Like any good mother，when Karen found out that another baby was on the way，she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son，Michael，prepare for a new baby．They find out that the new baby is going to be a girl，and day after day，night after night，Michael sings to his sister in Mommy's stomach．
Finally，Michael's little sister is born．But she is in serious condition．With alarm in the night，the ambulance rushes the infant to the neonatal(初生的)intensive care unit at St． Mary's Hospital，Knoxville，Tennessee．The days go by．The little girl gets worse．The pediatric(儿科的)specialist tells the parents，“There is very little hope．Be prepared for the worst.”
Karen and her husband contact a local cemetery about a burial plot．They have fixed up a special room in their home for the new baby，but now they plan a funeral．Michael，keeps begging his parents to let him see his sister，“I want to sing to her，”he says．
Karen makes up her mind．She will take Michael whether they like it or not．If he doesn't see his sister now，he may never see her alive．
She dresses him in an oversized suit and marches him into ICU．He looks like a walking laundry basket，but the head nurse recognizes him as a child and shouts，“Get that kid out of here now! No children are allowed．Never disturb patients here．”The mother rises up strongly and said，“He is not leaving until he sings to his sister!”
Karen leads Michael to his sister's bedside．He gazes at the tiny infant losing the battle to live．And he begins to sing．In the pure hearted voice of a 3-year-old，Michael sings：“You are my sunshine，my only sunshine，you make me happy when skies are gray．．．”Instantly the baby girl responds．The pulse rate becomes calm and steady．
The next day，the very next day，the little girl is well enough to go home! Woman's Day magazine called it“the miracle of a brother's song．”The medical staff just called it a miracle．Karen called it a miracle of God's love!
Never give up on the people you love．
【小题1】What may the underlined words“the infant”refer to?

A．The baby．

B．Karen．

C．Mary．

D．Michael．

【小题2】What do we know about the little sister after she was born?

A．She was driven to St．Mary's shop．

B．A doctor came to see her in her house．

C．She was very thin and couldn't speak．

D．She was in great danger．

【小题3】Why did Karen firmly let little Michael see his sister in ICU?

A．Because he could make his sister alive．

B．Because his sister would be sent to a far hospital．

C．Because his sister was going to die soon.

D．Because his father wanted to take him away．

【小题4】What do we know about the head nurse?

A．The head nurse was careful．	B．The bead nurse was rude．
C．The head nurse was responsible．	D．The head nurse had no sympathy．

【小题5】What is the general idea of the text?

A．A boy's singing saved his sister's life．

B．The little girl is well enough to go home．

C．Michael's little sister is born with a serious disease．

D．No children are allowed to enter the intensive care unit．

The 47-year-old singer talks about the new album Symphony（交响乐） that came out of a “very dark time”, including her decision to give up trying to have children. “People have suggested I could adopt,” Brightman says. “But work is central to my life now. And so I am going to put it to one side. After a while not having children becomes the norm and perhaps that might sound alarming, to parents especially, but I have never known anything different. I’m not hurt by not having children. My life and career are incredibly rich.”
Talking about growing up in a large family in Berkhamsted (father a property developer who later committed suicide), she says: “I was gifted as a child, and very musical. I seemed to be good at anything to do with the arts. At 5，I understood the music I was dancing to and had an eye for costume.” She first appeared in a West End musical at 11 and hated boarding school.
Brightman led the saucy dance troupe（辣妹三人舞） Hot Gossip and had her first hit with I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper in 1978. At 18 she married a music manager called Andrew Graham Stewart. “I was probably in love but I can’t remember. Girls change such a lot between 18 and 22. It didn’t really work out.” In 1981 she was spotted by Lloyd Webber. She became his leading lady in Song and Dance, Requiem and Phantom of the Opera. They married in 1984.
Brightman says she felt hostility(敌意) “from the beginning. I haven’t tried to understand it. I’ve done very well everywhere else, especially the US, where I now live, I just accept it for what it is. The more you are away from Britain, the more you appreciate it. But I don’t miss it, although I miss my family. Our profession can be uncomfortable but I enjoy what I do. I get on with it.”
【小题1】The first paragraph tells us that _____.

A．Brightman is very popular around the world except in America

B．Brightman’s musical style is a mixture of opera, pop and jazz

C．the British people don’t like her for her style of music

D．Brightman is much older than Andrew Lloyd Webber

【小题2】Brightman decided to give up having children because _____.

A．she could adopt one

B．her life and career were unbelievably rich without children

C．she felt it normal not to have children

D．she was too busy

【小题3】The following statements are true except ______.

A．Brightman first appeared in a West End musical at 5

B．Brightman disliked life on the campus

C．Brightman was very gifted when she was young

D．The saucy dance troupe made Brightman famous

【小题4】 The underlined word in the fourth paragraph probably means _____.

A．located

B．admired

C．followed

D．found

【小题5】 What does the author try to say in the last paragraph by quoting Brightman’s words?

A．Brightman has to accept the fact that she is not liked in Britain

B．Brightman lives in America but she loves her own country

C．The British coldness towards Brightman led to her hatred to her homeland

D．Brightman was at a loss why she was not welcome in Britain

Since the early 1990s, the Internet has greatly changed the way people communicate. But some teachers think the changes are not all for the better.
Eleanor Johnson, an English professor at Columbia University in New York, says, “Ｉthink text messaging has made students believe that it is far more acceptable than it actually is to just make spelling and grammatical mistakes.” She says her students over the past several years have increasingly used less formal English in their writing. She says words and phrases like “you know” now appearing research papers. And she now has to talk about another problem in class---incorrect word use.
Professor Johnson doubts a strong connection between the rise of communication online and an increase in writing mistakes. But she admits there may not be much scientific proof, at least not yet.
David Crystal, a British language expert, says the actively changing nature of the Internet makes it difficult to stay unchanged in studying its effects. But he believes its effect on language is small. He says, “The main effect of the Internet on language has been to increase the expressive richness of language, providing the language with a new set of communicative content that didn’t exist in the past.” Erin Jansen, founder of an online dictionary of Internet and text messaging terms, says his new technology has not changed existing language but has greatly added to the vocabulary. “Basically it is a freedom of expression,” she says, “If it is helping them write more or communicate more, that is great. That is what teachers and educators want---to get students communicating.”
But Erin Jansen and David Crystal agree with Eleanor Jonson on at least one thing. Teachers need to make sure students understand the uses and rules of language.
【小题1】 According to the text, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．David Crystal thinks the Internet makes the language expression richer.

B．David Crystal believes the Internet’s effects on language use are clear

C．Eleanor Johnson thinks writing mistakes has much to do with the Internet

D．Eleanor Johnson thinks all the Internet effects on language use are good

【小题2】. Eleanor Johnson is mentioned to _______.

A．share her idea of the great effects of using the Internet

B．tell people a way to correct students’ writing mistakes

C．serve as an example of teachers’ blaming the Internet

D．warn people against the dangers of using the Internet

【小题3】 What do the three experts have in common as to the Internet effect?

A．The possibilities of avoiding the use of less formal words

B．The causes of the Internet’s great effects on language

C．The necessity of helping students reduce writing mistakes

D．The importance of students’ knowing how to use language

【小题4】. What could be the best title for the text?

A．Students’ Learning and the Internet: Good or Bad?

B．Students’ Writing and the Internet: Good or Bad?

C．Students’ Papers and the Internet: Good or Bad?

D．Students’ Mistakes and the Internet: Good or Bad?

I’ve loved my mother’s desk since I was just tall enough to see above the top
of it as mother sat doing letters. Standing by her chair, looking at the ink bottle, pens and white paper, I decided that the act of writing must be the most wonderful thing in the world.
Years later, during her final illness, mother kept different things for my sister and brother. “But the desk,” she said again, “is for Elizabeth.”
I never saw her angry, never saw her cry. I knew she loved me; she showed it in action. But as a young girl, I wanted heart-to-heart talks between mother and daughter.
They never happened. And a gulf opened between us. I was “too emotional(易动感情的)”. But she lived “on the surface”.
As years passed and I had my own family. I loved my mother and thanked her for our happy family. I wrote to her in careful words and asked her to let me know in any way she chose that she did forgive me.
I posted the letter and waited for her answer, none came.
My hope turned to disappointment, then little interest and, finally, peace it seemed that nothing happened. I couldn’t be sure that the letter had even got to Mother. I only knew that I had written it, and I could stop trying to make her into someone she was not.
Now the present of her desk told me, as she’d never been able to, that she was pleased that writing was my chosen work. I cleaned the desk carefully and found some papers inside — a photo of my father and a one-page letter, folded(折叠) and refolded many times.
Give me an answer, my letter asks, in any way you choose, Mother, you always chose the act that speaks louder than words.
【小题1】The writer began to love her mother’s desk _______.

A．after Mother died	B．before she became a writer
C．when she was a child	D．when mother gave it to her

【小题2】The passage shows that _______.

A．Mother was cold on the surface but kind in her heart to her daughter

B．Mother was too serious about everything her daughter had done

C．Mother cared much about her daughter in words

D．Mother wrote to her daughter in careful words.

【小题3】The world “gulf” in the passage means _______.

A．deep understanding between the old and the young.

B．different ideas between the mother and the daughter.

C．free talks between mother and daughter.

D．part of the sea going far in land.

【小题4】What did Mother do with her daughter’s letter asking for forgiveness?

A．She had never received the letter.

B．For years, she often talked about the letter.

C．She didn’t forgive her daughter at all in all her life.

D．She read the letter again and again till she died.

【小题5】What’s the best title of the passage?

A．My letter to Mother	B．Mother and Children
C．My Mother’s Desk	D．Talks between Mother and me.

When I was in primary school, sometimes I would meet a girl of the same age as me. Lisa was never active, but she was always very sweet and nice. In the 5th grade she came to my class.
She was absent(缺席) a lot , and one day I had the courage to ask why. She told me she was sick, and she explained she wore a wig(假发) because her medicine made her lose her hair. We left it at that. Anytime Lisa came to class—seldom—I would hang around with her on the playground.
I received much ridicule (嘲笑) from my friends for this because they thought I was ignoring them for Lisa. My family education taught me to be nice, and I felt Lisa’s needs were much more important than others I knew.
It had been months since Lisa was in our class, and one day our teacher was crying. She explained Lisa died the day before and would no longer be our classmate. She told us Lisa had fought a battle (斗争)with cancer for years.
I was shocked. Lisa never spoke of her illness as if it could kill her. Well, all these years I have kept Lisa in my mind and heart. When I go through the important events in my life, I think of Lisa.
I’ve had a strong wish recently to find her mother and father. I’d like to tell them that though they never met me, their daughter had a sweet effect on my life. I have no idea what her parents’ first names are. I write to your column (栏目)and hope you can point me in the right direction.
Lisa was such a lovely girl. Maybe her parents would be comforted by the fact that after all these years they are not the only ones who remember her.
【小题1】The underlined sentence in Para 2 probably means ________________.

A．we discussed the topic and then left together

B．we just stopped talking about her illness

C．we went away after talking about her illness

D．we kept on talking about her illness later

【小题2】Why was the author being laughed at?

A．Because she lost her friends because of Lisa.

B．Because she wore a wig to school.

C．Because she cried in the classroom.

D．Because she always played with Lisa.

【小题3】What did the author learn from Lisa?

A．To put others’ needs above yours.	B．To keep your illness a secret.
C．To be nice to everyone everywhere.	D．To face challenges in life bravely.

【小题4】The author wrote this passage mainly to __________.

A．ask for help to find a friend’s parents	B．remember a true friend
C．tell her experience of fighting cancer	D．show her concern for a friend