I moved from Chicago to Brooklyn in July of 2010，just in time to watch my mother die. Our parents were both gone now； I took with me as many things they had left behind as I could.

I was out walking one Saturday later that summer when something caught my eye - a pale green dress. Laid out on the pavement was stuff like earrings, glass candle-holders, books. Hanging on the fence behind were a few pairs of jeans and a green cotton dress.

The woman, the host o£ the stoop (门廊）sale, looked like she was getting rid of a past she didn’t need or want. A dress that was too big for her. A chest of drawers that took up too much space, space she needed, maybe, to heal ，recover, or grow.

I wasn’t planning on buying anything really, but now I needed to show her that I appreciated her things and I would give them a safe home. Then I had my first stoop sale —I paid her 20 dollars for her green cotton dress and her blue candle-holder,

From that day on, I became interested in stoop sales. Some of my favorite things are from someone else’s life. I find no joy in shopping at regular stores any more. I love trying to sniff out a memory from a bud vase or a drawer. It is comforting to know that someone has breathed and laughed inside a sweater before me.

A few weeks ago, I carried my mother’s dresses to a friend’s stoop. These were her best items ，which were once worn by the most important person in my life. For many hours, I watched from across the path people advancing the stoop, some leaving with Mom1S dress. I used to think that her stuff was as forever sacred (神圣的）as my memory of her, I know now that once I love a scarf or shirt too dearly，it needs to find a new home. Even that green dress is long gone by now.

1.The author took her mother*s dresses after her death because ______

A. she valued the things used by her mom

B. she didn’t want to throw them, away

C.      she could sell them later

D.      they were her mom’s best items

2.From the passage, we know that ______.

A.      the things the author bought from the woman are too big

B.      the author is fond of imagining others’ life experiences

C.      the author will never shop at regular stores any more

D.      the author still keeps most of her mom’s things

3.In the last paragraph ，the author tries to tell us that ______.

A her mom is the number one person in her life

B.      she didn’t really want to sell her mom’s dresses

C. she still thinks of her mother quite often

D. love doesn’t mean holding on to something tightly

4.It can be inferred that the author will ______.

A.      not sell her own things at stoop sales

B. keep her mom in her mind in another way

C.      be sad about all the memory of her mom

D.      move to another city for a new life

 

Although the New Year is already here, the great moments of the past year are still in the memory. Let’s look back at some of them.

United States

One of the world’s largest New Year’s Eve parties was held in Times Square, New York. The festival attracted hundreds of thousands of people to watch a brightly-lit ball drop on a landmark building at the stroke (击、打) of midnight.

A great amount of confetti (五彩纸屑) was released from the sky at zero o’clock.

Britain

Painted in shinning colors, blowing whistles, 50，000 party-goers arrived in London’s Millennium Dome to dance in the New Year. The Millennium Dome came to life at midnight as 50 DJs started up, competing on five separate dance floors to warm the crowd into the party mood.

Russia

New Year is the biggest holiday in Russia. It is traditional to put up a tree for celebrations with family and friends.

On the very last day of last year, Russians with a taste for a very cold swim braved freezing temperatures to plant traditional, festival trees on the bed of the Northern Ocean and at the bottom of Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake.

Malaysia

Brave skydivers threw themselves off the world’s tallest building near midnight and floated towards the New Year.

The jump from the 452-metre Petronas Twin Tower was called a real leap from one year to the next since the group took off in the last second of the old year and landed a minute later in the New Year. “That was really cool,” said Roland Simpson, “over crowds of onlookers to the landing spot.”

1.In New York the brightly-lit ball dropped ____________.

A．form the sky onto the Times Square

B．into the hundreds of thousands of watchers

C．to welcome the arrival of Christmas

D．at the point between the old and the New Year

2.Which of the following is NOT traditional to welcome a new year?

A．Sharing the happiness and excitement together.

B．Setting up a tree for celebrations.

C．Planting trees on the bed of a lake.

D．50 DJs’ competing on five separate floors.

3.People jumping from the tallest buildings _________.

A．spent two different years in the air.

B．stayed in the sky for two minutes.

C．landed over people’s heads.

D．floated away to the new land

4.The passage mainly shows that ________.

A．New Year has been the starting point for people to have dreams.

B．people in different countries welcomed New Year in different ways.

C．people’s ways of celebrations are exciting.

D．the New Year is better than the old year.

 

It is six o’clock in the morning. You are asleep in my left arm and I am learning the art of one-handed typing. Your mother, more tired yet more happy than I’ve ever known her, is sound asleep in the room next door.

    When you’re older we’ll tell you that you were born in Hong Kong in the lunar year of the pig. “It's a boy, so lucky,” our neighbours told us. They said you were the first baby to be born in the block this year. This, they told us, was good Feng Shui, in other words, a positive sign. Naturally your mother and I were only too happy to believe that.

    Your coming has turned me upside down and inside out. I am pained by the memory of each suffering child I have come across on my journeys as a journalist. To tell you the truth, it’s nearly too much for me to even think of the children being hurt and abused and killed.

    Last October, in Afghanistan, when you were growing inside your mother, I met Sharja, aged twelve, motherless, fatherless, guiding me through the grey ruins of her home. Everything was gone, she told me.

    There is another memory of Rwanda, and the churchyard where I found a mother and her three young children huddled(蜷缩) together where they’d been beaten to death. The children had died holding on to their mother.

    Daniel, these memories explain some of the protectiveness I feel for you, and the occasional moments of blind terror when I imagine anything bad happening to you.

1.We can see that this text is written to ________.

    A．the author’s wife        B．the author’s neighbour

    C．Daniel           D．a suffering child

2.The author mentions some of his painful memories because ________.

    A．he wants his son to care for others

    B．he feels more pain thinking about them as a father

    C．he hopes to forget the tragedies he witnessed

    D．his experience has affected his mental health

3.The underlined word “blind” in the last paragraph means ________.

    A．unable to see             B．meaningful

    C．not clear                 D．not based on reason

4.Which of the following words best describes the author’s feeling when typing this text?

    A．Relieved.     B．Regretful.  C．Loving.      D．Calm.

 

Although the New Year is already here, the great moments of the past year are still in the memory. Let’s look back at some of them.
United States
One of the world’s largest New Year’s Eve parties was held in Times Square, New York. The festival attracted hundreds of thousands of people to watch a brightly-lit ball drop on a landmark building at the stroke (击、打) of midnight.
A great amount of confetti (五彩纸屑) was released from the sky at zero o’clock.
Britain
Painted in shinning colors, blowing whistles, 50，000 party-goers arrived in London’s Millennium Dome to dance in the New Year. The Millennium Dome came to life at midnight as 50 DJs started up, competing on five separate dance floors to warm the crowd into the party mood.
Russia
New Year is the biggest holiday in Russia. It is traditional to put up a tree for celebrations with family and friends.
On the very last day of last year, Russians with a taste for a very cold swim braved freezing temperatures to plant traditional, festival trees on the bed of the Northern Ocean and at the bottom of Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake.
Malaysia
Brave skydivers threw themselves off the world’s tallest building near midnight and floated towards the New Year.
The jump from the 452-metre Petronas Twin Tower was called a real leap from one year to the next since the group took off in the last second of the old year and landed a minute later in the New Year. “That was really cool,” said Roland Simpson, “over crowds of onlookers to the landing spot.”
【小题1】In New York the brightly-lit ball dropped ____________.

A．form the sky onto the Times Square

B．into the hundreds of thousands of watchers

C．to welcome the arrival of Christmas

D．at the point between the old and the New Year

【小题2】Which of the following is NOT traditional to welcome a new year?

A．Sharing the happiness and excitement together.

B．Setting up a tree for celebrations.

C．Planting trees on the bed of a lake.

D．50 DJs’ competing on five separate floors.

【小题3】People jumping from the tallest buildings _________.

A．spent two different years in the air.

B．stayed in the sky for two minutes.

C．landed over people’s heads.

D．floated away to the new land

【小题4】The passage mainly shows that ________.

A．New Year has been the starting point for people to have dreams.

B．people in different countries welcomed New Year in different ways.

C．people’s ways of celebrations are exciting.

D．the New Year is better than the old year.

It is six o’clock in the morning. You are asleep in my left arm and I am learning the art of one-handed typing. Your mother, more tired yet more happy than I’ve ever known her, is sound asleep in the room next door.
When you’re older we’ll tell you that you were born in Hong Kong in the lunar year of the pig. “It's a boy, so lucky,” our neighbours told us. They said you were the first baby to be born in the block this year. This, they told us, was good Feng Shui, in other words, a positive sign. Naturally your mother and I were only too happy to believe that.
Your coming has turned me upside down and inside out. I am pained by the memory of each suffering child I have come across on my journeys as a journalist. To tell you the truth, it’s nearly too much for me to even think of the children being hurt and abused and killed.
Last October, in Afghanistan, when you were growing inside your mother, I met Sharja, aged twelve, motherless, fatherless, guiding me through the grey ruins of her home. Everything was gone, she told me.
There is another memory of Rwanda, and the churchyard where I found a mother and her three young children huddled(蜷缩) together where they’d been beaten to death. The children had died holding on to their mother.
Daniel, these memories explain some of the protectiveness I feel for you, and the occasional moments of blind terror when I imagine anything bad happening to you.
【小题1】We can see that this text is written to ________.

A．the author’s wife	B．the author’s neighbour
C．Daniel	D．a suffering child

【小题2】The author mentions some of his painful memories because ________.

A．he wants his son to care for others

B．he feels more pain thinking about them as a father

C．he hopes to forget the tragedies he witnessed

D．his experience has affected his mental health

【小题3】The underlined word “blind” in the last paragraph means ________.

A．unable to see	B．meaningful
C．not clear	D．not based on reason

【小题4】Which of the following words best describes the author’s feeling when typing this text?

A．Relieved.

B．Regretful.

C．Loving.

D．Calm.