A woman repeated a bit of gossip (流言) about a neighbour. Within a few days the whole neighbourhood knew the story. The neighbour was deeply hurt. Later the woman responsible (负责) for spreading the gossip learned that it was completely untrue. She was very sorry and went to a wise old man to find out what she could do to repair the harm.
“Go to the marketplace,” he said. “and buy a chicken, and have it killed, then on your way home, pluck (拔) its feathers and drop them one by one along the road. ” Although surprised by this advice, the woman did what she was told.
The next day the wise man said, “ Now, go and collect all those feathers you dropped yesterday and bring them back to me. ”
The woman followed the same road, but she was so discouraged when she found the wind had blown all the feathers away. After searching for hours, she returned with only three in her hand.
“ You see, ” said the old man, “it’s easy to drop them, but it’s impossible to get them back . So it is with gossip. It doesn’t take much to spread a gossip, but once you do, you can never completely undo the wrong.”
【小题1】The woman was very _________ the harm she had done to her neighbour.

A．happy about

B．angry about

C．sorry for

D．excited about

【小题2】Which of the following statements is TURE?

A．The gossip didn’t hurt anyone at all.

B．The wise man was not kind enough.

C．The woman found all the feathers at last.

D．The woman was given a lesson.

【小题3】What the wise man said has nearly the same meaning as the Chinese phrase “_________”

A．覆水难收

B．无中生有

C．欲速不达

D．得道多助

In the sea there are many islands. In its warm waters there are some little ones. We call them coral(珊瑚) islands.
A coral island is very nice to look at. It looks like a ring of land with trees, grass, and flowers on it. One part of the ring is open to the water. There is a little round lake inside the island.
If you look into this lake, you will see beautiful coral. You may think they are flowers.
If you look at a piece of coral, you will see many little holes in it. In each of these holes a very small sea animal has lived. These sea animals make the coral.
They began to build under the water. Year after year, the coral grew higher and higher. At last it grew out of the water.
Then the sea brought to it small trees and something else. After some years, these things changed into earth. Sometimes the wind brought seeds to this earth. Sometimes birds flew over it and brought seeds to the island. The little seeds grew. In a few years there were plants all over the island. In a few more years there were trees growing there.
So you see, these islands were built little by little. The workers were very small. Don’t they teach us a lesson? Can you think what the lesson is?
【小题1】 In the sea _____.

A．there are no coral islands	B．there are some coral islands
C．the water is always warm	D．we can see many flowers and fishes

【小题2】A coral island looks like ______.

A．a round cake

B．trees, grass and flowers

C．a ring of land

D．a round lake

【小题3】There are ____ in the holes in corals.

A．flowers

B．little corals

C．grass

D．sea animals

【小题4】How did seeds of trees, grass and flowers come to the coral islands?

A．The wind and birds brought them to the coral islands.

B．Only the wind brought them there.

C．People brought them there.

D．Fishes brought them there.

【小题5】From the story we learn that _____.

A．small workers can’t do big things

B．only big workers can do big things

C．small workers can do big things if they work hard and work a long time

D．all small things can do things

A student newspaper reports that most students go to sleep at 1:30 am. Even if that’s an overstatement (夸张), it’s close to the truth. Scientists say teens should sleep nine hours each night. But that’s hard. Some are even “pulling all-nighters” (开夜车). These students must hand in their homework the next day but they haven’t done it. In the morning they don’t look healthy and you can tell who’s been doing it. One of my classmates did a survey on the topic. She found that most kids pull all-nighters to finish homework, but some do it for other reasons, such as playing computer games!
Maybe our lack(缺乏) of sleep is because of laziness — I think I’m a rather lazy student — or maybe it’s because we have too much to do in American high schools. I usually go to bed around midnight. If I stayed up past 1:30 am, I wouldn’t get any work done. I’d be falling asleep at my computer. My classes begin at 7:30 am. I’m partly awake in my first class. By the second, I’m a little sleepy. By my third class, I’m sleepy. By midday I’m finally fully awake. But by 3:00 pm, I’m slowing down again. Yet I get more sleep than usual students.
Most American high schools seem to have a similar(相似的) problem with sleepy students. High school classes start at 7:30 am, so students have to get up one and a half hours before that to get ready and catch the bus. It’s believed that lack of sleep can be bad for both grades and health. Some schools are paying attention. Classes in those schools start at 8:30 am.
【小题1】What does the underlined sentence “it’s close to the truth” mean?

A．It doesn’t tell the truth.	B．It is quite true.
C．It is impossible.	D．I don’t think it’s right.

【小题2】Why do most of the teens have to stay up late?

A．They play computer games.	B．They watch videos late.
C．They have to do a lot of housework.	D．They have to do a lot of homework.

【小题3】When do students in most American high schools have to get up?

A．At 7:30 am.

B．At 6:00 am.

C．At 9:00 am.

D．At about 7:00 am.

【小题4】Which of the following is TRUE according to the reading?

A．The writer usually stays up past 1:30 am.

B．The writer usually goes to bed around midnight.

C．The writer usually does a survey.

D．Many American students don’t get enough sleep, so they can have high grades.

【小题5】What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．Something has to be done to solve the problem of students’ lack of sleep.

B．Many American high school students are sleepy in class.

C．Many kids have too much homework to do.

D．Students can’t play computer games.