It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no address. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years.
It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas. He didn’t hate the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it; overspending, running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and powder for Grandma…
Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.
Our son Kevin, at 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended and before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church, mostly black.
As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear to protect a wrestler’s ears. They obviously could not afford.
Mike shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.”
Mike loved kids—all kids—and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came.
That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church.
On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition.
The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.
The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.
【小题1】Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no address. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years.
It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas. He didn’t hate the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it; overspending, running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and powder for Grandma…
Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.
Our son Kevin, at 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended and before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church, mostly black.
As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear to protect a wrestler’s ears. They obviously could not afford.
Mike shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.”
Mike loved kids—all kids—and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came.
That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church.
On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition.
The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.
The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us

1. 1.

   Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

   1. A.
      Precious Present
   2. B.
      Christmas Gift
   3. C.
      The Small White Envelope
   4. D.
      The Good Old Tradition
2. 2.

   Why did Mike hate Christmas according to the passage?

   1. A.
      He didn’t like the true meaning of Christmas
   2. B.
      He didn’t like people spending too much money on presents
   3. C.
      He hated buying presents for Uncle Harry and Grandma
   4. D.
      He didn’t want to receive gifts like shirts, sweaters or ties
3. 3.

   Which is the closest meaning to the underlined phrase “take the heart right out of them”?

   1. A.
      make them excited
   2. B.
      make them inspired
   3. C.
      make them lose confidence
   4. D.
      make them kill themselves
4. 4.

   Why was his smile the brightest thing about Christmas that year? ( paragraph 9)

   1. A.
      He received some sporting goods
   2. B.
      He found a potential wrestling team
   3. C.
      His son won the wrestling match
   4. D.
      His wife sent presents to those poor kids
5. 5.

   What can we infer from the passage?

   1. A.
      The tradition of sending presents will pass from generation to generation
   2. B.
      The children were eager to get their new toys ignoring the envelope
   3. C.
      With the presents, the poor kids will surely win the match one day
   4. D.
      Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us

One day, Mr. Arnold was teaching a lesson, and things were going as normally as ever. He was explaining the story of human being to his pupils. He told them that, in the beginning, men were nomads (游牧); they never stayed in the same place for very long. Instead, they would travel about, here and there, in search of food, wherever it was to be found. And when the food ran out, they would move off somewhere else.

He taught them about the invention of farming and keeping animals. This was an important discovery, because by learning to cultivate (耕作) the land, and care for animals, mankind would always have food steadily. It also meant that people could remain living in one place, and this made it easier to set about tasks that would take a long while to finish, like building towns, cities, and all that were in them. All the children were listening attracted by this story, until Lucy jumped up:

“And if that was so important and improved everything so much, why are we nomads all over again, Mr. Arnold?”

Mr. Arnold didn’t know what to say. Lucy was a very clever girl. He knew that she lived with her parents in a house, so she must know that her family were not nomads; so what did she mean?

“We have all become nomads again,” continued Lucy, “The other day, outside the city, they were cutting the forest down. A while ago a fisherman told me how they fish. It’s the same with everyone: when there’s no more forest left the foresters go elsewhere, and when the fish run out the fishermen move on. That’s what the nomads did, isn’t it?

The teacher nodded, thoughtfully. Really, Lucy was right. Mankind had turned into nomads. Instead of looking after the land in a way that we could be sure it would keep supplying our needs, we kept developing it until the land was bare. And then off we would go to the next place! The class spent the rest of the afternoon talking about what they could do to show how to be more civilized (文明的).

The next day everyone attended class wearing a green T-shirt, with a message that said “I am not a nomad!”

And, from then on, they set about showing that indeed they were not. Every time they knew they needed something, they made sure that they would get it using care and control. If they needed wood or paper, they would make sure that they got the recycled kind. They ordered their fish from fish farms, making sure that the fish they received were not too young and too small. They only used animals that were well cared for, and brought up on farms.

And so, from their little town, those children managed to give up being nomads again, just as prehistoric men had done, so many thousands of years ago.

69. Why would early humans travel about in the beginning?

A. To experience different lifestyles.           B. To go sightseeing in different places.

C. To find what they could to feed themselves.  D. To do more exercise to build themselves up.

70. From Paragraph 2, we can know that _______________.

A. people got tired of living in the same place

B. people gradually got used to living in cities

C. people spent a long time in learning to keep animals

D. people tended to settle down after learning farming and keeping animals

71. The teacher thought Lucy’s argument was ______

A. reasonable                                           B. unbelievable  

C. puzzling                                                D. shocking

72. Which of the following agrees with the message “I am not a nomad” (Paragraph 7)?

A. People eat young fish for its delicious taste.

B. People use recycled materials as much as possible.

C. Fishermen move elsewhere when there is no fish left.

D. Foresters leave the place where there is no wood left.

73. The writer tries to make us believe that ______.

A. mankind has been progressing mainly through traveling about

B. it’s unwise for mankind to use the land in an uncontrolled way

C. it’s quite good for student s to learn more about the history of mankind

   D. teachers should encourage students to voice their own opinions bravely