be very careful with money. |
| D．They pay their debt with credit cards. |
| A．Because they could afford to spend on rent each month. |
| B．Because they didn’t have much money left then. |
| C．Because they sat down and really looked at each other. |
| D．Because Mike was the only one who was working full time. |
| A．It can make people healthier. |
| B．It might pollute the environment. |
| C．It can make others really impressed. |
| D．It can help people go on a diet. |
| A．Living On A Small Income. | B．Eating Vegetables. |
| C．Eating At Home. | D．Active Gardeners. |
【推荐2】Sometimes it seems like there are never enough hours in the day. But with a bit of time management, you can make time for the things you need to do, like housework. Here are some tips on how to manage your time for housework.
Make a list. Once you know what needs to be done, make a list of the tasks and prioritize them.
Try to clean as you go. Have you ever noticed dishes are easier to wash if you wash them off immediately? This doesn’t mean that you have to clean up every single thing as soon as you finish using it.
Use your time wisely.
Reward yourself. When you’ve finished all your tasks, give yourself a pat on the back or a good treat like a good cup of coffee. This will help you stay motivated and look forward to the next time you have to do housework.
| A．Set realistic expectations. |
| B．Set aside some time each day or week for housework. |
| C．But if you can, try to put things away and tidy up as you go. |
| D．Make sure you use your time wisely and take breaks between tasks. |
| E．Make sure you are using your time efficiently while you are cleaning. |
| F．Housework is always going to be a bit of a heavy task, but it shouldn’t be terrible. |
| G．This will help you focus on what needs to be done first and prevent you forgetting anything. |
【推荐3】One afternoon I toured an art museum while waiting for my husband to finish a business meeting. I was looking forward to a quiet view of the wonderful works.
A young couple viewing the paintings ahead of me chatted nonstop between themselves. I watched them a moment and decided she was doing all the talking. I admired his patience for tolerating her constant words. Disturbed by their noise, I moved on.
I encountered them several times as I moved through the various rooms of art. Each time I heard her constant talking, I moved away quickly.
I was standing at the counter of the museum gift store doing some shopping when the couple approached the exit. Before they left, the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a white object. He turned it into a long cane (手杖) and then tapped his way into the coatroom to get his wife’s jacket.
“He’s a brave man,” the clerk at the counter said, “Most of us would give up if we were blinded at such a young age. During his recovery, he made a promise that his life wouldn’t change. So, as before, he and his wife come in whenever there’s a new art show.”
“But what does he get out of the art?” I asked, “He can’t see.”
“Can’t see! You’re wrong. He sees a lot. More than you or I do,” the clerk said, “His wife describes each painting so he can see it in his head.”
I learned something about patience, courage and love that day. I saw the patience of a young wife describing paintings to a person without sight and the courage of a husband who would not allow blindness to change his life.
And I saw the love shared by two people as I watched this couple walk away arm in arm.
1. Which of the following statements is true?| A．The husband was doing all the talking when the couple viewed the works. |
| B．The husband tapped his way to the coatroom to get his own jacket. |
| C．The husband was considered a brave man by the clerk at the store. |
| D．The husband allowed blindness to change his life. |
| A．cheated | B．met |
| C．talked | D．argued |
| A．the man had his eyes blinded in a fight |
| B．the man can see very well while visiting the museum |
| C．the woman was very patient and devoted to his husband |
| D．the man often wasted time by visiting exhibitions |
