It was a hot summer day. My dad and I were getting ready to go out for a ride on the boat. Just then the phone call came, the call changed that sunny and beautiful day into a cold and dark one.

When I saw my father answering the phone, he was crying. I’d never seen my dad cry before. My heart sank. What possibly could happen?

“Max, I’m so sorry,” I heard him say. That’s when it hit me. I knew that Suzie had died.

Max has been my dad’s best friend for years. Suzie, his daughter, had a serious illness. She knew she was different from other kids. Although she couldn’t live a normal life, she was still happy.

When Suzie and I were little girls, we spent quite a bit of time together. When Suzie was ten, she had to live in a hospital. About eight months before she died, we talked at least twice a week on the phone until the end. Suzie was always so excited to talk to me and wanted to know everything I did and every thing I ate.

When Suzie and I first started calling each other, I thought it would be more of a burden on me, but I was completely wrong. I learned so much from her. She gave me more than I could ever give her. I will never forget her or the talks we had. I now know that I must never take anything for granted, especially my health and the gift of life.

1.That phone call on a summer day made the author very _________.

A. sad              B. dark             C. cold              D. disappointed

2.Which of the following is Not true?

A. The author’s day had never cried before.

B. Max was the best friend of the author’s dad.

C. Suzie was in bad health, so she was always unhappy.

D. Suzie enjoyed talking to the author on the phone.

3.The underlined word “it” probably refers to _________.

A. all the talks between Suzie and the author on the phone

B. Suzie’s serious illness

C. Suzie’s death

D. the first talk between Suzie and the author on the phone

4.Which is the best title for the passage?

A. The Gift of Life                                                B. A Cold Dark Day

C. Suzie’s Death                                                  D. My Friend Suzie

Once a small boy lived on a farm which seemed so far away from everywhere.
He needed to get up before sunrise every morning to help his father on the farm. During sunrise he would .a break and climb up on the fence(篱笆)along the side of the farm. He could see a house with golden windows. “If they could afford golden windows, then there must be other nice things inside the house.” He imagined how great it would be to live there. Then he promised himself, “Some day 1 will go there and see this wonderful place.”
One morning, his father would go to the town and told him to stay at home for a rest. Knowing that this was his chance, he took a sandwich and headed across the field towards the house with the golden windows.
As the afternoon went on, he began to know how wrong he was. The house was much farther than he had expected. As he went near the house, he saw no golden windows but instead a place in bad need of a painting. A small girl very close to his age came out of the poor house and stood by the broken fence. He asked her if she had seen the house with the golden windows. The girl said, “Sure, I know.” and invited him to sit on the porch (门廊).As he sat there, he looked back from where he just came. There he saw the sunset turned the windows of his house to gold! Now he understood that everyone had his own house with golden windows.
【小题1】During his break every morning, the small boy would _________.