Recently I was invited to a friend’s house for supper —and had a meal I have never had before.

All the friends invited were a little surprised. It’s not that Ben is unsociable, or a bad cook, but it’s just that he never   1   more than he has to. So how come he was inviting us round for a meal? Had he bought something   2   for his friends? He greeted us at the door and showed us into his dining room where a   3 _ table was waiting for us. “Nothing but the best for my friends! ” said Ben. We all sat down and looked   4   at each other —what was he up to?

Ben returned with four bowls of hot soup. “It’s a mixture of carrots, potatoes and tomatoes,” said Ben. The next   5   was also a little strange in that we didn’t quite know what it was again. It’s just another mixture of vegetable.

As we ate we chatted and finally the   6   turned back to what we were eating. ”Was there a recipe （食谱） for this,” asked Marina, “or did you   7   it up?” Ben put his fork down. “What I cooked depended on what I could find.” Marina was surprised. “But you can find anything in supermarkets these days.” “But there’s  8   choice in what you can find outside supermarkets,” he replied.

Seeing that we had all finished the food, Ben decided to tell the truth. He had read recently that supermarkets usually throw away 5 percent of their food every day. So Ben decided to look inside his local supermarket bins. There he found food that was slightly out of __9  , boxes of throw-away vegetables and fruit.

So Ben had successfully provided a decent （体面的） meal for his friends, and made us aware of the fact that there are many poor people who need the food, but the amount of food thrown away is enough to   10   millions of people.

1．A．takes          B．spends             C．uses                D．does

2．A．cheap  B．special                    C．practical          D．usual

3．A．new           B．separate           C．booked            D．laid

4．A．nervously   B．carefully          C．sadly               D．happily

5．A．course        B．food                C．soup                D．salad

6．A．dinner        B．idea                 C．food                D．subject

7．A．pick           B．look                 C．make               D．take

8．A．less            B．more               C．some               D．any

9．A．order          B．place               C．season             D．date

10．A．enrich       B．please              C．affect                     D．feed

Sarah came running in. She shouted happily, "Look what I ____36_____." She put a snake skin on the newspaper I was reading and it came so suddenly that it caused me to ____37_____. "Mom, look! Isn't it ____38_____?" said my seven-year-old daughter. I ____39_____ the snake skin and thought that it really wasn't pretty. Everything children see ____40_____is full of beauty in their eyes; they see only ____41_____ and excellence in the world until educated.

"____42_____ did the snake do this?" Sarah asked. I tried to seize the ____43_____ to teach my children that there was almost always something beyond the obvious. I wanted to tell them that there was something else going on ____44_____ what they saw in front of them. "Snakes shed (蜕) their skin because they need to renew themselves," I ____45_____.

"Why do they have to renew themselves?" Sarah asked.

My son Robert laughed and said, "Because they don't ____46_____ what they are and they want to be someone else." I politely ignored him and said that by shedding skins, we could ____47_____ the hidden reality.

"We often need to shed our skin, those coatings that we ____48_____ ourselves with," I said to my children, who listened very ____49_____, with their eyes wide open. "This snake ____50_____ needs this skin. It is probably too hard for him, or he probably doesn't think he looks as ____51_____in it as he once did. It's like buying a new ____52_____."

I'm sure this explanation will not ____53_____ the naturalists. But Sarah was getting to understand that renewal is part of ____54_____. She should learn from it what we need to keep and what we need to ____55_____.

1.                A．made          B．seized          C．caught   D．found

2.                A．think           B．jump           C．run  D．struggle

3.                A．interesting      B．smooth         C．beautiful  D．colorful

4.                A．stared at        B．took off         C．referred to    D．brought back

5.                                  A．by accident B．over and over again

C．in the future                      D．for the first time

6.                A．honesty        B．difference       C．value D．fear

7.                A．Where         B．Why           C．How D．When

8.                A．information     B．possibility       C．opportunity   D．question

9.                A．besides         B．for            C．without   D．around

10.               A．talked          B．explained       C．whispered D．shouted

11.               A．keep          B．want           C．need D．like

12.               A．see            B．guess          C．ignore D．remember

13.               A．keep          B．store          C．cover D．improve

14.               A．properly        B．attentively      C．sadly D．angrily

15.               A．once more      B．at times        C．right now  D．no longer

16.               A．nice           B．healthy         C．strong D．big

17.               A．hat            B．watch          C．suit   D．home

18.               A．move          B．satisfy          C．correct    D．defeat

19.               A．experience     B．achievement    C．progress   D．competition

20.               A．throw out       B．hope for        C．find out   D．throw away

There is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died. Sadly, she went to the holy man and asked, “What magical things do you have to bring my son back to life?”
Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, “Fetch me a mustard (芥菜) seed from a home that has never known sadness. We will use it to drive the sadness out of your life.” The woman happily went off at once in search of that magical mustard seed.
She first came to a splendid house, knocked at the door and said, “I am looking for a home that has never known sadness. Is it such a place? It is very important to me.”
They told her “You’ve certainly come to the wrong place” and began to describe all the tragic things that had happened to them recently.
The woman said to herself, “I have had misfortune of my own. Who is able to help these poor, unfortunate people?” She stayed to comfort them, and then went on in search of a home that had never known sadness. But wherever she went, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune. She became so involved in other people’s sorrow that finally she forgot about her search for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had, in fact, driven the sadness out of her life.
【小题1】Which of the following does the story lead us to believe?

There is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died. Sadly, she went to the holy man and asked, “What magical things do you have to bring my son back to life?”
Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, “Fetch me a mustard (芥菜) seed from a home that has never known sadness. We will use it to drive the sadness out of your life.” The woman happily went off at once in search of that magical mustard seed.
She first came to a splendid house, knocked at the door and said, “I am looking for a home that has never known sadness. Is it such a place? It is very important to me.”
They told her “You’ve certainly come to the wrong place” and began to describe all the tragic things that had happened to them recently.
The woman said to herself, “I have had misfortune of my own. Who is able to help these poor, unfortunate people?” She stayed to comfort them, and then went on in search of a home that had never known sadness. But wherever she went, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune. She became so involved in other people’s sorrow that finally she forgot about her search for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had, in fact, driven the sadness out of her life.
【小题1】Which of the following does the story lead us to believe?

There is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died. Sadly, she went to the holy man and asked, “What magical things do you have to bring my son back to life?”
Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, “Fetch me a mustard (芥菜) seed from a home that has never known sadness. We will use it to drive the sadness out of your life.” The woman happily went off at once in search of that magical mustard seed.
She first came to a splendid house, knocked at the door and said, “I am looking for a home that has never known sadness. Is it such a place? It is very important to me.”
They told her “You’ve certainly come to the wrong place” and began to describe all the tragic things that had happened to them recently.
The woman said to herself, “I have had misfortune of my own. Who is able to help these poor, unfortunate people?” She stayed to comfort them, and then went on in search of a home that had never known sadness. But wherever she went, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune. She became so involved in other people’s sorrow that finally she forgot about her search for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had, in fact, driven the sadness out of her life.

1. 1.

   Which of the following does the story lead us to believe?

   1. A.
      Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
   2. B.
      Time passed cannot be called back again.
   3. C.
      You can’t feel happy unless compared with others.
   4. D.
      You can’t expect to know the result until you have tried.
2. 2.

   Instead of sending the woman away, the holy man       .

   1. A.
      asked her to help him first
   2. B.
      tried to comfort her with kind words
   3. C.
      asked her to look for a thing that didn’t exist at all
   4. D.
      tried to encourage her by talking with her
3. 3.

   Leaving the holy man, the woman       .

   1. A.
      was full of hope
   2. B.
      was filled with sadness
   3. C.
      was determined to try again
   4. D.
      became discouraged
4. 4.

   The best title for the text would be “       ”.

   1. A.
      A woman’s misfortune
   2. B.
      A nice surprise
   3. C.
      The holy man’s faith
   4. D.
      Cure for sadness