“I’ve changed my mind. I wanted to have a telescope, but now I want my dad back.” Lucien Lawrence’s letter to Father Christmas, written after his father had been knifed to death outside his school gate, must have touched everyone’s heart. Lucien went on to say that without his father he couldn’t see the stars in the sky. When those we love depart from us, we cannot see the stars for a while.
But Lucien, the stars are still there, and one day, when you are older and your tears have gone, you will see them again. And, in a strange way, I expect that you will find your father there too, either in your mind or heart. I find that my parents, who died years ago, still linger (留连) in many of my dreams and that I think of them perhaps more than I ever did when they were alive. I still live to please them and I’m still surprised by their reactions. I remember that when I became a professor, I was so proud, or rather so pleased with myself that I couldn’t wait to cable my parents. The reply was a long time in coming, but when it did, all my mother said was “I hope this means that now you will have more time for the children!” I haven’t forgotten. The values of my parents still live on.
It makes me pause and think about how I will live on in the hearts and minds of my children and of those for whom I care. Would I have been as ready as Philip Lawrence has been to face the aggressors（入侵者）, and to lay down my life for those in my care? How many people would want me back for Christmas? It’s a serious thought, which gives me pause.
I pray silently, sometimes, in the dead of night, that ancient cry of a poet “Deliver my soul from the sword and my darling from the power of the dog.” Yet I know death comes to us all, and sometimes comes suddenly. We must therefore plan to live together, but live as if we will die tomorrow. We live on, I’m sure, in the lives of those we loved, and therefore we ought to have a care for what they will remember and what they will treasure. If more parents knew this in their hearts to be true, there might be fewer knives on our streets today. According to the whole text we can see that the first paragraph ___________.
| A．puts forward the subject of the text |
| B．shows the author’s pity on the kid |
| C．serves as an introduction to the discussion |
| D．makes a clear statement of the author’s views |
In the second paragraph the author mainly wants to explain to us____________.
| A．how much he misses his parents now |
| B．why his parents often appear in his dream |
| C．when Lucien will get over all his sadness |
| D．how proud he was when he succeeded in life |
What feeling did the author’s mother express in her reply?
| A．Proud. | B．Happy. | C．Disappointed. | D．Worried. |
In the author’s opinion, the value of a person’s life is _____________.
| A．to leave a precious memory to the people related |
| B．to have a high sense of duty to the whole society |
| C．to care what others will remember and treasure |
| D．to share happiness and sadness with his family |
What does the writer mean by the sentence taken from an old poem?
| A．Call on criminals and murderers to lay down their guns. |
| B．Advise parents stay with their children safely at home. |
| C．Spend every day meaningfully in memory of death. |
| D．Try to keep violence and murder far away from society. |
Are your children liked by their teachers? All parents want their children to impress(给...的印象) their teachers and succeed in school. You can get your children to impress their teachers by following these easy steps.
Make sure they’re prepared. Teachers are impressed by children coming to school prepared to learn. Make sure they have everything they need—pencils textbooks, erasers and so on.
Require them to be active in class. Teach them to ask teachers questions when they don’t understand something. Some children think teachers are bothered by questions, but most teachers are impressed when children take the initiative(采取主动) in asking questions. They should take part in class discussions, giving their opinions politely.
Keep your children healthy. If your children are tired and hungry, they won’t be ready to learn. Children need at least 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night. Feed your children a solid breakfast and prepare a healthy lunch. Provide them with fruit and other healthy foods—apples or bananas are better for them than cookies.
Make sure that your children do their homework. If they really don’t understand it, discuss it with them patiently. Don’t help them do their homework. Teachers can always tell who it is that does the work.
Teach your children good manners and habits. Children need to arrive at the school punctually, and be polite to their teachers and classmates. Parents need to teach these skills at home. Nothing is sweeter than children who say “please” and “thank you”, and these are children their teachers are certain to love.The first paragraph serves as ________.
| A．an explanation | B．an introduction | C．a background | D．a guidance |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．Hungry and tired children can’t focus on their study. |
| B．Children should go to school on time and learn to behave well. |
| C．Teachers aren’t able to decide if parents do homework for their children. |
| D．Teachers are impressed when children take an active part in class. |
The passage mainly tells us that being parents, you should ________.
| A．help your children to impress their teachers at school |
| B．ask your children to get ready for classes before going to school |
| C．teach your children to be polite to both their teachers and classmates |
| D．remind your children to observe all the rules when at school |
In the mid 1990’s, people started doing business on the Internet. At that time, there were two kinds of companies. First, there were traditional companies. They sold things in stores. Then there were Internet companies. They didn’t have a store, and they only sold things on the Net.
Traditional companies didn’t want to lose any business. Quickly they made their own websites and began selling things on the Net. These are the so-called “brick and click” companies. Many stores are made of brick. And you click on your mouse to buy things with your computer. That’s where the name “brick and click” comes from.
By the late 1990’s, e-business like amazon com , buy com. and etoys com. were in trouble. Their profits（利润） were not very high. Competition was great. Many of these businesses were losing lots of money. In 2000, many e-business went out of business.
Why are “brick and click” companies, like Barnes and Noble, Toys RVs and Walmart so successful? First, many customers know and trust their names. Their websites like walmart.com. are easy to remember. These companies also have lots of experience. They know how to run a successful business.
In the world of e-commerce, companies are fighting for every dollar and every customer. Will “brick and click” companies win the war? Only time will tell.What did many traditional companies do in the mid 1990’s? .
| A．They went out of business. |
| B．They made their websites. |
| C．They bought Internet companies. |
| D．They sold their companies. |
What gave Internet companies lots of trouble in the late 1990’s?
| A．Heavy competition |
| B．They were short of money. |
| C．They didn’t know what to do. |
| D．people didn’t believe in them. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．All the “brick and click” companies run a successful business. |
| B．“Brick and click” companies are certain to win the business competition. |
| C．It is uncertain whether “brick and click” companies will win the competition. |
| D．Both “brick and click” companies and Internet companies will be successful in the future. |
Life gets noisier every day and very few people can be free from noise of some sort or another. It doesn’t matter where you live－ in the middle of a modern city, or a faraway village the chances that you will be disturbed by jet planes , transistor radios, oil-powered engines, etc, are almost everywhere. We seem to be getting used to noise, too. Some people feel quite lonely without background music while they are working.
Scientific tests have shown that total silence can be very frightening experience for human beings. However, some people enjoy listening to pop music which is very loud, and this can do harm to their eardrums (耳鼓). The noise level in some disco is far above the usual safety level for heavy industrial areas.
One recent report about noise and concentration(专心) suggested that although a lot of people say that any noise disturbs their concentration , what really affects their ability to concentrate is a change in the level of noise. It goes on to say that a background noise, which doesn’t change too much (music, for example ) may even help people to concentrate.The best title for this passage is________.
| A．Noisy Life |
| B．Background Noise |
| C．Disturbed Concentration |
| D．Changeable Noise |
From this passage, the pollution of noise __________.
| A．doesn’t matter much |
| B．has become better in big cities |
| C．has become better in villages |
| D．has become worse everywhere |
Scientists have discovered that what prevents people from concentrating is _________.
| A．any kind of noise |
| B．great changes in level of noise |
| C．background noise |
| D．various background music |
An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year-old son. Suddenly a crow (乌鸦) landed on their window.
The father asked his son, “What is that?”
The son replied, “That is a crow.”
After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, “What is this?”
The son said, “Father, I told you just now. It’s a crow.”
After a little while, the father asked his son the same question for the third time, “What is this?”
This time, the son said to his father in a low and cold tone, “It’s a crow, a crow.”
After a moment, the father yet again asked his son for the fourth time, “What is this?”
This time his son shouted at his father, “Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again? I have told you already, ‘IT IS A CROW’. Are you not able to understand this?”
A minute later the father went to his room and came back with a diary, which he had kept since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page.
Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa when a crow suddenly landed on the window edge. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied him 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question. I didn’t at all feel angry, but instead felt affection for my son.
If your parents reach old age, do not look at them as a burden, but speak to them gently, and be kind to them. From today say this aloud, “I want to see my parents happy forever. They have cared for me ever since I was a little child. They have always showered me with love. I will take care of my old parents in the best way no matter how they behave.”The old man brought out the diary, which he had kept since his son was born, because ______.
| A．he forgot what had happened |
| B．he would like his son to read it |
| C．it could remind himself of the past |
| D．he wanted to find what a crow was |
The underlined word “affection” (last but one Para.) probably means______.
| A．puzzle | B．hatred(恨) | C．worry | D．love |
The writer mainly intends to ______ .
| A．tell us the function (作用) of a diary |
| B．call on us to love our parents |
| C．teach us what a crow is |
| D．introduce a pair of son and father |
There once was a very honest shopkeeper whose business was to provide goods to the local people. He would open his shop at 8:00 a.m. after having his breakfast and at 1:00 p.m. he would go for lunch. In the evening at 8:30 p.m. he closed his shop to complete his daily routine.
However, to get time for lunch was really difficult be-cause he didn’t have anybody to help him at that time. Therefore, it was his daily practice that whichever customer was shopping at 1:00 p.m. would be asked to oversee (看管) the shop until the shopkeeper returned from lunch.
One day, a group of four thieves planned to steal from his shop while he was gone for lunch. One of the thieves went at 1:00 p.m. to be the customer that would be asked to oversee the shop.
The thief, pretending to be a customer, went in at 1:00 p.m. and started buying several items. As planned, the shop-keeper asked the thief to sit on his chair for thirty minutes until he returned from lunch.
Then, the other three thieves quickly came and told the pretend customer to help, but something had changed within him and he knew deeply in his heart that if he was given responsibility for the shop, he should not perform any dishonest acts during that time. His friends did not agree. As the now honest man tried to stop them, they resisted (抵抗) and a fight started. And at the same time the shopkeeper returned and asked why there was a fighting. The now honest man explained the entire plan.
The shopkeeper had been searching for an honest man who could take ownership of the shop and run it. The shop-keeper felt that he had found the right man.What is the problem for the shopkeeper?
| A．Nobody could prepare lunch for him every day. |
| B．He had nobody to keep the shop when he went for lunch. |
| C．He was too busy to have lunch every day. |
| D．He couldn’t find a person to work at the shop. |
Why did the thief go to the shop at 1:00 p.m.?
| A．Because he thought he would be asked to keep the shop. |
| B．Because the shopkeeper invited him to lunch then. |
| C．Because the shop was closed at that time. |
| D．Because he thought he could buy cheap things then. |
When the shopkeeper returned from lunch, he found _______.
| A．everything in his shop was stolen |
| B．the thief became the new owner of the shop |
| C．there was a fighting in his shop |
| D．the thief helped his fellows steal things from his shop |
From the passage, we can infer that _______.
| A．once a thief, he will always be a thief |
| B．an honest man will be responsible for his action |
| C．you can’t believe in a dishonest man forever |
| D．trust can change a thief into an honest man |