My grandparents were married for over half a century, and played their own special game from the time they met each other. The goal of their game was to write the word “shmily” in a surprise place for the other to find.

“Shmily” was written in the steam left on the mirror after a hot shower, where it would reappear bath after bath. At one point, my grandmother even opened an entire roll of toilet paper to leave “shmily” on the very last sheet. Little notes with “shmily” scribbled (潦草地写) hurriedly were found on dashboards (仪表板) and car seats, or taped to steering wheels.

It took me a long time before I was able to fully appreciate my grandparents’ game. Skepticism (怀疑态度) had kept me from believing in true love — one that is pure and lasting. However, I never doubted my grandparents’ relationship. They had love down pat. It was more than their flirtatious (爱调戏的) little games; it was a way of life. Their relationship was based on devotion and passionate love.

Grandma and Grandpa held hands every chance they could. They stole kisses as they bumped into each other in their tiny kitchen. They finished each other’s sentences and shared the daily crossword puzzle and word jumble. My grandma whispered to me about how cute my grandpa was, how handsome and old he had grown to be. She claimed that she really knew “how to pick ‘em.”

But there came a dark cloud into my grandparents’ life: when my grandmother got breast cancer. Gradually it took over the whole of her body. One day, what we all dreaded finally happened. Grandma was gone.

“Shmily.” It was scrawled in yellow on the pink ribbons of my grandmother’s funeral bouquet (花束). The family came forward and gathered around Grandma one last time. Grandpa stepped up to my grandmother’s casket (棺) and, taking a shaky breath, he began to sing to her. Through his tears and sadness, the song came, a deep and throaty lullaby (催眠曲,). Shaking with my own sorrow, I would never forget that moment.

S-h-m-i-l-y: See How Much I Love You.

The point of the article is to ________.

A. give advice on how to keep love fresh  

B. explain to readers the meaning of “shmily”

C. show the true love between the writer’s grandparents

D. express how much the writer loved her grandparents

What is the function of the second paragraph?

A. To support the first paragraph.                B. To introduce the next paragraph.

C. To give the main idea of the article.            D. To make the article more interesting.

The author’s grandmother ________.

A. used to kiss her grandfather in secret

B. died from breast cancer, which spread all over

C. played crossword puzzle daily with her grandfather

D. considered her grandfather old and careless

What is the author’s attitude toward her grandparents’ love?

A. She doubts whether it was true love.

B. She finds their way of expressing love strange.

C. She admires their romantic and passionate love.

D. She thinks she will never be able to love like that.

Ever since I was little, my favorite season was winter. I loved to play in the snow and enjoy the hot chocolate.
____36_____, winter never gave me the special gift of snow on my birthday. I would ask my grandmother ____37____ it didn’t snow on my birthday. She would laugh and tell me I asked too many questions. ___38____one day, she promised that she would make it snow on my next birthday.
That year, ____39____ my birthday, my grandmother died.  I was sad but angry because she had promised to make it snow. The day of my sixth birthday, I woke up and ran to the window, hoping to see just one snowflake. But there was no snow. I felt mad at my grandmother. She had broken a promise.
But my sixteenth birthday, I had lost all hope of getting my snow, even though I still wished for ___40____. During my party, I stayed with my friends and family and was truly happy. I ___41___ the best time ever! Then I saw the white snow ____42___down all around. I was so excited that I ran around screaming and laughing. My friends all laughed ____43___me, but I didn’t care.
When I ___44____home, my grandpa said he had a gift for me. I was ___45___ because he had given me a gift. It was a small white box, which looked old. I opened it. There was a crystal snowflake(水晶雪花) with a card that said, “Happy Birthday.”
How could this be? My grandpa said it was my grandmother’s final ___46____ on my “sweet sixteenth”. I cried.
I was ___47_____ that my smiling grandmother angel was and had been watching over me.

The day finally came, when I had to leave the warm home where I’d grown up. I ran to the back yard, as tears came up from my heart. Suddenly I    36  a hand rest on my shoulder. I looked up to    37  my grandfather. “It isn’t    38  , is it, Billy?” he said softly.
He gently    39   my hand in his, and then we walked, hand in hand, to the front yard,    40   a huge red rose-bush sat alone.
“What do you see here, Billy?” he asked. I looked at the flowers, not knowing    41   to say, and then answered, “I see something soft and    42  , grandpa.”
He pulled me    43  . “It isn't just the roses that are beautiful, Billy. It’s that special place in your heart that makes them so.” “Billy, I    44   these roses when my first son was born. It was my    45   of saying ‘thank you’ to God. I    46   to watch him pick roses for his mother. Then, as a young man of only 20, a terrible war robbed him of his life.” Grandpa slowly stood up. “Never say good-bye, Billy. Never    47   to the sadness and the loneliness. Instead, I want you to remember the joy and the    48   when you first said hello to a friend.”
A year later, my grandpa became very    49  .Then all members of the family
were    50   back, and I returned to the old house. When it came to my    51  , I took his hand as    52   as he had once taken mine.
“Hello, grandpa,” I    53  .His eyes slowly opened and said, “Hello, my friend.” With a brief    54   he died. Suddenly, and truly, I knew what he had    55   about never saying good-bye — about refusing to give in to sadness.

      My parents were in a huge argument, and I was really upset about it. I didn’t know who I should talk with about how I was feeling. So I asked Mom to allow me to stay the night at my best friend’s house. Though I knew I wouldn’t tell her about my parents’ situation, I was looking forward to getting out of the house. I was in the middle of packing up my things when suddenly the power went out in the neighborhood. Mom came to tell me that I should stay with my grandpa until the power came back on.

     I was really disappointed because I felt that we did not have much to talk about. But I knew he would be frightened alone in the dark. I went to his room and told him that I’d stay with him until the power was restored. He was quite happy and said, “Great opportunity.”

   “What is?” I asked.

   “To talk, you and I,” he said. “To hold a private little meeting about what we’re going to do with your mom and dad, and what we’re going to do with ourselves now that we’re in the situation we are in.”

    “But we can’t do anything about it, Grandpa,” I said, surprised that here was someone with whom I could share my feelings and someone who was in the same “boat” as I was.

      And that’s how the most unbelievable friendship between my grandfather and me started. Sitting there in the dark, we talked about our feeling and fears of life---from how fast things change, to how they sometimes don’t change fast enough. That night, because the power went out, I found a new friend, with whom I could safely talk about all my fears and pains, whatever they may be.

     Suddenly, the lights all came back on. “Well,” he said, “ I guess that means you’ll want to go now. I really like our talk. I hope the power will go out every few nights!”

56. I wished to get out of the house because ________.

   A. I was angry about my parents’ quarrel        B. I found nobody to share my feelings with

   C. I wanted to escape from the dark house           D. I planned to tell my friend about my trouble

57. Grandpa was happy to see me because___________.

   A. he could discuss the problem with me         B. he had not seem me for a long time

   C. he was afraid of darkness                          D. he felt quite lonely

58. What can be inferred from the passage?

   A. The grandchild was eager to leave.                 B. They would have more chats.

   C. The lights would go our again.                   D. It would no longer be dark.

 “Hey, Dad，” one of my kids asked the other day, “what was your favourite fast food when you were growing up？”

“We didn't have fast food when I was growing up，” I informed him. “All the food was slow.”

“Come on, seriously. Where did you eat？”

“It was a place called ‘home’” I explained.“Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I liked it.”

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it：

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza. It was called “pizza pie”. When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, and plastered itself against my chin. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was. Bread and rolls came from the Omar man. All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week even when the snow was 18 inches deep. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents, I had to get up at 4：00 a．m. every morning. On Saturdays, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

1. Hearing what the author said, his child probably thought ________.

A. he was lucky to have fast food

B. it was unbelievable to live without fast food

C. how happy his own life was

D. his father was joking with him

2. When he used to have meals with the adults, the author ________.

A. had to watch his table manners

B. could choose what he liked

C. was not given much freedom

D. had to eat everything offered to him

3. What do we know about the first pizza the author had?

A. It left a good memory on him.

B. The author didn't like it at all.

C. It was too poorly made.

D. He didn't know how to eat it.

4. Why did the author talk about his experience of delivering newspapers?

A. To show that his family used to be quite poor.

B. To show that children before had to make a living by themselves.

C. To show that he had gained a lot from the experience.

D. To show that growing experience was quite different before.

5. What's the author's attitude towards today's children?

A. He thinks they are spoiled.

B. He thinks they are too obsessed with fast food.

C. He thinks they should go through some hardship.

D. He doesn't give his personal opinion.