When I was a boy , my father told me that he could do anything that he wanted to do ．Dad said that he wanted to be the first to develop color prints in our city, and so he did．

When I was 16，Dad looked closely at the violin I played and announced that he wanted to make one．He read about violin making，and then became a violin-maker at the age of 43．He bought the tools and materials, opened a small store and set Mom up as the shopkeeper, while he worked at a local company．He retired from the company 17 years later and continued to make violins and other instruments．

Dad often guessed why the Stradivarius violins sounded so beautiful．Some experts claimed that it was the unique varnish（油漆）that gave those instruments their beautiful sound．Dad argued that chemists could analyze the varnish------if that were the answer．

One of Dad's friends asked him once which kind of wood was used to make violins．When Dad explained that the top was made of spruce，his friend said that he had an old piece of spruce Dad might be interested in．

He worked for the next 12 months making a violin from the wood that his friend had given him．It proved to be a superior violin and it would become Dad's masterpiece．He was convinced that the secret of the Stradivarius sound was in the wood itself．

Later，the instrument was stolen．Dad's spirit was broken by the robbery, and he stopped making instruments．But he kept the music shop until he was 80 years old，selling guitars and violins．

My father has been gone for 14 years now．The violin has been missing for more than25 years．Somewhere a musician is playing a late-20tb-centruy violin with an excellent tone．The owner today may never understand why this ordinary-looking violin sounds so much like a Stradivarius

1．The author mentions his father's developing color prints_________

       A．to show that his father's real interest was not in making violins

　    B．to prove that his father could do anything he wanted to do

　    C．to give an example proving that his father was an inventor

　    D．to describe the real thing that made the author believe his father

2．What did the author's father think about Stradivarius violins?

　    A．The varnish was different from the others．

　    B．The way of making them was special

　    C．The wood of the violins was special

　    D．They could only be analyzed by chemists．

3．How long did the author’s father live after the violin was stolen?

       A．About 11 years                                  B．About 14 years

      C．About 25 years                                  D．About 80 years

4．We can infer from the last paragraph that the author_______

　    A．really hates the thief                      B．misses his father a lot

　    C．really wants to play the violin               D．wonders who's playing the violin now

单词拼写
【小题1】Early American settlers were great c______----they could build almost anything from wood.
【小题2】The famous doctor has d_______ hundreds of babies during her life.
【小题3】Each classroom in our school is e________ with a computer, which is helpful to our study.
【小题4】He is l__________ to come, but I’m not sure.
【小题5】It seems that he is quite c_________ with what he has got.
【小题6】When ________（走近）the house, they found something unusual, so they stopped to have a look.
【小题7】Speak clearly, or you’ll make yourself _______(误解).
【小题8】This is the most _____ (令人信服的) evidence that I can prove my point.
【小题9】I saw some people enter the new building looking around _____(好奇地).
【小题10】She ________(启发) those who want to enter a key university.

单词拼写

1.Early American settlers were great c______----they could build almost anything from wood.

2.The famous doctor has d_______ hundreds of babies during her life.

3.Each classroom in our school is e________ with a computer, which is helpful to our study.

4.He is l__________ to come, but I’m not sure.

5.It seems that he is quite c_________ with what he has got.

6.When ________（走近）the house, they found something unusual, so they stopped to have a look.

7.Speak clearly, or you’ll make yourself _______(误解).

8.This is the most _____ (令人信服的) evidence that I can prove my point.

9.I saw some people enter the new building looking around _____(好奇地).

10.She ________(启发) those who want to enter a key university.

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 _______.