My legs don’t do much because I have a serious disease. They just sit there and look pretty. When people look at me, they only see the chair — my wheelchair. I’ve been in one since I was 3 years old. And it doesn’t matter if I graduate at the top of my class and go to law school. To some, I’ll always be the girl in the chair.

But I don’t think of myself as the kid who can’t walk. Most of my friends don’t even notice the chair anymore. I’m just the girl they’ve been friends with. My friends are good at lifting me in and out of my small car when we go to the movies. We even took the car to the dance. One of the boys helped me out of the car and all the girls helped me to fix my dress. Even in the crowded school elevator, there’s always someone around to carry me.

There are a lot of things I can’t do for myself, such as lifting my arms, dressing myself, and feeding myself. Even so, I do very well at school and I always tell myself that I’m just like any other kid in my school.

The truth is that my parents raised me to be proud of my disability(残疾). There are plenty of things I wish I could do differently. I wanted to be a doctor. But that’s not going to work out. So I’ll be a lawyer(律师) instead. I also wanted to dance and play soccer. My parents taught me that I’m like this for a reason — to educate people and show them that this disease affects(侵袭) my bones — not my brain. My friends Erica once said to me, “Kennedy, you’re not disabled. You just can’t walk.”

1.What does the underlined word “They” in the first paragraph refer to?

A. The author’s legs B. The author’s chairs

C. The author’s friends D. The author’s diseases

2.We can learn from the second paragraph that the author .

A. is the dancing queen of her school

B. is afraid of taking the school elevator

C. often gets lots of help from her friends

D. can’t be understood by her schoolmates

3.Kennedy’s story mainly tells us that we should .

A. work hard B. smile at life

C. have dreams D. thank our parents

A

Once upon a time, a man was walking on a mountain when he found an incredible cave with all kinds of treasure inside it. So he gave up his job, his home, and his friends, and spent all his time guarding the cave.

He was so dedicated to it that he hardly ate or drank, and before long he fell ill. One day, when he could hardly move at all, he decided to share the treasure.

He crawled into the cave to get a handful of jewels, but discovered, to his horror, that it was empty except for a small diamond. The man took it and gave it to the first person to come by, a woman.

Then an old man came by. “What bad luck!” the man said. “Just a moment ago I gave a woman the last of the treasure I was guarding.”

“Are you sure there is nothing left?” the old man asked.

The man took him into the cave, where they found a box with jewels and some bags of gold. The man was shocked, and the old man explained to him, “At last! At last! At last someone has broken the curse of this cave. This is the Cave of Treasure, and you’re the first to have passed its great test. Many have devoted their lives to this cave, only to end up realizing there was nothing here …”

“And why does this happen?” the man asked.

“This magic cave has only as many riches as your own heart. When someone discovers it, the cave fills with the treasure they bring with them, but later, when they have devoted themselves to guarding the treasure, their hearts become empty, as does the cave. The only way to fill it is by filling your heart with all that is good, as you did by giving the woman that last jewel.”

From that day on, the man understood that it was better to share than to keep. Thanks to the cave and the old man, he became noble and generous.

1.Why did the man give up his job, home and friends?

A. Because he possessed a variety of treasure.

B. Because he had to guard the treasure cave.

C. Because he wanted to find the treasure cave.

D. Because he devoted himself to a great test.

2.What did the man find when he showed his cave to the old man?

A. All kinds of treasure.

B. A handful of jewels.

C. A small emerald.

D. A box with jewels and gold.

3.What do we learn about the people who dedicated their lives to the cave before?

A. They all filled the cave with the treasure they had.

B. They thought it was better to share than to enjoy the treasure alone.

C. They all found the cave empty at last.

D. The old man freed them from its spell.

4.What can we learn from the text?

A. Giving makes people healthier and happier than owing.

B. Some people never learn what is really valuable.

C. Treasure only belongs to those who possess it.

D. Different people have different views.

When Dekalb Walcott III was just 8 years old, his father, a Chicago fire chief, let him tag along on a call. Dekalb says a lot of kids idolized basketball player Michael Jordan when he was growing up in Chicago in the 1990s. Not him.

"I wanted to be like Dekalb Walcott Jr.," he says of his father.

So when his dad asked if he wanted to go on that call with him when he was 8, Dekalb was excited. "I'm jumping up and down, saying, 'Mom, can I go? Can I go?'"

The experience changed Dekalb's life, he tells his dad on a visit to Story Corps. "My eyes got big from the moment the alarm went off." the younger Dekalb says. "This is the life that I want to live someday."

Now 27, the younger Dekalb is living that life. He became a firefighter at 21 and went to work alongside his dad at the Chicago Fire Department. Before his father retired, the pair even went out on a call together—father supervising(监督)son.

"You know, it's everything for me to watch you grow," his father says. But he also recalls worrying about one particular fire that his son faced."

I received a phone call that night. And they said, 'Well, your son was at this fire.' I said, 'OK, which way is this conversation going to go? ' Dekalb Walcott Jr. recalls.

"And they said, 'But he's OK. And he put it out all by himself. Everybody here was proud of him.'

And the word went around, 'Who was out there managing that fire? Oh, that's Walcott! That's Walcott up there!' So, you know, moments like that, it's heaven on Earth for a dad."

Dekalb Walcott Jr. retired in 2009. The younger Dekalb says he's proud of being a second-generation firefighter. "You know, it makes me look forward to fatherhood as well, because I'm definitely looking forward to passing that torch down to my son."

1.The underlined phrase tag along in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______.

A. put out fire

B. watch basketball

C. follow his father

D. ask his mother’s permission

2.Dekalb Walcott III determined to become a firefighter at the age of _________.

A. 27 B. 21 C. 8 D. 35

3.What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A. Dekalb Walcott III wants his son to become a firefighter too.

B. Dekalb Walcott Jr. is proud to be a second-generation firefighter.

C. Dekalb Walcott Jr. wants to pass the torch to Dekalb Walcott III.

D. Dekalb Walcott III is proud that his son has become an excellent firefighter.

4.Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A. Putting Out Fire: A Challenging Job for Father and son

B. Passing The Torch: A Firefighter Dad's Legacy

C. Dekalb Walcott III: A Second-generation Firefighter

D. Dekalb Walcott Jr.: A Chicago Fire Chief

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