My husband is a born shopper(天生的购物者). He loves to look at things and to touch them. He likes to compare prices between the same items(产品) in different shops. He would never think of buying anything without looking around in several different shops. On the other hand, I’m not a shopper. I think shopping is boring and unpleasant. If I like something and I have enough money to take it, I buy it at once. I never look around for a good price or a better deal. Of course my husband and I never go shopping together. Doing shopping together would be too painful for both of us. When it comes to shopping, we go our different ways.

Sometimes I ask my son Jimmy to buy some food in the shop not far from our home. But he is always absent-minded. This was his story.

One day I said to him, “I hope you won’t forget what I have told you to buy.” “No,” said Jimmy, “I won’t forget. You want three oranges, six eggs and a pound of meat.”

He went running down the street to the shop. As he ran, he said to himself over and over again. “ Three oranges, six eggs and a pound of meat.”

In the beginning he remembered everything but he stopped several times. Once he saw two men fighting outside a clothes shop until a policeman stopped them. One of them was badly hurt. Then he stopped to give ten cents to a beggar. Then he met some of his friends and he played with them for a while. When he reached the shop, he had forgotten everything except six eggs.

As he walked home, his face became sadder and sadder. When he saw me he said, “ I’ m sorry, mum. I have forgotten to buy oranges and the meat, I only remembered to buy six eggs, but I’ve dropped three of them.”

The husband loves shopping because _______

A. he has much money

B. he likes the shops

C. he likes to compare the prices between the same items

D. he has nothing to do but shopping

The wife doesn’t like shopping because ______

A. she has no money

B. she has no time

C. she doesn’t love her husband

D. she feels it boring to go shopping

They never go shopping together because _______

A. their ways of shopping are quite different

B. they hate each other

C. they needn’t buy anything for the family

D. they don’t have time for it

Jimmy cannot do the shopping well because ______

A. he is young                  B. he is absent-minded

C. he often loses his money        D. he doesn’t like shopping

The officer covered the little boy’s body, ________ his face ________．

1. A.
   leave; exposed
2. B.
   leaving; being exposed
3. C.
   leaving; exposed
4. D.
   to leave; exposed

ASK LASKAS

YOU’VE GOT QUESTIONS. SHE'S GOT ANSWERS

My children go to a primary school where they are not allowed to play football in the playground for fear that a child might be hurt. Besides, now the school says there must be no homework because the local secondary school can't keep up with the amount of homework given in the primary school. Can the school do this?    Puzzled Dad

It can't if enough parents do something about it. It is not just schools. We live in a society which wishes to get rid of risk. However, schools should have a little common sense and courage. Children need risk if they arc to grow up self-sufficient and confident. They need homework, too, if they are to fulfill their academic potential. Complain, loudly.

I have a beautiful teenage daughter who spends an hour making up her face in front of the mirror every day. I tell her to go easy. She just gets mad or bursts into tears. How can I make her understand she's beautiful the way she is.       Plain Mom

You can't. Your daughter is at the age when she's trying to look beautiful, trying on new masks. And if her friends all dress up as she does, you're in for an extra hard time. Support her and tell her she's beautiful — even if she looks ridiculous for now. Then invite her to join you for a day at a spa. Let her try various looks until she's comfortable in her own skin.

Why are the children not allowed to play football in the playground?

A. The school is afraid that children might be injured.

B. The school is not sensible and confident.

C. The children don't have enough time to do homework.

D. The children may fail to fulfill their academic potential.

What disturbs Plain Mom is that her daughter______.

A. becomes mad                                       B. cries a lot

C. spends much time before the mirror    D. is not beautiful enough

The solution to Plain Mom's problem is to______.

A. make her daughter look less ridiculous           B. let her daughter dress up like her friends

C. make her daughter go to a spa every week   D. let her daughter feel herself what beauty is

What does the underlined word spa mean?

A. a place where water with minerals in it           B. a place where people can relax

C. a beauty salon                             D. a swimming pool

All over my garden I’ve planted nothing but roses, sweet and — if looked at far away — bright with color like sunset clouds, I’d be very happy if anyone of my visiting friends should desire to pick and take some for their homes. I trust that any friend of mine carrying the rose would disappear into the distance feeling that his emotions had been rekindled (重燃).

A close friend came for a visit the other day. I know her to be a lover of flowers and plants. And for that reason I told her at her departure that she should pick a bunch of roses to grace her bedroom. I promised that the smell of the roses would be wafted far, far away.

That girl friend of mine, tiptoeing into the garden in high spirits, smelt here and there, but in the end she didn’t pick a single rose. I said there were so many of them that she would pick as many as she’d like to; I told her that I was not a flower farmer and didn’t make a living out of them. Saying so I raised the scissors for the sacrifice of the flowers, but she stopped me, crying no, no, no!

To cut such beautiful roses would hurt one, she said. With her hands seizing at my sleeves, she told me that by no means should they be cut. Roses are the smiling face of the earth, and who could be so iron-hearted as to destroy a smile so charming?

My mind was thoroughly shocked: the ugly earth, the rough earth, the plain earth—it is for the reason of that smile that it wins the care and pity of people

The underlined word “wafted” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to “__________”.

A. moved      B. lost     C. destroyed   D. felt

     The writer plants nothing but roses in her garden probably because __________.

A. she can make money out of them

B. her friends like them

C. she enjoys the roses very much

D. the roses can rekindle her friends’ emotions

Why did the writer’s close friend refuse to pick a single rose?

A. Because the roses were not beautiful

B. Because she did not like this kind of roses

C. Because the writer did not want to give her any

D. Because she loved the roses very much

What would be the best title for the passage?

A. A lovely rose garden.        B. The smiling face of the earth

C. The pity of people to the roses. D. A lover of flowers