One day, a farmer was walking along a road with his son Thomas. The father said, "Look! There's a horseshoe. Pick it up and put it in your bag." Thomas said, 'It isn't worth the trouble." His father said nothing but picked it up himself. When they got to a nearby town, they lad a rest. There the farmer sold the horseshoe and with the few pennies he bought some cherries.
The father and the son continued their way. The sun was well up in the sky, and there wasn't a house or even a tree where they could have a rest. Thomas felt too thirsty to walk on. At this time, his father dropped a cherry on the ground and Thomas picked it up quickly and ate it. After a while, his father dropped another cherry and once again, his son lost some time in picking it up and putting it in his mouth.
And so they went on. The old farmer dropped the cherries and the son picked them up. When Thomas had eaten up all the cherries, his father said to him, "My dear son, if you had bent down earlier to pick up that horseshoe. it would not have been necessary for you to bend so many times for the cherries. Always remember the lesson that anyone who does not worry about the little things will find that he cannot do the great things.Who picked up the horseshoe at last?
| A．Thomas. |
| B．The old father. |
| C．Both the father and the son. |
| D．Neither the father nor the son. |
The farmer bought _______ with the money after lie sold the horseshoe.
| A．some food |
| B．some water |
| C．some cherries |
| D．some pennies |
When the son refused to pick up the horseshoe, the father _______.
| A．felt very happy |
| B．didn't say anything |
| C．beat the son |
| D．became a little angry |
The father dropped the cherries one by one, because _______.
| A．he wanted his son to eat them all |
| B．he wanted his son to do more exercise |
| C．lie wanted to teach his son a lesson |
| D．he wanted his son to pick them up |
From the story, we can learn that _______.
| A．cherries are so delicious that most of is like to eat-them |
| B．a horseshoe is so expensive that it can bring us a lot of money |
| C．if the boy wants to eat cherries, he must pick up the horseshoe |
| D．if we want to do some great things, we should start with some small ones |
The world is not only hungry but also thirsty for water. This may seem strange to you, since nearly 70% of the earth’s surface is covered with water. But about 97% of that is sea water or salt water. Man can only drink and use the other 3% of fresh water from rivers, lakes, underground and so on. And we can not even use all of that because some of it has been made dirty.
Earth Day is April 22. But on all other days, we must also remember how important water is. The water that we use is the most important natural resource on the earth. Today we face serious water problems. One of them is water pollution. All kinds of things from cars, factories, farms and homes make our rivers, lakes and oceans dirty. Polluted water is very bad for people to drink. And dirty water is bad for fish, too.
How do cars and factories make our water dirty? First they pollute the air. Then when it rains, the rain water makes our drinking water dirty. Dirty rain, called acid rain is also bad for plants, animals and buildings. Scientists say that in 30 years, more than half of the people in the world won’t have enough clean water. We have to learn how to stop wasting water. One of the first steps is to develop ways of reusing it. Today in most large cities, water is used only once and then sent out into a sewer system (下水道). From there it returns to the sea or goes underground.
But even though every large city reused its water, we would still not have enough. So we should make use of sea water by removing the salt in it. If we can take these steps, fresh water won’t be used up.The world is thirsty for water because _______.
| A．we don’t have enough fresh water | B．a lot of water goes into sewer systems |
| C．only 70% of the earth’s surface is water | D．sea water is widely used rather than fresh water |
From this passage, we know acid rain _______.
| A．is only bad for living things | B．is not bad for buildings and factories |
| C．can be produced in factories | D．is bad for people, animals, plants and buildings |
One difficult way we can solve the problem is to _______.
| A．use the water with salt in it | B．remove the salt from sea water |
| C．get water from underground | D．reuse the water in cities |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．Fresh water and sea water | B．A thirsty country |
| C．The importance of water | D．The world’s water problem |
Do you want to be the most popular person in the class? You don’t need to change your character; you just need to improve your personality (人格). In fact, people trust and love the most popular people because they stay normal but still have something that makes them different from the rest of us. Here are some pieces of advice about becoming the most popular person in the class.
◆If you want others to like and respect (尊重) you, you have to start by liking and accepting yourself. Do not change yourself in order to please others.
◆Be helpful to everyone and do it happily. Being nice to people is almost like helping them, because by being nice you make others happy.
◆Be active and have a positive view towards life. Develop confidence in yourself.
◆Stay clean and wear fresh clothes. Do not try to follow fashion to please others.
◆Big words and power cannot bring you respect. You have to get it by being honest. It also helps your personal growth. You must be a person that can be trusted to get respect.If you want to become the most popular person, you should __________.
| A．improve your personality | B．trust and please others |
| C．change your character | D．make yourself different from others |
According to the article, __________ can bring you respect.
| A．following fashion | B．using big words |
| C．being honest and helpful | D．saying hello to others every day |
The underlined sentence shows that __________.
| A．you should be polite when you help others | B．you should make yourself happy[ |
| C．we can help others only by being happy | D．you should always be nice to others |
One night I was sitting in my room half-listening as my 15-year-old brother Tommy fought with my 12-year-old brother Kevin. I didn’t pay attention when Kevin rushed up the stairs with the hurt on his face.
About 20 minutes later, as I was walking upstairs I heard Kevin crying inside the bathroom. I knocked on the door and asked, “Hey Kevin, do you want to talk?”
No answer.
I tried again, “Why don’t you come out of there?”
Again, no answer.
So, joking around, I grabbed a stack of （一摞）cards and a pencil and wrote, “If you don’t want to talk, we can write notes to each other.”
An hour later I was still sitting on the floor outside the bathroom with two stacks of cards in front of me. One was blank and one was cards from Kevin on which he had translated all his yucky feelings into words for me. As I read one of Kevin’s notes, tears came to my eyes. It said, “Nobody in this family cares about me. I’m not the youngest, and I’m not the oldest. Tommy thinks I’m silly and Dad wishes he had the other Kevin as a kid because he’s better at basketball. And you’re never around to even notice me.”
Tears came to my eyes as I wrote back to him. “You know Kevin, I really do love you and I’m sorry I don’t always show it. I am here for you and you are loved in this family.”
There was no answer for a while, but then I heard a tearing sound coming from inside the bathroom. Kevin, who had run out of cards wrote on a torn paper cup. “Thanks.”
I wrote back “For what?” it returned to me with “Loving me” on it.
Since then, I try my best to never only half-notice my family members any more. Kevin and I have a closer relationship now. And sometimes when one of us notices that the other is upset, we’ll smile and say “Write it on a paper cup.”The underlined word “yucky” most probably means ____.
| A．upset | B．exciting | C．terrible | D．amazing |
What could be the reason that Kevin’s Dad doesn’t like him?
| A．Kevin is not as clever as his brother. |
| B．He is neither the youngest nor the oldest. |
| C．Kevin doesn’t like to make friends with others. |
| D．Kevin is not good at playing basketball. |
What do we know about the writer?
| A．She has two children in her family. |
| B．She didn’t pay enough attention to Kevin before. |
| C．She used to show her love to Kevin. |
| D．She has a closer relationship with Tommy after that. |
What does the writer want to tell us?
| A．Everyone should show how they love their family members. |
| B．It’s hard to get on well with family members. |
| C．It’s important to keep peace in the family. |
| D．We should try our best to stop our children from fighting. |
When he was 16, his father seriously said to him, “I’ll give you whatever you want before you are 18. But after that, I won’t care much about you, and you should give me whatever I want.” When his 18th birthday was coming, the young man began thinking about looking for a job. So he sent resumes(简历) to many companies he liked on the Internet. But, most got no reply, he said, “Maybe they were surprised about my primary school education.”
By chance, one of his friends was looking for someone, who could work as an egg porter(搬运工) in the supermarket, for 0.5 Yuan a box. Facing lots of difficulties in getting a job, he said, “I’ll take this job. At least I can make some money for my petrol(汽油).” Then every day, he drove his car, his 18th birthday gift, to work in the supermarket. He did that for three months.
Later, he heard that a newspaper was looking for a network technician(网络技术员), so he asked for it. But they were also worried about his school education. He practiced his skill right in front of the computer, and showed the managers web pages he had designed. He started to work the next day, and became the director of network department in less than a year.
And now, the 23-year-old man is a boss. In January 2005, he started a magazine for children, with himself as the editor in chief（主编）. And the only writer was his father.It was difficult for the young man to get a job because _______.
| A．he was only 18 years old |
| B．his father cared too much about him. |
| C．he had an expensive car |
| D．he didn’t have enough school education |
What did the 18th birthday mean to the young man?
| A．He could get a car as a gift. |
| B．He had to make a living all by himself. |
| C．He had to leave his parents. |
| D．He had to work in a supermarket. |
The young man’s father might be_______.
| A．a well-know and rich writer | B．a computer programmer |
| C．a very old and kind man | D．a manager of a big company |
The magazine the young man started was perhaps______.
| A．about network technicians | B．about working for newspapers |
| C．made of many funny stories | D．sold only in supermarkets |
As we know, there are differences between western culture and Chinese culture. We can see differences when we pay attention to the way words are used. Let’s look at the words about animals and plants. Most expressions in Chinese about the dog, for example, “a homeless dog”, “a mad dog”, “a running dog” and “a dog catching mouse”, have negative meanings. But in western countries, dogs are thought to be honest and good friends of humans. In English, people use the dog to describe positive actions. For example, “You are a lucky dog.” means you are a lucky person. And “every dog has its day.” means each person has good luck sometimes. To describe a person’s serious illness, they say “sick as a dog”. The word “dog-tired” means very tired. However, Chinese love cats very much. But in western culture, “cat” is often used to describe a woman who is cruel.
The rose is regarded as symbol of love in both China and some western countries. People think the rose means love, peace, courage and friendship. And the rose is the national flower of England, America and many other countries.
The words about plants and animals are used in positive or negative ways in different cultures. We can learn about many differences in cultures by comparing how some words are used. “Every dog has its day.” means “________”.
| A．Everybody in the world is lucky. |
| B．Each person lives his own way of life. |
| C．If one works hard, he’s sure to succeed. |
| D．Everybody has a time in life to be lucky. |
What can we know from the passage?
| A．Words show differences in culture. |
| B．Chinese people prefer dogs to cats. |
| C．Western people think cats to be good friends. |
| D．Rose is the national flower of all western countries. |
Which statement is right according to passage?
| A．People think the rose means love, peace, luck and friendship. |
| B．The words about plants and animals are used both in positive and negative ways in different cultures. |
| C．In China, people use the dog to describe negative actions. |
| D．In eastern culture, “cat” is often used to describe a woman who is cruel. |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．Negative or Positive |
| B．Different Countries Have Different Culture |
| C．Rose Means the Same in Chinese and English |
| D．What Dog and Cat Mean in English and Chinese |