It was starting to get dark and Bobby turned to walk home when suddenly his eyes caught the setting sun’s rays reflecting off something along the roadside. He reached down and discovered a shiny dime(一角钱). Never before has anyone felt so wealthy as Bobby felt at that moment.

As he held his new found treasure, a warmth spread throughout his entire body and he walked into the first store he saw.

His excitement quickly turned cold when the salesperson told him that he couldn’t buy anything with only a dime.

He saw a flower shop and went inside to wait in line. When the shop owner asked if he could help him, Bobby presented the dime and asked if he could buy one flower for his mother’s Christmas gift. The shop owner looked at Bobby and his ten cents offering. Then he said to him, “You just wait here and I’ll see what I can do for you.”

The sound of the door closed as the last customer left. All alone in the shop, Bobby began to feel cold and afraid. Suddenly the shop owner came out. There, before Bobby’s eyes, lay twelve long stem, red roses, with leaves of green and tiny white flowers all tied together with a big silver bow. Bobby’s heart sank as the owner picked them up and placed them gently into a long white box. “That will be ten cents, young man.” The shop owner said reaching out his hand for the dime.

Sensing the boy’s reluctance(勉强), the shop owner added, “I just happened to have some roses on sale for ten cents a dozen. Would you like them?”

When the man placed the long box into his hands, he knew it was true. Walking out of the door that the owner was holding, Bobby heard the shopkeeper say, “Merry Christmas, son.”

Bobby feel that he was rich?

    A. Because he found a purse with many dollars

B. Because he found some money on the way home.

C. Because he was given a bunch of flowers

D. Because he found some hidden treasure.

What can we infer from the third paragraph?

    A. Christmas gifts were always very expensive

B. The salesperson’s words greatly disappointed Bobby.

C. Bobby was tired of trying one shop after another

D. The salesperson was trying to cheat Bobby.

While waiting for the shop owner in the flower ship, Bobby           .

    A. was full of excitement and joy

B. was very thankful to the shop owner

C. felt he had been cheated by the owner

D. was not sure whether the owner would accept his offering

It is Saturday afternoon. You and your friends are planning to go to the movies and then spend the night together. Just as you start to get ready, your dad reminds you that it is your aunt's birthday and the whole family is going out to dinner to celebrate. How can this possibly end without a huge argument?

　　One of the greatest sources of tension (紧张情绪) between teenagers and their families is the struggle to balance personal desires with family expectations. As you are getting older, you are becoming more independent and more interested in being with your friends.

　　However，at the same time，your family is trying to figure out how to deal with these changes. While you once spent most of your free time with your family, you are now often absent from home. Parents may get their feelings hurt. Or they might feel that they are losing control of their family during this period. You might feel angry that so many family demands are placed on you.

　　There are a few things you can try to make it a little easier to ease (缓解) the tension.

　　* Make your plans in advance. Ask your parents if there is anything else planned at that time.

　　* When something with your friends interferes (冲突) with a family event，try to figure out if there is any way you can do both.

　　* Suggest something you would really like to do with your family. Sometimes parents feel better just knowing their teenager wants to spend time with them.

　　Some of the time you won’t be happy with the outcome (结果). You might either have to disappoint your parents or have to miss out being with your friends. However, if you show consideration for the feelings of both your family and your friends，you can solve the problem in a tender way.

The purpose of the first paragraph is to _________.

　　A. show a disagreement of views       B. serve as a description of teenager trouble

　　C. serve as an introduction to the discussion

　　D. show the popularity of teenager problem

The tension between teenagers and their families is caused by the fact that____________.

　　A. teenagers don’t like to take family demands

　　B. parents want to keep their family under control

　　C. parents feel unhappy that their children make so many friends

　　D. both parents and teenagers don’t pay attention to each other’s feeling much

What’s the purpose of the passage?

　　A. To inform us of parent and teenager tension.

B. To advise teenagers how to deal with their tension with their families.

　　C. To persuade parents to show consideration for teenagers.

D. To tell us about a common teenager problem.

It seems that every week someone becomes “the first” or “the youngest” or even “the first married couple” to do something that doesn’t seem to be very useful to the rest of us.

Why do they do it? Don’t they have better things to do with their time and money? And why should I be interested anyway? Human beings have already climbed the highest mountains, sailed across the oceans and flown around the world. Many of these things were done a long, long time ago. There just isn’t anything left to explore nowadays. I suppose there’s still a lot of the universe left, and the bottom of the ocean is still a bit of a mystery, but you need a lot of technology to explore areas like that. So, those people who feel the need for adventure can only do things that have been done before.

In May of this year a British man became the first person to walk alone from Canada to the North Pole. Personally, if I wanted to visit the Arctic, I’d rather go as a tourist on a cruise ship, with a helicopter trip to the North Pole included in the price. But OK, this man decided that he wanted to walk. The problem was that he went in the spring when the ice begins to melt and break up. So he got stuck on a longely piece of ice and a plane had to be sent in to rescue him.

These sorts of rescues are making many Australians angry with these record breakers. People trying to break sailing or rowing records get into trouble in the seas. So the Australian navy has to send ships to save them and this costs the government millions of dollars. I suppose we can’t just leave them to drown but we should give the bill to the people who are rescued.

According to the author, the so-called record breakers           .

    A．do not benefit other people at all

    B．inspire people to continue exploring

    C．are boring and should be stopped

    D．are usually not wealthy enough

We can infer from the second paragraph that           .

    A．there are no high mountains for people to climb

    B．nothing is left for people to explore in the universe

    C．it’s beyond ordinary people to explore the unknown

    D．human beings could fly around the world long ago

Many Australians are angry because the record breakers         .

    A．often get into trouble

    B．never use a cruise ship or a helicopter

    C．never pay their own costs

    D．satisfy their needs at the cost of others’ interest

What is the writer’s attitude towards the record breakers?

    A．Positive.            B．Negative.

    C．Uninterested.            D．Neutral（中立的）.

A 26-year-old Montreal man appears to have succeeded in his quest to barter a single， red paper clip(夹子) all the way up to a house. It took almost a year and 14 trades， but Kyle MacDonald has been offered a two-storey farmhouse in Kipling， Sask.， for a paid role in a movie.

MacDonald began his quest last summer when he decided he wanted to live in a house. He didn’t have a job， so instead of posting a resumé， he looked at a red paper clip on his desk and decided to trade it on an Internet website. The response was immediate —a fish pen was offered for exchange. MacDonald then bartered the fish pen for a handmade doorknob from a potter in Seattle.

In Massachusetts， MacDonald traded the doorknob for a camp stove. He traded the stove to a U.S. soldier in California for a generator. Then he exchanged the generator for an “instant party kit” — an empty keg(小桶) and an illuminated Budweiser beer sign. MacDonald then traded the keg and sign for a snowmobile. He bartered all the way up to an afternoon with rock star Alice Cooper， a KISS snow globe and finally a paid role in a Corbin Bernsen movie.

“Now， I’m sure the first question on your mind is， ‘Why would Corbin Bernsen trade a role in a film for a snow globe？ A KISS snow globe，’ MacDonald said on his website.”Well， Corbin happens to be arguably one of the biggest snow globe collectors on the planet.

Now， the town of Kipling， Sask.， Canada， with a population of 1,100， has offered MacDonald a farmhouse in exchange for the role in the movie. The town is going to hold a competition for the movie role.

MacDonald said： “There’re people all over the world that are saying that they have paper clips clipped to the top of their computer， or on their desk or on their shirt， and it proves that anything is possible and I think to a certain degree it’s true.”

MacDonald， who has attracted international media attention in his quest， said the journey has turned out to be more exciting than the goal. “This is not the end. This may be the end of this part of the story， but this story will go on.”

The best title for this passage is “　　　　”.

A.A lucky paper clip    B. From poor to rich

C.A lucky young man   D. From paper clip to house

The underlined word in line 1 means 　　　　.

A. to get something for free    B. to sell something at a price

C. to sell goods on the Internet  D. to exchange goods for other goods

Which shows the correct order of the trades？

A. Paper clip?snow globe?snowmobile?house

B. Paper clip?keg of beer?doorknob?snowmobile

C. Paper clip?camp stove?snowmobile?movie role

D. Paper clip?keg of beer?camp stove?snowmobile

Which statement about MacDonald’s trades is TRUE？

A. All of his trades were done in his country.

B.A film role was offered due to Bernsen’s hobby.

C. They took over a year and some of them were really unbelievable.

D. The house in Kipling has been offered to MacDonald to attract media.

What can we learn about MacDonald？

A. He wanted to gain fame through his quest.

B .His success largely depended on the Internet.

C. He never expected his aim could be achieved.

D. He intends to begin another quest on the Web.

       A new study by a Penn State College of Medicine research team found that honey is a better and safer treatment for children than cough medicines.   

       Ian Paul, the study’s lead researcher, was motivated to test honey because treating coughs in children has recently become a sticky subject. Coughing is the body’s way of clearing irritated (受刺激的) airways to help you breathe. But too much coughing can irritate your lungs and throat even more. It can also make it tough to get the sleep your body needs to heal. Hoping to ease the suffering of their children, parents often give them cough medicines.  

       But there have never been any good studies showing that they work. Cough and cold medicines may also cause serious side effects. Hundreds of kids die in the hospital each year after receiving too much cough medicine by mistake. Last October, the US Food and Drug Administration suggested that parents should not give cough medicines to children under 6.

       In order to search for a different solution, Paul designed a study that involved 105 kids who were sick with coughs and other cold conditions. At bedtime, the kids took buckwheat (荞麦) honey, honey-flavored (蜂蜜味的) DM (one of the most common ingredients in cough medicines), or no treatment. Parents and kids in the no-

-treatment group knew they weren’t getting anything, but the other two groups weren’t told which treatment they were getting.

       The surveys showed that kids who swallowed about 2 teaspoons of buckwheat honey before bedtime coughed less and slept better than kids in the other groups. “When parents want something for their kids to take,” Paul says, “honey seems like the best option”.

       But what gives honey its healing power? Substances called antioxidants (抗氧化剂) may be part of the answer. All honey contains antioxidants that protect our cells from damage. Studies show that antioxidant levels in the body rise after someone swallows honey.

Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?

A. No cough medicines to children    

B. Sweet solution to kids’ coughing

C. Best treatment for your cold   

D. Cough medicines don’t work  

We can learn from Paragraph 2 that coughing ______.

A. sometimes does good to people 

B. can cure lung and throat diseases

C. is more harmful to children  

D. helps improve children’s diet   

During Paul’s experiment, the kids who received treatment ______.

A. seemed much worse than before 

B. knew they weren’t getting anything 

C. coughed less and slept better

D. had no idea what they swallowed