1 

A Gold Cup for an Orange

There is a poor man. He has an orange tree. On the tree, there are many fine oranges. One of them is very, very big. It is as big as a football. Nobody sees so big an orange. The poor man is very happy. He takes it to the king(国王). The King is so pleased（高兴）that he gives the man a lot of money for it.

When a rich man hears of it, he says to himself, "It's only an orange. Why does the king give so much money for it? I'll take my gold cup to the king. He'll give me more money".

The next day when the king receives (收到) the gold cup, he says to the rich man, "what a beautiful cup! I'll show you something wonderful, please take this great orange away.

1.How many people are there in the story?

A. Four           B. Two                 C. Three            D. Five

2.The orange is__________

A. fine and big   B. fine and beautiful  C. good and fine    D. small

3.The rich man takes his gold cup to the king for_______________

A. the orange     B. the orange tree     C. a football       D. money

4.The orange is____________

A. a football        B. like a gold cup

C. like a football   D. like an egg

5.The king receives the orange and the gold cup ___________

A. on the same day   B. the next day

C. every day         D. on different days

When I was a teenager growing up in Russia, I wanted to leave school and have my own life. The only way I could do this was to work in the local brick factory in my town, or get married. I was nervous when I told my father I wanted to leave school. I thought he would say, " No! You are going to college. " He took me by surprise when he said, "OK. We'll go to the brick factory. "

Two days later, he took me to the factory. I had a very romantic idea of working in a factory. ' I had imagined everyone to be friends working together and having fun. I even imagined there would be music and singing. I guess I had watched too many movies as a teenager.

When we arrived at the factory gates, my father spoke to the guard and one minute later we were inside. My father said, "Take your time. Look around." I walked around the factory looking at the building, the workers, and listening to the noise. It was horrible. I ran back to my. father and said, "I want to go home. "

He asked me, "What do you think of the factory?"

"It's terrible," I replied.

"And marriage is even worse!" he said.

I went back to school the next day thinking about studying hard so I could get into a good college. I enjoyed studying English so I decided to major in languages at college. Thanks to my father and our trip to the brick factory, I now work at the United Nations and my father is very proud of me. I married a very good man and my life is much better than it would have been working in the factory!

1. The writer lived in_________ when she was a teenager.

A. Russia B. Japan C. China

2.At first she thought life in the factory would be _        _ than in school.

A. more careful B. more colorful C. more beautiful

3.When she told her father that she wanted to leave school, he expressed his disagreement________.

A. by doing nothing    B. in a special way C. by saying nothing

4. After they visited the factory, the girl________.

A. decided to work there        B. decided to get married        C. changed her mind

5.The underlined word "horrible" means "_     _" in Chinese.

A. 糟糕的    B. 紧张的    C. 浪漫的

One evening two young men were walking in the street together. They tried to find a chance to steal something. The clock struck twelve. Most of the people went to bed. Quickly they came to a house and it seemed that everyone in the house had fallen asleep. Standing at the front gate, one said in English to the other in a low voice, "You wait here. I'll go around to the back door and then get into the house. "Sud­denly out of the house ran a dog, barking at them. The two men were very frightened and ran away as fast as they could. Finally, they stopped at a lonely place. The man said breathlessly, "It's too bad. I hadn't expected(期望)that the dog could understand English. "

1.Why did the two men walk in the street one evening? Because.        .

A. they couldn’t fall asleep

B. they wanted to steal something

C. they would like to take a walk

D. they went to visit their friends

2."One said in English to the other in a low voice. "From the above sentence we know        .

A. he didn't know English

B. he liked speaking English quietly

C. he couldn't speak aloud

D. he was afraid of waking up others

3.The dog ran out of the house and barked at them only because.        .

A. it understood English            B. it knew them

C. it found someone outside         D. Both B and C

4.At last the two young men        .

A. stole nothing                B. stole something expensive

C. were bitten by the dog         D. were caught by the police

5.What did the owners do while the dog was barking?

A. They stopped it.             B. They got up quickly.

C. They shouted for help.         D. The story didn't tell us.

Once there was a parrot on sale in a pet store. It was a beautiful red and blue bird. It sat on a perch in the middle of the store, so that everyone could see it when they came in. The owner was very proud of it and asked a high price for it.

     One day a man went into the store. "That's a beautiful bird,"he said to the pet store owner, "But why is it so expensive? Is it unsual bird?"

     "No, it's not very unusual. It's expensive because it can talk," the pet store owner said.

     "I see. How can I make it talk?" the man asked.

     The pet store owner asked him, "Do you see those string tied to each of the bird's legs?"

     "Yes," the man answered.

     "Well, you pull those strings," the pet store owner told him."That will make the parrot talk."

     The man asked,"Do you mind if I try?"

     "Not at all," the pet store owner said.

     The man walked up to the parrot and pulled the string on its left leg. The parrot said, "Good morning."

     The man pulled the string on the parrot's right leg. This time the parrot said, "How are you today?"

      "That's not very interesting, " said the man. "Any parrot could do that." Then he laughed, "But what wold happen if I pulled both strings at the same time?"

     "I'll fall off my perch, you fool!" the parrot said.

1.The parrot was expensive because________.

A.it was pretty beautiful

B.it could talk with the people

C.it was a very unusual bird

D.it was in the middle of the store

2.The parrot would talk when _________.

A.people came into the pet store

B.it was the pet store owner

C.people said it was beautiful

D.people pulled the strings on its legs

3.Which is the first sentences that the parrot said to the man?

A.Good morning.

B.How are you?

C.That's wasn't interesting.

D.I'll fall off my perch, you fool.

4.From the story we know the parrot was_______.

A.kind     B.silly    C.clever    D.crazy

5.The best title for the passage should be _________.

A.Unusual Parrot     B.Parrot Talk      C.Silly man    D.Clever Owner

Kelly Christopher, a student at Lutheran High School in California, US, loves oranges. One day last week, she used a pole(竿子) to pick oranges off trees and collect them in baskets. It's the first time in her 15 years she's picked fruit from trees.

 "This is quite different from buying oranges in the supermarket," said Christopher. "Every time I eat an orange, I'll remember this experience."

Christopher was one of the 30 student volunteers at Soil Born Farms. She volunteered as part of a project which was set up in 2009 to help homeowners in South Land Park pick oranges and other fruits out of their backyards. Before, the fruit would rot on the ground or get eaten by animals. Now the fruit is donated to those who need it.

"It is good for many people", said Randy Stannard, who works for the project. "The homeowner gets fruit picked and more people can have healthy food."

"Two harvests (收成 ) were organized in 2009 and volunteers picked 3,000 pounds (1,360kg) of fruit", Stannard said. In 2010, the number was 20,000. This year, Soil Born Farms hopes to get 40,000 pounds. They will harvest every weekend from January to April.

Shannon Galloway, Christopher's science teacher, brought her students into the project this year.

"You're making use of a resource that might be wasted," she said. "I think it's meaningful to everyone."

Donato Frazier, 15, always climbs up a ladder(梯子) and gets on the top of the tree.

"Standing on the treetop is pretty cool," Frazier said. "I can see clearly that many baskets are filled up, and even see that many people are eating healthy fruit because of our volunteer work."                                          

1.Christopher and other students went to pick fruits from real trees because they wanted to _____.

A. have some fresh fruit for themselves

B. make some money by selling fruit

C. provide people with more healthy fruit

D. buy some cheap fruit from their neighbors

2.When was the project set up?

A. In 2008.             B. In 2009.     C. In 2010.     D. In 2011.

3.What will happen to the fruit if they don’t help the homeowners pick it?

A. The fruit will rot or be eaten by small animals.

B. People who need the fruit will come to pick it.

C. The fruit will be used as a resource for research.

D. Homeowners will pick the fruit and sell it.

4.What does the underlined word resource mean?

A. 资源             B. 调查         C. 对策         D.  娱乐

5.How do the students feel about their work?

A. It’s interesting and easy.

B. It’s meaningless and hard.

C. It’s meaningful and exciting.

D. It’s tiring and boring.