Question

When Carrie Conley’s husband left in the early 1960s, she started raising six children on her own. She took a job at a hospital, delivering meals to patients as what was called “a tray girl” .

Jerry Johnson, the youngest child in the family, was 5 years old when his dad left. Speaking with his mother recently, Johnson heard his mother repeat the question she asked at that time. “Lord, what am I going to do with all these kids by myself?” The answers came in the form of lima beans, black-eyed peas and low prices on chicken necks. “Something to boil for every day of the week,” Conley said.

“I cannot remember one Christmas that I didn’t feel like the luckiest kid in the world,” Johnson said, “even though now I realize we has hardly anything in terms of money.”

“How did you hold all that together?” he asked his mother.

Conley said she would save up her sick days at work, going in no matter how she felt. Then in December, the company would pay her for the unused sick days. More help came in castoffs(废弃物)，when wealthy families would clean out their toy chests at Christmastime and take a load of toys to the Salvation Army. Conley would pick through them, finding the best ones for her children. The result of those sacrifices led to a big, happy Christmas for Conley and her kids.

“But I never did tell you it was a Santa Claus,” Conley said, “I couldn’t give any man credit for what I had done.”

Johnson thanked his mom for her sacrifices, and for the good example she set for him and his siblings. “I think it’s helping us all be better parents,” Johnson said.

56. How did Johnson feel about Christmas when he was a kid?

   A. Awful     B. Disappointed    C. Pleased     D. Indifferent

57. How did Conley struggle to send the children Christmas gifts?

   A. By begging rich families to help

   B. By picking up gifts of low prices

   C. By visiting the Salvation Army

   D. By helping clean out toy chests

58. The underlined part in Paragraph 6 shows that Conley_______?

   A. didn’t believe in God then

   B. was proud of what she did

   C. was complaining about her bad luck

   D. wasn’t willing to ask others for help

59. From the passage we can know that _____.

   A. Conley had great influence on her kids

   B. Conley was an optimistic but stubborn woman

   C. Johnson landed a job in Conley’s company finally

   D. Johnson sensed his mother’s despair when he was young

Answer 1

CCBA