People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

                                                      --R. W. E, erson

    It was Mother’s Day, but the young mother was a little unhappy, because she was 800 miles away from her parents. In the morning she phoned her mother to   1   her a happy Mother’s Day, and her mother told her about the beautiful    2   in the garden.

    Later that day, when she told her husband about the lilacs（丁香）, he said, “I know where we can find   3   that you want. Get the children and come on.” So they went,  4   down the country roads.

    There on a small hill, they saw a lot of purple lilacs. The young woman ran quickly to    5    the flowers.   6   , she picked a few here and a few there. On their way home there was a smile on her face.

    When they were   7  a nursing home, the young woman saw an old granny sitting in a chair. She had no children with her. They    8   the car and the young woman walked to the old woman, put the    9   in her hands, and smiled at her. The old granny   10   her again and again. She smiled happily, too.

      11   the young mother came back to her car, her   12    asked her, “Who is that old granny?” “Why did you give our flowers to her?”

    “I don’t know her,” their mother said. “But it’s Mother’s Day, and she has no children. I have all of you, and I   13   have my mother. Just think how much those flowers   14   to her.”

     Hearing    15   their mother said, all the children were greatly   16  .

As we know, everyone needs love. In our society, only more love is   17   to the people, 18     those who are in great    19   , we will feel happy.   20   by this, can we have a better life, a more humorous world.

1．A．expect                     B．persuade          C．consider                 D．wish

2．A．nature                   B．lilacs                C．tree                        D．building

3．A．all                            B．something        C．anything                 D．nothing

4．A．walking                    B．rolling              C．driving                    D．advancing

5．A．enjoy                     B．share               C．compare                 D．stress

6．A．Simply                     B．Contently         C．Immediately            D．Carefully

7．A．watching               B．passing                C．experiencing     D．finding

8．A．stopped                    B．exchanged            C．shook              D．started

9．A．sweets                         B．money                       C．flowers             D．care

10．A．thanked                  B．struck                     C．touched           D．communicated

11．A．While               B．When                     C．Because           D．Since

12．A．husband               B．friends                    C．children           D．mother

13．A．hardly                     B．never                   C．even                D．still

14．A．meant                     B．repeated               C．thought            D．expressed

15．A．how                    B．why                    C．what               D．which

16．A．separated             B．surprised              C．frightened        D．moved

17．A．combined             B．dragged               C．offered            D．advised

18．A．especially             B．particularly              C．luckily             D．finally

19．A．sorrow                   B．excitement              C．courage           D．need

20．A．Then                   B．Only                    C．So                   D．Or

Pete Richards was the loneliest man in town on the day that little Jean Grace opened the door of his shop.

       Pete's grandfather had owned the shop until his death. Then the shop became Pete's. The front window was full of beautiful old things: jewelry of a hundred years ago, gold and silver boxes, carved figures from China and Japan and other nations.

       On this winter afternoon, a child stood there, her face close to the window. With large and serious eyes, she studied each piece in the window. Then, looking pleased, she stepped back from the window and went into the shop. Pete himself stood behind the counter. His eyes were cold as he looked at the small girl. “Please,” she began, “would you let me look at the pretty string of blue beads in the window?” Pete took the string of blue beads from the window. The beads were beautiful against his hand as he held the necklace up for her to see.

      “They are just right,” said the child as though she were alone with the beads. “Will you wrap them up in pretty paper for me, please? I've been looking for a really wonderful Christmas present for my sister.”

       “How much money do you have?” asked Pete.

       She put a handful of pennies on the counter. “This is all I have,” she explained simply. “I've been saving the money for my sister's present.”

       Pete looked at her, his eyes thoughtful. Then he carefully closed his hand over the price mark on the necklace so that she could not see it. How could he tell her the price? The happy look in her big blue eyes struck him like the pain of an old wound.

       “Just a minute,” he said and went to the back of the shop. “What's your name?” he called out. He was very busy about something.

       “Jean Grace,” answered the child.

       When Pete returned to the front of the shop, he held a package in his hand. It was wrapped in pretty Christmas paper.

       “There you are,” he said. “Don't lose it on the way home.”

       She smiled happily at him as she ran out of the door. Through the window he watched her go. He felt more alone than ever.

       Something about Jean Grace and her string of beads had made him feel once more the pain of his old grief. The child's hair was as yellow as the sunlight; her eyes were as blue as the sea. Once upon a time, Pete had loved a girl with hair of that same yellow and with eyes just as blue. And the necklace of blue stones had been meant for her.

       But one rainy night, a car had gone off the road and struck the girl. After she died, Pete felt that he had nothing left in the world except his grief. The blue eyes of Jean Grace brought him out of that world of self-pity and made him remember again all that he had lost. The pain of remembering was so great that Pete wanted to run away from the happy Christmas shoppers who came to look at his beautiful old things during the next ten days.

       When the last shopper had gone, late on Christmas Eve, the door opened and a young woman came in. Pete could not understand it, but he felt that he had seen her before. Her hair was sunlight yellow and her eyes were sea-blue. Without speaking, she put on the counter a package wrapped in pretty Christmas paper. When Pete opened the package, the string of blue beads lay again before him.

       “Did this come from your shop?” she asked.

       Pete looked at her with eyes no longer cold. “Yes, it did,” he said.

       “Are the stones real?”

       “Yes. They aren't the best turquoise(绿松石), but they are real.”

       “Can you remember to whom you sold them?”

       “She was a small girl. Her name was Jean. She wanted them for her sister's Christmas present.”

       “How much were they?”

       “I can't tell you that,” he said. “The seller never tells anyone else what a buyer pays.”

       “But Jean has never had more than a few pennies. How could she pay for them?”

       “She paid the biggest price one can ever pay,” he said.

       For a moment there was no sound in the little shop. Then somewhere in the city, church bells began to ring. It was midnight and the beginning of another Christmas Day.

       “But why did you do it?” the girl asked.

       Pete put the package into her hands.

       “There is no one else to whom I can give a Christmas present,” he said. “It is already Christmas morning. Will you let me take you to your home? I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas at your door.”

       And so, to the sound of many bells, Pete Richards and a girl whose name he had not yet learned walked out into the hope and happiness of a new Christmas Day.

55．When Pete saw Jean Grace, he was ______.

A. very enthusiastic, hoping for some business to be done

B. cold but he still served the young customer

C. cold, unwilling to serve the young customer

D. very warm to the young customer though he did not want to sell anything to her

56．Pete did not say the price of the necklace because ______.

A. the seller never tells anyone else what a buyer pays

B. he priced the necklace too high

C. he knew it would disappoint the girl

D. he didn't want to sell the necklace

57．The eyes of Jean Grace brought Pete out of his world of self-pity and he ______.

A. tried to forget the memory of his sweetheart

B. began to look at the world optimistically

C. remembered his lost love

D. no longer felt the pain in him

58．A young woman came into the shop because ______.

A. she was afraid that there might be some mistake

B. she thought that the stones she had bought were not real

C. she was not sure if she could get more stones like those

D. she did not like what she had once bought

59．By saying “She paid the biggest price one can ever pay,” Pete meant that Jean Grace     .

A. gave the most money for the necklace

B. gave all she had with her for the necklace

C. appreciated the value of the necklace

D. wanted to have the best thing in the shop

60．At the end of the story we see that Pete _____.

A. found another girl that he could trust

B. met someone who truly loved him

C. found a place to go at last

D. regained his ability to love

I Don’t Think I Wrote Wrong

Lao Yang was born in a small town. He liked reading when he studied at school. He thought the writers were respected(尊敬) and could get a lot of money. He wrote a lot of stories and posted them to the editorial departments (编辑部) but didn’t receive any answers.

Now he works in a factory. He’s busy at work. When he’s free, he always reads something. He always remembers he hoped to be a writer when he was young. One day, Xiao Ping, his ten-year-old daughter, came back. She looked worried and didn’t eat anything. She said Miss GAO, her Chinese teacher, told them to write a solicit article(征文) “My Father” that evening. But she did not know what to write.

“That’s easy,” said Lao Yang. “Let me help you.”

Then he sat down to write the solicit article at once. He easily finished it on time. He was sure Miss GAO would like it. But one afternoon he asked his daughter if the article had been chosen to post to the editorial department.

“My teacher said your article digressed from the subject(离题),” said the girl.

“I don’t think so,” Lao Yang shouted angrily. “I described(描写) just my father!”

1... Lao Yang wrote a lot of stories because _______.

A．he likes reading

B．he learned much at school

C．he wanted to be a writer

D．he wanted to help others

2... Lao Yang posted the stories to the editorial departments, _______.

A．and he got a lot of money	B．and he became a famous man
C．and he was respected	D．but he failed

3... As _______, Lao Yang decided to help his daughter.

A．he was a writer

B．he was free

C．he wanted to realize his ideal(理想)

D．he wanted to make his daughter happy

4.. Lao Yang hoped _______.

A．his article could surprise the teacher

B．his article could be chosen

C．the children could like his article

D．everyone could soon know him

5... Lao Yang’s solicit article digressed from the subject _______.

A．because he couldn’t write it at all

B．because he didn’t know his father well

C．because it was too bad to be chosen

D．just because he described his father

 

The black and white bird came ashore on a beach in the south of the North Island nearly 4,000 miles away from its usual habitat. The creature’s astonishing journey was witnessed by a woman walking her dog as the two-foot bird waddled out of the water in front of her. She said, “It was out of this world to see it. It was this glistening white thing standing up on the sand and I thought I was seeing things.” The tale of the lost penguin is similar to the 2006 children’s film Happy Feet, in which a young penguin finds himself far from home during a voyage of discovery.

Conservationists believe it has completed an incredible journey for such a young bird — it is estimated to be around 10 months old. The most likely explanation for its appearance in New Zealand is the hunt for food. Experts said it may also have rested on an ice floe (浮冰) during its travels and was carried north for a great distance before it made a swim for dry land. Colin Miskelly, a curator of New Zealand Museum, said, “They can spend months at a time in the ocean and come ashore only to moult (脱毛,换毛)or rest.” Mr. Miskelly said the brave bird would have to find its way back south soon if it was going to survive. He said, “It is probably hot and thirsty and has been eating wet sand.” “It doesn’t realize that the sand isn’t going to melt inside it because they typically eat snow — their only liquid.”

New Zealand residents have been warned to give the bird a wide berth — it can inflict (予以) painful bites if threatened.

1.Which of the following is True of Paragraph 1?

A．A young penguin found himself far from home during a voyage of moulting.

B．A creature’s astonishing journey was incredible in the north of the North Island.

C．A woman witnessed a 2 feet bird waddled in the children’s film while walking her dog.

D．A penguin came ashore on a beach thousands of miles away from its habitate.

2.Conservationists tend to explain that____________.

A．the young bird has completed a pleasant journey of 4,000 thousand miles

B．the young bird’s appearance in New Zealand is due to its hunt for food and delay of returning

C．the young bird comes ashore in New Zealand only to moult or rest during its voyage

D．the young bird is certain to be over 10 months old when it appears on a beach

3.What do we know about the penguin according to Mr. Miskelly?

A．The penguin could spend months at a time in the ocean and came ashore only to have young ones.

B．The young bird might have slept on an ice floe and could not swim for dry land.

C．The young penguin didn’t realize the sand wasn’t going to melt inside it like snow it eats.

D．The brave bird would have to find its way back north soon if it was going to survive.

4.What does the underlined part mean in the last sentence? 

A．The residents should keep well away from it when they want to watch the young penguin.

B．Some people do not realize the danger of the young bird and they are expected to touch it.

C．New Zealand residents want to keep the young bird but it wants to leave the shore.

D．If the local people threatened the young bird, it would do harm to other birds nearby. .