1 . One day, a college student was taking a walk with a professor. As they went along, they saw a pair of old shoes lying in the path. They supposed the shoes belonged to a poor man who was employed in a field close by and who had nearly finished his day’s work.

The student turned to the professor, saying, “Let’s play a trick on him: we can hide his shoes, and hide ourselves behind those bushes, and wait to see his confusion when he cannot find them”.

“My young friend,” answered the professor, “we should never amuse ourselves at the expense of the poor. But you are rich, and may give yourself much greater pleasure by helping the poor man. Put a coin into each shoe, and then we hide ourselves and watch how the discovery will affect him.”

The student did so, and they both placed themselves behind the bushes close by. The poor man soon finished his work, and walked across the field to the path where he had left his coat and shoes. While putting on his coat he slipped his foot into one of his shoes, feeling something hard. He bent down to feel what it was, and found the coin. Astonishment and wonder were seen on his face.

He fixed his eyes on the coin, turned it round, and looked at it again and again. He then looked on all sides, but no person was seen. He put the money into his pocket, and continued to put on the other shoe, but his surprise was doubled on finding the other coin. His feelings overcame him. He fell upon his knees, looked up to heaven and cried a sincere thanksgiving, in which he spoke of his wife, sick and helpless, and his children without bread. He said the timely help, from some unknown hand, would save them from dying.

The student stood there, deeply affected, and his eyes filled with tears. “Now,” said the professor, “aren’t you much more pleased to do that than to play your intended trick?”

The student replied, “You have taught me a lesson which I will never forget.”

Since my mother received a mobile phone for her birthday this year, she has been addicted     1     the Internet, using different kinds of software application s on her mobile device. She spends a lot of time     2     (explore) websites and chat with other people online. She does most of the shopping online through an app. Instead of going to supermarkets, nowadays she just presses a button and then her orders     3     (deliver) the next day. She also downloads materials that can help my father with his work.

Yours,

Li Hua

4 . Technological change is everywhere and affects every aspect of life, mostly for the better. However, social changes that are brought about by new technology are often mistaken for a change in attitudes.

An example at hand is the involvement of parents in the lives of their children who are attending college. Surveys (调查) on this topic suggest that parents today continue to be “very” or “somewhat” overly-protective even after their children move into college dormitories. The same surveys also indicate that the rate of parental involvement is greater today than it was a generation ago. This is usually interpreted as a sign that today’ s parents are trying to manage their children’s lives past the point where this behavior is appropriate.

However, greater parental involvement does not necessarily indicate that parents are failing to let go of their “adult” children.

In the context (背景) of this discussion, it seems valuable to first find out the cause of change in the case of parents’ involvement with their grown children. If parents of earlier generations had wanted to be in touch with their college-age children frequently, would this have been possible? Probably not. On the other hand, does the possibility of frequent communication today mean that the urge to do so wasn’t present a generation ago? Many studies show that older parents — today’ s grandparents — would have called their children more often if the means and cost of doing so had not been a barrier.

Furthermore, studies show that finances are the most frequent subject of communication between parents and their college children. The fact that college students are financially dependent on their parents is nothing new; nor are requests for more money to be sent from home. This phenomenon is neither good nor bad; it is a fact of college life, today and in the past.

Thanks to the advanced technology, we live in an age of bettered communication. This has many implications well beyond the role that parents seem to play in the lives of their children who have left for college. But it is useful to bear in mind that all such changes come from the technology and not some imagined desire by parents to keep their children under their wings.

Yours

Li Hua

7 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。

8 . What does the man mean?

Catherine was the coolest kid in her class. Whenever she went, she was in the spotight, with a bunch of kids following her and doing everything she did. Her deskmate, Landy, however, was not in the cool kids' group. Being the tallest kid in the class, she was teased (嘲笑) by her classmates, who were always chanting “Landy, Landy, long as spagheti (意大利面)”.

Every time Landy heard those silly chants, she could feel her face burst into flames. How she wished the ground to crack and swallow her!

Catherine didn’t really like it when the kids chanted “Landy, Landy, long as spaghetti”. But she never told them to stop either, and nor did she ever talk to Landy. She liked being popular.

One weekend, Catherine went over to her grandfather. Her grandfather lives on a farm at the opposite end of town, where he keeps chickens. While helping to feed the chickens, Catherine noticed a special one. Curling in the corner, it looked smaller than the others and was almost half-bare!(半秃)

“What’s the matter with it?” She asked her grandfather, with a puzzled frown on her face. Her grandfather told her how chickens could act. “They have a pecking ( 啄 ) order. ” he explained, “If one chicken is different, the others will push it away and keep pecking it. Sometimes they peck it so much that it dies.”

“Oh, what a poor little thing!” Catherine let out a sigh as she scooped (捧起) the frightened chicken up in her arms. Suddenly, she thought of Landy! She was just like the poor little chicken, being teased and ignored by her classmates, merely due to her special height.

Catherine decided to make an apology to Landy with the kids following her the next Monday.