When I was a little girl, I found love in a box all because of a class assignment. On a Friday night I   36  at dinner table, “My teacher said we have to bring a box, a special box, for our valentines (情人节) on Monday”.
Mother said, “We’ll see,” and she continued eating.
What did “We’ll see” mean? I had to have that box   37  my second grade Valentine’s Day would be a disaster. Maybe they didn’t love me enough to help me with my   38 .
All Saturday I waited   39  and with Sunday arriving, my concern increased, but I   40  an enquiry（询问）about the box might   41  anger or loud voice, for in my house children only asked once. More than that   42  trouble.
Late Sunday afternoon, my father called me into the kitchen. The table was covered with colorful   43  of different kinds. A (n)   44  shoebox rested on top of it.   45  flooded through me when Daddy said, “Let’s get started   46  your project.”
In the next hour my father   47  the shoebox into impressive valentine box. Colorful paper covered the ugly cardboard with red hearts   48  to what I considered all the right places. He sang while he worked. When he finished, he was so delighted that a   49 smile spread over his face. “What do you think of that?” he asked.I answered him with a hug.
But inside,   50  danced all the way to my heart. It was the first time that my father devoted so much   51  to me, for his world consisted of work only.
The holiday party arrived, and my classmates put cards, and presents into the valentine boxes. Laughter filled our classroom until dismissal time   52 .
On the way home, I held out my valentine box for the world to   53 . The love that filled it meant more to me than all the valentines inside. The valentine box became a symbol of his love that   54  through decades of other Valentine’s Days. He gave me other gifts through the years, but none   55  compared with the love I felt within the limits of the old, empty shoebox.

I was driving home one evening about 5, stuck in traffic, and the car started to die— I hardly managed to get into a gas station, glad only that I would have a somewhat warm spot to wait for the tow truck(拖车). Before I could make the call, I saw a woman walking out of the “ Quickie Mart” building, then suddenly she slipped(滑倒) on some ice and fell down, so I got out to see if she was okay.
When I got there, it looked like she had been overcome by weep than that she had fallen; she was a young woman who looked exhausted with dark circles under her eyes. She dropped something as I helped her up, and I picked it up and gave it to her. It was a coin.
At that moment, everything came into focus for me: the crying woman, the ancient Suburban packed full of stuff and three kids in the back, and the gas pump(汽油泵) reading $4.95.
I asked her if she was okay and if she needed help, and she just kept saying “I don’t want my kids to see me crying,” so we stood at the other side of the pump from her car. She said she was driving to California for Christmas and that things were very hard for her right now.
I took out my credit card and swiped(刷磁卡) it through the card reader on the pump so that she could fill up her car completely, and I bought 2 big bags of food for her kids in the car who attacked it like wolves. While it was fueling, she asked, “So, are you an angel or something?” I said, “At this time of year, angels are really busy, so sometimes God uses common people.”
It was unbelievable to be part of someone else’s miracle. And of course, you guessed it, when I got in my car it started right away and got me home with no problem. Sometimes, angels fly close enough to you that you can hear the flutter(摆动) of their wings.
【小题1】. Caught in traffic, the author still felt happy because      .

 (06·重庆A篇)

When I was in the third grade, I was picked to be the princess(公主)in the school play. For weeks my mother had helped me practice my lines. But once onstage, every word disappeared from my head. Then my teacher told me she had written a narrator’s(解说者的) part for the play, and asked me to change roles. Though I didn’t tell my mother what had happened that day, she sensed my unhappiness and asked if I wanted to take a walk in the yard.

It was a lovely spring day .We could see dandelions(蒲公英)popping through the grass in bunches, as if a painter had touched our landscape with bits of gold. I watched my mother carelessly bend down by one of the bunches. “I think I am going to dig up all these weeds,” she said. “From now on, we’ll have only roses in this garden.”

“But I like dandelions,” I protested. “All flowers are beautiful—even dandelions!”

My mother looked at me seriously. “ Yes, every flower gives pleasure in its own way, doesn’t it?” she asked thoughtfully. I nodded. “And that is true of people, too,” she added.

When I realized that she had guessed my pain, I started to cry and told her the truth.

 “But you will be a beautiful narrator,” she said, reminding me of how much I loved to read stories aloud to her.

Over the next few weeks, with her continuous encouragement, I learned to take pride in the role. The big day finally came. A few minutes before the play, my teacher came over to me. “Your mother asked me to give this to you,” she said, handing me a dandelion. After the play, I took home the flower, laughing that I was perhaps the only person who would keep such a weed.

56．The girl did not play the role of the princess mainly because                .

      A．she felt nervous on the stage

       B．she lost her interest in that role

       C．she preferred the role of the narrator

       D．she had difficulty memorizing her words

57．Why did the mother suggest a walk in the garden?

       A．To remove the dandelions

       B．To enjoy the garden scene.

       C．To have a talk with her daughter.

       D．To help her daughter with the play.

58．What is the main idea of the story?

       A．Everybody can find his or her own way to success.

       B．Everybody has his or her own value in the world.

       C．Everybody should learn to play different roles.

       D．Everybody has some unforgettable memory.

Love in a Box