Don’t write the letters ______ pencil but ______ ink.

Vanilla is my best friend. She is a lovely girl with two big, beautiful eyes. But she always hides them behind a pair of black glasses.

One day, though, I nearly ended our friendship. I remember that day clearly. We were sitting in class. The teacher was giving us our results for a Chinese test. I had done badly. I felt so sad that I wouldn’t talk to anyone. At lunchtime, I even stayed in the classroom alone. Suddenly, I heard a voice. It was Vanilla. “You look very unhappy,” she said. “What’s wrong?” I looked up at her, but said nothing. I knew Vanilla had got a good mark in the test. I thought she was making fun of me. I stayed silent, but Vanilla didn’t go away. She kept asking me questions: “Is it because of the exam? Do you want me to show you the right answers?” I looked away from her. When I looked up again, Vanilla had gone. And so had my exam paper! I didn’t know what to do. I looked everywhere for me paper, but couldn’t find it.

In the afternoon, Vanilla came up to my desk and gave me my exam paper back. I looked at it and got a big surprise. Vanilla had written the right answer next to every one of my mistakes. My face went red. Vanilla had been trying to help me all along. How mean I had been to her when she was being so nice. I wanted to hug her, but all I did was to hold her hands and say, “Thank you.” That afternoon, Vanilla and I walked home together. I felt so happy that I had to thank her again. We were still best friends.

1.The writer felt sad because ________ in the Chinese test.

A. she got a bad mark

B. Vanilla had done better than her

C. she didn’t have a high mark

D. the teacher was angry with her

2. Vanilla really came to the writer to _______.

A. make fun of her

B. find out what had happened to her

C. help her

D. show her the right answers

3. Vanilla left the writer because she __________.

A. wanted to write the right answers for the writer

B. didn’t know what to do to help her friend

C. was angry with the writer

D. wanted to go home for lunch

4.Which of the following phrases has the same meaning as “make fun of”?

A. Saying “hello” to. B. Seeing me off.

C. Laughing at. D. Looking after.

One windy spring day, I noticed young people having fun using the wind to fly their kites. Colorful creations of different shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds flying and dancing. As the strong winds blew against the kites, a string kept them in control.
Instead of blowing away with the wind, they rose against it to achieve great heights. They shook and pulled, but the restraining (控制的) string and the cumbersome (笨重的) tail kept them in control, facing upward and against the wind. As the kites struggled against the string, they seemed to say, “Let me go! Let me go! I want to be free!” They rose beautifully even when they fought the restriction of the string. Finally, one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose(松散的). “Free at last,” it seemed to say. “Free to fly with the wind.”
Yet freedom(自由) simply put it in the control of an unkind wind. It fell down to the ground and landed in a mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. “Free at last”, free to lie powerlessly in the dirt, to be blown helplessly along the ground, and to stop lifelessly against the first obstacle (障碍物).
How much like kites we sometimes are. The Heaven gives us adversity (逆境) and rules, rules to follow from which we can grow and get strength. Some of us break away from the rules so hard that we never reach the heights we might get to. We keep part of the rules and never rise high enough to get our tails off the ground.
Let us each rise to the great heights, knowing that some of the rules that we may be angry about are in fact the strong force that helps us achieve.
【小题1】Why does the writer write the first paragraph?