1 . Our first year in New York we rented a small apartment with a Catholic school nearby, taught by the Sister of Charity, strong women in long black gowns and bats. I liked them a lot, especially my grandmotherly fourth grade teacher，Sister Zoe. I had a lovely name, she said, and she had me teach the whole class how to pronounce it: Yo-lan-da. As the only immigrant in my class, I was put in a special seat in the first row by the window, apart from the other children so that Sister Zoe could tutor me without disturbing them. Slowly, she enunciated(发音) the new words for me to repeat: cornflakes, subway, snow.
Soon I picked up enough English to understand a horrible wars was in the air. Sister Zoe explained to us that Russian missiles(导弹) were being collected and brought together, aimed supposedly on New York City.On the television. President Kennedy, looking worried too, was in the television at home, explaining we might have to go to war against the enemies. At school, we had air-raid drills: a worrying bell would go off and we’d move into the hall, fall to the floor, and shelter our heads with our coats. And at home, Mom and I prayed for world peace. I heard new vocabulary: nuclear bomb, radioactive fallout(放射性沉降物), bomb shelter. Sister Zoe explained how it would happen. She drew on the blackboard a picture of a mushroom and a cloud of dusty fallout that would kill us all.
The months grew cold, November, December. It was dark when I got up in the morning, and frosty when I followed my breath to school. One morning, as I sat at my desk daydreaming, out the window, I saw dots in the air like the ones Sister Zoe had drawn—random at first, then lots and lots. I screamed, “Bomb！Bomb！” Sister Zoe hurried to me. A few girls began to cry.
But then Sister Zoe’s shocked look disappeared. “Why, Yolanda dear, that’s snow!” She laughed. “Snow.”“Snow，” I repeated. I looked out the window cautiously. All my life I had heard about the white snow that fell out of American skies in the winter. From my desk I watched the fine-powder dust the sidewalk and parked cars below.“Each flake(雪花) was different，”Sister Zoe had said，“like a person，irreplaceable and beautiful.”
1. Why was the author seated apart from the other children?| A．Because she was punished for not speaking English. |
| B．Because the teacher could help her without bothering others. |
| C．Because she had trouble hearing the teacher clearly. |
| D．Because she was shy and afraid of talking to other students. |
| A．She paid no attention to the performance of her students. |
| B．She was an immigrant from America. |
| C．She taught students to draw a picture of mushroom. |
| D．She was a thoughtful and caring teacher. |
| A．hide themselves under their desks. |
| B．run to their homes immediately. |
| C．pray for world peace together. |
| D．cover their heads with their coats. |
| A．move into the hall immediately | B．corrected her patiently. |
| C．scolded her for making other girls cry | D．announced an air-raid-drill. |
| A．Snow | B．Air-raid-drills. |
| C．The Sister of Charity | D．My Childhood in New York. |
2 . As I jogged over the bridge and round the corner on my regular early morning run, he was standing opposite the jeweler’s, looking extremely suspicious. But the moment he saw me, instead of trying to avoid me, he came straight across the road as I drew level with the jeweler’s. Halfway across he began addressing me: “I thought you were going to…” — but his voice trailed away as he received no reply and no sign of recognition from me. It was quite obvious that he had mistaken me for someone else. But he started up again as if nothing had happened．“Good morning, ” he said．“Nice to bump into someone so early. Someone to talk to. I’ve taken to talking to myself on this job.”
I hate meeting people when I’m out early, and I was almost out of breath, so I just paused in my stride, nodded in a friendly manner, and went on up the road. The stranger had spoken quietly, and quite slowly. And I had noticed that he was well dressed, too. But if he looked suspicious dressed like that at that time of the morning, what about me? I was in a track suit, with an old sweater round my shoulders and a cap on my head．As to his odd remark about “talking to himself on this job”, I hadn’t paid any attention to it, although now it began to worry me. Was he perhaps a plain clothes policeman? At the time I somehow felt he was.
I had just turned the corner into the High Street when I heard the sound of breaking glass somewhere behind me, and I thought the sound came from the street I had just left. I stopped dead and almost without thinking looked back around the corner. The stranger was not there, but almost immediately an alarm bell in the jeweler’s began ringing furiously.
I found out later that a burglar had broken into the jeweler’s shop and stolen watches and rings worth about ￡5,000. The police are still looking into the matter, but I’m afraid to go and tell them what I know now because they might even suspect me of committing the crime, and it might be difficult for me to prove my innocence. After all, I haven’t offered my assistance as a witness, and the only other person around that morning was the “stranger” who had spoken to me.
1. From the passage we can infer that the author _____.| A．always goes past the jeweler’s |
| B．didn’t like talking to the strangers |
| C．meets a few people every morning |
| D．saw a plain clothes policeman that morning |
| A．Because the stranger took the author as someone else. |
| B．Because the stranger loved talking to people. |
| C．Because the stranger recognized the writer. |
| D．Because the stranger took a job of talking to himself. |
| A．He was about to go into the jeweler’s. |
| B．He was far too friendly. |
| C．He was dressed too well for that time. |
| D．He talked to himself a lot. |
| A．he might have been badly injured |
| B．he would have seen what happened |
| C．he wouldn’t have heard the alarm bell |
| D．the stranger wouldn’t have broken the window |
| A．he thinks the stranger is innocent |
| B．the burglar didn’t steal very much |
| C．he might commit the crime to the police |
| D．he hesitates whether to report to the police about what he knew |
The Christmas of my 16th, when decorating the Christmas tree with Mum, I accidentally dropped and broke an old glass ball. It had been on our tree for as long as I could remember.
Regretfully, I knelt to pick up the pieces and was surprised to find a small piece of paper among them. Unfolding the tiny note, I recognized my father’s penciled writing. Lifting my eyes, I saw my mothers smile.
“Your Daddy wrote that and put it in that blue ball during our first Christmas together, just before you were born,” she said.
I wouldn’t have believed it, if there hadn’t been the note in my hands. Daddy always regarded getting the tree decorated as an important task. And yet this bit of yellowed paper proved that long ago my Daddy had done something romantic at Christmas.
Carefully putting the note aside, I cleaned up the pieces, wishing I could reassemble them. “You needn’t fit the parts of the old glass ball together again. Pick out another one and put the note back inside.” Mum said.
Now, as I celebrate the holidays without Mum, who died of cancer years ago, I feel really sad. Each year as I decorate Christmas tree. I recall the moment I shared with her that winter afternoon and blink away my tears.
As I carefully handle those old glass balls. I love knowing that one of them holds a secret between Daddy and Mum — a secret that was obvious to all who knew them.
The note inside one of those old glass balls on Christmas tree holds the heart of my parents’ marriage in three warm words: “I love you.”
1. What happened when the author was decorating the Christmas tree? (no more than 10 words)2. When was the paper put in the glass ball? (no more than 10 words)
3. What can we know about the author’s father from the yellowed paper? (no more than 7 words)
4. What does the underlined word “reassemble” mean in English? (no more than 10 words)
5. Do you often express your love to your parents? And how? (no more than 20 words)
4 . Adrian’s “Amazing Race” started early, when his parents realize that he, as a baby, couldn’t hear a thing, not even loud noises. In a special school for the hearing-impaired (听觉受损的), he learned sign language and got to mix with other disabled children. However, the sight of all the disabled children communicating with one another upset his mother. She wanted him to lead a normal life. So after speaking to an advisor, she sent him to private classes where he learned to read lips and pronounce words.
Later on, Adrian’s parents decided to send him to a regular school. But the headmaster tried to prevent them from doing so, saying regular schools couldn’t take care of a special-needs student. His parents were determined to take the risk and push him hard to go through his work every day because they want to prove that, given the opportunity, he could do anything. Adrian made the grade and got accepted. It was a big challenge the pace was faster so he had to sit at the front of the class and really pay attention to the teacher, which wasn’t always easy. But he stuck to it and did a lot of extra work after school.
The effort made by Adrian and his parents paid off. Adrian graduated with good grades and got into a top high school. He also achieved a lot in life outside school. He developed a love for the outdoors and went to Nepal to climb mountains. He even entered the World Yacht Race 05/06 — being the first hearing-impaired Asian to do so.
But none of these achievements would have been possible without one of the most important lessons from his mother. “If you believe in yourself and work hard, you can achieve great result,” she often said.
1. How did Adrian communicate with other disabled children in the special school?| A．By speaking. | B．By using sign language. |
| C．By writing letters. | D．By making loud noises. |
| A．they wanted him to live a normal life |
| B．they wanted to prove the headmaster wrong |
| C．he wouldn’t mix with other disabled children |
| D．he wasn’t taken good care of in the special school |
| A．He did a lot of outdoor activities. |
| B．He studied in a regular school. |
| C．He attended private classes after school. |
| D．He worked very hard both in and after class. |
| A．He did very well in his study. |
| B．He succeeded in entering a regular school. |
| C．He reached his goals in spite of his disability. |
| D．He took part in the world Yacht Race 05/06. |
| A．Knowledge is power. |
| B．If winter comes, can spring be far behind? |
| C．Rome was not built in one day. |
| D．Nothing is impossible to a willing mind. |
It’s not easy to be a stay-at-home military mom. From military bases to apartments to mobile home communities, the one thing we could always count on was moving. Goodbye to old friends, hello to new ones. From climate to climate and town to town, I found myself wondering if my children would ever be able to put down roots.
It’s true that I would be there for them, but money was always short, and sometimes my husband’s pay record would be lost for months. Pinching pennies became an art form. From dusk to dawn, I made my children’s clothing, often redesigning hand-me-downs (旧衣服). I was once asked what made me so creative. My answer was both brief and honest: desperation.
My children adjusted with courage and humor. Their strength amazed me. But with no extended family, I often wondered if they would ever feel that they had roots. Would my children be harmed in the long run without feeling roots? What could I do?
Then I began gardening. We planted an apple tree. South Carolina is not exactly the perfect apple state. But that was never the point. We just knew the tree we planted really set root there. We lived in the Charleston for nearly eight years and our garden grew larger each year.
Not long ago, we did a search on Google Earth, and we found the house that had contained the laughter and dreams that we shared for eight years in Charleston. We scanned closer and closer down, down, and down and there it was, our little apple tree, alive and well.
Bittersweet tears rolled down my cheeks as I remembered the day we planted that tree. It had survived hurricanes, drought, and much sorrow, and so had we. At that moment, I finally understood. The apple tree’s roots, growing deep in South Carolina soil, were much like our family. Deep in the soil of shared joys and sorrows, our roots are strong in one another, in faith and in love.
1. What bothered the author as a stay-at-home military mom?(no more than 5 words)2. How do you understand the underline sentence in Paragraph 2?(no more than 10 words)
3. Why did the author begin gardening ? (no more than 10 words)
4. What did the author and her children search for on the Google Earth?(no more than 10 words)
5. What is the main idea of the last paragraph?(no more than 10 words)
6 . It was rainy, and I had no desire to drive up the winding mountain road to my daughter Carolyn’s house. But she had insisted that I come to see something at the top of the mountain.
So here I was, reluctantly making the two-hour journey through fog that hung like veils. By the time I saw how thick it was near the summit, I’d gone too far to turn back.
Nothing could be worth this, I thought as I inched along the dangerous highway.
“I’ll stay for lunch, but I’ m heading back down as soon as the fog lifts,” I announced when I arrived.
“But I need you to drive me to the garage to pick up my car,” Carolyn said, “Could we at least do that?”
“How far is it?” I asked.
“About three minutes,” she said, “I’ll drive—I’m used to it.”
After ten minutes on the mountain road, I looked at her anxiously. “I thought you said three minutes.”
She grinned. “This is a detour.”
Turning down a narrow track, we parked the car and got out. We walked along a path that was thick with old pine needles. Huge black-green evergreens towered over us. Gradually, the peace and silence of the place began to fill my mind.
Then we turned a comer and stopped—and I gasped in amazement.
From the top of the mountain, sloping for several acres across the mountain side and valleys, were rivers of flowers in numerous colors. It looked as though the sun had tipped over and spilled gold down the mountainside.
A series of questions filled my mind. Who created such beauty? Why? How?
As we approached the home that stood in the center of the property, we saw a sign that read: “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking.”
The first answer was: “One Woman—Two Hands, Two Feet, and Very Little Brain.” The second was: “One at a Time.” The third: “Started in 1958.”
As we drove home, I was so moved by what we had seen. I could scarcely speak. “She changed the world.” I finally said, “one bulb (球茎) at a time. She started almost 40 years ago, probably just the beginning of an idea, but she kept at it.”
The wonder of it would not let me go. “Imagine,” I said, “if I’d had a vision and worked at it, just a little bit every day, what might I have accomplished?”
Carolyn looked at me sideways, smiling. “Start tomorrow,” she said. “Better yet, start today.”
1. What was the weather like when the author drove to visit her daughter?| A．It was snowing. | B．It was foggy. |
| C．It was freezing. | D．It was sunny. |
| A．She told a white lie to her mother. |
| B．She was an experienced driver. |
| C．She didn’t know the way very well. |
| D．She knew everything about the woman. |
| A．they were driving in the car |
| B．they were at the garage |
| C．they were on their way back |
| D．they were walking in the woods |
| A．Crazy and silly. | B．Determined and persistent. |
| C．Brave and careful. | D．Beautiful and courageous. |
| A．She will look after her grandchildren. |
| B．She will pay a second visit to the garden. |
| C．She will begin to do something meaningful. |
| D．She will come and live with her daughter. |
I’m a 34-year-old man, married, lived in a nice house, and have a successful career as an educational consultant. But my life was not always so great. I had a learning disability from an early age. I went to a special school where I got plenty of extra help. Still, I suffered the rest of my school days in public schools.
My life improved remarkably when I discovered art. The art world gave me a chance to express myself without words. I went to a workshop and gradually got good at making things with clay(黏土). Here I learned my first important lesson: disabled as I was in language. I could still be smart and well express myself with clay. And my confidence came along.
I got my next lesson from rock climbing. It was a fun thing but I was scared from the start. I soon noticed it wasn’t a talent thing; it was practice. So I did it more. After about five years of climbing, I found myself in Yosemite Valley on a big wall. I learned that if you fall in love with something and do it all the time, you will get better at it.
Later I decided to apply my previous experience to learning how to read and write. Every day I practiced reading and writing, which I used to avoid as much as possible. After two hard years, I was literate.
Having gone through the long process with art, rock climbing, and reading and writing, now I’ve got to a point in my life where I know I am smart enough to dive into an area that is totally unknown, hard, but interesting.
1. What made the author’s school days difficult? (No more than 5 words)
2. Why did art give the author confidence? (No more than 10 words)
3. What lesson did the author learn from rock climbing? (No more than 15 words)
4. What is the meaning of the underlined part in Paragraph 4? (No more than 5 words)
5. How does the author’s story inspire you to overcome difficulties in life? Put it in your own words. (No more than 20 words)
8 . Two things changed my life: my mother and a white plastic bike basket. I have thought long and hard about it and it’s true. I would be a different person if my mom hadn’t turned a silly bicycle accessory into a life lesson I carry with me today.
My mother and father were united in their way of raising children, but it mostly fell to my mother to actually carry it out. Looking back, I honestly don’t know how she did it. Managing the family budget must have been a very hard task., but she made it look effortless. If we complained about not having what another kid did, we’d hear something like, “I don’t care what so –and –so got for his birthday, you are not getting a TV in your room a car for your birthday a lsvish sweet 16 party.” We had to earn our allowance by doing chores around the house. I can still remember how long it took to polish the legs of our coffee table.My brothers can no doubt remember hours spent cleaning the house .Like the two little girls growing up at the White House,we made our own beds (no one left the house until that was done)and picked up after ourselves.We had to keep track of our belongings ,and if something was lost ,it was not replaced.
It was summer and ,one day ,my mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire fixed---and there it was in the window, White, shiny, plastic and decorated with flowers ,the basket winked at me and I knew ----I knew---I had to have it.
“It’s beautiful,” my mother said when I pointed it out to her,”What a neat basket.”
I tried to hold off at first ,I played it cool for a short while. But then I guess I couldn’t at and it any longer:“Mom, please can I please ,please get it? I ‘ll do extra chores for as long as you say, I’ll do anything ,but I need that basket,I love that basket.Please ,Mom .Please?”
I was desperate.
“You know,” she said ,gently rubbing my back while we both stared at what I believes was the coolest thing ever,” If you save up you could buy this yourself.”
“By the time I make enough it’ll be gone!”
“Maybe Roger here could hold it for you,” she smiled at Roger ,the bike guy.
“He can’t hold it for that long ,Mom .Someone else will buy it .Please, Mom,Please?”
“There might be another way,” she said.
And so our paying plan unfolded. My mother bought the beautiful basket and put it safely in some hiding place I couldn’t find. Each week I eagerly counted my growing saving increased by extra work here and there (washing the car ,helping my mother make dinner, delivering or collecting things on my bike that already looked naked without the basket in front).And then ,weeks later ,I counted ,re-counted and jumped for joy. Oh ,happy day ! I made it! I finally had the exact amount we’d agreed upon….
Days later the unthinkable happened. A neighborhood girl I’d played with millions of times appeared with the exact same basket fixed to her shiny ,new bike that already had all the bells and whistles. I rode hard and fast home to tell my mother about this disaster. This horrible turn of events.
And then came the lesson . I’ve taken with me through my life:” Honey, Your basket is extra-special,” Mom said, gently wiping away my hot tears.” Your basket is special because you paid for it yourself.”
1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?| A．The children enjoyed doing housework. |
| B．The author came from s well-off family |
| C．The mother raised her children in an unusual way |
| D．The children were fond of the US president’s daughters. |
| A．fell in love with it | B．stared at her mother |
| C．recognized it at once | D．went up to the bike guy |
| A．She longed to do extra work. | B．She was eager to have the basket. |
| C．She felt tired after standing too long. | D．She wanted to be polite to her mother. |
| A．something she could afford | B．something important to her |
| C．something impossible to get | D．something she could do without |
| A．something spoiled her paying plan |
| B．the basket cost more than she had saved |
| C．a neighborhood girl had bought a new bike |
| D．someone else had got a basket of the same kind |
| A．Save money for a rainy day | B．Good advice is beyond all price. |
| C．Earn your bread with your sweat | D．God helps those who help themselves |
