1 . Being a superhero to others
Ewan Drum has always liked superheroes. He likes how they help people. At age seven, he told his parents, “I want to dress up like a superhero and help the homeless. ”
When someone donated jugs(大罐) of water, Ewan and his family drove their car to get even more. They took the water to Flint, Michigan, a city that had unsafe drinking water. Another time, a businessman donated six turkeys(火鸡) for Thanksgiving.
Ewan has a motto: Everyone can be a superhero to someone. At an event called the Hero Round Table, Ewan told the audience,“It’ s not hard to help people.You can keep some socks and food in your car to help people in need. You can help a neighbor with doing the garden.
It' s been several years since Super Ewan started his task. Every month, he still visits the same park to hand out clothes, food, and supplies to people who are hungry or homeless ---his Super Friends.
“No matter what, ”Ewan says, “I will always keep helping people.”
| A．News spread about Ewan’ s act of kindness. |
| B．This superhero says he’ ll never take off his cape. |
| C．Ewan says he wants more adults to act like superheroes. |
| D．Every little thing helps and can make someone feel happy. |
| E．A few months later, Ewan ’s family planned a day of giving. |
| F．Several days later, his parents drove to Flint and helped him raise a lot of money. |
| G．With his parents’ help, Ewan asked for more turkeys through the Internet, plus side dishes. |
2 . Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers urged, "Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience."
How right they were. Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and strangers into friends.
''Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste that helps you hang in there when the going gets tough. It is the inner voice that whispers, I can do it! " when others shout, "No, you can't."
It took years and years for the early work of Barbara McClintock, a geneticist（遗传学家） who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted．Yet she didn't let up on her experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.
Author and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote, "Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul".
Enthusiastic people also love what they do, regardless of money or title or power. If we cannot do what we love as a full-time career, we can treat it as a part-time interest, like the head of state who paints, the nun(修女) who runs marathons, the official who handcrafts（手工制做） furniture.
We can't afford to waste tears on "might- have-beens". We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after ''what-can-be".
We need to live each moment wholeheartedly, with all our senses — finding pleasure in the fragrance of a back-yard garden, the crayoned （蜡笔的）picture of a six-year-old, the enchanting beauty of a rainbow. It is such enthusiastic love of life that puts a sparkle in our eyes, a lilt in our steps and smooths the wrinkles from our souls.
1. What can be the best title of this passage?| A．Find pleasure in what you are doing. |
| B．Wake up your life. |
| C．To give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. |
| D．No pains, no gains. |
| A．Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience. |
| B．Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. |
| C．We can't afford to waste tears on "might- have-beens. |
| D．Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and strangers into friends. |
| A．No one can achieve great success without enthusiasm. |
| B．Enthusiasm will take a person further than any amount of his experience. |
| C．We should make great effort to do the thing that can be done instead of regretting for the past. |
| D．Barbara McClintock was generally accepted many years before she won the Nobel Prize. |
| A．continue. | B．make less effort. |
| C．make great effort. | D．stop. |
| A．love of gardening | B．love of drawing pictures with the crayon of a six-year-old child |
| C．love of life | D．love of beautiful rainbow |
3 . Charlie is a teacher and his wife, Maria is an artist. The night before last, just before the longest day of the year, Charlie was sitting in a deckchair enjoying the warm summer air when Maria touched his shoulder and he could tell immediately she was a little worried about something. He asked her what the matter was and she replied that there was a strange thing on the jacket that was hanging in the bedroom. They had both lived in the West Indies (西印度群岛) and had seen a lot of strange creatures in their house before. But now they were living in England and so Charlie just laughed and said he would have a look at the “thing”.
He walked to the bedroom. He saw a jacket hanging in the bedroom and went up to it to have a closer look at the “thing”. The moment he touched it, the thing sprang into life. Now Charlie experiences fear like the rest of us but when this creature opened its wings, he jumped out of his skin and ran screaming from the room like a small child doing about 100 miles an hour.
For a moment the next-door neighbours thought that Charlie was murdering his wife because of the noise they could hear. In fact, it was a bat that frightened Charlie.
Eventually Charlie managed to trap the bat in a box and took it to the garden to let the bat fly. Maria, who had been playing the guitar while Charlie was upstairs, asked Charlie if he had found out what the thing was. “Oh, nothing to worry about”, he said casually hoping that the terror could not be seen in his eyes, “it was just a bat.”
1. Why was Maria a little worried one night?| A．Because she couldn't find her guitar. | B．Because she saw something strange. |
| C．Because it was too hot for her. | D．Because she had quarreled with her husband. |
| A．stood up | B．was very frightened |
| C．threw off his clothes | D．was very excited |
| A．It was killed by Charlie. | B．It was badly wounded. |
| C．It was set free by Charlie. | D．It was kept as a pet. |
| A．Charlie was afraid that his wife would laugh at him if she knew the truth |
| B．the neighbours would report to the police about Charlie murdering the bat |
| C．the bat wouldn't come to Charlie's room again because it was frightened |
| D．Maria heard her husband screaming downstairs and became frightened |
4 . I was in a rush as always,but this time it was for an important date I just couldn’t be late for! Thinking of my upcoming evening,I hurried into a store to pick up some flowers,for I did not want to be late for this date.
when I paid the bill at a checkout counter ,I found myself behind an elderly woman who seemed in no hurry when she paid for her groceries.She looked up at me and smiled.It was a nice smile –warm and friendly –and I returned her gift by smiling back.
“Must be a special lady,no matter who will be getting those beautiful flowers,” she said.
“Yes,she’s special,” I said,and then to my embarrassment,the words kept coming out.
“It’s only our second date,but somehow I am just having the feeling that she’s ‘the one’. Jokingly,I added,“The only problem is that I can’t understand why she’d want to date a guy like me.”
“Well,I think she’s very lucky to have a boyfriend who brings her such lovely flowers and who is obviously in love with her,” the woman said.” “My husband used to bring me flowers every week –even when times were hard and we didn’t have much money.Those were wonderful days; he was very romantic and – of course – I miss him after he died.
I paid for my flowers as she was gathering up her groceries. I walked up to her, touched her on the shoulder and said,“You were right,you know.These flowers are indeed for a very special lady.” I handed her the flowers and thanked her for such a nice conversation.
It took her a moment to realize that I was giving her the flowers I had just bought.“You have a wonderful evening,” I said.I left her with a big smile and my heart warmed as I saw her smelling the beautiful flowers.
I remember being slightly late for my date that night and telling my girlfriend the above story.A couple of years later,when I finally worked up the courage to ask her to marry me,she told me that the story I had told her that night helped me win her heart.
1. Why was the writer in a hurry that day?| A．He had to pick up some groceries | B．He had to go back to school soon. |
| C．He was delayed by an elderly lady. | D．He was to meet his girlfriend. |
| A．Her words. | B．Her flowers. |
| C．Her smile | D．her politeness. |
| A．She told him a nice story. | B．She gave him encouragement. |
| C．She allowed him to pay first. | D．She liked flowers very much. |
| A．Flowers are important for a date. | B．Small talk is helpful. |
| C．Love and kindness are meaningful. | D．Elderly people should be respected. |
5 . Recently, my mother asked me to drop off some letters at the post office and pick up some stamps for her. Without giving it a thought, I took the letters and purchased her stamps.
A few days later, she mentioned that one of the letters I had mailed was missing a stamp, and asked me if I had put a stamp on it. She had remembered asking me to put a stamp on it, though I certainly had not heard her. So, unfortunately, it looked like the letter, which was a bill of course, would come back marked "Return to Sender for Insufficient Postage". A few days went by and I returned to the post office to pick up our mail. While I was there, I saw the postmaster and happened to tell him about Mom’s letter missing the stamp. I asked him to be on the lookout for it coming back. It was then that he told me his story. "You know," he said, "I immediately saw after you had dropped the mail off that your letter was missing a stamp. I also noticed that it was a bill for a credit card company. I thought to myself that you have always been kind to me and my partner, and I wanted to return the favor. So, to prevent your mother from getting charged a late fee from the credit card company, I took money from our change dish (extra pennies for folks who need one), and purchased a stamp for you."
When I heard it, I couldn’t believe it. What a blessing that was! I thanked him over and over again for putting the stamp on the letter for us. Then, I immediately dumped(倾倒) all the change out of my purse and into the penny dish in order to help others out in the future. When I got home, I was able to tell Mom the good news. This was kindness karma(因果报应) in action, I believe!
1. The letter was missing a stamp because the author__________.| A．forgot to buy a stamp for it | B．didn’t take enough money |
| C．ignored his mother’s reminding | D．was not asked to put a stamp on it |
| A．Lacking | B．Heavy. |
| C．False. | D．Hard. |
| A．She will be fined by the post office. |
| B．She might be charged some money. |
| C．She may lose an important message. |
| D．She may have to give up her credit card. |
| A．didn’t believe what the postmaster said |
| B．thought the postmaster misunderstood him |
| C．gave the postmaster money to buy stamps. |
| D．thought highly of what the postmaster did |
6 . One Tuesday, we got up, had breakfast and got ready for school. We picked up our school bags and went to school. I opened my school bag to get my homework after I went into the classroom and sat down. My school homework needed to be handed in. But it was not there! I remembered I had put it in my school bag.
I thought back to Monday afternoon. I finished my school homework, put it in my school bag, and went out to play softball with the neighbor kids. My sister Sara was not out playing as usual. She read a book inside the house. She must have taken my homework while I was playing softball outside as no kids came inside our house on Monday.
After school I ran to the place where my sister and I usually meet. There was Sara. She didn't seem to be laughing at me. She is good at giving false information. “Sara, what have you done with my homework？” I asked. She said she hadn't seen it! “What should I do？” I thought. I waited for a chance to talk to Mom.
In Mom's room, I cried and shouted. I couldn't help shaking. I told her about my missing school homework. Hearing this, Mom left the room, went into the kitchen hurriedly and started looking in the trash. She pulled my school homework out of the trash! Mom said, “I'm sorry, Teri. I saw that your school bag was too heavy, so I cleaned it out for you. Your homework didn't look any different from the waste paper which I threw away.”
I realized that I had misunderstood my sister. I apologized to her. And I learnt a good lesson from this experience.
1. Why did the writer think it was her sister who had taken her homework?| A．Because her sister had done that before. |
| B．Because her sister needed the homework. |
| C．Because her sister didn't get along well with her. |
| D．Because her sister was in the house while she was out. |
| A．realized she had misunderstood Sara |
| B．thought Sara was making a joke |
| C．believed Sara would apologize to her |
| D．thought Sara pretended not to have taken her homework |
| A．angry | B．proud |
| C．curious | D．surprised |
| A．she found it in some waste paper |
| B．the homework was too poorly done |
| C．the homework looked like waste paper |
| D．she wanted to teach her a good lesson |
7 . At a daycare center in Texas, children were playing outside. One of the children was Jessica Mc Clure. She was 18 months old. Her mother, who worked at the daycare center, was watching the children. Suddenly Jessica fell and disappeared. Jessica’s mother screamed and ran to her.
A well was in the yard of the center. The well was only eight inches across and a rock always covered it. But children had moved the rock. When Jessica fell, she fell right into the well.
Jessica’s mother reached inside the well, but she couldn’t feel Jessica. She dialed 911 for help. Men from the fire department arrived. They discovered that Jessica was about 20 feet down in the well. For the next hour the men talked and planned Jessica’s rescue.
“We can’t go down into the well,” they said.“It’s too narrow. So, we’re going to drill a hole next to the well. Then we’ll drill a tunnel across to Jessica. When we reach her, we’ll bring her through the tunnel and up through our hole.”
The men began to drill the hole at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, October 14, 1987. The men had a difficult job; they were drilling through solid rock. During her days in the well, Jessica sometimes asked for her mother. Sometimes she slept, sometimes she cried and sometimes she sang.
All over the world, people waited for news of Jessica. Everyone worried about her.
At 8 p.m. on Friday, October 16, men reached Jessica and brought her up from the well. She was soon sent to hospital. Jessica was dirty, hungry, thirsty and tired. Her feet and forehead were badly injured. But Jessica was alive.
After Jessica’s rescue, one of the rescuers made a metal cover for the well, saying,“To Jessica, with love from all of us.”
1. What is the mother’s reaction when the accident happened?| A．She was so worried that she didn’t know what to do. |
| B．She called the police for help immediately. |
| C．She shouted and rushed to help her child quickly. |
| D．She asked her colleagues for help. |
| A．Children had moved the rock before Jessica fell into the well. |
| B．Men from the fire department saved Jessica. |
| C．Jessica was too frightened to say a word when she was in the well. |
| D．Jessica was alive although she was injured. |
| A．47 hours | B．48 hours |
| C．57 hours | D．58 hours |
| A．911’s Work | B．American Child |
| C．Everybody’s Baby-- Jessica | D．Mother’s Mistake |
8 . Mrs. White lived in a town of England. Her husband died three years ago and one of her children worked in the capital and the other three lived in another town. Her husband didn’t leave her much money and she had to live a simple(简朴) life. Sometimes her children went to see her during their holidays, but they stayed with her for only two or three days.
One winter morning the old woman got up early. She was going to buy some food in a shop. And when she came out, she found there was much snow in the street. She had to sweep it away. And suddenly she found a dying dog at the comer of the house. She picked it up and took it into the house quickly. She put it near the fire and gave it some milk and bread. At first the poor dog ate nothing and that afternoon it drank some milk and three days later it was all right. Now the old woman found it was a beautiful dog. And she liked it very much and took it everywhere she went. A week later she went shopping with her dog. At a bus stop a young man was eating fish and chips. The little dog became very excited at the smell of the man’s lunch and began jumping up at him.
“Do you mind if I throw it a bit?’’ asked the young man.
“Not at all,” answered Mrs. White.
Having heard this, he picked up the dog and threw it over the wall.
1. One of the old woman’s children worked in ________.| A．Moscow | B．Paris |
| C．London | D．New York |
| A．she wasn’t rich enough |
| B．she hoped to save money for her children |
| C．she had four children |
| D．her children hated her |
| A．rainy | B．snowy |
| C．windy | D．cloudy |
| A．to be given some food | B．to leave the bus stop soon |
| C．to bite(咬) the young man | D．to go as soon as possible |
9 . It was New Year’s Eve. Everyone in the city was getting ready for the three-day celebration, including the gardener of the king’s garden.
There was a large group of monkeys living in the garden. They always followed the advice of their leader, the monkey king.
The gardener wanted to celebrate the New Year’s holiday, just like everybody else, so he decided to hand over his duties to the monkeys.
He went to the monkey king and said, "My honorable friend, would you do a little favor for me? New Year is coming. I wish to celebrate it. So I must be away for three days. Here in this lovely garden. There are plenty of fruits and berries and nuts to eat. You and your subjects may come and eat as much as you wish. In return, please water the young trees and plants while I’m gone."
The monkey king replied, "Don’t worry, my friend! We will do a terrific job! Have a good time!"
The gardener showed the monkeys where the buckets were kept. Feeling confident, he left to celebrate the holiday. The monkeys called after him, "Happy New Year!"
The next day, the monkeys filled up the buckets, and began watering the young trees and plants. Then the king of the monkeys addressed them,"It is not good to waste water. Therefore, pull up each young tree or plant before watering. Inspect（检查）it to see how long the roots（根）are. Then give more water to the ones with long roots, and less water to the ones with short roots. That way we will not waste water, and the gardener will be pleased!"
Without a second thought, the other monkeys followed their king’s orders.
Meanwhile, a wise man was walking by the garden. He saw the monkeys pulling up all the lovely young trees and plants, measuring their roots, and carefully pouring water into the holes in the ground. He said, "Oh foolish monkeys, what do you think you’re doing to the king’s beautiful garden?"
They answered, "We are watering the trees and plants, without wasting water! We were commanded to do so by our king."
The man said, "If this is the wisdom of the wisest among you — the king — what are the rest of you like? Intending to do a worthwhile deed, your foolishness turns it into disaster!"
1. Why did the gardener hand over his duties to the monkeys?| A．He expected to meet his wife and children. |
| B．He wanted to spend a three-day holiday. |
| C．The king asked him to attend a celebration. |
| D．The monkey king offered to water the garden. |
| A．To plant new ones. | B．To move them to a new place. |
| C．To pick up the fruits. | D．To check their roots. |
| A．Regretful(后悔的). | B．Relieved(放松的). |
| C．Delighted(高兴的). | D．Puzzled. |
| A．our fate lies in our own hands | B．monkeys are always thoughtless |
| C．we all pay a price for the mistakes we make | D．it is unwise to believe others easily |
10 . My husband, my four-month-old daughter and I set out on a five-day driving journey from California to Washington. We had to stop frequently because our little child needed to stretch from the car seat.
One of our stops, once we crossed the Oregon border, was at a Black Bear Diner. Walking towards the front door we noticed a gentleman standing at one side. He was clearly untidy, without shoes and wearing worn clothing. We passed right by him and opened the restaurant door. Then something told me to go back.
Holding my daughter, I turned around and said to the gentleman, “Sir. Are you hungry?” He said, “Yes.” I then asked, “May we buy you something to eat?” He responded with, “Sure, I can order something myself.”
My husband opened the door and the gentleman went straight to the counter. I told him to order whatever he wanted. The manager of the restaurant came over quite quickly and looked frightened. I spoke before he had an opportunity to say anything. “This gentleman will have lunch with us today,” I said. “Please add his order to our bill.” The manager said with a frown(皱眉), “Okay.” We turned to our table and the gentleman said, loudly and quickly, “Thank You!” We were seated and upon completing our meal we were handed our bill. I asked my husband what the gentleman had ordered. One fresh orange juice, one coffee, one breakfast combination with a side of hash browns.
When we left the restaurant I looked for the gentleman but didn’t see him, but that very small act just made my day. I hope in some small way we were able to add some joy to his life, even if only for a few minutes.
1. From the appearance of the gentleman, we can guess he was probably a(n) _____.| A．waiter | B．beggar |
| C．actor | D．worker |
| A．the man was not friendly |
| B．he was afraid the man wasn’t able to pay the food |
| C．he had fired the man before |
| D．the man had stolen something from the restaurant |
| A．was hungry and ate a lot of food | B．felt ashamed and left secretly |
| C．was thankful for their kind act | D．was too proud to accept their offer |
| A．wasted my money | B．made me feel sorry |
| C．made me very happy | D．moved me deeply |
