Red is used in many American expressions. It can be used to show happiness, as in the expression “a red-letter day”. This is a day when something special happens. The expression is probably based on church customs. For almost 600 years, church calendars have been marked with red to show special holy(神圣的)days. Today’s calendars are still marked that way with the dates of holidays and special days printed in red.

The expression “a red-letter day”is often heard in daily life. “A red-letter day” is a day that people are especially happy. It may be a day that you have waited for a long time, a wedding day, for example. Or it may be a day with a happy surprise. You might tell a friend that yesterday was a red-letter day, because you won some money in the lottery.

“Rolling out the red carpet” is another commonly heard expression. It describes an especially warm welcome of any kind. A city may “roll out the carpet ”for its baseball team, when the team arrives home after winning a championship. A group of supporters go to the air port to the greet the team. The red-carpet welcome includes a lot of cheering by thousands of fans, a parade, music and speech of praise by local statesmen.

Red is also used in some expressions that are not happy. “Red-handed ” is an example. To be caught “red-handed” is to be found in an act of wrong doing. The evidence is clear. You are guilty. Today we use the expression “ to be caught red-handed ”in situation(情况)that are not serious. For example, a mother might say she caught her son red-handed, taking cookies out of the cookie jar.

Some American Expressions with __1.___

The greatest saleswoman in the world today doesn’t mind if you call her a girl. That’s because Markita Andrews has got more than eight thousand dollars selling Girl Scout cookies since she was seven years old.
Going door-to-door after school, the terribly shy Markita changed herself into the cookie-selling dynamo（高手）.
It starts with great wish.
For Markita and her mother, whose husband left them when Markita was eight years old, their dream was to travel the world. “I’ll work hard to make enough money to send you to college,” her mother said one day. “When you leave college, you’ll make enough money to take you and me around the world. Okay?”
So at the age of 13 when Markita read in her Girl Scout magazine that the Scout（童子军）who sold the most cookies would win a free trip for two around the world, she decided to sell all the Girl Scout cookies she could—more Girl Scout cookies than anyone in the world, ever.
Wish, however, alone is not enough. To make her dream come true, Markita knew she needed a plan.
“When you are doing business, wear your Girl Scout clothes when you go up to people in their building, ” her aunt told her. “Always smile, whether they buy something or not and always be nice.”
Lots of other Scouts may have wanted that trip around the world, but only Markita went off in her own uniform each day after school, ready to ask—and keep asking—people to help in her dream.
Markita sold 3,526 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that year and won her trip around the world. Since then, she has sold more than 42,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.
Markita is no cleverer than thousands of other people, with dreams of their own. The difference is that many people fail before they even begin. They fear（恐惧）that they will be refused. This fear leads many of us to refuse ourselves and prevents us from getting where we have set off for long before anyone else ever has the chance—no matter what we are selling.
“It takes courage（勇气）to ask for what you want,” she said. “Courage is not that you don’t have fear. It means doing what it takes although you have a fear of it”.
【小题1】From the passage we learn that ________.

The greatest saleswoman in the world today doesn’t mind if you call her a girl. That’s because Markita Andrews has got more than eight thousand dollars selling Girl Scout cookies since she was seven years old.

Going door-to-door after school, the terribly shy Markita changed herself into the cookie-selling dynamo（高手）.

It starts with great wish.

For Markita and her mother, whose husband left them when Markita was eight years old, their dream was to travel the world. “I’ll work hard to make enough money to send you to college,” her mother said one day. “When you leave college, you’ll make enough money to take you and me around the world. Okay?”

So at the age of 13 when Markita read in her Girl Scout magazine that the Scout（童子军）who sold the most cookies would win a free trip for two around the world, she decided to sell all the Girl Scout cookies she could—more Girl Scout cookies than anyone in the world, ever.

Wish, however, alone is not enough. To make her dream come true, Markita knew she needed a plan.

“When you are doing business, wear your Girl Scout clothes when you go up to people in their building, ” her aunt told her. “Always smile, whether they buy something or not and always be nice.”

Lots of other Scouts may have wanted that trip around the world, but only Markita went off in her own uniform each day after school, ready to ask—and keep asking—people to help in her dream.

Markita sold 3,526 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that year and won her trip around the world. Since then, she has sold more than 42,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

Markita is no cleverer than thousands of other people, with dreams of their own. The difference is that many people fail before they even begin. They fear（恐惧）that they will be refused. This fear leads many of us to refuse ourselves and prevents us from getting where we have set off for long before anyone else ever has the chance—no matter what we are selling.

“It takes courage（勇气）to ask for what you want,” she said. “Courage is not that you don’t have fear. It means doing what it takes although you have a fear of it”.

1.From the passage we learn that ________.

A．a good planning is the most important in the job of selling

B．Markita took the free trip around the world herself

C．Markita has a full-time selling job now

D．to do something successfully, we should do what is needed

2.Markita ________.

A．started to sell Girl Scout cookies when she was 13 years old

B．has only one parent

C．whose parents are rich, went to college

D．sold cookies in different shops

3.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A．The Greatest Saleswoman in the World.

B．A Successful Girl in Selling.

C．The Secret of Selling.

D．Girl Scout Cookies.

4.The main reason for Markita’s success is that ________.

A．she asks for what she wants before she is refused

B．she isn’t afraid to be refused

C．her aunt has told her how to sell things

D．she has a good wish