When I was young, my father used to grow carnations — a kind of flower that was red, pink and white. He took care of them with much love and devotion (挚爱). When he came home from work every day, he would enjoy watching them. And he used to tell us, “No one should touch my flowers.”
One day, my younger sister Clemence, who loved Dad very much, wanted to help him. So she cut the carnations from their stems (枝干) one by one and arranged them on the ground. She believed that Dad would be very pleased to see them that way. When Mom and I realized what my sister had done, we became completely speechless. However, my sister didn’t know why no one showed her any appreciation (欣赏). When Dad came back, he went straight to watch the flowers as usual. Seeing his flowers lying on the ground like dead animals, he was surprised at first. He looked towards the street to see if it was any of the neighbor’s children who could have done it. Then he looked at Mom in silence. Finally Mom, who always taught us to tell the truth, said, “No bad neighbors did this great job, only your lovely daughter Clemence.” Dad’s face changed into a smile and then he said, “Do I have better flowers than my lovely daughter?” My younger sister smiled and hugged Dad strongly.
【小题1】 How many kinds of colors do carnation have according to the passage?

Researchers have found that there are some basic things that you can do to become happier.
◆Self
Yourself includes your education, your health, and your sense of purpose. It is important to take care of yourself and to connect the people around you. First, find a hobby. This gives you a chance to meet people with similar interests. You can also volunteer. Volunteering takes the focus off your own problems and makes you feel grateful for what you have.
◆Home
Create a quieter, dark area where you can sit and relax. Paint your living room yellow – it can increase energy and improve mood (情绪). It also helps to own a pet. Pets can make their owners feel calm, and provide love and friendship.
◆Financial (财务的) life
According to Ed Diener, the key to greater well-being is to have money, but not to want it too much. Try to spend money on things that give you long-lasting pleasure. Buy things that will enrich your life, such as music lessons and dinners with friends and family.
◆Social life
Have friends that encourage you to eat right, to be active, to laugh, and to do your best. Meet with your friends regularly and share with them when you have more of something than you need. Support each other in difficult times.
◆Workplace
Your office should be a place that you like. Find a job with people that you enjoy being around. That includes your boss. And do something that you feel strongly about. That is more important than money.
◆Community
If possible, live near people who have about the same amount of money as you. This makes you less aware (意识到的) of what you don’t have. Live in a neighborhood where you feel safe and where you can walk a lot. Walking makes you healthier, and healthier people are happier people.
【小题1】What does yourself include according to the passage?
【小题2】How can we increase our energy and improve mood?
【小题3】What is the key to greater well-being, according to Ed Diener?
【小题4】Why should we live near people as rich as ourselves?
【小题5】What does the passage mainly talk about?

You are going to high school, aren’t you? Maybe you don’t know what to do. Well, here’s a list of the top six things to do when you are in high school. These things will give you ideas of what your high school life could be like. Here you go!
① Find your passion(激情) and what kind of person you are: Whether it’s dance, basketball, or drawing, the important thing is that you have found something you are interested in.
② Talk to people you wouldn’t usually talk to: meet new people, find new friends and even talk to people you don’t like. It will show what a great person you are. You never know what will happen after high school.
③ Take part in at least one contest(竞赛): This will give you tears of laughter, happiness and memories.
④ Get a job: This will help you see what it’s like to have responsibility(责任). It can also help you make a little money to spend on yourself.
⑤ Take a trip with your friends: It doesn’t matter where you go or what you do, the memories will happen on the way and go on till the final place.
⑥ Do your best at school: Don’t ever get lazy; working hard now will help you in the future.
【小题1】The writer mainly tells you six things you should do _____.

Years ago I worked at a factory in a small county. Every day I got up very early and often did much extra work at night. I was so tired and exhausted. My whole life was hopeless. Then one day I read the following article from a magazine:
"A woman went to live with her husband in camp on the Mojave Desert during the war. She simply hated the place: the heat was almost un-bearable, 125 degrees in the shade, the wind blew incessantly, and there was sand everywhere. Finally, in desperation (不顾一切地) she wrote her parents in Ohio that she couldn't stand it another minute and was coming home.
Quickly came the reply by airmail from her father——just two lines:
"Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw the mud, the other saw stars."
The daughter did some real thinking, not only with the intellect (思维) but also with her heart. She decided to stick to her post.
She made friends with the natives, learned to love the country, and eventually wrote a book about it.
The desert hadn't changed, but her attitude had. Because she listened with her heart  to the words her father sent, a whole new world opened up to her.
A change of attitude could change everything.
After reading the article, I was deep in thought (陷入沉思)…
【小题1】At first, the woman          the life with her husband in the desert.

Top student Lin Yijian had a problem recently. The 14-year-old boy from Xiamen used to get marks of over 110 points (out of 120 possible points) on his math tests. But during last semester's final exams, his math score was only 90 points.
It was a shock. "I didn't know what happened," said Lin, who kept feeling nervous and frustrated about math during the following month.
Like Lin, many of us have setbacks (挫折) in life. What would you do to deal with these setbacks? Would you just let them be and give up?
Lin chose to face his problem. His parents and teacher also gave him help. After some hard work he now gets marks between 100 and110 points on his math tests. Although he still isn't at his original (原来的) level, Lin doesn't panic anymore.
"Don't be scared by setbacks," he said. "You will beat it."
Chen Xingzhu in Shenzhen also has a story to tell. The 15-year-old girl is not good at doing sit-ups (仰卧起坐), which is necessary for the coming high school PE entrance exam. One has to do at least 35 sit-ups in a minute to pass the test. Most of Chen's classmates can do 40. However, Chen could only do 20.
Feeling worried, Chen decided to do something. She did sit-ups for half an hour every day after school. Now, after a month, she can do 30 sit-ups a minute.
"I finally found what made me slow through continuous practice and then improved little by little," said Chen. "I believe next month I will be able to do 40!"
【小题1】 What problem did Lin Yijian have recently?

Sixteen years ago a boy gave me an important gift. It was a smile.
It was the early autumn of my first year at a middle school，and my old school was far away. As a result，no one knew who I was. I was very lonely，and afraid to speak to anyone.
Every time I heard the other students talking and laughing，I felt my heart break. I couldn't talk with anyone about my problems.
Then one day，when my classmates were talking happily with their friends，I was sitting at my desk unhappily as usual. At that moment，a boy entered the classroom. I didn't know who he was. He passed by me and then turned back. He looked at me，with a smile.
Suddenly，I felt the touch of something bright and friendly. It made me feel happy and warm. That smile changed my life. I started to talk with other students and made friends. Day by day，I became closer to everyone in my class. The boy with the lucky smile has become my best friend now.
One day I asked him why he had smiled，but he couldn't remember doing so！
It doesn't matter because all the dark days have gone. I believe that the world is what you think it is. If you think it is lonely，you might always be alone. So smile at the world and it will smile back.
【小题1】 Why didn't the writer talk to anyone in her new school about her problems？

If you have a chance to go to Finland, you will probably be surprised to find how “foolish” the Finnish people are.
Take the taxi driver as an example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high- class Bens with a fare (车费) of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one, tell the driver to take you to any place you want to, say that you have some business to attend to (料理), and then walk off without paying your fare. The driver will not be anxious.
The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests (客人), but also serve outside eaters. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining room to have their meals. The only thing they need to do is to show their cards to the waiter. You can easily use any old room card to take a couple of friends to eat dinner without paying.
The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. But to my surprise, they can remember everything so clearly that the workers only need to say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid by their boss.
With so many loopholes (漏洞) in everyday life, surely Finland must be a heaven (天堂) to those who love to take “small advantages”. But the strange thing is: all the taxi passengers will always come back to pay their fare after they have dealt with their business; not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms; and workers always give an honest answer of the exact hours they put in. As the Finns always act on good trust in everything they do, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real “gentleman (绅士)”.
【小题1】Are the Finns really foolish?
【小题2】 What is the taxi fare in Finland?
【小题3】Who can have free dinner in hotels?
【小题4】Will the Finnish workers get paid by the hour or by the day?
【小题5】 What do you think of the people in Finland?

Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The next building only was a few feet away from mine. There was a woman lived there, and I had never met her, yet I could see she sat by her window each afternoon, sewing or reading.
After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself. “I wonder why that woman doesn’t wash her window. It really looks terrible.”
One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including washing the window on the inside.
Later in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible (看见). Her window was clean!
Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing (批评) her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.
That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own shortcomings?
Since then, whenever I wanted to judge (评判) someone, I asked myself first, “Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?” I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me more clearly.
【小题1】The writer couldn’t see everything clearly through the window because __________.

When I was ten, my mother worked all day so I had to take care of my younger brother. At that time my little brother was about four years old and he missed mum all the time.
One day, after I had given him his dinner, he started crying for mum. He was so young and really needed mum. So I dressed him, put on his shoes, carried him on my back and walked out. Soon he fell asleep. About half an hour later, I found that he had lost a shoe while sleeping. I took him off my back and put him down. I knew we needed to find that shoe, for our mother couldn’t afford new shoes. We had to go back to find it, so I told my brother to wait right there. A man heard it and stopped me just before I walked off. He asked me, “You are leaving your brother here to find the shoe? What would you do if he is not here when you return?” I did not know how to answer that question. He continued, “It’s OK if you can’t find the shoe, but it is not OK to lose your brother.” Then he sent us to mum’s workplace by taxi.
My whole life I have depended on (依靠) the kindness of many strangers, I feel regretful that I cannot find them and say thank you. I do not even remember what the man’s face looked like, but he taught me a lesson—people are more important than things.
【小题1】Why did the younger brother cry for his mother?

Good morning. The program today is about music. The word “music” comes from the Greek(希腊) word “muse”. The Muses are the goddesses(神) of the arts. Music is only one of the arts. It is like the spoken language, but it uses sounds. Today’s program brings together music from different corners of the world. Who invented music? Who sang the first song? No one knows exactly the answers to these questions. But we know that music plays an important part in almost everyone’s life. Babies and young children love to hear people singing to them. When they are a little older, they like to sing the songs they have heard. When children go to school, their world of music grows. In the middle grades students take music lessons. When they reach high school, they become interested in listening to pop music.
The records we have chosen for you today are from American country music, Indian music, pop music and so on. Music has meaning for everyone. It can make people happy or it can make them sad. In this program we shall study the language of music. We shall be trying to find out more about how music works. We shall try to find out how music says what people feel.
Now, here comes the music today, I shall explain why they are all good music…
【小题1】The first paragraph is mainly about the       .
A、styles of music         
B、taste of music      
C、knowledge of music
【小题2】The speaker is probably       .
A、a host              
B、a singer        
C、a dancer
【小题3】Which is TRUE according to the passage?
A、The Muses invented music.
B、Music can bring people some feelings.
C、Everyone is interested in pop music.
【小题4】The speaker believes that        .
A、music is a spoken language
B、music develops as we grow up
C、music plays an important part in our life
【小题5】What is NOT the purpose(目的) of this music program?
A、To learn more about the music.
B、To give a complete background(背景) to the music.
C、To give people some music to listen to.