2 . Mr. Lang worked in a factory. As a driver, he was busy but he was paid much. His wife was an able woman and did all the housework. When he came back, she took good care of him and he never did anything at home. So he had enough time when he had a holiday. A few friends of his liked gambling (赌博) and he learned it soon. So he was interested in it and forgot anything except gambling. He lost all his money and later he began to sell the television, watches and so on. His wife told him not to do it but he didn’t listen to her. She had to tell the police. He and his friends were punished for it. And he lost his job. After he came out of lockup (拘留所), he hated her very much and the woman had to leave him.
It was New Year’s Day. Mr. Lang didn’t go to work. He felt lonely and wanted to gamble again. He called his friends and they came soon. But they were afraid the police would come. He told his five-year-old son to go to find out if there were the policemen outside. They waited for a long time and didn’t think the police would come and began to gamble. Suddenly opened the door and in came a few policemen.
“I saw there weren’t any policemen outside, daddy,” said the boy, “so I went to the crossing and asked some to come.”
1. Mr. Lang was paid much because _______.

A．he was a driver

B．he worked in a factory

C．he had a lot of work to do

D．he had worked there for a long time

2. Mrs. Lang did all housework because _______.

A．she couldn’t find any work

B．she thought her husband was tired

C．her husband spent all time in gambling

D．she wouldn’t stop her husband gambling

3. _______, so he was put into lockup.

A．Mr. Lang often gambled

B．Mr. Lang was late for work

C．Mr. Lang didn’t help his wife at home

D．Mr. Lang wasn’t polite to the police

4. The woman had to leave Mr. Lang because _______.

A．he didn’t love her any longer

B．he wouldn’t stop gambling

C．he had been put into lockup

D．he was hardly sent away by the factory

5. Which of the following is right?

A．The boy hoped his father to be put into lockup again.

B．The boy thought his father needed some policemen.

C．The boy hoped his father to stop gambling soon.

D．The boy hoped his mother to come back.

3 .

The Pillow

At the age of sixteen, I joined a volunteer group with my dad. I went on my first volunteer project in West Virginia. On the night we arrived, we discovered that “our family” was living in a trailer(拖车) that was in poor condition. A crew had been working on it for two weeks, but every time they finished one problem, another surfaced.

We decided the only reasonable solution was to build a new house — something unusual but necessary under these circumstances. The family was overjoyed with their new house that was twenty by thirty feet with three bedrooms, a bath and a kitchen.

On Tuesday of that week, while we ate lunch together, I asked the family’s three boys, Josh, Eric and Ryan, “What do you want for your new room?” Expecting toys and other gadgets that children usually ask for, we were surprised when Josh responded, “I just want a bed.”

The boys had never slept in a bed! They were accustomed to plastic mats. That night we had a meeting and decided that beds would be the perfect gift. On Thursday night, a few adults in our group drove to the nearest city and bought beds and new bedding.

When we saw the delivery truck coming, we told the family about the surprise. We could hardly contain ourselves. It was like watching excited children on Christmas morning.

That afternoon, as we fitted the frames of the beds together, Eric ran into the house to watch us. Too dirty to enter his room, he observed with wide-eyed enthusiasm from the doorway.

As my father slipped a pillowcase onto one of the pillows, Eric asked, “What is that?”

“A pillow,” he replied.

“What do you do with it?” Eric continued to ask.

“When you go to sleep, you put your head on it,” I answered softly. Tears came to our eyes as she handed Eric the pillow.

“Oh . . . that’s soft,” he said, hugging it tightly.

Now, when my sister or I start to ask for something that seems urgent, my Dad gently asks, “Do you have a pillow?”

We know exactly what he means.

1. The writer’s first volunteer project was ________.

A．working on a poor trailer	B．helping a poor family
C．donating beds and bedding	D．dealing with a housing problem

2. On bearing Josh’s answer, the writer was shocked because ________.

A．the family lived in a trailer	B．he expected to get some toys
C．he didn’t know what a bed was	D．the boys had no bed to sleep in

3. From the passage, we can learn that Eric had never seen before ________.

A．a trailer

B．a truck

C．a pillow

D．a house

4. By sayg “Do you have a pillow?”, the writer’s father means that ________.

A．what they want to get may be unnecessary

B．they should not waste money on small things

C．they should do more volunteer work for the poor

D．what he will buy is not what they want but a pillow