Kristy, 28, a cook in La Gross, often wondered what she’d do in a life-threatening situation. On August 29, she got her answer. While she was driving on a road, a big truck hit its head on a pickup car. The pickup car burst into flames. Kristy rushed out and ran to the pickup. Two farmers, Dean Berhard, 51, and his brother Donald, 44, were inside.
When she got close, Kristy could see the unconscious driver. The other man was under the passenger seat. Kristy says, “The smells were sickening. I was afraid the truck would blow up and kill us all.”
The driver of the big truck was struggling to open the passenger door, so Kristy rushed to the driver’s side. Finally they opened the door. She reached in, seized the driver and , to her horror, felt her hands sink into his chest. She quickly dragged the man to safety on the roadside, then hurried back. As Kristy stared down the ditch (水沟) with the passenger, the pickup blew up. She jumped on top of him and they both rolled to safety.
When the police arrived a while later, Kristy started crying, “I want my mum.” In fact she cried for the next three months.
Today the two farmers, each the father of two children, are good friends with Kristy. To show their deep appreciation, they bought her a ring with nine diamonds —one for each member of their immediate families, and ninth for her.
【小题1】In which order did Kristy do the following things?
a. Carried Dean and Donald to safety
b. Rushed to the pickup
c. Surprised herself
d. Saw the truck hit on the pickup
e. Got out of her car
f. Wondered what she’d do in danger

A．e, d, b, a, c, f	B．d, e, b, a, f, c
C．f, d, e, b, a, c	D．f, c, e, d, b, a

【小题2】 When coming to save Donald and Dean Bernard, Kristy never thought that she ________.

A．could have any help from others

B．would fail to save both of them

C．might be killed

D．would be tested in a dangerous situation

【小题3】 Which of the following best shows Kristy’s true heroism(英雄行为)?

A．She remained calm during and after the accident.

B．She protected herself as well as the two brothers from harm.

C．She put her life “on the line” to save others.

D．She was regarded as a member of Dean’s and Donald’s families.

【小题4】 This sentence “The pickup burst into flames.” in the first paragraph means “_____.”

A．The pickup was on fire

B．The pickup started smoking badly

C．A terrifying cry came out of the pickup

D．The pickup was broken into pieces

【小题5】 Kristy cried because she _________.

A．was badly wounded

B．had never experienced such a situation

C．was too excited at the result

D．regretted not putting out the fire

There is a wonderful story about a young girl who had no family and no one to love her.
One day, feeling very sad and lonely, she was walking through a grassland when she noticed a small butterfly caught in a thorn（荆棘）bush. The young girl carefully released the butterfly. Instead of flying away, the little butterfly changed into a beautiful fairy. The young girl rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
“For your wonderful kindness,” the good fairy said to the girl, “I will give you any wish you would like.” The little girl thought for a moment and then replied, “I want to be happy.”
The fairy leaned toward her and whispered in her ear. Then the fairy disappeared.
As the little girl grew up, there was no one in the land as happy as she. Everyone asked her secret of happiness. She would only smile and answer, “The secret of my happiness is that I listened to a good fairy when I was a little girl.”
When she was very old and on her deathbed, the neighbors all gathered around her， that her unbelievable secret of happiness would die with her. “Tell us, please,” they begged, “Tell us what the good fairy said.” The lovely old woman simply smiled and said, “She told me that everyone, no matter how secure they seemed, no matter how old or young, how rich or poor, had need of me.”
【小题1】 ______ the girl felt sad and lonely.

A．There were many friends but

B．There was nobody to love her so

C．There was nothing to do

D．Seeing the butterfly was caught

【小题2】 Noticing the butterfly was caught by the thorn, the orphan girl ______.

A．helped the butterfly escaped from the thorn

B．felt sorrow, but she didn ‘t go up to help it

C．fell down on it too

D．failed to help it release from the thorn

【小题3】 The only thing that the little girl wanted was________.

A．to be rich

B．to have her own parents

C．to have a lot of friends

D．happiness

【小题4】 The neighbors all gathered around the old happy woman when she was dying, because ______.

A．they loved this woman deeply and they didn‘t wanted her to die

B．the woman had lots of money to be shared as soon as she died

C．they wanted to know the secret of her lifetime happiness

D．they wanted to pray for her after her death

Two good friends, Sam and Jason, met with a car accident on their way home one night. The next morning, Sam woke up blind. His legs were broken. The doctor, Mr Lee was standing by his bed, looking at him with a thoughtful expression. When he saw Sam awake, he asked, “How are you feeling, Sam?” Sam smiled and said, “Not bad, Doctor. Thank you for doing the operation.” Mr Lee was moved by Sam. When he was leaving, Sam said, “Please don’t tell Jason about it.” “... OK.” Mr Lee replied.
Months later when Jason’s wounds (伤) healed, Sam was still very weak. Neither could he see or walk. What he could do was just stay in his wheelchair all day long. At first, Jason stayed with him for a few days. But days later, Jason felt very discouraged and embarrassed to spend time staying with a disabled man like Sam. So he went to see Sam less and less. He made new friends. From then on, he didn’t go to visit Sam any more. Sam didn’t have any family or friends other than Jason. He felt very sad.
Things went from bad to worse. Sam died a year later. When Jason came, Mr Lee gave a letter to him. It was from Sam. In the letter Sam said, “Dear Jason, I am disabled. But I want you to be a healthy man. So I gave my eyes to you so that you can enjoy life as a healthy man. Now you have new friends. I’m glad to see that you are as healthy and happy as usual. I’m glad you live a happy life. You are always my best friend ... ... Sam”. When he finished reading the letter , Mr Lee said, “I have promised that I will keep this a secret until Sam is gone. Now you know it.” Jason stood there. Tears ran down his face.
【小题1】 Why did Sam thanked the doctor?

A．Because the doctor was very friendly to him.

B．Because the doctor took good care of him.

C．Because the doctor saved his eyes.

D．Because the doctor kept the secret for him.

【小题2】 Which of the following happened according to the order of time?
a. Jason felt very discouraged to stay with Sam.                                        
b. Jason lost his eyes in an accident.
c. Sam donated his eyes to Jason.       
d. Jason didn’t go to visit Sam any more.
e. Sam died and Jason knew the truth.       

A．dacbe

B．dcbea

C．bcade

D．bcdae

【小题3】The underlined word “healed” in the second paragraph is closest in the meaning to “__________”.

A．recovered

B．hurt

C．failed

D．disappeared

【小题4】 It can be inferred from the passage that Sam was__________.

A．kind-hearted and helpful

B．discouraged and outgoing

C．optimistic and humorous

D．enthusiastic and curious

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi was born in Budapest on September 16, 1893. In 1911 he entered his uncle’s laboratory where he studied until the outbreak of World War One, when he joined the army. He served on the Italian and Russian fronts, and he was permitted to leave the army in 1917 after being wounded in action. He completed his studies in Budapest before he went to Hamburg for a two-year course in physical chemistry. In 1920 he became an assistant at a university in Leiden, the Netherlands and from 1922 to 1926 he worked with H. J. Hamburger at the Physiology Institute, Groningen, the Netherlands.
In 1926, Szent-Gyorgyi was ready to end his own life after an embarrassing problem in his career. The scientist, thirty-two, had written a paper and handed it to his boss for approval to publish. His boss threw it in the dustbin. Concluding his life was a failure, the young researcher quit. Unable to support his wife and child, he sent them home to her parents. His final wish was to attend one last scientific meeting, to be among scientists, to have one last good time. So he went to the 1926 International Physiological Society Congress in Sweden.
Sitting in the audience, lost in self-pity, Szent-Gyorgyi listened to the president of the society, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, refer to the fine work of a researcher: Szent-Gyorgyi! After the speech, collecting his courage, he introduced himself to Hopkins. The great man invited the young scientist to Cambridge to do further work.
Szent-Gyorgyi’s life changed. He discovered the oxidation-preventing (防氧化的) action of vitamin C. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. He accounted for his success by saying that discovery is seeing what everyone else has seen but thinking what nobody else has thought.
【小题1】Which of the following is the correct order of the events relevant to Szent-Gyorgyi?
a. finished his studies in Budapest
b. served during World War One
c. worked with Hopkins
d. studied in Hamburg

A．b, c, a, d

B．b, a, d, c

C．a, c, d, b

D．a, b, d, c

【小题2】 Why did Szent-Gyorgyi want to end his own life in 1926?

A．His pride was hurt by his boss.

B．He was not satisfied with his paper.

C．He couldn’t support his family.

D．His boss stopped him attending a conference.

【小题3】 The passage is organized in the pattern of _____________.

A．cause and effect

B．comparison and contrast

C．time and events

D．definition and classification

The orderly came back in a few minutes with a rifle（步枪）and some Burmans. He told us that the elephant was in the rice fields below, only a few hundred yards away. As I started forward practically the whole population of the quarter flocked out of the houses and followed me. They had seen the rifle and were all shouting that I was going to shoot the elephant. It was fun to them, as it would be to an English crowd; besides, they wanted the meat. It made me a little uneasy. I had no intention of shooting the elephant—I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself—and it is always uneasy to have a crowd following you. I marched down the hill, looking and feeling a fool, with the rifle over my shoulder and an ever-growing army of people knocking and pushing at my heels. Beyond the huts there was a rice field a thousand yards across, muddy from the first rains. The elephant was standing eight yards from the road. He took not the slightest notice of the crowd. He was tearing up bunches of grass, beating them against his knees to clean them and feeding them into his mouth.
As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him. It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant — it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery. There, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow. I thought then and I think now that his attack of “must” was already passing off, in which case he would merely wander harmlessly about. Moreover, I did not in the least want to shoot him.
But at that moment I glanced round at the crowd that had followed me. It was an immense crowd, two thousand at the least and growing every minute. I looked at the sea of the faces above the colorful clothes—faces all happy and excited over this bit of fun, all certain that the elephant was going to be shot. They were watching me as they would watch a magician about to perform a trick. They did not like me. But with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward. And it was at this moment that I first felt the hollowness, the uselessness of the white man's control in the East. Here was I, standing in front of the unarmed crowd—seemingly the leading actor; but in reality only a puppet (傀儡). I understood in this moment that when the white man turns ruler of complete power it is his own freedom that he destroys.
【小题1】The people were glad to think the elephant was to be shot mainly because ______.

A．it had damaged their homes and crops

B．it would provide them with meat

C．it would make them feel entertained

D．it was spoiling their rice fields

【小题2】When the writer saw the elephant he felt       .

A．foolish

B．afraid

C．pitiful

D．confident

【小题3】The writer realized that he had to shoot the elephant because        .

A．shooting elephants is a serious problem

B．everybody expected it of him

C．he did not wish to disappoint the rulers

D．he had to show how guns are fired

【小题4】What does the writer intend to tells us when he tells the story?

A．Leading actors are sometimes foolish puppets.

B．Government for white people are useless.

C．Power can sometimes turn people imprisoned.

D．Unarmed crowds are in control of everything.

While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of courage.
The event was swimming and started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them false started, so they were disqualified. That left only one to complete. It would have been difficult enough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock is important.
I watched the man dive off the block and knew right away that something was wrong. I'm not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was evident that the man was not out for gold — his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle. The crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.
I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was worn out.
But in those few awful strokes, the crowd had changed.
No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and shout "Come on, you can do it! " and he did.
A clear minute past the average swimmer, this young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought that he had won the gold, and he should have. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.
Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to Sydney.
In a competition where athletes remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act so proudly in front of their competitors, it is nice to watch an underdog.
【小题1】From the passage we can learn that the young man         .

A．made his turn to start back pitifully

B．was skillful in freestyle in the game

C．swam faster than the average swimmer

D．was not capable enough to win the medal

【小题2】The crowd changed their attitudes because ________.

A．they felt sorry for the young man

B．they were moved by the young man

C．they wanted to show their sympathy

D．they meant to please the young man

【小题3】According to the passage, "it is nice to watch an underdog" probably means _______.

A．it’s amusing to watch a man with awful swimming skills

B．it’s amazing to watch an ordinary man challenging himself

C．it’s cheerful for athletes to act proudly before their competitors

D．it’s brave enough for some athletes to remove the silver medals

【小题4】What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Compete for Gold!	B．Try again!
C．Break a Record!	D．Go for it!

I was being interviewed by a senior manager for a big company, I told him honestly that the principal reason that I was interviewing with them was my need to keep my family in Boston. My wife had recently died of a heart attack. A job in Boston would help me reduce some pain for my 16-year-old daughter and me. It was important to me to keep her present high school.
Bruce, the interviewer, was politely kind, but he didn’t search any further. He acknowledged(承认) my loss and, with great respect, moved on to another subject. After the next round of interviews, Bruce took me to lunch with another manager. Then he asked me to take a walk with him. He told me that he had lost his wife. And, like me, he had also been married 20 years and had 3 children. I realized that he had experienced the same pain as I had and it was almost impossible to explain to someone who had not lost a loved one. He offered his business card and home phone number and suggested that, should I need help or just want someone to talk to, I should feel free to give him a call. Whether I got the job or not, he wanted me to know that he was there if I ever needed help.
From that one act of kindness, when he had no idea if we could ever see each other again, he helped our family deal with one of life’s greatest losses. He turned the normally cold business interview process into an act of caring and supporting for another person in a time of extreme need.
【小题1】According to the passage, the interviewer, Bruce, was very _______.

A．generous

B．kind

C．happy

D．mean

【小题2】The underlined word "principal" in the first paragraph probably means _____.

A．main

B．unimportant

C．necessary

D．possible

【小题3】Which of the following statement is NOT true?

A．The writer’s daughter was studying in Boston at that time.

B．Both the writer and the interviewer experienced the same pain.

C．Bruce was a senior manager of a big firm.

D．Bruce wanted to make friends with him because he gave him his business card and home phone number.

Having returned from her round trip, the angry woman stood outside the ticket office of the station. “The railway owes me ￡12,” She said to Harry Jenks, the young man working at the office. “You sold me a ticket for May 22nd, but there was no ship from Jersey that night. So my daughter and I had to stay in a hotel. It cost me ￡12. ”
Harry was worried. He remembered selling the woman a return ticket. “Come into the office, Madam,” he said politely. “I’ll just check the Jersey timetable for May 22nd.”
The woman and her little girl followed him inside. She was quite right, as Harry soon discovered. There was no sailing on May 22nd. How could he have made such a careless mistake? He shouldn’t have sold her a ticket for that day. Wondering what to do, he smiled at the child. “You look sunburnt,” he said to her. “Did you have a nice holiday in Jersey?”
“Yes,” she answered shyly, “The beach was lovely. And I can swim, too!”
“That’s fine,” said Harry.
“My little girl can’t swim a bit yet. Of course, she’s only three…”
“I’m four,” the child said proudly, “I’ll be four and a half.”
Harry turned to the mother, “I remember your ticket, Madam,” he said. “But you didn’t get one for your daughter, did you?”
“Er, well---” the woman looked at the child, “I mean…she hasn’t started school yet. She’s only four.”
“A four-year-old child must have a ticket, Madam. A child’s return ticket to Jersey costs…let me see…￡13.50. So if the railway pays your hotel, you will owe ￡1.50. The law is the law, but since the fault was mine… ”
The woman stood up, took the child’s hand and left the office.
【小题1】Harry was worried because ________.

A．the woman was angry with him

B．he had not done his work properly

C．the Jersey timetable was wrong

D．the little girl didn’t have a return ticket

【小题2】Harry started talking to the little girl ________.

A．because he was in difficulty and did not know what to do

B．because he had a little girl about the same age as this girl

C．because he wanted to be friendly to the little girl who looked so nice

D．when he suddenly realized that he could find a way out from the little girl

【小题3】When Harry said, “The law is the law, but since the fault was mine…” he means that ________.

A．they must follow it without other choice, even though the fault was his

B．he had to be strict with the woman because of the law, although he didn’t want to

C．the woman had to pay him ￡1.50 and the railway would pay her for the hotel

D．she should pay ￡1.50, but he had made a mistake, she could go without paying

【小题4】How did the woman feel when she left the office?

A．angry

B．peaceful

C．embarrassed

D．nervous

Once again, I was in a new school. So was a girl in my class named Lisa. That’s where the similarities ended.
I was tall and she was small. My thick black hair had been recently cut short into an untidy style. Her natural blonde hair flowed to her waist and looked great. I was 12 and one of the oldest in the class while she was 11 and the youngest. I was awkward and shy. She wasn’t. I couldn’t stand her, considering her my enemy. But she liked me and wanted to be friends.
One day, she invited me over and I said yes—I was too shocked to answer any other way. My family had moved six times in six years, and I had never managed to develop any friendships. But this girl who wore the latest fashions wanted me to go home with her after school.
She lived in a fun part of town that had two pizza places, an all-right bookstore, a movie theater and a park. As we walked from the school bus stop through her neighborhood, I tried to guess which house might be hers. Was it the white one with the perfect lawn or the three –story house with a front porch? I got very surprised when she led me into an old apartment building. She lived on the fourth floor in a two-room place with her mother, her stepfather, her two brothers and her sister.
When we got into the room she shared with her sister, she took out a big case of Barbies, which was my next surprise. I had never played with them. We sat on the floor, laughing as we made up crazy stories about the Barbies. We found out that we both wanted to be writers when we were older and both had wild imaginations. We had a great day that afternoon .
Lisa was loved by the whole neighborhood. The bookstore owners lent her fashion magazines; the movie theater gave her free tickets…. Soon I was included in her magic world. We slept over at each other’s houses and spent every free moment together.
Lisa, my first real friend since childhood, helped me get through the rough years of early adolescence and taught me an amazing and very surprising thing about making friends: your worst enemy can turn out to be your best friend.
【小题1】The writer and Lisa were similar in the way that          .

A．they were both new students

B．they had the same hair styles

C．they were both tall

D．they were of the same age

【小题2】One day Lisa invited the writer         .

A．to go to the movie

B．to go to walk in a park

C．to go to her home

D．to go to a pizza place

【小题3】In the passage the writer described Lisa as a girl who was       .

A．friendly and lovely	B．rich and happy
C．quiet and lonely	D．awkward and shy

【小题4】Which of the following did the writer learn from Lisa?

A．How to make up stories.	B．How to deal with enemies.
C．How to live a better life.	D．How to make friends.

Last year, two days after Christmas, we kicked China out of the house. Not the country obviously, but bits of plastic, metal, and wood with the words “Made in China”. We kept what we already had, but stopped bringing any more in. because it had coated our lives with toys, and useless stuff. Sometimes I worried about jobs sent overseas, but price triumphed over virtue at our house. We couldn’t resist what China was selling.
But on that dark Monday last year, an unease feeling washed over me as I sat on the sofa. It wasn’t until then that I noticed a fact: China was taking over the place.
It stared back at me from the empty screen of the television. I spied it in the pile of tennis shoes by the door. It glowed in the lights on the Christmas tree and watched me in the eyes of a doll lying on the floor, I slipped off the couch and sorted gifts into two piles: China and non-China. The count came to China, 25, the world, 14. Christmas, I realized, had become a holiday made by the Chinese. Suddenly I wanted China out.
I persuaded my husband, and on Jan. 1 st, we started a-year-long household embargo on Chinese imports. The idea wasn’t to punish China. And we didn’t fool ourselves into thinking because we wanted to measure how far it had pushed in. We wanted to know what it would take in time, money, and worry to kick our China habit!
In the spring, our 4-year-old son started a campaign to support “China things”. “It’s too long without China,” he cried. He kept at me all day. I have discovered for myself that China doesn’t control every aspect of our daily lives, but if you take a close look at the underside of boxes in the toy department, I promise it will give you pause. “When we can buy China things again? Let’s never stop.” My son said.
After a year without China I can tell you this: You can still live without it, but it’s getting costlier by the day. And a decade from now I may not be brave enough to try it again.
【小题1】 The best title for the text could be _______.

A．China Free Living: A Trouble One

B．A Year without “Made in China”

C．Why I Choose “Made in China”

D．“Made in China”: Good or Bad

【小题2】 According to the passage, why did the author stop bringing in things “Made in China”?

A．Because she wanted to bring back job opportunities for her natives.

B．Because she has a strong sense of nationalism against “Made in China”.

C．Because she wanted to learn what life would be like without “Made in China”.

D．Because too much stuff made in China was take over her house.

【小题3】 The Underlined word “embargo” in the forth paragraph means ________.

A．reaction	B．ban
C．restriction	D．cancellation

【小题4】The writer’s purpose in writing this passage is ________.

A．to tell the readers an interesting experience

B．to describe the trouble facing a housewife

C．to explain the importance of Chinese goods

D．to show the difficulty without Chinese goods