Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He stopped by the fence in front of the house where he lived with his aunt Polly. He looked at it, and all joy left him. The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.

He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day. They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.

He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find something to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea.

At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.

While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.

Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hello! I’m going swimming, but you can’t go, can you?”

No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom’s mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.

Ben said, “Hello, old fellow, you’ve got to work, hey?”

Tom turned suddenly and said, “Why, it’s you, Ben! I wasn’t noticing.”

“I’m going swimming. Don’t you wish you could? But of course you’d rather work. You seem to like it very much.”

“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I shouldn’t like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said,

“Tom, let me whitewash a little.”

Tom thought for a moment, was about to agree; but he changed his mind.

“No, no, it won’t do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don’t think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough.”

“No — is that so? Oh come, let me just try. Only just a little.”

“Ben, I’d like to, but if it isn’t done right, I’m afraid Aunt Polly ...”

“Oh, I’ll be careful. Now let me try. I’ll give you half of my apple.”

“Well, here — No, Ben, now don’t. I’m afraid ...”

“I’ll give you all of it.”

Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures. The fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn’t run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.

He had discovered a great law of human action that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.

1.Why did Tom take all his bits of toys out of his pockets?

A. Because he was tired and wanted to play with his toys.

B. Because he wanted to exchange his toys with his friends.

C. Because he wanted to give his toys to his friends.

D. Because he wanted to know if he could buy help with his toys.

2. Tom was about to agree to let Ben whitewash when he changed his mind because ______.

A. Tom wanted to do the whitewashing himself

B. Tom planned to make Ben give up his apple first

C. Tom was unwilling to let Ben do the whitewashing

D. Tom was afraid Ben couldn’t do the whitewashing well.

3.We can learn from the passage that ______.

A. Tom was fond of whitewashing the fence

B. Tom had a lot of friends who were ready to help him

C. Tom managed to let other boys do the whitewashing for him

D. Tom was better at whitewashing the fence than others

4.Which of the following is the most suitable title for this passage?

A. The Happy Whitewasher

B. Tom And His Fellows

C. Whitewashing A Fence

D. How To Make Things Difficult To Get

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科目：高中英語 來源：2016屆寧夏銀川一中高三第一次模擬考試英語試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

C Last year my summer holiday was spoiled by my bringing along a modern convenience that was too convenient for my own good: the iPad．Instead of looking at nature, I checked my e-mail．Instead of paddling a small boat, I followed my Twitter feed（推特簡訊）．Instead of reading great novels, I stuck to reading four newspapers each morning．I was behaving as if I were still in the office．My body was on vacation, but my head wasn’t．

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This experience has had a happy ending．With determination and the strong support of my wife, I won in my vacation struggle against the Internet, realizing finally that it was I, not the iPad, that was the problem．I knew I had won when we passed a Starbucks and my wife asked if I wanted to stop to use the Wi-Fi．“I don’t need it,” I said．

However, as we return to post-vacation life, a harder test begins: Can I continue when I’m back at work?

There are times when the need to know what’s being said right now is great．I have no intention of giving up my convenience completely．But I hope to resist the temptation to check my e-mail every five minutes, which leads to checking my Twitter feed and a website or two．

I think a vacation is supposed to help you rest your brain to become more productive．Here I hope this one worked．

1.What do we know about the author’s last summer vacation?

A．He was determined to enjoy the beautiful view．

B．His iPad ruined his plan of finishing a great novel．

C．He hated himself for acting as if he were working on vacation．

D．He felt satisfied that he had stuck to his usual timetable．

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B．He handed his iPad to his wife．

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D．He listened to the radio most of the time．

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A．keep control of when and how to use the Internet

B．continue to road more and more books

C．stay away from the Internet for ever

D．stop checking what is being said right now completely

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A．A vacation is having nothing to do but read all day．

B．A vacation proves that a life of pleasure is overvalued．

C．A vacation means a change of pace to make one more creative．

D．A vacation is a period of time to do whatever one wishes to．

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科目：高中英語 來源：2014-2015學(xué)年山東省濰坊市高三第一次模擬考試英語試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

Shake Shack is a new kind of restaurant becoming more popular in the U S．The restaurants are not“fast food．”They are known as“fast casual．”

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Show respect for parents is one of the Chinese traditional moral value. As most of the students today are “the only child” in their family, they often regard them as the “centre” of the family, without caring many about their parents. Our school start a programme when the new year came. It is “Respecting parents programme”. Ten “Do’s” have worked out for the students to follow clearly and easily. They include: “Remember your parents’ birthdays and express your the best wishes to them; tell “hello” to your parents see them returning home; and tell your parents where you go when you leave home.” The programme has been successfully.

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ELMONT, N. Y. (AP)---Elmont High School senior Harold Ekeh had a plan—he would apply to 13 colleges , including all eight Ivy League schools, figuring it would help his chances of getting into at least one great school.

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If you answered“yes”to any of these questions, then you need

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Yogurt with Dried Fruit and Nuts

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A. Get one Quickeats container and you’ll have four Quickeats to eat．

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