When my grandmother was raising me in Stamps,Arkansas,she had a particular routine when people who were known to be whiners entered her store.My grandmother would ask the customer,“How are you doing today,Thomas?”

The person would reply,“Not so good today, Henderson.You see,it's this summer heat.I just hate it.It just makes me tired.It's almost killing me.”Then my grandmother would stand calmly,her arms folded,and say,“Uh-huh,uh huh.”

As soon as the complainer was out of the store,my grandmother would call me to stand in front of her.Then she would say the same thing she had said at least a thousand times,it seemed to me.“Jane,did you hear what so-and-so complained about?”And I would nod.Grandmother would continue,“Jane,there are people who went to sleep all over the world last night,poor and rich and black and white,but they will never wake again.Those dead people would give anything,anything at all for just five minutes of this weather that person was complaining about.So you watch yourself about complaining,Jane.What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it.If you can't change it,change the way you think about it.Don't complain.”

I have learned a lot from my grandmother.Her opinions always hit the nail on the head.Whining is not only impolite,but can be dangerous.

6. The underlined word “whiners” in Paragraph 1 refers to those people who ________.

A. complain often         B. enter a store regularly

C. are afraid of hot weather  D. think little of themselves

7. From what the author's grandmother said we can infer  that________.

A. she tried to comfort the whiners

B. she was impolite to the whiners

C. she was against whining

D. she shared the whiners' opinions

8. The author's grandmother told her to________.

A. be sympathetic to the dead

B. treasure every moment of her life

C. keep away from the whiners

D. get used to things she disliked

9. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A. Grandmother once owned a store in Stamps,Arkansas.

B. The author was told different things after different whiners left Grandmother's store.

C. The author was told that she could change her way of thinking about things.

D. Grandmother's opinion that people shouldn't complain was reasonable.

10. What is the purpose of the author in writing the passage?

A. To show that complaining is not only rude but harmful.

B. To tell us a story about her grandmother.

C. To show how to live one's life to the fullest.

D. To tell us people's different attitudes towards complaining.

When my grandfather died, my 83-year-old grandmother, once so full of life, slowly began to fade. No longer able to manage a home of her own, she moved in with my mother, where she was visited often by other members of her large, loving family. Although she still had her good days, it was often hard to arouse her interest.
But one chilly December afternoon three years ago, my daughter Meagan, then eight, and I were visiting her, when she noticed that Meagan was carrying her favorite doll.
“I, too, had a special doll when I was a little girl,” she told a wide-eyed Meagan. “I got it one Christmas when I was about your age. I lived in an old farmhouse in Maine, with Mom, Dad and my four sisters, and the very first gift I opened that Christmas was the most beautiful doll you’d ever want to see.”
“She had an elegant, hand-painted face, and her long brown hair was pulled back with a big pink bow. Her eyes were blue, and they opened and closed. I remember she had a body of kidskin, and her arms and legs bent at the joints.”
GG’s voice dropped low, taking on an almost respectful tone. “My doll was dressed in a pretty pink gown, decorated with fine lace. … Getting such a fine doll was like a miracle for a little farm girl like me — my parents must have had to sacrifice so much to afford it. But how happy I was that morning!”
GG’s eyes filled and her voice shook with emotion as she recalled that Christmas of long ago. “I played with my doll all morning long. And then it happened. My mother called us to the dining room for Christmas dinner and I laid my new doll down gently on the hall table. But as I went to join the family at the table, I heard a loud crash.”
“I hardly had to turn around — I knew it was my precious doll. And it was. Her lace skirt had hung down from the table just enough for my baby sister to reach up and pull on it. When I ran in, there lay my beautiful doll on the floor, her face smashed into a dozen pieces. She was gone forever.”
A few years later, GG’s baby sister was also gone, she told Meagan, a victim of pneumonia(肺炎). Now the tears in her eyes spilled over — tears, I knew, not only for a lost doll and a lost sister, but for a lost time.
Silent for the rest of the visit, Meagan was no sooner in the car going home than she exclaimed, “Mom, I have a great idea! Let’s get GG a new doll for Christmas. Then she won’t cry when she thinks about it.”
My heart filled with pride as I listened to my sympathetic little daughter. But where would we find a doll to match GG’s fond memories?
Where there’s a will, as they say, there’s a way. When I told my best friends, Liz and Chris, about my problem, Liz put me in touch with a local doll-make. From a doll supply house I ordered a long brown hair and a kidskin body to copy the outfit GG had so lovingly described. Liz volunteered to put the doll together, and Chris helped me make the doll’s outfit. Meagan wrote the story of the lost doll by giving examples.
Finally our creation was finished. To our eyes it was perfect. But there was no way it could be exactly like the doll GG had loved so much and lost. Would she think it looked anything like it?
On Christmas Eve, Meagan and I carried our happily packed gift to GG, where she sat surrounded by children, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. “It’s for you,” Meagan said, “but first you have to read the story that goes with it.”
GG no sooner got through the first page than her voice cracked and she was unable to go on, but Meagan took over where she left off. Then it was time to open her present.
I’ll never forget the look on GG’s face as she lifted the doll and held it to her chest. Once again her tears fell, but this time they were tears of joy. Holding the doll in her frail arms, she repeated over and over again, “She’s exactly like my old doll, exactly like her.” 
And perhaps she wasn’t saying that just to be kind. Perhaps however impossible it seemed, we had managed to produce a close copy of the doll she remembered. But as I watched my eight-year-old daughter and her great-grandmother examining the doll together, I thought of a likelier explanation. What GG really recognized, perhaps, was the love that inspired the gift. And love, wherever it comes from, always looks the same.
【小题1】GG moved in with her daughter because____.

A.she wanted to live with a large family
B.she was not able to live on her own due to her weakness
C.her husband passed away
D.she thought it was the children’s obligation to take care of her
【小题2】Why did GG become very emotional on a December afternoon?
A.Because she saw her great granddaughter’s doll.
B.Because she recalled her dead parents.
C.Because she was surrounded by her offspring.
D.Because she felt lonely during the Christmas season.
【小题3】What can we infer from Paragraph 5? 
A.GG’s doll was important and was a symbol of many things.
B.GG showed great respect for his husband’s love.
C.GG missed the great old days she spent with her family.
D.GG was grateful for her long life.
【小题4】What happened to GG’s baby sister?
A.She envied her sister all her life.
B.She felt guilty for breaking GG’s doll and decided to go.
C.She left home at a young age.
D.She died of some disease at a young age.
【小题5】Why did Meagan’s mum feel proud of her daughter?
A.Because she was clever.B.Because she was loving.
C.Because she was sensitive. D.Because she was imaginative.
【小题6】The main idea of the passage is that ____.
A.treating the elderly well is moral
B.it is impossible to copy the exact doll for the elderly
C.love, the permanent rhythm of life, will always remain in the elderly’s heart
D.physical comfort from children rather than psychological care is important

It was early in the morning, on a lonely road. It's  36   heavily. A 9-year-old boy was in the car with his mother, who was  37   him to school. Suddenly, the car went off the road,  38  several times, and came to rest upside down in a ditch(沟渠) filled with water.

Luckily, both the mother and son were  39  seatbelts. The mother suffered a blow to her head and was unable to move. The boy was frightened but  40 . As water came through broken windows in the car, he  41  unbuckled (解开) himself, climbed out of the  42  window, made his way around to the driver's side, and reached inside the  43  to free his trapped mother. With great effort, he managed to  44  her, pull her through the window and up to the road, where they were soon  45  .

His mother later recalled her experience of the  46  . Being unable to move or even  47  to offer instructions ( 指导) or encouragement to her son, she was  48  by her little son's action. She recalled  49  her boy saying out loud as he pulled her through the water, “I think I can, I think I can!”

It seemed  50  that this little boy's act of courage was from one of his favourite books: The Little Engine that Could. In that  51  , when everyone else had  52  hope, the Little Engine carried the heavy load of toys and good things to eat over the hill to the children waiting on the other side. He had  53  and took action. Obviously this book had left a  54  impression before the accident that rainy  55  and motivated ( 激励) the son to take action if the terrifying moments.

1.A.  snowing               B.  smoking             C.  blowing            D. raining

2.A.  ordering                   B.  driving              C.  pushing              D. flying

3.A.  rolled                    B.  fell                  C.  moved              D. stopped

4.A.  making                   B.  watching          C.  wearing          D. missing

5.A.  afraid                   B.  dead                 C.  tired             D. unhurt

6. A.  quickly                 B.  carefully             C.  nearly        D. happily

7.A.  student                    B.  passenger             C.  family             D. worker

8. A. box                         B.  room                  C.   car           D. ditch

9.A. respect                    B.  introduce                C.  recognize            D. free

10.A. accepted                   B. rescued                   C.  welcomed          D. fed

11.A. accident                     B.  experiment              C.  travel              D. fire

12. A. listen                       B.  sleep                   C.  speak               D. look

 13. A. excited                B. frightened              C.  wounded      D. amazed

14.A. seeing                   B.  hearing                 C.  smelling           D. feeling

15.A. clear                     B.  sorry                  C. useful        D. necessary

16.A. poem                       B.  notice                 C.  story               D. dream

 17. A. realized                     B.  waken               C.  kept up             D. given up

18.A. courage                     B.  food            C.  space                 D. time

19. A. bad                   B.  deep             C.  false                   D. general

20. A. afternoon                   B.  night             C.  morning                D. evening

 

 

      Scientific experiments can sometimes go wrong and when they do the results may range from the disastrous to the troubling. One such experiment took place in South America about fifty years ago. Whether its final consequences will cause serious damage or nothing more than a small trouble still remains to be seen.

      The story began in 1956 when an American scientist working in Brazil decided to solve the problem of increasing the productivity of that country's bees. He imported a very active type of African bee from Tanzania and mated  (交配)  it with the more easy-going native variety to produce a new kind of bees. The new bees worked harder and produced twice as much honey. It seemed that Professor Kerr, for that was the scientist's name, had a total success on his hands.

      Then things began to go wrong. For some reason as yet unseen, but perhaps as a result of something in their environment, the new bees began to develop extremely attacking personalities. They became bad-tempered and easy to be angry, attacked the native bees and drove them from their living places.

      But worse was to follow. Having taken over the countryside, the new bees, with their dangerous stings (叮) , began to attack its neighbors -- cats, dogs, horses, chickens and finally man himself. A long period of terror began that has so far killed a great number of animals and about 150 human beings.

     This would have been bad enough if the bees had stayed in Brazil. But now they are on the move, heading northwards in countless millions towards Central and North America, and moving at the alarming speed of 200 miles a year. The countries that lie in their path are naturally worried because it looks as if nothing can be done to stop them.

1.The results of the South American experiment              .

     A. have caused a serious trouble        B. have proved to be wrong

     C. are not yet certain                 D. are not important

2.The experiment mentioned in this passage was designed to              .

     A. increase the amount of honey in Brazil      B. make Brazilian bees more easy-going

     C. increase the number of bees in Brazil       D. make African bees less active

3.Which of the following may be the cause of the new bees' attacking personalities?

     A. Their production of honey.        B. Their hard work.

     C. Their living environment.         D. Their bad temper.

4.The last paragraph implies that             .

     A. the bees have been driven to Central and North America

     B. the bees may bring about trouble in more countries

     C. the bees must be stopped from moving north

     D. the bees prefer to live in Brazil

 

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