The Worst Part

Mom is usually home on Sunday but this week she was going to a big golf game and I was all alone in the house. I was mad at Mom for divorcing Dad.

I kept looking at the telephone until I couldn’t stand it any longer. I picked up the receiver and dialed Dad’s number over in Bakersfield. I even remembered to dial I first because it was long distance. “You promised to phone me this week but you didn’t,” I said, feeling I had to talk to him.

“Take it easy, kid,” he said. “I just didn’t get around to it. I was going to call this evening. The week isn’t over yet.”

I thought about that.

“Something on your mind?” he asked.

“I hoped you would call, so I waited and waited.” Then I was sorry I said it.

“There was heavy snow in the morning,” he said, “I had to chain up on highway 80 and lost time.”

I know putting chains on eight big wheels in the snow is no fun. I felt a little better, as long as we were talking. “How is Bandit?” I asked.

There was a funny silence. For a minute I thought the line was dead. Then I knew something must have happened to my dog.

“Well, kid—”, he began. “My name is Leigh!” I almost yelled. “I’m not just some kid you met on the street!”

“Keep your shirt on, Leigh,” he said. “When I had to stop along with some other truckers to put on chains, I left Bandit out of the cab, I thought he would get back … I have sent out a call to CB radio, but I didn’t get an answer yet.” I was about to say I understood when there came the bad part, the really bad part. I heard a boy’s voice say, “Hey, Bill, Mom wants to know when we’re going out to get the pizza?”

From the story we know that _______.

A. Leigh’s dad never had a rest on Sundays       B. Leigh was a deserted boy

C. Leigh’s dad lived in another city             D. Leigh’s mother often went to golf games

What happened to Bandit?

A. It was frozen to death.      B. It was let out of the cab and got lost

C. It was killed by a truck.    D. It ran off Highway 80 and into the mountain.

The underlined sentence “Keep your shirt on” probably means “_______”.

A. Listen to reason   B. Stop talking   C. Calm down         D. Keep warm

In Leigh’s eye, “the worst part” may be that ________.

A. his dad got remarried              B. his parents got divorced

C. his dad didn’t love him     D. his mom didn’t take him to pizza

Fannie Cratty wasn’t really my aunt. I only referred to her as “My Aunt Fannie” because the name always made my father laugh and gave my mother cause to look angrily at both of us---at me for being disrespectful of my elder and at my father for encouraging my bad behavior.

        As a young woman, my mother had worked in the kitchen of a large Victorian farmhouse owned by Fannie Cratty. During those years my mother helped Aunt Fannie make the best blueberry jam ever tasted by anyone in Glenfield. Aunt Fannie was well known for her jam and for never sharing the recipe with another living soul. Even though my mother knew the recipe by heart, as long as Aunt Fannie was alive (and she lived to be ninety-six!), she never made the jam without Ms. Cratty in our kitchen to direct the process and preserve the secret. 

        Each August, when blueberry season would roll around, my mother would prepare me for Aunt Fannie’s visit. It was vital that I should be on my best behavior. After all, the woman was old, wealthy, very strict with children. Whenever she was at the house, I didn’t need to be reminded to guard my thoughts and watch my tongue. 

         One year, after I had been particularly helpful with the jam process, Aunt Fannie gave me a quarter(25分硬币) and then made me promise that I would never spend it. “Hold onto this quarter,” she said, “and someday you will be rich. I still have my very first quarter, given to me by my grandfather.” It had obviously worked for her. So, I kept the 1938-quarter into a small box, put it in my dresser drawer, and waited to become rich. 

         I now have the blueberry jam recipe and the quarter from Aunt Fannie. In people’s eye Aunt Fannie’s success was due to that secret recipe. But to me, it was just a common recipe. Neither has significantly contributed to my wealth, but I keep them as reminders to hold onto the valuable things in life. Money can make you feel rich for a while, but it is the relationships and the memories of time spent with friends and family that truly leave you wealthy. And that is a fortune that anyone can build.

1.Paragraph 2 implies that my mother     .

A. used to forget the secret blueberry jam recipe

B. wanted to show off her excellent cooking skills

C. was unable to make the jam without Aunt Fannie’s direction

D. tried to convince Aunt Fannie that she would keep the secret

2.According to Paragraph 4, the author believed that Aunt Fanni was rich because     .

A. she had kept her first quarter

B. she had never wasted money

C. she had worked very hard

D. she had kept her promise

3.The author thinks that we can feel wealthy if we     .

A. share our wealth with others

B. have good fortune and money

C. know the secret of a jam recipe

D. own lasting love and friendship

4.Which would be the best title for this passage？

A. An old quarter                                            B. Valuable Things

C. Blueberry Jam Recipe                      　　D. Memories of old time

 

A mouse looked through a crack(缝隙) in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package; what food might it contain? He was astonished to discover that it was a mouse trap!

Running to the farmyard, the mouse shouted, warning everyone, “There is a mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in the house.”

The chicken, with her head high, glared at the mouse and said, “Shut up. Little Ugly. This is a great concern to you, but it has nothing to do with me; I can’t be troubled by it.

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mouse trap in the house.” “I am so sorry, Mr. Mouse,” said the pig sympathetically, “but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; you are always in my prayers.”

The mouse turned to the cow, who relied, “ A mouse trap, am I in great danger, huh?”

Now the mouse had to face the farmer’s mouse trap alone.

The very night a sound was heard through the house, like that of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a big poisonous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. It is said that drinking fresh chicken soup will help treat fever, so the farmer took his sharp knife to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. His wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer killed the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral. The farmer had the cow killed to provide for all of them to eat.

So next time when someone is facing a problem, don’t say that it has nothing to do with you. Remember: when the least of us is threatened, we all might be at risk.

1.We could see from the passage that the mouse was _____.

A．good at cheating others	B．honest
C．kind and warm-hearted	D．foolish

2.Which of the following is False according to the passage?

A．The others help the farmer kill the cow.

B．The mouse trap was very practical

C．The pig is more friendly than the other animals.

D．The farmer’s family was very poor and they had no friends

3.What can we learn from the story?

A．Better safe than sorry

B．Traps can always cause chain reactions

C．To keep the balance of nature is the duty of us all

D．What you think impossible to happen to you might come at you unexpectedly

 

首先请阅读下列6出电影的简要介绍，并按照要求匹配信息。

A．It is about the legend of vampire, the story of the wolf man, the campus life, moved love story, horror, adventure and other elements. The story begins with the main character, Isabella (Bella) Swan, moving from Phoenix, to the small town of Forks, a dreary and rain-filled place, to live with her father. She develops a relationship with fellow student, Edward Cullen, who initially annoys her, but despite a rough beginning, they fall in love. After witnessing some strange behavior from Edward, Bella eventually discovers that he is a vampire, but despite the very real risk to her life, she cannot bear to be apart from him. Eventually Bella is introduced to Edward’s vampire family, not all of who welcome her with open arms, however, it is Edward’s family that go to great lengths to save Bella when her life is threatened.

B. With an absent father and a withdrawn and depressed mother, 17 year-old Ree Dolly keeps her family together in a dirt poor rural area. She's taken backwards however when the local Sheriff（县治安官） tells her that her father put up their house for his bail（保释）and unless he shows up for his trial in a week's time, they will lose it all. She knows her father is involved in the local drug trade and manufactures crystal meth but anywhere she goes the message is the same: stay out of it and stop poking your nose in other people's business. She refuses to listen, even after her father's brother, Teardrop, tells her he's probably been killed. She pushes on, putting her own life in danger, for the sake of her family until the truth, or enough of it, is revealed.

C. Dom Cobb is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted（妄想的） player in this deceitful new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption（赎）. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible-inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move...

D. Reflecting on her earlier life, she observes that for most of it she was either with a man or in the process of leaving one, and so in the first stages of her journey she experiments with singleness. Not with solitude, exactly, since Liz is naturally sociable and acquires friends easily. Back home in New York she has Delia, and in Rome a Swedish woman named Sofi introduces her to an amicable（心平气和）group of Italians, including a fellow whose last name is Spaghetti. While he is seen mainly in group shots, his namesake food is filmed in loving close-ups. In keeping with the theme of self-examination, Liz’s trip is confined to countries that begin with the letter “I”. From the ruins of Italy, to an ashram in India, and then to Indonesia......

E. John Crowley is a worried businessman and father of two children stricken with Pompe disease, suffering of muscle deterioration（恶化）with an age expectancy of nine years. With critical birthdays looming on the horizon, Crowley decides to take a chance and pursue research scientist Robert Stonehill, a rebellious thinker in the field of Pompe with radical ideas on enzyme therapy. Promising money he doesn't necessarily have, Crowley talks Stonehill into a business venture, pushing the irascible（暴躁的） scientist into research while he worries about the cash flow. With the clock ticking, Stonehill presents challenging theories, irritating the interest of pharmaceutical giants, who demand results practically overnight. With Stonehill feeling the heat during this demoralizing process, Crowley fights to maintain the face of Pompe, to keep the cure from becoming just another compromised drug on the market.

F. Bob Ho, a Chinese spy who was loaned to the CIA and is now retiring so he can settle down and marry his girlfriend, Gillian, who lives next door and doesn't know he's a spy. She thinks he's a pen importer. Around her, Bob acts like a boring country man, wears eyeglasses, and hides his super-spy abilities. Gillian loves that he's normal and reliable, not like her ex-husband, who ran off and left her with three kids. So Gillian has to go out of town because her father's in the hospital, and Bob volunteers to babysit so he can bond with the children. Meanwhile, a Russian terrorist named Poldark has escaped CIA custody and is looking for a top-secret code that young Ian accidentally downloaded from Bob's computer, which means Poldark and his goons are going to show up any minute now and kill them all. Bob must save the children -- and the world!

以下是电影中的部分对白，请匹配适合他们的电影。

A. Yeah. I'm in love. I'm having a relationship with my pizza. You look like you're breaking up

with the    pizza. What's the matter?

    B: I can't.

    A: What do you mean, you can't? This is pizza in Napoli. It is your moral imperative to eat that pizza.

    B: I want to, but I've gained, like, 10 pounds. I mean, I've got this.... Right here. What's it called? What's the word?

    A: A muffin top. I have one too.

   A: C came by looking for Dad. If he don't show up for his court date, we're gonna lose the house. I gotta     get down to the Arkansas line.

    B: I gotta ask him. It's his truck. He said no.

    A: Did you tell him I'd spring for gas?

    B: I told him. He still won't.

    A: Why not?

A: Dream within a dream, huh. I'm impressed. But in my dream, you play by my rules.

    B: Yes, but you see Mr. A...

    C: We're not in your dream.

    B: We're in mine.

   A: Can we go back to business?

    B: Would it help to mention I'm retired?

    A: Retired men don't download secrets.

    B: I never downloaded anything.

    C: He's lying.

    B: Who are you going to believe? Me or the traitor?

    D: Someone has been a very naughty boy. He's got cameras and microphones mounted all over the     place.

    D: Good plan, filming us together.

    B: How could you turn against your country?

   A: You're B, the new girl. Hi, I'm A, the eyes and ears of this place. Anything you need, tour guide, lunch date, shoulder to cry on?

    B: I'm really kind of the more suffer-in-silence type.

    A: Good headline for your feature. I'm on the paper, and you're news, baby, front page.

    B: No, I'm not. You...Please don't have any sort of...

    A: Chillax. No feature.

    B: Okay, thanks.

Dear Cary,

I'm writing because I've understood you've struggled with alcoholism （酗酒）．I've been fighting mine ever since I went through 9-11．After that, I've been more or less useless professionally - I'm a lawyer - and have had to resien（ 辞职） from my job because I was discovered passed - out drunk in front of my computer．I've taken some medicine and it has helped somewhat．I can manage about a month without drinking, but after that I end up having a crazy stage where nothing matters except drinking．After a week or so of heavy drinking,! start having nightmares of people jumping．After that, it's a week of not being able to get out of bed．

I was supposed to travel to a conference but didn't make it because I got so drunk at the airport that I fell down on my face and spent the rest of the day in the emergency room．I have been hiding from my family since then．Fortunately they won't be expecting me to come back for a week or so．Otherwise, they would notice the bump on my forehead and two black eyes．

I don't really know what I'm asking you．Cary, I need a way out that doesn't involve causing pain to my family．I'm taking medicine, but' I still have these attacks every few months．If there's alcohol in the house, I can't stay away from it．It seems that this will never end．I'm afraid of what will happen if something bad happens, like a family member dying, or getting fired again．

Thanks for reading．

Yours T

1.The underlined sentence shows us all the following EXCEPT _____．

       A．the reason why the author had to resign

       B．that the author was once discovered drunk as a fish

       C．that the author is a lawyer by profession

       D．that the author is a lawyer and he never gets drunk

2.The author writes to Cary in order to _____．

       A．ask for money   B．ask for help      C．offer advice  D．tell a story

3.What is the author worried about?

       A．  Losing his job                       B．Giving up drinking

       C．  Bring pain to his family           D．Missing the conference

4.We know from the passage that Cary _____．

       A．is probably a recovered alcoholic

    B．never suffered from alcoholism

       C．likes to talk about the details of his life

    D．is a doctor on treating alcoholism