My mom was one-eyed. I hated her... She was such an embarrassment. She ran a small shop at a flea market to sell anything for the money we needed.

I remember it was field day, and my mom came. I was so embarrassed. I threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school..., “Your mom only has one eye?!” and they teased me.

I wished my mom would disappear from this world, so I said to her, “Why don’t you have the other eye?! You’re only going to make me a laughing stock. Why don’t you just die?” She didn’t respond. I guess I felt a little bad, but meanwhile, it felt good to think I said what I’d wanted to say.

That night, I woke up, and went to the kitchen to get water. My mom was crying quietly. I looked at her, and turned away. Because of what I had said to her earlier, there was something hurting in my heart. Even so, I hated my mother who was crying from her one eye. So I told myself I would grow up and become successful, because I hated my one-eyed mom and our poverty.

Then I left her and got accepted in the Seoul University. Then, I got married. I bought a house then had kids. Now I’m living happily as a successful man. I like it here because it’s a place that doesn’t remind me of my mom.

This happiness was getting bigger when someone unexpected came to see me. It was my mom... Still with her one eye. My little girl ran away, scared of her eye.

I screamed at her, “How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter! Get out of here now!!” And to this, my mother quietly answered, “Sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address.” and she disappeared. Thank goodness. She doesn’t recognize me. I was relieved. I told myself I wasn’t going to think about this for the rest of my life.

One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to me. I lied to my wife saying I was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went down to what I used to call a house. I found my mother fallen on the ground. She had a piece of paper in her hand. It was to me.

My son, I was glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I decided not to go to the school. For you... sorry I only have one eye. When you were little, you lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn’t stand watching you grow up with only one eye, so I gave you mine. I was so proud of my son seeing a whole new world for me with that eye. I was never upset at you for anything you did. You mean the world to me.

My world fell apart. I hated the person who only lived for me. I didn’t know of any way that will make up for my worst deeds.

1.How did the author feel when he saw his mother crying quietly in the kitchen?

A. He felt guilty of what he had said to her.

B. He felt good to speak out all he’d wanted to say.

C. He felt sympathetic to what his mother had suffered.

D. He felt anxious about his mother’s health.

2.From the letter of the author’s mother, we can infer that _______.

A. she lost one eye in an accident

B. she donated one of her eyes to her son

C. she felt angry with her son sometimes

D. she attended the school reunion

3.The writer’s mother can be best described as ________.

A. kindhearted and helpful B. disabled and mean

C. graceful and respectable D. painstaking and tolerant

4.Which is the best title for this passage?

A. My one-eyed Mother B. Love Between Mother and Son

C. My Poor Family D. A Letter From My Mother

My father was always a good gardener. One of my earliest memories is standing without shoes in the freshly tilled (翻耕的) soil, my hands blackened from digging in the ground.

As a child, I loved following Dad around in the garden. I remember Dad pushing the tiller (耕作机) ahead in perfectly straight lines. Dad loved growing all sorts of things: yellow and green onions,watermelons almost as big as me, rows of yellow com, and our favorite—red tomatoes.

As I grew into a teenager, I didn’t get so excited about gardening with Dad. Instead of magical land of possibility, it had turned into some kind of prison. As Dad grew older, his love for gardening never disappeared. After all the kids were grown and had started families of their own, Dad turned to gardening like never before. Even when he was diagnosed with cancer, he still took care of his garden.

But then, the cancer, bit by bit, invaded his body. I had to do the things he used to do. What really convinced me that Dad was dying was the state of his garden that year. The rows and rows of multicolored vegetables were gone. Too tired to weed them, he simply let them be.

For the first few years after he died, I couldn’t even bear to look at anyone’s garden without having strong memories pour over me like cold water from a bucket. Three years ago, I decided to plant my own garden and started out with just a few tomatoes. That morning, after breaking up a fair amount of soil, something caught the comer of my eye and I had to smile. It was my eight-year-old son Nathan, happily playing in the freshly tilled soil.

1.Why did the author like the garden when he was a child?

A. He wanted to be a garden-crazy like his father.

B. He loved being in the garden with his father.

C. The garden was full of his favorite food.

D. The garden was just freshly tilled.

2.When all the kids started their own families,the author’s father .

A. stopped his gardening

B. turned to other hobbies

C. devoted more to gardening

D. focused on planting tomatoes

3.What happened to the garden when the author’s father was seriously ill?

A. There was a great harvest.

B. The garden was almost deserted.

C. No plant grew in the garden at all.

D. The author’s son took charge of the garden.

4.Why did the author start his garden with tomatoes?

A. He wanted to honor his father.

B. His son liked the fields of tomatoes.

C. He only knew how to grow tomatoes.

D. He thought tomatoes were easy to manage.

Architects have long had the feeling that the places we live in can affect our thoughts, feelings and behaviors, But now scientists are giving this feelings an empirical(经验的,实证的) basis. They are discovering how to design spaces that promote creativity, keep people focused, and lead to relaxation.

Researches show that aspects of the physical environment can influence creativity. In 2007, Joan Meyers-Levy at the University of Minnesota, reported that the height of a room’s ceiling affects how people to think. Her research indicates that the higher ceilings encourage people to think more freely, which may lead them to make more abstract connections. Low ceilings, on the other hand, may inspire a more detailed outlook.

In addition to ceiling height, the view afforded by a building may influence an occupant’s ability to concentrate. Nancy Wells and her colleagues at Cornell University found in their study that kids who experienced the greatest increase in greenness as a result of a family move made the most gains on a standard test of attention.

Using nature to improve focus of attention ought to pay off academically, and it seems to, according to a study led by C. Kenneth Tanner, head of the School Design &Planning Laboratory at University of Georgia. Tanner and his team found that students in classrooms with unblocked views of at least 50 feet outside the window had higher scores on tests of vocabulary, language arts and maths than did students whose classrooms primarily overlooked roads and parking lots.

Recent study on room lighting design suggests that dim(暗淡的) light helps people to loosen up. If that is true generally, keeping the light low during dinner or at parties could increase relaxation. Researchers of Harvard Medical School also discovered that furniture with rounded edges could help visitors relax.

So far scientists have focused mainly on public buildings. “We have a very limited number of studies, so we’re almost looking at the problem through a straw(吸管), ” architect David Allison says. “How do you take answers to very specific questions and make broad, generalized use of them? That’s what we’re all struggling with.”

1.What does Joan Meyers-Levy focus on in her research?

A. Light. B. Ceilings. C. Windows. D. Furniture.

2.From the passage we know that ________.

A. the shape of furniture may affect people’s feelings

B. lower ceilings may help improve students’ creativity

C. children in a dim classroom may improve their grades

D. Students in rooms with unblocked views may feel relaxed

3.The underlined sentence in the last paragraph probably means that ________.

A. the problem is not approached step by step

B. the researches so far have faults in themselves

C. the problem is too difficult for researchers to detect

D. research in this area is not enough to make generalized patterns

4.What does this passage mainly talks about?

A. The shape of public building affects our thoughts.

B. How room design affects our work and feeling.

C. Physical environment can influence our creativity.

D. Physical environment is of great importance to our focus of attention.

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman doctor in the United States. Her success opened the way for other women who wanted to do more than nursing. She was born in England in 1821 and her family moved to America when she was eleven years old.

The Blackwell girls received the same education as their brothers. This was most unusual in those days. Their father died young and they had very little money to live on. Elizabeth and her sisters taught at school. Then a woman dying of cancer urged Elizabeth to study medicine, saying that a woman doctor would have saved her from her worst sufferings. Nearly everyone said a girl should not go to medical school, but she managed to enter Geneva College in New York State. She graduated in 1849 at the head of her class and received the first medical degree ever given to a woman.

Next, Dr. Blackwell went to Paris. Her only chance of training was in a hospital where women came to have their babies. Four months later, while she was working in the French hospital, her left eye became dangerously infected (感染). She lost the eye. She was very disappointed. But she was soon back at work again, this time in London, England. There she met many famous scientists.

In 1859, Elizabeth Blackwell was officially recognized as a doctor in Great Britain — the first woman to be honored. She was the inspiration of Elizabeth Garrett, who began the women’s medical movement in England. Florence Nightingale, founder of the practice of nursing by women, was another of her friends.

Dr. Blackwell died in 1910 at the age of 89.

1.Elizabeth and her sisters taught at school probably to .

A. help support the family B. become women doctors

C. get practical experience D. earn money for their education

2.What made Elizabeth decide to study medicine?

A. The education she received. B. The death of her father.

C. The sufferings of a cancer patient. D. The encouragement from a patient.

3.Which of the following is the correct order of events according to the passage?

a. Elizabeth Blackwell lost one eye.

b. Elizabeth Blackwell received a doctor’s degree.

c. Elizabeth Blackwell entered Geneva College.

d. Elizabeth Blackwell was recognized as a doctor.

e. Elizabeth Blackwell went to work in London.

A. cabed B. cbaed

C. acbed D. bcade

4.What can we infer from the last two paragraphs?

A. Elizabeth Blackwell was more famous in Britain.

B. Elizabeth Blackwell learned from other women.

C. Elizabeth Garrett gave Elizabeth Blackwell much help.

D. Florence Nightingale was encouraged by Elizabeth Blackwell.

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