Martina Smith looked out of the window. A robin was singing a lively song in the tree. At this time, Grandpa, who had lived with the family since Grandma died, came in. He looked at the floor as if he was looking for something. He said, “When the robin sings…he stopped, trying to remember what he had started to say.”
“Spring is here,” Mum finished the sentence. “And I’m thinking of our spring cleaning.” Mum suggested. “Martina, you can help me, right?” Martina agreed unwillingly.
They cleaned the house. They cleaned upstairs, downstairs, inside, outside, until everything was clean. Then Mum pointed to Grandpa’s sofa and shouted. “That old sofa has got to go. We’ll buy Grandpa a new one.
It was true and Martina had to agree. The sofa was really old. As they tried to move the sofa. Grandpa stood in their way. “You can’t take my sofa,” he shouted.
“It’s old,” Mum said. Grandpa tried to push his sofa back into place. “We’ll buy you a new one,” Mum promised.
“I don’t want a new one,” Grandpa insisted. Mum let go of the sofa. “We’ll talk about it tonight when John gets home.” John, Martina’s dad, was still at work.
“Why don’t you let us take away the sofa? It’s too old!” Martina asked when the family were having supper. Grandpa shook his head and said, “I sat in this sofa with your grandma right here when I asked her to marry me. It was so long ago, but when I sit in this sofa and close my eyes, I feel she is near.”
“It’s amazing,” Martina thought, “how Grandpa can remember things from the past. These days he forgets almost everything.”
The old man smiled to Martina and went on. “Before the night your father was born, I didn’t sleep but sat in this sofa, feeling flustered till they placed the little baby into my arms.”
“I think I’m beginning to understand,” Martina said. “Many years later,” Grandpa continued, “I sat in this sofa when the doctor called and told me that your grandma was ill. I was lost without her, but the sofa gave me the comfort.”
“I do see now,” Martina looked at Grandpa. “This is not just an old sofa.”
1. What was Grandpa like these days?| A．He was happy to live with the family. | B．He liked the robin’s singing. |
| C．He always looked for something on the floor. | D．He couldn’t remember things well. |
| A．nervous | B．bored | C．hopeful | D．happy |
| A．The Old Sofa | B．The Spring Cleaning |
| C．The Smiths’ Wish | D．The Unforgettable Experience |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Cindy is a worker. She works at a shoe shop in London. Cindy doesn’t work on Sunday. She usually gets up late. She doesn’t like staying (待) at home. After breakfast she often drives her red car to see her friend, Leila. Leila is a teacher. She lives with her parents near London. Cindy spends (花费) around half an hour driving to Leila’s house. They talk about their jobs, their families and their friends there. They usually have an hour for sports in the morning and then in the afternoon they often go shopping. Sometimes they go to see their friends. They have a good time.
任务一：请在短文中找出下面词语的同义词。
1. ① store
② about
任务二：把文中画线的句子改为感叹句。
2.
任务三：请你用括号中给出的词语设计问句，然后根据短文内容回答问题。
3. (where /Cindy /work)
Ask:
Answer:
4. (Cindy/usually/get up/early/on Sunday)
Ask:
Answer:
5. (What/Cindy and Leila/often/do/on Sunday afternoon)
Ask:
Answer:
【推荐2】In the past, women spent hours a day in doing housework but men did less.
But a survey (调查)in the UK shows that now men do housework as much as women in 40% of the families. (A) Now men do more housework than before. And in about half of the families women and men do housework together.
The survey also shows that 2/3 of women will be happy when men help with housework although they often end up doing the work themselves. Some of them said，“Men just don’t care as much as women.(B)或许是因为男人不知道怎么做家务。”
From another survey in Canada we can find that women at the age of 20—30 spend more time on their work and less time on housework.
根据短文内容，完成下面的小题。
1. In the past,
2. Now women and men do housework together in about
3. The underlined word "themselves" refers (指)to “
4. 将文中(A)处画线句子译成中文。
5. 将文中(B)处画线句子译成英文。
Life Skills Are Dying Out
Chris Hughes is a 24-year-old young man from the UK. He often wears the same clothes for a lot of days because he doesn’t know how to use a washing machine.
1 Hughes is not the only young person who doesn’t have basic life skills. According to a recent study by YouGov, today’s young people in the UK are less capable (能干的) than older generations (一代人) when it comes to simple life skills. For example, about 35 percent don’t know how to sew on a button (缝扣子), and 11 percent don’t understand how to change a light bulb or wash clothes.
2 According to Forbes (福布斯), many young people in the USA are losing the skill of cooking, as they like to order take-out food.
The development of technology may be the main reason for this problem. Born and raised in modern society, young people are always using smartphones and computers. 3
However, this does not mean young people cannot do daily chores. 4 For example, the study results show that although only 45 percent know how to pay their water and electricity bills, 72 percent could help set up a Wi-Fi network in a new house.
A. This is not a joke.
B. With GPS at hand, they don’t have to learn to read maps at all.
C. The Mirror says as their lives have changed, the life skills that are necessary have changed, too.
D. Young people in the United States have this problem as well.
1. ________
2. ________
3. ________
4. ________
5. What life skill do you have? （回答不超过5个单词）
I can
My dream（梦想）room is a big and beautiful room. I want to make the room full of blue color because I like blue very much.
First, I clean my room, then I paint（油漆）the wall blue. Then I put some pictures on the wall. The pictures are all about plants, flowers and rainbows. Then I put a big pink bed in the room. My pillow（枕头）is soft. The quilt is like a big tree. You can see there is a bird sleeping in the tree. On the left side of the bed there is a blue table. On the right side of the bed is a blue desk. There are many storybooks on it. There is also a big bookcase in the room. The bookcase is orange. I am going to put three things in the bookcase: my CDs, science books and the model plane.
This is my dream room. Isn’t it beautiful?
Answer the following questions.
1. What color does the writer （作者）like?
2. What are the pictures about?
3. What color is the bed?
4. Where is the blue desk?
5. How many things are there in the bookcase?
“Lulu, how about going to see Grandparents?” Mom asks.
“OK!” Lulu wants to see her grandparents. At her grandparents’ home, there are two pets. They are Andy and Cici. Andy is a white and brown dog. He is 8. Cici is a black and orange cat. She is 2.
“Here is your suitcase (行李箱), Lulu!” Mom comes with a green suitcase. “Please pack (打包) your suitcase.”
Lulu puts a blue cup and a purple hat in it. The cup is for Grandpa and the hat is for Grandma.
Lulu has a green ball and a red ball. She finds the red one under her bed, but she can’t find the green one.
“Where is my green ball, Dad?” she asks.
“It is in the box next to the sofa!” Dad says.
Lulu puts the two balls in the suitcase. They are for Andy and Cici.
Lulu is happy. She is ready to see Grandparents now.
1. Who does Lulu want to see?2. What color is the suitcase?
3. Where does Lulu find the green ball?
4. What can you find in Lulu’s suitcase?
5. Who are the two balls for?
Tom, Bill and Dave lost their (他们的) schoolbags. They are at the lost and found office. The schoolbags are the same (相同的), but the things in them are different (不同的). Can you help find their schoolbags?
Tom: I have (有) a Chinese book and a pencil box in my schoolbag. There are three pencils, a pen and an eraser in the pencil box.
Bill: I have a Chinese dictionary, a math book and two notebooks in my schoolbag.
Dave: There are three notebooks in my schoolbag. My English book is in it, too.
1. What did the three boys lose (丢了什么)? (no more than 4 words 不超过4个单词)2. What’s in Dave’s schoolbag? (no more than 6 words 不超过6个单词)
3. Who has an eraser? (no more than 1 word 不超过1个单词)
4. 请把文中划线句子翻译成汉语。
5. 请给短文拟一个合适的英文标题。
Mr. Guo, a teacher from Xi’an asks his students to hand in their homework through a QR code (二维码). “We spent an hour or two in class learning how to generate (使产生)the codes, and in the end everything gets easier” said Guo. “When students finish the homework, they keep it on WeChat. Then, each student makes his own QR code and gives it to me. So I can check their work everywhere using my computer or telephone.”
The QR codes can be sent to Mr. Guo by email, QQ and WeChat. When Guo scans (扫描)his students’ QR codes, their homework appears on his phone. He finds that their homework becomes more creative, with many pictures, music and even videos.
Guo’s students like the new way and think it is interesting. “We are living in the information age. Many students like to work with computers, which makes learning more fun”, said Tingting, a student of Guo’s.
“The paper is not easy to keep, but the code is easy to keep and share,” Guo said “It is worth trying to use new technology in education. Education itself is a kind of creation. I don’t want my students to fall behind the times.”
However, some parents are worried. They are afraid that their children will spend too much time on computers and less time communicating with teachers. But in fact, it’s unnecessary. Students still need to look up information in books and write it down when they do their homework. They only use the codes when they hand in their work, which doesn’t take them too much time. Also for teachers, it allows them to check the students’ work at any time. And it’s also an easy way to share homework with other students.
1. How can Mr. Guo check his students’ homework?2. Where do Guo’s students keep their homework?
3. Why does Mr. Guo think his students’ homework becomes more creative?
4. What do Guo’s students think of the new way to hand in the homework?
5. Are the parents’ worries necessary?
【推荐2】There once was a woman. She had a faithful（忠实的）dog. The dog was so faithful that she could leave her baby with the dog when she went out. And after she returned,she would always find her baby safe.
One day, the woman left the baby with the dog and went shopping. When she returned, she found something had taken place in the house. There were bloodstains（血迹）all over the bedroom. The woman then thought of her baby. She cried and started looking for him. Then she saw the faithful dog. It was licking（舔）its mouth. It seemed that it had just finished a delicious meal. The woman was angry and thought that the dog had killed her baby. Without thinking too much, she killed the dog. But as she continued looking for her child, she saw something else. Close to the bed, there was her baby and he was sleeping. And under the bed, there was a dead jackal（胡狼）. The woman now understood what had happened. The dog tried to protect her baby from the jackal, but just now she killed the dog. How regretful she was!
（一）根据短文内容简要回答问题。
1. Why did the woman kill the dog?
2. Where did the woman find her baby?
（二）将短文中画线的句子译成汉语。
3.
4.
（三）请给短文拟一个适当的题目。
5.
Tao Xing, 12, and Tao Jun, used to be afraid of the end of the Chinese New Year holiday as their parents would return to their jobs in cities and they would be left home. However, this year, they had no reason to be sad.
After five years of living with their uncle in a village in Chongqing, the children have their parents back by their sides. There are more than 60 million “left-behind” children in the countryside when their parents moved away to work in the cities. Tao Xing and Tao Jun’s mother Yu Changmei and their father Tao Yonghong could only return home twice a year from their jobs in Guizhou Province.
Now more and more such kind of families becomes reunited (重聚的) ones. The Tao family is just one of them. In 2015, the number of China’s migrant (移民) fell for the first time in about 30 years as people pay more attention to the problems faced by left-behind children. Migrants are encouraged to return hometown. They are needed to work for the development of the countryside and provide support for lonely children. “Parents’ company (陪伴) is the best gift children can receive. They require parents care and help,” said a professor called Guan Xinping.
1. Why were Tao Xing and Tao Jun afraid of the end of the Chinese New Year holiday?2. Where did Tao Xing and Tao Jun use to live with their uncle?
3. How many “left-behind” children are there in the countryside?
4. How often did Tao Xing and Tao Jun’s parents return home from their jobs in Guizhou?
5. What did Guan Xinping consider parents’ company?
