Nodira, 18, lives in the Tashkent region of Uzbekistan. She was born with a rare disease and is now paralyzed(瘫痪) from the waist down. Her life is confined to a wheelchair but her dreams know no such boundaries. Her hopes for the future include attending university, riding in her father’s car and being able to walk like other children.

Nodira, which means ‘unique’ in Uzbek, is one of five children in a poor family. Every morning, after reciting her prayers, Nodira feeds the hens and goats from her wheelchair. The rest of her day is spent knitting for other people and helping her mother with the household chores.

Nodira has never been to school because it is too far from her home and inaccessible for her wheelchair. A local teacher used to come and tutor her at home and, as a result, she was able to finish third grade. After that, her parents moved to another town and the tutor could not visit as much.

Despite the many difficulties in Nodira’s life she is lucky to be living with her family. The stigma(羞辱) attached to the children living with disabilities, combined with the lack of wheelchair access in schools and the economic difficulties faced by many Uzbek families, have led many parents to place children with disabilities in special institutions.

These days, Nodira does homework exercises at home and reads as much as she can. Still, it is unlikely that she will be able to finish her primary education, much less attend university. While missing out on an education is a great disappointment to Nodira, her greatest wish, for a true friend, can still come true. “What I want more than anything is a friend who also has a disability,” she says. “Somebody will not feel sorry for me or make fun of me, and will understand what my life is like.”

The underlined sentence in the first paragraph probably means “_____”.

A. her dreams will help her desert her wheel chair

B. her dreams are never limited by her disability

C. she often dreams of moving freely without a wheel chair

D. she never dreams of recovering from her disability

Nodira does all the following every day EXCEPT _____.

A. give food to some animals 

B. to make clothes from woolen or cotton thread

C. drive cars designed for the disabled  

D. help with the housework

The underlined word “tutor” in the 3rd paragraph can be replaced by “_____”.

A. educate         B. visit        C. treat             D. comfort

What Nodira wants most is ______.

A. to go to university                              B. to walk on her own feet

C. to finish her primary education         D. to find a true friend

When Alice started to cycle home from Jenny’s house, she wasn’t nervous. She was certainly not afraid of the dark.36, it was only a 15-minute ride home. But halfway there, she began to wish that she hadn’t been so 37. As she rounded a sharp bend, it suddenly 38 cold — very cold. Alice’s breath became puffs of white cloud and her legs were so cold that it became hard to ride. With her heart beating fast, she struggled so hard to move 39 that she didn’t hear the car which suddenly appeared beside her. She stopped by the road. The big black car also 40. Slowly, the passenger-window began to slide down. Alice held her breath. In the soft light inside the car, something 41. Then, the light brightened and Alice was staring at a sweet, grey-haired old lady. “Hello, dear,” said the old lady. “I need 42. I’m afraid I’m lost. I need to find the nearest airport. I must be there in the next five minutes.”  “Airport? You 43 are lost,” Alice said. “You need to go back five kilometers 44 you reach the T-junction. Turn left and 45 for about another 10 kilometers to the main highway. From there, just follow the 46 to the airport. But I’m afraid there’s no 47 you’ll get there in five minutes!” “Thank you very much, dear,” replied the old lady. “Don’t worry — I’ll 48 in time.” The 49 moved up and the car started off. A little way ahead, it 50 and with headlights flashing, it drove past Alice. But then, something 51 happened. The car began changing. First, its color 52 from black to silvery-grey. Then, the wheels began disappearing, but the car continued to move forward, 53 just above the ground. As the car 54 into the dark sky, the big red tail-lights grew larger and larger and glowed more and more brightly. With a faint whistling 55, the car was gone in seconds, leaving Alice shaking her head in disbelief…

I’m lying on my back in my grandfather’s orchard（果园）,looking up at the branches above me. It is one of the last days of summer. Already the days are shorter and the nights are cooler. Some kinds of apples are already ripe（成熟的）. Others will be ready to pick soon. I think of my grandmother’s apple pie(苹果馅饼), and how I used to make it with her. She died last year, before the apple harvest, and I have not had her pie since. I really miss her. I hear bees busily humming about, visiting the late summer flowers. The gentle hum of their wings nearly sends me to sleep.

The sky is as blue as my grandfather’s eyes. Above me, big white clouds race across the sky like pieces of cotton blowing in the wind. School starts in another week, and time seems to have slowed down.

“Sophie!” calls my grandfather. “Is that you?” I stand up, take his hand, and tell him all about my day as we walk through the orchard. We talk about apples, and bees, and Grandma. He tells me that he misses her too.

He puts his rough, brown farmer’s hand around my shoulder and pulls me close. “You know, Sophie,” he says, “ I spent the morning in the attic（阁楼）, and you’ll never guess what I found. It’s the recipe（烹饪法）for Grandma’s apple pie. I used to help her make it sometimes. I can’t do it all alone, but you used to help her too. Maybe between the two of us, we can work it out. Want to try?”

“ But it won’t be the same without Grandma,” I tell him.

“ That’s true,” he says, “ but nothing is the same without Grandma. Still, I don’t think that she would want us never to have another apple pie. What do you say?” I nod yes, and we walk towards home… towards an afternoon in the farmhouse kitchen, making Grandma’s famous apple pie.

1. We learn from the passage that Sophie       .

2.Both Sophie and her grandfather used to        .

3.The underlined part in the last paragraph shows          .

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

I can honestly say it was the best of times and the worst of times. I was joyfully expecting my first child at the same time that my mother was   1  her battle with a brain tumor(瘤). For ten years, my fiercely independent and   2  mother had fought, but none of the treatments had been successful.   3 , she never lost her ability to smile. But now, finally, she became totally   4 —unable to speak, walk, eat or dress on her own.
As she grew closer and closer to death, my  5  grew closer and closer to life inside me. My biggest   6  was that their lives would never connect. I was sad not only at the   7  loss of my mother, but that she and my baby would never know each other. Her doctor did not   8  any hope; they told us her time was up.
We brought Mother   9  to her own bed in her own house. As   10  as I could, I sat beside her and talked to her about the baby moving inside me.
On February 3, 1989, at about the same time my labor(分娩)   11 , Mother opened her eyes. When they told me this at the   12 , I called her home, “Mom, listen. The baby is coming! You’re going to have a new grandchild!”
“Yes! Yes! I know!”
Four beautiful words! The first  13  words she’d spoken in months!
When I   14  again an hour later, the nurse at her house told the  15 message: Mom sat up, smiling, with her oxygen tubes removed. When I brought Jacob home. Mom was sitting in her chair and 15  to welcome him. Tears of joy blocked my vision(视野) as I  17 my son in her arms and she clucked (发出咯咯声) at him. They   18  .
Then she quietly clipped back into a coma (昏迷) and   19  peacefully. Memories of my son’s birth will always be bittersweet(甜中带苦的) for me, but it was then that I learned love has the   20   to overcome any worries and any sorrow. And love can last forever.

I went through a training program and became a literacy volunteer last surnmen The training
I received, though excellent, did not tell me how it was to work with a real student, however. When I began to discover what other people's lives were like because they could not read, I realized the true importance of reading.
My first student Marie was a 44-year-old single mother of three. In the first lesson, I found out she walked two miles to the nearest supermarket twice a week because she didn't know which bus to take. When I told her I would get her a bus schedule, she told me it would not help because she could not  read it. She said she also had difficulty once she got to the supermarket,because she couldn't always remember what she needed. Since she did not know words, she could not write out a shopping list. Also, she could only recognize items by sight, so if the product had a different label, she would not recognize it as the product she wanted.
As we worked together, learning how to read built Marie's self-confidence,which encouraged her to continue her studies. She began to make rapid progress and was even able to take the bus to the supermarketelt. After this successful trip, she reported how self-confident she felt. At the end of the program, she began helping her youngest son,Tony, a shy first grader with his reading. She sat with him before he went to sleep and together they would read bedtime stories. When his eyes became wide with excitement as she read, pride was written all over her face. As she described this experience, I was proud of myself as well. I found that helping Marie to build her self-confidence was more rewarding than anything I had ever done before.
As a literacy volunteer, I learned a great deal about teaching and helping others. In fact, I may have learned more from the experience than Marie did.
【小题1】What did the author do last summer?