Long long ago, there lived in Greece a king whose name was Midas. He was a greedy man and loved gold better than anything else in the world.
One day, he asked a god to give him more gold. The god decided to give him a lesson and said, “OK, and from now on, everything you touch will turn to gold.” Midas was so excited when he heard this. The next morning, he got up early to test his skill. When he touched his bed, it turned to gold. “Gold!” cried Midas, laughing like a boy. “It works!”
Not only stones, flowers, and the things of his house turned to gold, so did the food he ate and the water he drank. He was unhappy now. Just then his daughter ran up to him, Midas touched her hand. At once her body became cold. Midas was holding a gold girl!
At last, he asked the god to free him from his wish. “Go to the river and bath in it,” the god said. So Midas did, and the water took away his golden touch. He would never forget this lesson: Gold did not bring happiness.
This is a Greek story. Now the idiom “have the Midas touch” means to have the ability (能力) to be successful, especially the ability to . Well, do you want to have the Midas touch and become a rich man? What does the underlined word greedy mean in English?
| A．易怒的。 | B．慷慨的。 |
| C．宽容的。 | D．贪婪的。 |
With the gold-touch skill, Midas can turn everything into gold except ______.
| A．the river | B．the food |
| C．the flowers | D．the stones |
Choose the best phrase to complete the sentence (Line 2, Paragraph 5).
| A．make money easily |
| B．drive a car safely |
| C．look after sick people |
| D．cook delicious food |
“Just sign here, sir,” the postman said as he handed Oscar a package.
The package consisted of a long, narrow carefully wrapped in brown paper. Opening the box, Oscar saw an umbrella inside—a very old one with a beautiful handle (把手). he had not seen it in more than 20 years, he recognized it immediately.
Oscar was 16 when he first saw the unusual umbrella. He had gone to a with his grandparents. As they were leaving, he noticed an umbrella on an empty seat. Shocked by its beauty, Oscar wanted to find its . He asked the manager of the theatre to look up the record of ticket sales. The name was Mrs. Brain. It was hard work to find Mrs Brain lived. However, they managed to get there.
Oscar rang the bell of Mrs. Brain’s house. The door opened, and an elderly woman appeared. “May I help you?” she asked.
“I’d like to return it if it’s yours,” Oscar said, holding out the umbrella.
“Why, yes! It’s mine,” replied Mrs. Brain with a smile and shining eyes. “It was given to me by my father years ago. Thank you so much for returning it. ”
“May I offer you a reward for your ?”
“No, madam,” he said, “My grandmother says a good deed is its own reward.”
“Well, that’s my father used to say. What is your name, young man?”
Years later, Oscar was the handle of the umbrella as he remembered Mrs. Brain. It was in perfect condition, considering how old it was. Why had it arrived here today?
As if in answer, a note fell from the paper. It read, “I want you to this umbrella as a present for a kind, unselfish action long ago.” Oscar was deeply moved with tears.
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Hello, I’m Vladislav. For my summer holidays, I usually stay in a country house near Moscow.
Last summer, my dad’s brother gave me a present—a blue bike. At that time I couldn’t ride it very well.
One day I got into an accident. But don’t worry, everything was OK, just some “little”injuries.
That day, I tried to ride my bike and suddenly it began to move very fast. I couldn’t stop the bike. So I fell into a ditch(沟) full of dirty water. When I thought I had had enough bad luck, a girl walked by. She saw the bike and me. I quickly stood up.
“Are you fishing here?” She asked.
“Yes,”I answered. Then I said,“I’m making fish soup for dinner. Would you like to come?”to my surprise, she agreed.
After that we became friends. Now, we often send each other emails. She knows that I’m studying in China and she asks me questions about Chinese culture. I tell her my stories of China, and she says she wants to visit China, too. She even plans to study Chinese.
This is how, with the help of my bike, China got one more Russian friend.
根据短文内容，回答下列问题。 Who sent Vladislav a bike last summer?
What happened when Vladislav tried to ride his bike?
What did the girl think Vladislav was doing when she saw him by the ditch?
What made Vladislav surprised ?
What does the girl say she wants to do in her email to Vladislav?
“How are you?”is a nice question. It’s a friendly way that people in the USA greet each other. But “How are you?”is also a very unusually question. It’s a question that often doesn’t need an answer. The person who asks “How are you?” hopes to hear the answer “Fine”, even if the person’s friend isn’t fine. The reason is that “How are you ?”isn’t really a question and “Fine.”isn’t really an answer. They are simply other ways of saying “Hello.”or “Hi.”Sometimes, people also don’t say exactly what they mean. For example, when someone asks “Do you agree?”, the other person might think, “No, I disagree. I think you’re wrong.”But it isn’t very polite to disagree so strongly, so the other person might say “I’m not sure.”It’s a nicer way to say that you don’t agree with someone. People also don’t exactly what they are thinking when they finish talking with other people. For example, many talks over the phone finish when one person say “I’ve to go now.”Often, the person who wants to hang up gives an excuse,“Someone’s at the door.”“Something is burning on the stove.”The excuses might be real, or not. Perhaps the person who wants to hand up simply doesn’t want to talk any more, but it isn’t polite to say that. The excuse is more polite, and it doesn’t hurt the other person. Whether they are greeting each other, talking about an idea, or finishing a talk, people don’t say exactly that they are thinking. It’s an important way that people try to be nice to each other, and it’s part of the game of language.
根据短文内容，判断下列句子正（T）误（F）.“How are you?”is another way of saying “Hello.”or“Hi.”
It is polite to say “No. I disagree. I think you are wrong.”if you don’t agree with others.
When someone says“I have to go now.”on the phone, it means he wants to go on talking.
“Someone is at the door.”may be an excuse for finishing a phone call.
Sometimes people don’t say exactly what they are thinking about just because they try to be nice to each other.
Different people have different hobbies. For example, some people like reading, some people like swimming and some people like collecting something and so on. I have many hobbies, such as reading, skating, and traveling. I used to read books in my free time. I like reading because I could learn much by reading. At that time, reading was part of my life. Every day, I spent most of my free time reading books, newspapers and magazines. At night, I could hardly get to sleep without a novel in my hand.
But later I found I could only learn from books by reading. I couldn’t get knowledge from others. I needed a change . Traveling is my hobby now. I can visit many different places by traveling. I can learn a lot about people, geography and history. It’s very interesting.
I have many good friends. They all have their hobbies. Ann studies very hard. So her hobby is reading all kinds of books. Tony loves working with her hands, and his hobby is gardening. He usually plants flowers and trees in his yard. Judy is a quiet girl. She likes knitting(编织). She always knits sweaters for her dolls. We have different hobbies, but we are all good friends.
根据短文内容选择最佳答案 is not the writer’s hobby according to the passage.
| A．Reading | B．Swimming |
| C．Skating | D．Traveling |
The writer used to before he went to bed.
| A．watch TV | B．listen to music |
| C．play sports | D．read a novel |
The underlined word change refers to
| A．from reading to traveling | B．from traveling to reading |
| C．from reading to skating | D．from writing to skating |
hobby is gardening.
| A．Ann’s | B．Judy’s |
| C．Tony’s | D．John’s |
What is the best title of this passage?
| A．Different people have different hobbies. |
| B．How to make friends |
| C．Reading is important |
| D．Ways of traveling |
Linda Evans was my best friend—like the sister I never had. We did everything together: piano lessons, movies, swimming, horseback riding.
When I was 13, my family moved away. Linda and I kept in touch through letters , and we saw each other on special time—like my wedding and Linda’s. Soon we were busy with children and moving to new homes, and we wrote less often. One day a card that I sent came back, stamped “Address Unknown.”I had no idea how to find Linda.
Over the years, I missed Linda very much. I wanted to share happiness of my children and then grandchildren. And I needed to share my sadness when my mother died. There was an empty place in my heart that only a friend like Linda could fill.
One day I was reading a newspaper when I noticed a photo of a young woman who looked very much like Linda and whose last name was Wagman—Linda’s married name, “There must be thousands of Wagmans,”I thought, but I still wrote to her.
She called as soon as she got my letter. “Mrs Tobin!”she said excitedly, “Linda Evans Wagman is my mother.”
Minutes later I heard a voice that I knew very much, even after 40 years laughed and cried and caught up on each other’s lives. Now the empty place in my heart is filled. And there’s one thing that Linda and I know for sure: We won’t lose each other again!
根据短文内容选择最佳答案The writer went to piano lessons with Linda Evans .
| A．at the age of 13 |
| B．before she got married |
| C．after they moved to new homes |
| D．before the writer’s family moved away |
They didn’t often write to each other because they
| A．got married |
| B．had little time to do so |
| C．didn’t like writing letters |
| D．could see each other on special time |
There was an empty place in the writer’s heart because she
| A．was in trouble |
| B．didn’t know Linda’s address |
| C．received the card that she sent |
| D．didn’t have a friend like Linda to share her happiness or sadness |
The writer was happy when she
| A．read the newspaper |
| B．heard Linda’s voice on the phone |
| C．met a young woman who looked a lot like Linda |
| D．wrote to the woman whose last name was Wagman |
They haven’t kept in touch?
| A．for about 40 years |
| B．for about 27 years |
| C．since they got married |
| D．since the writer’s family moved away |
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