Lie in bed, by an open window, and listen…
“No air conditioning? How can you sleep?” a friend asks, horrified. I tell her my family has decided to shut the air conditioner off and reduce our electric bill. On this first night of our cost-cutting plan, it’s only 85 degrees. We’re going to suffer, but the three kids complain anyway.
They have grown up in 72-degree comfort, protected from the world outside.
“It’s too hot to sleep,” my 13-year-old daughter complains. “I’m about to die from this heat,” her brother complains down the hall. “Just try it tonight,” I tell them. In truth I’m too tired to turn for long. My face is sweaty, but I lie quietly listening to the cricket choirs outside that remind me of childhood.
The neighbor’s dog howls. Probably a passing squirrel. It’s been years since I took the time to really listen to the night.
I think about grandma, who lived to 92 and still helped with my mom’s gardening until just a few weeks before she died. And then, I’m back there at her house in the summer heat of my childhood. I move my pillow to the foot of grandma’s bed and turn my face toward the open window. I turn the pillow, hunting for the cooler side.
Grandma saw me turn over and over. “If you just watch for the breeze(清风),” she said, “you’ll cool off and fall asleep.” I stare at the filmy white curtain, willing it to move. Lying still, waiting, I suddenly notice the life outside the window. The bug chorus. Neighbors, porch(门廊)-sitting late, speak in unclear words that calm me.
“Mom, did you hear that?” my seven-year-old son cries, “I think it was an owl(猫头鹰)family.”
“Probably,” I tell him, “just keep listening…”
Without the working air conditioner, the house is peaceful, and the natural night noises seem close enough to touch. I hope I’m awake tonight when the first breeze comes in.
【小题1】On the first night of the writer’s cost-cutting plan, her children ______.
| A．live a comfortable life as usual |
| B．begin to be unhappy |
| C．are protected from the world outside |
| D．are about to die from the heat |
| A．people used to live a hard life |
| B．people at that time were hardworking |
| C．it’s OK for people to live a simple life |
| D．she has learned a great deal from her grandma |
| A．free from parents’ protection |
| B．full of dissatisfaction with life |
| C．dependable because of parents’ love |
| D．lacking in real test of hardships in life |
| A．Waiting for the Breeze. |
| B．An Interesting Experience. |
| C．Life at Present and Life in the Past. |
| D．Different Times, Different Children |
科目：高中英语 来源：2012-2013学年吉林省吉林市十二中高二3月月考英语试卷（带解析） 题型：完型填空
When I was a boy, every holiday that I had seemed wonderful. My 16 took me by train or by car to a hotel by the 17 . All day, I seem to remember, I 18 on the sands with strange 19 children. We made houses and gardens, and 20 the tide（潮汐） destroy them. When the tide went out, we 21 over the rocks and looked down at the fish in the rock-pools.
In those days the 22 seemed to shine always brightly 23 the water was always warm. Sometimes we left beach and walked in the country, 24 ruined houses and dark woods and climbing trees. There were 25 in one’s pockets or good places where one could 26 ice creams. Each day seemed a lifetime.
Although I am now thirty-five years old, my idea of a good 27 is much the same as it was. I 28 like the sun and warm sand and the sound of 29 beating the rocks. I no longer wish to 30 any sand house or sand garden, and I dislike sweets. 31 , I love the sea and often feel sand running through my fingers.
Sometimes I 32 what my ideal (理想的) holiday will be like when I am 33 . All I want to do then, perhaps, will be to lie in bed, reading books about 34 who make houses and gardens with sands, who watch the incoming tide, who make themselves 35 on too many ices…
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科目：高中英语 来源：2012-2013学年江西上饶中学高一第一次月考重点班英语试卷（带解析） 题型：阅读理解
How hard we have all prayed(祈祷) to grow up quickly, and looked forward to the happy days of being a grown-up and enjoying the many interests that a youth should have.
At last, you have grown up. At least you are no longer a child. They call you “young lady”. You then enjoy the pleasure of being a young lady. You are proud of being a grown-up teenager. People welcome you-this young lady-heartily. You are glad that your prayer has been answered.
But there is always something that troubles you a lot. You say; “Papa and Mama, give me some money please. My pocket money is all gone already.”
“No”, they say, “your age is a dangerous age. If you have too much money to spend, it won’t do you any good.” Then you have to stay at home because you dare not go out with an empty pocket.
Another time you tell your grandma, “Grandma, see, I am a grown-up now.
“Good, now, you can sit here and knit (编织) this for me while I go and have a rest.” To show that you are no more a child, you have to sit there the whole afternoon doing the work, which only a grown-up can do. After an hour, you find it hard to do, and give the knitting basket back to your grandma. Your grandma criticizes your work. You hear what she says, “Such a big girl can’t do such easy work.” You wish then you were a child again.
But the fact is, you are growing up, and you can’t help it. That’s the way it goes!
【小题1】The passage is told about _______ problems.
| A．a growing-up boy’s | B．a teenage girl’s |
| C．an old woman’s | D．a grown-up’s |
| A．is pleased with the present life |
| B．is unhappy about growing up |
| C．doesn’t think her present life happy enough |
| D．knows happy life will come to her soon |
| A．People treat her as a young lady. |
| B．She is no longer a kid. |
| C．People begin to call her teenager. |
| D．She can join women in all kinds of activities. |
| A．they don’t believe she is already a teenager |
| B．it’s dangerous for a girl to spend money |
| C．they love her more than before |
| D．they still regard her as a child |
| A．she has to lie in bed, doing nothing |
| B．she knows she has already worked the whole afternoon |
| C．she wishes she were not growing up |
| D．she finds it isn’t her turn to do knitting |
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科目：高中英语 来源：江苏省安宜高级中学2011～2012学年度高三上期初调研测试（英语） 题型：阅读理解
任务型阅读 根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。（共10小题，每小题1分，计10分）
注意：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡相应题号的横线上。
Many people think a telephone is a necessity. But I think it is a pest (有害的事物) and a time waste. Very often you find it impossible to escape from it. If you have a telephone in your 
own house, you will admit that it
tends to ring when you least want it to ring; when you are asleep, or in the middle of a meal or a conversation or when you are just going out, or when you are in your bath. Are you strong-minded enough to ignore it? You are not. You think there may be some important news or message for you. I can assure you that if a message is really important it will reach you sooner or later. Have you ever rushed crippling from the bath, or chewing from the table, or dazed from the bed, only to be told that you are a wrong number?
But you will say, you need not have your name printed in the telephone directory, and you can have a telephone which is only usable for outgoing calls. Besides, you will say, isn’t it important to have a telephone in case of sudden emergency—illness, accident, or fire? Of course, you are right, but here in a thickly populated country like England one is seldom far from a telephone in case of dreadful necessity.
I think perhaps I had better try to justify (证明是有理的) myself by trying to prove that what I like is good. I admit that in different circumstances—if I were a wealthy and powerful businessperson, for instance, or badly ill and had to lie in bed, I might find a telephone a necessity. But then if I were a taxi-driver I should find a car as necessity. Let me put it another way: there are two things for which the English seem to show particular talent: one 
is mechanical invention, the other literature. My own business happens to be with the use of words but I see I must now stop using them, for I have had just been handed a slip of paper to say that somebody is waiting to speak to me on the telephone. I think I had better answer it. After all, one never knows, it may be something important.
| Title: The 【小题1】 _____________ | ||
| Different 【小题2】 about it | Many people | It is 【小题3】 when one wants to make a call, especially in time of 【小题4】 . |
| The author | It can 【小题5】 time and even be 【小题6】 . | |
| Not everyone, 【小题7】 a businessperson or a sick person who has to stay in bed, needs it. | ||
| I don’t need it because my job is writing. | ||
| 【小题8】 with it | It always seems to ring when one is doing something else or doesn’t want it to ring. | |
| Almost 【小题9】 can ignore it even if they want to. | ||
| One 【小题10】 to answer it only to find that he is misdialed. | ||
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科目：高中英语 来源：2012-2013学年安徽阜阳一中高三最后一次模拟考试英语卷（解析版） 题型：阅读理解
I had the meanest mother in the world. While other kids ate candy for breakfast, I had to have cereal (谷类食物), eggs or toast. While others had Cokes and candy for lunch, I had to eat a sandwich. As you can guess, my supper was different from other kids' too. But at least I wasn't alone in my sufferings. My sister and two brothers had the same mean mother as I did.
My mother insisted upon knowing where we were at all times. She had to know who our friends were and where we were going. She insisted if we said we'd be gone an hour, then we be gone one hour or less—not one hour and one minute. And she always insisted upon us telling the truth. Now you can see how mean she was.
The worst is yet to come. We had to be in bed by nine each night and up at eight the next morning. We had to wash dishes, make beds, and learn to cook. We had to wear clean clothes and take a bath, while the other kids always wore their clothes for days. I believe she laid awake at night thinking up mean things to do to us.
Through the years, things didn't improve a bit. We could not lie in bed, “sick” like our friends did, and miss school. Our marks in school had to be up to par(达到正常水平). Our friends' report cards had beautiful colors on them, black for passing, red for failing. My mother, being as different as she was, would settle for nothing less than ugly black marks.
As the years rolled by, we were one by one put to shame. We were graduated from high school. With our mother behind us, talking, hitting and demanding respect, none of us was allowed the pleasure of being a dropout.
My mother was a complete failure as a mother. Out of four children, a couple of us attained some higher education. And whom do we have to blame for the terrible way we turned out? You're right, our mean mother. She forced us to grow up into educated and honest adults.
Now I am trying to raise my three children. I am filled with pride when my children think I am mean because, you see, I had the meanest mother in the world.
1.What does the sentence “But at least I wasn't alone in my sufferings.” mean?
A．The author's mother was only mean to her.
B．The author's mother suffered her.
C．The author's mother was mean to her sister, brothers and her.
D．The author wasn't alone because of suffering.
2.Why was the author's mother mean to her children?
A．Because she wanted her children to be top students in school.
B．Because she wanted her children to bring home colored report cards like her friends did.
C．Because she wanted her children to drop out.
D．Because she wanted her children to do their best at school and be educated and respected citizens.
3.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A．Some of the children weren't able to go to college because of their mean mother.
B．Mother didn't let the author tell lies.
C．Mother asked the author to wear clean clothes.
D．The author could not miss school even if she was ill.
4.The passage was written in a way of _______ tone?
A．humorous B．hateful C．ridiculous D．critical
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科目：高中英语 来源：2011-2012学年安徽省高三第一次摸底考试英语试题 题型：阅读理解
My father was a foreman of a sugar-cane plantation in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. My first job was to drive the oxen that ploughed the cane fields. I would walk behind an ox, guiding him with a broomstick. For $ 1 a day, I worked eight hours straight, with no food breaks.
It was very tedious work, but it prepared me for life and taught me many lasting lessons. Because the plantation owners were always watching us, I had to be on time every day and work as hard as I could. I’ve never been late for any job since. I also learned about being respectful and faithful to the people you work for. More important, I earned my pay; it never entered my mind to say I was sick just because I didn’t want to work.
I was only six years old, but I was doing a man’s job. Our family needed every dollar we could make because my father never earned more than $ 18 a week. Our home was a three-room wood shack with a dirty floor and no toilet. Nothing made me prouder than bringing home money to help my mother, father, two brothers and three sisters. This gave me self-esteem(自尊心), one of the most important things a person can have.
When I was seven, I got work at a golf course near our house. My job was to stand down the fairway and spot the balls as they landed, so the golfers could find them. Losing a ball meant you were fired, so I never missed one. Some nights I would lie in bed and dreamt of making thousands of dollars by playing golf and being able to buy a bicycle.
The more I dreamed, the more I thought. Why not? I made my first golf club out of guava limb(番石榴树枝) and a piece of pipe. Then I hammered an empty tin can into the shape of a ball. And finally I dug two small holes in the ground and hit the ball back and forth. I practiced with the same devotion and intensity. I learned working in the field — except now I was driving golf balls with club, not oxen with a broomstick.
1. The writer’s first job was _______.
A. to stand down the fairway at a golf course
B. to watch over the sugar-cane plantation
C. to drive the oxen that ploughed the cane fields
D. to spot the balls as they landed so the golfers could find them
2. The writer learned that_______ from his first job.
A. he should work for those who he liked most
B. he should work longer than what he was expected
C. he should never fail to say hello to his owner
D. he should be respectful and faithful to the people he worked for
3. _______ gave the writer self-esteem.
A. Having a family of eight people
B. Owning his own golf course
C. Bringing money back home to help the family
D. Helping his father with the work on the plantation
4. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. He wanted to be a successful golfer.
B. He wanted to run a golf course near his house.
C. He was satisfied with the job he got on a plantation.
D. He wanted to make money by guiding oxen with a broomstick.
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