An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year-old son. Suddenly a crow(乌鸦) landed on their window.
The father asked his son, “What is that?”
The son replied, “That is a crow.”
After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, “What is that?”
The son said, “Father, I told you just now. It is a crow.”
After a little while, the father asked his son the same question for the third time, “What is this?”
This time his son shouted at his father, “Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again? I have told you already. ‘IT IS A CROW.’ Are you not able to understand this?”
A minute later the father went to his room and came back with a diary, which he had kept since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page:
Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow suddenly landed on the window edge. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied him 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question. I did not at all feel angry, but instead felt affection for my son.
If you parents reach old age, do not look at them as a burden, but speak to them gently, and be kind to them. From today say this aloud, “I want to see my parents happy forever. They have cared for me ever since I was a little child. They have always showered me with love. I will take care of my old parents in the BEST way no matter how they behave.”
【小题1】.
The writer mainly intends to ______.

A．tell us the function of a diary	B．call on us to love our parents
C．teach us what a crow is	D．introduce a pair of son and father

【小题2】.
According to the passage, the son felt _____ when his father kept asking the same question.

A．puzzled

B．angry

C．grateful

D．surprised

【小题3】.
We can know that the father wrote this diary at the age of ______.

A．eighty

B．forty-give

C．thirty-eight

D．thirty-five

【小题4】.
The old man brought out the diary, which he had kept since his son was born, because ___.

A．he forgot what had happened	B．he would like his son to read it
C．it could remind himself of the past	D．he wanted to find what a crow was in his diary

In the fall of 1985. I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later , I am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.

  My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college an the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.

  Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopt(收养) and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic---and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No. 3.  In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.

  You can imagine how fully occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 8. Our home was a complete zoo---a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant taking as few as one class each semester.

  The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit, But I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.

In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree！

I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you’re in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in your life on one day. It’s a process. Remember；little steps add up to big dreams.

1. When the author went to Howard University, her dream was to be_____________

A. a writer                B. a teacher

C. a judge                 D. a doctor

2.Why did the author quit school in her second year of college?

A. She wanted to study by herself.

B. She fell in love and got married.

C. She suffered from a serious illness.

D. She decided to look after her grandma. 

3.What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 4 and 5?

A. She was busy yet happy with her family life.

B. She ignored her guilty feeling for her sons.

C. She wanted to remain a full-time housewife.

D. She was too confused to make a correct choice.

4.What doses the author mostly want to tell us in the last paragraph?

A. Failure is the mother of success.

B. Little by little, one goes far.

C. Every coin has two sides.

D. Well begun, half done.

5.Which of the following can best describe the author?

A. Caring and determine.      

B. Honest and responsible.

C. Ambitious and sensitive.

Innocent and single-minded.

 

　　In 1995,I return to Miami Beach High School to speak to the drama(戏剧) class.Afterward I ask the drama teacher if any of my English teachers is still there.“Irene Roberts,”he tells me,“is in class just down the hall.”

　　 I was no one special in Miss Roberts' class.I don't remember any one special bit of wisdom she passed on.Yet I cannot forget her respect for language,for ideas and for her students.I realize now,many years later,that she is a selfless teacher.I'd like to say something to her,but I don't want to pull her from a class.

　　The drama teacher brings Miss Roberts into the hallway where stands this 32-year-old man she last saw at 18.“I'm Mark Medoff,”I tell her.“You were my 12th grade English teacher in 1981.”She raises her head,as if this angle(角度) might bring back her memory.And then,though armed with a message I want to deliver in some perfect words,I can't think up anything more memorable than this,“I want you to know,”I say,“you were important to me.”

　　And there in the hallway,this slight and lovely woman,now nearing a retirement age, this teacher who doesn't remember me,begins to weep;she holds me in her arms.

Remembering this moment,I began to sense that everything I will ever know,everything I will ever pass on to my students,to my children,is an inseparable part of a treasure of our shared wonder and hope that we can,must,make ourselves better.

　　 Irene Roberts holds me in her arms and through her tears whispers against my cheek,“Thank you.”And then,with a quick look into my forgotten face,she disappears back into her classroom,returns to what she has done thousands of days through all the years of my absence.

　　 On reflection,maybe those were,after all,just the right words to say to Irene Roberts. Maybe they are the very words I would like to speak to all those teachers I carry through my life as part of me,the very words I would like spoken to me one day by some returning student:“I want you to know you were important to me.”

1.The writer of this passage is most probably ________.

A.a college student of drama

B.a 32-year-old actor

C.a high school student

D.a drama teacher

2.What the writer remembers most about his teacher is________.

A.her wisdom

B.her devotion to teaching

C.her way of teaching drama

D.her encouraging words

3.When the writer saw Miss Roberts,he ________.

A.held her in his arms

B.could hardly recognize her

C.talked a lot with her

D.successfully expressed his true feelings

4.According to the writer,the most important thing is ________.

A.self-improvement

B.a good memory

C.good health

D.good school grades

完成句子（共10小题，每小题1分，共10分）

根据汉语提示，完成下列句子。(每空1词，每小题中错任何1词该小题均不给分)

1. 抓紧时间！我快没有耐心了。

Save time. My patience is beginning to __________ __________.

2. 你想象不到改变他的主意有多难。

You can’t imagine the __________ you have __________ __________ his mind.

3. 她没有办法，只得找了个借口离开了。

She had no choice but to __________ __________ an excuse and left.

4. 怀特先生宣布他们将把电脑的产量削减百分之十。

   Mr. White declared that they would _______ ________ ________ the production of computers by 10 percent.

5. 他喜爱音乐，尤其是经典作品。

   He is fond of music, classics ________ _________.

6. 这样不得人心的政策是很难推行下去的。

   It is hard to ____________ __________ ___________ such an unpopular policy.

7. 振作起来！你迟早会实现成为作家的梦想。

   _________ _________! You will realize your dream of becoming a writer sooner or later.

8. 当被问及这事的时候，他想不出一个合适的回答。

When asked about it, he couldn’t __________ __________ _________ a proper answer.

9. 在我的意愿、父母的意愿和篮球教练的意愿之间，我感到左右为难。

I ________ ________ between what I want, what my parents want and what my basketball coach wants.

10. 我找不到雨伞了。我一定把它忘在图书馆了。

   I can’t find my umbrella now. I _________ ____________ ________ it in the library.

 

I have a friend named Monty Roberts. He has let me use his horse ranch(养马场)to put on events to raise money for youth at risk programs.

Last time I was there he introduced me by saying, “I want to tell you why I let you use my house. It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of an itinerant(流动的)horse trainer. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be when he grew up.”

“That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of owning a horse ranch someday. He put all his heart into the project and wrote about his dream in great detail. He even drew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of the buildings, stables and the track, and even a detailed floor plan for a 4000-square-foot house on it.”

“The next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later ,he received a large red “F” on his paper with a note, ‘See me after class.’ The boy went to see the teacher and asked why. The teacher told him there was no way for a young boy like him to do that because owning a horse ranch required much money and resources, and then added ‘If you’ll rewrite his paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.’”

“The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what to do. His father said, ‘Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it’s a very important decision for you.’”

“Finally, a week later, the boy turned in the same paper without any change and stated, ‘You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.’”

“I tell you this story because you are sitting in my 4000-square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the fireplace.”

Don’t let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what.

1. The teacher gave him an “F” for his written paper because the

teacher thought 　　    .

A．he didn’t do a good job in his studies

B．he described an unrealistic goal in his paper

C．he came from an itinerant horse trainer’s family

D．he wrote his paper without the help of his father

2. Why did the boy turn in the same paper without any change?

A．Because he made up his mind to stick to his dream.

B．Because his father stopped him from rewriting it.

C．Because he was angry about his teacher’s words.

D．Because he had put too much of his heart into it.

3. From the story we can infer that the boy was actually 　　    .

A．Monty himself	B．the author himself
C．Monty’s friend	D．an unknown person

4. According to the passage, the following statements are true EXCEPT

that 　　    .

A．the boy was very interested in having a horse ranch of his own

B．the boy might have got a higher grade if he’d rewritten his paper

C．the boy succeeded in turning his dream into reality in the end

D．the boy wouldn’t have reached his goal without his father’s support

5. The author wrote this passage mainly to 　　    

A．tell people how to describe their goals

B．warn people against dream stealers

C．encourage people to stick to their dreams

D．teach people how to write their papers