Twenty years ago, I drove a taxi for a living. One night I went to pick up a passenger at 2:30 AM. When I arrived to collect, I found the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window.
I walked to the door and knocked. “Just a minute,” answered a weak, elderly voice.
After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her eighties stood before me. By her side was a small suitcase.
I took the suitcase to the car, and then returned to help the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the car.
She kept thanking me for my kindness. “It’s nothing,” I told her. “I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.”
“Oh, you’re such a good man,” she said. When we got into the taxi, she gave me an address, and then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”
“It’s not the shortest way,” I answered quickly.
“Oh, I’m in no hurry,” she said. “I’m on my way to a hospice (临终医院). I don’t have any family left. The doctor says I don’t have very long.”
I quietly reached over and shut off the meter (计价器).
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked, the neighborhood where she had lived, and the furniture shop that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.
Sometimes she’d ask me to slow down in front of a particular building and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
At dawn, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. Let’s go now.”
We drove in silence to the address she had given me.
“How much do I owe you?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said.
“You have to make a living,” she answered. “Oh, there are other passengers,” I answered.
Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. Our hug ended with her remark, “You gave an old woman a little moment of joy.”The old woman chose to ride through the city in order to _____.
| A．show she was familiar with the city |
| B．see some places for the last time |
| C．let the driver earn more money |
| D．reach the destination on time |
The taxi driver did not charge the old woman because he _____.
| A．wanted to do her a favor |
| B．shut off the meter by mistake |
| C．had received her payment in advance |
| D．was in a hurry to take other passengers |
What can we learn from the story?
| A．Giving is always a pleasure. |
| B．People should respect each other. |
| C．An act of kindness can bring people great joy. |
| D．People should learn to appreciate others’ concern. |
People in the United States honor their parents with two special days: Mother’s Day, on the second Sunday in May, and Father’s Day, on the third Sunday in June. These days are set aside to show love and respect for parents. They raise their children and educate them to be responsible citizens. They give love and care. These two days offer a chance to think about the changing roles of mothers and fathers. More mothers now work outside the home. More fathers must help with child-care.
These two special days are celebrated in many different ways. On Mother’s Day people wear carnations. A red one stands for a living mother. A white one shows that the mother is dead. Many people attend religious services(宗教仪式) to honor parents. It is also a day when people whose parents are dead visit their graves. On these days, families get together at home and in restaurants. They often have outdoor BBQs for Father’s Day. These are days of fun and good feelings and memories.
Another tradition is to give cards and gifts. Children make them in school. Many people make their own presents. These are valued more than the ones bought in stores. It is not the value of the gift that is important, but it is “the thought that counts”. Greeting card stores, florists, candy makers, bakeries, telephones companies and other stores do a lot of business during these holidays. Which is NOT a reason for children to show love and respect for parents?
| A．Parents bring children |
| B．Parents give love and care to children |
| C．Parents educate children to be good persons. |
| D．Parents pass away before children grow up |
What do you know from the passage?
| A．Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are both in May. |
| B．Fewer women worked outside the home in the past |
| C．Not all the children respect their parents |
| D．Fathers are not as important as mothers at home |
Which do you think is right about “carnation”?
| A．It only has two kinds of color. |
| B．It is a special kind of clothes people wear on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. |
| C．It’s a kind of flower showing love and best wishes. |
| D．People can wear carnations only on the second Sunday in May. |
What do you think “florists” do?
| A．They sell flowers |
| B．They made bread or pastry |
| C．They offer enough room for having family parties. |
| D．They sell special clothes for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. |
One day, a poor boy who was trying to pay his way through school by sending newspapers door to door, was so hungry that he decided to beg for a meal at the next house.
However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?”
“You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Then I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” With these words, Howard Kelly left that house.
Years later the woman became badly ill and was finally sent to the hospital in a big city. Dr. Howard Kelly, now famous, was called in. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Dressed in his doctor’s clothes, Dr. Kelly went into her room and recognized her at once. From that day on, he gave special attention to her, and decided to do his best to save her life.
At last the woman was saved. Dr. Kelly asked the business office to pass the final bill to him. He looked at it and then wrote something on the side. The bill was sent to the woman’s room. She was afraid to open it because she was sure that it would take the rest of her life to pay for it off. Finally she looked, and the note on the side of the bill caught her attention. She read these words:
“Paid in full with a glass of milk, Dr. Howard Kelly.”
Tear of joy flooded her eyes.The boy sent newspapers door to door in order to ________.
| A．continue his schooling |
| B．become a famous doctor |
| C．thank the woman for her kindness |
| D．support his poor family |
Which is true about the boy and the woman?
| A．He was too shy to ask her for some water. |
| B．She thought he was not hungry but thirsty. |
| C．She wanted him to pay for the glass of milk. |
| D．She never thought he would save her life later. |
After Dr. Kelly knew who the woman was, he ________.
| A．began to take good care of her himself |
| B．told her she once gave him a glass of milk |
| C．decided to try his best to save her |
| D．asked for her bill and paid it off at once |
The best title for this passage is ________.
| A．A Warm-hearted Woman | B．A Glass of Milk |
| C．The Final Bill | D．A Famous Doctor |
Language is always changing. In a society where life continues year after year with few changes, the language does not change either. The earliest known languages had difficult grammar but a small, limited vocabulary. Over the century, the grammar changed, and the vocabulary grew. For example, the English and Spanish people who came to America during the sixteenth century gave names to all the new plants and animals they found. In this way, hundreds of new words were introduced into English and Spanish vocabularies. Today life is changing very fast, and language is changing fast too.
There are several major(主要) language families in the world. Some scientists say there are nine main families, but other scientists divide them differently. The languages in each family are connected, and scientists think that they came from the same parent language. About 3 percent of the people in the world speak languages that are not in these major families.The early language had ________.
| A．a lot of problems | B．words and easy grammar |
| C．words but no grammar | D．grammar but not many words |
In the next few hundred years we can expect language to _____.
| A．stay exactly the same | B．change a great deal |
| C．change only a little | D．ask more words and drop some grammar |
What this article shows is that _____.
| A．languages change fast |
| B．languages really don't want to change |
| C．language really with changes in society |
| D．Spanish and English change |
In Canada you can find dogs，cats，horses，etc. in almost every family. These are their pets. People love these pets and have them as their good friends. Before they keep them in their houses，they take them to animal hospitals to give them injections（注射）so that they won’t carry disease. They have special animal food stores， though they can get animal food in almost every kind of store. Some people spend around two hundred Canadian dollars a month on animal food. When you visit people’s houses，they would be very glad to show you their pets and they are very proud of them. You will also find that almost every family has a bird feeder in their garden. All kinds of birds are welcomed to come and have a good meal. They are free to come and go and nobody is allowed to kill any animal in Canada. They have a law against killing wild animals. If you killed an animal，you would be punished. If an animal happened to get run over by a car，people would be very sad about it.
People in Canada have many reasons to like animals. One of them might be：Their family ties are not as close as ours. When children grow up，they leave their parents and start their own life. Then the old will feel lonely. But pets can solve this problem. They can be good friends and never leave them alone. The passage mainly talks about ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ .
| A．how to keep disease from pets |
| B．pets in Canada |
| C．how to take good care of pets |
| D．life of the old in Canada |
InCanada，childrenleavetheirparentswhenthey grow up because ＿＿＿.
| A．they don’t love their parents any more |
| B．they can only find jobs far from their parents |
| C．their parents’ houses are too small |
| D．they wouldn’t depend on their parents any more |
Which of the following is TRUE？
| A．Peoplebuyanimal foodonlyattheanimalfood stores. |
| B．Pets eat better than people. |
| C．Almost every family has a birdcage in his house. |
| D．Any bird can come to the bird feeders to eat. |
Scientists are trying to make the deserts into good land again. They want to bring water to the deserts， so people can live and grow food. They are learning a lot about the deserts. But more and more of the earth is becoming desert all the time. Scientists may not be able to change the desert in time.
Why is more and more land becoming desert？Scientists think that people make deserts. People are doing bad things to the earth.
Some places on the earth don’t get much rain. But they still don’t become deserts. This is because some green plants are growing there. Small green plants and grass are very important to dry places. Plants don’t let the sun make the earth even drier. Plants do not let the wind blow the dirt away. When a bit of rain falls，the plants hold the water. Without plants，the land can become desert more easily. Deserts ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ .
| A．never have any plants or animals in them |
| B．can all be turned into good land before long |
| C．are becoming smaller and smaller |
| D．get very little rain |
Smallgreenplantsareveryimportanttodryplaces because ＿＿＿＿＿＿.
| A．they don’t let the sun make the earth even drier |
| B．they don’t let the wind blow the soil away |
| C．they hold water |
| D．All of the above. |
Landisbecomingdesertlittlebylittlebecause ＿＿＿＿＿＿.
| A．plants can’t grow there |
| B．there is not enough rain |
| C．people haven’t done what scientists wish them to do |
| D．scientists know little about the deserts |
After reading this passage， we learn that ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿.
| A．plants can keep dry land from becoming desert |
| B．it is good to get rid of the grass in the deserts |
| C．all places without much rain will become deserts |
| D．it is better to grow crops on dry land than to cut them |