When Dean Arnold got his first job, he was miserable Each time he went to work, he coughed and he couldn’t breathe. Working in a bakery when you are allergic(过敏的)to flour can be painful.

   But Arnold stayed with the National Biscuit Company for ten years. He was a businessman and he helped them improve production. At last his health problems became too serious. He left and formed his own company.

   With his wife and mother, he founded Arnold Bakery. They tried new recipes,(调制法),changing the kind and amount of flour used. This enabled Arnold to work there without too much pain The bread, made with unbleached(未漂白的)flour, was baked in brick oven.(烤箱)

   They began by baking two dozen loaves. The bread was sold door to door for fifteen cents a loaf. Winning customers to his usual, old fashioned bread took time. But Arnold. Struggling against his allergy, built his bakery into one of the largest in the United States.

According to context, the underlined word “miserable” means     

A. quite pleased     B. rather unhealthy    C. too lucky    D. very unhappy

A good title for the passage would be       

A. A Sick Baker              B. A Brick Oven Bread Baker

C. An Old Fashioned Baker     D. How to Overcome Allergy

Dean left the National Biscuit Company because he      

A. suffered from allergy to flour       B. didn’t like the job

C. wanted to form his own company    D. wanted to make more money

Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage?

A. Arnold’s bread was baked in a brick oven

B. Arnold’s bread was made with unbleached flour

C. Arnold’s bread was sold at a low price

D. Arnold’s bread was of poor quality

From the passage we can conclude that Arnold was       

A. determined      B. brave      C. unusual     D. unhealthy

In the kitchen of my mother’s houses there has always been a wooden stand (木架) with a small notepad (记事本) and a hole for a pencil.

I’m looking for paper on which to note down the name of a book I am recommending to my mother. Over forty years since my earliest memories of the kitchen pad and pencil, five houses later, the current paper and pencil look the same as they always did. Surely it can’t be the same pencil? The pad is more modern, but the wooden stand is definitely  the original one.

 “I’m just amazed you still have the same stand for holding the pad and pencil after all these years.” I say to her, walking back into the living-room with a sheet of paper and the pencil. “You still use a pencil. Can’t you afford a pen?”

My mother replies a little sharply. “It works perfectly  well. I’ve  always kept the stand in the kitchen. I never knew when I might want to note down an idea, and I was always in the kitchen in those days.”

Immediately I can picture her, hair wild, blue housecoat covered in flour, a wooden spoon in one hand, the pencil in the other, her mouth moving silently. My mother smiles and says, “One day I was cooking and watching baby Pauline, and I had a brilliant thought, but the stand was empty. One of the children must have taken the paper. So I just picked up the breadboard and wrote it all down on the back. It turned out to be a real breakthrough for solving the mathematical problem I was working on.”

This story—which happened before I was born—reminds me how extraordinary my mother was, and is, as a gifted mathematician. I feel embarrassed that I complain about not having enough child-free time to work. Later, when my mother is in the bathroom, I go into her kitchen and turn over the breadboards. Sure enough, on the back of the smallest one, are some penciled marks I recognize as mathematics. Those symbols have travelled unaffected through fifty years, rooted in the soil of a cheap wooden breadboard, invisible (看不到的) exhibits at every meal.

1.Why has the author’s mother always kept the notepad and pencil in the kitchen?

A.To leave messages.

B.To list her everyday tasks.

C.To note down maths problems.

D.To write down a flash of inspiration.

2.What is the author’s original opinion about the wooden stand?

A.It has great value for the family.

B.It needs to be replaced by a better one.

C.It brings her back to her lonely childhood.

D.It should be passed on to the next generation.

3.The author feels embarrassed for             .

A.blaming her mother wrongly

B.giving her mother a lot of trouble

C.not making good use of time as her mother did

D.not making any breakthrough in her field

4.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A.The mother is successful in her career.

B.The family members like travelling.

C.The author had little time to play when young.

D.The marks on the breadboard have disappeared.

5.In the author’s mind, her mother is             .

A.strange in behaviour

B.keen on her research

C.fond of collecting old things

D.careless about her appearance

 

In the kitchen of my mother's houses there has always been a wooden stand with a small notepad and a hole for a pencil.

I'm looking for paper on which to note down the name of a book I am recommending to my mother. Over forty years since my earliest memories of the kitchen pad and pencil, five houses later, the current paper and pencil look the same as they always did. Surely it can't be the same pencil. The pad is more modern, but the wooden stand is definitely the original one.

"I'm just amazed you still have the same stand for holding the pad and pencil after all these years." I say to her, walking back into the living-room with a sheet of paper and the pencil. "You still use a pencil. Can't you afford a pen?"

My mother replies a little sharply. "It works perfectly well; I've always kept the stand in the kitchen. I never knew when I might want to note down an idea, and I was always in the kitchen in these days. "

Immediately I can picture her, hair wild, blue housecoat covered in flour, a wooden spoon in one hand, the pencil in the other, her mouth moving silently. My mother smiles and says, "One day I was cooking and watching baby Pauline, and I had a brilliant thought, but the stand was empty. One of the children must have taken the paper. So I just picked up the breadboard and wrote it all down on the back. It turned out to be a real breakthrough for solving the mathematical problem I was working on."

This story, which happened before I was born, reminds me how extraordinary my mother was, and is also a gifted mathematician. I feel embarrassed that I complain about not having enough child-free time to work. Later, when my mother is in the bathroom, I go into her kitchen and turn over the breadboards. Sure enough, on the back of the smallest one, are some penciled marks I recognize as mathematics. Those symbols have traveled unaffected through fifty years, rooted in the soil of a cheap wooden breadboard, invisible exhibits at every meal.

1.Why has the author's mother always kept the notepad and pencil in the kitchen?

A.To leave messages.

B.To list her everyday tasks.

C.To note down math problems.

D.To write down a flash of inspiration.

2.What is the author's original opinion about the wooden stand?

A.It has great value for the family.

B.It needs to be replaced.

C.It brings her back to her lonely childhood.

D.It should be passed on to the next generation.

3.The author feels embarrassed for____________.

A.blaming her mother wrongly

B.giving her mother a lot of trouble

C.not making good use of time as her mother did

D.not making any breakthrough in her field

4.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A.The mother is successful in her career.

B.The family members like traveling.

C.The author had little time to play when young.

D.The marks on the breadboard have disappeared.

 

“Mom, can I bake some bread?” We were 15, my best friend, Hanna, and I, determined to try our hands at creating some beautiful bread.

“It’s not worth the trouble,” my mother said. “It takes lots of time and makes a big mess. Our bakery bread is delicious without all that effort.”

Begging was useless. Mom’s “no” meant “No!”

But several weeks later, opportunity knocked: My parents were going out for the evening. I immediately invited Hanna to be my partner in bread-baking crime.

We studied the recipe. That was easy. “Mix oil into flour then beat in four of the eggs, one at a time, with remaining sugar and salt.”

We were not good at breaking eggs. I tried to learn from my mother.

“Gradually add eight cups of flour. When dough (面团) holds together, squeeze it.”

We took turns working like that. “Is the dough ‘holding together’?” we asked each other.

I remembered my neighbor’s instructions: “If it’s too sticky, add some flour; if too dry, add water.”

We added water. Then more flour. Then more water. By then, the mass of our dough had grown very much.

“Place dough on floured surface and squeeze till smooth,” the recipe instructed.

We took turns burying our hands in the damp dough, pinching, squeezing, and feeling it leak between fingers.

“Clean and oil bowl, then return dough to bowl. Cover and let dough rise in warm place for 1 hour.”

This was good news --- we’d have a break. On dirtied kitchen chairs, we dreamed about our beautiful bread. “See?” we would tell my mom. “Isn’t it worth the work?”

Hanna and I couldn’t help glancing at the rising process every few minutes. But nothing was happening.

“Maybe something will happen in the hot oven,” I said.

Unfortunately, when we removed the loaves from the oven, they were like hard stones.

Mom was right; it takes time and effort. It sometimes makes a mess. But still it feels good, somehow, to be part of that long, ongoing chain of bread bakers. Since that night, both Hanna and I have learned to do it right.

1.To the writer, what her mother said was __________.

A.law

B.rubbish

C.advice

D.warning

2.Which of the following can best describe the children’s feelings while making their first bread?

A.Confident; hopeful; disappointed.

B.Curious; hopeful; disappointed.

C.Interested; excited; satisfied.

D.Worried; satisfied; proud.

3.Which of the following did the writer do without instructions?

A.Placed dough on floured surface.

B.Added eight cups of flour to eggs.

C.Returned dough to a cleaned bowl.

D.Placed the dough into the hot oven.

4.The passage mainly tells us ______________.

A.the process of making bread

B.the conflict between mother and daughter

C.the first experience of making bread

D.the way of doing housework

 

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