I know it is wrong to envy your children. But when I see my son, Tonio and his younger brother Sam going down a slide together, one’s arm around the other, I know I have missed something wonderful.

Not only did I never have a brother, but also I had no friendships like theirs. My sister was old enough to help take care of me, so she was more a mother than a playmate, and I was more a pest than a friend. A brother would have been wonderful, but it was not in the family planning.

Now I finally live with brothers, my sons, Tonio and Sam. I am watching them build the kind of relationship that I once dreamed about. They go to bed together. When one comes into our bed after a nightmare, my wife and I know that before morning his brother will follow.

Sam manages the world with more ease than his elder brother, whose frustrations often bring him to tears. With a sincere “Smile, Tonio,” Sam is the one who comforts him. Tonio, on the other hand, has stopped playing with boys at his age who don’t like playing with Sam. They are always backing each other up.

I don’t know what kind of relationship they will have when they grow up. Parents always want their children to have what they never could. I want them to have each other. So I imagine them going to the same college, marrying sisters and living on the same block.

That’s why I was so worried the day Tonio started kindergarten. I felt that I would lose something too. As we headed for school that morning, both boys seemed relaxed, as if neither had any idea that the day was going to be different, that starting then, Tonio would be leaving behind his brother, his best friend, his right arm.

Tonio’s first day was chaotic, with hundreds of children outside looking for their teachers. Before any of us could say goodbye, Tonio disappeared with his new classmates. He turned to wave and then was gone. It was so sudden. Sam even didn’ t see him go. Although parents had been asked to ease the craziness of the first day by statying out of the school, I lifted Sam up and took him to Tonio’s classroom, looking for a glimpse of Tonio. Sam spotted him first.

My wife and I didn’t head back home immediately, stopping instead at a coffee shop to treat Sam to hot chocolate. We even let him eat ice-cream with his fingers. Sam was still quiet, so I asked him if he missed his brother already.

He didn’t answer. Instead he asked, “Daddy, is Tonio going to be gone forever?”

“No, Sammy,” I said, feeling happy about his sweet question. “Not forever, just until three o’clock.”

I sometimes think that the greatest thing I have ever done is to help create these brothers. And I didn’t stop with them. We had another child, and for the third time in a row, it was a boy. It wasn’t long before his brothers climbed into the crib(婴儿床) to play with him. I am surrounded by brothers.

1.What makes the author envy his sons?

A. He has no friends like Sam and Tonio.

B. He has only one brother in his family.

C. He doesn’t enjoy brotherhood as they do.

D. He doesn’t have a good relation with his sister.

2.What does the underlined word “pest” in paragraph 2 mean?

A. a bad person     B. an annoying person

C. a good companion    D. a lovely brother

3.What can we learn about the two little brothers?

A. Tonio often encouraged Sam when Sam burst into tears.

B. The two brothers went to the same kindergarten.

C. Neither of the brothers played with other children.

D. They supported each other in different ways.

4.The author was worried the day Tonio started his kindergarten, because__________.

A. Tonio might not spend so much time with Sam

B. Tonio might not do well with his study

C. he was afraid he would lose Tonio forever.

D. he wanted Tonio to have what he didn’t have

5.On the first day of the kindergarten, __________.

A. Tonio had a nice day playing with his new classmates

B. Sam was very sad because Tonio was gone forever

C. Sam was allowed to have ice-cream with fingers as usual

D. the father felt happy when he sensed Sam’s love to Tonio

6.What does the title “Surrounded by Brothers” suggest?

A. The author experienced brotherly affection by raising his sons.

B. The author often plays with his sons whenever he has time.

C. Parents want their children to stay at home and play together.

D. The youngest son is always surrounded by his elder brothers.

Ever since Jerusha started her college, she began to write letters. Through a series of letters, from freshman to senior in college, she shared her life and study with an unknown gentleman, who never wrote back. Here is the very first letter.

1.Which of the following is NOT the reason for Jerusha to write the letter to Mr.Kind?

   A. To get her familiar to him.                                 B. To present her thankfulness to him.

   C. To share her brand-new college life with him.

   D. To apologize to him for not writing letters too often.

2.If Mrs. Lippett learned that the writer calls the man she writes to Daddy-long-legs, she would probably         .

A. burst into laughter    B. think it acceptable  

C. criticize the writer  D. inform the man

3.By "when I think about you, my imagination has very little to work upon.", the writer intends to tell us that        .

    A. the man she writes to is dull and boring

    B. she is not familiar with the one she writes to

    C. it is not interesting at all to write to a stranger

    D. she lacks imagination when it comes to writing a letter

4.Jerusha was probably          while she worked on the letter.

   A. curious             B. light-hearted       C. serious            D. skeptical

1.I had a very happy day today because we had no school though it is Tuesday today. I played football with my friends on the playground in our school. Then we had a big dinner with a lot of our friends.

2.Today was a special day. After the bell rang for the lesson, we all sat up straight, waiting for our maths teacher. Today in former years we would place something on the top of the door so that when someone entered, it would fall onto that person. But this year, we put nothing on the top of the door. But as our maths teacher was entering, we all shouted “Take care”. The teacher got a surprise and raised his head but saw nothing. We all laughed and said “April fool”.

3.Early this morning I got up and woke up my sister Jane. Together we went from door to door to call on my friends. It was a day for us to play. We gathered on the square of the town with our New Year’s gift. We exchanged our gifts and played all kinds of games on the square. How happy we were!

4.This evening we had a Halloween party in the open. We were all dressed in witch’s outfit and wore masks. We sang and danced happily. We couldn’t figure out who was who though we were all such close friends or neighbors.

5.Today I gave a kiss to the girl I love most in front of all my classmates. I didn’t say anything before. But today I was brave enough to kiss her on the face with my classmates and my history teacher near at hand.

A．Near Year’s Day

It falls on the first day of the year. The year should begin happily, they say, so that it will end happily. And on the first morning of the New Year, children in Scotland, Wales and the English border countries rise early so that they may make the round of their friends and neighbors. “On January 1^st,” writes a 13-year-old Scottish girl, “I always go New Year’s Gifting with my sister and friends, about four of us. I get up about 7 o’clock and call for my friends and go round the houses and farms.”

B．Shrove Tuesday

For centuries Shrove Tuesday has been a day of high festival for apprentices (学徒) and schoolchildren. It has been a day of feasting, and cock fighting, a day for football , and rowdiness (吵闹). And it is pleasing to find that it is still a special day for children in some parts of England, where “Pancake Day (薄煎饼日),” as they call it, is kept as a school holiday.

C．Kissing Friday

A teacher writing to the Yorkshire Post tells how after Ash Wednesday, comes Kissing Friday. A few days ago, when she arrived at a country school and was taking a mixed class of 13-year-old children in country dancing, she saw the leading boy suddenly lean across and kiss his partner, who showed no sign of embarrassment. When, as teacher, she expressed her surprise, the boy said, “It’s all right, Miss. You see, it’s Kissing Friday”. And he explained that on Friday following Shrove Tuesday any boy had the right to kiss any girl without being resisted.

D．April Fool’s Day

The first day of April ranks amongst the most joyous days in the juvenile (青少年) calendar. It is a day when you hoax (愚弄) friends of yours with jokes like sending them to the shop for some pigeon’s milk, or telling them to dig a hole because the dog has died; when they come back and ask where the dead dog is, you say “April fool” and laugh at them.

E. May Day

On the first of May, in country districts, young maidens (少女) rise early and go out into the dawn, as they have done for centuries, to wash their faces in the May dew (露水). In Somerset children call this “kissing the dew”. In most places, the girls do so to ensure that they shall have a beautiful complexion (肤色) for the rest of the year.

F. Halloween

It falls on October 31. Many children attend Halloween parties. “The best thing about the party is that you should go in fancy dress, ” says a girl. The most popular dress is a Witch’s outfit, or something to do with lucky charms. It is said that one of the luckiest things at a Halloween party is for a person to come in with a lump (块) of coal.

Dear Kind-Trustee-Who-Sends-Orphans-to-College,
Here I am! I traveled yesterday for four hours in a train．It’s a funny feeling, isn’t it? I never rode in one before．
College is the biggest, most puzzling place—I get lost whenever I leave my room. I will write you a description later when I'm feeling less confused; also I will tell you about my lessons. Classes don't begin until Monday morning, and this is Saturday night. But I wanted to write a letter first just to get acquainted.
It seems strange to be writing letters to somebody you don't know. It seems strange for me to be writing letters at all—I've never written more than three or four in my life, so please overlook it if these are not a model kind.
Before leaving yesterday morning, Mrs. Lippett and I had a very serious talk. She told me how to behave all the rest of my life, and especially how to behave towards the kind gentleman who is doing so much for me. I must take care to be very respectful.
But how can one be very respectful to a person who wishes to be called John Smith? Why couldn't you have picked out a name with a little personality? I might as well write letters to Dear Flagpole or Dear Clothes-line.
I have been thinking about you a great deal this summer; having somebody take an interest in me after all these years makes me feel as though I had found a sort of family. It seems as though I belonged to somebody now, and it's a very comfortable feeling. I must say, however, that when I think about you, my imagination has very little to work upon. There are just three things that I know: I, You are tall. Ⅱ. You are rich. Ⅲ. You hate girls.
I suppose I might call you Dear Mr. Girl-Hater. Only that's rather rude to me. Or Dear Mr. Rich-Man, but that's rude to you, as though money were the only important thing about you. Besides, being rich is such a very external quality. Maybe you won't stay rich all your life; lots of very clever men get broke in Wall Street. But at least you will stay tall all your life! So I've decided to call you Dear Daddy-Long-Legs. I hope you won't mind. It's just a private pet name we won't tell Mrs. Lippett.
The ten o'clock bell is going to ring in two minutes. Our day is divided into sections by bells. We eat and sleep and study by bells. It's very lifeful. There it goes! Lights out. Good night.
Observe how precisely I obey rules--due to my training in the John Grier Home.
Yours most respectfully,
Jerusha Abbott
to Mr. Daddy-Long-Legs Smith
【小题1】Jerusha felt “confused” because ______.

 One stormy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered a small hotel in Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the   36 _, the couple went to the front desk hoping to  37 for the night.

“Could you   38   give us a room here?” the husband asked.

The clerk, a   39   man with a winning smile, looked at the couple and   40   that there were three conventions(大会) in town.

“All of our   41   are taken,” the clerk said. “But I can’t send a   42   couple like you 43   into the rain at 1 o’clock in the morning. Would you please be   44   to sleep in my room? It’s not exactly a suite（套房）, but it will be good enough to make you   45   for the night.”

The couple said no politely.

“Don’t   46   me. It is just fine with me,” the clerk told them.

As he paid his bill the next morning, the elderly man said to the clerk, “You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel. Maybe someday I’ll build   47   for you.” The three of them had a good   48  .

Two years passed. The clerk had almost forgotten it   49   he received a letter from the old man. It recalled(使回忆) that stormy night and contained a round-trip（双程的）   50   to New York, asking the young man to pay them a visit. The old man met him in New York, and   51  him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34^th Street.

He then pointed to a great new   52   there,  a palace of reddish stone. “That,” said the old man, “is the hotel I have just built for you to   53_ .”

“You must be   54  ,” the young man said.

“I am sure I am not,” said the old man, the name of   55   was William Waldorf Astor, and the magnificent structure was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The young clerk, George C. Boldt became its first manager.

1.A. rain             B. anger          C. snow           D. hunger

2. A. leave           B. go             C. stay           D. look

3. A. surely          B. possibly       C. really         D. freely