The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated(愤怒的) when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy."

The man was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty. He yelled at her, stating, "Don't you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside? The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They're all for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.

Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child. It is also told that her father kept that gold box by his bed for many years and, whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each one of us, as humans beings, have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family members, friends, and God. There is simply no other possession, anyone could hold, more precious than this.

The 3-year-old girl was punished by her father for ________.

A. wasting gold                                   B. wasting wrapping paper

C. putting the box under the Christmas tree         D. bringing the gift to her father

What’s inside the box according to the little girl?

A. nothing             B. air            C. kisses         D. gold wrapping paper

Choose the best title for the passage.

A. The kisses in the box.                 B. A girl and his father 

C. A love story                          D. The box under the Christmas tree.

For a 400-year-old art form，opera(歌剧) had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which were hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $145 a performance, opera goers also had a certain appearance in people's mind: rich, well-dressed and old.

But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to keep opera alive and take it to a younger and not so wealthy audience.

Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. Because young people don't or won't come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools.

The Houston Grand Opera's choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened versions(剧本) of child-friendly operas. This summer's production is Hansel ＆Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75^th anniversary(周年) this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists' Training Program.

1.    Which is the main idea of this passage？

A.    Opera is famous for its long history.

B.    Opera is only performed for rich people.

C.    Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive.

D.    Young people are not interested in opera.

2.    The underlined phrase in the second paragraph means __________.

A.    breaking up the old rules

B.    changing the dresses

C.    making the audience at ease

D.    advertising themselves

3.    From the passage we can infer that __________.

A.    the tickets for operas are very expensive

B.    operas are performed in a difficult language

C.    operas are not so popular an art form today

D.    students enjoy performing operas very much

 

Do you want to live with a strong sense of peacefulness, happiness, goodness, and self- respect? The collection of happiness actions broadly categorized as "honor" help you create this life of good feelings.
Here's an example to show how honorable actions create happiness.
Say a store clerk fails to charge us for an item. If we keep silent, and profit from the clerk's mistake, we would drive home with a sense of sneaky excitement. Later we might tell our family or friends about our good fortune. On the other hand, if we tell the clerk about the uncharged item, the clerk would be grateful and thank us for our honesty. We would leave the store with a quiet sense of honor that we might never share with another soul.
Then, what is it to do with our sense of happiness?
In the first case, where we don't tell the clerk, a couple of things would happen. Deep down inside we would know ourselves as a type of thief. In the process, we would lose some peace of mind and self-respect. We would also demonstrate that we cannot be trusted, since we advertise our dishonor by telling our family and friends. We damage our own reputations by telling others. In contrast, bringing the error to the clerk's attention causes different things to happen. Immediately the clerk knows us to be honorable. Upon leaving the store, we feel honorable and our self-respect is increased. Whenever we take honorable action we gain the deep internal rewards of goodness and a sense of nobility.
There is a beautiful positive cycle that is created by living a life of honorable actions. Honorable thoughts lead to honorable actions. Honorable actions lead us to a happier existence. And it's easy to think and act honorably again when we're happy. While the positive cycle can be difficult to start, once it's started, it's easy to continue. Keeping on doing good deeds brings us peace of mind, which is important for our happiness.
【小题1】According to the passage, the positive action in the example contributes to our ________.

A．self-respect	B．financial rewards
C．advertising ability	D．friendly relationship

【小题2】The phrase "bringing the error to the clerk's attention" (in Para.5) means ________.

A．telling the truth to the clerk

B．offering advice to the clerk

C．asking the clerk to be more responsible

D．reminding the clerk of the charged item

【小题3】How will we feel if we let the clerk know her mistake?

A．We'll be very excited.

B．We'll feel unfortunate.

C．We'll have a sense of honor.

D．We'll feel sorry for the clerk.

【小题4】Which of the following can be the best title of this passage?

A．How to Live Truthfully

B．Importance of Peacefulness

C．Ways of Gaining Self-respect

D．Happiness through Honorable Actions

It was an autumn morning shortly after my husband and I moved into our first house. Children were upstairs unpacking , and I was looking out of the window at my father moving around mysteriously on the front lawn. My parents lived nearby ,and Dad had visited us several times already. “What are you doing out there?” I called to him .He looked up, smiling. “I’m making you a surprise.” Knowing my father, I thought it could be just about anything. A self-employed jobber, he was always building things out of odds and ends. When we were kids, he always created something surprising for us.

   Today, however, Dad would say no more, and caught ups in the busyness of our new life, I eventually forgot about his surprise. Until one gloomy day the following March when I glanced out of the window. Any yet… I saw a dot of blue across the yard. I headed outside for a closer look. They were crocuses (番红花), throughout the front lawn. Lavender, blue, yellow and my favorite pink ---- little faces moved up and down in the cold wind.

    Dad! I smiled, remembering the things he had secretly planted last autumn. He knew how the darkness and dullness of winter always got me down. What could have been more perfectly timely to my needs?

    My father’s crocuses bloomed each spring for the next four or five seasons, bringing the same assurance every time they arrived: hard times was almost over. Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon.

    Then a spring came with only half the usual blooms. The next spring there were none. I missed the crocuses. I would ask Dad to come over and plant new bulbs. But I never did.

    He died suddenly one October day. My family was in deep sorrow, leaning on our faith. I missed him terribly.

    Four years passed, and on a dismal spring afternoon I was driving back when I found myself feeling depressed. “You’ve got the winter depression again and you get them every year.” I told myself.

    It was Dad’s birthday, and I found myself thinking about him. This was not unusual --- my family often talked about him, remembering how he lived his faith. Once I saw him give his coat to a homeless man.

    Suddenly I slowed as I turned into our driveway. I stopped and stared at the lawn. And there on the muddy grass and small gray piles of melting snow, bravely waving in the wind, was one pink crocus.

    How could a flower bloom from a bulb more than 18 years old, one that had not blossomed in over a decade? But there was the crocus. Tears filled my eyes as I realized its significance.

Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon. The pink crocus bloomed for only a day. But it built my faith for a lifetime.

1.According to the first three paragraphs, we learn that _________.

A. the writer was unpacking when her father was making the surprise

B. the writer knew what the surprise was because she knew her father

C. it was not the first time that the writer’s father had made a surprise

D. it kept bothering the writer not knowing what the surprise was

2.Which of the following would most probably be the worst time of the year as seen by the writer?

A. Spring.  B. Summer.        C. Autumn.        D. Winter.

3.Which of the following is NOT true, according to the passage?

A. The writer’s father planted the crocus to lift her low spirit.

B. The crocuses bloomed each spring before the writer’s father died.

C. The writer often thought about her father since her father died.

D. The writer’s father died some years after he planted the crocus.

4.The writer’s father should be best described as_________.

A. a full-time gardener with skillful hands

B. a part-time jobber who loved flowers

C. a kind-hearted man who lived with faith

D. an ordinary man with doubts in his life

5.Crocus was viewed as the symbol of _________ by the writer.

A. faith      B. family    C. love       D. friendship