A woman repeated a bit of gossip (流言) about a neighbour. Within a few days the whole neighbourhood
knew the story. The neighbour was deeply hurt. Later the woman responsible (负责) for spreading the gossip
learned that it was completely untrue. She was very sorry and went to a wise old man to find out what she
could do to repair the harm.
    "Go to the marketplace," he said, "and buy a chicken, and have it killed, then on your way home, pluck (拔)
its feathers and drop them one by one along the road." Although surprised by this advice, the woman did what
she was told.
    The next day the wise man said, "Now, go and collect all those feathers you dropped yesterday and bring
them back to me."
    The woman followed the same road, but she was so discouraged when she found the wind had blown all
the feathers away. After searching for hours, she returned with only three in her hand.
    "You see," said the old man, "it's easy to drop them, but it's impossible to get them back. So it is with
gossip. It doesn't take much to spread a gossip, but once you do, you can never completely undo the wrong."

1. The woman was very ______ the harm she had done to her neighbour.

A. happy about
B. angry about
C. sorry for
D. excited about

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. The gossip didn't hurt anyone at all.
B. The wise man was not kind enough.
C. The woman found all the feathers at last.
D. The woman was given a lesson.

3. What the wise man said has nearly the same meaning as the Chinese phrase "______".

A. 覆水难收
B. 无中生有
C. 欲速不达
D. 得道多助

    Once there was a boy who lived alone with his father. The boy loved American football very much,
but he couldn't take part in the games because he was (1)h            the size of other boys. At all the
games, this hopeful boy sat beside the football field and (2)s            played.
    Though the boy was always beside the football field, his father always stood next to him and never
(3)m            a game. All through high school he was still an audience. His father always (4)e             
him.
    When the boy went to college, the American football coach kept him on the school team because he
always (5)p            hard and provided the other team members with high spirits. (6)H           , he never
got to play in a game.
    It was the (7)e            of his last American football season. His father died that morning and the
coach (8)a            him to take a rest. The following Saturday, the boy came back and wanted to play in
the game. The coach, the players and the audience could not (9)b            their eyes. He ran and passed
(10)l            a star. In the closing seconds of the game, he ran all the way for the winning touchdown
(触地得分).
    He told the coach with tears in his eyes, "Well, you knew my dad died, but did you know that my dad
was blind? Dad came to (11)a            our games in the past, but today was the first time I could play,
and I wanted to show him I could do it!"
    It is the father's love for his son that helps the son (12)s           .

    One morning, a blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held a sign which said,
"I am blind. Please help me."
    There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket
and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. ①He
put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words. 
    Soon the hat began to fill up. ②More people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man
who had changed the sign came to see how things were.The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Are
you the one who changed my sign in the morning? What did you write?''
    The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."
    What he had written was, "Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it."
    Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?
    Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting
some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day. But
the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.
    There are at least two lessons we can learn from this simple story. The first is: Treasure what you have.
Someone else has less. Try your best to help those who need your help.
    The second is: Be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way.

1. 将①处的句子翻译成汉语。
                                                                                                                    
2. 将②处的句子改成被动语态。
                                                                                                                     
3. 根据短文内容，完成下面的句子。（每空一词） 
   The words written by the kind man had                                                 the blind boy's words on the sign.

    One day, my mother and I went shopping at a Chinese supermarket. We found that the crucian carps
(鲫鱼) in the seafood counter were very fresh, as a result we chose four crucian carps and handed them
over to the seller. As it would take some time to clean the fish and dispose (处理) of their internal organs
(内脏), we decided to look around the other places first. When we came back to the seafood counter, I
asked the seller for my fish. He raised one, which was being cleaned, to let me have a look and tell me he
was still working on the fish. I hurriedly said, "Go ahead, Go ahead." I meant for him to go on.
    Unexpectedly, the seller stopped his work, looking at me with puzzled expression, and asked me in reply,
"Go ahead?" "Yes," I said, "go ahead". He pointed the fish in all seriousness, and repeated very seriously,
"Head?" Paying no more attention to him, I turned back to chat with my mother. Suddenly, "Bang, bang,
bang," was heard from the counter. Quickly, the seller passed the four fish without heads to me.
     I asked loudly, "Why did you cut all the heads off?" The seller was also very annoyed (颇为生气的)
and said, "Didn't you tell me to go ahead again and again?" On hearing what he said I felt funny as well
as angry. It turned out that he considered "go ahead" as "cut the head off". No wonder he asked me several
times about it!
    Taking the headless fish home, I became frightened. Wouldn't it be possible that the hairdresser would
have cut my head off if I had gone to get my haircut?

1. Where did the story happen?

A. In China.
B. On the beach
C. In a Chinese supermarket
D. At the hairdresser's

2. What does "Go ahead" mean in this passage?

A. Cut off the heads of the fish.
B. Go on to clean the fish.
C. Continue to walk.
D. Go around.

3. Why did the seller cut all the heads off?

A. Because I asked him to do so.
B. Because he wanted to cut off all the heads.
C. Because I told him to go ahead again and again.
D. Because he mistook what I said.