"It is a dreadful thing to be poor a fortnight before Christmas," said Clorinda, with the mournful sigh of seventeen years.
Aunt Emmy smiled. Aunt Emmy was sixty, and spent the hours she didn't spend in a bed, on a sofa or in a wheel chair; but Aunt Emmy was never heard to sigh.
"The gifts which money can purchase are not the only ones we can give," said Aunt Emmy gently, "nor the best, either."
"Oh, I know it's nicer to give something of your own work," agreed Clorinda, "but materials for fancy work cost too. That kind of gift is just as much out of the question for me as any other."
"That was not what I meant," said Aunt Emmy.
"What did you mean, then?" asked Clorinda, looking puzzled.
Aunt Emmy smiled.
"Suppose you think out my meaning for yourself," she said. "That would be better than if I explained it. Besides, I don't think I could explain it. Take the beautiful line of a beautiful poem to help you in your thinking out: 'The gift without the giver is bare.'"
"I'd put it the other way and say, 'The giver without the gift is bare,'" said Clorinda, with a grimace. "That is my predicament exactly. Well, I hope by next Christmas I'll not be quite bankrupt. I'm going into Mr. Callender's store down at Murraybridge in February. He has offered me the place, you know."
"Won't your aunt miss you terribly?" said Aunt Emmy gravely.
Clorinda flushed. There was a note in Aunt Emmy's voice that disturbed her.
"I think she would rather have your companionship than a part of your salary, Clorinda," said Aunt Emmy. "But of course you must decide for yourself, dear. " ““
"Well, I must say bye-bye and run home. " Clorinda lived just across the road from Aunt Emmy in a tiny white house behind some huge willows. But Aunt Mary lived there too--the only relative Clorinda had, for Aunt Emmy wasn't really her aunt at all. Clorinda had always lived with Aunt Mary ever since she could remember.
Clorinda puzzled over Aunt Emmy's meaning for four days and part of three nights. Then all at once it came to her. Or if it wasn't Aunt Emmy's meaning it was a very good meaning in itself, and it grew clearer and expanded in meaning during the days that followed, although at first Clorinda shrank a little from some of the conclusions to which it led her."
On Christmas Day, Clorinda went over to Aunt Emmy's. It was a faded brown Christmas after all, for the snow had not come. But Clorinda did not mind; there was such joy in her heart that she thought it the most delightful Christmas Day that ever dawned.
She put the queer cornery armful she carried down on the kitchen floor before she went into the sitting room. Aunt Emmy was lying on the sofa before the fire, and Clorinda sat down beside her.
"I've come to tell you all about it," she said.
Aunt Emmy patted the hand that was in her own.
"From your face, dear girl, it will be pleasant hearing and telling," she said.
Clorinda nodded.
"Aunt Emmy, I thought for days over your meaning ... thought until I was dizzy. And then one evening it just came to me, without any thinking at all, and I knew that I could give some gifts after all. I thought of something new every day for a week. At first I didn't think I could give some of them, and then I thought how selfish I was. I would have been willing to pay any amount of money for gifts if I had had it, but I wasn't willing to pay what I had. I got over that, though, Aunt Emmy. Now I'm going to tell you what I did give.
"First, there was old Aunt Kitty. You know she was my nurse when I was a baby, and she's very fond of me. But, well, you know, Aunt Emmy, I'm ashamed to confess it, but really I've never found Aunt Kitty very entertaining, to put it mildly. She is always glad when I go to see her, but I've never gone except when I couldn't help it. She is very deaf, and rather dull and stupid, you know. Well, I gave her a whole day. I took my knitting yesterday, and sat with her the whole time and just talked and talked. I told her all the Greenvale news and gossip and everything else I thought she'd like to hear. She was so pleased and proud; she told me when I came away that she hadn't had such a nice time for years. "
"Then there was ... Florence. You know, Aunt Emmy, we were always intimate friends until last year. Then Florence once told Rose Watson something I had told her in confidence. I found it out and I was so hurt. I couldn't forgive Florence, and I told her plainly I could never be a real friend to her again. Florence felt badly, because she really did love me, and she asked me to forgive her, but it seemed as if I couldn't. Well, Aunt Emmy, that was my Christmas gift to her ... my forgiveness. I went down last night and just put my arms around her and told her that I loved her as much as ever and wanted to be real close friends again.
"I gave Aunt Mary her gift this morning. I told her I wasn't going to Murraybridge, that I just meant to stay home with her. She was so glad--and I'm glad, too, now that I've decided so."
"Your gifts have been real gifts, Clorinda," said Aunt Emmy. "Something of you--the best of you--went into each of them."
Clorinda went out and brought her cornery armful in.
"I didn't forget you, Aunt Emmy," she said, as she unpinned the paper.
There was a rosebush--Clorinda's own pet rosebush--all snowed over with fragrant blossoms.
Aunt Emmy loved flowers. She put her finger under one of the roses and kissed it.
"It's as sweet as yourself, dear child," she said tenderly. "And it will be a joy to me all through the lonely winter days. You've found out the best meaning of Christmas giving, haven't you, dear?"
"Yes, thanks to you, Aunt Emmy," said Clorinda softly. Clorinda felt anxious before Christmas because_____________________.
| A．She had to leave Aunt Mary |
| B．She didn’t know what kind of Christmas gifts she should buy |
| C．She had not enough money to buy Christmas gifts |
| D．She had no time to make a proper decision |
Which of the following sentences can best explain the line “The gift without the giver is bare.”？
| A．A gift is valued by the mind of the giver. |
| B．Forgiveness is a gift for the giver and the receiver. |
| C．You cannot buy love or respect with expensive gifts. |
| D．Think twice before you give gifts to somebody |
What is the gift that Clorinda gave to old Aunt Kitty?
| A．Passion | B．Sympathy |
| C．Kindness | D．Company |
What does the underlined phrase “in confidence” mean?
| A．respectfully | B．confidently |
| C．secretly | D．willingly |
Which two words can best describe Aunt Emmy?
| A．cute and joyful | B．kind-hearted and emotional |
| C．optimistic and wise | D．gentle and timid |
Which of the following is the best title?
A. A Special Christmas B. Clorinda’s Gifts
C. Aunt Emmy C. Clorinda’s choice
To be a good teacher, you need some of the gifts of a good actor; you must be able to hold the attention and interest of your audience; you must be a clear speaker, with a good, strong, pleasing voice which is fully under your control; and you must be able to act what you are teaching, in order to make its meaning clear.
Watch a good teacher, and you will see that he does not sit still before his class:he stands the whole time he is teaching; he walks about, using his arms, hands and fingers to help him in his explanations, and his face to express feelings. Listen to him, and you will hear the loudness, the quality and the musical note of his voice always changing according to what he is talking about.
The fact that a good teacher has some of the gifts of a good actor doesn’t mean that he will indeed be able to act well on the stage, for there are very important differences between the teacher’s work and the actor’s. The actor has to speak words which he has learnt by heart; he has to repeat exactly the same words each time he plays a certain part, even his movements and the ways in which he uses his voice are usually fixed beforehand. What he has to do is to make all these carefully learnt words and actions seem natural on the stage.
A good teacher works in quite a different way. His audience takes an active part in his play：they ask and answer questions, they obey orders, and if they don’t understand something, they say so. The teacher therefore has to meet the needs of his audience, which is his class. He cannot learn his part by heart, but must invent it as he goes along.
I have known many teachers who were fine actors in class but were unable to take part in a stage-play because they could not keep strictly to what another had written.
What is the text about?
| A．How to become a good teacher. |
| B．What a good teacher should do outside the classroom. |
| C．What teachers and actors could learn from each other? |
| D．The similarities (相似处) and differences between a teacher’s work and an actor’s. |
The word “audience” in the fourth paragraph means ____.
| A．students | B．people who watch a play |
| C．people who not on the stage | D．people who listen to something |
A good teacher ____.
| A．knows how to hold the interest of his students | B．must have a good voice |
| C．knows how to act on the stage | D．stands or sits still while teaching |
In what way is a teacher’s work different from an actor’s?
| A．The teacher must learn everything by heart. |
| B．He knows how to control his voice better than an actor. |
| C．He has to deal with unexpected situations. |
| D．He has to use more facial expressions. |
The main difference between students in class and a theatre audience is that ____.
| A．students can move around in the classroom |
| B．students must keep silent while theatre audience needn’t |
| C．no memory work is needed for the students |
| D．the students must take part in their teachers’ plays |
The new iPhone 3G should please everyone . Its look and feel are only slightly improved, but a faster network loads Web pages more quickly , true GPS functionality allows it to easily find places nearby , and the new $199 price(down from $400) makes it an affordable luxury.
Before deciding whether to buy, however , make sure you can actually take advantage of the iPhone 3G’s high-speed data network. 3G stands for third-generation , which in non-geek speak translates to Web pages and mail messages that, ideally, load about three times faster than on the original iPhone. Even better, 3G coverage enables you to make a phone call and surf the Web at the same time . That’s great, if you live or work in a place where the 3G network of AT&T(美国电话电报公司)(the sole wireless carrier of the iPhone) is active. That’s not so great in cities like New York where AT&T’s cellular(电台通讯网) coverage is awful. As one of my colleagues in New York City, who bought the original iPhone , commented , “It’s just a toy . You can’t make phone calls on it, so I carry my Verizon phone with me all the time.”
The real fun begins when you tap on the icon(计算机图标)called “Apple Store” and start browsing (浏览) the hundreds of add-on applications that have been developed just for the iPhone. You will find tons of games (I like JirboBreak , a free game inspired by the Atari classic Breakout ) and mobile version of popular websites like Pandora , Facebook , MySpace and the New York Times . Most apps will cost you , but the vast majority are $9.99 or less. The apps work on the old iPhone too, but you’ll enjoy them a lot more on the iPhone 3G because many of the programs , including Yelp(local business reviews ), Whrrl (mobile social networking) and UrbanSpoon(restaurant reviews), use you exact location --- provided by the iPhone 3G’s GPS chip --- to make recommendations. The apps also load much faster over the 3G network.. The new iPhone 3G has following features except that _____.
| A．it looks and feels better |
| B．it has a faster network |
| C．it is easy to locate a place |
| D．it is too expensive for people to buy |
.Why does one of my colleagues carry Verizon phone with him all the time?
| A．Because iPhone 3G is just a toy. |
| B．Because he prefers Verizon phone better . |
| C．Because AT&T’s cellular coverage is terrible there. |
| D．Because Verizon phone enables him make a phone call and surf the Web at the same time. |
. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage ?
| A．App Store will offer you great fun . |
| B．Many apps have been developed for the iPhone. |
| C．Most apps are very expensive. |
| D．Pandora , Facebook, MySpace and the New York Times are popular websites. |
. From the passage we know that the attitude of the author toward iPhone 3G is ____.
| A．doubtful | B．appreciate | C．optimistic | D．pessimistic |
People often talk as if shyness is a disease or mental condition that can be cured. I prefer to think of it as an emotional disability. It’s something we are born with and something we carry with us in our entire lives. There are too many people, however, who seem to be determined to find some way of doing away with their shyness. In my opinion, it’s a waste of time. I don’t mean that we should do nothing about it; quite the contrary, I think we need to separate the basic fact of shyness from our ability to take part in a social environment.
Look at one of the most famous shy people of them all, Johnny Carson. This man is painfully shy, yet for decades he made a living talking and associating with different people every night, in front of a national audience. Carson has never done away with his shyness, but he has successfully found a way to deal with it to the extent that he could be, not just a talk show host, but a legend (传奇) among talk show hosts. Look also at Sally Fields, who has recently admitted her problem with shyness. This is a woman who has appeared in many films, TV shows and interviews, yet in her early years she was so shy that she turned down a lunch invitation from Jane Fonda because she was terribly afraid of meeting her.
I guess that our shyness is there because each of us is born with some insecurity (不安全感) and this insecurity prevents us from reading out to others the way people with a more open personality do. As we grow up and become adults, we allow our social skills to grow and develop. But we are still stuck in kindergarten or elementary school or wherever it was when our shyness took root in our soul.. In the author’s view, shyness can be explained as _________.
| A．a disease that can be easily cured |
| B．a not very normal mental condition |
| C．an emotional disability |
| D．something we pick up after birth |
. The author believes it’s a waste of time to ____________
| A．develop a healthy personality |
| B．talk with as many people as possible |
| C．study where shyness comes from |
| D．look for ways to do away with one’s shyness |
. Which of the following is TRUE of Johnny Carson?
| A．He dared to speak in front of a national audience. |
| B．He did away with his shyness carefully. |
| C．He was described as a hero in some legend books. |
| D．He failed to become a good talk show host. |
. The author thinks that our shyness is there because _______
| A．we are not open enough |
| B．we don’t feel safe at heart |
| C．we try to reach out to others all the time |
| D．we lack certain social skills |
When 7-year-old Warren Buffet said “ I will be the richest man one day”, his friends made fun of his “daydreaming”. But ever since then the little boy has set about learning how to make money, selling drinks, delivering newspapers and buying stocks. He had already earned $ 9,000 ( equal to $ 90,000 today) by the time he graduated from high school and became a millionaire at 32.
And this month the 77-year- old, who earned his fortune by making a lot of great investment in the stock market, made his childhood dream come true. With a fortune of $ 62billion, Buffet has risen to be the world’s richest man according to Forbes Magazine.
Born in 1930, Buffet, the only son of a stockbroker, started on achieving his billion-dollar dream at an early age and was always ready to think outside the box to develop his business. At 8 he went to golf courses collecting and selling used balls.
At 11 when he sold soda pop door to door with a friend, the pair collected lids on the streets to judge which flavor was the most popular.
As a paper boy during high school, Buffet delivered two rival (竞争对手的)papers, so that even when customers canceled one of the subscriptions, he could still make a profit from the other. With his paper delivery savings, Buffet bought 162,000 square meters of farmland and collect rent.
Young Buffet stepped into the stock market at 11 but earned only $ 5. The experience taught him one of the virtues (品质) in investing: patience.
After graduating from university, Buffet started his venture with stocks with his childhood earnings and money from friends. He researched the stocks and just bought those of solid companies that were undervalued and inexpensive at the time. By sticking to companies such as American Express and Coca-cola, Buffet has become rich.
“Learning is important to Buffet’s success. He is a learning machine who can spend his entire day reading. He keeps learning, from books, street smarts and investigation, from both success and failure. In this way, he finally over achieved his aptitude ( 才能) ，” said Charlie Munger, his long-time business partner.Which of the following questions has NOT been discussed in the selection？
| A．What is Buffet’s approach to investing. |
| B．How do other people view Buffet. |
| C．How has Buffet handled hardships in his life. |
| D．How did Buffet make a fortune and realize his dream. |
With the example of delivering two rival papers in high school, the author intends to tell us that Buffet______.
| A．had a good sense of business |
| B．was a good paper boy |
| C．was hard to deal with business |
| D．knew anything but how to make money |
. What did Buffet learn from his early experience of investing in stock market?
| A．You never stop learning. |
| B．Be patient in business. |
| C．Only buy stocks of solid companies that are undervalued and inexpensive. |
| D．Stick to buying stocks in companies such as American Express and Coca-cola. |
. Which of the following can most probably serve as the title of the selection?
| A．Buffet – Good Example for All |
| B．Buffet- a Newspaper Boy |
| C．Buffet- Investor in Stock Market |
| D．Buffet- a Successful Daydreamer |
For years we have been told that encouraging a child’s self-respect is important to his or her success in life. But child experts are now learning that too much praise can lead to the opposite effect, Praise-aholic kids who expect it at every turn may become teens who seek the same kind of approval from their friends when asked if they want to go in the backseat of the car.
The implication (含义) of saying “You are the prettiest girl in class,” or talking about the goals she scored but not her overall( 全面的) efforts, is that you love her only when she looks the best, scores the highest, achieves the most. And this carries over to the classroom.
Social psychologist Carol Dweck, PhD, tested the effects of overpraise on 400 fifth grades while she was at Columbia University. She found that kids praised for “trying hard” did better on the tests and were more likely to take on difficult assignments than those praised for being “smart”.
“ Praising attributes (品质) or abilities makes a false promise that success will come to you because you have that quality, and it devalues efforts, so children are afraid to take on challenges, ” says Dweck, now at Stanford University. “They figure they’d better quit while they’ re ahead.”The underlined words “ Praise-aholic kids” refer to kids who are _______.
A. tired of being praised
B. worthy of being praised
C. very proud of being praised
D extremely fond of being praised.. The author quoted (引用) Dr. Dweck’s words in the last paragraph in order to make the article ______.
| A．better-known | B．better-organized |
| C．more believable | D．more interesting |
. We can infer from the passage that ____________.
| A．praise for efforts should be more encouraged |
| B．praise for results works better than praise for efforts |
| C．praising a child’s achievements benefits his or her success in life. |
| D．praising a child’s abilities encourages him or her to take on challenges |