My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening near my parents’ tomb in the churchyard.

    “Hold your noise!” came a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the tombs at the side of the church. “Keep still, you little devil(小鬼), or I’ll cut your throat!”

     A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. He seized me by the chin(下巴).

    “Tell us your name!” said the man. “Quick!”

    “Pip, sir.”

    “Show us where you live,” said the man. “Point out the place!”

    I pointed to where our village lay, on the flat in-shore among the alder-trees and pollards, a mile or more from the church.

    The man, after looking at me for a moment, turned me upside down, and emptied my pockets. There was nothing in them but a piece of bread.

    “You young dog,” said the man, licking his lips, “what fat cheeks you ha’ got. Darn me if I couldn’t eat em, and if I han’t half a mind to’t!”

I earnestly expressed my hope that he wouldn’t, and held tighter to the tombstone on which he had put me; partly, to keep myself upon it; partly, to keep myself from crying.

“Now then lookee here!” said the man. “Where’s your mother?”

“There, sir!” said I.

He started, made a short run, and stopped and looked over his shoulder.

“There, sir!” I timidly explained, pointed to the tombstone. “That’s my mother.”

“Oh!” said he, coming back. “And is that your father alonger your mother?”

John Fisher, a builder, and his wife Elizabeth wanted more living space, so they left their small flat for an old 40-metter-high castle tower. They have spent five years turning it into a beautiful home with six floors, winning three architectural prizes.

“I love the space, and being private,” Elizabeth says. “You feel separated from the world. If I am in the kitchen, which is 25 meters above the ground floor, and the doorbell rings, I don’t have to answer it because visitors can’t see I am in!”

There are 142 steps to the top so if I go up and down five or six times a day, it’s very good exercise! But having to carry heavy things to the top is terrible, so I never buy more than two bags of shopping from the supermarket at a time. Apart from that, it’s a brilliant place to live.

“When we first saw the place, I asked my father’s advice about buying it, because we couldn’t decide. After paying for it, we were a bit worried because it looked awful. But we really loved it, and knew how we wanted it to look.”

“Living here can be difficult-yesterday I climbed a four-meter ladder to clean the windows. But  when you stand on the roof you can see all the way out to sea on a clear day, and that’s a wonderful experience. I am really glad we moved. ”

1．What is the writer trying to do in the text?

      A．describe how to turn an old tower into a house.

       B．recommend a particular builder

       C．describe what it is like to live in a tower

       D．explain how to win prizes for building work

2．From the text, a reader can find out

       A．Why visitors are not welcome at John and Elizabeth’s house.

       B．Why Elizabeth asked her father to buy the tower

       C．Why Elizabeth exercises every day

       D．Why John and Elizabeth left their flat.

3．Which of the following best describes Elizabeth’s feelings about the tower?

       A．she wanted it as soon as she saw it

       B．she likes most things about it

       C．she ha been worried since they paid for it

       D．she finds it unsuitable to live in

4．What problem does Elizabeth have with living in such a tall building?

      A．Her visitors find it hard to see if she is at home

       B．She feels separated from others

       C．She cannot bring home lots of shopping at once

       D．It is impossible to clean any of the windows.

5．How will John and Elizabeth advertise their tower if they sell it?

A

B

C

D

My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening near my parents’ tomb in the churchyard.
“Hold your noise!” came a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the tombs at the side of the church. “Keep still, you little devil(小鬼), or I’ll cut your throat!”
A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. He seized me by the chin(下巴).
“Tell us your name!” said the man. “Quick!”
“Pip, sir.”
“Show us where you live,” said the man. “Point out the place!”
I pointed to where our village lay, on the flat in-shore among the alder-trees and pollards, a mile or more from the church.
The man, after looking at me for a moment, turned me upside down, and emptied my pockets. There was nothing in them but a piece of bread.
“You young dog,” said the man, licking his lips, “what fat cheeks you ha’ got. Darn me if I couldn’t eat em, and if I han’t half a mind to’t!”
I earnestly expressed my hope that he wouldn’t, and held tighter to the tombstone on which he had put me; partly, to keep myself upon it; partly, to keep myself from crying.
“Now then lookee here!” said the man. “Where’s your mother?”
“There, sir!” said I.
He started, made a short run, and stopped and looked over his shoulder.
“There, sir!” I timidly explained, pointed to the tombstone. “That’s my mother.”
“Oh!” said he, coming back. “And is that your father alonger your mother?”
“Yes, sir,” said I; “him too; late of thisparish(教区).”
【小题1】 The “voice” in the second paragraph came from______.

The practice of students endlessly copying letters and sentences from a blackboard is a thing of the past. With the coming of new technologies like computers and smart phones, writing by hand has become something of a nostalgic(怀旧的) skill. However, while today’s educators are using more and more technology in their teaching, many believe basic handwriting skills are still necessary for students to be successful—both in school and in life.
Virginia Berninger, professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says it’s important to continue teaching handwriting and help children acquire the skill of writing by hand.
Berninger and her colleagues conducted a study that looked at the ability of students to complete various writing tasks－both on a computer and by hand. The study, published in 2009, found that when writing with a pen and paper, participants wrote longer essays and more complete sentences and had a faster word production rate. Zxxk
In a more recent study, Berninger looked at what role spelling plays in a student’s writing skills and found that how well children spell is tied to how well they can write. “Spelling makes some of the thinking parts of the brain active, which helps us understand our vocabulary, word meaning and concepts. It is allowing our written language to connect with ideas.” Berninger said.
Spelling helps students translate ideas into words in their mind first and then to transcribe (转换) “those words in the mind into written symbols on paper or keyboard and screen,” the study said. Seeing the words in the “mind’s eye” helps children not only to turn their ideas into words, says Berninger, but also to spot spelling mistakes when they write the words down and to correct them over time.
“In our computer age, some people believe that we don’t have to teach spelling because we have spell checks，” she said. “But until a child has a functional spelling ability of about a fifth grade level, they won’t have the knowledge to choose the correct spelling among the choices given by the computer.”
【小题1】What makes writing by hand a thing of the past?