It was about eleven o’clock at night, and a large woman was walking alone, when a boy ran up behind her and tried to grab her purse. But the boy’s weight and the weight of the purse caused him to lose his balance, so he fell on his back on the sidewalk.
The large woman simply turned around, picked the boy up by his shirt front, and shook him until his teeth rattled. Firmly gripped and sweat rolling down on his face, the boy whispered. “I’m very sorry, lady, I’m sorry.” But the woman just dragged him up the street. When she got to her door, she dragged the boy inside and turned on the light.
“You go to that sink and wash your face,” said the woman, “Let the water run until it gets warm,” she said. “Here’s a clean towel. I would lake you nowhere. We’ll eat,” said the woman.
“I wanted a pair of shoes,” said the boy. “Well, you didn’t have to grab my purse to get some new shoes,” said the woman. “You could have asked me.” “Madam?” The water dripping from his face, the boy looked at her.
“I was young once and I wanted things I could not get.” She said. Silence. “Now you sit down while I fix us something to eat.”
She heated some beans and ham, made the cocoa, and set the table. The woman did not ask the boy anything. Instead, as they ate, she told him about her job in a hotel. Then she cut him a half of her ten-cent cake. “Eat some more, son,” she said.
When they finished eating, she got up and said, “Now, here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself new shoes. And next time, behave yourself, son, from now on.”
She led him down the hall to the front door and opened it. “Goodnight! Behave yourself, boy!” she said. The boy wanted to say something else other than “Thank you, Madam” to her, but he couldn’t. In fact, he barely managed to say “Thank you” before he shut the door. And he never saw her again.
1. How did the boy feel when he was caught by the woman?2. Where did the woman take the boy?
3. Why did the boy try to grab the woman’s purse?
4. What else might the boy say to the woman besides “thank you” at the end of the story?
5. What was the woman like?
2 . My dad, George, only had an eighth grade education. He was a quiet man and he didn’t understand my world of school activities. From age 14, he worked. And his dad, Albert, took the money my dad earned and used it to pay family expenses.
I didn’t really understand his world cither. He was a livestock trucker, and I thought that I would surpass (超过) anything he had accomplished by the time I walked across the stage at high school graduation.
The summer before my eighth grade, I was one of a group of boys that a neighboring farmer hired to work in his field. He explained our basic task, the tractor fired up and we were off, riding down the field to get rid of weeds (杂草) with chemicals. After a short way, the farmer stopped and pointed at a weed which we missed. Then we began again. It was tiring work, but I looked forward to the pay, even though I wasn’t sure how much it would amount to.
At home, my dad said, “A job is a big step to growing up. I’m glad you will be contributing to the household.” My dad’s words made me realize that my earnings might not be mine as I wished. My labor lasted about two weeks, and the farmer said there might be more work, but I wasn’t interested. I thought it was not fair that I had to contribute my money.
The pay arrived at last. Although the job was very tiring, I was very happy in my heart for I got something from my work. “How much money have you earned?” Dad asked. I was surprised, reluctant to say my income. The next morning, my dad’s livestock truck started running. I saw my father’s hard-working figure and thought of his words “A job is a big step to growing up”.
I understood immediately that my labor was very hard, but my growth and our whole family had been depending on the hard work of my parents! Dad never complained (埋怨) about unfairness and he has worked for so many years! In the evening, Dad came back. I proudly took out my own money and handed it to Dad.
1. What can we know about the author’s father?| A．He lived a rich life. | B．He was well-educated. |
| C．He was an outgoing man. | D．He worked at a young age. |
| A．Wash tractors. | B．Watch the field. |
| C．Deal with harmful weeds. | D．Recognize different chemicals. |
| A．Delighted. | B．Content. | C．Unwilling. | D．Stressed. |
| A．The author gave the money to his father. |
| B．The author finally understood the meaning of growth. |
| C．The relationship between the author and his father was not good. |
| D．The author has always been happy to put his money into the household. |
3 . When my teenaged son became seriously ill, terrible times for my family began. Our once-happy home became tense and depressed. My husband and I were exhausted under the great stress of caring for my son. It was as if we forgot how to communicate-we couldn’t have a simple conversation without a fighting. Our marriage was on the point of breaking up.
One evening, my son and I were talking about gifts. I recalled my first Valentine’s present from my husband, a kazoo. I was awkward when I received it because I couldn’t get it to make a sound although I am a professional saxophone player. However hard I tried, it just never worked. The kazoo eventually got packed away and forgotten. But my son was interested and insisted on seeing it. After some trouble, I found it.
“You couldn’t get a sound? What’s so hard about it?” my husband asked, amazed. He took the kazoo and blew. Nothing happened. Surprised, he tried again. Still there was no sound. Frustrated, he tried again, only to produce a funny sound like an angry bumblebee trapped in the mouth of a bear. We burst into laughter. My son took a turn to play the kazoo. He did no better than us, causing more laughing.
Seeing his face light up, we felt as if the darkness had lifted and a ray of sunshine was let in. It was the best ten minutes of the past couple of years. The mood stayed light for the rest of the evening. It didn’t solve anything. But this experience with the kazoo brought some change in our hearts that always reminds us that there are still things to laugh at and enjoy, and that we can still connect as a family.
1. What affected the relationship of the couple?| A．Quarrels between the couple over marriage. |
| B．Different values they shared towards everything. |
| C．Stress and chaos arising from their son’s serious illness. |
| D．Lack of money needed for their son’s medical treatment. |
| A．He had a love for playing the kazoo. | B．He meant to make his son delighted. |
| C．He wanted to ease a feeling of depression. | D．He didn’t think it that hard to play the kazoo. |
| A．My failure to get the kazoo to make a sound. |
| B．The involvement of my husband in playing the kazoo. |
| C．My memory about the Valentine’s present from my husband. |
| D．The failed but funny playing of the kazoo by my husband and son. |
| A．Every cloud has a silver lining. | B．Parents are the best teachers. |
| C．Music can cure the hurt souls. | D．Misfortunes test the true love. |
4 . One day, Hilary Krieger was sitting in her parents’ home when her friend accidentally squirted (喷射) himself with an orange slice. “Oh, the orange just orbisculated,” she said. “It did what?” asked her friend, “I’ve never heard such a word.” The two made a five-dollar bet, and Hilary gleefully grabbed the family dictionary. She quickly turned to the “O” section and didn’t find it. Then she burst into her dad’s study and told him the shocking news: “Orbisculate” was not in the dictionary!
Looking embarrassed, her father confessed that he had made up the word when in college. He defined “orbisculate” as the action that happens “when you dig your spoon into a grapefruit and it squirts juice directly into your eye,” though the family also applied it to other fruits and vegetables that unexpectedly sprayed. “We had been using it our whole lives, as if it were a real word,” Hilary says.
Out five dollars and wondering what other fake words might exist in her vocabulary. Hilary was mad. But she quickly came to see her dad’s made-up word as a gift, one that, revealed his naughty and inventive spirit. “It speaks to his creativity and the idea that, even when something’s painful and annoying, like getting grape fruit juice in your eye, you can laugh and have fun with it, ” she says.
Two decades later, Hilary told that funny story again and again, in sad circumstances. Her father, Neil Krieger, died at age 78. “‘Orbisculate’ is such a great word that I dream it should be in the dictionary!” says Hilary. To get the word officially recognized, Hilary set up a website, orbisculate.com, encouraging people to use “orbisculate” in a wide variety of contexts.
Getting a word into the dictionary isn’t easy, but words describing concrete phenomena that affect many people tend to get picked up. “That’s one of the things ‘orbisculate’ has going for it — there is no single word that captures’ the squirting in the eye that certain fruits do,” senior editor of the Merriam-Webster dictionary Emily Brewster says. “The word’s status as an established member of the English language would be pretty undeniable.”
1. What shocked Hilary Krieger one day?| A．Her friend’s squirting juice into his eyes. |
| B．Losing five dollars in the bet. |
| C．Failing to find “orbisculate” in the dictionary. |
| D．Her father’s making up the word. |
| A．The application of the word to other fruits. |
| B．Her father’s naughty and inventive spirit. |
| C．The fun she got from the word “orbisculate”. |
| D．Her dream about the word again and again. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Doubtful. | C．Positive. | D．Unclear. |
| A．To recall her childhood life. | B．To memorialize her father. |
| C．To get herself officially recognized. | D．To encourage people to make up new words. |
The Make-up Guy
Dave was a make-up(化妆) artist who regularly held makeup artistry classes at the local community college. He was well known as an excellent trainer and enjoyed great popularity.
Usually, the majority of his students were middle-aged housewives, who wanted to improve their make-up skills so as to make themselves more attractive. But this time, it was beyond him that his class was attended by a man as well.
The new student was a gentleman in his best years with a seemingly boundless interest in make-up artistry. He was keen(热切地) to learn as much as he possibly could and asked questions whenever and wherever possible. He was so absorbed in learning that he wouldn’t stop until he was satisfied with the result of his work.
Understandably, the man was the number one subject of conversation when the other women were alone.
Speculations(猜测) quickly started to spread. Why did he learn make-up? Was he to seek for a woman to be his life partner? How about my neighbor’s youngest daughter? Why on earth would he attend such a woman class? Who could it be?
Doubts like this came crowding in.
The community college was placed in a remote rural area, which was why the other participants were quite doubtful of the man's intentions.
Throughout the lessons, ignoring the curious women around him, the man carefully listened and wrote everything down learned, leaving the women more and more curious and puzzled.
When the day and class were slowly coming to an end, the gossiping women simply could not hide their curiosity any longer, for they knew it was time to remove their doubts, otherwise?
Finally, one of them couldn’t resist her curiosity, so she picked up the courage and asked him why he was so interested in make-up artistry.
What followed was a dead silence. After what seemed a century, he slowly opened his mouth and here came the most inspiring beautiful reply.
1. Why were the women so curious about the man’s attendance at the makeup class?2. How did the man respond to the women’s curiosity?
3. According to your imagination, what will the most inspiring beautiful reply be?
6 . My mom could be quite a handful, which I have come to see as a blessing as the years have gone by but did not always appreciate when she was alive, especially after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
The news came as no surprise to us kids, of course. We’d seen our tough, sharp-witted mom change. But Mom was not about to take Alzheimer’s lying down. “There’s nothing wrong with me!” she insisted, even after she sideswiped a cop, denied doing it and then blamed it all on him.
Eventually my brother and his wife moved Mom to a sweet little house on the property next to theirs so they could keep an eye on her. They built a lighted path between the two houses so Mom could visit when she wanted, which occasionally happened at 5:00 a.m. when she thought it was 5:00 p.m. At Christmas, my sister-in-law, Toni, would hang Christmas lights along the way.
One thing we couldn’t do was make her eat properly, especially after she nearly burned the house down making tuna (金枪鱼) salad. So we arranged for a senior meals-on-wheels program to deliver her meals. At first she wouldn’t let them in the house. “This is ridiculous,” she said. “I know how to eat!” Then she offered to help them deliver meals to “people who really need them”.
Eventually she relented — except that she would simply keep all the meals in the fridge, untouched, in case she happened to have hungry visitors. When we told the volunteers this, they were wonderfully wise and pretty soon they got Mom to eat. She even admitted that the food was “pretty good, considering”. We’re convinced the good nutrition helped keep her in her home a little longer before she had to enter a care facility.
So how proud am I that our friends at Volunteers of America, which operates meals-on-wheels programs for the elderly all over the country? Very proud. It was angels, after all, who were able to get my mother to eat.
1. What do we know about the author’s mother?| A．She troubled the family a lot. | B．She never suffered from Alzheimer. |
| C．She was a woman lacking intelligence. | D．She was easy to get along with. |
| A．They lived together with her. | B．They had her house beautifully decorated. |
| C．They assisted her in cooking matters. | D．They arranged delivered meals for her. |
| A．Panicked. | B．Apologized. |
| C．Agreed. | D．Responded. |
| A．Angels on Wheels | B．A Lesson from Miserable Life |
| C．Living with Alzheimer | D．Volunteering for the Disabled |
7 . My grandmother could communicate to us only in Mandarin. A few phrase in Mandarin are particularly vivid to me. Mamahuhu is the most striking of all, which means “so-so” .
Mamahuhu became a family joke for me and my siblings. At first we found the concept funny and the sound of it, too. Sometimes my brother and I sang the string of vowels, hosting the “hu” like owls before bursting into laughter. But as we grew older, we realized mamahuhu also described our family.
My parents and my grandmother could be precise when it mattered. For example, my mother is a re i red plant physiologist. Her research led to multiple patents related to improving plant growth and food safety. But when she helped me on an elementary-school project, she used steamed rice instead of a glue stick. My paper crown fell apart in class. The mamahuhu attitude sometimes embarrassed me, But it also taught me not to get hung up on mainstream ideals of perfection.
Out of a sense of pride, my siblings and I transformed mamahuhu from an ordinary adjective into an ethos(精神特质). It’s the philosophy behind my brother’s repairs around the house or on vehicle: “So-so, good enough,” he told me. “Because most of the time, that’s all that’s needed.” Growing up, I talked about mamahuhu only at home. But lately, as elements of Chinese culture have spread throughout the world, I realize my family isn’t alone in our affection for the term. Various accounts on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram use the word in their names; it’s also an entry in the Urban Dictionary.
It’s our family practice to make do, and as the pandemic set in, the philosophy helped us survive. With this clear-eyed worldview, my 10-year-olds don’t rely on tradition or precedence (优先权)as their only guide. Last summer our family considered visiting Hawaii, and again for spring break earlier this year, but we’ve repeatedly postponed the vacation because of the pandemic. In the end, we settled for a road trip to Southern California to see their grandparents and baby cousin. I asked the boys if they were excited. “This trip is mamahuhu,” one joked. Everyone laughed.
1. How did the author find Mamahuhu at the beginning?| A．Embarrassing. | B．Funny. | C．Understandable. | D．unusual. |
| A．To show that his family can be precise. | B．To tell funny stories of both his parents, |
| C．To note how mamahuhu described his family. | D．To clarify the differences between family members. |
| A．To accept imperfection. | B．To rely on tradition. |
| C．To take pride in their Asian origin. | D．To avoid being affected by other cultures. |
| A．The author’s family were always easily satisfied. |
| B．The author’s children didn’t depend on precedence. |
| C．The term of mamahuhu has been spread worldwide. |
| D．The mamahuhu philosophy helped the author survive. |
8 . I used to procrastinate (keep leaving things that should be done until later). Years ago, a neighbor kid kicked a football and shattered a small basement window of our house. We were a family of six living on a small salary at the time, so I boarded it up, thinking I’d get to it someday. However, the frame was rusted shut. I couldn’t fix it.
Over the years, I’d sometimes get estimates from window companies. The plan was to upgrade to energy-efficient windows for the whole house. $15, 000. It was simply out of reach. One contractor explained that whoever replaced it would need to cut and shape by hand, a labor-intensive and expensive process.
Honestly, the thought of that window ate at me for years. Every time I went down there, every time I went to the hardware store, it kept troubling me. I knew I needed to address it, but I had built up the process (and the price) so much in my mind that I was unable to act.
Then my wife had a job change, and we needed to move. A potential buyer couldn’t get a loan on the property if there was a broken window. So I pulled off the boards to face this thing head-on. It had been at least 5 years.
I grabbed some rust remover, sprayed all around the rusted frame, and gave it a strong pull. To my astonishment, it moved for the first time. I pulled the window out and took it downtown. It was a $12 fix.
I could have fixed the problem for $12 the same day it happened. But I let it haunt me for years, shutting out light and letting in bugs. It didn’t need to be the most efficient. It just needed to be a window.
OK, this isn’t really about my window. I mean the story is true, but it’s also a decent fable. Many of us, especially those with anxiety, tend to live with broken windows of one type or another for years.
After I posted my story online, many shared their stories with me. One commented, “This reminded me of a statement, ‘We suffer more in imagination than in reality.’” Another responded, “This is why my business partner tells me, ‘Perfect is the enemy of done.’”
Step forward, and you’ll find a solution.
By Nathan Howe
1. Why did the author delay fixing the broken window for years?| A．He developed a tolerant attitude. |
| B．He was convinced that the window was beyond repair. |
| C．He thought there was no harm if leaving the window broken. |
| D．He believed the whole process to be troublesome and expensive. |
| A．It frightened me terribly. | B．It puzzled me deeply. |
| C．It motivated me slightly. | D．It worried me continuously. |
| A．His wife’s job switching. |
| B．The super effective rust remover. |
| C．The obstacle to getting the house sold. |
| D．The window’s letting in bugs but not light. |
| A．You don’t have to fix it all now; just start by starting. |
| B．Make a list of the things you are putting off and start with the hardest. |
| C．Doing the thing is often less painful than thinking about doing the thing. |
| D．An imperfect solution now is better than a perfect one that will never happen. |
9 . In school we learned about Earth. We learned that rivers flow from higher ground to lower ground. They usually end at a bigger river or go into a lake or ocean.
I can see that every day in Chicago. Our river goes into the lake. It’s a giant lake. We used to go fishing on the river every summer. Most days you would find me and my grandfather there, fishing. My father was busy working for the city. I did not know what his job was. He said it was in the Sanitary and Ship Canal.
My grandfather would take me to the river. “In the old days,” he said, “this was a clean stream. Now look at it. It is filthy. Sometimes we even saw dead fish floating on it.”
When we brought the fish home, my mother would throw them out. “We can’t eat this. This is dirty, bad fish.” She sounded angry. So my grandfather and I stopped bringing the fish home. Sometimes we would go to fish and throw them back. But mostly we just stayed at home. We were sad about it.
Then one day my father was so busy he was not home. That New Year’s Day he worked, too. My mother was worried. “ It is too cold.” But he went anyway. Then two days later the newspaper said, “It is a miracle!” That was the headline. I read the article.
It told how the workers on the Sanitary and Ship Canal had done something impossible. They had reversed the Chicago River. They dug such a great hole that the river rushed away from the lake. It now went to the west. I was so excited. So was my grandfather. He said, “Now we can go fishing this summer.”
We both laughed. So did my mother. My father smiled a lot, all day long.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To introduce a geographic concept. | B．To test readers’ knowledge about rivers. |
| C．To introduce the topic of the article. | D．To show the miracle of the nature. |
| A．the fish they got were all dead | B．his mother hated eating fish |
| C．he wanted to preserve the river | D．the fish were too dirty to eat |
| A．They kept the Chicago River incredibly clean. |
| B．They dug a huge hole to store the polluted water. |
| C．They saved all the fish in the Chicago River. |
| D．They changed the direction of the Chicago River. |
| A．Mysterious. | B．Committed. | C．Critical. | D．Kind-hearted. |
10 . Jerry was the kind of guy who was always in a good mood and always said something positive. One day I asked him,“I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied,“Each morning I wake up and say to myself, ‘Jerry, you have two choices. To be in a good mood or bad mood.’ I choose the former.”
“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy” I protested.
“Yes it is.” Jerry said. “Life is all about choices. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. It’s your choice how you live life.”
Soon thereafter, I changed my job. We lost touch. Several years later, I heard that Jerry was robbed and was shot. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied,“Really good.” I asked him what had gone through his mind when he was taken to the hospital. Jerry replied,“I remembered I had two choices: I could choose to live, or die. I chose to live. The nurses kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses scared me. In their eyes, I read, ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“Well, a nurse asked if I was allergic to anything,”said Jerry.
“Yes” I replied.
“The doctors and nurses were waiting for my reply…I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’” Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live positively.
1. Why did the author ask Jerry question in the first paragraph?| A．Because he didn’t know whether Jerry was a positive person. |
| B．Because he wondered how Jerry consistently keep optimistic. |
| C．Because he doubted whether Jerry said to himself every day. |
| D．Because he wasn’t sure if Jerry made choices every morning. |
| A．his job | B．his life | C．his choice | D．his wife |
| A．By time. | B．By examples. | C．By arguing. | D．By listing. |
| A．A promise is a promise. | B．A good beginning is half done. |
| C．A good tree is a good shelter. | D．A day’s laughter is like taking good medicine. |
