Joe came to New York from the Middle West, dreaming about painting. Delia came to New York from the South, dreaming about music. Joe and Delia met in a studio. Before long they were good friends and got married.
They had only a small flat to live in , but they were happy. They loved each other, and they were both interested in art. Everything was fine until one day they found they had spent all their money.
Delia decided to give music lessons. One afternoon she said to her husband:
“Joe, I’ve found a pupil, a general’s daughter. She is a sweet girl. I’m to give three lessons a week and get $5 a lesson.”
But Joe was not glad.
“But how about me?” he said.” Do you think I’m going to watch you work while I play with my art? No, I want to earn some money too.”
“Joe, you are silly,” said Delia. “You must keep at your studies. We can live quite happily on $15 a week.”
“Well, perhaps I can sell some of my pictures,” said Joe.
Every day they parted in the morning and met in the evening. A week passed and Delia brought home fifteen dollars, but she looked a little tired.
“Clementina sometimes gets on my nerves. I’m afraid she doesn’t practice enough. But the general is the oldest man! I wish you could know him, Joe.”
And then Joe took eighteen dollars out of his pocket.
“I’ve sold one of my pictures to a man from Peoria,” he said, “and he has ordered another.”
“I’m so glad,” said Delia. “Thirty-three dollars! We never had so much to spend before. We’ll have a good supper tonight.”
Next week Joe came home and put another eighteen dollars on the table. In half an hour Delia came, her right hand in a bandage.
“What’s the matter with your hand?” said Joe. Delia laughed and said:
“Oh, a funny thing happened! Clemantina gave me a plate of soup and spilled some of it on my hand. She was very sorry for it. And so was the old general. But why are you looking at me like that, Joe?”
“What time this afternoon did you burn your hand, Delia?”
“Five o’clock, I think. The iron-I mean the soup-was ready about five, Why?”
“Delia, come and sit here,” said Joe. He drew her to the couch and sat beside her.
“What do you do every day, Delia? Do you really give music lesson? Tell me the truth.”
She began to cry.
“I couldn’t get any pupils,” she said, “So I got a place in a laundry ironing shirts. This afternoon a girl accidentally set down an iron on my hand and I got a bad burn. But tell me, Joe, how did you guess that I wasn’t giving music lessons?”
“It’s very simple,” said Joe. “I knew all about your bandages because I had to send them upstairs to a girl in the laundry who had an accident with a hot iron. You see, I work in the engine-room of the same laundry where you work.”
“And your pictures? Did you sell any to that man from Peoria?”
“Well, your general with his Clemantina is an invention, and so is my man from Peoria.”
And then they both laughed. To support the family, Delia worked as .
| A．a tutor | B．a music teacher |
| C．an artist | D．a laundry assistant |
It happened that .
| A．a man from Peoria liked Joe’s pictures |
| B．Delia earned $15 dollars a week easily |
| C．the couple worked at the same laundry |
| D．Clemantina and the general were kind |
Who hurt Delia’s hand?
| A．The general | B．Clemantina | C．Herself | D．A girl |
We can infer from the underlined sentence that .
| A．Clemantina was an invention of the general |
| B．Clemantina was an invention of the man from Peoria |
| C．there were no such men as the general, Clemantina and the man from Peoria |
| D．the general, Clemantina and the man from Peoria were the couple’s clients |
The couple’s attitude towards each other is .
| A．faithful | B．honest |
| C．ashamed | D．heartbreaking |
Which do you think is the best title of the story?
| A．A service of love | B．A story of Joe and Delia |
| C．Lies and truth | D．Servants of love |
As a music teacher for twenty-seven years, I have always known that music touches the soul. It can break through all kinds of barriers(障碍) to reach students in a very special way. It can be the means for each child to find their light.
A few years ago, I was blessed with the opportunity to teach pre-school students one afternoon a week. One of my most memorable students was Vanessa. She was five years old, had difficulty walking, and could not speak. We mostly sat on the floor for our music lessons and Vanessa liked to sit on my lap. One of her favorite songs was John the Rabbit. It was a call and response song where I sang the call and the students clapped two times while singing the repeating phrase, “Oh, yes!” Vanessa liked to put her hands together with mine and clap with me. We performed that song during every class, Vanessa and I clapping together. She never said or sang a word.
One day late in the school year, when the song was finished, Vanessa turned around, looked me in the eye, clapped her tiny hands two times and said the words “Oh, yes!” I opened my mouth and could not speak. Through music, we had made a connection.
Several years later, I came across Vanessa on the street in town. I stopped my car and waved to say hello. She waved back with a big smile on her face and then clapped her hands two times, mimicking(模仿) the song we had performed in our music class. This precious little girl, through her connection with music, left an impression on me that will last forever.
Every child has the ability to learn and grow. It is up to us educators to discover the way to reach each and every one of our students. We all must find each child’s light.The author thinks music________.
| A．can make children calm down | B．can connect heart to heart |
| C．is difficult for pre-school students | D．is a good means to find a job |
According to the second paragraph, Vanessa________.
| A．got used to singing songs | B．was too shy to speak |
| C．was the youngest in the class | D．enjoyed the author’s classes |
When Vanessa spoke the words “Oh, yes!”, the author felt________.
| A．surprised | B．happy | C．frightened | D．satisfied |
What can we infer from the last two paragraphs?
| A．The author has been in touch with Vanessa for several years. |
| B．Vanessa became as healthy as other children. |
| C．The song made a deep impression on Vanessa. |
| D．Being a good educator became Vanessa’s dream. |
Have you ever been to a wedding and simply loved the bride’s bouquet（花束）？More than likely some part of it was the Hawaiian Wedding Plant. This foreign houseplant can be enjoyed by anyone, not just brides. With a little proper attention and careful planning on location, this foreign houseplant, which is from Madagascar, can be brought into the home where it can become an interesting focus.
Caring for the Hawaiian Wedding Plant is not much different from caring for any other houseplants that may already be in your home. The only difference between this type of houseplant and others is the amount of the basic requirements that this foreign houseplant needs to survive and perform beautifully. During the growing season, this plant requires its wet soil, but when winter rolls around, this plant needs its soil to be kept drier.
Hawaiian Wedding Plants should also be potted in well-drained(排水)soil and placed in a location that receives full sun. That the soil must be kept wet does not mean that it should sit in water, so the soil must drain easily or this plant will not survive. Water the plant daily and feed this plant every two to three weeks with a little fertilizer(化肥) for acid-loving plants. Prune in early spring, even as early as February. If these needs are met, this plant will stay beautiful.
The most special feature of this foreign houseplant is its long lasting blooms(开花)combined with its unbelievable sweet smell. The Hawaiian Wedding Plant blooms the heaviest in the spring months, but has been known to bloom in any warm months, so do not be surprised to find blooms most time of the year except maybe in the dead of winter.Why does the author mention wedding and bouquet in the first paragraph?
| A．To introduce a Hawaiian wedding. | B．To attract the readers’ interest in the passage. |
| C．To show the beauty of the flower. | D．To teach the readers to choose proper bouquets. |
The Hawaiian Wedding Plant comes from________.
| A．Hawaii | B．China | C．Madagascar | D．Alaska |
Which of the following are the growing conditions of Hawaiian Wedding Plant?
a. Wet soil. b. Lots of fertilizer. c. Proper sunshine. d. Some acid.
| A．a.c | B．a. b | C．b. c | D．a. d |
What does the underlined phrase“in the dead of winter” in the last paragraph probably mean?
| A．At the end of the winter. | B．At the beginning of the winter. |
| C．In deadly condition in winter. | D．In the coldest part of winter. |
At the end of eight grade, our class went to Washington, D.C. For a group of 14-year-olds, this was a big deal!
The first day was so tiring; we could hardly remember where we were and what we were seeing. The next morning, we were off to see monuments (纪念碑)，starting with Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson. We walked along the paths through trees. Then the Wall came into view—the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
As I moved slowly closer to the Wall, I heard a bagpipe（风笛）in the distance, which seemed to show respect to the lives lost in the jungles of Vietnam .
We continued walking and felt surprised at the number of names carved in the black stone. I was determined to find a soldier with my last name, but my hunt was stopped when a man caught my eyes. He was kneeling(跪着) at the Wall, a single rose at his feet. His head was bowed and he was rubbing his fingers over one name. I thought how sad he was, and then moved on .
After a few minutes I found one with my last name, but my eyes returned to the kneeling man. He was still rubbing his fingers over the same name. He never knew I was watching him, lost in deep sorrow. It was time for me to leave the kneeling man and the Wall. On the way home, I couldn’t help thinking of the kneeling man and his sad face. I wasn’t sure of the effects of war before, but at that moment I realized how much that man suffered from losing his loved one. Maybe he was the only one of so many families who experienced the same .
I never knew the full effects of war until I saw that man. I only know about war from history classes. The kneeling man taught me more about war and the effects it has on people than any history book .Which of the following makes the author feel the suffering that war brings to human beings?
| A．The kneeling man. | B．The sound of a bagpipe. |
| C．The number of names carved in the stone. | D．The jungles of Vietnam. |
The man continued to rub his fingers over the name probably because_____.
| A．he found it covered with dust | B．he missed the loved one who died in a war |
| C．he intended to remove it completely | D．he recalled the fierce war he fought in |
What did the author learn from the trip?
| A．How fierce war is in history. | B．How people remember those who died in wars. |
| C．What bad effects war had on many families. | D．What we should do to prevent war. |
According to the last paragraph, the author probably thinks that _____.
| A．he should have studied history hard in class |
| B．history books don’t tell readers the truth |
| C．there is more in history than books tell us |
| D．the kneeling man should be a history teacher |
Water and its importance to human life are the center of the world’s attention. March 22 is World Water Day, which has the theme “Water and culture ”this year. There are more than one billion people in the world who live without safe drinking water. The United Nations hopes to cut this number in half by 2015.
Solving such a big problem seems like an unreal challenge. But everyone, even teenagers, can do something to help. A teenage girl in the U.S. has set an example to others of her age around the world. Rene Haggerty, 13, was awarded the 2004 Gloria Barron Prize for her work of collecting deserted batteries which pollute water.
In 2003, Haggerty went on a field trip to the Great Lakes Science Centre in Ohio. There, she saw an exhibit about how chemicals in old batteries harm the water of Lake Erie. Haggerty learnt that recycling the batteries was an easy solution. “I think everybody can do it, because everyone uses batteries, and it can make a big difference.” With these words, she began to increase awareness in her area.
She talked to her county government and school board. She got permission to start a recycling programmed in schools as well as the public libraries, hospitals, and churches. With the help from her family, friends and local waste-management officials, she gathered containers, arranged transportation, and made an educational video.
Over the past two years, she collected four tons of batteries and drew the attention of officials, who were in charge of a battery recycling programmed but had made little progress. When asked if she feels like a hero, Haggerty is quite modest(谦虚). “Not really. Well, maybe for the fish I saved!”
Every year the Gloria Barron Prize honors young Americans aged 8 to 18 who have shown leadership and courage in serving the public and the planet. Each year ten winners receive ＄2,000 each, to help with their education costs or their public service work.According to the passage, how many people probably can’t drink safe drinking water in 2015?
| A．About I billion. | B．About 2 billion. |
| C．About 500 million. | D．About 5 million. |
In order to collect used batteries, Rene Haggerty did the following things EXCEPT.
| A．gather some containers | B．arrange the transportation |
| C．make an educational video | D．go on a field trip |
The best title for this passage should be .
| A．A girl awarded the 2004 Gloria Barron Prize |
| B．A girl acts to clean the world’s water |
| C．We should protect our environment |
| D．A girl collecting batteries |
Dear Michelle,
My mother is not a good example for me and my sister. She smokes, stays out late, and she curses(骂人).I love her but I am ashamed of her. I do not want to bring my friends home because she does not act like any of the other mothers. She says I am a loser because I sit at home and study. I wish I could live in another family that was normal, but it will be 5 years before I am 18 and legal. What am I supposed to do until then?
Prisoner of a Crazy House
Dear 7th Grader,
I am glad that you love your mother because the rest of your feelings about her may change as you get older and mature(成熟).
While it is true that your mother’s smoking, partying and cursing bring you shame, the fact that you want to stay separate from her doings is notable and very smart. It shows that you are a winner, not a loser.
I am guessing, therefore, that you do not bring shame to yourself, and that is a good thing, So, keep it that way and keep away from your mother’s habits.
At the same time, try to get the best grades and join clubs and school activities. Offer social service on weekends and visit your friends at their homes.
Fortunately, you are not alone. Many teens live in homes with immature, misguided, selfish parents. Those kids often feel lonely and separate from the rest of their friends because of their parents’ terrible deeds.
But they develop good friendships with nice kids, do well in school, and often find a teacher or guidance advisor who makes all the difference!
Do it, Miss Winning 13 years old, and keep looking forward to your own fine future. Maybe by then your mother may even see the light and realize how surprising you really are.
Best luck!
MichelleThe kid asks for advice on how to .
| A．make her mother change | B．deal with her situation |
| C．get along well with her mother | D．start a new family |
Michelle doesn’t call her letter receiver“ Prisoner of a Crazy House” possibly because she
.
| A．tries to be polite | B．doesn’t write to the kid alone |
| C．knows that’s a girl in Grade 7 | D．wants to cheer the kid up |
According to the passage, Michelle advises the girl to .
| A．try talking to her mother for her future |
| B．stick to her attitude towards her mother’s some habits |
| C．understand her mother’s habits and get used to them |
| D．try to keep away from her mother |
What does Michelle mainly express by writing the last four paragraphs?
| A．Don’t worry too much about the problem. |
| B．Many parents act terribly. |
| C．Parents manners make little difference. |
| D．The girl is not speaking for herself. |