How old was I? I can’t remember. Maybe I was only 10. It was the first    16    without my father because he was away for something. He left me to fill that sad place in my mother’s heart. It was the Christmas when I stopped being a    17    and tried to play Father Christmas myself. I really wanted to make it happy and bright again. It was the Christmas of the    18   .

Mom first saw the coat at Tobias, a nice    19    shop in our town’s little shopping mall. It was dark green. And it was a    20   , heavy, wool dress coat. Mom pulled it out from the rack(架) and held it up. “Long enough,” she said in a low voice and    21   .

“I need a new coat,” Mom smiled before the mirror. She looked good on any clothes,       22    this coat suited her much better. She looked at the    23   , then hung the coat back on the rack, standing there once more to    24    

    Eighty-seven dollars. But I decided to buy it for her. As we moved on    25   the mall, I found some excuse to return and asked one of the Tobias ladies to    26    the coat.

I helped clean every yard(庭院) in our neighbourhood—some yards twice, and soon I got the coat. The store ladies helped me put it in their biggest    27    with bright blue paper and thick silver ribbon(丝带). I don’t remember    28    I got it home, but I can still feel the wonderful    29    and pride that filled me. I would imagine the big space which the box would take up under our tree. Here it was—joy, peace and    30   —all in the box, waiting for Mom’s surprise.

1.A. Easter         B. Christmas        C. Halloween    D. Thanksgiving

2.A. child          B. son          C. student      D. teacher

3.A. tree           B. bag          C. coat         D. ribbon

4.A. children’s    B. women’s     C. girl’s      D. men’s

5.A. big            B. wide         C. thin         D. long

6.A. tried it on    B. put it on    C. kept it on   D. turned it on

7.A. though         B. or           C. for          D. and

8.A. price          B. design       C. color        D. material

9.A. taste          B. feel         C. sound        D. smell

10.A. through       B. over         C. past         D. across

11.A. sell          B. send         C. keep         D. wash

12.A. tank          B. basket       C. bag          D. box

13.A. how           B. why          C. whether      D. when

14.A. development   B. excitement   C. improvement D. advertisement

15.A. courage       B. confidence   C. love         D. honesty

Joyce was born in a poor family. Next Friday would be her mother’s birthday. Joyce wanted to buy something for her mother, but she had no money. As an 8-year-old girl, she couldn’t do part-time jobs. What could she do to make enough money for her mother’s birthday present?
Suddenly she had an idea. Usually, she would go straight to school, but this morning, she didn’t. She walked along the streets, picking up cardboard（纸板）, plastic（塑料）bottles and cans（易拉罐）. When it was time for school, she hid them in the backyard and ran to school as quickly as possible.
Eight days later, she decided to sell all the things she had collected because the next day was her mother’s birthday. She had to sell them and buy a birthday present for her mother. In the shop, she bought a beautiful hair pin for her mother.
When her mother got the present, she said with tears in her eyes,“This is the best present I’ve ever received.”
【小题1】How old was Joyce?
A. Seven.           B. Eight.        C. Nine.         
【小题2】Why couldn’t Joyce buy a present for her mother at first?
A. Because she had no money.
B. Because she didn’t know what her mother liked.
C. Because she didn’t love her mother at all.
【小题3】What was Joyce’s idea?
A. Doing part-time jobs.   
B. Collecting waste things and selling them.
C. Asking her best friend for help.
【小题4】How long did Joyce collect the waste things?
A. A week.      B. A month.    C. More than a week.
【小题5】 How did Joyce’s mother feel when she got the present?
A. Very sad.      B. Very happy and moved.     C. Very surprised.

Frankenstein is one of the world’s most famous horror stories. It’s about a doctor who creates a new man from the body parts of dead people and brings it to life. But the experiment goes wrong and the monster(怪兽) kills the doctor and many others. The story has been read by millions since it was first published and in the last hundred years it has been made into dozens of movies. Many people are surprised to learn its writer was a 19-year-old woman, called Mary Shelley.
Mary was born into a rich London family in August 1797. She was educated by her parents and when she was 13 decided to become a writer. In 1812, she met the famous writer Percy Shelley and they soon got married. Sadly for Mary, their first child died soon after birth in Italy. In her diary, Mary wrote about a dream: “I dreamt that my little baby came to life again—that it had only been cold and that we rubbed it before the fire and it lived.”
In 1816, Percy Shelley and 19-year-odl May visited the poet Lord Byron at his home in Switzerland. Because of the bad weather they stayed indoors reading horror stories. One night, Byron asked everyone to write their own story. Mary thought of her dream and wrote the story Frankenstein.
Frankenstein was published when Mary was 21, and became a huge success. Many people didn’t think a 19-year-old woman could write so well and believed her husband was the real writer.
Although famous, Shelley’s life was full of sadness. Only one of her four children lived and in 1822 her husband died in a swimming accident. Mary was broken-hearted and decided not to marry again. She devoted herself to her child and continued to write until her death in 1851.
【小题1】 What do we know about he story Frankenstein?