It was December and the snow was falling quietly outside. The four March sisters were sitting around the fire in their house. Sixteen-year-old Meg was the oldest of the four sisters. She loved pretty clothes. Jo was fifteen. She was very tall and thin. She didn’t care about dresses. Beth was thirteen. She was very shy and quiet and the youngest, Amy looked like a snow princess with her blue eyes and blonde hair. She loved beautiful things.
“Christmas isn’t Christmas without any presents,” Jo said sadly. “I hate being poor!” Meg said, looking at her old dress; “Some girls have lots of nice things, and other girls have nothing at all,” said Amy. “I don’t think it’s fair.”
Then Jo said, “But we haven’t got Father. “ Their smiles suddenly disappeared. Mr. March was far away with soldiers(士兵).
“Mother says we mustn’t spend money for pleasure,” Meg said. “That’s why we can’t have presents.”
“Well, each of us has a dollar to spend,” said Jo. “I’d like to buy a book for myself.”
“I want to spend mine on some new music.” said Beth.
“I’m going to buy a box of drawing pencils. I really need them,” said Amy. She wanted to be an artist.
“Mother didn’t say anything about spending our own money,” cried Jo. “We work hard for it sole’s buy what we want and have a little fun.”
It was true. The two older sisters had jobs. They could make money.
Just then, Beth found her mother’s slippers near the fire.
“Those slippers are very old,” said Jo. “Mother needs some new ones.”
“I have an idea,” said Beth. “Let’s not spend our money on ourselves. Let’s get some presents for Mother.”
Her sisters thought that she was right. They decided to buy some presents for their mother. At that moment, their mother came back home with a letter from their father. When they had dinner happily, the mother read the long letter. The father told the girls to be good to their mother and work hard. He wanted to be proud of them when he came back.
Before they went to bed, Beth played some songs and they all sang.
1. From the first two paragraphs, we know ________.| A．there were five members in the family | B．the story happened in autumn |
| C．the story happened in December | D．the four sisters liked the same things |
| A．Because their father has died. | B．Because their father was far away in the army(部队). |
| C．Because their father went shopping for Christmas. | D．Because their father went to work, and didn’t come back. |
a. Mother brought the girls a letter from their father.
b. The four girls were sitting around the fire at home.
c. Mother gave them money to buy something.
d. The girls decided to buy something for Mother
| A．a-b-c-d | B．b-a-c-d | C．b-d-c-a | D．c-b-d-a |
| A．Kind and helpful | B．Poor but happy. | C．Quiet and smart. | D．Funny but careless. |
| A．Jo was the most beautiful girl in the family. | B．Beth loved singing and drawing very much. |
| C．Meg and Jo cared about their dresses. | D．The family had a nice dinner happily. |
2 . 
It was a week before I saw Captain Nemo again. Every morning, I noticed fresh air coming into the rooms and I knew that the Nautilus had surfaced(浮出水面). I would go out and see the sunrise.
Then I received a note from Captain Nemo. He invited me and my friends to go hunting with him in the forests of Crespo Island. Ned was excited because he thought there he could find a chance to escape. When I saw Captain Nemo the next day, I asked him why he was so interested in Crespo Island. "I thought you preferred the sea to being on land."
"I do," replied the Captain. "But these forests are under the sea." During breakfast, he explained that he had made diving suits(潜水服)that used special air tanks. These tanks would allow us to stay under the water for ten hours. He had also made lights that worked in electric batteries. When Ned realized that we were not going onto land for our hunting trip, he decided not to come at all.
Conseil and I put on our diving suits, and so did Captain Nemo and one of his men. We stepped into a room and closed the door. The room was filled with water, and another door opened. We must go through it, and we were in the sea floor. It was an amazing experience.
We were about ten meters under the water. The light from the sun reached us. Everything looked very colorful. We walked over the fine sand and enjoyed the colors of the shells, fish and seaweed. Conseil and I followed Captain Nemo and his man as they crossed a large grassy area. We were going deeper and deeper. Two hours later, we were a hundred meters under the water. The suits worked very well, and it was easy to walk and breathe.
At one hundred meters deep, we could still see quite well, and Captain Nemo stopped and pointed to some dark shapes. This was the forest. The "trees" in the forest were giant seaweed, and all their branches were vertical(垂直的). We could not stop looking at them. Fish swam around the branches like birds in a forest. Small shrubs(灌木) grew under the large seaweed trees. Some of them had flowers.
We walked through this forest for about an hour, and then we lay down to rest. I was not hungry, but I was very sleepy. We all slept, and when we woke up, we walked further.
(Adapted from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea)
1. What do you think the Nautilus is?| A．A kind of ship under the sea. | B．A kind of fish in the sea. |
| C．A kind of plane in the sky. | D．A kind of transport on land. |
| A．Captain Nemo | B．Captain Nemo's man |
| C．Ned | D．Conseil |
①They visited the forest.
②They crossed the large grassy area.
③They felt sleepy and lay down to rest.
④Captain Nemo made diving suits and lights.
⑤Captain Nemo invited some people to go hunting.
| A．④⑤①②③ | B．⑤④①②③ | C．③⑤④②① | D．⑤④②①③ |
| A．Ned and Nemo were close friends |
| B．Captain Nemo enjoyed the hunting trip |
| C．there were three people visiting the forest |
| D．it took them 30 minutes to walk through the forest |
| A．a sports magazine | B．a book review | C．a science fiction | D．a travel report |
