The passengers on the subway who caught a glimpse of me may have thought I was strange. In particular a gentleman sitting opposite me was always staring at me, looking at the cheese bread on the floor in front of me and then staring back at me. A passenger probably dropped it by mistake and got off at a previous stop, but the gentleman might not think so. “Next stop, St. Patrick Station” — my stop was quickly coming up. I had few minutes to either take the cheese bread, which nobody else was claiming, or left it there.

In those few minutes I felt my pride getting in the way. “What would others on the subway think of me if I took the cheese bread? Would they think that I was poor and hungry? Would they think that I was stealing?” The ignorant thing to do was say “yes” to any of those self-imposed questions. Actually, they were just my own thoughts. Though I would leave the subway, walk a block to my office, get settled at my desk, and sit comfortably in my office for the whole day, I couldn’t get rid of the enormous sense of guilt and regret.

My thoughts once pushed me towards pride and ignorance, but finally I had to admit I was wrong. This missing cheese bread could be a gift for a homeless person who suffered from cold and hunger. So why not overcome a little bit of my pride and pass along so much kindness?

Just as the doors opened at my stop, I grabbed the cheese bread and left the subway. It felt awesome, but I didn’t care if people were looking at me or what they were thinking. Instead of going directly to my office as usual, I walked a few more blocks up to Queen’s park, where I often saw a homeless man sitting outside. I always wanted to give him something, but only today I walked toward him, who wrapped himself in a sleeping bag. I was full of satisfaction, and so did the homeless man, I thought.

1.The gentleman kept staring at the author because _______.

A.  he wanted to talk to the author

B.  he might think the author dropped the bread

C.  the author appeared too nervous

D.  the author was going to get off

2.The underlined word “self-imposed” in paragraph 2 probably means “_______”.

A. easily obtained              

B. strongly supported

C. deliberately created         

D. completely unaccepted

3.Why did the author grab the cheese bread when he got off?

   A. He noticed that no one was looking at him.

   B. He didn’t want to see the cheese bread to go to waste.   

   C. He remembered a homeless man at that very moment.  

 D. He valued kindness more than his own pride.

 

 

 “Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell.”

This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown citizen who lived in Rome in AD 52 wrote it.

We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives.

But have all these developments really improve the quality of our lives?

Picture this: You’re rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night to get it done. How calm and happy do you feel?

Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have not telephones, no cars, not even any electricity often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they lead simpler lives.

One family in the UK went “back in time” to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today. The grandparents, with their daughter, and grandsons Benjamin, 10, and Tomas, 7, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.

The grandmother, Lyn, said, “It was hard physically, but not mentally.” She believed life was less materialistic. “The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes,” She said. The boys said they fought less to fight over, such as their computer. Benjamin also noticed that his grandmother had changed from being a “trendy（时髦的）, beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things.”

Here are some simple ways to beat the stress often caused by our inventions!

Don’t be available all the time. Turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day. Don’t check your e-mail every day.

Don’t reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets annoying.

1．The passage is mainly about________.

         A．problem with technology

         B．improvements of our life with technology

         C．the important roles technology plays in our everyday life

         D．major changes which will be likely to happen to technology

2．The writer quoted（引用） what a citizen in ancient Rome said at the beginning of the story in order to___________.

         A．share a truth about life

         B．tell us what life was like long time ago

         C．make us wonder what causes such a thing to happen

         D．point out that you experience some big problems and they may be the same

3．Why did the family choose to spend some time in a 1940’s house? Because________.

         A．they liked to live simple lives

         B．they were curious about how people lived without modern inventions

         C．they were troubled by modern inventions

         D．living in a different time would be a lot of fun for them

4．What do you think the underlined word “available” in the first suggestion offered by the writer mean?

         A．Busy on line.         B．Free        C．Be able to.      D．Be found by others.

 

For a while, my neighborhood was taken ever by an army of joggers. They were there all the time: early morning, noon, and evening. There were little old ladies in gray sweats, young couples in Adidas shoes, middle-aged men with red faces. “Come on!” My friend Alex encouraged me to join him as he jogged by my house every evening. “You’ll feel great.”

   Well, I had nothing against feeling great and if Alex could jog every day, anyone could. So I took up jogging seriously and gave it a good two months of my life, and not a day more. Based on my experience, jogging is the most overvalued form of exercise around, and judging from the number of the people who left our neighborhood jogging army, I’m not alone in my opinion.

   First of all, jogging is very hard on the body. Your legs and feet need a real pounding（追击）running down a road for two or three miles. I developed foot, leg, and back problems. Then I read about a nationally famous jogger who died of a heart attack while jogging, and I had something else to worry about. Jogging doesn’t kill hundreds of people, but if you have any physical weaknesses, jogging will surely bring them out, as they did with me.

   Secondly, I got no enjoyment out of jogging. Putting one foot in front of the other for forty-five minutes isn’t my idea of fun. Jogging is also a lonely pastime. Some joggers say, “I love being out there with just my thoughts” Well, my thoughts began to bore me, and most of them were on how much my legs hurt.

    And how could I enjoy something that brought me pain? And that wasn’t just the first week: it was practically every day for two months. I never got past the pain level, and pain isn’t fun. What a cruel way to do it! So many other exercises, including walking, lead to almost the same results painlessly, so why jog?

   I don’t jog any more, and I don’t think I ever will. I’m walking two miles three times a week at a fast pace, and that feels good. I bicycle to work when the weather is good. I’m getting exercise, and I’m enjoying it at the same time. I could never say the same for jogging, and I’ve found a lot of better ways to stay in shape.

1.From the first paragraph, we learn that in the writer’s neighborhood ______.

A. jogging became very popular

B. people jogged only during the daytime

C. Alex organized an army of joggers

D. jogging provided a chance to get together

2.The underlined word “them”(Paragraph 3) most probably refers to _____.

A. heart attacks     B. Back problems

C. famous joggers   D. physical weaknesses

3.What was the writer’s attitude towards jogging in the beginning?

A. He felt it was worth a try.

B. He was very fond of it.

C. He was strongly against it.

D. He thought it must be painful.

4.Why did the writer give up jogging two months later?

A. He disliked doing exercise outside.

B. He found it neither healthy nor interesting.

C. He was afraid of having a heart attack.

D. He was worried about being left alone.

5. From the writer’s experience, we can conclude that______.

A. not everyone enjoys jogging

B. he is the only person who hates jogging

C. nothing other than jogging can help people keep fit

D. jogging makes people feel greater than any other sport.

 

Once many years ago, I pulled a family out of a burning car somewhere in Wyoming. Last week I received a telephone call from a woman who could not stop crying as she told me that one of my stories had saved her son from committing suicide. In closing she called me a hero.

That got me thinking about what a hero is. Was I a hero because I pulled a family from a burning car? If so, how could I be a hero just because I wrote a story that saved someone’s life?

Today I looked up the word “hero” in the dictionary to see exactly what it meant. It read “a person who does something brave” and also “a person who is good and noble”.

That statement impressed me more than the part about being brave. So I thought about something very important. And I remembered what happened to me years ago.

After my marriage of twenty years ended, I was in such a condition. I was within hours trying to get up enough courage to end the pain and misery. When I returned home, someone had sent me a card in the mail which told me how much they would appreciate me as a friend. That wonderful card probably saved my life. That person, without even knowing it, saved a life and became a hero.

The many stories I kept writing in the following years saved the life of a teenage boy. In turn that makes the person who sent me the card a double hero. I suppose that is why I fight so hard to help the children now living in orphanages (孤儿院). Most children come out of these institutions with a very hard and bitter attitude against the world. The gifts we send them let them know that they have not been forgotten. Hopefully, most of them will never hurt anyone because of the kindness shown to them by those of us who cared. If it works, we will also become "heroes".

1.The main idea of the passage is _______________.

A. why the writer should be a hero   

B. whether the writer is a hero

C. what a hero exactly is           

 D. that everyone is a hero

2.Why did the woman call the writer a hero at the end of the call?

A. Because he was cute and kind to everybody           

B. Because he saved a family from a burning car.

C. Because he asked her son not to kill himself.             

D. Because his story saved her son’s life.

3.What does the underlined word “it” in the last sentence of Paragraph 5 refer to?

A. The wonderful card the writer received.                  

B. The action of sending the card.

C. The fact that the sender helped the writer.  

D. The fact that the sender was a friend of the writer.

4.According to the writer, who can be considered as a hero?

A. A person who helps someone in trouble.       

B. A person who writes wonderful stories.

C. A person who can hold a door for others.         

D. A person who is brave.   

 

A famous teacher was speaking to the students at our school. He began his lesson by holding up a ￡100 bill. Then he said to the three hundred students, "Who would like to have this ￡100 bill?" The students began to put up their hands at once.

Then he said, "I am going to give this bill to one of you, but first, let me do this." He then made this bill into a ball. Then he said, "Who wants it?" Hands went into the air.

"Well," he said, "What if I do this?" and he dropped it on the floor and stepped on it. He picked up the dirty, crumpled bill and said, "Who still wants it?" Hands went back into the air.

"My friends," he said, "You've learned a valued lesson today. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it didn't go down in value. It was still worth ￡100.

Many times in our lives, we're dropped, crumpled, and stepped on by the chances we take and the things that happen to us. We feel as if we are worth nothing. But remember, no matter what has happened to you, you will never lose your value. You are always valuable to those who love you. Your value doesn't come from what you drop or whom you know，but WHO YOU ARE .

You are special and valuable. Don't ever forget it!

1.The story happened ______.

A．when the teacher gave the students some advice on how to learn English

B．when the students were having a meeting

C．when the teacher gave the students a speech

D．when the students were discussing something interesting with their teachers

2.Even though the money was dirty, it _______.

A．went up in value	B．was worth much
C．didn't reduce in value	D．was still ours

3.The underlined sentence “Hands went back into the air.” in the third paragraph

means_______.

A．the students put up their hands again

B．the students put down their hands

C．the students agreed to what the teacher said

D．the students put their hands in front of them

4.Why did the famous teacher use a ￡100 at his lesson?

A．Because he wanted to give a lecture about money.

B．Because he was used to dropping a bill on the floor and stepping on it.

C．Because he was going to give the bill to one of the students.

D．Because he wanted to make the students know what the value was.

5.What lesson can you learn from the passage?

A．￡100 bill is worth the same no matter what you do with it.

B．All people love money most.

C．Your value doesn't change no matter what happens to you.

D．The value of money changes when it is made dirty.