------ I ‘m going to join them in the play.
------- ______.
A. Have a pleasure B. That’s a very nice of youＣ. Have fun　 D. Have a fun

Some time ago, I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn’t think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended , as there are a whole lot of antique（古董）shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception（接待）. I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair.

　　The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth ---- so I decided that my approach must be wrong.

　　I went into the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper,“Would you like to buy a chair?”He looked it over carefully and said,“Yes, not a bad chair. How much do you want for it, sir?”“Twenty pounds,”I said.“OK,”he said,“I’ll give you twenty pounds.”“It ‘s got a slightly broken leg,”I said.“Yes, I saw that, it's nothing.”

　　Everything was going according to plan and I was getting excited.“What will you do with it?”I asked.“Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done.”“I'll buy it,”I said. “What do you mean？ You’ve just sold it to me,”he said.“Yes, I know but I’ve changed my mind. I'm sorry, I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it.”“Your must be crazy,”he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped.“I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair.”“You’re right,”I said.“And what would you have done if I had walked in and said, Would you mend this chair for me　I wouldn't have agreed to do it,”he said.“We don’t do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I’ll mend this for you, shall we say for a fiver?”He was a very nice man and was greatly amused（感到有趣）by the whole thing.

We can learn from the text that in the first shop the writer ________.

　　A. was rather impolite              B. asked the shopkeeper to buy his chair

　　C. was warmly received          　D. asked the shopkeeper to repair his chair

The expression “the penny dropped” in the last paragraph means the shopkeeper ________.

　　A. changed his mind　　　　　　　 B. accepted the offer

　　C. saw the writer’s purpose　　　　　D. decided to help the writer

How much did the writer pay?

　　A. ￡ 5.　　　　B. ￡ 7.　　　　 C. ￡ 20.　　　　D. ￡ 27.

From the text, we can learn that the writer was ________

A. honest　　　　B. careful　　　　C. smart　　　　 D. funny

When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never yelled at us for playing in his yard. I remember him as someone who was a lot nicer than most of the adults in our community.
When Dr. Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. His house sat on ten acres, and his life’s goal was to make it a forest.
The good doctor had some interesting theories concerning plant care and growth. He never watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants spoiled them so that each successive tree generation would grow weaker and weaker. So you have to make things rough for them and weed out(淘汰) the weaker trees early on. He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of moisture. I took him to mean that deep roots were to be treasured.
So he never watered his trees. He planted an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. Smack! Slap! Pow! I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s attention.
Dr. Gibbs passed away a couple of years after I left home. Every now and again, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I’d watched him plant some twenty-five years ago. They’re extremely tall, big and robust since they have deep roots now. However, the trees in my garden trembled in a cold wind although I had watered them for several years.
It seems that adversity(逆境) and suffering benefit these trees in ways comfort and ease never could. I stood there deep in thought.
Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch their little bodies, the rising and falling of life within. I often pray for them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But I think that it’s time to change my prayer(祷词) because now I know my children are going to encounter hardship.
【小题1】According to Dr. Gibbs’ theories, trees will become weaker if they _________.