It was a lazy morning during the Christmas week. We were enjoying breakfast when the doorbell rang. It was a little girl, standing at the doorway with a piece of paper and a face that carried an expression of want, rather a common     1   during Christmas.

She murmured that the paper was her booklist and that she was going around     2   money to buy her schoolbooks. My children went inside and brought some     3    for her. This kind of incident happens very often in my hometown,     4    during Christmas.

From where I was seated, I could see her clearly. She looked about ten years old and she wore a dress too big for her. She spoke in a     5    voice and looked at me straight in the eye. Something made me get up and     6    her.

In answer to my questions, she said that her mother made hoppers and she     7    them before going to school. But the hopper money was not adequate to     8    the list; therefore, she was going from house to house asking for help.

Her voice told me the story; her eyes told me that it was     9    . I said I'd buy her what was on the list.

We drove to a nearby bookstore. She sat    10   , with a strange look on her face. When the clerk was taking all the things on the list, the little girl kept staring as if confused. Perhaps she had never    11   so many new things before. They were merely exercise books, pencils, pens and such things. She whispered her    12   to us. Strange, I hadn't been aware that giving such   13        things to one in need, could bring me such a lot of happiness.

As we drove back, I could see the little girl in the mirror. All the gifts I had given in my life never   14   up a face so much. She was grasping the parcel, smiling to herself. The total event made us all very    15   . Our Christmas became more meaningful.

1.                A．problem        B．sight           C．moment  D．experience

2.                A．borrowing      B．receiving        C．begging   D．lending

3.                A．clothes         B．books          C．food     D．coins

4.                A．absolutely       B．casually         C．especially D．hardly

5.                A．strange         B．polite          C．serious   D．loud

6.                A．care for        B．speak to        C．smile at   D．hold to

7.                A．sold           B．needed         C．collected D．used

8.                A．buy            B．make           C．cover    D．control

9.                A．painful         B．true            C．moving   D．interesting

10.               A．happily         B．eagerly         C．anxiously  D．silently

11.               A．possessed      B．bought         C．seen D．accepted

12.               A．surpr ise        B．satisfaction      C．thanks D．pleasure

13.               A．simple         B．wonderful      C．expensive D．useful

14.               A．lit             B．made          C．put   D．shut

15.               A．confused       B．delighted       C．amazed   D．relieved

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

       Yesterday I totally changed my views about life after a talk with one of my friends. He told me despite being  36  , he was happy and   37   that it was because of something he saw in India．

       A few years ago he was  38  feeling sad and was touring India．He said right in front of his very eyes, he saw an Indian mother 39 her child's right hand with a knife．The helpless  40  in the mother's eyes and the painful scream of the 41 four-year-old child still remained in his mind．

       The 42 mother made the child handicapped （disabled）  43  he could go out on the streets to beg．  44  by the scene, he dropped a small piece of bread he was eating．And almost at once, several children  45  around this small piece of bread covered with sand,   46 bits from one another．It was the 47  reaction of hunger．He then went to the nearest bakery and bought every single loaf of bread．  48   he gave out the bread to the children （mostly handicapped）, he  49   cheers and bows from these  50   children．For the first time in his life, he understood  51  people could give up their  52  for a loaf of bread．He came to   53   how fortunate he was to be able to have a sound body, have a job, have a family, have the chance to  54   about food that didn't taste good, and have the many things that these people in front of him   55   dreamed of having．Perhaps life wasn't bad at all．

A．in poor health       B．on a diet      C．in debt               D．out of work

A．explained          B．recalled     C．mentioned           D．insisted

A．certainly          B．really       C．seriously              D．absolutely

A．took off           B．carved from  C．scratched on          D．cut off

A．expression         B．despair      C．impression            D．anger

A．guilty            B．tiresome     C．innocent              D．numb

A．merciless          B．upset        C．desperate             D．crazy

A．unless             B．so that       C．in case               D．because

A．Puzzled           B．Attracted     C．Disgusted            D．Shocked

A．gathered          B．looked       C．sat                 D．turned

A．sharing            B．taking           C．offering            D．giving

A．mental             B．physical      C．natural              D．emotional

A．Since              B．Until          C．If                  D．As

A．received           B．accepted       C．heard               D．rejected

A．polite             B．unfortunate   C．energetic            D．greedy

A．whom             B．what           C．how                D．when

A．honor            B．identity      C．morals              D．dignity

A．acknowledge       B．realize         C．conclude            D．recognize

A．complain           B．comment       C．argue               D．decide

A．even              B．ever            C．never               D．hardly

If there’s one memory Anna wanted to keep from her experiences during the Second World War, it was her son, Andrzej. Anna, 89, lost touch with him when she was forced to leave her native Poland and sent to a labor camp in Austria more than 60 years ago. Now, 64, Andrzej hugged his mother at the air port, who had been waiting for him.
Andrzej searched for his mother for more than 50 years, almost giving up. But his mother made the first phone call. Unluckily, he wrote down his mother’s phone number wrong and spent another month trying to reach her again. When he did, the two talked regularly on the phone for two months to break down the language barrier. Anna can hardly speak Polish over the years and Andrzej doesn’t speak English.
After the war, Anna could not find her son and went to Italy, finally ending up in Great Britain, the US, then Canada 45 years ago. She used the Internet to track her son, making phone calls with no luck. Meanwhile Andrzej contacted the Polish Red Cross last year to help in his search.
At last, they locate each other at the same time. Andrzej will spend a month with his mother in Britain.
【小题1】Andrzej was about _______ years old when his mother left him for Austria 60 years ago.

The drug store was closing for the night and Alfred Higgins was about to go home when his new boss approached him.

“Empty your pockets please, Alfred,” Sam Carr demanded in a firm voice.

Alfred pretended to be shocked but he knew he’d been caught. From his coat he withdrew a make-up kit, a lipstick and two tubes of toothpaste.

“I’m disappointed in you, Alfred!” said the little gray-haired man.

“Sorry, sir. Please forgive me. It’s the first time I’ve ever done such a thing,” Alfred lied, hoping to gain the old man’s sympathy.

Mr Carr’s brow furrowed as he reached for the phone, “Do you take me for a fool? Let’s see what the police have to say. But first I’ll call your mother and let her know her son is heading to jail.”

“Do whatever you want,” Alfred shot back, trying to sound big. But deep down he felt like a child. He imagined his mother rushing in, eyes burning with anger, maybe in tears. Yet he wanted her to come quickly before Mr. Carr called the police.

Mr. Carr was surprised when Mrs Higgins finally arrived. She was very calm, quiet and friendly. “Is Alfred in trouble?” she asked.

“He’s been stealing from the store,” the old man coolly replied.

Mrs. Higgins put out her hand and touched Mr. Carr’s arm with great gentleness as if she knew just how he felt. She spoke as if she did not want to cause him any more trouble. “What do you want to do, Mr. Carr?”

The woman’s calm and gentle manner disarmed the once-angry store-owner. “I was going to get a cop. But I don’t want to be cruel. Tell your son not to come back here again, and I’ll let it go.” Then he warmly shook Mrs. Higgins’s hand.

Mrs. Higgins thanked the old man for his kindness, then mother and son left. They walked along the street in silence. When they arrived home his mother simply said, “Go to bed, you fool.”

In his bedroom, Alfred heard his mother in the kitchen. He felt no shame, only pride in his mother’s actions. “She was smooth!” he thought. He went to the kitchen to tell her how great she was, but was shocked by what he saw.

His mother’s face looked frightened, broken. Not the cool, bright face he saw earlier. Her lips moved nervously. She looked very old. There were tears in her eyes.

This picture of his mother made him want to cry. He felt his youth ending. He saw all the troubles he brought her and the deep lines of worry in her grey face. It seemed to him that this was the first time he had ever really seen his mother.

1.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. It was the first time Alfred had stolen anything.

B. Alfred tried to sound big to hide his fear.

C. Mr. Carr set a trap to catch Alfred stealing.

D. Mr. Carr had planned to forgive Alfred from the beginning.

2.What does the underlined word “disarmed” probably mean?

A. annoyed            B. made less angry

C. convinced              D. got over

3.What was the mother’s attitude toward Alfred?

A. She felt disappointed with him.           B. She was very strict with him.

C. She was supportive of him.              D. She was afraid of him.

4.What impressed Alfred most about his mother at the drugstore was ________.

A.how angry she was                   B. that she didn’t cry

C.that she was able to save him        D. how effectively she handled Mr. Carr

5.From the last paragraph, we know that Alfred ________.

A.was no longer a youth                     B. felt proud of his mother

C.wanted his mother to be happy              D. felt guilty and regretful for his deed

My father was in the navy, which meant that my mother was married to both my father and the sea. As was often the       , we had to pack our belongings into boxes and      those we had grown to love. We would arrive at our new home and find ourselves once again standing at the pier (码头)       good-bye to my father as his ship pulled him away from us. My mother would turn my brother and me around before the ship was out of      , wipe our tears, and take us back home to start the process of      in the new environment again.

Throughout the years of changing      , schools and friends, there remained one constant in my childhood — my mother. For both my      and me, she was the cook, maid and teacher. She played these roles while      some type of part-time job. Leaving a       career is just one of the sacrifices which my mother made for my family as we moved around the world with our father every three years or so.      she had to deal with only a small budget, my mother,      , managed to make each house the very home that is safe and      .

This probably sounds like a depressing way to live,        with two small children:  “single”

parenthood, short-term friendships, and the inability to      her career or establish a home. But it was not for my mother. She turned this      into adventure for us all! Each relocation (变换位置) was a chance to      another part of the world. My mother greeted each new culture, climate and neighborhood. Each new house was a      to rearrange furniture, make curtains and      pictures. Every part-time job was an opportunity to learn something new and work with interesting people.

No matter how difficult the life was, she was always having a      attitude. She always had strength in the face of struggle and change. My mother was so      all those years during my childhood — she was my island in a sea of change. She is my hero.

1.A. situation              B. condition                  C. case                D. matter

2.A. leave out       B. leave behind       C. leave off      D. leave for

3.A. speaking       B. staring             C. waving         D. talking

4.A. range            B. shape           C. sight         D. control

5.A. adapting           B. suiting            C. matching        D. fitting

6.A. names           B. jobs             C. addresses        D. directions

7.A. father            B. classmates       C. brother           D. relatives

8.A. performing       B. seeking            C. waiting        D. applying

9.A. terrible            B. promising        C. hopeless          D. negative

10.A. Once             B. While           C. When         D. Unless

11.A. somewhere       B. anyhow           C. somewhat      D. somehow

12.A. romantic           B. comfortable         C. mysterious     D. wealthy

13.A. generally          B. actually            C. especially      D. unfairly

14.A. desert            B. develop            C. affect         D. limit

15.A. lifestyle            B. value            C. journey          D. opportunity

16.A. acquire         B. explore             C. occupy           D. realize

17.A. load              B. sadness             C. result          D. challenge

18.A. hang             B. draw              C. took           D. sold

19.A. changeable       B. cautious            C. positive          D. negative

20.A. experienced      B. brave            C. ordinary          D. annoyed