O．Henry，born in Greensboro，North Carolina，was the pen name of William Sydney Porter.His father，Algernon Sidney Porter，was a physician.When William was three years old，his mother died，and he was raised by his grandmother and aunt.William was a good reader，but at the age of fifteen he left school，and worked in a drug store and later on a Texas farm.After that，he moved to Houston，where he had a number of jobs，including that of bank clerk.After moving to Austin，Texas，in 1882，he married.
In 1884 he started a humorous weekly The  Rolling Stone.When the weekly failed，he joined The  Houston Post as a reporter and columnist(专栏作家)．In 1897 he was put into prison over some financial(财务的)dealings.While in prison，William started to write short stories to earn money to support his daughter Margaret.His first work，Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking(1899)，appeared in McClure’s Magazine.After serving three years of the five years’ sentence，he changed his name to O．Henry，hoping to forget his bitter past.
O．Henry moved to New York City in 1902 and from December 1903 to January 1906 he wrote a story a week for the New York World，and also published the stories in other magazines.His first collection，Cabbages and Kings，appeared in 1904.Many other works quickly followed，such as The Gift of the Magi and The Furnished Room.O.Henry’s best known work is The Ransom of Red Chief.His stories always have surprising endings.He published 10 collections and over 600 short stories during his lifetime.
O．Henry’s last years were shadowed by drinking，ill health，and financial problems.In 1907，he experienced a failed marriage.In 1910，O.Henry died after an illness.
【小题1】What’s the passage mainly about?

A．A brief introduction to O．Henry.

B．O.Henry’s career and marriage.

C．How O．Henry became a well­known writer.

D．O.Henry’s best known works.

【小题2】It can be inferred from the passage that O．Henry ________.

A．didn’t like to study during his childhood

B．had little parental love as a child

C．was very interested in medicine and farming

D．took up only one job after he moved to Houston

【小题3】Which is the right time order for the following events in O．Henry’s life?
①He moved to New York City.
②He joined The Houston Post.
③Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking came out.
④The Furnished Room came out.
⑤Cabbages and Kings appeared.

A．①②③④⑤

B．②①③⑤④

C．③②①④⑤

D．②③①⑤④

【小题4】Which of the following works of O. Henry’s is the most popular according to the passage?

A．Cabbages and Kings.

B．The Gift of the Magi.

C．The Furnished Room.

D．The Ransom of Red Chief.

Steve Jobs made technology fun．The co-founder of Apple died last Wednesday at the age of fifty-six He had fought for years against cancer．Mourners gathered outside his house in Palo Alto, California, and Apple stores around the world．
Tim Bajarin, president of a high-tech research and consulting company, said "If you actually look at a tech leader, they're really happy if they have one hit in their life．Steve Jobs has the Apple II, the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad and Pixar．"
Steve Jobs was a college dropout．He was adopted by a machinist and his wife, an accountant．They supported his early interest in electronics．
He and his friend Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer—now just called Apple—in nineteen seventy-six．They stayed at the company until nineteen eighty-five．That year, Steve Wozniak returned to college and Steve Jobs left in a dispute（分歧）with the chief executive．
Mr．Jobs then formed his own company, called NeXT Computer．He rejoined Apple in nineteen ninety-seven after it bought NeXT．He helped remake Apple from a business that was in bad shape then to one of the most valuable companies in the world today．
Steve Wozniak, speaking on CNN, remembered his longtime friend as a "great visionary and leader'' and a "marketing genius（天才）"．
President Obama said in a statement: "By building one of the planet's most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity．By making computers personal and putting the Internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun．"
David Carroll is a professor at Parsons School of Design in New York City．He says Steve Jobs not only revolutionized technology, he also revolutionized American business．
"The fact that he was able to redesign American commerce top to bottom and across is really stunning （令人惊奇的）．He probably will be considered an industrial giant on the scale of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, so one of the great[s] of all time．" David Carroll said．
Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple's chief executive in August because of his health．He died a day after the company released a new iPhone version that met with limited excitement．Apple's new chief, Tim Cook, will also have to deal with the new Kindle Fire tablet computer from Amazon．com．It costs less than half as much as an iPad but also does less．
【小题1】Why did people all over the world mourn Steve Jobs?

A．He was very courageous in the face of cancer．

B．He became very rich though dropping out college．

C．He released a new iPhone version before death．

D．He revolutionized technology and made it enjoyable．

【小题2】Which of the following can easily prove that Jobs is a "marketing genius"?

A．After Apple, he founded NeXT Computer．

B．He made Apple very valuable once again in the world．

C．He developed a series of Apple products．

D．He was considered the greatest industrial figure of all time．

【小题3】What does the underlined part in Paragraph 7 mean?

A．Jobs was a typical example of American spirit of creation．

B．Jobs enriched the American spirit of science and freedom．

C．Jobs eventually realized his American dream．

D．American people are good at inventing things．

【小题4】Which of the following is true according to the text?

A．Jobs's parents discouraged him from working on electronics

B．Jobs stayed in Apple as chief executive for about 24 years．

C．Jobs started his career in his family garage．

D．Run unsuccessfully, Apple was sold to NeXT Computer．

Visitors can find a small, old house called the O. Henry Museum in central Austin, Texas. William Sydney Porter(1862-1910)----better known as O. Henry, was one of America’s best loved writers of short stories. Beginning in 1893, he lived here. It was saved from destruction, moved, and turned into a museum in 1934. The museum is a good way to learn about the interesting life of him.
William Porter rented this house and lived with his wife and daughter for about two years. Many objects in the museum belonged to the Porters. Others did not, but are in the house to recreate the way it looked during their lifetime.
Porter worked at a pharmacy, farm, land office and bank. He also loved words and writing. The museum has special proof of Porter’s love of language---his dictionary. It’s said that he read every word in it. Porter started a small publication called “The Rolling Stone”. He wasn’t being published early on, so he published himself. His funny stories, poems, and drawings were published in the magazine. But it was too costly to continue for long, so he closed the project after about one year.
Other troubles would lead the Porters to leave Austin. Porter was accused of financial wrongdoing at the bank and lost his job. Fearing a trial, he fled the country. But he returned because his wife was dying. After her death, he faced trial and was found guilty. He served three and a half years in a federal prison in Ohio.
Porter would keep his time in prison a secret. But there was one good thing about it. It provided him with time to write. By the time of his release, he had published 14 stories and was becoming well-known as O. Henry.
Porter would later move to New York City and find great success there. He published over 380 stories in the last eight years of his life.
【小题1】What is the author’s purpose of writing paragraph 3?

A．To attract more visitors to the O. Henry Museum.

B．To show the jobs O. Henry once did.

C．To show O. Henry’s early love of words and writing.

D．To introduce O. Henry’s publication called “The Rolling Stone”.

【小题2】Which of the following shows the right order of O. Henry?
a. He was committed to prison.
b. He settled down in central Austin.
c. His wife died.
d. He started a small publication called “The Rolling Stone”.
e. He moved to New York City.

A．bdcae

B．bcade

C．bdcea

D．bacde

【小题3】What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Most of O. Henry’s short stories were finished in prison.

B．O. Henry didn’t start his career as a successful writer when living in central Austin.

C．O. Henry was born in a small, old house which is called the O. Henry Museum now.

D．O. Henry spent his last life in the small, old house in Texas.

【小题4】What does the author want to tell us in the passage?

A．O. Henry’s experience in prison.

B．The objects in the O. Henry’s Museum

C．O. Henry’s achievement in literature.

D．A brief account of O. Henry’s life

O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank. When some money went missing from the bank, O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the reader’s surprise.

1.In which order did O. Henry do the following things?

a. Lived in New York.   b. Worked in a bank.      c. Travelled to Texas.

d. Was put in prison.    e. Had a newspaper Job.    f. Learned to write stories.

A．e. c. f. b. d. a                           B．c. e. b. d. f. a

C．e. b. d. c. a. f.                           D．c. b. e. d. a f.

2.People enjoyed reading O. Henry’s stories because__________.

A．they had surprise endings                 B．they were short

C．they showed his love for the poor           D．they were about New York City

3.O. Henry went to prison because__________ .

A．people thought he had stolen money from the newspaper

B．he broke the law by not using his own name

C．he wanted to write stories about prisoners

D．people thought he had taken money that was not his

4.What do we know about O. Henry before he began writing?

A．He was well-educated.                   B．He was not serious about his work.

C．He was devoted to the poor.               D．He was very good at learning.

5.Where did O. Henry get most material for his short stories?

A．His life inside the prison.                  B．The newspaper articles he wrote.

C．The city and people of New York.            D．His exciting early life as a boy.