Family traditions were important in our house, and none was more appreciated than the perfect Christmas tree
"Dad, can we watch when you trim（修剪）the tree?" My eldest son. Dan, nine, and his seven -year-old brother John, asked
"I won't be cutting this year," my husband Bob said. "Dan, you and John are old enough to measure things. Do it all by yourselves. Think you boys can handle it?
Dan and John seemed to grow six inches in their chairs at the thought of such an amazing responsibility. "We can handle it." Dan promised. "We won't let you down." .
A few days before Christmas. Dan and John rushed in after school. They gathered the tools they'd need and brought them out to the yard .where the tree waited. I was cooking when I heard the happy sounds as the boys carried the tree into the lying room. Then I heard the sound that every mother knows is trouble: dead silence I hurried out to them. The tree was cut too short. John crossed his arms tight across his chest. His eyes filled with angry tears.
I felt worried The tree was central to our holiday. I didn't want the boys to feel ashamed every tune they looked at it. I couldn't lower the ceiling, and I couldn't raise the floor either. There was no way to undo the damage done. Suddenly, a thought came to my mind, which turned the problem into the solution. www..com
“We can't make the tree taller." I said. "But we can put it on a higher position"
Dan nodded his head sideways. "We could put it on the coffee table. It just might work! Let's try it!“
When Bob got home and looked at the big tree on top of the coffee table, Dan and John held their breath.
"What a good idea!" he declared "Why didn't I ever think of such a thing?"
John broke into a grin Dan's chest swelled with pride.Who trimmed the Christmas tree this year?
| A．The writer | B．Bob | C．Dan and John | D．The whole family |
The underlined part "grow six inches" (Para. 4) implies the brothers felt ______.
| A．proud | B．nervous | C．worried | D．scared |
What happened after the brothers moved the Christmas tree into the living room?
A. They rushed into school.
B They began to decorate the tree.
C. They got angry with each other
D. They found the tree was cut shortWhat the writer's husband said in the end showed________.
| A．he expected too much of the brothers_ |
| B．he should not have given the brothers the task to trim the Christmas |
| C．he was too stupid to think of such an idea_ |
| D．he really appreciated what the brothers had done. |
My newly-rented small apartment was far away from the centre of London and it was becoming essential for me to find a job, so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the underground. They were looking for guards, not drivers. This suited me. I couldn’t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train, and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations. The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors. T.S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company. I’d be a subway guard. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis. Obviously I’d be overqualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges — those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre.
The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after about half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about fifty candidates. The interviewer sat at a desk. Candidates were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.
I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job?”“Why did you leave your job before that?”“And the one before that?” I can’t recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You’ve failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position.”
Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such jobs — being a postman is another one I still desire — demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.The writer applied for the job chiefly because _________.
| A．he could no longer afford to live without one |
| B．he wanted to work in the centre of London |
| C．he was not interested in any other available job |
| D．he had received some suitable training |
The writer thought he was overqualified for the job because _________.
| A．he often traveled underground | B．he had written many poems |
| C．he had worked in a company | D．he could deal with difficult situations |
What does the writer realize now that he did not realize then?
| A．How unpleasant ordinary jobs can be |
| B．How unsuitable he was for the job. |
| C．How difficult it is to be a poet |
| D．How badly he did in the interview. |
The length of his interview meant that _________.
| A．he did not like the interviewer at all |
| B．he had not done well in the intelligence test |
| C．he was not going to be offered the job |
| D．he had little work experience to talk about |
What’s the writer’s opinion of the psychologist?
| A．He was rather unsympathetic. | B．He was unhappy with his job. |
| C．He was quite inefficient. | D．He was very aggressive（有进取心的）. |
In many African countries, the care of orphans has been mainly led by foreign donor organizations. However, Sister Florence has changed all that. Using her own resources, Sister Florence is leading the work of raising orphans from different backgrounds. Sister Florence Wanjala’s biggest motivation to start the orphan program was when she saw a little boy whose parents had died. The boy was living with a cruel grandparent and he would visit the grave of his mother, crying for support. Sister Wanjala wanted to give a helping hand and give him hope. From that time, she started feeling the call to help a larger number of orphans.
She opened an office with a few friends and coordinated (协调)a program to help the orphans. All the registrations were done in the office and the program so far has 8000 children. Sister Wanjala said, “My dream is to help the orphan to live a holistic (完整)life and be a good Kenyan citizen to help this country. Many people think that the way to support orphans is to put them in an institution. Others support them up to the age of eighteen, but here, we do it very differently.” For Sister Wanjala, putting a child in an institution is normally her last choice. She prefers the orphans to live in a foster home.
She said, “I’m so encouraged and happy to see the orphans succeeding. When they come first or second in class, it shows how the program has helped them, and that’s encouraging to me as I continue to coordinate the program.” Through her charity work, more than 1000 orphans have been able to find a home. Sister Wanjala, as a mother, takes care of her own family.What inspired Sister Wanjala to start the orphan program?
| A．Her preference for kids. | B．Her own similar experience. |
| C．A sad story about an orphan. | D．Her successful charity work. |
Sister Wanjala opened an office mainly to ______.
| A．set up as many institutions as possible for orphans |
| B．start a program to offer orphans a foster family |
| C．provide school education for those orphans |
| D．raise more money for the homeless kids |
What does the underlined sentence probably mean?
| A．She didn’t want orphans to live in an institution. |
| B．She preferred to put orphans into an institution. |
| C．She had no choice but to put orphans in institutions. |
| D．She sent orphans into an institution in the end. |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．Sister Wanjala finally adopted the little boy. |
| B．Sister Wanjala found foster homes for 8000 orphans. |
| C．Sister Wanjala was too busy to care for her own family. |
| D．Sister Wanjala was not alone in helping orphans. |
Dieters' who eat meals high in protein might lose a bit more weight than those who get less protein and more carbohydrates (碳水化合物)一all other things being equal, a new analysis of past studies suggests. Researchers found that over an average of 12 weeks, people having a high一protein diet lost about 1.8 extra pounds, and more body fat, than those having a standard-protein diet.
Wycherley from the University of South" Australia in Adelaide, the lead author on the study says it’s possible that the body may spend more energy and bum more calories while dealing with protein, compared to carbohydrates. Another explanation for the link his team observed is that eating protein helps preserve muscle mass and muscle mass bums more calories, even when the body is resting, than other types of mass. He says people in the studies tend to get protein from a variety of animal and vegetable sources. Vegetable sources of protein include beans.
It is not obvious why a higher protein-to-carbohydrate ratio might help people lose more pounds——and one obesity researcher not involved in the new analysis questioned whether the trials were strong enough to make that conclusion. “The studies are generally far too short to tell effect,” Dr. James Levine from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, told Reuters Health in an e-mail. But given the limitations of the present evidence, Levine said, “It makes no real difference which of the weight-loss ways one chooses.”According to Wycherley’s analysis, dieters should take in more ______.
| A．fat | B．carbohydrates | C．protein | D．calories |
What can we learn from the studies?
| A．It bums more calories to deal with carbohydrates. |
| B．Protein helps keep muscle mass which bums calories. |
| C．Vegetables contain more protein than animals. |
| D．No more calories are burned while the body is resting. |
What is Levine’s attitude towards the conclusion of the studies?
| A．Doubtful. | B．Supportive. | C．Curious. | D．Agreeable. |
Legends about the development of coffee are varied and interesting, involving chance occurrences, political tricks, and the pursuit of wealth and power.
According to one story, a sheepherder named Kaldi, as he tended his sheep, noticed the effect of coffee beans. He noticed that the sheep became excited after eating the red “cherries" from a certain plant when they changed pastures (牧场). He tried it himself, and was soon as overactive as his sheep. Another story relates that a monk happened to discover that this fruit from the shiny green plant could help him stay awake.
Another legend gives us the name for coffee, “mocha”. Omar, an Arabian was thrown to the desert with his followers to die of starvation. In desperation, Omar had his friends boil and eat the fruit from an unknown plant. Not only did the soup save the group, but the residents of the nearest town, Mocha, took their survival as a religious sign. The plant and its beverage (饮料) were named Mocha to honor this event.
Coffee was introduced much later to countries beyond Arabia, whose inhabitants believed it to be a tasty thing and guarded its secret as if they were top secret military plans. The government forbade transportation of the plant out of the Moslem nations. The actual spread of coffee was started illegally. One Arab named Baba Budan smuggled (走私) beans to some mountains near Mysore, India, and started a farm there. Early in this century, some of those original plants were found still growing fruitfully in the region.
Coffee today is grown and enjoyed worldwide, and is one of the few crops that small farmers in third-world countries can profitably export.What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?
| A．A sheepherder used coffee beans to keep sheep excited. |
| B．Coffee was a special kind of red cherry from a certain plant. |
| C．A sheepherder and a monk accidently discovered coffee’s effect. |
| D．Sheep ate a lot of coffee beans while they changed pastures. |
Which of the following involves political tricks?
| A．Kaldi’s story. | B．The monk’s story. |
| C．Omar’s story. | D．Baba Budan’s story. |
Mocha is originally the name of ______.
| A．a town | B．an Arabian | C．a kind of coffee | D．a sheepherder |
What can be the best title for the text?
| A．The Secret of Coffee | B．The Tales of Coffee |
| C．People’s Love for Coffee | D．The Function of Coffee |
One day I walked down to get to my car, thinking about what I had to accomplish and scolding myself for being late for work, but surprisingly the car was nowhere to be found.
This was at 8 a.m. in the morning. I made trips to all the towing places and police stations, all the time thinking that it was towed (拖走）by cops (巡警).By around 10 a.m., the cops decided that it was actually stolen. After filing a report with them, I finally got to work thinking how my day was completely messed up.
Later in the day I went to pick up a rental car at Enterprise only to realize that my license was missing, too, along with my car. I told the enterprise guy the whole story and he offered to take me to the closest DMV and get a duplicate (副本) license. 1 was totally shocked. I did not know why this complete stranger would want to take some time off his day to help me. He actually took me to DMV, got a duplicate and then rented me a car. I was upset the whole day because of the events happening to me but somehow this simple act of kindness from a complete stranger made it all worth it. It cheered me up and made me forget all the troubles of the day. I was so moved by this kind act that the next day I made sure someone else got a similar surprise. I took some smiley shaped chocolates and left them on some of my colleagues’ desks.
There is still a lot of goodness out there in the world. We just need to take the time to notice it. I hope that this story would inspire many others like me to do more acts of kindness.The moment the author found the car missing, he thought ______.
| A．it was stolen by a stranger | B．it was towed by the police |
| C．he placed it in a wrong place | D．he should rent another one |
We can infer that DMV is ______.
| A．an office for license | B．a towing place |
| C．a renting place | D．a parking lot |
Why did the author put some chocolates on his colleagues’ desks?
| A．His colleagues were fond of chocolates. |
| B．He wanted to thank his colleagues. |
| C．He was touched and hoped to cheer others. |
| D．He wanted to do his colleagues a favor. |
The author writes about his experience ______.
| A．to criticize the person stealing his cars |
| B．to praise the rental place at Enterprise |
| C．to tell us a surprising but moving story |
| D．to encourage people to do acts of kindness |
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