Many years ago, I pulled a family out of a burning car somewhere in Wyoming. Last week I received a telephone call from a woman who could not stop crying as she told me that one of my stories had saved her son from committing suicide. In closing she called me a hero.
That got me thinking about what a hero is. Was I a hero because I pulled a family from a burning car? If so, how could I be a hero just because I wrote a story that saved someone’s life?
Today I looked up the word “hero” in the dictionary to see exactly what it meant. It read “a person who does something brave” and also “a person who is good and noble”.
That statement impressed me more than the part about being brave. So I thought about something very important. And I remembered what happened to me years ago.
After my marriage of twenty years ended, I was in such a condition. I was within hours trying to get up enough courage to end the pain and misery. When I returned home, someone had sent me a card in the mail which told me how much they would appreciate me as a friend. That wonderful card probably saved my life. That person, without even knowing it, saved a life and became a hero.
The many stories I kept writing in the following years saved the life of a teenage boy. In turn that makes the person who sent me the card a double hero. I suppose that is why I fight so hard to help the children now living in orphanages (孤儿院). Most children come out of these institutions with a very hard and bitter attitude against the world. The gifts we send them let them know that they have not been forgotten. Hopefully, most of them will never hurt anyone because of the kindness shown to them by those of us who cared. If it works, we will also become "heroes".The main idea of the passage is _______________.
| A．why the writer should be a hero | B．that everyone is a hero |
| C．whether the writer is a hero | D．what a hero exactly is |
Why did the woman call the writer a hero at the end of the call?
| A．Because he asked her son not to kill himself. |
| B．Because he saved a family from a burning car. |
| C．Because his story saved her son’s life. |
| D．Because he was cute and kind to everybody. |
What does the underlined word “it” in the last sentence of Paragraph 5 refer to?
| A．The fact that the sender helped the writer. |
| B．The action of sending the card. |
| C．The wonderful card the writer received. |
| D．The fact that the sender was a friend of the writer. |
According to the writer, who can be considered as a hero?
| A．A person who is brave. |
| B．A person who helps someone in trouble. |
| C．A person who can hold a door for others. |
| D．A person who writes wonderful stories. |
It’s a goal for millions and millions of families every year——keep the Christmas spending within a certain amount, but can still afford the gifts that your loved ones will enjoy. Never has this concern been greater in recent years than right now. Even so, there are several things that you can do to help.
Hit the sales.
No one wants to get up at four o’clock in the morning and fight to get the best deal on Black Friday, and it’s surely very tough to pick up the courage and get out there in the cold for a good deal, but sometimes——it can be well worth. Many retailers(零售商) offer specials all through the day——and some even offer online Black Friday specials, so you may still be able to get a great deal on Black Friday.
Pay close attention to advertisements.
Once the Christmas shopping season is coming, retailers hungry for business will do just about whatever to get you in the store. Pay very close attention to weekly advertisements of sales among the major retailers and you may be lucky enough to find different prices for the same thing in different shops.
Shop online.
Some of us don’t like running from store to store in order to get the best price on the perfect gift, and some of us don’t like to go out in the cold at all——thankfully for us, we can do online shopping.
The world of online shopping lets people visit all the major retailers as well as some specialty stores that could only be found on the Internet. Customers can find exactly what they are looking for, at the best possible price without ever having to leave the house. With traditional Christmas shopping consumers are sometimes limited to what’s left in stock if they wait too long to get to a particular store.The first paragraph implies that ______.
| A．nowadays not many people can afford expensive gifts |
| B．recently many people don’t want to spend money on gifts |
| C．Christmas is a time to make our loved ones enjoy their gifts |
D．Christmas is a time to  make us feel free to buy our loved ones gifts |
In the writer’s opinion, it is rewarding on Black Friday _____.
| A．if the weather is not very cold | B．if we don’t have to fight for the best deals |
| C．if we don’t have to get up early | D．If we get what we want at a good price |
The underlined word “specials” means_______.
| A．some experts in shopping |
| B．certain things for especially low price |
| C．some kind of help for a certain customer |
| D．things that can only be found on Friday |
We can have more choices _____.
| A．on Black Friday | B．in a particular store |
| C．on the Internet | D．from retailers |
Children are our future, and it’s up to us to arm them with the tools to succeed. Sadly, today’s children are being armed with more dangerous tools like weapons （武器）, drugs and gangs. Once a relatively peaceful environment, many schoolyards of today are becoming unsafe for both students and teachers.
Home schools are available to give you choices. Home schooling provides top-quality education, flexibility, and freedom to create your own schedule. At Heritage Home School we believe the choice should be yours. Thanks in part to modern technology, home schooling information is becoming readily available across our nation. A recent study by the ITBS （Iowa Tests of Basic Skills） and TAP （Tests of Achievement and Proficiency） shows us that students of home schools do particularly well when compared with the nationwide average. In every subject at every grade level, students of home schooling scored obviously higher than those in public and private schools.
If you’re new to home schooling, you may be asking yourself, “Will home schools really work for my children?”
Fact: A nationwide study using a random（任意）selection of 1,516 families found students of home schooling to be scoring, on average, at or above the 80th percentile in all areas on standardized achievement test.
Note: The national average on standardized achievement tests is the 50th percentile. Collectively, the staff at Heritage Home School brings 65 years of experience in home schooling curriculum. We’ve placed students in the top 2 % of the nation in math and many are successfully moving on to college.
One study found that of the home schooled adults, 0% were unemployed, 0% were on welfare and 94% said home education prepared them to be independent persons. For more home schooling information, call us today toll free at（877）532-7665.We can learn from the first paragraph that ________.
| A．many schools armed their students with weapons |
| B．violence and crime exist in many schoolyards |
| C．students use weapons to defend their schoolyards |
| D．weapons are more dangerous than drugs |
All of the following are true of home schools EXCEPT that ________.
| A．students are free to choose their courses |
| B．students do well in important national tests |
| C．they help students find jobs |
| D．they help students to be independent |
What is the purpose of the text?
| A．To give information about different schools. |
| B．To compare home schools with other schools. |
| C．To suggest a new method of school education. |
| D．To persuade people to choose home schools. |
The advertisement is mainly aimed at ________.
| A．students | B．parents | C．teachers | D．adults |
There are two basic ways to see growth: one as a product, the other as a process. People have generally viewed personal growth as an external (外在的) result or a product that can easily be identified and measured．The worker who gets a rise, the student whose grades improve, the foreigner who learns a new language—all these examples of people who have measurable results to show for their efforts．
By contrast (对照) , the process of personal growth is much more difficult to determine, since it is a journey and not the specific signposts or landmarks along the way．The process is not the road itself, but the attitudes, feelings people have , and their caution or courage, as they meet with new experiences and unexpected difficulties．In this process, the journey never really ends；there are always new ways to experience the world, new ideas to try, new challenges to accept．
In order to grow, to travel new roads, people need to have a willingness to take risks, to face the unknown, and to accept the possibility that they may “fail” at first．How we see ourselves as we try a new way of being is necessary for our ability to grow．Do we see ourselves as quick and curious? If so, we tend to take more chances and be more open to unfamiliar experiences．Do we think we’re shy and indecisive? Then our sense of fear can cause us to hesitate, to move slowly, and we think we are slow to adapt change or that we’re not smart enough to deal with a new challenge．Then we are likely to take a more passive role or not try at all．
These feelings of insecurity and self-doubt are
both unavoidable and necessary if we are to change and grow．If we protect ourselves too much, then we stop growing．We become trapped inside a shell of our own making．In the author’s eye, one who views personal growth as a process would ______．
| A．succeed in climbing up the social ladder |
| B．grow up from his own achievements |
| C．face difficulties and take up challenges |
| D．aim high and reach his goal each time |
Which of the following can be viewed as the process of personal growing?
| A．Our manager was always willing to accept new challenges． |
| B．Jane won the first prize in the speech competition． |
| C．Jerry picked up French during his stay in Paris． |
| D．Father’s salary rose from 5, 000 to 7,000． |
For personal growth, the author is in favor of all the following EXCEPT _______．
| A．being curious about more changes |
| B．being quick in self-adaptation |
| C．having an open mind to new experiences |
| D．staying away from failures and challenges |
The best title for this passage should be ______．
A．Facing New Challenges B Growth—Product or Process
C．Two Basi
c Ways of Growth D Overcoming Internal Fear
The Man of Many Secrets — Harry Houdini — was one of the greatest American entertainers in the theater this century. He was a man famous for his escapes — from prison cells, from wooden boxes floating in rivers, from locked tanks full of water. He appeared in theaters all over Europe and America. Crowds came to see the great Houdini and his “magic” tricks.
Of course, his secret was not magic, or supernatural powers. It was simply strength. He had the ability to move his toes as well as he moved his fingers. He could move his body into almost any position he wanted.
Houdini started working in the entertainment world when he was 17, in 1891. He and his brother Theo performed card tricks in club in New York. They called themselves the Houdini Brothers. When Harry married in 1894, he and his wife Bess worked together as magician and assistant. But for a long time they were not very successful. Then Harry performed his first prison escape, in Chicago in 1898. Harry persuaded a detective to let him try to escape from the prison, and he invited the local newspapermen to watch.
It was the publicity(宣传) that came from this that started Harry Houdini’s success. Harry had fingers trained to escape from handcuffs and toes trained to escape ankle chins. But his biggest secret was how he unlocked the prison doors. Every time he went into the prison cell, Bess gave him a kiss for good luck — and a small skeleton key, which is a key that fits many locks, pass quickly from her mouth to his.
Harry used these prison escapes to build his fame. He arranged to escape from the local prison of every town he visited. In the afternoon, the people of the town would read about it in their local newspapers, and in the evening every seat in the local theater would be full. What was the resul
t? World-wide fame and a name remembered today. According to the passage, Houdini’s success in prison escapes depends on _______.
| A．his special tricks and supernatural powers |
| B．his unusual ability and a skeleton key |
| C．his magic tricks and inhuman powers |
| D．his wisdom and magic tricks |
In the fourth paragraph, the underlined word “this” refers to _______.
| A．his first prison escape | B．the year 1898 |
| C．the publicity | D．Harry Houdini’s success |
It can be inferred from the passage that Houdini became famous _______.
| A．in 1894 | B．before he married |
| C．at the age of 17 | D．when he was about 24 |
Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
| A．A Skeleton Key | B．A Man of Many Secrets |
| C．World-wild Fame | D．Great Escape |
The common cold is the world's most widespread illness， which is plagues（病疫） that flesh receives. The most widespread fallacy（谬误） of all is that colds caused by cold. They are not. They are caused by viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact，directly or indirectly， with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds， it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in isolated arctic regions explorers have reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with infected people from the outside world by way of packages and mail dropped from airplanes. During the First World War soldiers who spent long periods in the trenches（战壕）， cold and wet，showed no increased tendency to catch colds. In the Second World War prisoners at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp（奥斯维辛集中营），naked and starving，were astonished to find that they seldom had colds. At the Common Cold Research Unit in England， volunteers took part in Experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts of being cold and wet for long stretches of time. After taking hot baths，they put on bathing suits， allowed themselves to be with cold water，and then stood about dripping wet in drafty room. Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose. If，then， cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds， why are they more frequent in the winter？Despite the most pains-taking research， no one has yet found the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times， and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on. No one has yet found a cure for the cold. There are drugs and pain suppressors（止痛片） such as aspirin， but all they do is relieve the symptoms。Which of the following does not agree with the chosen passage？
| A．The Eskimos do not suffer from colds all the time. |
| B．Colds are not caused by cold. |
| C．People suffer from colds just because they like to stay indoors. |
| D．A person may catch a cold by touching someone who already has one. |
Arctic explorers may catch colds when _______.
| A．they are working in the isolated arctic regions |
| B．they are writing reports in terribly cold weather |
| C．they are free from work in the isolated arctic regions |
| D．they are coming into touch again with the outside world |
Volunteers taking part in the experiments in the Common Cold Research Unit _______.
| A．suffered a lot |
| B．never caught colds |
| C．often caught colds |
| D．became very strong |
The passage mainly discusses _______.
| A．the experiments on the common cold |
| B．the fallacy about the common cold |
| C．the reason and the way people catch colds |
| D．the continued spread of common colds |