Working Christmas Day

It was unusually quiet in the emergency room （急诊室） on December25.

I didn't think there would be any patients, complaining about having to work on. Just then five people showed up at my desk, a pale woman and four small children.

"Are you all sick?" I asked doubtfully.

"Yes," she said weakly and lowered her head.

But when it came to descriptions of their problems, things got a little unclear. Two of the children had headaches, but I couldn't find any normal body language of holding the head or trying to keep it still. Two children had earaches, but only one could tell me which ear was hurting. The mother complained of a cough but seemed to work to produce it.

Something was wrong, but I didn't say anything but explained that it might be a little while before a doctor saw her. She replied, "Take your time; it's warm in here."

I checked the form after the admitting clerk had finished her work with the family. No address — they were homeless. The waiting room was warm.

I looked out at the family standing by the Christmas tree. The youngest one was pointing at the television and shouting something to her mother. The oldest one was looking at the colorful Christmas tree.

I went back to the nurses' station and mentioned we had a homeless family in the waiting room. The nurses, complaining about working Christmas, turned to pity for a family just trying to get warm on Christmas. The team went into action, much as we do when there's a medical emergency. But this one was a Christmas emergency.

We were all offered a free meal in the hospital dining hall on Christmas Day, so we prepared a big one for our Christmas guests. We needed presents, too. We put together oranges and apples in a basket. We collected from different departments candies, crayons and other things that could be presents. As seriously as we met the physical needs of the patients that came to us that day, our team worked to meet the needs, and beyond the expectations, of a family who just wanted to be warm on Christmas Day.

Later, as the family walked to the door to leave, the four-year-old came running back, gave me a hug and whispered, "Thanks for being our angels today."

1.Why did the family come to the hospital?

A. They were sick. B. They were cold and hungry.

C. They wanted to visit friends. D. They got all their money lost.

2.How did the writer and her workmates help the family?

A. They offered a free meal to them.

B. They bought some presents for them.

C. They sent for a doctor for them.

D. They asked them to stay overnight in the hospital.

3.What can we learn from the passage?

A. The mother was seriously ill.

B. The family were driven out of the hospital.

C. The writer and her workmates always liked to work on Christmas.

D. The family thanked the writer and her workmates for their kindness.

    Louis Pasteur was born in 1822 in a little town in France. As he grew up, he loved to paint. He loved to look at the world around him. When he went to college in Paris, he showed interest in looking through a microscope. A microscope makes things look a lot bigger; it lets you see things you can’t see just with your eyes. Looking through a microscope, Pasteur found a living world in a drop of water. He saw and drew pictures of the small living things －he called them “microbes” or “germs”－that crowded in a drop of water.

    One day a winemaker came into the lab, hoping that someone could help him with his problem. “Sometimes my wine tastes delicious, but sometimes it turns sour（酸的）,” he said to Pasteur. “Can you help me find out why?”

    Pasteur put some drops of the wine under the microscope. He noticed that the sour wine had some unusual germs. If he killed these germs, maybe he could keep the wine from turning sour. He experimented （试验）with different ways to kill the germs. In the end he found heating （加热）the wine seemed to work best. The winemaker tried it, and every bottle of wine tasted good.

    Pasteur’s idea worked for other people, too. When farmers heated milk, it didn’t sour so quickly. When breweries （啤酒师）heated beer, it tasted better. People called the process （过程）“pasteurization” － heating a liquid to kill bad germs. Aren’t you glad that the milk you drink has been pasteurized?

  1. What does the passage mainly tell us?

    A. What life Louis Pasteur lived.

    B. How to make milk clean.

    C. How pasteurization was invented.

    D. What to do with wine.

  2. The underlined （划线）words in the passage mean _______.

    A. small parts water is made up of

    B. dirty things around us

    C. bodies of small living things

    D. living things that can’t be seen

  3. What do you think Louis Pasteur was like from the passage?

    A. Clever, helpful and hard-working.

    B. Quiet, helpful, and kind-hearted.

    C. Brave, careful and hard-working.

    D. Clever, serious and kind-hearted.

  4. Which of the following sentences is true?

    A. Where something is wrong, there are germs.

    B. Louis Pasteur is the inventor of microscopes.

    C. Everybody knows what the word PASTEURIZED means.

    D. Pasteurization is a good way to keep food from going bad.

How can you buy a meal for lunch without any money in your pocket？Students in Class 9,Grade 8 at Mountain and Lake Middle School in Chengdu,Sichuan,have their ways. They give out flyers(传单), draw portraits(人物素描) and work as waiters.

The class, working in eight groups, finished the activity. Experiencing Life for Seven Hours,on March 18, “I found students waste their food in the dining?hall, ”the class teacher, Deng Guiyong said, “So I held this activity to help them understand how hard it is to make money.”

Jiang Yao, 15, and his group members stood in the streets giving out flyers for about two hours and got the money for their lunch. Then they worked as waiters in a pizza restaurant?cleaning the floor；and toilets and getting food for guests, “We were busy all along, so we were terribly exhausted after the day’s hard work.”said Jiang.“We each got a pizza as a prize, which tasted much better than one I ate with my parents before.”

When Xie Ni’s group didn't make any money in three hours, the members became nervous about their lunch. The 14?year?old girl came up with the idea of drawing portraits to sell, “I sold four portraits and one tourist even paid us 100 yuan for his portrait, ”said Xie.

Xie realized that life is really hard. “We have to work hard to get the money to pay for even a simple meal.” Xie said, “We must value the happy life today.”

On top of making money, each group was asked to do at least five good deeds during the seven hours. Students helped the old cross the road, gave directions to tourists and turned in a lost bus card.

56. From the teacher’s words, we can see that the students ________.

A. usually waste food in their daily life　 B. realize life is really not easy

C. know it’s hard to make money　　　　 D. have their own ways to get food without money

57. The underlined word“exhausted”in Paragraph 3 means ________.

A. happy 　　　　B. crazy 　　　 C. tired 　　　　 D. boring

58. In order to make money, the students have done all except ________.

A. help the old cross the road 　　　 B. give out flyers

C. draw portraits　 　　　　　　　　　　　 D. work as waiters

59. The purpose of this activity is to ________.

A. let the students get food　 B. help the students learn to value their today’s life

C. help people in need　　　　 D. give the students a chance to learn to work

60. What’s the best title for the passage?

A. Life Is Really Hard 　　　　　　B. It’s Good To Be A Volunteer

C. How To work For People　 D. Experiencing Life For Seven Hours