I grew up in a small town. When I was in the third grade, I was chosen to be the        in the school play. My mother helped me practice my lines for weeks. But once I stepped onto the stage, I was too nervous to        the words. Finally, my teacher asked me to         the role to a storyteller. I didn’t tell my mother        had happened when I went home for lunch that day. She knew that I was        from my look. She asked if I wanted to go for a walk in the yard.

      It was a lovely         day and the grass was turning green. We could see a lot of yellow dandelions(蒲公英）in the grass. I watched my mother walking towards a dandelion and         it up by its roots(根茎). “From now on, we’ll have only roses in this garden.” she said. “But I like dandelions,” I said. “All        are beautiful _—— even dandelions!”

“Yes, every flower gives pleasure in its own way. And that is true of       too. Not everyone can be a princess. You will be a beautiful storyteller,” my mother said, reminding me of how much I        to read stories to her. “The storyteller’s part is just as       as the part of a princess.”

The big day         came. A few minutes before the play, my teacher handed me a      . I looked at it and thought of our        talk. It made me        .

After the play, I took the flower home, and kept it in our family dictionary.

1.A. king                  B. snowman             C. princess               D. witch

2.A. forget              B. remember                   C. find              D. write

3.A. act                    B. play                       C. change                D. take

4.A. which              B. what                       C. that               D. this

5.A. energetic        B. unhappy              C. excited      D. dishonest

6.A. spring              B. summer                   C. autumn                  D. winter

7.A. putting             B. pulling                      C. setting                   D. looking

8.A. seasons           B. rainbows              C. flowers      D. scenes

9.A. animals            B. plants                       C. people                   D. food

10.A. hated             B. loved                             C. tried                     D. planned

11.A. interesting    B. common              C. important           D. cheerful

12.A. suddenly       B. finally                       C. usually                   D. slowly

13.A. rose               B. dandelion                  C. present                 D. hairclip

14.A. breakfast time B. lunchtime                      C. suppertime         D. teatime

15.A. imaginative   B. generous              C. confident             D. humorous

I __________to read, so I always put my________to good use by working in the     after-school care center at her elementary school.

A. love; loves  B. loving; loving    C. love; love  D. loves; loves

根据短文内容和首字母提示，在下文空格处填入适当的词使短文完整。（每空一词）

Because of different reasons, I could neither go abroad nor attend a language course to improve my English. So, I finally (66)d    ___ to read books in English. I chose Irving’s novel A widow for One Year.

　　What was my experience (67)l    __? Very challenging（有挑战性的）! At the beginning, I tried to stop thinking in Chinese about (68)w    ___ I was reading. I just kept reading instead of looking up the new words in the dictionary. At first it seemed to be (69)i   __ to read and understand without using a dictionary, but then I began to get the meaning (70)s    __. Finally, I was so interested in the wonderful characters and the surprising plot of the novel (71)t   __ I completely forgot that I was reading the book in English.

 　　(72)R    __ this novel was very good for my English learning. I found that Irving’s way of writing was very clear and easy to read. This made me feel really satisfied and encouraged me to read (73)m    __ other books (not only by Irving). I discovered that when you read a book in English you will stop thinking in your mother tongue at some point. It’s just as if you were there, inside the story, among the characters who speak English in the book.

Reading Irving’s novel also enabled me to learn a large (74 )n    __ of new words and expressions used in different contexts. It is really a good (75)w______ to improve our English.