"Hey, Jenna, do you think we'll still be friends when we're eighty-two?" I asked my friend. It was clear
that she was wondering where I had come up with such a question. Losing Jenna would be like losing a
very close sister. We hung out together. We gave each other advice.
     "Of course, we'll still be friends when we're eighty-two." Jenna announced loudly.
     The next year, in the fourth grade, we met Jamie. The three of us soon became close friends. We
played together almost every day. I thought even time couldn't pull us apart, but I was sadly mistaken.
     The three of us started fighting a lot. Before Christmas, we had a really big fight, and Jamie and Jenna
were against me, both saying I was bossy. I felt helpless and lonely. I thought Christmas would be horrible!
     I was surprised when Jenna came to my house and gave me an awesome Christmas card she had made for me. I was so sure that she was still disappointed with me.
     "Wow, " I said, breaking the silence as we stood on either side of my front door. "Thanks."
     "Okay…well…I have to go," she said softly.
     "Okay. See you later then…and I closed the door.
     "Who was that at the door?" my mum asked.
     The card started off with "Merry Christmas", but then it said, "I am so glad we're friends. I am sorry
about what I said when we were fighting. A fight won't stop us from being friends. Besides, we said we
were going to be friends even when we're eight-two."
     I stopped reading and started laughing. I couldn't believe I had forgotten what she said that day in her
back yard. I couldn't believe I had been so selfish in trying to get even and making my friends feel sorry
for me that I had forgotten about real friendship.

1. How would the author and Jenna get along with each other after Christmas?

A. They would be close friends again.
B. They would not speak to each other.
C. They would lose touch with each other.
D. They would go on fighting with each other.

2.The underlined sentence "I was bossy" in the fourth paragraph means "_________".

A. I looked like a boss
B. I acted as a boss
C. I was fond of giving orders
D. I was fond of fighting

3.Which of the following is the right time order according to the passage?
a. Jamie became our friend.
b. I felt lonely and unhappy.
c. Jenna, Jamie and I fought a lot.
d. Jenna brought me a Christmas card.
e. I was sorry for what I did to her.
f. Jenna and I promised to be lifelong friends.

A. f a b c e d      
B. a c f b d e        
C. a b c f e d        
D. f a c b d e

4.The author was delighted when she read the card from Jenna because _________.

A. what Jenna wrote was funny
B. Jenna would be her friend again
C. she was happy about the coming Christmas
D. she was happy to receive a Christmas card

     The cars were honking (鳴叫) on the road one morning as I was walking to the park. I walked on
and soon found the cause - a little taxi that had got stuck in the middle of the road. There was sweat on
the driver's face as he tried to start the engine again and again - nothing happened. "No petrol," I said to
myself and then found myself getting angry. "Why doesn't the fool move his taxi to the side?" I thought,
so did all the others who honked and shouted.
      He got up tiredly, and the passenger in the taxi got out. He was a young man in a white shirt, who
watched the driver try to push it to the side. "Stupid guy!" I said. "Can't he lend a helping hand?"
      I watched as the poor driver pushed it to the side. Cars, buses and trucks went past cursing (咒罵)
the poor man. The young man took another taxi and went off.
      The taxi driver began mending his taxi. "Stupid passenger!" I said to him. "He didn't help you!" The
taxi driver slowly got up. "Sir!" he asked, "Did you?" I looked at him guiltily, then looked away, and
walked away fast, asking myself, "Did I help the poor man push his taxi?"
       What had I been doing as the traffic jam took place? How had I helped deal with the problem? Did
I help the poor man push his taxi? I'd done my bit, with my mouth. But never had I moved to solve the
problem. I was shocked with guilt as I heard him asking, "Sir! Did you?"

1. Why did a traffic jam happen on the road when the author was walking to the park?     

A. There was too much traffic in the street.
B. Truck drivers attempted to go ahead of others.
C. A taxi driver couldn't start his engine.
D. A young man wasn't good at driving.

2. The author's attitude toward the passenger is that of __________．   

A. anger                  
B. respect        
C. sympathy                        
D. guilt

3. Why did the author feel guilty?     

A. Because he blamed the driver wrongly.
B. Because he didn't help the driver, either.
C. Because he tried to help but failed in the end.
D. Because he didn't persuade the passenger to help.

4. From the incident, the author learnt a lesson that we should_________．

A. criticize those who don't help      
B. hurt the self-respect of others no more
C. think more of those who are in need      
D. stop talking and start to help

5. In this passage, the writer mainly ______ .

A. describes the traffic jam one morning
B. criticizes the your passenger
C. describes what he learns from an accident
D. tells us what we should do in the jam

     Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers advised,  "Barbara, be enthusiastic!
Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience." How right they were!
     "Nothing great was ever done without enthusiasm," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste (漿
糊) that helps you hang in there when the things get tough. It is the inner voice that tells you, "I can do it!" when others shout, "No, you can't!" It took years and years for the early work of Barbara McClintock, a
geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn't stop
working on her experiments.
     We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is the childlike wonder that gives
enthusiastic people such youthful air, whatever their age. At 90, cellist Pablo Casals would start his day
by playing the cello (大提琴). As the music flowed through his fingers, his shoulders would straighten and
joy would reappear in his eyes. As writer and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote, "Years wrinkle (起皺紋)
the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."
     Enthusiastic people also love what they do, not considering money or title or power. Patricia Mellratl,
a retired director in Kansas City, was once asked where she got her enthusiasm. She replied, "My father,
long ago, told me, 'I never made any money until I stopped working for it.'"
     We can't afford to waste tears on "might-have-been". We need to turn the tears into sweat (汗水)as
we go after "what-can-be". We need to live each moment whole-heartedly, with all our senses finding
pleasure in the sweet of a backyard garden, the simple picture of a six-year-old, and the beauty of a
rainbow.

1. What is the passage mainly talking about?

A. Enthusiasm is more important than experience.
B. Enthusiasm can give people more success and fame
C. Enthusiastic people will never get old
D. Enthusiasm can make you succeed and enjoy life.

2. We can infer that enthusiasm is more important for a person especially when __________.

A. he is in trouble          
B. he is getting old
C. he can do what he love  
D. he has succeeded

3. The author mentions Pablo Casals in the third paragraph to show that ______.  

A. enthusiasm can make people feel young
B. music can arouse people's enthusiasm
C. enthusiasm can give people inspiration needed to succeed
D. enthusiasm can keep people healthy

4. How many examples are referred in the passage to show the importance of enthusiasm?

A. Three      
B. Four      
C. Five      
D. Six

5. Which proverb may the writer agree with according to the last paragraph? 

A. A good beginning makes a good ending    
B. Don't cry over the spoiled milk
C. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy  
D. Love me, love my dog  

     An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year-old son.
Suddenly a crow (烏鴉) landed on their window.
     The father asked his son, "What is that?"
     The son replied, "That is a crow."
     After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, "What is this?"
     The son said, "Father, I told you just now. It's a crow."
     After a little while, the father asked his son the same question for the third time, "What is
this?"
     This time, the son said to his father in a low and cold tone, "It's a crow, a crow."
     After a moment, the father yet again asked his son for the fourth time, "What is this?"
     This time his son shouted at his father, "Why do you keep asking me the same question
again and again? I have told you already, 'IT IS A CROW'. Are you not able to understand
this?"
     A minute later the father went to his room and came back with a diary, which he had kept
since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page.
     Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa when a crow suddenly landed
on the window edge. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied him 23 times that it
was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question. I didn't at all feel
angry, but instead felt affection for my son.
     If your parents reach old age, do not look at them as a burden, but speak to them gently,
and be kind to them. From today say this aloud, "I want to see my parents happy forever. They
have cared for me ever since I was a little child. They have always showered me with love. I will
take care of my old parents in the best way no matter how they behave."

1. The writer mainly intends to ______.

A. tell us the function of a diary    
B. call on us to love our parents
C. teach us what a crow is          
D. introduce a pair of son and father

2. The underlined word "affection" probably means______.

A. puzzlement      
B. hatred(恨)  
C. worry        
D. love

3. We can infer that the father wrote that piece of diary at the age of ______.

A. eighty          
B. three      
C. thirty-eight    
D. forty-five

4. The old man brought out the diary, which he had kept since his son was born, because ______.

A. he forgot what had happened    
B. he would like his son to read it        
C. it could remind himself of the past
D. he wanted to find what a crow was

                                                                     A Gift of God
     One fine summer morning-it was the beginning of harvest, I remember-Mr. Earnshaw came
down stairs, dressed for a journey; after he had told Joseph what was to be done during the day,
he turned to Hindley and Cathy, and me-for I sat eating my porridge with them-and speaking to
his son, he said:
    "Now, I'm going to Liverpool today. What shall I bring you? You may choose what you like;
only small things, for I shall walk there and back; sixty miles each way, that is a long time!"
     Hindley named a fiddle (a kind of violin), and then he asked Miss Cathy. She was hardly six
years old, but she could ride any horse in the stable. She chose a whip(鞭子).He did not forget
me; for he had a kind heart, though he was rather serious sometimes. He promised to bring me
a pocketful of apples and pears. Then he kissed his children good-bye and set off.
     The three days of his absence seemed a long while to us all. Mrs. Earnshaw expected him by
supper-time on the third evening. She put off the meal hour after hour. There were no signs of his
coming, however. About eleven o'clock the door opened and in stepped the master. He threw
himself into a chair, laughing and groaning, and told them all to stand off, for he was nearly killed.
He would never again have another such walk for whatever reasons.
     Opening his great coat, which he held bundled up in his arms, he said: "See here, wife. I was
never so beaten with anything in my life. But you must take it as a gift of God though it's as dark
almost as if it came from the devil."
     We crowded round him. And over Miss Cathy's head, I had a look at a dirty, ragged, black-haired
child-big enough both to walk and talk-yet, when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and
repeated over and over again some strange words that nobody could understand. I was frightened,
and Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to throw it out of doors. She did get angry, asking why he should have
brought that gipsy child into the house when they had their own kids to feed and look after? What he
meant to do with it?
   The master tried to explain the matter though he was really half dead with tiredness. All that I could
make out, among her scolding, was a story of his seeing it starving, and homeless, and almost dumb
(啞的) in the streets of Liverpool where he picked it up and inquired for its owner. But not a person
knew to whom it belonged. He said that as both his money and time was limited, he thought it better
to take it home with him at once than run into vain expenses there. Anyway he was determined he
would not leave it as he found it.
   Well, finally Mrs. Earnshaw calmed down, and Mr. Earnshaw told me to wash it, give it clean things,
and let it sleep with the children.
    Hindley and Cathy then began searching their father's pockets for the presents he had promised
them. But when Hindley drew out what had been a fiddle, crushed (壓壞) to pieces in the great coat,
he cried loudly. And Cathy, when she learned her father had lost her whip in attending on the stranger,
showed her feeling by spitting at the gipsy child, earning herself a sound blow from Mr. Earnshaw to
 teach her cleaner manners.
                                                               (Adapted from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte) 

1. When did Mr. Earnshaw return home from Liverpool?

A. By supper time.                    
B. An hour after the meal time.    
C. When it was getting dark.            
D. Not until it was nearly midnight.

2. Mr. Earnshaw brought the gipsy child back home for the following reasons except that ______  .

A. he couldn't find the parents of the starving child.
B. he found that the starving child was a dumb boy.
C. he couldn't afford to stay longer to look for the child's parents.
D. he couldn't leave the starving child without anyone caring for it.

3. It can be inferred from the passage that            .

A. The title "A Gift of God" refers to something he bought in Liverpool.
B. Cathy was very disappointed and she turned her anger at her father.  
C. Mrs. Earnshaw agreed to keep the gipsy child in spite of everything.                  
D. Hindley was good-humoured even if he didn't get his present.