"It is a dreadful thing to be poor a fortnight before Christmas," said Clorinda, with the mournful sigh of seventeen years.
Aunt Emmy smiled. Aunt Emmy was sixty, and spent the hours she didn't spend in a bed, on a sofa or in a wheel chair; but Aunt Emmy was never heard to sigh.
"The gifts which money can purchase are not the only ones we can give," said Aunt Emmy gently, "nor the best, either."
"Oh, I know it's nicer to give something of your own work," agreed Clorinda, "but materials for fancy work cost too. That kind of gift is just as much out of the question for me as any other."
"That was not what I meant," said Aunt Emmy.
"What did you mean, then?" asked Clorinda, looking puzzled.
Aunt Emmy smiled.
"Suppose you think out my meaning for yourself," she said. "That would be better than if I explained it. Besides, I don't think I could explain it. Take the beautiful line of a beautiful poem to help you in your thinking out: 'The gift without the giver is bare.'"
"I'd put it the other way and say, 'The giver without the gift is bare,'" said Clorinda, with a grimace. "That is my predicament exactly. Well, I hope by next Christmas I'll not be quite bankrupt. I'm going into Mr. Callender's store down at Murraybridge in February. He has offered me the place, you know."
"Won't your aunt miss you terribly?" said Aunt Emmy gravely.
Clorinda flushed. There was a note in Aunt Emmy's voice that disturbed her.
"I think she would rather have your companionship than a part of your salary, Clorinda," said Aunt Emmy. "But of course you must decide for yourself, dear. " ““
"Well, I must say bye-bye and run home. " Clorinda lived just across the road from Aunt Emmy in a tiny white house behind some huge willows. But Aunt Mary lived there too--the only relative Clorinda had, for Aunt Emmy wasn't really her aunt at all. Clorinda had always lived with Aunt Mary ever since she could remember.
Clorinda puzzled over Aunt Emmy's meaning for four days and part of three nights. Then all at once it came to her. Or if it wasn't Aunt Emmy's meaning it was a very good meaning in itself, and it grew clearer and expanded in meaning during the days that followed, although at first Clorinda shrank a little from some of the conclusions to which it led her."
On Christmas Day, Clorinda went over to Aunt Emmy's. It was a faded brown Christmas after all, for the snow had not come. But Clorinda did not mind; there was such joy in her heart that she thought it the most delightful Christmas Day that ever dawned.
She put the queer cornery armful she carried down on the kitchen floor before she went into the sitting room. Aunt Emmy was lying on the sofa before the fire, and Clorinda sat down beside her.
"I've come to tell you all about it," she said.
Aunt Emmy patted the hand that was in her own.
"From your face, dear girl, it will be pleasant hearing and telling," she said.
Clorinda nodded.
"Aunt Emmy, I thought for days over your meaning ... thought until I was dizzy. And then one evening it just came to me, without any thinking at all, and I knew that I could give some gifts after all. I thought of something new every day for a week. At first I didn't think I could give some of them, and then I thought how selfish I was. I would have been willing to pay any amount of money for gifts if I had had it, but I wasn't willing to pay what I had. I got over that, though, Aunt Emmy. Now I'm going to tell you what I did give.
"First, there was old Aunt Kitty. You know she was my nurse when I was a baby, and she's very fond of me. But, well, you know, Aunt Emmy, I'm ashamed to confess it, but really I've never found Aunt Kitty very entertaining, to put it mildly. She is always glad when I go to see her, but I've never gone except when I couldn't help it. She is very deaf, and rather dull and stupid, you know. Well, I gave her a whole day. I took my knitting yesterday, and sat with her the whole time and just talked and talked. I told her all the Greenvale news and gossip and everything else I thought she'd like to hear. She was so pleased and proud; she told me when I came away that she hadn't had such a nice time for years. "
"Then there was ... Florence. You know, Aunt Emmy, we were always intimate friends until last year. Then Florence once told Rose Watson something I had told her in confidence. I found it out and I was so hurt. I couldn't forgive Florence, and I told her plainly I could never be a real friend to her again. Florence felt badly, because she really did love me, and she asked me to forgive her, but it seemed as if I couldn't. Well, Aunt Emmy, that was my Christmas gift to her ... my forgiveness. I went down last night and just put my arms around her and told her that I loved her as much as ever and wanted to be real close friends again.
"I gave Aunt Mary her gift this morning. I told her I wasn't going to Murraybridge, that I just meant to stay home with her. She was so glad--and I'm glad, too, now that I've decided so."
"Your gifts have been real gifts, Clorinda," said Aunt Emmy. "Something of you--the best of you--went into each of them."
Clorinda went out and brought her cornery armful in.
"I didn't forget you, Aunt Emmy," she said, as she unpinned the paper.
There was a rosebush--Clorinda's own pet rosebush--all snowed over with fragrant blossoms.
Aunt Emmy loved flowers. She put her finger under one of the roses and kissed it.
"It's as sweet as yourself, dear child," she said tenderly. "And it will be a joy to me all through the lonely winter days. You've found out the best meaning of Christmas giving, haven't you, dear?"
"Yes, thanks to you, Aunt Emmy," said Clorinda softly. Clorinda felt anxious before Christmas because_____________________.
| A．She had to leave Aunt Mary |
| B．She didn’t know what kind of Christmas gifts she should buy |
| C．She had not enough money to buy Christmas gifts |
| D．She had no time to make a proper decision |
Which of the following sentences can best explain the line “The gift without the giver is bare.”？
| A．A gift is valued by the mind of the giver. |
| B．Forgiveness is a gift for the giver and the receiver. |
| C．You cannot buy love or respect with expensive gifts. |
| D．Think twice before you give gifts to somebody |
What is the gift that Clorinda gave to old Aunt Kitty?
| A．Passion | B．Sympathy |
| C．Kindness | D．Company |
What does the underlined phrase “in confidence” mean?
| A．respectfully | B．confidently |
| C．secretly | D．willingly |
Which two words can best describe Aunt Emmy?
| A．cute and joyful | B．kind-hearted and emotional |
| C．optimistic and wise | D．gentle and timid |
Which of the following is the best title?
A. A Special Christmas B. Clorinda’s Gifts
C. Aunt Emmy C. Clorinda’s choice
Love is a telephone which always keeps silent when you are longing for a call, but rings when you are not ready for it. As a result, we often miss the sweetness from the other end.
Love is a telephone which is seldom program-controlled or directly dialed. You cannot get an immediate answer by a mere "hello", let alone go deep into your lover's heart by one call. Usually it had to be relayed by an operator, and you have to be patient in waiting. Destiny(命运) is the operator of this phone, who is always irresponsible and fond of playing practical jokes to which she may make you a lifelong victim intentionally or unintentionally.
Love is a telephone which is always busy, When you are ready to die for love, you only find, to your disappointment, the line is already occupied by someone else, and you are greeted only by a busy line. This is an eternal regret handed down from generation to generation and you are only one of those who languish for（因…受煎熬） followers.
Love is telephone, but it is difficult to seize the center time for dialing, and you will let the opportunity slip if your call is either too early or too late.
Love is a telephone which is not always associated with happiness. Honeyed words are transmitted by sound waves, but when the lovers are brought together, the phone serves no purpose that many lovers observe that marriage is the doom of love.
Love is a telephone which, when you use it for the first time, makes you so nervous and excited that you either hold the receiver upside down or dial the wrong number. By the time you've calmed down, you will beat a loss to whom you should make the call.
Love is a telephone which often has crossed lines. And this usually happens to you unexpectedly. Your time will either cross or be crossed. Both cases are referred to as "triangle". Fortunately, all such occurrences are transient(转瞬即逝的).What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Love is transient |
| B．Love is permanent |
| C．Love is a telephone |
| D．What’s love in life |
Which statement has the closest meaning to the underlined sentence?
| A．"all shall be well，Jack shall have Jill。“（有情人终成眷属） |
| B．A lifelong love is not only romantic but also practical |
| C．Love is all we have in life |
| D．Beauty is in the eyes of beholder |
Which is the synonym with the underlined word ”doom”?
| A．monument | B．final end | C．key point | D．substitute |
In which part can this passage probably be found ?
| A．advertisement | B．financial | C．emotion | D．lottery |
“Global warming could make humans shorter,” warn scientists who claim to have found evidence that it caused the world's first horses to shrink(收缩) nearly 50 million years ago. In fact, a team from the universities of Florida and Nebraska says it has found a link between the Earth heating up and the size of mammals – horses, in this case.
The scientists used fossils to follow the evolution of horses from their earliest appearance 56 million years ago. As temperature went up，their size went down, and vice versa（反之亦然）;“ At one point they were as small as a house cat,” said Dr Jonathan Bloch, curator（博物馆长） of the Florida Museum of Natural History, which was quoted by the "Daily Mail" as saying.
The scientists say that the current warming could have the same effect on mammals and could even make humans smaller."Horses started out small, about the size of a small dog . What's surprising is that after they first appeared, they then became even smaller and then dramatically increased in size, and that exactly corresponds to the global warming event, followed by cooling”
"It had been known that mammals were small during that time and that it was warm, but we hadn't realized that temperature specifically was driving the evolution of body size," Dr Bloch said in the "Science" journal.How did scientists find out the horses’ earliest appearance millions of years ago?
| A．searching the data on the net |
| B．sorting through the pictures of ancient times |
| C．using fossils to follow the evolution |
| D．analyzing the related images |
What can we infer form the passage?
| A．As temperatures went up, horses dramatically increased in size |
| B．The temperature has no effect on mammals’ evolution |
| C．As temperatures went up, horses’ size went down |
| D．In history, it used to be warm at early times , followed by a certain period of sharply cooling down. |
Which is the most closest meaning to the underlined words most probably mean _______.
| A．react to | B． be contradictory to |
| C．be consistent with | D． differ from |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Global warming is to disappear |
| B．The temperature on earth is to decrease |
| C．Global warming makes human shorter |
| D．Mammals are dying out. |
People who are too happy die younger than their more downbeat（pessimistic） peers(同龄人), claims new research.
A study which followed children from the 1920s to old age showed that people who were rated 'highly cheerful' by teachers at school died younger than their more reserved classmates。
This was because people who were too happy were more likely to suffer from mental disorders such as bipolar, making them less fearful and more likely to take risks that increase the chance of having a fatal accident.
Being too cheerful - especially at inappropriate times - can also rouse anger in others, increasing the risk of a person coming to harm.
Researchers from a variety of universities worldwide also discovered that trying too hard to be happy often ended up leaving people feeling more depressed than before, as putting an effort into improving their mood often left people feeling cheated.
And magazine articles offering tips on how to be happy were also blamed for worsening depression.
One study saw participants asked to read an article offering ways to improve your mood, and follow one of the tips to see how effective it was.
Participants then took the advice offered - such as watching an upbeat film - often concentrated too hard on trying to improve their mood rather than letting it lift naturally。
This meant that by the time the film had ended, they often felt angry and cheated by the advice given, putting them in a far worse mood than when they had started watching.
However, results of the study, published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, revealed that the key to true happiness was much more simple: meaningful relationships with friends and family members.
Study co-author Professor June Gruber, from the department of psychology at Yale University in the United States, said of people who actively tried to be happy: 'When you're doing it with the motivation or expectation that these things ought to make you happy, that can lead to disappointment and decreased happiness. '
'The strongest predictor of happiness is not money, or external recognition through success or fame. It's having meaningful social relationships.'
She added: 'That means the best way to increase your happiness is to stop worrying about being happy and instead divert your energy to nurturing the social bonds you have with other people.'People who are too happy die younger than their more downbeat（pessimistic） peers because________.
| A．because they are more likely to suffer from mental disorders. |
| B．because they have more chance of having traffic accidents. |
| C．because they have meaningful social relationship. |
| D．because they stop worry about being happy. |
What does the underlined word in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．happy | B．unwilling to show feelings | C．angry | D．narrow-minded |
The most important factor(因素) of true happiness is __________.
| A．to have meaningful relationships with friends and family members. |
| B．to stop worry about being happy. |
| C．to devote your energy to developing the social bonds. |
| D．to have feeling of success. |
Which of the following sentences is correct according to the passage?
| A．magazine articles offering tips on how to be happy can help you reducing depression. |
| B．trying too hard to be happy often leaves people feeling more depressed than before. |
| C．When you're doing things with the motivation or expectation, that can lead to disappointment and decreased happiness. |
| D．The strongest factor of happiness is external recognition through success. |
Not so long ago, the weary tourist would head off on holiday for the simple pleasures of recharging their batteries, topping up their tan and relaxing on a sun-lounger.
Now, it seems, we are more likely to spend our time away catching up online with friends and acquaintances than gaze at the horizon or the contents of a good book.
A new study has found that the average holidaymaker spends at least an hour a day of their down-time logging on to social media portals or checking other favourite websites.
In fact, so obsessed are we with the online world that a new holiday annoyance – hotels and resorts charging for wi-fi access – has joined the more familiar worries that can have travellers reaching for complaint forms and their booking terms and conditions.
The survey was conducted by accommodation group Thistle Hotels, which asked 2000 people about their regular holiday peeves.
The top frustration was still the issue symbolised by the manic(不耐烦的)face of Basil Fawlty, with 69 per cent of those questioned saying rude hotel staff were their key bone of contention.
Arriving at your resort to find that your room is still being cleaned, and is not ready, was the second most common concern – suggested by 45 per cent of respondees.
But a sign of changing times is there at number three, with a very modern complaint – being forced to pay for wi-fi – causing grumbles with over a third of people (38 per cent).
Other widespread holiday flashpoints included a poor selection of food at the resort buffet (37 per cent of those questioned) and a hotel being further from a destination’s attractions and restaurants than advertised (32 per cent).
Our determination to be tweeting and liking even when we are supposed to be taking a break from the norm is also apparent in the survey’s list of what are considered to be the most important elements of a stay at a place in the sun.
Over half of the respondees (51 per cent) said that free wi-fi is crucial to their enjoyment of their escape – ranking higher than a hotel having a swimming pool (49 per cent), being close to a destination’s attractions (41 per cent) and offering in-room TVs (37 per cent).
“It’s crazy to think that, in 2014, hotel chains are still charging for wi-fi,” says Mike DeNoma of Thistle Hotels.
“Our research shows that free wi-fi is very important to holidaymakers.”
What are people most interested in nowadays?
| A．spending time on line. | B．gazing at the horizon |
| C．enjoying the contents of a good book. | D．relaxing on a sun-lounger. |
Why did accommodation group Thistle Hotels conduct the survey?
| A．To attract more customers. | B．To promote their hotel. |
| C．To find out what the customers complain | D．To evaluate their staff. |
What did nearly half of the respondees complain?
A.The hotel staff are rude. B.They are forced to pay for wi-fi.
B.The room isn’t cleaned until they arrive at the hotel. D.The food is not satisfactory.
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Tourists are not satisfied with the fact that there is no free wi-fi in the hotel. |
| B．Tourists complained about the poor sevice of the staff. |
| C．More and more people prefer to surf the Internet than go travelling. |
| D．Hotels should consider the tourists complaints and improve their service. |
My day began on a definitely sour note when I saw my six-year-old wrestling with a limb of my azalea（杜鹃花）bush. By the time I got outside, he’d broken it. “Can I take this to school today?” he asked. With a wave of my hand, I sent him off. I turned my back so he wouldn’t see the tears gathering in my eyes.
The washing machine had leaked on my brand-new linoleum. If only my husband had just taken the time to fix it the night before when I asked him instead of playing checkers with Jonathan.
It was days like this that made me want to quit. I just wanted to drive up to the mountains, hide in a cave, and never come out.
Somehow I spent most of the day washing and drying clothes and thinking how love had disappeared from my life. As I finished hanging up the last of my husband’s shirts, I looked at the clock. 2:30. I was late. Jonathan’s class let out at 2:15 and I hurriedly drove to the school.
I was out of breath by the time I knocked on the teacher’s door and peered through the glass. She rustled through the door and took me aside. “I want to talk to you about Jonathan,” she said.
I prepared myself for the worst. Nothing would have surprised me. “Did you know Jonathan brought flowers to school today?” she asked. I nodded, thinking about my favorite bush and trying to hide the hurt in my eyes. “Let me tell you about yesterday,” the teacher insisted. “See that little girl?” I watched the bright-eyed child laugh and point to a colorful picture taped to the wall. I nodded.
“Well, yesterday she was almost hysterical. Her mother and father are going through a nasty divorce. She told me she didn’t want to live, she wished she could die. I watched that little girl bury her face in her hands and say loud enough for the class to hear, ‘Nobody loves me.’ I did all I could to comfort her, but it only seemed to make matters worse.” “I thought you wanted to talk to me about Jonathan,” I said.
“I do,” she said, touching the sleeve of my blouse. “Today your son walked straight over to that child. I watched him hand her some pretty pink flowers and whisper, ‘I love you.’“
I felt my heart swell with pride for what my son had done. I smiled at the teacher. “Thank you,” I said, reaching for Jonathan’s hand, “you’ve made my day.”
Later that evening, I began pulling weeds from around my azalea bush. As my mind wandered back to the love Jonathan showed the little girl, a biblical verse came to me: “...these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” While my son had put love into practice, I had only felt anger.
I heard the familiar squeak of my husband’s brakes as he pulled into the drive. I snapped a small limb bristling with hot pink azaleas off the bush. I felt the seed of love that God planted in my family beginning to bloom once again in me. My husband’s eyes widened in surprise as I handed him the flowers. “I love you,” I said.
Why did the woman cry when seeing her son had broken the azalea bush?
| A．Because she could not tolerate the harm to it. | B．Because she wanted to hand it to her husband. |
| C．Because her son did not ask her for permission. | D．Because it made her bad mood even worse. |
The writer wanted to hide in the mountain cave probably for the reason of .
| A．boring daily routine with a feeling of lack of love |
| B．her husband’s failing to fix the machine in time |
| C．feeling fed up with her endless daily housework |
| D．her hoping to seek happiness in a brand new place |
We can infer from the passage that the writer expressed love to her husband in that .
| A．she felt guilty that she misunderstood her husband and wanted to apologize |
| B．she was inspired by her son that love was supposed to be felt and practiced |
| C．she felt it necessary to have a complete family for the happiness of herself |
| D．she wanted to prove her love and expected the same words from her husband |
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