It was the first day of school. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a little old lady smiling at me. She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?”
I laughed and said, “Of course!” And she gave me a big hug. “Why are you in college at such an age?” I asked.
She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have kids and then retire and travel.”
“No seriously.”
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!”
We became friends at once. Over the course of the year, Rose easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she was happy with the attention given to her from the other students. At the end of the term we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet（宴会）. I’ll never forget what she taught us in her speech.
“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it! There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one useful thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything, I will turn eighty-eight. Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity to do productive things. Have no regrets（遗憾；后悔）. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but we regret for things we did not do.”
At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral to honor the wonderful woman!
【小题1】While meeting Rose at the college for the first time, the author was curious about _______.

We have two daughters: Kristen is seven years old and Kelly is four. Last Sunday evening, we invited some people home for dinner. I dressed them nicely for the party, and told them that their job was to join Mommy in answering the door when the bell rang. Mommy would introduce them to the guests, and then they would take the guests’ coats upstairs and put them on the bed in the second bedroom.

The guests arrived. I introduced my two daughters to each of them. The adults were nice and kind and said how lucky we were to have such good kids.

Each of the guests made a particular fuss over Kelly, the younger one, admiring her dress, her hair and her smile. They said she was a remarkable girl to be carrying coats upstairs at her age.

I thought to myself that we adults usually make a big “to do” over the younger one because she’s the one who seems more easily hurt. We do it with the best of intentions. But we seldom think of how it might affect the other child. I was a little worried that Kristen would feel she was being outshined. I was about to serve dinner when I realized that she had been missing for twenty minutes. I ran upstairs and found her in the bedroom, crying.

I said, “What are you doing, my dear?”

She turned to me with a sad expression and said, “Mommy, why don’t people like me the way they like my sister? Is it because I’m not pretty? Is that why they don’t say nice things about me as much?”

I tried to explain to her, kissing and hugging her to make her feel better.

Now, whenever I visit a friend’s home, I make it a point to speak to the elder child first.

1.What were Kristen and Kelly asked to do last Sunday evening? (No more than 20 words.)

____________________________________________________________________

2.Why did the guests praise Kelly so much rather than Kristen? (No more than 15 words.)

____________________________________________________________________

3.The underlined expression “make a big ‘to do’ over” in Paragraph 4 means ________________. (No more than 5 words.)

4.Why did Kristen feel sad and cry? (No more than 15 words.)

____________________________________________________________________

5.In your opinion, how should adults treat children? (No more than 15 words.)

____________________________________________________________________

They say that cats have nine lives but our lazy old cat,PJ,had concurrent(并存的)lives and identities. He became well-known for sleeping around the neighbourhood and used to nap in the spare bedroom of elderly couple who lived three doors up from us.While I wasn’t always aware of all his liaisons, it didn’t matter as long as he always came home at mealtimes.

One day we noticed he had gained weight. We guessed he was enjoying snacks at the local takeaway shop bins and so we began to reduce the amount of his food. He didn’t seem to notice.

Some months later. we invited some new neighbours in for drinks. Not long into the evening, our new neighbor saw PJ sitting proudly on the window ledge. “You’ve got my cat!” She exclaimed, laughing.

We let her down gently, and learnt that at their house, PJ was known as Tiger. Thanks to them, he’d been receiving the royal treatment, including removing small insects from his body by spraying medicine. PJ continued living with us until a new cat and a new dog finally tested his patience. He walked out and was missing for ten days before my husband spotted him near his work. He brought our wandering cat home, but it was clear that PJ wasn’t happy. After shouting at him angrily, I let him out and he never returned.

A few months later, our new neighbour told us she’d seen PJ. It seems that an elderly neighbour had welcomed him into her home, and since taking up residence he’d doubled in size and been given his own sitting – room chair to lie. The two had become very fond of each other, ever since he’d followed her home. What a smart cat.

1.By exclaiming “You’ve got my cat,” the neighbour implied that            .

A．she admitted the eat belonged to that author

B．the author had stolen the lovely eat PJ

C．she was surprised at seeing the cat there

D．she was very angry with the author

2.What does the underlined word “He” in Paragraph 4 probably refer to?

A．The cat PJ             B．the author’s husband

C．a new neighbour                   D．a neighbour’s husband

3.It can be inferred from the passage that            .

A．the cat had visited all the neighbours before leaving

B．the author found the cat had gained some weight

C．The author couldn’t provide the cat with medical care

D．the neighbours loved the cat PJ very much

Taste is such a subjective matter that we don’t usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone’s preference is that it’s one person’s opinion. But because the two big cola companies-Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola-are marketed so aggressively, we’ve wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty. We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting.
We invited staff volunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic or Pepsi. Diet Coke, or Diet Pepsi. These were people who thought they’d have no trouble telling their brand from the other brand.
We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers. Then we fed them with four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other. We asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants’ choices with what mere guesswork could have accomplished.
Getting all four samples right was a tough test but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse-only 7 out of 27 identified all four samples correctly.
Both groups did better than chance would predict, but nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times. Two people got all four samples wrong. Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so tiredness, or taste burnout, was not a factor. Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price.
71. According to the passage the preference test was conducted in order to___________.
A.show that a person’s opinion about taste is mere guesswork
B.compare the ability of the participants in choosing their drinks
C.find out the role taste preference plays in a person’s drinking
D.reveal which cola is more to the liking of the drinkers
72. The statistics recorded in the preference tests show that____________.
A.there is not much difference in taste between Coca-Cola and Pepsi
B.few people had trouble telling Coca-Cola from Pepsi
C.people`s tastes differ from one another
D.Coca-Cola and  Pepsi are people`s two most favorite drinks
73.It is implied in the first paragraph that __________
A.the competition between the two colas is very strong
B.blind tasting is neccssary for identifying fans
C.the purpose of taste test is to promote the sale of colas
D.The improvement of quailty is the chief concern of the two cola companies
74.The underlined word "burnout" here refers to the state of __________
A.being seriously burnt in the skin
B.Being badly damaged by dire
C.Being unable to burn for lack of fuel
D.Being unable to function because of too much use
75.The author`s purpose in writing this passage is to __________
A.emphasize that taste and price are closely related to each other
B.Recommend that blind tasting be introduced in the quality control of colas
C.Show that taste preference is highly subjective
D.Argue that taste testing is an important marketing strategy

We have two daughters: Kristen is seven years old and Kelly is four. Last Sunday evening, we invited some people home for dinner. I dressed them nicely for the party, and told them that their job was to join Mommy in answering the door when the bell rang. Mommy would introduce them to the guests, and then they would take the guests’ coats upstairs and put them on the bed in the second bedroom.
The guests arrived. I introduced my two daughters to each of them. The adults were nice and kind and said how lucky we were to have such good kids.
Each of the guests made a particular fuss over (对…关爱倍至)Kelly, the younger one, admiring her dress, her hair and her smiles. They said she was an unusual girl to be carrying coats upstairs at her age.
I thought to myself that we adults usually make a big “to do” over the younger one because she’s the one who seems more easily hurt. We do it with the best of intentions (意图).
But we seldom think of how it might affect (影响) the other child. I was a little worried that Kristen would feel she was ignored. I was about to serve dinner when I realized that she had been missing for twenty minutes. I ran upstairs and found her in the bedroom, crying.
I said, “What are you doing, my dear?”
She turned to me with a sad expression and said, “Mommy, why don’t people like me the way they like my sister? Is it because I’m not pretty? Is that why they don’t say nice things about me as much?”
I tried to explain to her, kissing her to make her feel better.
Now, whenever I visit a friend’s home, I make it a point to speak to the elder child first.
1．The underlined expression “make a big ‘to do’ over” (in paragraph 4) means _______.
A．show much concern about      B．have a special effect on
C．list jobs to be done for       D．do good things for
2．The guests praised Kelly for carrying coats upstairs for her _______.
A．pretty clothes              B．lovely smile  C.  young age   D．beautiful hair
3．Kristen felt sad and cried because ______.
A．the guests gave her more coats to carry
B．the guests praised her sister more than her
C．her mother didn’t introduce her to the guests
D．she didn’t look as pretty as Kelly
4．We can conclude from the passage that _______.
A．parents should pay more attention to the elder children
B．the younger children are usually more easily hurt
C．people usually like the younger children more
D．adults should treat children equally