Chair Miller and his crew picked up a new B-24 at California’s March Field on Christmas Eve, 1943, and prepared to fly to England. But they decided to have “one more hamburger” before going out for the distant land of fish and chips.

As the airmen sat in a local restaurant, a beautiful young waitress approached. “I understand you’re going to England,” she said to Miller. Then she told him that her fiancé, an aviation gunner like Miller, was stationed there.

The woman said she was waiting for him to provide an address so she could send him a picture of herself. “You might run into him,” she told Miller hopefully. “Would you take it?”

Miller knew it was unlikely he’d ever see her fiancé. But he didn’t want to disappoint the woman. He took the picture and placed it in his wallet. Later he realized he hadn’t even asked the man’s name. Then he was on to Europe and the war.

On August 9, 1944, Miller’s plane was shot down, and he was forced to parachute to an island off the coast of Holland. Captured by the Nazis, he spent the next nine months as a prisoner of war.

It was on Christmas Eve that someone told him a 19-year-old American prisoner down the hall was badly depressed and possibly suicidal（有自杀倾向）. Miller decided to pay the man a visit.

To break the ice, he mentioned the POW band he’s started, with the help of the Red Gross. The young man, he learned, played the saxophone. The two began to exchange details about their families. Was he married, the kid asked. “Yeah, since 1938,” responded Miller.

“Have you got her picture?” the soldier asked. So Miller reached for his wallet, and pulled out a photograph of his wife.

“She’s beautiful!” the young man responded. Then he noticed that a second picture had fallen out, and an expression of wonder crossed his face. “Where did you get that?” Miller told the story of the waitress at the California hamburger stand.

“That’s my fiancée,” the surprised man said. Miller kept his promise to the beautiful girl back home and turned the picture over to its rightful owner.

1．The reasonable connection between Miller and the young man is that ________.

       A．they were in love with the same waitress

       B．they played with the same POW band

       C．they were kept prisoner in the same camp

       D．they both served as gunners in a new B-24

2．The underlined words “To break the ice” would probably mean “______”.

       A．to keep warm in icy surroundings

       B．to start a conversation after a silence

       C．to get rid of the ice around the house

       D．to escape from the freezing place

3．It can be inferred from the passage that ______.

       A．Miller did not ask about the young man’s name on purpose

       B．the young man killed himself on account of missing his fiancée

       C．Miller joined in the war against the Nazis and was captured

       D．the young man got the photo of his fiancée by accident

It was Saturday . As always, it was a busy one, for “Six days shall you labor and do 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 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 disorderd for a thorough sweeping, Agun she cast a look toward the window. “Come on, girls ! Let’s take string to the boys and watch them

    On the way we met Mrs. Patrick, laughing guiltily as if she were doing something

wrong, together with her girls.

   There never was such a day for flying kited! 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 it 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 house. I suppose we   had some sort of supper. I suppose there must have been a 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 flt 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 for.”

   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 breczc . Do you  remember that day we flew kites?”

   I stopped in my dash between stove and sink . The looked 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 slipped 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?”

1.

Mrs. Patrick was laughing guiltily because she thought       .

A. she was too old to fly kites

B. her husband would make fun of her

C. she should have been doing her housework then

D. her girls weren’t supposed to play the boy’s game

2.

 By“we were all beside ourselves”, the writer means that they all      .

   A. felt confused                    B. went wild with joy

   C. looked on                      D. forgot their fights

3.

  What did the writer think after the kite-flying?

A. The boys must have had more fun than the girls.

B. They should have finished their work before playing.

C. Her parents should spend more time with them.

D. All the others must have forgotten that day.

4.

 Why did the writer finally agree to take her little girl for an outing?

A. She suddenly remembered her duty as a mother.

B. She was reminded of the day they flew kites.

C. She had finished her work in the kitchen.

D. She thought it was a great day to play outside.

5.

The youngest Patrick Boy is mentioned to show that _____ .

A. the writer was not alone in treasuring her fond memories

B. his experience in POW camp threw a shadow over his life

C. childhood friendship means so much to the writer

D. people like him really changed a lot after the war

When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never yelled at us for playing in his yard. I remember him as someone who was a lot nicer than most of the adults in our community.

　　When Dr. Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. His house sat on ten acres, and his life’s goal was to make it a forest.

　　The good doctor had some interesting theories concerning plant care and growth. He never watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants spoiled them so that each successive tree generation would grow weaker and weaker. So you have to make things rough for them and weed out(淘汰) the weaker trees early on.

He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of moisture. I took him to mean that deep roots were to be treasured.

　　So he never watered his trees. He planted an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he’d beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. Smack! Slap! Pow! I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s attention.

Dr. Gibbs passed away a couple of years after I left home. Every now and again, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I’d watched him plant some twenty-five years ago. They’re extremely tall, big and robust since they have deep roots now. However, the trees in my garden trembled in a cold wind although I had watered them for several years.

It seems that adversity(逆境) and suffering benefit these trees in ways comfort and ease never could. I stood there deep in thought.

　　Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch their little bodies, the rising and falling of life within. I often pray for them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But I think it’s time to change my prayer(祷词) because now I know my children are going to encounter hardship..

1.According to Dr. Gibbs’ theories, trees will become weaker if they______

    A. are lack of care   B. are watered   C. are weeded out    D. are beaten

2..According to Para.3 and Pare.4, we can infer that Dr. Gibbs’moto（座右铭）may be_____

     A. “seeing is believing”        B.“Put everything in proper use”

     C. ”Practice makes perfect”     D. “No pains, no gains”

3..The underlined word robust in Para.5 most probably means______

      A. strong         B. strange         C. deep        D. old

4. Which of the following may be the author’s best prayer for his two sons now ?

  A. I wish them strong wings, with which they can fly higher and touch the sky.

  B.I wish them nice fortune so that they can meet people like Dr. Gibbs in the future.

  C.I wish them deep roots into the earth since the rains fall and the winds blow often.

  D.I wish them great shades under the tree since the sunlight is always sharp and bitter.

5. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

   A. A Nice Doctor                      B. The Deep Roots  

C. Adversity and Suffering              D. My Childhood Memory