One summer evening I was sitting by the open window, reading a good but rather frightening mystery story. After a time it was too dark for me to read easily, so I put my book down and turned on the light.
I was just about to draw the   36  as well when I heard a loud cry “Help! Help! ” It 37  to come from the trees at the end of the garden. I looked out but it was too 38  to see anything clearly. So I decided to go out and have a look in the garden, just 39  someone was in   40  . I took the torch and picked up a strong walking stick,   41  that this might come to be useful, too.   42   with these, I went out into the garden.   43   I heard the cry. There was no    44  that it came from the trees at the end of the garden.
“Who’s there?” I   45  as I walked, rather 46  , down the path that   47   to the trees. But there was no  48  . With the help of my torch I   49  the whole of that part of the garden and the lower  50   of the trees. There was no sign of anybody or anything. I came to the ___51___ that someone was playing a rather silly joke on me.
___52   feeling rather puzzled, I went back to the house and   53   away the torch and the stick. I had just sat down when I was startled by the cry of “ Help! Help! ”, this time from  54  my shoulder. I dropped my book and climbed up. There, sitting    55  of the mantelpiece ( 壁炉 ), was a parrot!

When I was young, I really doubted whether there was love between my parents．Every day they were busy earning money so that they could   36 the high tuition my brother and I needed．They didn’t   37 in the romantic ways that I read in books or saw on TV．
One day, Mom was sewing a quilt（被子）．I  38 sat down beside her．“Mom, I have a　39 here,” I said after a while．“Is there love between you and Dad?” I asked her in a very 　40 voice．
Mom stopped her work and raised her head with   41 in her eyes．She didn’t answer immediately．She bent her head and continued to sew the quilt．I was   42 if I had hurt her．I was in great embarrassment and I was at a loss what to do．But at last she said, very   43  , “Susan, look at this   44 ．Sometimes it appears, but most of it disappears in the quilt．The thread really makes the quilt strong and lasting．If   45 is a quilt, then love should be a thread．It can hardly be seen, but it’s really there． 46 is inside．”
I listened carefully but I couldn’t understand her until years later．
One day, Dad accidentally got  47 while on duty．Ever since then he could no longer  48
properly．Every morning and dusk Mom would help Dad walk slowly on the country road．Along the country road, there were beautiful flowers, green grass and trees．The leaves were gently glistening   49 the sun shining upon them．All of these made up the most beautiful   50 in the world．
“Dad, how are you feeling now?”” I asked him one day． “Susan, don’t worry shout me,” he said gently． “I just like walking with your mom．I like this kind of life．” Looking into his eyes, I  51 　　what they meant．
The doctor had said Dad would   52  in two months．But that day never came．He   53 away in peace．
54   I thought love meant flowers, gifts and sweet kisses．But from this   55 , I understand that love is just a thread in the quilt of our life, which makes life strong and warm…

"Indeed," George Washington wrote in his diary in 1785, "some kind of fly, or bug, had begun to eat the leaves before I left home." But the father of America was not the father of bug. When Washington wrote that, Englishmen hade been referring to insects as bugs for more than a century, and Americans had already created lightning-bug(萤火虫). But the English were soon to stop using the bugs in their language, leaving it to the Americans to call a bug a bug in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

　　The American bug could also be a person, referring to someone who was crazy about a particular activity. Although fan became the usual term, sports fans used to be called racing bugs, baseball bugs, and the like.

　　Or the bug could be a small machine or object, for example, a bug-shaped car. The bug could also be a burglar alarm, from which comes the expression to bug, that is, "to install (安装) an alarm". Now it means a small piece of equipment that people use for listening secretly to others' conversation. Since the 1840s, to bug has long meant "to cheat", and since the 1940s it has been annoying.

　　We also know the bug as a flaw in a computer program or other design. That meaning dates back to the time of Thomas Edison. In 1878 he explained bugs as "little problems and difficulties" that required months of study and labor to overcome in developing a successful product. In 1889 it was recorded that Edison "had been up the two previous nights discovering 'a bug' in his invented record player."

1.We learn from Paragraph 1 that __________________.

A. Americans had difficulty in learning to use the word bug

B. George Washington was the first person to call an insect a bug

C. the word bug was still popularly used in English in the nineteenth century

D. both Englishman and Americans used the word bug in the eighteenth century

2.What does the word "flaw" in the last paragraph probably mean?

A. Fault.      B. Finding.        C. Origin.      D. Explanation.

3.The passage is mainly concerned with__________________.

A. the misunderstanding of the word bug

B. the development of the word bug

C. the public views of the word bug

D. the special characteristics of the word bug

There are many kinds of friends. Some are always    36  you, but don't understand you. Some say only a few words to you, but understand you. Many people will step in your life, but only   37 friends leave footprints.

　　I shall always recall (回忆) the autumn and the girl with the  38  . She will always bring back the friendship between us. I know she will always be my best friend.

　　It was the golden season. I could see the yellow leaves   39 on the cool  40 . In such a season, I liked walking alone in the leaves,  41  to the sound of them.

　　Autumn is a  42  season and life is uninteresting. The free days always get me   43  . But one day, the sound of a violin   44  into my ears like a stream (小溪) flowing in the mountains. I was so surprised that I jumped to see what it was. A young girl, standing in the wind, was  45  in playing her violin.

　　I had  46 seen her before. The music was so nice that I listened quietly. Lost in the music, I didn't know that I had been   47 there for so long but my existence (存在) did not seem to disturb her.

　　Leaves were still falling. Every day she played the violin in the corner of the building  48 I went downstairs to watch her performance. I was the only listener. The autumn seemed no longer lonely and life became   49 .  50 we didn't know each other, I thought we were already good friends. I believe she also loved me.

Autumn was nearly over. One day, when I was listening carefully, the sound suddenly

   51 . To my astonishment (惊讶), the girl came over to me.

　　“You must like violin.” she said.

　　“Yes. And you play very well. Why did you stop?” I asked.

　　Suddenly, a   52 expression appeared on her face and I could feel something unusual.

　　“I came here to see my grandmother, but now I must leave. I once played very badly. It was your listening every day that   53 me.” she said.

　　“In fact, it was your playing   54 gave me a meaningful autumn,” I answered, “Let's be friends.”

　　The girl smiled, and so did I.

I never heard her play again in my life. I no longer went downstairs to listen like before. Only thick leaves were left behind. But I will always remember the fine figure (身影) of the girl. She is like a   55 —so short, so bright, like a shooting star giving off so much light that it makes the autumn beautiful.