A mouse looked through a hole in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package; what food
could it contain? He was astonished to discover that it was a mouse trap!
     Running to the farmyard, the mouse shouted, warning everyone, "There is a mouse trap in the house,
there is a mouse trap in the house." The chicken, with her head high, glared at the mouse and said, "Shut up.
Little Ugly. This is a great concern to you, but it has nothing to do with me:I can't be troubled by it."
     The mouse turned to the pig and told him."There is a mouse trap in the house." "I am so sorry, Mr
Mouse," said the pig sympathetically, "but there is nothing I can do about it but pray；you are always in my
prayers."
     The mouse turned to the cow, who said,"A mouse trap, am I in great danger, huh?"
     Now the mouse had to face the farmer's mouse trap alone.
     That very night a sound was heard through the house, like that of a mouse trap catching its prey. The
farmer' wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a big poisonous snake
whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She
rerturned home with a fever. It is said that drinking fresh chicken soup will help treat fever, so the farmer took
his sharp knife to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. His wife's sickness continued, so friends and
neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer killed the pig. The farmer's wife did
not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral. The farmer had the cow killed to
provide for all of them to eat.
     So next time when someone is facing a problem, don't say that it has nothing to do with you.

1. We could see from the passage that the mouse was _____.

A. good at cheating others
B. dishonest
C. kind and warm-hearted
D. foolish

2. Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?

A. The others help the farmer kill the cow.
B. The mouse trap was very practical.
C. The pig is more friendly than the other animals.
D. The farmer's family had no friends at all.

3. The passage is most probably a _____.

A. fable (寓言)
B. science fiction
C. fairy tale (神話)
D. humorous story

4. What can we learn from the story?

A. Traps can always cause chain reactions.
B. It is better to be safe than to be sorry.
C. Sometimes when the least of us is threatened, we all might be at risk.
D. To keep the balance of nature is the duty of us al.

     A nine-year-old kid was sitting at his desk when suddenly there was a puddle (/JC^C)between his feet
and the front of his trousers was wet. He thought his heart was going to stop because he couldn't possibly
imagine how this had happened. It had never happened before, and he knew that when the boys found out
he would never hear the end of it. When the girls found out, they would never speak to him again as long as
he lived.
     He prayed this prayer, "Dear God, I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat!" He looked
up from his prayer and here came the teacher with a look in her eyes that said he had been discovered. As
the teacher was walking toward him, a classmate named Susie was carrying a goldfish bowl full of water.
Susie tripped (絆倒) in front of the teacher and dumped (倒) the bowl of water in the boy's lap. The boy
pretended to be angry, but all the while was saying to himself, "Thank you. Lord!"
     Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy was the object of sympathy. The
teacher rushed him downstairs and gave him gym shorts to put on while his trousers dried out. All the other
children were on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy was wonderful. But as
life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his had been transferred (轉移) to someone else+-Susie.
She tried to help, but they told her to get out.
     When school was over, the boy walked over to Susie and whispered,"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
Susie whispered back,"I wet my trousers once, too!"

1. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 means ______ .

A. the boys would never play with him
B. the boys would treat him as usual
C. he would hardly hear any praise from the boys
D. he would be laughed at by the. boys endlessly

2. After Susie dumped water in his lap, the boy was in a state of _____.

A. excitement
B. relief
C. anxiety
D. anger

3. What did the other kids do after the incident?

A. They offered him dry clothes.
B. They laughed at the boy rudely,
C. They helped the boy do the cleaning.
D. They urged the boy to get out angrily.  

4. Why did Susie dump water in the boy's lap?

A. The boy asked her to do so.
B. She just did it by accident.
C. The teacher tripped her on purpose.
D. She knew the boy's embarrassment.

     Burn rate is the speed at which a startup business consumes money. My rate was $ 75,000 a month.
Four months after my company was set up, I had only a quarter of the starting capital left in the bank.
     Looking for guidance, I went to talk to my friend, Arthur Walworth about my new venture. "Times
of great change always bring out the risk-takers," he said."And they leave winners and losers. My
grandfather invested a lot of money in a project of Thomas Edison' s that ended up in failure."
      I was lost in thought at the notion(an idea or belief about something) of a Thomas Edison project
ending in failure. Damn. It could happen to anybody! I must continue.
     At that time CD-ROM sales had bombed, so investors were fleeing from the field. I didn't turn away
from mine entirely, but instead linked it to the internet.
     My plan was to offer consumers descriptions of home-design products by using a special software
and let them modify the designs. Then we can enable them to get online professional and constructional
help to have their houses built, decorated and furnished according to their own choice.
      To realize my plan I needed investors, so I continued to meet regularly with venture capitalists. One
said I had a great idea. But I needed to test it. Get the money somewhere. To get this money from a
venture capitalist is going to cost my wife and my children! He turned down my request.
     Wife? Children? I hardly remembered them.
      I was working nonstop-struggling to turn the key in the lock, to find the right way ahead. The pressure
was terrible. It was just at this time that my parents and sisters stepped up. Two hundred thousand dollars.
A lot of money to them, invested in this crazy son and brother without a moment's hesitation. Dad and
Mom had driven out from Chicago and seen the passion in my little office and the trouble at home.
     With their help my company survived and has been prospering ever since.

1. When the author's company started operation, he had _____.

A. $ 450,000
B. $ 400,000
C. $ 350,000
D. $ 300,000

2. Arthur implies that to start a business in times of change, people have to _____.

A. rely on famous people all be time
B. invest as much money as possible
C. face the risks of possible failure
D. think about nothing but success

3. The author's company was engaged in _____.

A. furniture design and production
B. online home-design service
C. traditional home designing
D. home decoration business

4. Faced with a very unfavorable market situation, the author decided _______ .

A. to improve his service
B. to start a new business
C. to withdraw his money
D. to reduce his investment

     Everybody has one of those days when everything goes wrong. This is what happened to Harry.
     He got up one morning very late because he had forgotten to wind up his alarm clock. He tried to shave
quickly and cut himself when he got blood all over his clean shirt, so he had to find another one. The only
other shirt that was clean needed ironing, so he ironed it. While he was ironing it, there was a knock at the
door. It was the man to read the electricity meter, he showed him where the meter was, said goodbye and
found that the iron had burnt a hole in his shirt. So he had to wear the one with the blood on it after all. By
this time it was very late, so he decided he couldn't go to work by bus. He telephoned for a taxi to take him
to work. The taxi arrived and Harry got in and began to read the newspaper.
     In another part of the town, a man had killed a woman with a knife and was seen to run away in a taxi.
When Harry's taxi stopped outside his office, a policeman happened to be standing there. He saw the blood
on Harry's shirt and took him to the police station. He was kept till 3 o'clock in the afternoon before the
policeman was sure that he was not the man they wanted. When he finally arrived at the office at about four,
his boss took a look at him and told him to go away and find another job.

1. Harry had _____.

A. a lucky day
B. an unlucky day
C. a busy day
D. a good day

2. Put the following sentences into correct order according to the passage.
a. The man who read the electricity meter came.
b. Harry ironed his shirt.
c. Harry got blood all over his clean shirt.
d. There was a knock at the door.
e. Harry wore the shirt with blood on it.

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

3. Why did Harry wear the shirt with blood on it?

A. The iron had burnt a hole on his clean shirt.
B. The only other needed ironing.
C. He had only one shirt.
D. He cut himself and got blood on his shirt.

4. Harry was taken to police station because ______.

A. His taxi stopped outside his office and policeman happened to be there
B. There was blood on his shirt and he was in the taxi
C. A man killed a woman with a knife
D. The killer was seen to run away in the a taxi

5. His boss told him to go away and find another job because _____.

A. he had been kept by the police
B. there was blood on his shirt
C. he was late for work
D. he had killed a woman

     It was a week before Christmas, but things were far from cheery. Our task was to deliver as many boxes
of food as possible to those in need in Camden, New Jersey. There were no Christmas carolers (唱頌歌的人)
walking these streets that were lined with boarded-up (用木板封住的) houses and broken windows. Mothers
kept their children close as they hurried down the streets. It was mid-afternoon, but even the bright sun couldn't warm this place.
     Red tickets in the windows marked which houses we were to visit. Our white truck stopped in front of one
townhouse and our group knocked on the door. In our arms were boxes filled with ham, bread and other
essentials to make the perfect Christmas dinner. Four small faces glanced through the curtains and one
exhausted mom answered the door. She seemed embarrassed to be caught in her nightgown with undone hair.
She was in her mid-20s, but her rough skin and tired eyes added years.
      "Sacred Heart food delivery service," I smiled."Where can we put this for you?"
      She pointed and as we entered the house, I noticed the conditions they lived in. The children climbed around, wearing only diapers (尿布). There were no carpets, only cold concrete beneath our feet. There was no
Christmas tree or decorations. My heart sank. It was so cold, and I found it hard to believe that this was reality
for this family. We set the boxes down and the mother grabbed my hand.
     "You don't know how much of a blessing this is to me and my family," she said, crying."We are just getting by." I opened my arms and gave her a hug.
     "Happy holidays!" I replied before I headed out the door. I realized how warm I felt inside. This was unlike
anything I had ever experienced. We cannot help what family we are born into, but we can help each other.

1. From Paragraph 1, we can infer that Camden may be a place where ______.

A. the living conditions were terrible
B. people had no belief
C. there was no sign of life
D. little sunshine was received

2. What impression did the woman leave on the author?

A. She was shy and cold to visitors.
B. She was confident and energetic.
C. She wasn't good at dressing herself up.
D. She looked much older than her age.

3. By saying "We are just getting by", the woman meant ______.

A. they were waiting for help
B. they were looking for food and clothing
C. they were going to move away
D. they were living a very poor life

4. The passage mainly tells us that _______.

A. the poor can also help others
B. assisting the poor needs actions
C. people should help each other
D. having more children causes poverty

     Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out-patients at the clinic.
     One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly
awful looking man-no taller than my eight-year-old son-I thought as I stared at the shriveled (皺縮的) body.
But the shocking thing was his face-twisted from swelling.
     He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success." I guess it's my face…, but my
doctor says with a few more treatments …"
     I told him we would find him a bed. When I had finished the dishes, he told me he fished for a living to
support his daughter, her five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly disabled from a back injury.
He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence began with a thanks to God for a blessing.
He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer.
      The next morning before he left for his bus, he asked if he could come back and stay the next time he
had a treatment. I told him he was welcome to come again.
     In the years he came to stay overnight with us, there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or
oysters or vegetables from his garden.
     When I received these little gifts, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left
that first morning." Did you keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him away. You can lose roomers
by accommodating such people!"
     Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps their
illnesses would have been easier to bear. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from
him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude.

A. I felt pity for his look
B. he frightened my kid
C. he was in need of something to eat
D. he was looking for a place to stay overnight

2. The next-door neighbor refused the man because _____.

A. he might lose roomers
B. the man was poor
C. he had no spare room
D. the man didn't bring him gifts

3. Which of the following is NOT true about the man?

A. He developed skin cancer.
B. He fished to support a large family.
C. God helped him to get over his disease.
D. He didn't complain about his sufferings.

4. What attitude did the man have toward life?

A. Grateful.
B. Confident.
C. Regretful.
D. Passive.

5. What might be the best title of the passage?

A. Never judge a book by its cover
B. Give others a hand
C. Be the architect of life
D. Accept good and bad with gratitude