The drug store was closing for the night and Alfred Higgins was about to go home when his new boss approached him.

“Empty your pockets please, Alfred,” Sam Carr demanded in a firm voice.

Alfred pretended to be shocked but he knew he’d been caught. From his coat he withdrew a make-up kit, a lipstick and two tubes of toothpaste.

“I’m disappointed in you, Alfred!” said the little gray-haired man.

“Sorry, sir. Please forgive me. It’s the first time I’ve ever done such a thing,” Alfred lied, hoping to gain the old man’s sympathy.

Mr Carr’s brow furrowed as he reached for the phone, “Do you take me for a fool? Let’s see what the police have to say. But first I’ll call your mother and let her know her son is heading to jail.”

“Do whatever you want,” Alfred shot back, trying to sound big. But deep down he felt like a child. He imagined his mother rushing in, eyes burning with anger, maybe in tears. Yet he wanted her to come quickly before Mr. Carr called the police.

Mr. Carr was surprised when Mrs Higgins finally arrived. She was very calm, quiet and friendly. “Is Alfred in trouble?” she asked.

“He’s been stealing from the store,” the old man coolly replied.

Mrs. Higgins put out her hand and touched Mr. Carr’s arm with great gentleness as if she knew just how he felt. She spoke as if she did not want to cause him any more trouble. “What do you want to do, Mr. Carr?”

The woman’s calm and gentle manner disarmed the once-angry store-owner. “I was going to get a cop. But I don’t want to be cruel. Tell your son not to come back here again, and I’ll let it go.” Then he warmly shook Mrs. Higgins’s hand.

Mrs. Higgins thanked the old man for his kindness, then mother and son left. They walked along the street in silence. When they arrived home his mother simply said, “Go to bed, you fool.”

In his bedroom, Alfred heard his mother in the kitchen. He felt no shame, only pride in his mother’s actions. “She was smooth!” he thought. He went to the kitchen to tell her how great she was, but was shocked by what he saw.

His mother’s face looked frightened, broken. Not the cool, bright face he saw earlier. Her lips moved nervously. She looked very old. There were tears in her eyes.

This picture of his mother made him want to cry. He felt his youth ending. He saw all the troubles he brought her and the deep lines of worry in her grey face. It seemed to him that this was the first time he had ever really seen his mother.

57.. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. It was the first time Alfred had stolen anything.

B. Alfred tried to sound big to hide his fear.

C. Mr. Carr set a trap to catch Alfred stealing.

D. Mr. Carr had planned to forgive Alfred from the beginning.

58. What does the underlined word “disarmed” probably mean?

A. annoyed           B. made less angry

C. convinced         D. got over

59. What was the mother’s attitude toward Alfred?

A. She felt disappointed with him.

B. She was very strict with him.

C. She was supportive of him.

D. She was afraid of him.

60. What impressed Alfred most about his mother at the drugstore was ________.

A. how angry she was

B. that she didn’t cry

C. that she was able to save him

D. how effectively she handled Mr. Carr

In many cultures white is often associated with something positive. A white-collar job, for instance, is the kind of job many people look for, working with your brain and not your hands.

White has a clean and pure image. That is why doctors, dentists, and nurses usually wear white uniforms. Babies are dressed in white at baptisms(洗礼)and brides wear white wedding gowns at weddings. White in these cases is the symbol of innocence or purity.

Sometimes white is used in expressions that are not good. “Whitewash” is one such expression. At first, “whitewash” meant to paint over something with white paint to make it look better. However, it means something different today: to hide or to cover up mistakes or failures.

A “white elephant” is another example of white used in a negative way. In ancient Thailand, a white elephant was regarded as a sacred animal, but it was very expensive to keep. The kings of those days presented a white elephant to the people they wanted to ruin. Once they received this holy, royal animal as a gift, they were not allowed to sell or kill it. Today, a “white elephant” means something that is big, useless, and unwanted. In America, when people want to get rid of their furniture or clothes, they often have a “white elephant sale”.

53. The text is mainly about________.

  A. the meanings of white in English culture 

  B. the history of some English idioms

  C. some interesting customs in English culture

  D. some useful English words and expressions

54. In which statement does “white” have a negative meaning?

  A. A boy is dressed in white at baptisms.  

  B. A bride wears a white wedding gown.

  C. A man whitewashes his crime.    

  D. A girl finds a white collar job.

55. From the text we can learn that _______.

  A. a white-elephant sale is useful to the poor  

  B. the white color is important in our daily life

  C. a white-collar job used to be easy to get

  D. expressions with white have different meanings

56. The author develops the text mainly by ______.

A. analyzing its cause and effect

B. providing typical examples

C. comparing different ideas

D. following the time order    

Easter (复活节) is still a great day for worship, candy in baskets and running around the yard finding eggs, but every year it gets quite a bit worse for bunnies.

    And no, not because the kids like to pull their ears. The culprit is climate change, and some researchers found that rising temperatures are having harmful effects on at least five species of rabbit in the US,

   Take the Lower Keys Marsh rabbit, for instance. An endangered species that lives in the Lower Florida Keys, this species of cottontail is a great swimmer -- it lives on the islands! -- but it is already severely affected by development and now by rising sea levels. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, an ocean level rise of only 0.6 meters will send these guys jumping to higher ground and a 0.9-meter rise would wipe out their habitat (栖息地) completely.

   The snowshoe hare, on the other hand, has a color issue. Most of these rabbits change their fur color from white in the wintertime to brown in the summer, each designed to give them better cover from predators (捕食者) . As the number of days with snow decreases all across the country, however, more and more bunnies are being left in white fur during brown dirt days of both fall and spring, making them an easier mark for predators. Researchers know that the color change is controlled by the number of hours of sunlight, but whether the rabbit will be able to adapt quick enough to survive is a big question. The National Wildlife Federation has reported that hunters have noticed their numbers are already markedly down.

    American pikas or rock rabbits, a relative of rabbits and hares, might be the first of these species to go extinct due to climate change. About 7-8 inches long, pikas live high in the cool, damp mountains west of the Rocky Mountains. As global temperatures rise, they would naturally migrate (迁移) to higher ground -- but they already occupy the mountaintops. They can’t go any higher. The National Wildlife Federation reports that they might not be able to stand the new temperatures as their habitat heats up.

The volcano rabbit has the same problem. These rabbits live on the slopes of volcanoes in Mexico, and recent studies have shown that the lower range of their habitat has already shifted upward about 700 meters, but there are not suitable plants for them to move higher, so they are stuck in the middle. Scientists are concerned about their populations.

    Native to the US, pygmy rabbits weigh less than 1 pound and live in the American West. They are believed to be the smallest rabbits in the world. Their habitats have been destroyed by development. Several populations, such as the Columbia Basin pygmy, almost went extinct and were saved by zoo breeding programs. Pygmy rabbits also rely on winter cover by digging tunnels through the snow to escape predators, but lesser snowfall is leaving them exposed.

   All of this gives new meaning to dressing up in a giant bunny costume this Easter.

49. The word “culprit”  (Paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to_________

   A. criminal     B. judge     C. victim    D. producer                                                                                                           50. According to the passage, some rabbits can now be easily discovered by predators    because they_______

  A. are exposed to more skillful hunters

  B. have moved to habitats with fewer plants

  C. haven’t adapted themselves to climate change

  D. can’t change their fur color into white in the fall and the spring

51. The problem faced by volcano rabbits and rock rabbits is that

  A. both are affected by less snow        B. both are affected by rising sea levels

  C. neither can find enough food         D. neither can migrate to higher places

52. Which best describes the writer’s tone in the passage?

  A. Approving.        B. Concerned.        C. Enthusiastic.     D. Doubtful.

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