I am beginning to wonder whether my grandmother isn’t right when she complains, as she frequently does, that children nowadays aren’t as well-behaved as they used to be. Whenever she gets the opportunity, she recounts in detail how she used to be told to respect the elders and betters. She was taught to speak only when she was spoken to, and when she went out on her own, she was reminded to say 'please' and 'thank you'. Children in her day, she continues, were expected to be seen and not heard, but these days you are lucky if you ever hear parents telling their children to mind their p’s and q’s.

       If you give her the chance, she then takes out of her drawer the old photograph album which she keeps there, and which she never tires of displaying. Of course when you look at pictures of her parents, you feel sure that, with a father as stern-looking as that, you too would have been "seen and not heard". He had a lot of neatly cut hair, long side-whiskers and a big moustache. In the photographs, he is always clutching (抓住) his coat with one hand, while in the other he holds a thin walking stick. Beside him sits his wife, with their children around her: Granny and her elder brothers. It always occurs to me that perhaps those long, stiff, black clothes were so clumsy to a little girl, that she hadn’t enough breath left to be talkative, let alone mischievous (淘气的). It must have been a dull and lonely life too, for she stayed mainly at home during her childhood, while her brothers were sent away to school from an early age. Despite their long black shorts and their serious expressions in the photographs, I always suspect that their lives were considerably more enjoyable than hers. One can imagine them telling each other to shut up or mind their own business, as soon as their parents were out of sight.

       Going to see Granny on Sundays used to be a terrible experience. We would always be warned in advance to be on our best behavior, since my mother made a great effort to show how well brought up we were, in spite of our old, comfortable clothes, our incomprehensible (to Granny) slang, and our noisy games in the garden. We had to change into what Granny described as our "Sundays best" for lunch, when we would sit uncomfortably, kicking each other under the table. We were continually being ordered to sit up straight, to take our elbows off the table, to wait till everybody had been served, not to wolf down our food, nor to talk with our mouths full. At length we would be told to ask to be excused from the table and ordered to find quiet occupations for the rest of the day. We were always very bad-tempered by the evening, and would complain angrily all the way home.

       Yet though we hated the Sunday visit, we never questioned the rules of good manners themselves. I remember being greatly shocked as a child to hear one of my friends telling her father to shut up. I knew I could never have spoken like that to my father and it would never have occurred to me to do so.

       However, my childhood was much freer than Granny’s. I went to school with my brother and I played football with him and his friends. We all spoke a common language, and we got up to the same mischief. I would have died if I had had to stay indoors, wear a tight dress, and sew.

       But I do sometimes look wistfully (惆怅地) at an old sampler which hangs in the hall, which was embroidered (刺绣) by an even more distant relative—my great-great-aunt, of whom, regrettably, no photograph remains. It was done as an example of her progress in learning. The alphabet is carefully sewn in large colored childish letters from A to Z, and below it a small verse reads:

                     Mary Saunders is my name,

                     And with my needle I worked the same,

                     That by it you may plainly see

                     What care my parents have for me.

       It must have taken that little five-year-old months and months of laborious sewing, but, in a circle in a bottom corner of the sampler, there is a line: "Be Ever Happy".

50. The writer’s grandmother will complain that ______.

  A. children used to be mischievous

  B. children behave worse than they did in the past

  C. children are often reminded of what to do

  D. children are very badly behaved

51.Visiting Granny on Sundays was a terrible experience because ______.

  A. the writer was not so well raised as she was required to pretend

  B. Granny continually warned the writer to be on her best behavior

  C. Granny was always describing the writer’s "Sunday best"

  D. the writer was always blamed for not behaving well

52. From Paragraph 4, we can infer that the writer ______.

  A. seldom spoke to her father in the way her friend did

  B. was never questioned about the rules of good manners

  C. never doubted the value of the strict rules at that time

  D. was worried that her friend’s father would be shocked

53. The writer looked wistfully at the sampler, because______.

  A. it was embroidered by a relative.

  B. she wished she could sew herself.

  C. it called to mind the values of good old days.

  D. she had no photographs of Mary Saunders.

54. By sewing "Be Ever Happy" in the sampler, Mary Saunders ______. 

  A. suggested she was unhappy then

  B. indicated happiness was hard to gain

  C. expected we would find happiness in sewing

  D. hoped happiness would be everlasting

How hard we have all prayed(祈祷) to grow up quickly, and looked forward to the happy days of being a grown-up and enjoying the many interests that a youth should have.
At last, you have grown up. At least you are no longer a child. They call you “young lady”. You then enjoy the pleasure of being a young lady. You are proud of being a grown-up teenager. People welcome you-this young lady-heartily. You are glad that your prayer has been answered.
But there is always something that troubles you a lot. You say; “Papa and Mama, give me some money please. My pocket money is all gone already.”
“No”, they say, “your age is a dangerous age. If you have too much money to spend, it won’t do you any good.” Then you have to stay at home because you dare not go out with an empty pocket.
Another time you tell your grandma, “Grandma, see, I am a grown-up now.”
“Good, now, you can sit here and knit (编织) this for me while I go and have a rest.” To show that you are no more a child, you have to sit there the whole afternoon doing the work, which only a grown-up can do. After an hour, you find it hard to do, and give the knitting basket back to your grandma. Your grandma criticizes your work. You hear what she says, “Such a big girl can’t do such easy work.” You wish then you were a child again.
But the fact is, you are growing up, and you can’t help it. That’s the way it goes!
【小题1】The passage is told about _______ problems.

A．a growing-up boy’s	B．a teenage girl’s
C．an old woman’s	D．a grown-up’s

【小题2】It is clear that the writer, as a teenager, ________.

A．is pleased with the present life

B．is unhappy about growing up

C．doesn’t think her, present life happy enough

D．knows happy life will come to her soon

【小题3】How does she know her prayer has been answered?

A．People treat her as a young lady

B．She is no longer a kid.

C．People begin to call her teenager.

D．She can join women in all kinds of activities.

【小题4】From what her parents say, we know _________.

A．they don’t believe she is already a teenager

B．it’s dangerous for a girl to spend money

C．they love her more than before

D．they still regard her as a child

【小题5】Having heard her grandma’s criticism, _________.

A．she has to lie in bed, doing nothing

B．she knows she has already worked the whole afternoon

C．she wishes she were not growing up

D．she finds it isn’t her turn to do knitting

How hard we have all prayed(祈祷) to grow up quickly, and looked forward to the happy days of being a grown-up and enjoying the many interests that a youth should have.
At last, you have grown up. At least you are no longer a child. They call you “young lady”. You then enjoy the pleasure of being a young lady. You are proud of being a grown-up teenager. People welcome you-this young lady-heartily. You are glad that your prayer has been answered.
But there is always something that troubles you a lot. You say; “Papa and Mama, give me some money please. My pocket money is all gone already.”
“No”, they say, “your age is a dangerous age. If you have too much money to spend, it won’t do you any good.” Then you have to stay at home because you dare not go out with an empty pocket.
Another time you tell your grandma, “Grandma, see, I am a grown-up now.
“Good, now, you can sit here and knit (编织) this for me while I go and have a rest.” To show that you are no more a child, you have to sit there the whole afternoon doing the work, which only a grown-up can do. After an hour, you find it hard to do, and give the knitting basket back to your grandma. Your grandma criticizes your work. You hear what she says, “Such a big girl can’t do such easy work.” You wish then you were a child again.
But the fact is, you are growing up, and you can’t help it. That’s the way it goes!
【小题1】The passage is told about _______ problems.

A．a growing-up boy’s	B．a teenage girl’s
C．an old woman’s	D．a grown-up’s

【小题2】It is clear that the writer, as a teenager, ________.

A．is pleased with the present life

B．is unhappy about growing up

C．doesn’t think her present life happy enough

D．knows happy life will come to her soon

【小题3】How does she know her prayer has been answered?

A．People treat her as a young lady.

B．She is no longer a kid.

C．People begin to call her teenager.

D．She can join women in all kinds of activities.

【小题4】From what her parents say, we know _________.

A．they don’t believe she is already a teenager

B．it’s dangerous for a girl to spend money

C．they love her more than before

D．they still regard her as a child

【小题5】Having heard her grandma’s criticism, _________.

A．she has to lie in bed, doing nothing

B．she knows she has already worked the whole afternoon

C．she wishes she were not growing up

D．she finds it isn’t her turn to do knitting

How hard we have all prayed(祈祷) to grow up quickly, and looked forward to the happy days of being a grown-up and enjoying the many interests that a youth should have.

At last, you have grown up. At least you are no longer a child. They call you “young lady”. You then enjoy the pleasure of being a young lady. You are proud of being a grown-up teenager. People welcome you-this young lady-heartily. You are glad that your prayer has been answered.

But there is always something that troubles you a lot. You say; “Papa and Mama, give me some money please. My pocket money is all gone already.”

“No”, they say, “your age is a dangerous age. If you have too much money to spend, it won’t do you any good.” Then you have to stay at home because you dare not go out with an empty pocket.

Another time you tell your grandma, “Grandma, see, I am a grown-up now.

“Good, now, you can sit here and knit (编织) this for me while I go and have a rest.” To show that you are no more a child, you have to sit there the whole afternoon doing the work, which only a grown-up can do. After an hour, you find it hard to do, and give the knitting basket back to your grandma. Your grandma criticizes your work. You hear what she says, “Such a big girl can’t do such easy work.” You wish then you were a child again.

But the fact is, you are growing up, and you can’t help it. That’s the way it goes!

1.The passage is told about _______ problems.

A．a growing-up boy’s	B．a teenage girl’s
C．an old woman’s	D．a grown-up’s

2.It is clear that the writer, as a teenager, ________.

A．is pleased with the present life

B．is unhappy about growing up

C．doesn’t think her present life happy enough

D．knows happy life will come to her soon

3.How does she know her prayer has been answered?

A．People treat her as a young lady.

B．She is no longer a kid.

C．People begin to call her teenager.

D．She can join women in all kinds of activities.

4.From what her parents say, we know _________.

A．they don’t believe she is already a teenager

B．it’s dangerous for a girl to spend money

C．they love her more than before

D．they still regard her as a child

5.Having heard her grandma’s criticism, _________.

A．she has to lie in bed, doing nothing

B．she knows she has already worked the whole afternoon

C．she wishes she were not growing up

D．she finds it isn’t her turn to do knitting