Aunt Polly had told Tom to paint the whole fence (栅栏)in front of the house. He thought of the other boys out for the day enjoying themselves and he felt very unhappy. Then he had an idea! He picked up the brush and started painting slowly and carefully. Soon, his friend Ben Rogers appeared, eating an apple. Tom pretended (假装) not to see him.
“Tom!” Ben said. “Why are you working?”
“Oh, it’s you, Ben,”Tom said, “I didn’t notice you.”
“I’m gong for a swim,” Ben said, “but you don’t’ want to come. You want to work, don’t you? It’s much nicer!” Ben laughed loudly. Tom looked seriously at Ben and said. “What is work? What do you call work?”
“Isn’t that work?” Ben asked.
“Well, no. Does a boy get the opportunity to paint a fence every day? You’ve never painted a fence, have you? Auntie says I have to do it with great care!’
“Pleas, Tom. Let me do a little,” said Ben.
“No, Ben. If you do, you’ll do it wrong. You can’t paint very well. If it was the back fence wouldn’t mind, but it isn’t.”
“I won’t do it wrong. I’ll be really careful. I’ll give you my apple.” Tom gave him the brush and paint with a sad face, but in his heart he was glad, His trick had worked.
After Ben got tired and left, other boys came along and Tom said the same things to them. Soon, the whole fence was painted white, but not by Tom. He felt very clever because he had discovered something important about the way people are. People only want what they can’t have or want to do what they shouldn’t do.
【小题1】Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word “opportunity” on this passage?

The basketball final between Perfect School and Sunrise School has entered white-hot stage. There are only fifteen seconds left. Sunrise School is one point ahead. Mitchell, who is one of the best players of Perfect School, is now controlling the ball. The students are extremely excited. They cannot help standing up and shouting, “Go! Mitchell!”Other teammates also encourage Mitchell, “Take a shot, boy!”

Mitchell knows it will be the last shot. He hesitates (犹豫) and falls into careful thinking. He imagines that he shoots from the halfway line. The hall turns quiet. All eyes follow the track of the basketball. It jumps round the ring over and over again and finally rolls out of the court. The world turns noisy. Mitchell sees his coach lower his head, his teammates kneel down and his fans cry. It gives him so much pain. It is the last match for his coach before retiring. All the teammates practiced hard and hoped to give their coach a perfect ending. But now, the bubble bursts (破裂).

“Is that what you want?” Mitchell asks himself.“Certainly not. But how can I change the situation? Teamwork!”Mitchell returns to reality from his thinking. He does not have a shot by himself but surprisingly passes the basketball to his teammate, Jack, who is standing near the basket. Jack catches the basketball and quickly scores a two-point shot. There goes the whistle at the same time. Perfect School finally wins the game.

1.When there are only fifteen seconds left, ______.

A．the students are surprised                B．Mitchell’s coach is shouting

C．Sunrise team is one point ahead            D．Perfect team is two points ahead

2.How does Mitchell help his team win the game?

A．He tries to stand near the basket.           B．He passes the basketball to Jack.

C．He shoots from the halfway line.            D．He quickly scores a two-point shot.

3.What can we learn from the story?

A．Teamwork helps win the game.             B．Jack is the most popular player.

C．The coach will retire next year.             D．The hall turns quiet after the final shot.

Now throwing shoes at President Bush is a popular game on the Internet. It turns out that there are times when it’s good to throw shoes.

After leaving his office in the center of the city, a young man bought a new car and drove it from the city to his home. He was very happy and the car ran very fast. Suddenly, a shoe hit the car door . The man got very angry. He jumped out of the car and caught a boy who still had a shoe in his hand.

“Who are you? Why did you do that?” the young man shouted at the boy.

“I’m sorry. But I don’t know what else to do. My sister has been hurt. I cried for help but nobody stopped,” the boy said.

The man looked around and saw a girl by the road. Her leg was bleeding(流血).

“She is my sister. She wanted to cross the road but fell out of her wheelchair. She is too heavy for me. I can’t get her back into the wheelchair. ”The man was moved. He helped the bleeding girl back into her wheelchair.

“Thank you. You’re so kind,” said the little boy. Life speaks to our hearts. Sometimes we don’t have time to listen and it will throw a shoe at us.

1.The young man drove his new car ______.

2.Who threw a shoe at the car?

3.The underlined word “wheelchair” means ______ in this passage.

4.Why did the boy throw the shoe?

5.What can we learn from the story?

Many children love to play with snow in winter. But Long Chuan has come to hate it.
This year his hometown suffered from snowstorms (遭受暴风雪) for nearly a month. The heavy snow stopped cars and trains, broke the electricity (电) tower and turned tap water to ice.
Every day Long Chuan had to walk several kilometers to carry drinking water. “I couldn’t ride a bike and it took me 3 hours to walk to school. I can’t remember how many times I slipped (滑倒) on the hard ice, ” said Long Chuan.
Long is not alone. This year millions of people in central and southern China had a freezing winter without enough water and electricity. The biggest snowstorms in 50 years killed more than 100 people. They also cost the country 111.1 billion yuan.
Experts (专家) say a special type of climate condition (气候条件), La Nina, caused the storms. During a La Nina, the water in the Pacific Ocean (太平洋) near the equator (赤道) becomes colder than usual. It changes the weather around the world.
Besides China, Canada, the US and Middle Eastern countries also met with heavy snowstorms this winter. The special climate caused the recent flooding (洪水) in Australia, too.
However, experts say that people have destroyed the environment (环境). Global warming (全球变暖) may be causing these terrible weather events to happen more and more often.
【小题1】What took place in Long Chuan’s hometown last winter?