I was hurrying to our basketball game one morning when Hillary Barnes, the most popular girl in school, stopped me. “Are you the twin who won the art competition?” she asked.

“No, that’s Christine. I’m Katie,” I said.

We were not identical twins; we looked quite different. She could defeat Snow White in a beauty contest! Compared to Christine, I felt like one of Cinderella’s stepsisters.

One Saturday Christine gave me a painting lesson because I was always attempting to be artistic too. But I knocked over the vase of flowers, spilling water onto Christine’s painting. Instead of becoming angry, though, she turned the whole mess into a dreamy masterpiece （杰作）. You could look at five different ways and see five different things. With this brilliant creation, she won First Prize in the art competition. I really envied her, but I knew it wasn’t her fault and I was the one with wild, unmanageable hair and no talent.

Joining Christine’s basketball team was my latest effort to be like her.

On the way to the gym, I’d made up my mind to give my best performance in that day’s game. I made preparations with great enthusiasm. “Christine, here!” I tossed her a ball. But it was too high, she leapt for it; it slipped through her fingers and crashed into the tape recorder that was used to play the national anthem before each mage.

I muttered apologies as I picked up the broken pieces of the recorder. Coach looked at the mess and asked, “How are we going to play the song now?”

Christine suggested, “Let Katie sing it! She’s always singing at home.”

Coach asked, “Would you?” I found myself nodding.

Coach announced the national anthem and everyone stood.  Standing before a microphone, I looked up to the flag. The notes seemed to flow from deep inside me, and my voice was steady and clear. When I finished, the gym was silent. Then it was filled with applause. As the game started, teammates patted my back and gave me the “thumbs up” sign. Laura Jamison said, “You should try out for the school musical!” I nodded and said that I might.

The next morning, Hillary Barnes stopped me in the hallway and asked, “Are you the twin who sings?”

“Yes, that’s me,” I answered, grinning （露齒笑） as I walked to class.

1．The author uses “Snow White” and “Cinderella’s stepsisters” to show          .

       A．how dissimilar the twins were in appearance

       B．why Christine could win the art competition

       C．who was the most popular girl at school

       D．what the twins’ characters were like

2．What can we learn from Paragraph 4?

       A．Christine was unpleasant to her sister.

       B．Katie showed a lot of ability in painting too.

       C．The masterpiece was painted by the two sisters.

       D．Katie took a reasonably balanced view of her sister.

3．Christine recommended Katie for the national anthem because         .

       A．she knew perfectly well what Katie had a gift for

       B．she wanted to repair the damage she had caused

       C．she thought Katie should be punished

       D．she would like to help the coach

4．What is the message of the story?

      A．Bad situations help become popular.

       B．People are talented in different ways.

       C．People should always be nice to others.

       D．Unsuccessful attempts are well worth the effort.

練習(xí)冊系列答案
相關(guān)習(xí)題

科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：

—I’d like to go to the cinema with you, mum．

—Sorry, darling, but the film is         for adults only．

A．a(chǎn)dmitted           B．intended         C．promised          D．permitted

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：

Nearly all educators believe that a challenging situation can often      the best qualities of a person．

A．bring up          B．bring about          C．bring forward          D．bring out

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：

The government has          plenty of food and clothes of high quality to the people in Wenchuan.

A．suffered         B．a(chǎn)rranged          C．a(chǎn)djusted            D．supplied

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：

I ________ be slow, but at least I don't make stupid mistakes.

A．must             B．need              C．should            D．may   

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：

Having sent several mails to apply for jobs, Susan waited for a reply, but       came.

A．none          B．neither            C．nothing          D．nobody

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：

--- How can I prepare for class, Mr. Johnson?

---         you          my web page? You can download the notes and read them ahead of

time.

A．Have … checked out                          B．Did … check out

C．Are … checking out                D．Will … check out

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：

It seems that you ______ this report or you can see what I questioned just now．

A．haven't read           B．don't read         C．didn't read           D．hadn't read

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

Reading poems is not exactly an everyday activity for most people. In fact, many people never read a poem once they get out of high school.

It is worth reminding ourselves that this has not always been the case in America. In the nineteenth century, a usual American activity was to sit around the fireside in the evening and read poems aloud. It is true that there was no television at the time, or movie theaters, or World Wide Web, to provide diversion. However, poems were a source of pleasure, of self-education, of connection to other people or to the world beyond one’s own community. Reading them was a social act as well as an individual one, and perhaps even more social than individual. Writing poems to share with friends and relations was, like reading poems by the fireside, another way in which poetry has a place in everyday life.

How did things change? Why are most Americans no longer comfortable with poetry, and why do most people today think that a poem has nothing to tell them and that they can do well without poems?

There are, I believe, three culprits（肇事者）：poets, teachers, and we ourselves. Of these, the least important is the third: the world surrounding the poem has betrayed us more than we have betrayed the poem. Early in the twentieth century, poetry in English headed into directions unfavorable to the reading of poetry. Readers decided that poems were not for the fireside or the easy chair at night, and that they belonged where other difficult-to-read things belonged.

Poets failed the reader, so did teachers. They want their students to know something about the skills of a poem, they want their students to see that poems mean something. Yet what usually occurs when teachers push these concerns on their high school students is that young people decide poems are unpleasant crossword puzzles.

1．Reading poems is thought to be a social act in the nineteenth century because          .

    A．it built a link among people                         B．it helped unite a community

    C．it was a source of self-education                D．it was a source of pleasure

2．The underlined word “diversion”（in Para2） most probably means “         ”.

    A．concentration              B．change             C．a(chǎn)musements              D．stories

3．According to the passage, what is the main cause of the great gap between readers and poetry?

    A．Students are becoming less interested in poetry.

    B．Students are poorly educated in high school.

    C．TV and the Internet are more attractive than poetry.

    D．Poems have become difficult to understand.

4．In the last paragraph, the writer questions          .

    A．the difficulty in studying poems                                       B．the way poems are taught in school

C．students’ wrong ideas about poetry    D．the techniques used in writing poem

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習(xí)冊答案