Last summer I went through a training program and became a literacy volunteer (扫盲志愿者). The training I received, though excellent, didn't tell me how it was to work with a real student, however. When I began to discover what other people’s lives were like because they could not read, I realized the true importance of reading.
My first student Marie was a 44-year-old single mother of three children. In the first lesson, I found out she walked two miles to the nearest supermarket twice a week because she didn't know which bus to take. When I told her I would get her a bus schedule, she told me it would not help because she couldn't read it. She said she also had difficulty once she got to the supermarket because she couldn't always remember what she needed. Also, she could only recognize items by sight, so if the product had a different label, she would not recognize it as the product she wanted.
As we worked together, learning how to read built Marie’s self-confidence. She began to make rapid progress and was even able to take the bus to the supermarket. After this successful trip, she reported how self-confident she felt. At the end of the program, she began helping her youngest son, Tony, a shy first grader, with his reading. I found that helping Marie to build her self-confidence was more rewarding than anything I had ever done before.
As a literacy volunteer, I learned a great deal about teaching and helping others. In fact, I may have learned more from the experience than Marie did. What did the writer do last summer?
| A．She worked in the supermarket. |
| B．She helped someone to learn to read. |
| C．She helped some single mothers. |
| D．She was trained by a literacy volunteer. |
Why didn't Marie go to the supermarket by bus at first?
| A．Because she liked to walk to the supermarket. |
| B．Because she didn't have a bus schedule. |
| C．Because she couldn't afford the bus ticket. |
| D．Because she couldn't find the right bus. |
How did Marie use to find the goods she wanted in the supermarket?
| A．She knew where the goods were in the supermarket. |
| B．She asked others to take her to the right place. |
| C．She managed to find the goods by their looks. |
| D．She remembered the names of the goods. |
Which of the statements is TRUE about Marie?
| A．She could do many things she had not been able to before. |
| B．She was able to read stories with the help of her son. |
| C．She decided to continue her studies in school. |
| D．She helped to build up my self-confidence. |
Do you know of anyone who uses the truth to deceive(欺骗)? When someone tells you something that is true, but leaves out important information that should be included, he can give you a false picture．
For example, someone might say, “I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery(彩票). It was great. I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for one hundred dollars!”
This guy is a winner, right? Maybe, maybe not. We then discover that he bought $ 200 worth of tickets, and only one was a winner. He’s really a big loser!
He didn’t say anything that was false, but he left out important information on purpose. That’s called a half-truth. Half truths are not technically lies, but they are just as dishonest.
Some officers often use this trick. Let’s say that during Governor Smith’s last term, her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs. Then she tries another term. One of the persons who don’t support her says, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state lost one million jobs!” That’s true. However, an honest statement would have been, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state had a net gain of two million jobs.’’
Advertisers will sometimes use half—truths. It’s against the law to make false statements so they try to mislead you with the truth. An advertisement might say, “Nine out of ten doctors advised their patients to take Yucky Pills to cure toothache. ”It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky Company.
This kind of thing happens too often. It’s a sad fact of life: Lies are lies, and sometimes the truth can lie as well.We may infer that the author believes people should ________.
| A．buy lottery tickets if possible |
| B．make use of half—truths |
| C．be careful about what they are told |
| D．not trust the Yucky Company |
How many examples does the writer give to show how the truth is used to deceive?
| A．One | B．Two | C．Three | D．Four |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Using half truths is against the law. |
| B．Technically, half truths are in fact lies. |
| C．Yucky Pills is a very good medicine for toothache. |
| D．Governor Smith did a good job during her last term. |
Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?
| A．He’s really a big loser! |
| B．Sometimes the truth can lie． |
| C．Advertisers will sometimes use half truths． |
| D．It’s against the law to make false statements． |
Two men were sitting together in a plane. They were on a long journey. One of the men was a businessman. The other was a farmer. They sat without talking for a while, then the farmer said, “Let’s do something to pass the time.”
“What do you want to do?” the businessman asked. “We can ask each other riddles.” The farmer said, “You start.” “Let’s make the rules first,” the businessman said. “That’s not fair. You are a businessman with much knowledge. You know more things than I do. I am just a farmer.”
“That’s true.” The businessman said. “What do you want we should do?” “If you don’t know the answer to a riddle, you pay me $100. And if I don’t know the answer, I’ll pay you $50.” The farmer said. The businessman thought about this, then he said, “OK. That’s fair. Who will go first?”
“I will,” The farmer said. “Here is my riddle. What has three legs when it walks, but only two legs when it flies?” The business man repeated the riddle, “What has three legs when it walks, but only two legs when it flies? Mm, that’s a good one. I’m afraid I don’t know the answer.” He gave the farmer $100, then said, “Tell me the answer. What has three legs when it walks, but only two legs when it flies?” “I don’t know.” The farmer said and gave him $50.What does the word “riddle” mean in this story?
| A．A difficult question to find the answer to. |
| B．Something to help to make rules. |
| C．Something to win money. |
| D．a kind of game in doing business. |
Why did the businessman agree to give more money if he lost?
| A．He made much more money than the farmer. |
| B．He thought he knew more than the farmer. |
| C．He was interested in making riddles. |
| D．He was better at playing riddle games. |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．The two men made rules for their riddle. |
| B．The farmer was much cleverer than the businessman. |
| C．The two men made their riddle game more interesting by paying it for money. |
| D．The business was not as clever as the farmer, but the businessman had more money than the farmer. |
She was returning from teaching out in a small community . It was a moonless night, and a heavy snow was falling.
She remembered back to when she had first started teaching out in small communities. In those days she had always picked up hitchhikers (搭便车者), until the day her sister told her of a friend who had been shot (中枪) in the head by a hitchhiker, all because she had stopped out of kindness to help him during a storm.
Her family didn’t become concerned (关心的) about her safety over the hitchhikers until the family heard the promise: “No more hitchhikers!” The snow that night was making her think back to this.
Then she saw a man waving. She slowed down for him, but now as he ran toward the car in the dark she shook with fear. Yet she thought that if he was truly in need she couldn’t leave him here in this storm.
The stranger explained that his car was dead, and she told him to get in. They drove for an hour into the next city and she took him to a telephone booth (公用电话亭). She waited until he had made a call. When he reported back to her that a family member would soon come for him, she wished him well and left.
Tears fell on her cheeks as she drove away. She felt as though she had been holding her breath for an hour. “I hope they’ll understand why I had to break my promise,” she thought.What can we learn about the woman?
| A．She was a taxi driver. |
| B．She used to be a hitchhiker. |
| C．She taught in small communities. |
| D．She seldom picked up strangers. |
What made her family worried about her safety?
| A．She had been hurt by a hitchhiker. |
| B．Her sister’s friend was killed by a hitchhiker. |
| C．There were often snowstorms on her way home. |
| D．Her car often broke down on her way home. |
We can infer from the underlined sentence in the last paragraph that _________.
| A．she was sorry for picking up the stranger. |
| B．she felt too tired to breathe. |
| C．she had been afraid being with the stranger. |
| D．she had been too careful driving in the storm. |
People have strange ideas about food. In the 18th century, Americans never ate tomatoes. They grew them in their gardens because tomato plants are so pretty. But they thought the vegetable was poisonous(有毒的). They called tomatoes "poison apples."
President Thomas Jefferson, however, knew that tomatoes were good to eat. He was a learned man. He had been to Paris, where he learned to love the taste of tomatoes. He grew many kinds of tomatoes in his garden. The President taught his cook a way, for a cream of tomato soup . This beautiful pink soup was served at the President's next dinner party. The guests thought the soup tasted really good. They never thought their President would sever his dinner guests poison apples. Jefferson never spoke to his guests about the fact.Which of the following is true?
| A．Americans never ate tomatoes after the 17th century. |
| B．Even now Americans don't eat tomatoes. |
| C．It was not until after the 18th century that Americans began to grow tomatoes for food. |
| D．Americans didn't eat tomatoes before the 19th century. |
Jefferson was a president of _______.
| A．an African country | B．the United States |
| C．England | D．France |
Jefferson learned that tomatoes were good to eat _______.
| A．even when he was a little boy |
| B．because his parents told him so |
| C．from books |
| D．while he was in Paris |
There was one thing that I found rather strange on my first day as housekeeper at Monk’S House．The floors in the house were very thin．The bathroom was right above the kitchen，and when Mrs．Woolf was having her bath before breakfast，I could hear her talking to herself．on and on she went，talk，talk，and talk，asking questions and giving herself the answers．I thought there must be two or three people there with her．When Mr．Woolf saw that I looked surprised，he told me that Mrs．Woolf always said out loud the sentences that she had written during the night．She needed to know if they sounded fight and the bath was a good place for trying them out·
I was not allowed to make coffee at Monk’S House—Mr．and Mrs．Woolf were very particular
(特别的)about coffee and always made it themselves—so Mr．Woolf came into the kitchen at eight o’clock every morning to make it．When we carried the breakfast to Mrs．Woolf’s room，I noticed that she had always been working during the night．There were pencil and paper beside her bed so that when she woke up，she could work，and sometimes it seemed as though she had had very little sleep．
Mrs．Woolf’s bedroom was outside the house in the garden．I used to think how inconvenient(不方便的)it must be to have to go out in the rain to go to bed．Her bedroom had been connected to the back of the house：the door faced the garden and a window at the side opened out on to a field．Because the writing-room was small，Mr．Woolf had built a large one for her at the end of the garden against the church wall．
I can always remember her coming to the house each day from the writing-room when I rang the bell for lunch at One O’clock．She used to come in，smoking one of her favourite cigarettes，which were bought by Mr．Woolf for her in London．She was tall and thin and very pretty．She had large eyes and a wide mouth．She wore long skirts-usually blue or brown-in the fashion of the day ,and silk jackets of the same colour Mrs．Woolf wore clothes that suited for her well．I ironed them for her and did any sewing that was necessary-She was not able to sew ,although sometimes she liked to try．There was one thing in the kitchen that Mrs．Woolf was very good at doing：she could make beautiful bread．What was very unusual about Monk’s House?
| A．Mrs．Woolf’s bedroom door opened on to the garden． |
| B．The kitchen window looked out over fields． |
| C．The breakfast room was upstairs． |
| D．The bathroom was fight above the kitchen． |
Mrs．Woolf wore clothes which were ·
| A．designed for her personally |
| B．suitable for country life |
| C．in matching colours |
| D．very ugly and unattractive |
Mr．Woolf seemed to be that.
| A．he found her strange ways difficult to accept |
| B．he lived a very different life |
| C．he watched over her all the time |
| D．he did what he could for her |
According to the article，Mrs．Woolf.
| A．was much too busy to do any housework |
| B．showed no interest in doing any housework |
| C．was really bad at doing housework |
| D．liked a couple of particular housework tasks |