Alice’s mother died when she was five. Although her brothers and sisters were loving and caring, their love couldn’t take the place of a mother’s. In 1925 Alice became my mother and told me that her family couldn’t even afford her a doll.
One afternoon in December 1982, when I was getting ready for Christmas, I suddenly decided to buy two dolls, one for my five-year-old daughter, Katie, and one for my old mother.
Things went smoothly when a friend told me that his dad, who played Santa Claus in my area, would be willing to make a visit on Christmas morning to our home with the gifts! Knowing that my parents would also come to my house, I began to get ready for the most memorable day of my mother’s life.
Christmas Day arrived and so did Santa Claus at the planned time. Katie was very excited and happy all the time to welcome the Santa. My mother was enjoying watching Katie welcoming this special guest. As Santa turned to leave he looked again into his bag and took out one more gift. As he asked who Alice was, my mother, without thinking of her name being called, said that she in fact was Alice. Santa handed her the gift with a message card that read:
For Alice:
I was cleaning out my sleigh (雪橇) before my trip this year and came across this package that should be sent on December 25, 1925. The gift inside has aged, but I felt that you might still wish to have it. Many apologies for the lateness of the gift.
Love,
Santa Claus
My mother was very excited and deeply moved to tears. She couldn’t speak but only held tightly in her arms the doll she had waited fifty-seven years to receive as tears of joy flew down her face. That doll made my mother the happiest “child”

1. 1.

   Why couldn’t Alice get a doll as a child?

   1. A.
      Because her mother died quite early
   2. B.
      Because her family disliked her
   3. C.
      Because her family was very poor
   4. D.
      Because Alice didn’t love dolls
2. 2.

   What did the friend’s father do that Christmas morning?

   1. A.
      He acted as Santa Claus to send Christmas gifts
   2. B.
      He went to her home to see Alice
   3. C.
      He bought some Christmas gifts for Katie
   4. D.
      He helped her to get Christmas gifts ready
3. 3.

   Why didn’t Alice expect there was also a gift for her?

   1. A.
      The gifts from Santa Claus were usually for children
   2. B.
      The gift was forgotten many years ago
   3. C.
      The gift for her was bought by accident on the way
   4. D.
      The gifts for Katie were enough to share with her
4. 4.

   The author wrote the message card in order to _________

   1. A.
      show her deep apology to her mother
   2. B.
      make it clear that Santa Claus didn’t forget her
   3. C.
      show that Santa Claus was hard-working
   4. D.
      make Alice believe the gift was exactly for her
5. 5.

   From the last paragraph we can infer that _________

   1. A.
      old people still keeps something of childishness
   2. B.
      we should always give our parents a surprise
   3. C.
      old people usually feel lonely on festivals
   4. D.
      we should spend more time with our parents

It was 1961 and I was in the fifth grade. My marks in school were miserable and, the thing was, I didn’t know enough to really care. My older bother and I lived with Mom in an ugly multi-family house in Detroit. We watched TV every night. The background noise of our lives was gunfire and horses’  hoofs(马蹄) from “Wagon Train” or “Cheyenne”, and laughter from “I Love Lucy”, or “Mister Ed”. After supper, we’d lie on Mom’s bed and stare for hours at the TV screen.
But one day Mom changed our world forever. She turned off the TV. Our mother had only been able to get through third grade. But, she was much brighter and smarter than we boys know at the time. She had noticed something in the suburban houses where she cleaned books. So she came home one day, switched off the TV, sat us down and explained that her sons were going to make something of themselves. “You boys are going to read two books every week,” she said. “And you’re going to write a report on what you read.”
We moaned（不满,发牢骚） and complained about how unfair it was. Besides, we didn’t have any books in the house other than Mom’s Bible. But she explained that we would go where the books were: “I’ll drive you to the library.”
So pretty soon there were these two peevish（坏脾气的）boys sitting in her white 1959 Oldsmobile on their way to Detroit Public Library. I wandered reluctantly（不情愿） among the children’s books. I loved animals, so when I saw some books that seemed to be about animals, I started leafing through them.
The first book I read clear through was Chip the Dam Builder. It was about beavers（河狸）. For the first time in my life I was lost in another world. No television program had ever taken me so far away from my surroundings as did this virtue visit to a cold stream in a forest and these animals building a home.
It didn’t dawn on me at the time, but the experience was quite different from watching TV. There were images forming in my mind instead of before my eyes. And I could return to them again and again with the flip（快速翻动）of a page.
Soon I began to look forward to visiting this quiet sanctuary form my other world. I moved from animals to plants, and then to rocks. Between the covers of all those books were whole worlds, and I was free to go anywhere in them. Along the way a funny thing happened: I started to know things. Teachers started to notice it too. I got to the point where I couldn’t wait to get home to my books.
Now my older brother is an engineer and I am chief of pediatric neurosurgery(儿童神经外科)at John Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. Sometimes I still can’t believe my life’s journey, from a failing and indifferent student in a Detroit public school to this position, which takes me all over the world to teach and perform critical surgery.
But I know when the journey began the day Mom switched off the TV set and put us in her Oldsmobile for that drive to the library.
【小题1】We can learn from the beginning of the passage that ___________.

It was 1961 and I was in the fifth grade. My marks in school were miserable and, the thing was, I didn’t know enough to really care. My older bother and I lived with Mom in an ugly multi-family house in Detroit. We watched TV every night. The background noise of our lives was gunfire and horses’  hoofs(马蹄) from “Wagon Train” or “Cheyenne”, and laughter from “I Love Lucy”, or “Mister Ed”. After supper, we’d lie on Mom’s bed and stare for hours at the TV screen.

But one day Mom changed our world forever. She turned off the TV. Our mother had only been able to get through third grade. But, she was much brighter and smarter than we boys know at the time. She had noticed something in the suburban houses where she cleaned books. So she came home one day, switched off the TV, sat us down and explained that her sons were going to make something of themselves. “You boys are going to read two books every week,” she said. “And you’re going to write a report on what you read.”

We moaned（不满,发牢骚） and complained about how unfair it was. Besides, we didn’t have any books in the house other than Mom’s Bible. But she explained that we would go where the books were: “I’ll drive you to the library.”

So pretty soon there were these two peevish（坏脾气的）boys sitting in her white 1959 Oldsmobile on their way to Detroit Public Library. I wandered reluctantly（不情愿） among the children’s books. I loved animals, so when I saw some books that seemed to be about animals, I started leafing through them.

The first book I read clear through was Chip the Dam Builder. It was about beavers（河狸）. For the first time in my life I was lost in another world. No television program had ever taken me so far away from my surroundings as did this virtue visit to a cold stream in a forest and these animals building a home.

It didn’t dawn on me at the time, but the experience was quite different from watching TV. There were images forming in my mind instead of before my eyes. And I could return to them again and again with the flip（快速翻动）of a page.

Soon I began to look forward to visiting this quiet sanctuary form my other world. I moved from animals to plants, and then to rocks. Between the covers of all those books were whole worlds, and I was free to go anywhere in them. Along the way a funny thing happened: I started to know things. Teachers started to notice it too. I got to the point where I couldn’t wait to get home to my books.

Now my older brother is an engineer and I am chief of pediatric neurosurgery(儿童神经外科)at John Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. Sometimes I still can’t believe my life’s journey, from a failing and indifferent student in a Detroit public school to this position, which takes me all over the world to teach and perform critical surgery.

But I know when the journey began the day Mom switched off the TV set and put us in her Oldsmobile for that drive to the library.

1.We can learn from the beginning of the passage that ___________.

2.Which of the following is not true about the author’s family?

3.How did the two boys feel about going to the library at first?

4.The author began to love books for the following reasons EXCEPT that ___________.

When I was 8, a gentleman came to my orphanage（孤儿院）and taught us how to do woodworking projects.

I remember my first project—a small table. I was so      of it that I looked upon it as if I had created a(an)       . It was absolutely beautiful and it had taken me six weeks to       it. I could hardly wait to give it to Mother Winters as a         . She was the head mistress of our orphanage, who was always       with us.

As the tables were not dry from the clear coating, the man told us to wait a few days before taking them to our dormitories. But I was just so        and happy that I couldn’t wait. I dashed out like a        , carrying my table, smiling from ear to ear.

When I reached the dormitory I placed the little table beside my bed. I was         it when Mother Winters entered. She walked over to the table. Running her hand         it, she noticed that it was still wet.

“Were you          to bring this home?” she asked.

“No, ma’am,” I         with my head down.

She ordered me to throw the table out and so I did. After she left, I immediately opened the door to get it back. There was         stuck all over. I brushed and cried, but it would not come off.

I hid the table in my closet and never         it. A year later while cleaning up, I gave the table to Mother Henderson, my houseparent（宿管员）, thinking that she would         it away.

Thirty years later at a reunion, I         that Mother Henderson was living nearby, so I drove up to see her. We talked cheerfully for long. As I was about to leave, she asked me to come down to her          to get something important. I followed her         into a dark corner. She picked something up.          she turned around, I could see that she was holding a little table.

Mother Henderson kept the little table that I had given up for lost so long ago.

Today, I look at that table with bittersweet memories but full of         to Mother Henderson, who kept it for a young orphan who tried very hard to        .

1.A. tired                     B. ashamed                 C. proud                          D. aware

2.A. award                            B. wonder              C. record               D. product

3.A. design                      B. invent            C. paint                                    D. complete

4.A. gift             B. reward                       C. prize                           D. souvenir

5.A. satisfied             B. strict                           C. patient                              D. angry

6.A. upset              B. amazed           C. confident                         D. excited

7.A. thief          B. hero                           C. sword                               D. flash

8.A. drying                      B. observing                 C. admiring                           D. hiding  

9.A. into                 B. across                  C. above                                 D. after

10.A. supposed                   B. embarrassed          C. encouraged               D. determined

11.A. agreed                  B. sighed                       C. whispered                  D. argued

12.A. dirt                     B. glue                         C. paint                            D. wood

13.A. removed           B. touched                  C. shook                          D. split

14.A. put                         B. give                           C. take                                   D. throw

15.A. learned        B. expected           C. remembered     D. recommended

16.A. bathroom                   B. balcony              C. basement         D. bedroom

17.A. curiously           B. unwillingly         C. doubtfully                    D. worriedly

18.A. Before                   B. Since                         C. As                             D. Until

19.A. admiration                 B. gratitude           C. sympathy                           D. regret

20.A. adapt                          B. study                       C. perform                           D. please

We rented our upstairs rooms to the out-of-town patients of Johns Hopkins Hospital. One evening, a bad-looking man, who was even shorter than my 8-year-old son, knocked at the door;1, his voice was pleasant as he said, “Good2. I come to see if you’ve a room. I came for (a)3this morning from the eastern shore”.
He told me he’d been4a room since noon but with no5; no one seemed to have one. “I guess it’s my6face…” I know why they7him away! It was clear that they would8roomers by putting up such people. For a moment, I9, but his next words convinced me, “I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch(门廊). My10leaves early in the morning.” I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch.
He told me he fished for a living to11his daughter, her five children and her husband, who was12in a terrible accident so that he couldn’t work. He didn’t tell it by way of13; in fact, he was grateful that no pain14his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the15to keep going. The next morning, the bed linen was16folded and the little man thanked me and waited for his bus.
Three months later when I almost17the man, we received packages in the18, with fish and oysters in it and a note19, “Thank you for having kept my father a night. He just20because of skin cancer. Before his death, he asked me to post these as gifts. Thank you again, sir.” All this happened long ago — and now, I imagined, in God’s garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand.

1. 1.
   1. A.
      otherwise
   2. B.
      though
   3. C.
      however
   4. D.
      unless
2. 2.
   1. A.
      luck
   2. B.
      evening
   3. C.
      job
   4. D.
      morning
3. 3.
   1. A.
      treatment
   2. B.
      travel
   3. C.
      meeting
   4. D.
      prayer
4. 4.
   1. A.
      dealing with
   2. B.
      dreaming of
   3. C.
      hunting for
   4. D.
      living with
5. 5.
   1. A.
      money
   2. B.
      patience
   3. C.
      success
   4. D.
      help
6. 6.
   1. A.
      serious
   2. B.
      terrible
   3. C.
      happy
   4. D.
      long
7. 7.
   1. A.
      took
   2. B.
      sent
   3. C.
      drove
   4. D.
      turned
8. 8.
   1. A.
      lose
   2. B.
      discourage
   3. C.
      impress
   4. D.
      attract
9. 9.
   1. A.
      doubted
   2. B.
      believed
   3. C.
      wondered
   4. D.
      hesitated
10. 10.
    1. A.
       doctor
    2. B.
       bus
    3. C.
       daughter
    4. D.
       graduation
11. 11.
    1. A.
       educate
    2. B.
       support
    3. C.
       encourage
    4. D.
       protect
12. 12.
    1. A.
       unfriendly
    2. B.
       ugly
    3. C.
       sad
    4. D.
       disabled
13. 13.
    1. A.
       complaint
    2. B.
       inspiration
    3. C.
       humor
    4. D.
       joke
14. 14.
    1. A.
       removed
    2. B.
       accompanied
    3. C.
       avoided
    4. D.
       suffered
15. 15.
    1. A.
       fantasy
    2. B.
       time
    3. C.
       disease
    4. D.
       strength
16. 16.
    1. A.
       formally
    2. B.
       expectedly
    3. C.
       neatly
    4. D.
       messily
17. 17.
    1. A.
       forgot
    2. B.
       missed
    3. C.
       called
    4. D.
       forgave
18. 18.
    1. A.
       hospital
    2. B.
       envelope
    3. C.
       air
    4. D.
       mail
19. 19.
    1. A.
       reading
    2. B.
       writing
    3. C.
       speaking
    4. D.
       drawing
20. 20.
    1. A.
       gave up
    2. B.
       stayed out
    3. C.
       passed away
    4. D.
       lay down