People have been burying the dead at Salem’s Hope Cemetery since 1833. The place is filled with old gravestones and gothic mausoleums(哥特式陵墓), the spirits of the dead hanging over the land like an early morning fog.

Keeping watch, a few steps from the road with her skirt over the pedestal (基座), is Goldie Belle Taylor, her face weathered but otherwise in good condition. On this day, she is holding a bunch of pink rises because Goldie Belle always holds flowers. Someone makes sure of that.

“And she has had fresh flowers in her hands for the last 150 years.” Karen Biery lives in Damascus, about five miles west of Hope Cemetery. She’s written a book based on the legend of Goldie Belle Taylor titled Believe. In 1886, at the age of two, young Goldie Belle used her hands to sop up (抹去) the left over elderberry juice from her father’s iron kettle. She died not long after from poisoning. She was the love of her dad’s life, and he was so upset that he sold the family farm to buy the Italian made statue, which today marks her grave.

At first, it was her father who brought the flowers and laid them in her hands. When he died in 1896, the flowers kept coming. Her flowers are different per season. Why do the flowers keep miraculously appearing? People have tried to find out by having camped by the statue, but not even the groundskeepers have been able to catch the criminal.

It’s said that a fairy arrives at Hope Cemetery looking for the grave of her birth mother. She comes across Goldie Belle’s statue.

1.The underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 probably refers to________.

A．her face in good condition

B．her bunch of pink roses

C．Goldie Belle Taylor is holding pink roses

D．Goldie Belle Taylor always holds flowers

2.It can be inferred from the third paragraph __________.

A．her father was poisonous                 B．the iron kettle was poisonous

C．elderberry juice was poisonous             D．it was her father that hated her

3.After her father died, the flowers in the hands of Goldie Belle Taylor_______.

A．usually change                         B．were stolen

C．are no longer fresh                      D．come from a criminal

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

A．A fairy brings the flowers.                 B．The mystery of Goldie’s flowers.

C．What happens to the girl?                 D．How do the flowers get there?

If you live in America in the 21^st century you'll probably have to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It's become the default response when you ask anyone how they are doing: “Busy!” “Crazy busy!”. It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. And the common response is a kind of congratulation:“ That's a good problem to have, ”or“ Better than the opposite.”

    Notice it isn't generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the ICU or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs who tell you how busy they are. What those people are is not busy but tired. Exhausted! Dead on their feet. It's almost always people whose busyness is purely self-imposed work and obligations they've taken on voluntarily, classes and activities they've “encouraged” their kids to participate in. They're busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they're addicted to busyness and dread that they might have to face in its absence.

    Almost everyone I know is busy. They feel anxious and guilty when they aren't either working or doing something to promote their work. It's something they have chosen. Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance(令人安心的保证），a measure against emptiness, obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or tiny or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.

Idleness is not just a vacation. It is as necessary to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as ugly as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration.” Idle dreaming is often the essence of what we do”, wrote Thomas Pynchon. Archimedes' “Eureka” in the bath, Newton's apple :history is full of stories of inspirations that come in idle moments.

1.When many Americans say “Crazy busy”, they mean______.

A. they are really tired of their present situation

B. they are really proud of their present life

C. they are complaining about their current work

D. their life are full of all kinds of problems

2.The writer mentions Archimedes'“Eureka” and Newton's apple to show that________.

A. history is full of interesting stories

B. Archimedes and Newton were very busy, so they made great discoveries

C. people may get inspiration when they are idle

D. inspirations come from hard work

3.The word “its” in the second paragraph refers to_________________.

 ambition       B. anxiety                 C. busyness                      D. dread

4.From the article, we can infer that ___________________.

A. generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the ICU tell you they are busy

B. “Dead on their feet” means “being tired out”

C. all the kids are self-imposed due to the drive and motivation

D. The author seems to agree that idleness is better than busyness

Honesty comes in many forms. First there’s self-honesty. Is what people see the real article or do you appear through smoke and mirrors? I find that if I try to be something I’m not , I feel unsure of myself and take out a part from my PBA(personal bank account ).I love how singer Judy Garland put it, “Always be a first-class version(版本) of yourself , instead of a second-class version of somebody else .”

Then there’s honesty in our actions. Are you honest at school, with your parents, and with your boss? If you’ve ever been dishonest, I think we all have, try being honest, and notice how whole it makes you feel. Remember, you can’t do wrong and feel right. This story by Jeff is a good example of that:

In my second year of study, there were three kids in my math class who didn’t do well. I was really good at it. I would charge them three dollars for each test that I helped them pass. I’d write on a little piece of paper all the right answers, and hand them off.

At first I felt like I was making money, kind of a nice job. I wasn’t thinking about how it could hurt all of us. After a while I realized I shouldn’t do that anymore, because I wasn’t really helping them. They weren’t learning anything, and it would only get harder down the road. Cheating certainly wasn’t helping me.

It takes courage to be honest when people all around you are getting away with cheating on tests, lying to their parents, and stealing at work. But, remember, every act of honesty is a deposit（储蓄）into your PBA and will build strength .

1.The underlined part “appear through smoke and mirrors” in the first paragraph means “          ”.

A. to be honest

B. to be unreal

C. to become clear

D. to come from an imagined world

2.Which of the following can best explain Judy Garland’s words?

A. Be your true self rather than follow others.

B. Don’t copy others or you can’t be the first class.

C. Make efforts to be the first instead of the second.

D. Don’t learn from others unless they’re excellent.

3.What does the author expect to show by Jeff’s story ？

A. honesty can be of great help.

B. A bad thing can be turned into a good one.

C. Helping others cheat can do good to nobody.

D. One should realize the wrong in his bad deeds.

4.In the last paragraph the author mainly wants to express              .

A. one must be brave to be honest

B. it’s difficult to be honest when others are not

C. one should be honest when making a deposit

D. honesty in one’s actions can help him in the future

 Throughout history, people have been interested in knowing how language first began, but no one knows exactly where or how this happened. However, we do know a lot about languages, the languages of today and also the languages of earlier times. There are probably about three thousand languages in the world today. Chinese is the language with the most speakers. English, Russian and Spanish are also spoken by many millions of people. On the other hand, some languages in the world have less than one hundred speakers.

There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo-European. The original (最初的) language of this family was spoken about 4,500 years ago. Many of the present day languages of Europe and India are modern forms of the language of 4,500 years ago.

Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from the English of 500 years ago. In time some even die out completely. About 1,000 years ago English was a little -known relative of German spoken on one of the borders（边界）of Europe.

If a language has a lot of speakers or if it is very old, there may be differences in the way it is spoken in different areas. That is, the language may have several dialects. Chinese is a good example of dialect differences. Chinese has been spoken for thousands of years by many millions of speakers. The differences between the dialects of Chinese are so great that speakers of Chinese from some parts of China cannot understand speakers from other parts.

1.The first paragraph mainly tells us that_______.

2.Many European and Indian languages ______.

3.____ seems to have changed a lot

4. The best title of this passage is        .

In life, you will _________ many unexpected things. If not so, what is the meaning of life?