Hans was an honest fellow with a funny round good-humored face. Living alone, every day he worked in his garden. In all the countryside there was no garden so lovely as his. All sorts of flowers grew there, blooming in their proper order as the months went by, one flower taking another flower’s place, so that there were always beautiful things to see, and pleasant odors to smell.

Hans had many friends, the most devoted being the Miller. So devoted was the rich Miller to Hans that he’d never go by his garden without plucking a large bunch of flowers or a handful of sweet herbs, or filling his pockets with fruits. The Miller used to talk about noble ideas, and Hans nodded and smiled, feeling proud of having such a friend.

The neighbors thought it strange that the rich Miller never gave Hans anything in return, though he had hundreds of sacks of flour, many cows and sheep, but Hans never troubled his head about these, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to listen to all the wonderful things about the unselfishness of true friendship.

In spring, summer, and autumn Hans was very happy, but when winter came, and he had no fruit or flowers to sell, he suffered from cold and hunger. Though extremely lonely, the Miller never came to see him then.

“There’s no good in going to see Hans while the snow lasts.” The Miller said to his wife, “When people are in trouble they shouldn’t be bothered. So I’ll wait till the spring comes when he’s happy to give me flowers.”

“You’re certainly very thoughtful,” answered his wife, “It’s quite a treat to hear you talk about friendship.”

“Couldn’t we ask Hans up here?” said their son. “I’ll give him half my meal, and show him my white rabbits.”

“How silly you are!” cried the Miller. “I really don’t know what’s the use of sending you to school. If Hans came up here, and saw our warm fire, our good supper, and our red wine, he might get envious, and envy is a most terrible thing, and would spoil anybody’s nature. I am his best friend, and I’ll always watch over him, and see that he’s not led into any temptation. Besides, if Hans came here, he might ask me for some flour. Flour is one thing, and friendship is another, and they shouldn’t be confused. The words are spelt differently, and mean quite different things. Everybody can see that.” He looked seriously at his son, who felt so ashamed that he hung his head down, and grew quite scared, and began to cry into his tea.

Spring coming, the Miller went down to see Hans. Again he talked about friendship. “Hans, friendship never forgets. I’m afraid you don’t understand the poetry of life. See, how lovely your roses are!”

Hans said he wanted to sell them in the market to buy back his things which were sold during the hard time of the winter.

“I’ll give you many good things. I think being generous is the base of friendship.” said the Miller. “And now, as I’ll give you many good things, I’m sure you’d like to give me some flowers in return. Here’s the basket, and fill it quite full.”

Poor Hans was afraid to say anything. He ran and plucked all his pretty roses, and filled the Miller’s basket, imagining the many good things promised by the Miller.

The next day he heard the Miller calling: “Hans, would you mind carrying this sack of flour for me to market?”

“I’m sorry, but I am really very busy today.”

“Well,” said the Miller, “considering that I’m going to give you my things, it’s rather unfriendly of you to refuse. Upon my word, you mustn’t mind my speaking quite plainly to you.”

Poor Hans was driven by his friendship theory to work hard for his best friend, leaving his garden dry and wasted.  

One evening Hans was sitting by fire when the Miller came.

“Hans,” cried the Miller, “My little boy has fallen off a ladder and hurt himself, and I’m going for the Doctor. But he lives so far away, and it’s such a bad windy night. It has just occurred to me that you can go instead of me. You know I’m going to give you my good things, so you should do something for me in return.”

“Certainly,” cried Hans. He struggled into the stormy night, and got the doctor to ride a horse to the Miller’s house in time to save the boy. However, Hans got lost in the darkness, and wandered off into a deep pool, drowned.

At Hans’ funeral, the Miller said, “I was his best friend. I should walk at the head of the procession.” Every now and then he wiped his eyes with a handkerchief.

1.From the passage, we can learn that Hans ______.

A．was extremely wise and noble             B．admired the Miller very much

C．was highly valued by the Miller             D．had a strong desire for fortune

2.Hans worked a lot for the Miller because he ______.

A．was treated as a best friend by the Miller

B．owed the Miller many valuable things

C．was convinced of the Miller’s noble talk

D．intended to show off his unselfishness

3.What’s the main cause of Hans’ tragedy?

A．True friendship between them.             B．Blind devotion to a friend.

C．A sudden change of weather.              D．A lack of formal education.

4.The author described the Miller’s behavior in order to ______.

A．warn the readers about the danger of a false friend

B．show the friendship between Hans and the Miller

C．entertain the readers with an incredible joking tale

D．persuade people to be as intelligent as the Miller

To switch or not to switch, that is the question．Google’s announcement of its Nexus One smartphone（智能手机） happened over a week ago and I’m still receiving lots of e-mails from readers asking the same question: Should they give up their iPhone for the Nexus One?

Some people with iPhones, disappointed by American Telephone&Telegraph’s inadequate service and the high monthly cost, are wondering if they have really got something to replace it．Does the Nexus One offer the functions that Apple has led them to expect?

I’m on the fence myself, even though I never thought I’d be interested in anything but the iPhone．From my experience using the Nexus One, and from talking to people who have made the change, it’s not necessarily about the differences between the iPhone and the Nexus One．The phones are extremely similar in design and general feel．Instead, the decision can be made based on the software（软件） services you use on your desktop．

My friend Chad Dickerson received a pre-launch Nexus One from Google three weeks ago．He said Google’s phone feels connected to certain services on the Web in a way the iPhone doesn’t．“Compared to the iPhone, the Google phone feels like it’s part of the Internet to me,” he said．“If you live in a Google world, you have that world in your pocket in a way that’s cleaner and more connected than the iPhone．”

Personally, the phones work perfectly with their own software, but both of them don’t make an effort to play well with other services．

1.Why are some iPhone users expecting a new type of phone?

2.What’s the author’s attitude towards the new phones in the third paragraph?

3.In Chad Dickerson’s opinion, the Nexus One is ________ the iPhone．

4.The best title of the passage might be ________．

Victor’s hobby was collecting stamps. He had stamps from many countries, like England, Canada and China. On his birthday, can you guess what people gave him? That’s right---stamps.
Victor’s favourite stamps came from France. He had almost every stamp from 1954 to 2004. He only needed one. That was a 1974 special edition*. It was very hard to find.
He looked for it everywhere. He asked his friends and relatives to help him. But nobody could find the stamp. It made Victor very sad.
“Don’t worry. Never give up,” his father said to him. “If you have enough patience, you’ll find it one day.”
“I hope so,” Victor said.
Victor also liked writing. He had a penfriend in France. They wrote to each other every month. Victor’s penfriend, Phillip, usually used new stamps to send letters. Sometimes, his mother gave him stamps to use. Once Phillip’s mother gave him a big, green stamp. It looked old. When Victor received the letter, he was very surprised. On the envelope, he looked carefully at the stamp. It was the 1974 special edition stamp. Victor was so happy. He told his sister, his mother and his father.                                                   
“ You see,” his father said. “ You did find your stamp. So, it’s good to have two things in life.”
“What are they?” Victor asked.
“ Friends and patience.” He answered.
【小题1】It was very difficult for Victor to find a special French stamp of _________.

Down on the beach of Dover, 56-year-old Channel swimmer Jackie Cobell bravely set off for Calais. The time was 6:40 am. 28 hours and 44 minutes later the exhausted, successful mother from Kent crawled (爬行) to the shore and walked proudly into the record books. After five years in training, Mrs Cobell became the slowest person to cross the Channel under her own steam. The previous record for the slowest crossing, set by Henry Sullivan at 26 hours and 50 minutes, has stood for 87 years before Mrs Cobell started at Dover Saturday morning.
She had struggled through changing tides that swept her first one way, then the other. It turned the 21-mile crossing into a 65-mile one. She declared, “Time and tide wait for no man—and they certainly didn’t wait for me. I was fully expecting it to get dark before I got to Calais but I never imagined I’d also see the dawn again. But I wasn’t going to give up.”
Her feat(壮举) raised more than $2,000 in charity sponsorship for research into Huntingdon’s disease, a sum that was continuing to grow as news of her achievement spread. That was why she did it. “I don’t really know myself,” she said. “ I just kept thinking of all the people I’d be letting down if I stopped.”
Mrs Cobell took to the water so well at school. But after bringing up two daughters, she started to gain weight. Five years ago she took up swimming again and decided to prepare for the Channel challenge to lose weight. She became much fitter. Then came the big swim. “I practiced on Windermere lake,” she said. “it’s about half the distance of the Channel so I just doubled it, added some extra time, and worked out I could probably get to Calais in about 16 hours.”
Her husband David, trainer, official observer and friend sailed alongside her on a boat. She said, “I sang to keep myself going. When they told me I was a record breaker I thought they were just having a joke—until I realized it was the record for the slowest crossing. But maybe next time I might be a bit quicker.”
【小题1】According to Paragraph 1, Mrs Cobell_____________.

It was in my high school science class．I was doing a task in front of the classroom with my favorite shirt on．

       A   36   came．"Nice shirt," I smiled from ear to ear．Then another voice said, "That shirt belonged to my dad．Greg's mother works for my family．We were going to   37   that shirt away, but gave it to her   38 ．" I was speechless．I wanted to hide．

       I   39  me shirt in the back of the closet and told my mom what had happened．She then dialed her   40__, "I will no longer work for your family," she told him．That night, Mom told my dad that she couldn’t clean anymore; she knew her life's   41   was something greater．

       The next morning she   42   with the personnel manager at the Board of Education．Ke told her that without a proper education she could not teach．So Mom decided to__43__a university．

       After the first year in college, she went back to the personnel manager．He said, "You are 44    aren't you? I think I have a___45_for you as a teacher's assistant．This opportunity deals with children who are mentally challenged with little or no chance of  46  Mom accepted the opportunity very   47 ．

       For almost five years, as a teacher's assistant, she saw teacher after teacher give up on the children and quit, feeling   48 ．Then one day, the personnel manager and the principal   49   in her classroom．The principal said, "We have watched how you   50   the children and how they communicate with you and admire your hard-working   51   over the last five years．We are all in  52  that you should be the teacher of this class．"

       My mom spent more than 20 years there．  53   her career, she was voted Teacher of the Year．All of this came about because of the  54   comment made in my classroom that day．Mom showed me how to handle   55__situations and never give up．

A．noise     B．voice      C．sound      D．tune

A- get           B．take           C．carry           D．throw

A．otherwise  B．anyhow          C．instead         D．actually

A．settled    B．pushed      C．stored           D．stuck

A．teacher    B．employer         C．director             D．adviser

A．purpose   B．encouragement  C．achievement  D．victory

A．went      B．met             C．worked          D．stayed

A．visit      B．continue          C．attend         D．prepare

A．serious    B．fortunate        C．careful        D．responsible

A．career    B．duty             C．position         D．part

A．learning  B．judging    C．obeying      D．imagining

A．patiently  B．eagerly          C．successfully    D．skillfully

A．upset        B．frightened    C．guilty         D．ashamed

A．looked up B．went up          C．took up        D．showed up

A．believe   B．protect           C．treat                D．receive

A．spirit   B．intention        C．action         D．attempt

A．discussion B．argument         C．disagreement   D．agreement

A．At       B．During     C．On      D．With

A．worthless  B．thoughtless      C．hopeless       D．helpless

A．challenging B．different        C．dangerous           D．strange