“Soon, you’re going to have to move out!” cried my neighbor upon seeing the largest tomato plant known to mankind, or at least known in my neighborhooD.

One tiny 9-inch plant, bought for $1.25 in the spring, has already taken over much of my rose bed, covering much of other plants, and is well on its way to the front door.

Roses require a good deal of care, and if it weren’t for the pleasure they give, it wouldn’t be worth the work.As it is, I have a garden full of sweet-smelling roses for most of the year.Bushes must be pruned(剪枝) in early spring, leaving ugly woody branches until the new growth appears a few weeks later.It was the space available in the garden that led me into planting just one little tomato plant.A big mistake.

Soil conditions made just perfect for roses turn out to be even more perfect for tomatoes.The daily watering coupled with full sun and regular fertilizing(施肥) have turned the little plant into a tall bush.The cage I placed around it as the plant grew has long since disappeared under the thick leaves.

Now the task I face in harvesting the fruit is two fold(方面):First, I have to find the red ones among the leaves, which means I almost have to stand on my head, and once found I have to reach down and under, pick the tomatoes and withdraw my full fist without dropping the prize so dearly won.Second, I found two full-blown white roses completely hidden as I picked tomatoes in June, but they were weak and the leaves already yellow for lack of light.

Here I am faced with a painful small decision: To tear up a wonderful and productive tomato plant that offers up between ten and twenty ripe sweet tomatoes each day or say goodbye to several expensive and treasured roses.Like Scarlett in Gone With the Wind, I’ll think about that tomorrow.

1.What are the requirements for the healthy growth of roses?

A. Frequent pruning and fertilizing

B. Tomato plants grown alongside

C. Cages placed around the roots

D. A lot of care and the right soil

2.The writer planted the tomato because_______.

A. there was room for it in the garden

B. it cost only $1.25

C. the soil was just right for it

D. the roses’ branches needed to be covered

3.This year the writer’s roses were _______.

A. removed from the rose bed

B. picked along with the tomatoes

C. largely hidden under the tomato plant

D. mostly damaged by too much sunlight

4.By saying “the prize so dearly won” in paragraph 5, the writer wants to_______.

A. show the hardship of growing the roses

B. show the difficulty in picking the tomatoes

C. express her liking for the roses

D. express her care for the tomatoes

My heart sank when the man at the immigration counter gestured to the back room. I was born and raised in America, and this was Miami, where I live, but they weren’t quite ready to let me in yet.

“Please wait in here, Ms Abujaber,” the immigration officer said. My husband, with his very American last name, accompanied me. He was getting used to this. The same thing had happened recently in Canada when I’d flown to Montreal to speak at a book event. That time they held me for 45 minutes. Today we were returning from a literary festival in Jamaica, and I was startled that I was being sent “in back” once again.

The officer behind the counter called me up and said, “Miss, your name looks like the name of someone who’s on our wanted list. We’re going to have to check you out with Washington.”

“How long will it take?”

“Hard to say ... a few minutes,” he said. “We’ll call you when we’re ready for you.” After an hour, Washington still hadn’t decided anything about me. “Isn’t this computerized?”

I asked at the counter. “Can’t you just look me up?”

Just a few more minutes, they assured me.

After an hour and a half, I pulled my cell phone out to call the friends I was supposed to meet that evening. An officer rushed over. “No phones!” he said. “For all we know you could be calling a terrorist cell and giving them information.”

“I’m just a university professor,” I said. My voice came out in a squeak.

“Of course you are. And we take people like you out of here in leg irons every day.”

I put my phone away.

My husband and I were getting hungry and tired. Whole families had been brought into the waiting room, and the place was packed with excitable children, exhausted parents, even a flight attendant.

I wanted to scream, to jump on a chair and shout: “I’m an American citizen; a novelist; I probably teach English literature to your children.” Or would that all be counted against me?

After two hours in detention, I was approached by one of the officers. “You’re free to go,” he said. No explanation or apologies. For a moment, neither of us moved, we were still in shock.

Then we leaped to our feet.

“Oh, one more thing.” He handed me a tattered photocopy with an address on it. “If you weren’t happy with your treatment, you can write to this agency.”

“Will they respond?” I asked.

“I don’t know --- I don’t know of anyone who’s ever written to them before.” Then he added, “By the way, this will probably keep happening each time you travel internationally.”

“What can I do to keep it from happening again?”

He smiled the empty smile we’d seen all day. “Absolutely nothing.”

After telling several friends about our ordeal, probably the most frequent advice I’ve heard in response is to change my name. Twenty years ago, my own graduate school writing professor advised me to write under a pen name so that publishers wouldn’t stick me in what he called “the ethnic ghetto” --- a separate, secondary shelf in the bookstore. But a name is an integral part of anyone’s personal and professional identity -just like the town you’re born in and the place where you’re raised.

Like my father, I’ll keep the name, but my airport experience has given me a whole new perspective on what diversity and tolerance are supposed to mean. I had no idea that being an American would ever be this hard.

1.The author was held at the airport because __________.

A. she and her husband returned from Jamaica.

B. her name was similar to a terrorist’s.

C. she had been held in Montreal.

D. she had spoken at a book event.

2.We learn from the passage that the author would __________ to prevent similar experience from happening again.

A. write to the agency B. change her name

C. avoid traveling abroad D. do nothing

3.Her experiences indicate that there still exists __________ in the US.

A. hatred B. discrimination

C. tolerance D. diversity

4.The author sounds __________ in the last paragraph.

A. impatient B. bitter C. worried D. ironic

请认真阅读下面短文,从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中,选出最佳选项,并在答题纸(卡)上将该项涂黑。

My wife and I have been together 17 years and have always had animals, but when we moved to Abu Dhabi we decided not to have pets. We thought we could ________for it by volunteering for a couple of rescue organizations here in the Middle East. Then Rusty’s sad little face appeared on the ________lists and we both just gave in. He was ours ________ we even met him. We just knew it.

Rusty was a year old when he came to us. He was extremely ________and blind in one eye with missing teeth from a violent ________ he had encountered (遇到) some time in his short life. He was also ________ to straighten his back legs fully, probably from being ________ in a cage far too small for him.

I sat on the floor of the foster carer’s lounge and Rusty came right up to me and ________ down with his head on my knee. It was a(n) ________ moment. His carer had not seen him ________ someone so completely before. We fell in love with him, took him home and set about ________ him into a happier animal.

The first thing we had to do was ________ out what scared him. The answer was simple enough: ________ scared him. I think he was so ________ to bad things happening to him he just figured he lived in a world where only bad things happened.

One of the things that really scared him was ________ , so I began making him less sensitive by giving him a stomach rub with my foot every time I passed. It took a while, ________ he soon came to realize that he would never be ________ again and took to rolling onto his back and wagging his tail to let me know that he was up for a rub. If I didn’t, he would ________ me to my writing desk and crawl under it, gently touching and pushing me to get my attention at my foot until he got what he wanted!

Treating animals with dignity brings back memories of the best part of human ________ . Every time I interact with Rusty and our other rescued pets. I am________ that they have nothing to offer but love and trust. There is no

1.A. make B. compensate C. go D. prepare

2.A. waiting B. shopping C. danger D. adoption

3.A. until B. after C. before D. unless

4.A. tired B. thirsty C. hungry D. thin

5.A. feeling B. beating C. incident D. crime

6.A. eager B. unwilling C. unable D. ready

7.A. kept B. wrapped C. transformed D. spun

8.A. put B. knocked C. lay D. laid

9.A. physical B. mental C. intellectual D. emotional

10.A. believe B. trust C. envy D. adore

11.A. turning B. making C. putting D. translating

12.A. work B. bring C. carry D. rule

13.A. nothing B. something C. anything D. everything

14.A. opposed B. attached C. accustomed D. suited

15.A. legs B. feet C. ears D. eyes

16.A. but B. so C. and D. or

17.A. walked B. kicked C. abandoned D. overlooked

18.A. follow B. guide C. take D. direct

19.A. interest B. nature C. behavior D. welfare

20.A. warned B. informed C. reminded D. persuaded

Many people believe Henry Ford invented the automobile (汽车). But Henry Ford did not start to build his first car until 1896. That was eleven years after two Germans developed the world's first automobile. Many people believe Henry Ford invented the production line that moved a car's parts to the worker, instead of making the worker move to the parts. That is not true, either. Many factory owners used methods of this kind before Ford. What Henry Ford did was to use other people's ideas and make them better. And he made the whole factory a moving production line.

In the early days of the automobile, almost every car maker raced his cars. It was the best way of gaining public notice. Henry Ford decided to build a racing car. Ford's most famous race was his first one. It was also the last race in which he drove the car himself.

The race was in 1901, at a field near Detroit. All of the most famous cars had entered, but only two were left: the Winton and Ford's. The Winton was famous for its speed. Most people thought the race was over before it began.

The Winton took an early lead. But halfway through the race, it began to lose power. Ford started to gain. And near the end of the race, he took the lead. Ford won the race and defeated the Winton. His name appeared in newspapers and he became well-known all over the United States. Within weeks of the race, Henry Ford formed a new automobile company. In 1903, a doctor in Detroit bought the first car from the company. That sale was the beginning of Henry Ford's dream. Ford said: "I will build a motor car for the great mass of people. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for one person to operate and care for. It will be built of the best materials. It will be built by the best men to be employed. And it will be built with the simplest plans that modern engineering can produce. It will be so low in price that no man making good money will be unable to own one."

The Model T was a car of that kind. It only cost $850. It was a simple machine that drivers could depend on. Doctors bought the Model T. So did farmers. Even criminals. They considered it the fastest and surest form of transportation. Americans loved the Model T. They wrote stories and songs about it. Thousands of Model T's were built in the first few years.

1.What do we know about Henry Ford from Paragraph 1?

A. He made good use of ideas from others.

B. He produced the first car in the world.

C. He knew how to improve auto parts.

D. He invented the production line.

2.Why did Henry Ford take part in the 1901 car race?

A. To show off his driving skills.

B. To draw public attention.

C. To learn about new technology.

D. To raise money for his new company.

3.“That sale” in Paragraph 4 refers to .

A. the selling of Ford cars at reduced prices

B. the sale of Model T to the mass of people

C. he selling of a car to a Detroit doctor

D. the sales target for the Ford Company

4.What was Henry Ford's dream according to the text?

A. Producing cars for average customers.

B. Building racing cars of simple design.

C. Designing more car models.

D. Starting more companies.

She may have lacked a home, but now this teen has top honors.

A 17-year-old student who spent much of high school living around homeless shelters — and sometimes sleeping in her car — today graduated and spoke on behalf of her class at Charles Drew High School in Clayton County, Ga., just outside of Atlanta.

Chelsea Fearce held a 4.466 GPA and scored 1900 on her SATs despite having to use her cellphone to study after the shelter lights were turned off at night.

“I know I have been made stronger.I was homeless.My family slept on cushions on the floor and we were lucky if we got more than one full meal a day.Getting a shower, food and clean clothes was an everyday struggle,” Fearce said in a speech she gave at her graduation ceremony.Fearce overcame her day-to-day struggles by focusing on a better day.“I just told myself to keep working, because the future will not be like this anymore,” she told WSBTV.

Fearce, one of five children, grow up in a family that sometimes had an apartment to live in, but at other times had to live in homeless shelters or even out of their car, if they had one.“You’re worried about your home life and then worried at school.Worry about being a little hungry sometimes and go hungry sometimes.You just have to deal with it.You eat what you can, when you can.”

To our surprise, Fearce overcame the difficulties and even tested high enough to be admitted into college half way through her high school career.She starts college next year at Spelman College as a junior where she is planning to study biology, pre-med (医学预科).“Don’t give up.Do what you have to do right now so that you can have the future that you want,” Fearce said.

1.How did Fearce go on with her study without access to lights?

A. By the car light.

B. By her cellphone.

C. By lights out of shelters.

D. By moonlight.

2.When Fearce starts college at Spelman College, she will _____..

A. have graduated earlier from high school than normal

B. be a 17-year-old student from a poor family

C. have a home without sleeping in her car or shelters

D. have raised enough money to go to college

3.What lesson can we learn from Fearce’s experience?

A. Knowledge can change your fate.

B. Don’t give up, and tomorrow will be better.

C. Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well.

D. He that will not work shall not eat.

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