Anita’s New Start

       Even though it was a beautiful spring day, Anita felt sad as she walked along the beach after school. Her family had moved to the USA three weeks earlier for her father’s new job. Anita missed her old home in Mexico. She wanted to eat her grandmother’s bread and play with her cousin.

       Anita thought about her new life in Texas. She thought she would never learn this new language—everyone spoke so fast. How could she make new friends if she couldn’t even talk to people? “I’m too shy to make new friends anyway,” she thought, feeling disheartened. Anita decided to try something her mother had taught her. Her mother had said, “Anita, whenever you’re sad, take a few deep breaths and think about something that makes you happy.” Then Anita took a deep breath.

       Suddenly a seagull(海鸥) called overhead. She remembered that she had saved some biscuits from lunch. She quickly threw a biscuit into the air. As the gull caught the biscuit in its mouth, she laughed. Just then, another gull landed near her and stood frozen. Anita noticed its wing was injured. She wanted to help, but didn’t know what to do.

       At that moment Anita saw a man and a group of children in the distance. She recognized the man as Mr. Turner, a teacher at her school. He was pointing to something and all the children in the science club were listening to him. Anita decided that this was no time to be shy. She began walking toward the group. Anita took a deep breath. “Hello,” she said quietly. When Mr. Turner looked up, she pointed toward the gull and begged, “Come, please!” “Hello, Anita. What’s wrong?” Anita pointed again toward the bird. Mr. Turner gestured to the group. “Come on, everyone, Let’s see what Anita has found.” As the group followed Anita, she noticed a girl from her class. Anita smiled at the girl and spoke carefully, “What is your name?”

1．What was one problem that Anita faced in the story?

       A．She didn’t like her new friends.

       B．She didn’t speak English very well.

       C．She didn’t have free time after school.

       D．She didn’t get attention from her teacher.

2．In the story, what led Anita to making up her mind to speak to others?

       A．The seagull.         B．Mr. Turner.          C．Her mother.         D．Her classmate.

3．Which of the following shows the order in which the events happened in the story?

       a．Anita thought about her mother’s words.

       b．Anita walked up to Mr. Turner for help.

       c．Anita saw a seagull with a hurt wing.

       d．Anita missed her old home.

       A．a—d—c—b         B．a—b—d—c         C．d—c—b—a         D．d—a—c—b

4．How did Anita change by the end of the story?

       A．She worried more about her new life.

       B．She became eager to know the girl’s name.

       C．She overcame her shyness to help a hurt bird.

       D．She decided to join the science club in the school.

Read and choose(阅读理解)：

　　Larry Bird was born in 1965 in a small town in the middle western state of Indiana．He was tall, and always good at playing basketball．He attended Indiana State University, Bird led the team into the College Basketball Championship Game．

　　After completing his college studies, Larry Bird began playing professional basketball for the Boston Celtics．He remained with the Celtics for all his professional career．During those 13 years, Larry Bird was named Most Valuable Player of the Year three times．He scored more than 21,000 points, and he played in 13 of the highest scoring games in his team’s history．Once he scored 60 points in just one game．

　　During his very successful basketball career, Larry Bird suffered a number of injuries．In 1989, he stopped playing because of pain in his feet．He returned in 1990, but the pain in his feet returned too．In the next two years he experienced more medical problems, and he missed many games．

　　Larry Bird did play on the Dream Team-the first Olympic Team with professional players．However, after winning the gold medal in Barcelona, he announced that he would retire from professional basketball．Larry Bird said he would have liked to play a little longer, but he could not because of his health problems．He also said it was a good time to leave the game．He wanted to be remembered as a winner．

1．The main idea of the second paragraph is that Larry Bird ______．

[　　]

A．was named Most Valuable Player of the Year

B．was good at shooting baskets

C．was strong and tall

D．was the oldest player of the team

2．Which of the following words can take the place of the word“scored” in the second paragraph? ______．

[　　]

A．got　　　B．lost　　　C．wrote　　　D．made

3．Which of the following is not true? ______．

[　　]

A．Larry Bird began his career soon after his graduation from the college

B．He lost interest in playing basketball after he retired

C．Though he had left the team, he felt no regrets

D．He thought it a right decision to leave the team

4．What team did Larry Bird join during his professional career? ______．

[　　]

A．The Boston Celtics

B．The Indiana State University Team

C．The Dream Team

D．An unknown team

5．What’s the main reason for Larry Bird’s decision to retire from professional basketball? ______．

[　　]

A．He liked to be remembered as a winner

B．He was too old to play basketball

C．He had already won the Olympic gold medal

D．He was not healthy enough to continue his career

Jonny Jones was a nice and popular boy, who everyone loved．He was so much fun, so good and so kind to everyone that they treated him wonderfully. But as everything he needed was given to him without asking, Jonny became a weed. He was so spoiled by everyone that he couldn’t stand any hardship.
One day Johnny heard a mother saying to her son “Come on, my boy, get up and stop crying. You are behaving like Johnny Jones.” That made Johnny feel very ashamed. But he was sure that he would prefer to be known as a good boy rather than a fool. Worried, he spoke to his father about all this, though he was afraid that maybe he would be laughed at for having such worries. His father, far from laughing at Johnny, told him that a teacher had taught him a secret trick to turn him into the toughest boy off all. “Eat a candy less, study a minute more, and count to five before crying.” Johnny asked, “Just that? ” “Yes, just that,” said his father, “It’s very simple, but I warn you that it won’t be easy.”
Johnny was happy like a bird, ready to follow the advice. He went to see his mother, and she noticed how happy he was when she offered him candies. “One candy less”, thought Johnny, so he only took one. That afternoon he had another chance to put it into practice by studying one minute more. The result was that he missed the first minute of his favorite program! But having achieved this gave him a great feeling of satisfaction. The same happened when he ran up against the corner of the kitchen table. He only managed to count to four before crying, but that was left deeply in his mother’s memory.
Over the following days Johnny kept using the motto in his life as his father told him. And the more he put this into practice ,the easier it got. Before long he realized that he could also do things that would seem impossible before.
【小题1】The underlined word "weed" in the first paragraph refers to ____．