1 . My 10-year-old Donna said, "Mom, I made a new friend at school today. Can she come over tomorrow?" Donna was a shy girl and I wanted her to make some friends to bring her out of her shell.
"Sure, honey, that sounds great." I said, thinking back to my own best friend, Lillian. We lived across the street from each other in Washington Heights, New York. We met at the age of 10, too. Like my daughter, I was shy, but Lillian drew me out. She was one of the friendliest people in school, with shiny black hair and a mile-wide smile. I knew we would be best friends forever.
In senior high school, Lillian went on a trip to Florida. This was the first time we had to be away from each other for a few days. "I'll be back soon." she told me. But three days later, Lillian's sister told me that she had fallen into a river and hadn't come out any more. Soon, my family moved to New Jersey. Whenever I thought of her, tears came into my eyes.
The next day Donna brought her new friend home. "Hi, Mrs. Loggia." the little girl said. Her hair was so shiny and black and she shot me a big smile. "My name is Laura."
My daughter's new friend was so much like Lillian. I was still puzzled when Laura's mom came to pick her up later that afternoon. I opened the door to let her in. "Judy!" she cried. "It's me, Lillian's sister, from Washington Heights." Yes, my daughter's friend looked familiar. She was Lillian's niece.
1. Which of the following can replace the underlined words in paragraph 2?| A．Invited me to go shopping. | B．Drew pictures with me outside. |
| C．Helped me out of a locked room. | D．Made me more outgoing than before. |
| A．Her best friend traveled to Florida. | B．They shared no interests in common. |
| C．Lillian lost her life on a trip to Florida. | D．Her friend's family moved to New Jersey. |
| A．She always missed Lillian. | B．She met Laura in Washington Heights. |
| C．She preferred Laura to her own daughter. | D．She moved to New Jersey because of Lillian's death. |
| A．A Terrible Trip | B．A Shy Daughter |
| C．A Best Friend | D．A Familiar Niece |
2 . Friends play a very important part in everyone’s life. Friendship usually develops during childhood. New friends are made when you progress through school. Those friends that you make as a student can usually last long. Friends influence your development, maturity( 成熟) and sense of responsibility (责任). A familiar opinion is “You can tell a lot about a person by knowing who his friends are.” Friendship is based on common interests. If you like sports, most of your friends are likely to be active. If you enjoy reading and shopping, most of your friends do the same.
Some people call you their friends for the wrong reasons. These people are not really friends. They are superficial (表面的) only “ friends” on the outside, not the inside where it counts. Superficial friends only want to be your friends if it is to their advantage. True friends are there whether you are rich or poor. It is easy to have many so-called “friends” if you are rich. By this time you should be able to recognize your friends as the real or the “phoney”.
True friends are most special. Sometimes they might not easy to find, so you can consider yourself very lucky if you have one true friend. This friend is eager to help you whenever necessary. He or she knows you would do the same for them. A true friend is someone you can talk to about any subject or problem. You and your true friend have good understanding of each other. True friends support you, take your side, and build up your confidence.
1. What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?| A．How to make true friends. |
| B．What is friendship based on. |
| C．We should make friends in our childhood. |
| D．Friends play a very important role in our life. |
| A．Friends in need. |
| B．Superficial (表面的) friends. |
| C．Those who can help you. |
| D．Those who often gives you money. |
| A．It is easy to have many true friends if you are rich. |
| B．If you like music, all of your friends will be a music lover. |
| C．The friendship developing during your school days can usually be with you for a long time. |
| D．Superficial friends are true friends. |
| A．True friends are too difficult to find. |
| B．You can only share sadness with a true friend. |
| C．You can only share happiness with a true friend. |
| D．True friends will support you whatever happens. |
3 . A 99-year-old woman and a high school student in British Columbia have formed a wonderful friendship through a program that connects seniors with young people.
Myrtle MacDonald, 99, says she signed up for the local program after feeling lonely because her daughter and son couldn’t keep her company. She was paired (结对子) with Jaelyn Brown,17, based on their common interest — nursing. “I just found her more interested and less in a hurry than I expected. It has filled an empty spot,” said MacDonald.
For the high school students taking part, the time spent with seniors can be used toward volunteer hours needed for graduation. They’re supposed to speak for 30 minutes each week, but many go far beyond that. “I love and look forward to getting to talk to her every week. We talk about an hour and 15 minutes, and the time just goes by so quickly,” said Brown.
MacDonald, a former nurse, spent much of her life teaching and living in other parts of the world helping people in need. The stories are inspiring to Brown, who also wants to become a nurse. “In high school they kind of say you go to school, you get a job, you have kids. It's are gular practice but talking to her has made me realize I don't have to limit myself to one thing. I can have it all,” she said.
The program has been a good fortune to both seniors and high school students. Due to various reasons, seniors can't meet with their families and students are having trouble getting their volunteer hours. “Therefore, there's been a huge positive response from them,” said the program’s organizer Connie Stam.
1. How do the high school students help the seniors?| A．By contacting their relatives. | B．By communicating with them. |
| C．By doing housework for them. | D．By setting up the volunteer program. |
| A．It improves the seniors' health. |
| B．It collects some data for research. |
| C．It calls for some practical nursing skills. |
| D．It goes beyond the requirement for graduation. |
| A．Grateful. | B．Graceful. |
| C．Helpful. | D．Powerful. |
| A．A Good Friend Is A Close Relative | B．True Friendship Bridges Age Gaps |
| C．Friendship Is The Basis Of Morality | D．Old Friends And Old wine Are Best |
4 . An American cancer survivor has become the first person to swim across the English Channel four times on end.
Sarah Thomas, a 37-year-old woman, completed the great achievement on Tuesday after over54 hours of swimming. Her record-breaking achievement comes just a year after she completed treatment for breast cancer.
In a video on Facebook, a small group of people could be seen cheering on the swimmer from Colorado as she made her final arrival to beach at Dover. Supporters congratulated Ms. Thomas on her non-stop swim, handing her chocolate and other gifts. In the video, Ms. Thomas admitted to feeling “a little sick" but said she had been encouraged to keep going by her husband and her team.
Before the start of her challenge, Ms. Thomas wrote that she was “fearful” and admitted she was "going to need some luck".
In a Facebook post made on Saturday, she dedicated the swim "to all the survivors out there", adding: "This is for those of us who have wondered hopelessly about what comes next, and have overcome the pain bravely."
After her swim, Ms. Thomas said. "I'm really tired and I'm losing my voice from all the salt water." Asked what the worst part of her challenge was, she said, “probably dealing with the salt water over two days, it really hurts your throat, your mouth and your tongue." She praised her support team for helping her stay strong, adding that she was very prepared for the weather, currents and cold water. "I feel just mostly stunned right now. I just can't believe that we did it.”
1. What was the biggest challenge for Ms. Thomas?| A．The weather. | B．The currents. |
| C．The salt water. | D．The cold water. |
| A．Frightened. | B．Surprised. | C．Upset. | D．Relaxed. |
| A．Brave and determined. | B．Successful and intelligent. |
| C．Humorous and generous. | D．Kind and confident. |
| A．A Record-breaking Achievement |
| B．Sarah Thomas Beat Breast Cancer |
| C．Sarah Thomas Got Support from her Husband |
| D．A Woman First to Swim Channel Four Times Non-stop |
5 . My mother is a diligent and kind woman. She is very busy from morning till night. As a teacher, she works hard.
My mother has been teaching math at a middle school in my hometown. She goes to work early in the morning and does not return home until late in the afternoon.
Often, she says to us, “work while you work, and play while you play. That is the way to be happy and gay. If you do not work, you will become lazy and be of no use to society”. What a piece of good advice this is!
| A．As a mother, she takes good care of us and gives us every comfort. |
| B．She enjoys listening to classic music. |
| C．She never goes to expensive restaurants to enjoy meals. |
| D．She loves her students and cares for them. |
| E．My mother is hard-working and never wastes money. |
| F．Can you tell us something about your mother? |
| G．I never forget it and always bear it in my mind. |
6 . When I was 4, our family took the train across the country to visit our grandparents. Because I was so little, I don’t remember much. But I do have a few memories of our stay there.
Grandfather had some tomatoes growing on the north side of his house, just outside the back door to the kitchen. I found a nice green tomato. I picked it and brought it with both hands and came into the kitchen and gave it to Grandpa. “Look, Grandpa, what I found!” He thanked me with a smile, and showed me he was putting it on the window sill(窗台). I was so happy, and I headed back outside, telling Grandfather I’d bring him some more. But my mom caught me and said, “No, no, no, green tomatoes are bad for health!” Grandmother sat in her wheelchair in the living room by the front door. We played games with her.
Soon, our visit ended and we had to go home. We left Grandmother to go back to the train station. It was several hours’ drive away. We all squeezed into Grandfather’s car.
A few years later, our family was living in Colorado. Grandfather came to visit us! He came by plane to Denver, and after a long drive, my father picked him up. During the weeks Grandfather stayed with us like most children, I’d go out and play in the back yard with him every day. I’m sure it was a precious time for Grandfather and my parents, too. I remember that when he was leaving in the airplane, we could see him in the airplane window, looking grieved. I never saw Grandfather again from then on, because we moved even further away. But we didn’t forget him.
1. How did the grandfather react when the author showed him the green tomatoes?| A．He was angry. | B．He looked strange. |
| C．He praised his grandson. | D．He thanked the author. |
| A．By plane and car. | B．By train and car. |
| C．By plane and train. | D．By car and ship. |
| A．Curious. | B．Sad. | C．Cautious. | D．Angry. |
| A．The life of my grandfather | B．The tomatoes of my grandparents |
| C．A lesson from my grandparents | D．The memory of my grandfather |
7 . Jim found himself exhausted during a trip. When he came home, he went to see a doctor. “The reason why I was fatigued (精疲力竭),” Jim says, “was that my kidneys were gone.”
Jim, 69, a former Air Force pilot, immediately started dialysis (透析) three times a week. A person of his age on dialysis usually lives only about four years. Transplants are a long-shot alternative. The National Kidney Foundation estimates that 13 people die every day while waiting for a donor with the right blood and tissue types.
Jim’s wife, nephew and four family friends offered but weren’t a match. Jim was so discouraged that he was even considering not attending a reunion of some Air Force buddies (铁哥们). But his wife encouraged him to reunite with his old friends, among whom was one he hadn’t seen for nearly 50 years: Doug Coffman. The two had met. When they both were learning Vietnamese before they went overseas.
Doug, then 70, felt a strong bond with his band of brothers, even though he hadn’t seen some of them for decades. Their connection went beyond the battlefield in ways most, soldiers never experience.
Doug had received help from his friends when he was in trouble, so he felt like it was a time that he could pay that ahead by donating a kidney to Jim. Fortunately, series of testing revealed not only that Doug’s tissue type matched Jim’s but also that he had the kidneys of a 35-year-old.
The transplant was a success. “It’s pretty miraculous to be able to take an organ out of one person’s body—a living organ—put it in another person’s body, and have it work.” Doug says. “And there’s nothing finer than knowing I’ve helped another person live a better life.”
1. From paragraph 2 we know that kidney transplant is ________.| A．expensive | B．dangerous |
| C．a matter of luck | D．an unwise choice |
| A．About 17. | B．About 19. | C．About 22. | D．About 25. |
| A．Doug is happy to donate a kidney to Jim. |
| B．Jim is having a better life than Doug. |
| C．The kidney transplant was very successful. |
| D．Modern medical science is very advanced. |
| A．To share his good luck. | B．To tell us to pay it forward. |
| C．To introduce a kidney transplant. | D．To encourage us to make friends. |
8 . Living with your parents has its advantages… at least when it comes to raising your kids—their grandkids. Because two new studies add to the evidence that grandmothers can improve the survival of grandchildren. That is, unless Grandma’s too old or lives too far away.
Humans are unusual in that women live long past the age at which they stop having babies. “We don’t really see that in nature. Most of the organisms (生物) will reproduce up to their very last moment,” says Patrick Bergeron, a teacher at Bishop’s University in Quebec. This increase in post-reproductive longevity (寿命) is often explained by the so-called “grandmother effect (效应)”.
To explore the “grandmother effect”, Bergeron and his researchers examined nearly 200 years’ worth of French-Canadian population records from the 17th and 18th centuries. At the time, life was hard. In some years, a third of the kids were not even making it to one year of age. But the researchers found that having a grandmother still alive was an advantage. Families with grandmothers alive were larger by about two and the survival of these grandchildren to age 15 was much improved.
This good effect was only seen when the grandmothers lived nearby, which suggests that grandmothers help by playing an active role in their grandchildren’s lives.
Unluckily, that role is harder for them to achieve as they get older, which brings us to the second study. Researchers at the University of Turku in Finland used church records from the 18th and 19th centuries. They found that the advantages connected with having a grandmother on hand depended on her age. Once grandmothers hit 75, the grandchild survival advantages disappeared. In other words, it was better for grandchildren to have no living grandmother at all than it was to live with an old one or one that was in poor health. So a healthy grandma helps make for a healthy grandchild
1. What’s “grandmother effect”?| A．Having a grandmother alive is an advantage. |
| B．Grandmothers are helpful to their children whatever their age. |
| C．Grandmothers are helpful for the survival of their grandchildren. |
| D．Healthy grandmothers living nearby are good for grandchildren’s health. |
| A．Researchers used French-Canadian population records. |
| B．Researchers used church records from the 17th and 18th centuries. |
| C．It was done by researchers from the University of Turku in Finland. |
| D．It found that it was good for grandchildren to have no living grandmother. |
| A．A science report. | B．A diary |
| C．A storybook. | D．A textbook. |
9 . Jade Stephenson has always loved her grandmother’s wedding dress (结婚礼服). So much so that once, Stephenson even asked her grandmother to keep hold of it so she could wear it for a special day. And when she realized her 80-year-old grandma wouldn’t be able to travel to attend her graduation at Liverpool Hope University, Stephenson knew the time had come.
“I tried the dress on several years ago, so I knew what it looked like when I put on the dress and her face then lit up,” she said. “So I knew asking her if I could wear it for graduation would make her smile. Also, my grandfather died in 2009 and to me, it felt like part of him was there with me on such a special day.”
Stephenson sported the dress under her cap and her clothes last week, at the ceremony (典礼) to collect her teaching degree at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King.
Nora, her grandmother, lives in Carlisle, more than 130 miles from Liverpool. She was very happy when she saw the pictures of her granddaughter, and praised that she chose that dress for her special day.
“My grandma and I are very close. I speak to her when I can and whenever I’m home I catch up with her. I see a lot of my own characters in her. I think we have quite a lot in common,” Stephenson said. “I’ve always loved my grandma’s dress. Although it’s 32 years old, it’s fit for me.”
Stephenson said several people praised her for her choice for the ceremony. “I think people thought it was quite heart-warming. Considering how old it is, the dress is in really good condition. My grandmother has looked after it very well.”
1. Seeing Stephenson trying the dress on, Stephenson’s grandmother feels ________.| A．pleased | B．angry |
| C．unhappy | D．amazed |
| A．Her grandmother is very forgetful. |
| B．Her grandmother is similar to her. |
| C．Her grandmother is a good designer. |
| D．Her grandmother is crazy about education. |
| A．It is valuable and expensive. |
| B．It is kept in good condition. |
| C．It is old and needs repairing. |
| D．It is too long for Stephenson. |
10 . I never saw my father home from work late or ill, nor did I ever see my father take a “night out with the boys”. He had no hobbies but just took care of his family.
For 22 years, since I left home for college, my father called me every Sunday at 9:00 am. He was always interested in my life----how my family was doing. The calls even came when he and my mother were in Australia, England or Florida.
Nine years ago when I bought me first house, my father, 67 years old, spent eight hours a day for three days, painting my house. He would not allow me to pay someone to have it done. All he asked was a glass of iced tea, and that I hold a paintbrush for him and talk to him. But I was too busy, for I had a law practice to run, and I could not take the time to hold the paintbrush, or talk to my father.
Five years ago, my 71-year-old father spent five hours putting together a swing set (秋千) for my daughter. Again, all he asked was that I get him a glass of iced tea, and talk to him. But again, I had laundry to do, and the house to clean.
The morning on Sunday, January 16, 1995, my father telephoned me as usual, this time he had seemed to have forgotten some things we had discussed the week before. I had to get to church, and I cut the conversation short.
The call came at 4:40 am. That day my father was sent to hospital in Florida. I got on a plane immediately, and I vowed (发誓) that when I arrived, I would make up for the lost time, and have a nice long talk with him and really get to know him.
I arrived in Florida at 1:00 am, but my father had passed away at 9:12 pm. This time it was he who did not have time to talk, or time to wait for me.
In the years since his death I have learnt much about my father, and even more about every single day.
1. We know from the reading that the father_____.| A．liked to paint houses |
| B．had no friends around him |
| C．was not healthy in his youth |
| D．thought of his family as his all |
| A．could only afford a glass of iced tea |
| B．was too busy to talk to her father |
| C．could do nothing but hold a paintbrush |
| D．spent eight hours a day working with her father |
| A．seemed to be a little different |
| B．had no time to phone her as usual |
| C．became interested in church |
| D．had forgotten to discuss some things with her |
| A．Painting Houses |
| B．Daughter’s Family |
| C．Father and I |
| D．Father’s phone calls |
