She was only about five feet tall and probably never weighed more than 110 pounds, but Miss Bessie was a towering presence in the classroom. She was the only woman tough enough to make me read Beowulf and think for a few stupid days that I liked it. From 1938 to 1942, she taught me English, history—and a lot more than I realized.

I shall never forget the day she scolded (批评) me into reading Beowulf. “But Miss Bessie," I complained, “I ain't much interested in it.”

Her large brown eyes became sharp. “Boy," she said, “how dare you say ‘ain't' to me! I've taught you better than that."

“Miss Bessie," I said, “I'm trying to join the football team, and if I go around saying "it isn't' and "they aren't,' the guys are gonna laugh me off the team.”

“Boy,” she replied, “you'll play football because you have guts (勇气). But do you know what really takes guts? Refusing to lower your standards to those of the crowd. It takes guts to say you've got to live and be somebody fifty years after all the football games are over."

I started saying “it isn't" and “they aren't," and I still joined the team without losing my friends' respect.

Negroes, as we were called then, were not allowed in the town library, except to sweep floors or clean tables. But with the help of some nice whites, Miss Bessie kept getting books out of the white library. That is how she introduced me to the Bronte’s, Byron and Keats. “If you don't read, you can't write, and if you can't write, you might as well stop dreaming," Miss Bessie once told me.

So I read whatever Miss Bessie told me to, and tried to remember the things she insisted that I store away. It could be embarrassing to be unprepared when Miss Bessie said, “Get up and tell the class who Frances Perkins is and what you think about her." Forty-five years later, I can still recite her “truths to live by".

Miss Bessie noticed things that had nothing to do with schoolwork, but were essential to a youngster's development. Once a few classmates made fun of my worn-out hand-me-down overcoat. As I was leaving school, Miss Bessie patted me on the back of that old overcoat and said, “Carl, never worry about what you don't have. Just make the most of what you do have — a brain."

No child can get all the necessary support at home, and millions of poor children get no support at all. This is what makes a wise, educated, warm-hearted teacher like Miss Bessie so essential to the minds, hearts and souls of this country's children.

1.The underlined words "towering presence” in the first paragraph means _________.

A.Miss Bessie was strong enough to influence her students

B.Miss Bessie was watching the students all the time

C.the students thought she was tall and heavy

D.the students felt nervous in front of her

2.What can we infer from the passage?

A.Carl's friends came from poor families.

B.Carl hated to read Beowulf in public.

C.Miss Bessie wanted Carl to be a better man.

D.Miss Bessie didn't want Carl to play football.

3.Miss Bessie asked Carl to read a lot because_________.

A.his parents were too poor to afford books

B.he was not allowed into the library

C.the whites didn't want the blacks to read

D.she expected him to have a goal in life

4.Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?

A.Dreams Go with Education B.An Unforgettable Lesson

C.Unforgettable Miss Bessie D.Reading Makes a Full Man

Did you ever count the number of digits (数字) in your mobile phone number? Your number has 11 digits. You may sometimes find it hard to remember your number. That’s because China has the longest mobile phone numbers in the world. Why is that?

We can group the 11 digits into three parts. Each part has a different meaning. The first three numbers tell you which mobile phone service company you are using. For example, 135 is for the China Mobile Communications Corporation (中国移动) and 188 is for China Unicom (中国联通). The fourth to the seventh digits tell you where the number is registered (注册).For example, 0731 shows it is registered in Changsha, and 0733 shows it is registered in Zhuzhou. And the last four digits are random (随机的).

The main reason for using 11 digits is that we have the most people in the world. We once had 10 numbers. But as people grew more and more, there were not enough numbers for us to use. So we began to use 11 digits starting from 1999.

We can use eleven digits to make uncountable mobile phone numbers. That’s enough for each person to have seven or eight phone numbers to use in China.

What’s more, we can recycle mobile phone numbers. Usually, if someone doesn’t use the number any more, the service company will reuse the number after three to six months. If you didn’t call a number for a long time, you may find that the owner already changed.

Like China, Britain and Japan also use 11-digit mobile phone numbers. But their numbers always start with 0. So they cannot create as many numbers as we can. Countries like the United States, Australia and India use phone numbers with 10 digits. Canada’s mobile phone numbers are probably the world’s shortest: they use seven digits.

1.When you see the phone number 13507336688 in China, you may get the following information EXCEPT (除了) .

A.the service company is China Mobile Communications Corporation

B.the last four digits 6688 tell us where the phone number comes from

C.the phone number is registered in Hunan

2.China has the longest mobile phone number mostly because .

A.it is easy to group B.it has the most users in the world C.it makes difference with other countries

3.The underlined word in paragraph 5 means .

A.循环利用 B.再次购买 C.彻底丢弃

4.Which statement is NOT TRUE according to the passage?

A.Canada uses 7-digit mobile phone numbers.

B.Japan can create as many numbers as China with 11 digits.

C.We didn't use the 11-digit mobile phone number until 1999.

5.What is the best title for the passage?

A.Mobile Phone Companies B.Different Meanings of Digits C.Longest Mobile Phone Numbers

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