It was worth it. On that early May day. Ashley made $50 for the 86 pounds of ferns he hauled in to the weigh station.

And he’s made about that much every day of the fiddlehead season.

“I know where to go, ”said Ashley, who grew up along the Winooski.

For four or five weeks a year in Vermont, fiddleheads, young ferns found near water in the northeast, are big business for anyone who cares to pick them. Before they uncurl to their mature height, the plants resemble violin heads.

The ferns, which taste like asparagus when cooked, are usually fried in butter or olive oil and served as side dish.

Restaurants offer them as a seasonal specialty; supermarkets sell them by the pound.

John Farrar, the fiddlehead king of Richmond, Vermont, parks his pickup every evening and waits for the pickers to bring in their mesh bags of fiddleheads for weighing. Farrar often collects more than 450 kilograms of the tightly curled green discs.

He drives them to WS Wells and Son in Wilton, Maine, where they are prepared for sale fresh, in cans, and dried in soup mix. Wells processes about 35 tons a year, all from local pickers who bring in the fiddleheads by bag or bucket.

Farrar is careful to take only ostrich ferns. Some other kinds are said to cause cancer in cows or stomach upset in humans.

“They all kind of look like fiddleheads, ”said Butch Wells, owner WS Wells and Son, “I’ve had people drive for two hours with 90 kilograms of the wrong kind. ”

He said he believed he was having some fiddleheads for supper that night, “I’ve had them in stews , and I’ve had them in quiches, which all sometimes called Impossible Pie. And we just have them plain, as a side dish. ”

Even his kids cat fiddlebads.

“They like pickled fiddleheads, ”Wells said.

“They don’t like them any other way. ”

1. Fiddleheads are______.

A. musical instruments　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  B. young ferns

C. Vermont pickup truck　　　　　　 　　　　    D. Ashley Stevens

2. The young plants look like______.

A. photograph discs　　　　   　　　　　　　　　　  B. hunches of asparagus

C. he head of a violin　　　　　　 　　　　  　　   D. a fish

3. The ferns must be gathered when they are young because when the plants mature they______.

A. lose their green color　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　    B. weigh close to 90kg

C. can cure cancer　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　　　　   　　D. uncurl

4. The tightly curled discs______.

A. grow in the Northeastern United States

B. are picked 45 weeks a year

C. can cause stomach problems

D. must be eaten within five hours

5. People who harvest fiddleheads______.

A. look for the plants all year round

B. sell the ferns for a good price

C. are usually able to cook side dishes

D. needed to keep an eye on their canoes

BOLTON，Vermont-Fourteen-year-ole Ashley Stevens fell out of his canoe into the frigid Winooski River in Vermont, US, climbed onto the muddy bank and picked fiddleheads for five hours as his wet clothes stiffened and dried in the frosty spring air.

It was worth it. On that early May day. Ashley made $50 for the 86 pounds of ferns he hauled in to the weigh station.

And he’s made about that much every day of the fiddlehead season.

“I know where to go, ”said Ashley, who grew up along the Winooski.

For four or five weeks a year in Vermont, fiddleheads, young ferns found near water in the northeast, are big business for anyone who cares to pick them. Before they uncurl to their mature height, the plants resemble violin heads.

The ferns, which taste like asparagus when cooked, are usually fried in butter or olive oil and served as side dish.

Restaurants offer them as a seasonal specialty; supermarkets sell them by the pound.

John Farrar, the fiddlehead king of Richmond, Vermont, parks his pickup every evening and waits for the pickers to bring in their mesh bags of fiddleheads for weighing. Farrar often collects more than 450 kilograms of the tightly curled green discs.

He drives them to WS Wells and Son in Wilton, Maine, where they are prepared for sale fresh, in cans, and dried in soup mix. Wells processes about 35 tons a year, all from local pickers who bring in the fiddleheads by bag or bucket.

Farrar is careful to take only ostrich ferns. Some other kinds are said to cause cancer in cows or stomach upset in humans.

“They all kind of look like fiddleheads, ”said Butch Wells, owner WS Wells and Son, “I’ve had people drive for two hours with 90 kilograms of the wrong kind. ”

He said he believed he was having some fiddleheads for supper that night, “I’ve had them in stews , and I’ve had them in quiches, which all sometimes called Impossible Pie. And we just have them plain, as a side dish. ”

Even his kids cat fiddlebads.

“They like pickled fiddleheads, ”Wells said.

“They don’t like them any other way. ”

1. Fiddleheads are______.

A. musical instruments　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  B. young ferns

C. Vermont pickup truck　　　　　　 　　　　    D. Ashley Stevens

2. The young plants look like______.

A. photograph discs　　　　   　　　　　　　　　　  B. hunches of asparagus

C. he head of a violin　　　　　　 　　　　  　　   D. a fish

3. The ferns must be gathered when they are young because when the plants mature they______.

A. lose their green color　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　    B. weigh close to 90kg

C. can cure cancer　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　　　　   　　D. uncurl

4. The tightly curled discs______.

A. grow in the Northeastern United States

B. are picked 45 weeks a year

C. can cause stomach problems

D. must be eaten within five hours

5. People who harvest fiddleheads______.

A. look for the plants all year round

B. sell the ferns for a good price

C. are usually able to cook side dishes

D. needed to keep an eye on their canoes

虎妈，美国耶鲁大学的华裔教授蔡美儿Amy Lynn Chua，出版了一本名叫《虎妈战歌》Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother的书，在美国引起轰动。在接受采访时，回答了记者的5个问题（第61—65题）。请从下列提问（A、B、C、D、E和F）中选出与她的回答相匹配的问题，并在答题卡上将相应选项涂黑。选项中有一项是多余选项。
Questions
A．What do you think of the competition between China and the US?
B．What do you think of the image of “tiger mom?”
C．How do your daughters take the criticism about you after your book was published?
D．You said you would not get her Christmas gifts or anything when your daughter refused to repeatedly practice the music. How did your husband respond?
E．What do you think makes a good mother?
F．What does your husband think of your method of bringing up kids?
【小题1】      
Chua’s answer: Well, actually I think there are many ways of being a good mother. In my book my focus is just a memory about my own family story, me trying to raise my own children in a kind of traditional Chinese way. I make mistakes and I make fun of myself. It’s amazing the way the book has been received internationally, because. I didn’t intend my book to be telling other people of view and I am a proud strict “tiger mom”. But I’m not trying to tell other people what are the best ways to teach or raise their children.
【小题2】       
Chua’s answer: Well, the title may sound a little frightening. Let me tell you why I chose the title. I was born in the year of the tiger. And “battle Hymn” in the United States comes from “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. The book is really about finding some sort of balance: how can we find the balance between the eastern way of parenting and the western way of parenting. In ways the book as been misunderstood maybe because of the title.
【小题3】       
Chua’s answer: I didn’t write this book to have any foreign policy implications. But it’s been taken into the foreign policy realm. It is of course true that there is a connection between child-raising and the future of nations. We are raising, as parents, the next generation. So I think Henry is right. We tapped into this thing of insecurity, American’s fear about the rising power of china. A friend of mine told me that if the book had been called The Battle Hymn of an Italian Mother or The Battle Hymn of a Mexican Mother, nobody would have cared. It’s really “China”. you know.
【小题4】       
Chua’s answer: I don’t think he opposes my idea of raising children. I’d like to think we have a combination, which is the right solution. You need a balance. From my perspective, what I give my kids is something that I thought was lacking in the US educational system. You know, they hate memorization, while in China you have too much of it. In the US, learning should be fun, a lot of games,. So I brought hard work and disciplines. My husband and I think this is a great thing always teaching them to question the authority and to ask why. Don’t accept everything just because somebody tells you. Figure it out yourself. I really think you need to combine both these qualities if you want creativity and dynamism.
【小题5】       
Chua’s answer:  They both are stronger than I am. I am really proud of them. Their friends and communities supported them. At a time, I couldn’t even look at the Internet because there are so many negative comments. And they would find the good ones and text them to me, saying “here’s a good one mommy, hang in there.” This experience has actually brought my family together. Believe it or not, not just my kids, also my parents and my three younger sisters have supported me.

In 1859，during the Gold Rush，a twenty- year-old immigrant（移民）from Bavaria named Levi Strauss stepped off the boat in San Francisco. He had with him a special cloth called Serge de Nimes that was later called denim in America. Levi Strauss hoped to sell the denim as material to make tents and covers for wagons to the men who were going to the goldfields to look for gold.

“You should have brought trousers to sell. In the goldfields we need strong trousers that don‘t wear out，”one young miner advised Strauss. So Levi Strauss took some of his denim to the nearest tailor and had him make the miner a pair of trousers. The miner was so pleased that he told other miners about the wonderful newcomer，Levi，and soon Levi Strauss had to open a shop，producing enough trousers for the miners. The miners wanted trousers that were comfortable to ride in and were low cut so that they could bend over easily to pick up the gold from under their feet. Besides they wanted the trousers to have big useful pockets. One miner complained that the gold in his pockets kept tearing them. So Levi put metal corners in the pockets to make them stronger. Very soon，miners and cowboys from all over came to get fitted up with Levi‘s trousers. Today more than a hundred years later， Levi’s trousers walk the world a Levi‘s blue jeans（牛仔裤）。

1.The denim cloth was originally（起初）meant for____.

A. making tent covers and wagons

B. making tents for wagons

C. making trousers for the miners

D. making wagon covers and tents

2.What kind of material do you think is denim？

A.A strong type of cloth that is not torn by strong wears.

B.A special type of cloth that cannot be washed away by rain.

C.A smooth type of cloth that is for underwear.

D.A wonderful type of cloth that is as good as metal.

3.A miner advised Strauss to sell trousers because ____.

A. the miners didn‘t have enough trousers

B. the miner‘s trousers had not been strong enough

C. the miner‘s trousers did not wear out easily

D. the tailor on the goldfield could not make trousers

4.Why did the miners need strong pockets in the trousers？

A. Their pockets kept tearing the gold.

B. Their pockets were not made of metal.

C. The gold they found was too sharp and heavy to tear their pockets.

D. The gold they collected easily tore their pockets.

虎妈，美国耶鲁大学的华裔教授蔡美儿Amy Lynn Chua，出版了一本名叫《虎妈战歌》Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother的书，在美国引起轰动。在接受采访时，回答了记者的5个问题（第61—65题）。请从下列提问（A、B、C、D、E和F）中选出与她的回答相匹配的问题，并在答题卡上将相应选项涂黑。选项中有一项是多余选项。

Questions

A．What do you think of the competition between China and the US?

B．What do you think of the image of “tiger mom?”

C．How do your daughters take the criticism about you after your book was published?

D．You said you would not get her Christmas gifts or anything when your daughter refused to repeatedly practice the music. How did your husband respond?

E．What do you think makes a good mother?

F．What does your husband think of your method of bringing up kids?

1.       

Chua’s answer: Well, actually I think there are many ways of being a good mother. In my book my focus is just a memory about my own family story, me trying to raise my own children in a kind of traditional Chinese way. I make mistakes and I make fun of myself. It’s amazing the way the book has been received internationally, because. I didn’t intend my book to be telling other people of view and I am a proud strict “tiger mom”. But I’m not trying to tell other people what are the best ways to teach or raise their children.

2.       

Chua’s answer: Well, the title may sound a little frightening. Let me tell you why I chose the title. I was born in the year of the tiger. And “battle Hymn” in the United States comes from “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. The book is really about finding some sort of balance: how can we find the balance between the eastern way of parenting and the western way of parenting. In ways the book as been misunderstood maybe because of the title.

3.       

Chua’s answer: I didn’t write this book to have any foreign policy implications. But it’s been taken into the foreign policy realm. It is of course true that there is a connection between child-raising and the future of nations. We are raising, as parents, the next generation. So I think Henry is right. We tapped into this thing of insecurity, American’s fear about the rising power of china. A friend of mine told me that if the book had been called The Battle Hymn of an Italian Mother or The Battle Hymn of a Mexican Mother, nobody would have cared. It’s really “China”. you know.

4.       

Chua’s answer: I don’t think he opposes my idea of raising children. I’d like to think we have a combination, which is the right solution. You need a balance. From my perspective, what I give my kids is something that I thought was lacking in the US educational system. You know, they hate memorization, while in China you have too much of it. In the US, learning should be fun, a lot of games,. So I brought hard work and disciplines. My husband and I think this is a great thing always teaching them to question the authority and to ask why. Don’t accept everything just because somebody tells you. Figure it out yourself. I really think you need to combine both these qualities if you want creativity and dynamism.

5.       

Chua’s answer:  They both are stronger than I am. I am really proud of them. Their friends and communities supported them. At a time, I couldn’t even look at the Internet because there are so many negative comments. And they would find the good ones and text them to me, saying “here’s a good one mommy, hang in there.” This experience has actually brought my family together. Believe it or not, not just my kids, also my parents and my three younger sisters have supported me.