“Wow!”¨said Susan．“I have finished my homework and I’m going to paint a picture of our stairs(楼梯)．It’s for a competition in school tomorrow．”

    “Do you need any help?”Mr．Cooper asked．“It’s almost time for bed．”

    “I’ll be quick．”said Susan．“I wonder what colour to use．”

    “Well, our stairs are brown,”said her father．“Thanks，Dad．”said Susan.

    When she finished her picture，Susan began playing with her brush which was still wet．Then something happened．She dropped the brush right on the picture! There in the middle of her picture was a blob(污点)of brown paint!

    “Oh，Dad! What will I do?”Susan cried．

    “My picture is ruined(污损)．And it’s too late to paint another．”

    “Let me see．”said her father．“The paint blob looks just like a spot(斑点)on a dog．All you have to do is to draw a dog around the spot!”

    “That’s a wonderful idea!”cried Susan．She drew a dog around the blob of brown paint．“That looks just fine．You know，few things are as bad as they seem at first．With a little  imagination you can turn bad into good，”said Susan’s father．

    The next day Susan went to school early．

    When the competition began，Mr. King said，“I’ve chosen three pictures，and I want you to say which one you like best．That picture wins!”The children did not like the first one．The next picture was on black paper，but the stairs were red．So it was not so good．Then Mr. King showed the third painting．It was Susan’s!

    “The stairs are straight．”said Joe．

    “Yes．and the brown paint shows up well on the white paper，”said Lucy．

    “And look at the little dog．”said Terry．“He seems to belong there．”

    The children voted and Susan’s painting won．Mr. King handed her the prize-some paints．

    “Susan had a good idea．”Mr. King said．”That little dog finished a good painting．It made the stairs seem real．”

    Susan smiled．She would not give away her secret．But she could hardly wait to tell her father the news．He was right．With a little imagination you can turn something bad into something good!

1．Susan was going to draw a picture for _________．

    A．fun                             B．her homework

    C．a competition                     D．an exam

2．Susan drew the colour“brown”on the white paper because _________

A．she thought“brown”and“white”looked beautiful together

    B．she didn’t like“red”on black paper

    C．she thought her classmates would like it

    D．the stairs in her house were brown

3．What does the word“something”in this passage mean?

    A．Susan began to paint the picture．

    B．Susan finished painting the picture．

    C．Susan played with her wet brush．

    D．Susan dropped the brush on the picture．

4．Mr．King thought that the picture was ____________．

    A．bad        B．good           C．colourful         D．dark

5．Susan’s father thought that_______．

  A．imagination sometimes could turn bad into good

  B．the colour“brown”looked quite nice on white paper

  C．the little dog made the picture bad

  D．the stairs in the picture looked straight

Nick is a student. He has four friends. They are Ben, Eric, Peter and Andy. But they are all very different. Nick is confident and kind. He is also a good listener. All of his friends like to talk to him about their problems. This is his best quality. Ben is the quietest friend of them. He is not energetic and active like Eric, or outgoing like Peter. But he is so patient and fair. When they have an argument, Ben is always there to listen to everyone and make sure that everybody stays friends. Andy is very clever and hard-working. He does the best in exams at school. It is really kind of Andy to help Peter with his homework when he is having trouble. They get along well with each other like brothers.

1.What do you think of Ben?

2. What is Nick’s best quality?

3.What is Peter like ?

4. What is it kind of Andy to do ?

5.Who is always there to make sure that everyone stays friends when they have an argument?

John and Henry studied in the same school. John lived in fear of Henry — every day he gave his lunch money to Henry, but Henry still beat (揍) him up. He said that if John told anyone he would beat him up in front of all the other kids in his class. John had to ask his mom for more and more lunch money, but he seemed   1   than ever and came home from school hungry every day.
John even cried one day, and a girl told everyone that he was just like a baby and had cried. John was   2   and felt so bad about himself and about school.
One day, John met Jimmy, a boy   3   also had to give his lunch money to Henry. John told Jimmy how he    4   bullying (欺侮), and found that Jimmy felt the same. They finally thought of a good way of dealing with their   5  .
The following day, Henry came to John to ask him for his lunch money.
“I don’t want to give my money to you,” said John.
“What?” Henry shouted.
John said   6  , “I want to have my lunch today, and you, get away (滚开)!”
“You want to get beaten up?!”
Just then Henry’s fist (拳头) was hitting John’s face, they heard   7   shout, “Stop!” Henry was very angry to hear that. He turned around   8   found that his teacher Ms Brown was standing just behind him. He felt very surprised. Jimmy had taken Ms. Brown to John’s class and she   9    the bullying with her own eyes. Henry was taken to the head teacher’s office.  10  that, he never bullied others again. John and Jimmy helped not only themselves but Henry and other kids.

John and Henry studied in the same school. John lived in fear of Henry — every day he gave his lunch money to Henry, but Henry still beat (揍) him up. He said that if John told anyone he would beat him up in front of all the other kids in his class. John had to ask his mom for more and more lunch money, but he seemed    1   than ever and came home from school hungry every day.
John even cried one day, and a girl told everyone that he was just like a baby and had cried. John was    2    and felt so bad about himself and about school.
One day, John met Jimmy, a boy    3    also had to give his lunch money to Henry. John told Jimmy how he    4    bullying (欺侮), and found that Jimmy felt the same. They finally thought of a good way of dealing with their    5   .
The following day, Henry came to John to ask him for his lunch money.
“I don’t want to give my money to you,” said John.
“What?” Henry shouted.
John said    6   , “I want to have my lunch today, and you, get away (滚开)!”
“You want to get beaten up?!”
Just then Henry’s fist (拳头) was hitting John’s face, they heard    7   shout, “Stop!” Henry was very angry to hear that. He turned around    8    found that his teacher Ms Brown was standing just behind him. He felt very surprised. Jimmy had taken Ms. Brown to John’s class and she    9    the bullying with her own eyes. Henry was taken to the head teacher’s office.   10   that, he never bullied others again. John and Jimmy helped not only themselves but Henry and other kids.