Last week, Richard's wife Leila had an accident. Richard's youngest child, John, was at home when it
happened. He was playing with his new toy car. Richard had given it to him a week before, for his third
birthday.
    Suddenly John heard his mother calling "Help! Help!" He ran to the kitchen. His mother had burned herself
with some hot cooking oil (油). She was crying and the pan (锅) was on fire.
     Richard had gone to his office. Both the other children had gone to school. John was too small to help his
mother. __________. She soon put out the fire and took Leila to the hospital. When Richard came, Leila told
him what had happened. He was very proud of his son. "When you are a man, you will be just like your father,"
he said.

1. How old was John in this story?

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

2. How many people were there in their family?

A. Three.
B. Five.
C. Six.
D. Seven.

3. Choose the right sentence to fill the blank (空白处) in the passage.

A. The whole kitchen was on fire
B. But John telephoned his father
C. John stood there not knowing what to do but crying
D. But he ran to the neighbour's house and asked her for help

4. Which is the right order (顺序) according to the passage?
a. Leila had an accident.
b. John got his present, a new toy car.
c. Richard was very proud of his youngest son.
d. John heard his mother calling "Help! Help!"

A. a-b-c-d
B. b-a-d-c
C. c-a-b-d
D. c-b-a-d

5. What's the best title of this passage?

A. A son to be proud of
B. A little boy and his mother
C. An accident
D. A proud father

        I've refused to allow my step son Jim to go to university because it will be too expensive and a waste
of time. People think I'm selfish or not kind-hearted. But I don't feel sorry for that, and I think more parents
will be coming around to my way of thinking. Britain's universities are failing to serve either the country or
our children. It's about time we voted (投票) with our feet.
        I can't remember when I began to change my mind on education. Like a lot of middle-class parents,
we had believed that going to university was what your children did. It's one of the reasons (理由) we offered
more than $ 100,000 in fees (学费) for Jim to go to a private (私立) school rather than a free public one.
Education is more important than nice cars, new kitchens or skiing holidays.
        Jim is a young boy of whom any parent would be proud. He's clever and helpful; he's good at things like
hanging pictures and mending doors; he can get on well with other kids. But he's shown little interest in study.
        It's not Jim's intellect (智力) that's the problem-after he entered the school he was asked to sit an exam
but an in-built reluctance (勉强) to do any more work than necessary to get by. We've tried everything to make
him work harder. None of it has worked. For his final exams, Jim got a D and two Es. Even allowing for our
low expectations (期望), this came as a surprise to his mother and me.
         "Surely," I said to one of Jim's teachers, "the only subject Jim would get on with such poor grades would
be the kind of subject that wouldn't be worth doing anyway."
         "Not at all," the teacher answered, as if speaking to a dinosaur. He read out the names of a lot of univer-
sities I'd never heard of, saying they'd all be fit for Jim. 
         It was at this point I realized how far away I was from today's education. I knew that, since I was at
school in the early 1980s-when a student with such poor grades as Jim's would not have been allowed to go to
any university-the population in the UK going on to higher education has gone up from 14% to a surprising 44%.

1. The reason the writer won't let Jim go to university is that _________.

A. the family is too poor to send Jim there
B. there are few universities in the UK
C. Jim won't be allowed to go to university
D. it's a waste of time and money to do so

2. What's Jim's main problem?

3. What is the teacher's idea in the passage?

A. He thinks the writer should encourage Jim to go to university.
B. He is sure most universities will certainly refuse to take Jim.
C. He is sure Jim's father is too old to understand today's education.
D. He thinks education in the UK has changed a lot in the past years.

4. From the passage we can infer（推论）_________.

A. some people can't follow the steps of the country
B. many young people don't go to university in the UK
C. parents are usually strongly against higher education
D. education in the UK is becoming worse and worse

     It was a Sunday morning. Peter, a seven-year-old boy, watched TV in the room while his brother Bill did
his homework. Their father watered the flowers in the garden and their mother went out to do some shopping.
At ten the woman came back with a heavy basket. Peter ran up to her. He wanted to know what his mother
bought. He found a bag of oranges in it. He liked them very much and wanted to eat. His mother stopped him.
She gave five to each son and went to the kitchen (厨房). Peter ate his oranges soon but his brother was busy(忙) finishing his homework and didn't touch his. Suddenly (突然) the telephone rang and Bill ran to answer it.
Bill's friend asked him to play football with them. And when Bill talked with his friend, Peter took two of his
oranges away and ate them. Bill found it and called him out and beat (打) him behind the house. He didn't tell
his parents about it.
     The next morning Miss Ball taught her class subtraction (减法). Peter didn't hear what she said and couldn't
understand it. So he couldn't answer her questions. She began to give him an example, "If your brother has
five nuts and you take two from him, what will the result (结果) be?" "He'll beat me, madam," answered the
boy. All his classmates began to laugh.

1. How many people are there in Peter's family?

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

2. How many oranges did Peter eat?

A. Five.
B. Six.
C. Seven.
D. Ten.

3. Miss Ball was Peter's ________ teacher.

A. Chinese
B. maths
C. English
D. Physics

4. Why didn't Peter tell his parents that his brother beat him?

A. Because he knew he was wrong.
B. Because he was afraid of his brother.
C. Because his father didn't like him.
D. Because his mother let Bill to do so.

5. Peter couldn't answer the teacher's question because________.

A. he was stupid (蠢笨)
B. he didn't listen to the teacher carefully
C. he was weak (差) in maths
D. he pretended(假装) to be a fool (傻瓜)