Ali and his younger sister, Zahra, lived with their parents in a poor neighborhood. Their mother was very sick and their father was struggling to find a job, and they had only a little money with which to buy food. As they had not paid the rent for several months, the landlord was breathing down their necks.
One day, Ali took Zahra's shoes to a shoe repairman to be fixed, but he lost them on the way home. It wasn’t until he got home that he realized he had lost the shoes. He was afraid that his parents would be angry and disappointed, so he begged his sister to keep it a secret. Zahra agreed and the two decided to share Ali’s running shoes. Zahra's school hours were in the morning, so she would wear them first. After school, she would rush back and give them to Ali. He could then run to his school, which began in the afternoon. Although he ran as fast as he could, Ali often arrived late and was warned by the school.
Ali heard about a long distance race that was held for the boys in the city.When he learned that the third prize was a new pair of shoes, he decided to take part. He ran home excitedly and promised his sister that he would win her the new shoes.
The day of race arrived. Ali had a strong start, but halfway through the race he began to get tired and his legs began to ache. Getting more and more exhausted he thought only of Zahra and his promise to her. Dreaming of the new shoes he would win for his sister gave him strength, and he stayed right behind the two fastest runners, determined to finish third. Suddenly, as the finish line drew near, another runner collided(碰撞) with Ali from behind and he crashed to the ground.
Ali looked up and saw the other boys rushing ahead.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Filled with delight, Ali walked home quickly.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . Mobile phones and iPads are now wonderful tools for learning and teaching English. With the help of the thousands of education and language apps available online, students can make effective use of them to learn in an interactive environment. Given below is a list of some of the best apps for learning and teaching English.
Grammar Up
Grammar is the heart of any language and, thus, the Grammar Up app is one of the most highly recommended apps for English learners. This app is specifically designed for people who want to improve their grammar, vocabulary and word selection. It consists of more than 1,800 multiple－choice questions grouped under twenty different grammar categories.
iFPoems
iFPoems is a fantastic app for poetry lovers. This app consists of a great collection of poems from famous poets around the world. It also allows users to save their favorites along with recording their own readings of the poems.
iBooks
iBooks is a complete book library for the iPad users. It includes the iBookstore and allows users to download and read books. The app features a beautiful bookshelf, on which you can browse various books or even add notes to your favorite paragraphs in the book. You can also create your own texts and upload them into the app.
SpeakingPal
Recommended as one of the best apps for English educators and learners, SpeakingPal allows you to record your speech and compare it with a native English speaker. This amazing app combines video with automatic speech recognition software that tests your English speaking skills. You just have to speak with a video character and get immediate response on how well you speak English.
1. What do these apps have in common?| A．They can be found online. |
| B．They are free of charge. |
| C．They improve users’ grammar. |
| D．They’re designed by teachers. |
| A．Download books for free. |
| B．Write notes on it with pens. |
| C．Save notes and texts. |
| D．Create a bookstore. |
| A．It offers video call service. |
| B．It evaluates users’ speech. |
| C．It offers talks with a native speaker. |
| D．It includes English speaking contests. |
