Mom was born in a small village, which is famous for paper-folding art, and Mom learnt how to make paper animals. In 1967, Mom went to Hong Kong, where she met Dad. They went to the suburbs of Connecticut later. Not knowing English, she was lonely until I was born.
When I was young, Mom liked to make paper animals for me. She folded up the paper, then lifted the paper packet to her mouth and blew into it. There in her hands was a little paper tiger. It seemed that the little tiger shared her breath. This was her magic. At my request, Mom also made a goat, a deer and even a shark.
Mark, one of the neighborhood boys, came over with his Star Wars action figure. I brought out the paper tiger. Mark examined the wrapping-paper pattern of the tiger’s skin. "That doesn’t look like a tiger. Is it a toy? ""I had never thought of that. But looking at it, it was really just a piece of wrapping paper.
Later, Dad bought me a full set of Wars action figures. I packed the paper animals in a shoebox and put them into the comer of the attic(阁楼). Once in a while, I would see Mom at the kitchen table making new paper animals. I caught them, pressed and then put them away in the box in the attic.
Mom was also trying to learn to speak English, but her accent and broken sentences embarrassed me. I tried to correct her. but in vain. Eventually. I stopped talking with her. For years, I paid no attention to Mom until one day my Dad called and told me that Mom was in hospital. Dad and I stood, one on each side of Mom. She turned to me, " Jack, just keep that box with you, and you will find it so important. "
She died several days later. Dad aged raw after that. The house was too big for him and had to be sold. My girlfriend Susan and I went to help him pack and clean the place.
Susan found the shoebox in the attic.___________________________________________________________________________________________________
I unfolded the paper tiger and found several lines of Chinese characters written by my mother.
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2 . Robin was 12 years old when his mother sent him to me for his first piano lesson. I preferred that students begin at an earlier
Several months later when I was preparing my students for a music show, Robin came to my home and said he had to
However, on the show his fingers danced
“How could you do it?” I could not help asking him a few days later.
“Well, I kept practising at home. My mom had cancer and just passed away the day I went to your
A.level | B.convenience | C.age | D.moment |
A.task | B.plan | C.dream | D.hobby |
A.Unless | B.Because | C.Until | D.Although |
A.acted | B.continued | C.commanded | D.proved |
A.encouraged | B.disappointed | C.touched | D.guided |
A.told | B.showed | C.convinced | D.promised |
A.look forward to | B.sign up for | C.focus on | D.learn from |
A.warn | B.persuade | C.allow | D.force |
A.determination | B.happiness | C.reflections | D.anger |
A.excited | B.satisfied | C.relieved | D.surprised |
A.gracefully | B.awkwardly | C.slowly | D.quickly |
A.shook | B.clapped | C.danced | D.laughed |
A.followed | B.drove | C.woke | D.ran |
A.house | B.office | C.class | D.stage |
A.special | B.important | C.similar | D.popular |
3 . Both of my parents worked fulltime when I was a little girl,so my grandmother would stay at our house during the day. We would watch game shows in the living room. Our favorite was The Price Is Right. We would call out our answers along with the contestants.
When I got older and started going to school,we couldn’t watch our game shows regularly. That was okay with me,though,because the one thing I liked better than watching game shows with my grandmother was helping her bake cakes. Watching her in the kitchen was amazing:she never seemed to need the recipes(食谱)but everything she made tasted delicious.
At first I would just sit in the kitchen and watch,even though I didn’t understand what she was doing. As I got older,she let me help with the easy parts,such as measuring the sugar. The day she let me separate the eggs,I felt like I had found complete pleasure.
At last,my parents decided that I could take care of myself,and my grandmother stopped coming over every day. The love of baking,however,stayed with me. I started baking by myself,and even if the cookies ended up burnt sometimes,more often they turned out pretty well. I tried out new recipes,and whenever I got to a thorny part,I would call my grandmother for advice. Sometimes I would call her just to talk too. I felt like I could talk to her about anything.
My grandmother passed away ten years ago,but I still think of her every day. Last week,I found a recipe book she made for me. It included her recipes for brownies,cookies,and my favorite,lemon pie. As I looked through the pages,I thought I could hear her voice. She was the one who taught me not just about baking,but about life.
1. The passage is mainly developed by .A.analyzing causes | B.making comparisons |
C.following the time order | D.examining differences |
A.found it interesting | B.turned out to be a troublemaker |
C.hoped to make a living by baking | D.regretted missing the game shows |
A.Basic. | B.Common. |
C.Special. | D.Difficult. |
A.To describe her childhood memories. | B.To show her good baking skills. |
C.To remember her grandmother. | D.To talk about her happy family life. |
4 . The family of a 6-year-old adopted Chinese girl who badly needs a bone marrow transplant (骨髓移植) believes they have found a match in China.
Kailee Wells suffers from a serious aplastic anemia (再生障碍性贫血), which prevents bone marrow from producing new blood cells. She has taken courses of treatment but has shown little sign of recovery.
The best help for such patients is a transplant of healthy marrow or blood cells from a suitable donor. Certain tissue of the patient and the donor must match.
Kailee’s mother, Linda Wells, made her second trip to China earlier this month to find a donor. Her husband, Owen Wells, said that his wife believed doctors there had found a match.
“For these last 22 months, we’ve been living in fear that Kailee would take a turn for the worse and there would be nothing we could do about it,” he said. “Now we have something we can use and save our little girl. We are just about ready to start jumping up and down and rejoicing.”
Wells said a Chinese girl who is about a year old has a blood sample that matches Kailee’s perfectly. The next step, he said, would be to make sure the sample is safely harvested and protected for transplant, the details of which have yet to be worked out.
Linda Wells first traveled to China in February to try to locate the girl’s birth mother, who is likely to be a match. But she found no relatives and decided to try again this month.
“This gives us so much encouragement because now we found what we thought we would never be able to find for Kailee,” Owen Wells said. “We’re going to continue our blood donor drive to try to continue to help as many people as we possibly can. We’re just so happy.”
1. What do we know about Kailee Wells?A.She was adopted by a Chinese family. |
B.She has a one-year-old sister in China. |
C.She was recovering from aplastic anemia. |
D.She is unable to produce new blood cells. |
A.waving | B.moving |
C.cheering | D.crying |
A.Linda Wells has found the girl’s birth mother. |
B.Owen and Linda tried every means to cure Kailee. |
C.Doctors have worked out plans to protect the sample. |
D.Owen and Linda visited China twice to find a perfect match. |
A.Long and deep friendship between two families. | B.Faith leads to hope. |
C.Match found for a bone marrow transplant. | D.The journey to China. |