"Grandma, Grandma, tell us a story!" Four darling children sat by my feet, looking up at me
expectantly.
Suddenly, we were interrupted clapping. "Terrific," the director said, stepping up the stage from
the aisle(过道).  "Except, could you kids face the audience a bit more?"
     The kids shifted to face the empty seats, which would be filled in a few days for the church play.
"Perfect," the director said. "Now, Grandma, read to your grandchildren." A pang of sadness hit me.
If only I could read to my real grandchild!
     I had a granddaughter, but I'd never met her. Sixteen years earlier my son was involved in a
relationship that ended badly. But out of it came a blessing: a baby girl named Lena. I hoped to be
a grandmother to her-but shortly after the birth, the mother moved without any address left. Over
the years, I asked around town to try and find my son's exwife(前妻), but it seemed that she didn't
want to be found.
      I'd just joined this new church a week earlier, and was at once offered the part of Grandma in
the play.  At least now I could pretend to be a grandma. The rehearsals went well, and finally the
day of the show arrived. The performance was great. "You all looked so natural up there," one of
my friends said.
     Afterward, we went to the church basement for refreshments(茶点). I walked over to one of
the girls in the play, Rehearsals had been such a whirlwind(一片忙乱) that we never really got to
talk. "How's my granddaughter?" I joked.
     "Fine!" she answered. Just then, someone else walked up and asked the girl her name.
      I wasn't sure I heard the girl's answer correctly. But it made me ask her another question. "What's
your mother's name?"
    She told me, I was still in shock. "And what's your father's name?" I asked. She told me. It was my
son.
     She'd only started going to that church a week before I did. Since that day of the play, we've stayed
close. Not long ago, she even made me a great grandma.

1.  What was the author doing at the beginning of the story?
A.  Telling a story.  
B.  Playing a game.
C.  Preparing for a play.  
D.  Acting in a movie.

2.  Why did the author feel "A pang of sadness" at the words of the director?
A.  The director's words reminded her of her lost granddaughter.
B.  The director's words hurt her so badly.
C.  She wished that she had a real grandchild.
D.  The director wasn't content with her performance.

3.What happened in the church basement after the play?
A.  The author played a joke on Lena.
B.  Lena treated the author as a friend.
C.  The author got to know who Lena was.
D.  Lena mistook the author for her grandmother.

4.  This passage is mainly organized in the pattern of ________.
A.  time and events  
B.  contrast and conclusion
C.  cause and effect  
D.  questions and answers

5.  We can infer that when writing the story, the author felt ________.
A.  lighthearted 
B.  heartbroken
C.  confused  
D.  anxious

     Stubbornness can push an entrepreneur (企业家) to hold on but it can also kill a business if it gets
too extreme.
     Because I'm stubborn, I realized my dream of creating a petfood company. Our foods include organic
fruits, vegetables and meats. At first we packaged our foods in transparent bags, as it was part of our
guiding philosophy.
     To start the company in 2003, I visited every petfood store in Manhattan and some outside the city.
In 2007 I moved the company to Muskego, Wis., and our earnings were almost $500,000 that year. But
getting my products into stores was just the beginning. We were competing against much bigger petfood
companies whose monthly marketing budgets were more than our yearly sales. So we invested in
advertising and a website.
     With more customers came more feedback, much of which I dismissed. I was also receiving
complaints about ice crystals (晶体) on the food, which form when the air temperature changes during
transport. For this reason, most frozen foods are packaged in opaque (不透明的) bags or boxes.
Studies have proved that ice crystals have little, if any, effect on either the quality or the taste of the food.
So I ignored the complaints. After all, I told myself, we were better than competitors that wouldn't even
show their products. We didn't hide anything.
     In 2007 our sales kept growing, but not as fast as those of our competitors. We were told that new
consumers were choosing products packaged in opaque bags. When I visited the stores and forced
myself to consider my products objectively, I had to agree:The ice crystals destroyed the look I wanted.
We switched to opaque bags and tried to make the ice crystals smaller. Customers responded:In 2009
our products were sold in 2,500 stores across the country.

1. What was the author's purpose of packaging their foods in transparent bags at first?
A. To make their foods look attractive.
B. To show their guiding philosophy to consumers.
C. To make sure that their foods could be seen clearly.
D. To show that their foods were environmentally friendly.

2. Why did the author invest in advertising and a website?
A. Because few people knew about their products.
B. Because his company faced great challenges.
C. Because he wanted to move his company to Muskego.
D. Because his company was about to close down.

3. According to the passage, ice crystals ________.
A. only appear in frozen foods
B. may make pets feel uncomfortable
C. won't form if pet food is transported well
D. have little effect on the quality of pet food

4. The author's company switched to opaque bags because ________.
A. consumers disliked seeing ice crystals
B. opaque bags helped reduce ice crystals
C. foods in opaque bags are easy to keep fresh
D. opaque bags are cheaper than transparent ones

5. This passage was written mainly to show that ________.
A. people shouldn't let stubbornness stop them from taking advice
B. stubbornness can make people succeed or fail
C. the road leading to success is full of difficulties
D. stubbornness always leads to failure

     In 1986, when Monty Reed was a member of the Army Rangers (黑鹰突击队), he had an accident.
"It was a night jump, and we were jumping low," he recalls. "We were training. Somebody got too close
to my parachute (降落伞)."The parachute below blocked Reed's air and his parachute failed to open.
Reed crashed a hundred feet to the ground, breaking his back in five places.
     The next morning, Reed could not move. "Doctors said it was likely that I would never walk again."
Reed stared out of his hospital window, wondering what the future would be like. It was the saddest
moment of his life. "The experts are telling me my body doesn't work! What am I supposed to do?" he
thought.
     To distract (转移注意力) himself, he picked up a book: Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. The
science-fiction describes a set of man-made muscles that would allow people to carry 2,000 pounds. He
thought that if he could build something like that, it might be able to lift him out of his wheelchair. So he
began his project and finally succeeded in building a set of robot legs. Several years later, he made an
amazing recovery and was able to get up and walk away from his wheelchair. He even jumped out of an
airplane again to celebrate.
     Reed wanted to do something for others with the second chance that life had given him. He has now
perfected the robot legs that can get the injured, the elderly and the paralyzed (瘫痪的) out of their
wheelchairs. Now he has started his own company to make the legs. "I've seen them compete in
marathons and go swimming and mountain climbing," he said. "So never give up!"

1. Monty started to read Starship Troopers to ______.

A. create a new kind of wheelchair for himself
B. discover how to make man-made muscles
C. learn how to jump out of an airplane
D. stop himself from thinking about his pain

2. Which of the following is TRUE about Monty? 

A. He didn't lose heart in the face of difficulty.
B. He is fond of reading science fiction.
C. He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
D. He didn't believe what the doctors said.

3. We can learn from the passage that Monty's goal is to ______.

A. become a famous writer like Robert Heinlein.
B. return to the Army Rangers and continue with his jumps.
C. compete in games and marathons and go swimming.
D. help more patients in wheelchairs to recover.