Born into a farmer’s family, life was not easy when I was a kid. We were so poor that we often did not know where our next meal was coming from. I had to sell cabbages at the marketplace to support my family.
A storyteller once came to the marketplace, and I went to listen to him. My mother was unhappy with me for forgetting my job. But that night, while she was making clothes for us under the weak light of an oil lamp, I couldn't help retelling stories I'd heard that day. She listened impatiently at first, since in her eyes professional (职业的) storytellers were smooth-talking men—nothing good ever came out of their mouths. But slowly she was attracted by my retold stories, and from that day on, she never gave me any task on market days, unspoken agreement to enjoy new stories. As a repayment（回报）for Mother's kindness and a way to show off my memory, I'd retell the stories for her in lively detail. Soon, she wasn't the only member of my audience, which later included my elder sisters, my aunts, even my stubborn grandmother.
I knew she was worried about me. Talkative kids are not well thought of in our village, for they can bring trouble to themselves and to their families when they talk too much. Mother often reminded me not to talk so much, wanting me to be a silent and modest teenager. However, my natural desire（渴望）to talk never went away, and that is what makes my name – Mo Yan, which means ‘no speaking’. This strong wish to talk also improved my ability to express myself, which is important for writers who are also considered as storytellers.
Mo Yan lived a/an ________ life when he was young.
| A．difficult | B．colourful | C．easy | D．rich |
From the second paragraph, we can learn that ________.
| A．little Mo Yan was interested in selling vegetables |
| B．his mother was attracted by the retold story at first |
| C．his mother didn’t let him listen to the new stories again |
| D．little Mo Yan had quite a good memory |
Why did his mother dislike the professional storytellers?
| A．Because she thought they never said anything good. |
| B．Because she thought they couldn’t make much money. |
| C．Because she thought they would affect Mo Yan’s schoolwork. |
| D．Because she thought most people didn’t like listening to stories. |
In Mo Yan’s opinion, a writer should be a ________ child when they were young.
| A．silent | B．modest |
| C．talkative | D．trouble-making |
Which is the best title（标题）of the passage?
| A．My Unlucky Childhood |
| B．A Storyteller’s Childhood |
| C．My Kind Grandmother |
| D．More talking leads to success |
Do you believe that you aren’t smarter than 3-year-old Alexis Martin, one of the youngest members of the high IQ club Mensa?
Preschooler (学龄前的) Alexis’ IQ is 159, which is only one point lower than Stephen Hawking’s. Doctors say the average IQ of a person is about 100.
She learned to read at the age of 2. She reads at a fifth grade level and has taught herself Spanish on her parents’ iPad!
Now, she is a member of the Mensa Club, which only accepts people with an IQ within the top two per cent of people in the world!
Alexis’ father, Ian Martin, said he first realized Alexis was special when she was 12 months old. She could recite (背诵) bedtime stories. “We’d be driving around in the car and she would recite her bedtime stories from the night before. She didn’t just recite them, and she recited them exactly.”
Alexis’ father would try to trick her and say that her story went a different way, but she always corrected him.
Most 12-month-old children take their first steps on their own and most 18-month-olds can only name a small number of objects and body parts, and follow simple two-step questions.
Even though Alexis is a genius (天才), her parents are faced with lots of challenges like how to teach her to make friends of her own age.
“Will she go into kindergarten early? We are kind of hesitant (迟疑的) because we do want her to get to that social world,” Ian said.Alexis Martin is a girl who .
| A．has many hobbies | B．has a high IQ |
| C．is good at telling stories | D．likes reading |
According to the report, Stephen Hawking’s IQ is as high as .
| A．158 | B．159 | C．160 | D．101 |
Alexis Martin could recite bedtime stories at .
| A．the age of 2 | B．the age of 1 |
| C．one and a half years old | D．the age of 3 |
What would Alexis do when her father said her bedtime stories went a different way?
| A．She would refuse to listen. |
| B．She would try to recite it. |
| C．She would correct him. |
| D．She would laugh at it. |
Which of the following statements about Alexis is NOT true?
| A．She is accepted by the Mensa Club. |
| B．She has made a lot of friends. |
| C．She learned to read at the age of 2. |
| D．She learned a foreign language by herself. |
Last week Lu visited England. He stayed with my grandmother. He found it was strange.
‘I don’t know why, but I frightened your grandmother a lot. When I arrived, I gave her a purse from Dongtai. She looked in it and asked me to take it back. Then I saw a red spider (蜘蛛) on the table, and I killed it for her. She seemed very unhappy. Do English people like spiders?
‘Later we went shopping. Someone was painting a shop front, so there was a ladder. Grandmother stopped me from walking under it and said I must walk around it. I liked the shops and bought some lovely rose soap for my mother, a smart umbrella for my father and some new shoes for myself. When we got back, I put the shoes on the table and opened the umbrella to check if it was all right. Your grandmother came in and screamed!
‘Then I broke a small mirror in the bathroom. Your grandmother’s face went white. I felt very sorry. When I left, I gave your grandmother some flowers. She counted and there were 13. She didn’t like them.’
I explained to Lu, ‘My grandmother follows the old customs. You must not give someone an empty purse, or they will have no money. You must not kill a “money spider”, or the same will happen. Also it is very unlucky to walk under a ladder or put new shoes on the table. An open umbrella in a house means someone will die. Breaking a mirror brings seven years’ bad luck, and 13 is also a very unlucky number. You were really making my grandmother very afraid.’Why did Lu frighten the writer’s grandmother?
| A．Because he could not speak English. |
| B．Because he did many unlucky things. |
| C．Because he understood British customs. |
| D．Because he went shopping in England. |
What do many British people think of spiders?
| A．They are afraid of them. |
| B．They keep spiders as pets. |
| C．They hope to see every kind of spiders in their houses. |
| D．They think some kinds of spiders are lucky. |
What did the writer’s grandmother feel when she saw the umbrella?
| A．Excited. | B．Satisfied. | C．Afraid. | D．Happy. |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Thirteen is an unlucky number in England. |
| B．It is very unlucky to walk under a ladder or put new shoes on the table in England. |
| C．For most British people, breaking a mirror means bad luck. |
| D．People never give purses as presents in England. |
How many wrong things did Lu do altogether?
| A．5. | B．6. | C．8. | D．10. |
Look at the notice from the Students’ Union. It’s a description of students’ activities for the coming winter vacation.
| Winners of Super Boys will come to our school on January 30th, 2014. They are going to give a concert in the school hall at 2:00 pm. Please come to the Students’ Union to get a half-price ticket to the concert before this Friday. |
| Wouldn’t it be great if you could join us and go hiking around the West Hill for two days? We’ll start at 7:00 am on February 6th. Please come to the Students’ Union to sign your name and pay fifty yuan, 20 percent off for members of the Hiking Club. |
| Are you interested in being a volunteer? We’ll go to a mountain village to give away books to the children there. We’ll work and study with them for a whole day. Please come to the school gate at 6:00 am on February 13th, 2014. Free of charge(免费). |
| We’ll hold a party for the students who come from poor families and have to stay at school during the winter vacation. Would you like to join us? Please come to the reading room at 5:00 pm on January 28th. |
The notice is about .
| A．free tickets | B．students’ activities |
| C．the West Hill | D．poor children |
Betty likes music and wants to go to the concert, so she must arrive at the school hall before on January 30th, 2014.
| A．2:00 pm | B．7:00 am | C．6:00 am | D．5:00 pm |
If you are a volunteer, you will go to a mountain village .
| A．on January 30th | B．on February 6th |
| C．on February 13th | D．on January 28th |
If you want to take part in a party for poor students, you should go to on January 28th.
| A．the school hall | B．the West Hill | C．a mountain village | D．the reading room |
How much will Tom, a member of the Hiking Club, pay if he wants to go hiking around the West Hill?
| A．2 yuan. | B．50 yuan. | C．40 yuan. | D．Nothing. |
Nearly every parent says that we never grow up．In fact, we are maybe 16 or 17 years old．In their eyes, we are always little ones and always do wrong things．For example, when I need to stay at home alone, they always worry about me and my life without them.
Most parents always think that they have offered the best things they can make their children live in a comfortable world．They buy their children pretty clothes, cool shoes, expensive school things, and often a thousand-Yuan-cost bike．They think that they have done everything that they can for their dear children．In return, they only want their children to get good results in the examinations.
But why their children still can’t understand them? Does it mean that they still want more material （物质的） things? No．In fact, what they want is a true family．What does a true family mean? I think it means a place where we can hide ourselves from the cold world outside．From here, we can get warmth, we can get consolation （安慰）, and we can get happiness．And one important thing is that we should be stronger and more confident in the outside world because we know that we have a family.
So I think that parents should sit down to talk with their children to let them know that they have a true family, so the children and their parents could understand each other more and more．Then, no children will be regarded as little ones.
| Questions |
Answers |
| What are we always like in our parents’ eyes? |
In their eyes, we are always little children and always |
| What do our parents expect us to do when they give us so much? |
They only want us to |
| Do children want a true family? |
Yes, they do. |
| What does mean? |
It means a place where children can hide themselves from the cold world outside. |
| How can our parents no longer regard us as little children? |
They can talk with us and we can |
Each nation has many good people who help to take care of others．For example, some high school and college students in the US often spend many hours as volunteers in hospitals, orphanages（孤儿院） or homes for the aged．They read books to the people in these places, or they just visit them and play games with them or listen to their problems.
Other young volunteers go and work in the homes of people who are sick or old．They paint, clean up, or repair their houses, do their shopping or mow their lawns．For boys who no longer have fathers there is an organization called Big Brothers．College students and other men take these boys to baseball games or on fishing trips and help them to get to know things that boys usually learn from their fathers.
Each city has a number of clubs where boys and girls can go to play games or learn crafts．Some of these clubs show movies or organize short trips to the mountains, the beaches, museums or other places of interest．Most of these clubs use a lot of high school and college students as volunteers because they are young enough to remember the problems of younger boys and girls．Volunteers believe that some of the happiest people in the world are those who help to bring happiness to others.How do volunteers usually help those who are sick or old?
| A．They mow their lawns, do their shopping and clean up their houses. |
| B．They cook, sew or wash their clothes. |
| C．They tell them stories and sing and dance for them. |
| D．They clean, wax and repair their cars. |
What is Big brothers?
| A．It’s the name of a club． |
| B．It’s a home for children who have no brothers. |
| C．It’s the name of a film． |
| D．It’s an organization for boys who no longer have fathers. |
Why do most of the clubs use many high school and college students as volunteers?
| A．Because they have a lot of free time. |
| B．Because they can still remember what they felt when they were younger. |
| C．Because they know how to do the work. |
| D．Because they like younger boys and girls. |
What do volunteers believe?
| A．To make others happy, they have got to be unhappy. |
| B．The happiest people in the world are those who make themselves happy. |
| C．The happiest people in the world are those who are young and healthy. |
| D．Bring happiness to others makes them the happiest people in the world. |