Jack was born in a poor family. His father had a small boat and went fishing in the morning and sold the fish in the market in the afternoon. Then he bought some food for his family. When winter came, they were often hungry. One morning the hungry man fell into the river and nobody found him. Jack's mother left her three-year-old son without saying goodbye. His aunt had to look after him.

Twenty years passed. Jack became a tall, strong man. He worked on a farm. He worked hard and wanted to get more money to marry (结婚). He often went to see his aunt with some nice presents. The woman was very happy. But one day she died (死) in a traffic accident (交通事故). The young man was very sad. After he buried (埋葬) her, he decided to buy a beautiful tombstone (墓碑) for her. He went to the town and came into a shop, but all the tombstones were too expensive. He asked, "Do you sell an old tombstone, sir?"

"Yes, we do, sir," answered the shopkeeper.

"Is it as expensive as the new one?"

"No, it is much cheaper," said the man. "But another name was engraved (刻) on it."

"It doesn't matter," said the man. "My aunt could not read."

1.Jack's father is a     .

2.As          , the family were hungry.

3.Jack's mother       when Jack was three years old.

4.Jack wanted to get more money to     .

5.Jack wanted to buy an old tombstone because     .

—Who broke the window?   — ______. A strong wind broke it last night.

    A. Somebody         B. Anybody          C. Nobody       D. Everybody

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 people went to bed. Quietly they came to a house. There were no lights in the house and it seemed that everyone in the house had fallen asleep. Standing at the front door gate, one said in English in a low voice, “You wait here. I’ll go round 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. They dare not stop until they got into a lonely place. The man said: “It’s too bad. I hadn’t expected that the dog could understand English.”

1.The two young men were ________.

A. workers     B. doctors      C. thieves

2.There were no lights in the house because _______.

A. the people in the house had been out

B. nobody lived there.

C. It seemed that everyone was asleep.

3.“One said in English to the other in a low voice.” Here means _______.

A. he knew English

B. he didn’t want to let anyone else understand what they would say

C. both A and B

4.“Did the dog understand English really?” _______.

A. Yes, it did.   B. No, it didn’t.   C. No, but it wanted to understand.

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

A. it understood English    B. it heard them talking    C. the two men frightened it

Nobody        what his name is.

One morning, a blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet .He held a sign which said,“I am blind. Please help me.”

There were only a few coins（硬币） in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat .He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and ask,“Are you the one who changed my sign in the morning? What did you write?”

The man said,“I only wrote the truth. I said what you said, but in a different way.”

What he had written was,“Today is a beautiful day, but I can’t see it.”

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

The first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

There are at least two lessons we can learn from this simple story.

The first is: Treasure(珍惜)what you have. Someone else has less. Try your best to help those who need your help.

The second is: Be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way.

1. From the passage we know that______.

A. the boy is the man’s son.                B. the man is one of his neighbors.

C. the boy is blind and needs help.        D. the boy works for the man.

2. On the sign what the man wrote was,“_______.”

A. Treasure what we have already had.     

B. Today is a beautiful day, but I can’t see it.

C. We are so lucky that we are not blind.  

D. Try your best to help those who need your help.

3.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A .The hat began to fill up after the man wrote some words on the sign.

B. The man took away all the few coins from the hat.

C. The boy wanted to get enough money to go to school.

D. Nobody wanted to give any coins to the blind boy.

4.The word“recognized”here in Chinese means______.

A.承认                                    B.接受           

C.表扬                                    D.认出

5.“____”is the best title for this story.

A. Be careful.                           

B. Be creative. There is always a better way!

C. Be kind to the blind!             

D. Do not always get, but offer!