A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a meeting in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets, one of these salesmen happened to kick over a table which held a display of baskets of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their boarding.

All but one stopped, took a deep breath and experienced a twinge（刺痛）of sorrow for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his friends to go on without him, waved goodbye, and told one of them to call his wife when they arrived and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to where the apple stand had been overturned. He was glad he did.

The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her face. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them into the baskets, and helped set the display up once more. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become damaged; then he set them aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take the $20 for the damage we did.” He continued, “I’m sorry for what we did and hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.”

She nodded with her tears. As the salesman started to walk away, the blind girl called out to him, “Mr. ...”. He stopped, and turned back. She continued, “Thank you very much”.

1.These salesmen were hurrying because they ________.

2.Which of the following is the correct order of what the salesman did?

a. He made an apology to the blind girl.

b. He told his friends to go on without him.

c. He experienced a twinge of sorrow.

d. He returned to the fallen apple stand.

e. He paid the girl $20 for the damage.

3.Which of the following can describe the salesman? 

4.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

The Peales were a famous family of American artists. Charles Willson Peale is best remembered for his portraits of leading figures of the American Revolution. He painted portraits of Franklin and Jefferson and over a dozen of George Washington. His life-size portrait of his sons Raphaelle and Titian was so realistic that George Washington reportedly once tipped his hat to the figures in the picture.

Charles Willson Peale gave up painting in his middle age and devoted his life to the Peale museum, which he founded in Philadelphia. The world’s first popular museum of art and natural science mainly covered paintings by Peale and his family as well as displays of animals in their natural settings. Peale found the animals himself and found a method to make the exhibits more lifelike. The museum’s most popular display was the skeleton (骷髅) of a huge, extinct（灭绝的）elephant, which Peale unearthed on a New York farm in 1801.

Three of Peale’s seventeen children were also famous artists. Paphaelle Peale often painted still lives of flowers, fruit, and cheese. His brother Rembrandt studied under his father and painted portraits of many noted people, including one of George Washington. Another brother, Rubens Peale, painted mostly landscapes and portraits.

James Peale, the brother of Charles Willson Peale, specialized in miniatures (小画像). His daughter Sarah Miriam Peale was probably the first professional female portrait painter in America.

1. What is the main topic of the passage?

A. The life of Charles Willson Peale.                  B. Portraits in the 18th century.

C. The Peale Museum.                                      D. A family of artists.

2. The author mentions in Paragraph 1 that Washington tipped his hat to the figures in the painting to show that ________.

A. Charles Willson Peale’s painting was very lifelike

B. Washington respected Charles Willson Peale’s work

C. Washington was friendly with Raphaelle and Titian Peale

D. the painting of the two brothers was very large

3. The underlined word “unearthed” is closest in meaning to“ ______”.

A. showed            B. dug up          C. invented               D. looked over

4. Which of the following is NOT the child of Charles Willson Peale?

A. Titian Peale.   B. Rubens Peale.  C. Raphaelle Peale.      D. Sarah Miriam Peale.

5. The author’s attitude toward the Peales is in general _______.

A. puzzled            B. excited           C. admiring                D. disappointed

Every student has tests when they are at school. But have you ever been so worried about the tests that you can’t fall asleep at night? Have you ever felt sick or had a headache during a test?   1.   This worry in your mind can make your body feel bad. You may feel angry, frustrated, scared, or afraid, which can give you a stomachache or a headache.

  2.   Good or normal stress might happen when you are called to answer a question in class or when you have to give a speech. This kind of stress can help you to get things better done.   3.  

But bad stress can happen if the stressful feelings keep going over a long time. You may not feel well if your parents are fighting, if a family member is ill, if you are having problems at school, or if you are going through anything else that makes you upset every day.   4.  

 5.    That means making good decision about how to spend your time. If you are only dealing with school stuff and have no time to play, you can get stressed. Make sure you keep your SELF in mind: Sleep, Exercise, Leisure and Food. If you take care of yourself and get enough sleep and food, and if you exercise and leave time for fun stuff, you will probably be less stressed out!

A．However, there are two different kinds of stress.

B．Can you tell a kind of stress from another one?

C．The best way to keep stress away is to have a balanced life.

D．That kind of stress isn’t going to help you, and it can actually make you sick.

E. Since bad stress is harmful to us, you’d better try to change it into good stress.

F. If so, then you know what stress is. Stress is what you feel when you are worried or uncomfortable about something.

G. For example, you may do a better job on your test if the stress pushes you to prepare well before the test.

My name is Ralph and I am 42 years old. I work in a factory that I enjoy very much. On May 27, 1999, I was working on an automatic machine. While working my hand was pulled into the machine and my middle finger on my right hand was ripped off. I had surgery to replace what was left of the finger and now I have a finger that is almost as long as my index finger.

Over the years I have been very blessed for a full and healthy life. Most of all, blessed for having my wife. We have grown together and grown in our faith. Life is going to go on with or without my finger. I was not going to let this take over my life and I pushed to go back to work and got light duty.

This was where my lesson began. When I returned to work, I started getting comments and some teasing from people asking me if it was worth losing my finger over a pack of cigarettes. Someone started a rumor that I had dropped a pack of cigarettes and reached down to pick them up and that is how I lost my finger. This is not true. This rumor hurt more than losing my finger in that machine. Everyone was called in to a meeting to resolve this matter and get the story straight. I had to share my lesson.

We can ruin a person’s life by just a few bad words. There is an old saying that I will never forget: “Words and water are easily poured, but impossible to recover.” So please remember to watch what you say.

1.According to the author, his index finger on his right hand is almost as long as ________.

2.From the second paragraph, we know that the author ________.

3.The rumour about the author is that he lost his finger ________.

4.Which of the following can match the underlined sentence in the last paragraph?

The Golden Compass is the first movie based on the Philip Pullman’s bestselling novel, His Dark Materials. It is a work of imagination that tells us about a young girl who travels to the far north to save her best friend. Along the way she meets strange creatures, like witches and so on. Finally , she saves not only her world, but also ours as well.

Lyra is a young girl among scholars in Oxford’s Jordan College. She spends most of her time with her friend Roger, a kitchen boy. Together, they share a life with no worries. However, when Lyra hears a conversation about a very tiny particle(颗粒), she is thrown into a dangerous adventure. This particle is said to unite different worlds, and is feared by many people who want to destroy it. At the same time , children began to disappear without a trace, including Lyra’s good friend, Roger. As Lyra starts this horrible struggle, and begins to search for Roger, she meets strange creatures both big and small, and bad people who are not what they seem to be. Gobblers(饕餮者) that kidnap(绑架)children appear in the most unexpected places. And a magical compass made of gold will answer any question if one is skilled enough to read it. In unbelievable danger, Lyra doesn’t know that she is doomed to win, or to lose, this battle…

With the movie The Lord of the Rings making New Line cinema over a billion dollars, it’s easy to see why they got the rights to Pullman’s His Dark Materials quickly. The books, sold more than nine million copies in the world, have a different idea from the Harry Potter series. Pullman’s imagination may look suitable for children, but it works far better for adults.

1.In the film The Golden Compass, Lyra______.

2.The film is named The Golden Compass probably because______.

3.From the passage we can conclude that______.

4.Which group of people will like the film The Golden Compass the best according to the passage?