I was 15. She looked like she was over 70. But on that day. I think she understood me more than anyone else.
Walking into the church that Sunday was hard. I had never let anyone see me cry. But I knew I would cry that day .My grandfather was suddenly ill .The doctors said he might not live much longer. Everyone in my family was crying .Grandpa was the sweetest man in the world .Why was he leaving us?
There weren't many people at church that day. One of them was an old lady sitting at the end of my row. She was smiling. I closed my eyes and prayed for my grandfather to get better. Soon, my eyes were full of tears. I opened my eyes and saw a hand in front of me. It was giving me a tissue(纸巾)。
The old lady was sitting next to me, smiling. She didn't say a word. She just gave me a tissue and a smile. I tried to thank her, but only tears came out. Then she took my hand. I looked into her eyes. They were clear and blue, and they make me feel peaceful. Her smile said to me :I am with you. Everything will be OK. I closed my eyes again. When I opened them, she wasn't there. I left the church but still couldn't find her. I never saw her again.
My grandfather died the next week. We all cried a lot. But when I thought of that old lady's warm smile, I felt a little better.
How did she know how I was feeling ? I wish I could see her again, to say thank you.
【小题1】According to Paragraph 2, what made the whole family cry ?

C
JeawGilles was a millionaire．But Tuesday night，he was sleeping in his car．
Jean-Gilles was the owner of the Peace of Mind Hotel in Jacrnel，Haiti, a three-story，30-room building in a quiet tropical valley on Haiti’s southern coast，25 miles from the noises of the capital，Port-au-Prince. Jean-Gilles and his wife，Marie，lived in an apartment on the property，close enough to watch carefully over the guest rooms，conference rooms and restaurant，close enough that they know the first name of every guest．
After the 7．0-earthquake hit at 4：57 pm on Jan．12，2010，they slept in their aging Isuzu，parked in the hotel driveway．
Jean-Gilles figured a second was the difference between life and death when the earthquake struck．He was working in a ground-floor conference room and first heard，then felt the quake．He asked his electrician．Rob-elTle St．Louis, who was working nearby，what was happening．
“Get out．Now．Get out．Now．”St．Louis said．
Jean-Gilles cleared the falling structure by a mere second，he estimated．His wife，who was working in the couple’s apartment on the second floor，wasn’t able to get clear．People nearby heard her screams after the shaking stopped and removed the building blocks around her by hand．She was shaken and scratched, but walked away from the ruins．
“I am alive．God is good．”she repeated over and over on Saturday．
The Peacc of Mind Hotel was a dream which had come true for Jean-Gilles,57,and Marie,59. Born in Port–au-Prince, they moved to the United States shortly after meeting 34 years ago. Together, they owned a beauty supply store in Jersey City, New Jersey, and invested in real estate. In 2003, they cashed out their US investments, returned to Haiti and began building the peace of Mind Hotel, looking to make a future for themselves and the people of their homeland.
59. Which of the following statements about Jean-Gilles is TRUE?
A. He lived far from the Peace of Mind Hotel.    B. He helped St. Louis to manage a hotel.
C. He was born in Haiti in 1976.                        D. He once owned a store in the US.
60. According to the passage, the peace of Mind Hotel_________.
A. offered guests different services                            B. was located in the capital city of Haiti
C. was a building with 30 guest rooms                D. was owned by Marie and St. Louis
61. When the earthquake hit, Marie was_________.
A. sleeping in the car                                        B. working in the conference room
C. working on the second floor                         D. cooking in the restaurant
62. It can be inferred from the passage that      .
A. Haiti is the 51st state of the US
B. the earthquake happened quickly and unexpectedly
C. nobody in the hotel died in the earthquake
D. Marie was not sad about losing her property in the earthquake

      I was a single parent of four small children, working at a low-paid job. Money was always tight, but we had a   36   over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs, and if not a lot, always   37  . Not knowing we were poor, my kids(孩子们) just thought I was   38  . I’ve always been glad about that.

       It was Christmas time, and although there wasn’t   39   for a lot of gifts, we planned to celebrate with a family party. But the big   40   for the kids was the fun of Christmas   41  .

They planned weeks ahead of time, asking   42   what they wanted for Christmas. Fortunately, I had saved $120 for   43   to share by all five of us.

The big   44   arrived. I gave each kid a twenty-dollar bill and   45   them to look for gifts of about four dollars each. Then everyone scattered(散开). We had two hours to shop; then we would   46   back at the “Santa’s Workshop”.

Driving home, everyone was in high Christmas spirits,   47   my younger daughter, Ginger, who was unusually   48  . She had only one small, flat bag with a few candies　― fifty-cent candies! I was so angry, but I didn’t say anything   49   we got home. I called her into my bedroom and closed the door,  50   to be angry again. This is what she told me.

       “I was looking   51   thinking of what to buy, and I   52   to read the little cards on the ‘Giving Trees.’ One was for a little girl, four years old, and all she   53   for Christmas was a doll(玩具娃娃). So I took the card off the tree and   54   the doll for her. We have so much and she doesn’t have anything.”

       I never felt so   55   as I did that day.

36. A. roof                           B. hat                           C. sky                   D. star

37. A. little                           B. less                          C. enough              D. more

38. A. busy                          B. serious                     C. strict                 D. kind

39. A. effort                         B. room                        C. time                  D. money

40. A. improvement              B. problem                    C. surprise             D. excitement

41. A. shopping                    B. travelling                  C. parties               D. greetings

42. A. the other                    B. each other                C. one by one          D. every other one

43. A. toys                           B. clothes                     C. presents             D. bills

44. A. day                            B. chance                     C. cheque              D. tree

45. A. forced                       B. reminded                   C. invited               D. begged

46. A. draw                         B. stay                         C. move                  D. meet

47. A. including                    B. besides                     C. except                D. regarding

48. A. quiet                          B. excited                     C. happy                D. ashamed

49. A. since                         B. after                         C. while                  D. until

50. A. waiting                      B. ready                         C. hoping               D. afraid

51. A. out                            B. over                           C. forward            D. around

52. A. forgot                        B. stopped                      C. failed                D. hated

53. A. wanted                      B. did                             C. got                   D. played

54. A. made                         B. searched                   C. bought               D. fetched

55. A. angry                         B. rich                          C. patient               D. bitter

The First of May is a Bank Holiday—the first public holiday of the year in England. Most people consider it a special day, the beginning of summer, a day when the light lasts long into the evening, and when we can look for warm weather. We don't always get it. We feel disappointed, but not surprised if there are cold winds and frosts at night in May. Winter should be over. Most people know that in the past, when farming occupied almost everyone, the changing seasons were of great importance. In that older time there was every reason to celebrate May Day. Customs of those celebrations remain.?

Of these customs, the best known is the choosing of a May Queen and the dancing round Maypole. Even these customs are little more than memories now—but in the last century it was quite common in villages and small towns, and even in schools and colleges, for a pretty and popular girl to be chosen Queen of the May. It was a great honour to be chosen. For a day she wore a light and flowery dress, carried garlands（花环）, and was ceremonially crowned with flowers. She presided over a procession, as a rule with a number of attendants, and over the Maypole dancing and all kinds of entertainment. The Maypole was slender（苗条的w.w.^w.k.&s.5*u.c.#o） tree trunk, cut off its branches, with beautiful ribbons fastened to the top. The dancing was designed in such a way that the dancer's movements move the ribbons into a pattern. This, as you can imagine, required skill from the dancer, and was not achieved without practice.

It's the Celtic people who celebrated the First of May as a spring festival. Their celebration seems to have had little to do with taking pleasure in early, beautiful flowers and in warmer weather! They called it Beltane—the fire of the god Bel. They lit fires, in the expectation that their blaze would help the sun in its struggle to regain its strength. They drove their cattle between banks of flame in the expectation that the terrified beasts would be purified and protected from disease. A tree, which must have been blackened with smoke, stood in the middle of the fires, and is thought to have been the origin of the Maypole. Their priests（牧师） made sacrifices to the goods in the hope of good harvests and sufficient store of food for the winter. There was dancing certainly, but it was noisy and cheerful, since its purpose was not to weave a pattern of colored ribbons, but to drive out evil spirits from the earth and to arouse those kind spirits.?

57. The main purpose of the passage is to show ________.?

A. the reason why they celebrate May Day

B. the start and customs of May Day

C. the way they celebrate May Day

D. the choosing of a May Queen during May Day

58. According to the passage, which sentence is NOT true??

A. In the old days they celebrated May Day for the changing of the seasons.?

B. In England summer begins at the first of May.?

C. The custom of the choosing of a May Queen still exists in the present May Day celebration.?D. The Celtic people celebrated the first of May as a spring festival.??

59. From the surrounding words and sentences we know that the word “presided” means ____.

A. 管理    B. 越过   C. 指挥   D. 主持?

60. The best title for this passage is ________.

A. The First of May     B. The Beginning of Summer

C. May Queen        D. The Holiday of the Year?

When my grandfather died, my 83-year-old grandmother, once so full of life, slowly began to fade. No longer able to manage a home of her own, she moved in with my mother, where she was visited often by other members of her large, loving family. Although she still had her good days, it was often hard to arouse her interest.
But one chilly December afternoon three years ago, my daughter Meagan, then eight, and I were visiting her, when she noticed that Meagan was carrying her favorite doll.“I, too, had a special doll when I was a little girl,” she told a wide-eyed Meagan. “I got it one Christmas when I was about your age. I lived in an old farmhouse in Maine, with Mom, Dad and my four sisters, and the very first gift I opened that Christmas was the most beautiful doll you’d ever want to see.”
“She had an exquisite(优美的，高雅的), hand-painted face, and her long brown hair was pulled back with a big pink bow. Her eyes were blue, and they opened and closed. I remember she had a body of kidskin, and her arms and legs bent at the joints.”
GG’s voice dropped low, taking on an almost respectful tone. “My doll was dressed in a pretty pink gown, decorated with fine lace. … Getting such a fine doll was like a miracle for a little farm girl like me — my parents must have had to sacrifice so much to afford it But how happy I was that morning!”
GG’s eyes filled and her voice shook with emotion as she recalled that Christmas of long ago. “I played with my doll all morning long. And then it happened. My mother called us to the dining room for Christmas dinner and I laid my new doll down gently on the hall table. But as I went to join the family at the table, I heard a loud crash.”
“I hardly had to turn around — I knew it was my precious doll. And it was. Her lace skirt had hung down from the table just enough for my baby sister to reach up and pull on it. When I ran in, there lay my beautiful doll on the floor, her face smashed into a dozen pieces. She was gone forever.”
A few years later, GG’s baby sister was also gone, she told Meagan, a victim of pneumonia(肺炎). Now the tears in her eyes spilled over — tears, I knew, not only for a lost doll and a lost sister, but for a lost time.
Subdued(沉默的) for the rest of the visit, Meagan was no sooner in the car going home than she exclaimed, “Mom, I have a great idea! Let’s get GG a new doll for Christmas. Then she won’t cry when she thinks about it.”
My heart filled with pride as I listened to my sympathetic little daughter. But where would we find a doll to match GG’s fond memories?
Where there’s a will, as they say, there’s a way. When I told my best friends, Liz and Chris, about my problem, Liz put me in touch with a local doll-make. From a doll supply house I ordered a long brown hair and a kidskin body to copy the outfit GG had so lovingly described. Liz volunteered to put the doll together, and Chris helped me make the doll’s outfit. Meagan wrote the story of the lost doll by giving examples.
Finally our creation was finished. To our eyes it was perfect. But there was no way it could be exactly like the doll GG had loved so much and lost. Would she think it looked anything like it?
On Christmas Eve, Meagan and I carried our happily packed gift to GG, where she sat surrounded by children, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. “It’s for you,” Meagan said, “but first you have to read the story that goes with it.”
GG no sooner got through the first page than her voice cracked and she was unable to go on, but Meagan took over where she left off. Then it was time to open her present.
I’ll never forget the look on GG’s face as she lifted the doll and held it to her chest. Once again her tears fell, but this time they were tears of joy. Holding the doll in her frail arms, she repeated over and over again, “She’s exactly like my old doll, exactly like her.” 
And perhaps she wasn't saying that just to be kind. Perhaps however impossible it seemed, we had managed to produce a close copy of the doll she remembered. But as I watched my eight-year-old daughter and her great-grandmother examining the doll together, I thought of a likelier explanation. What GG really recognized, perhaps, was the love that inspired the gift. And love, wherever it comes from, always looks the same.
【小题1】GG moved in with her daughter because ______.