I will never forget the lesson about my window. Four years ago, I moved to a house in a large town. One of my new neighbors’ house was only a few feet away from mine. There lived a woman. Through one of my windows, I could see her reading by her window every afternoon.
Several months later, I found I couldn’t see the woman clearly. I thought her window was too dirty. I said to myself, “Why doesn’t she clean her window? It looks terrible!”
One afternoon, I decided to clean my house including(包括) the window. I felt tired after three hours of hard work. So I sat down by the window for a rest. What a surprise! I could see the woman reading there clearly again! By that time, I realized that my own window was too dirty, not hers! I really felt ashamed for myself. I had been watching her through my dirty window in the past days!
The experience is very important for me. So I try to clean the window of my heart before judging(评判) others. How long has the writer lived in the house according to the passage?
A. Two years. B. Three years. C. Four years. The writer couldn’t see the woman clearly because ______________.
A. the writer’s window was dirty
B. the woman’s house was too far
C. the woman didn’t open her windowThe underlined word “ashamed” means _________________.
A. 高兴的 B. 放松的 C. 羞愧的According to the passage, the writer has learnt how to __________________.
A. clean the house B. judge others C. help neighbors
阅读填空先通读下面的短文，掌握其大意，然后根据短文内容和所给首字母，在空格内填入一个适当的词，使短文意思完整。所填单词在题后横线上必须完整写出。
Do students in your country go directly to university or college after school or do they have a break first? Taking a gap year (空档年)between high school and university is quite common in the UK, and there are lots of different ways to spend your time.
A gap year is a period of time, usually a year, when a student takes a break before going on to study in university. It is often spent traveling or working.
People used to think that taking a gap year was not acceptable. In the past you took a gap year if you had to retake exams or had problems with your study. But now, universities encourage a gap, and it is more possible for a student who takes a gap year to be offered jobs when they graduate. A gap year can give young people useful learning experiences, help them pick up new skills.
A student often takes a gap year at about eighteen years old, before going to university. It can also be taken at a different time.
Many gap year students choose to do voluntary work. Others want to travel around the world for more experiences. Lots of gap year students just want to see more of the world.
Most students who are planning a gap year take on a part-time job to save up for the trip. Some students travel for three or six months and then work for the rest of the year.
| A gap year in the UK |
|
| What is a gap year? |
It is the time when a student takes a break from formal |
| Advantages（优势） |
Though people didn’t |
| A student take a gap year at about eighteen years old, before going to university or at a different time. |
|
| What to do? |
The gap year is usually |
| How to make money? |
They save up for the trip |
One day I went to a store with a list. “Excuse me,” I said. A lady with glasses looked up, saying, “I’m Miss Bee. Come closer and let me look at you. I want to be able to describe you to the police if something is missing from the store.”
“I’m only a little girl, not a thief (小偷)!” I was surprised.
“But I think you’re potential (有可能的) ,” she said.
“I need these,” I said, holding up my list.
“So what? I am not a person who works for you. Go to get them.” she said.
The store was a puzzle to me. It took me two hours to find everything on the list. “That packet of beans is only 29 cents, but you asked me for 35 cents. ” I corrected her. She didn’t seem unhappy, just looked at me over her glasses.
The following summer I visited Miss Bee some times a week. She always found ways to fool me. Or shortly after I remembered the places of something on the shelf, she arranged (重排) the shelves again and made me hunt for them again. By the end of the summer the shopping trip that had once taken me an hour was done in 15 minutes.
One morning I was to get a packet of chocolate. “Miss Potential, what did you learn this summer?” she said. “That you’re a meanie (刻薄鬼)!” I answered angrily. But she laughed, “Well, I believe my job is to teach every child I meet life lessons to help them. When you get older, you’ll be glad our paths crossed!” Glad I met Miss Bee? Ha! It was absurd.
Until one day my daughter said, “ Could you finish my math problems for me?” “How will you ever learn to do it yourself if I do it for you?” I said. Suddenly, I was back at that store where I had learned the hard way to check my bill. Now I have known what Miss Bee did for me. She is my good teacher.Why did Miss Bee arrange the shelves again and again?
| A．To laugh at the writer. |
| B．To teach the writer some skills. |
| C．To think about other customers’ need. |
| D．To avoid her things being stolen. |
What does the underlined word “absurd” mean?
| A．开心的 | B．令人兴奋的 |
| C．令人费解的 | D．荒谬的 |
Which word can best describe the writer’s feelings for Miss Bee in the last paragraph?
| A．Thankful. | B．Hateful. |
| C．Uncomfortable. | D．Unkind. |
The purpose of writing the text is to tell us _________.
| A．the facts about a kind person－Miss Bee |
| B．how to teach your children life lessons |
| C．people should check everything carefully |
| D．the good teacher isn’t only in the school |
I travel a lot, and I find out different “style” of directions every time I ask “How can I get to the post office?”
Foreign tourists are often puzzled in Japan because most streets there don’t have names; in Japan, people use landmarks (地标) in their directions instead of street names. For examples, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”
In the countryside of the American Midwest, there are not usually many landmarks. There are no mountains, so the land is very flat; in many places there are no towns or buildings within miles. Instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. In Kansas or Iowa, for example, people will say, “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.”
People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on the map; they measure (估量) distance in time, not miles. “How far away is the post office?” you ask. “Oh,” they answer, “it’s about five minutes from here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it?” They don’t know.
It’s true that a person doesn’t know the answer to your question sometimes. What happens in such a situation? A New Yorker might say, “Sorry, I have no idea.” but in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “I don’t know.” people in Yucatan believe that “I don’t know” is impolite. They usually give an answer, often a wrong one. A tourist can get very, very lost in Yucatan!When a tourist asks the Japanese the way to a place, they usually _________.
| A．tell him the names of the streets |
| B．show him a map of the place |
| C．describe the place carefully |
| D．refer to (意指)clear buildings and places |
What is the place where people show distance in time?
| A．New York. | B．Los Angeles. | C．Kansas. | D．Iowa. |
Usually, People in Yucatan give a tourist a wrong answer _________ instead of saying “I don’t know”.
| A．to save time | B．as a test |
| C．to be polite | D．for fun |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．It’s important for travelers to understand cultural differences. |
| B．It’s useful for travelers to know how to ask the way properly. |
| C．People have similar understandings of politeness. |
| D．New Yorkers are generally friendly to visitors. |
An excerpt (节选) from The Card
Edward Henry Machin first saw daylight on the 27th of May, 1867, in Brougham Street in Bursley, the oldest of the Five Towns. Brougham Street goes down a hill to the canal (运河).The rent (租金) for one of these houses was not high — only about twenty-two pence (便士) a week.
Edward Henry’s mother (his father was dead) lived by making and washing clothes for fine ladies. She did not often laugh. She was a woman of few words, and saved time every day by calling her son Denry, instead of Edward Henry.
Denry did not work hard at school, and boys who were lazy and not very clever usually just found jobs in the potbanks. Luckily, at the age of twelve, he won a place at the best school in Bursley. It happened like this. On the second day of the examination, Denry arrived a little early. As he walked around the examination room, he came to the teacher’s desk, where he saw a list of names with marks for the first day of the examination. The highest possible mark was 30, but next to his name he saw the number 7. The numbers were written in pencil, and the pencil was on the desk. He picked it up, looked around the empty room, and at the door, and them wrote a 2 in front of the 7. Of course, this was not honest, but how many truly honest schoolboys are there? Denry was no worse than most of them.What was Edward Henry’s mother like?
| A．Patient. | B．Dishonest. |
| C．Hard-working. | D．Kind. |
What was the mark Edward Henry got in the end?
| A．30. | B．7 | C．2 | D．27 |
Are you always unwilling to do housework and cleaning for no reason? Well, you will be happy today. Today is No Housework Day. It’s time to forget about housework and be relaxed.
No Housework Day is always on April 7th. It is your chance to do anything, except housework. Better still, have someone else do housework for a day. Housework is a daily and endless job and most people think it’s boring to do housework. I have many friends and their wish is to stay away from housework. In fact, their wish can never come true.
Do you know how to celebrate No Housework Day? Well , there are two different ways.
If you usually do the housework around the house, forget it on this day. Instead, kick back and enjoy the day. Relax and do anything, except housework.
If you never do housework, you can do it for your family. It gives your parents a break from the housework. And, you just might get a chance to know how much housework your parents need to do every day.The writer has many friends and their wish is _________.
| A．not to do any housework any more |
| B．to ask others to do their housework |
| C．to celebrate No Housework Day |
| D．to ask all the family members to do housework |
If Lisa never does housework, the writer thinks she can _________ on No Housework Day.
| A．forget housework | B．do housework |
| C．feel relaxed | D．do anything except housework |
What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．It’s about the daily housework. |
| B．It’s about our duty and right. |
| C．It’s about No Housework Day. |
| D．It’s about some national holiday. |