A gentle breeze blew through Jennifer’s hair. The golden red sun was setting. She was on the beach, looking up at the fiery (火红的) ball. She was amazed by its color, deep red in the middle, softly fading into yellow. She could hear nothing but the waves and the seagulls flying up above in the sky.

The atmosphere relaxed her. After all she had been through, this was what she needed. “It’s getting late,” she thought, “I must go home. My parents will be wondering where I am.”

She wondered how her parents would react, when she got home after the three days she was missing. She kept on walking, directing herself where she spent every summer holiday. The road was deserted. She walked slowly and silently. Just in a few hundred meters she would have been safe in her house.

It was really getting dark now. The sun had set a few minutes before and it was getting cold too. She wished she had her favorite sweater on: it kept her really warm. She imagined having it with her. This thought disappeared when she finally saw her front door. It seemed different. Nobody had taken care of the outside garden for a few days. She was shocked: her father was usually so strict about keeping everything clean and tidy, and now... It all seemed deserted. She couldn’t understand what was going on.

    She entered the house. First, she went into the kitchen where she saw a note written by her father. It said: “Dear Ellen, there is some coffee ready. I went looking.” Ellen was her mother but — where was she? On the right side of the hallway was her parents’ room. She went in. Then she saw her. Her mother, lying on the bed, was sleeping. Her face looked so tired, as if she hadn’t slept for days. She was really pale. Jennifer would have wanted to wake her up but she looked too tired. So Jennifer just fell asleep beside her. When Jennifer woke up, something was different... she wasn’t in her mother’s room and she wasn’t wearing the old clothes she ran away in. She was in her cozy bed in her pajamas (睡衣).

It felt so good being back home. Suddenly she heard a voice, “Are you feeling better now, dear? You know you got us very, very scared.”

The writer describes the beautiful sunset to show Jennifer’s ______.

   A. love of the natural beauty               B. desire of getting back home         

C. intention of becoming independent        D. depression of being alone

What does the underlined phrase “This thought” most probably mean?

A. The idea of going back home.            

B. Her anxiety about her parents.

C. The feeling of being warm in her favorite sweater.

D. The feeling of getting back home safely.

Her father didn’t take care of the garden because ______.

   A. he was busy looking for her

B. he had to look after his wife

C. he was not strict with his job

D. he no longer enjoyed working in the garden

What can we infer from this passage?

A. In fact Jennifer’s mother had been sick for several days.

B. When she found the garden deserted, she realized she was wrong.

C. As Jennifer walked towards home, she became increasingly scared.

D. Having experienced a lot outside, Jennifer felt home was safest for her.

It was Saturday. As always, it was a busy one, for “Six days shall you labor and all your work” was taken seriously back then. Outside, Father and Mr. Patrick next door were busy chopping firewood. Inside their own houses, Mother and Mrs. Patrick were engaged in spring cleaning.
Somehow the boys had slipped away to the back lot with their kites. Now, even at the risk of having brother caught to beat carpets, they had sent him to the kitchen for more string(线). It seemed there was  no limit to the heights to which kites would fly today.
My mother looked at the sitting room, its furniture disordered for a thorough sweeping. Again she
cast a look toward the window. “Come on, girls! Let’s take string to the boys and watch them fly the kites a minute.”
On the way we met Mrs. Patric, laughing guiltily as if she were doing something wrong, together with her girls. There never was such a day for flying kites! We played all our fresh string into the boys’ kites and they went up higher and higher. We could hardly distinguish the orange-colored spots of the kites. Now and then we slowly pulled one kite back, watching it dancing up and down in the wind, and finally bringing it down to earth, just for the joy of sending it up again.
Even our fathers dropped their tools and joined us. Our mothers took their turn, laughing like schoolgirls. I think we were all beside ourselves. Parents forgot their duty and their dignity; children forgot their everyday fights and little jealousies. “Perhaps it’s like this in the kingdom of heaven,” I thought confusedly.
It was growing dark before we all walked sleepily back to the housed. I suppose we had some sort of supper. I suppose there must have been surface tidying-up, for the house on Sunday looked clean and orderly enough. The strange thing was, we didn’t mention that day afterward. I felt a little embarrassed. Surely none of the others had been as excited as I. I locked the memory up in that deepest part of me where we keep “the things that cannot be and yet they are.”
The years went on, then one day I was hurrying about my kitchen in a city apartment, trying to get some work out of the way while my three-year-old insistently cried her desire to “go park, see duck.” “I can’t go!” I said. “I have this and this to do, and when I’m through I’ll be too tired to walk that far.”
My mother, who was visiting us, looked up from the peas she was shelling. “It’s a wonderful day,” she offered, “really warm, yet there’s a fine breeze. Do you remember that day we flew kites?”
I stopped in my dash between stove and sink. The locked door flew open and with it a rush of memories. “Come on,” I told my little girl. “You’re right, it’s too good a day to miss.”
Another decade passed. We were in the aftermath(余波) of a great war. All evening we had been asking our returned soldier, the youngest Patrick Boy, about his experiences as a prisoner of war. He had talked freely, but now for a long time he had been silent. What was he thinking of --- what dark and horrible things?
“Say!” A smile sipped out from his lips. “Do you remember --- no, of course you wouldn’t. It probably didn’t make the impression on you as it did on me.”
I hardly dared speak. “Remember what?”
“I used to think of that day a lot in POW camp (战俘营), when things weren’t too good. Do you remember the day we flew the kites?”
【小题1】Mrs. Patrick was laughing guiltily because she thought________.

School was over and I was both mentally and physically tired, I sat at the very front of the bus because of   1  to get home．Sitting at the front makes you   2  out like a shiny coin in a pile of dull pennies． Janie, the driver, tries to break the uncomfortable atmosphere by striking the match of   3 ．
I try to mind my manners and  4  listen, but usually I am too busy thinking about my day．On this day, however, her conversation was worth listening to．
"My father’s sick," she said to no one in  5 ．I could see the anxiety and fear in her eyes．With a sudden change of attitude and interest, I asked, "What’s wrong with him?"
With her eyes wet and her voice tight from   6  the tears, she responded, "Heart trouble．" Her eyes   7 as she continued．"I’ve already lost my mum, so I don’t think I can   8 losing him．”
I couldn’t respond．I was  9  ．My heart ached for her．I sat on the old, smelly seat thinking of the great   10 my own mother was thrown into when my father died．
I saw how hard it was, and still is, for her．I wouldn’t like anyone to go through that．Suddenly I realized Janie wasn’t only a bus driver．That was just her job．She had a whole world of family and concerns too．I had never thought of her as anything but a  11  ．I suddenly felt very   12  ．I realized I had only thought of people as   13  as what their purposes were in my life．I paid no attention to Janie because she was a bus driver．1 had judged her by her job and regarded her as unimportant．
For all I know, I’m just another person in someone else’s world, and may not even be important．I should not have been so selfish and self-centered．Everyone   14 a place to go to, people to see and appointments to   15 ．Understanding people is an art．

Dr. Martinez put on a false smile (假笑) as she entered Janet Eslin’s hospital room. She couldn’t let Janet see that she was worried. Yet she had been searching for the cause of Janet’s illness and hadn’t found a clue（线索）.
“How are you feeling today?” Dr. Martinez asked her patient. Janet replied that she felt about the same----terribly uncomfortable.
The doctor tried to get Janet’s mind off her health by talking about Janet’s vacation at Lake Winnow. But Dr. Martinez couldn’t keep her own mind on the conversation. She kept wondering what could be wrong with her patient.
Suddenly Janet’s words interrupted Dr. Martinez’s thoughts: “… the vacation was really perfect, except for the food. The last meal I ate was especially terrible.”
Dr. Martinez quickly snapped back into the conversation, “Janet, when did you eat that meal?” Janet said that it had been the day before yesterday.
“I think we’ve discovered your problem,” Dr. Martinez said as she left. Several hours later, Dr. Martinez was back with the answer. “Janet, the food you ate made you ill. You’re suffering from food poisoning. Now that we know what’s wrong, we can take care of your problem.”
【小题1】What made Janet sick?

I was small for my age. I was shy and sometimes it was hard for me to make friends with the others. However, learning came fairly easy for me. I was the best in most of my classes, but PE class was my nightmare (恶梦) and made me feel that I was not as good as the others.
Miss Forsythe was our PE teacher. She was young and energetic. Everyone liked her. She said that we all had to come to her classes. No one could hide from Miss Forsythe! One day she told me that she wanted me to play a game with another girl in a PE show. I was rather worried that I wouldn’t do a good job when she explained her idea, but she was excited. With her encouragement, I had no choice but to agree. It was a "boy meets girl" game. I played the boy and my classmate, Margaret Ann, played the girl. We were dressed in evening clothes and danced around the floor. According to Miss Forsythe, I had to pick up Margaret Ann when we finished the dance. Since I was not strong enough to pick the tallest girl up, it was she who picked me up. I suddenly felt ten feet tall! It was a huge success and everybody applauded (鼓掌) for our excellent performance. What a wonderful ending! Afterwards, I smiled confidently (自信地).
Miss Forsythe’s understanding and willingness to create a place for me in her show (which certainly did not need me) gave me some much needed confidence. She was and always will be my favorite teacher.
【小题1】What do we know about Miss Forsythe?