When 70-year-old Bernie Meyers of Wilmette, Ill, died suddenly a cancer, his eight-year-old granddaughter Sarah Meyers didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to him.For weeks Sarah said little about what she was feeling.But then one day she came home from a friend’s birthday party with a bright helium balloon(氦气球).“She went into the house,”her mother recalls,“and came out carrying the balloon and an envelope addressed to ‘Grandpa Bernie, in Heaven Up High.’”
The envelope contained a letter in which Sarah told her grandfather that she loved him and hoped somehow he could hear her.Sarah wrote her return address on the envelope, tried the envelope to the balloon and let it go.“The balloon seemed so fragile,”her mother remembers.“I didn’t think it would make it pass the trees.But it did.”
Two months passed.Then one day a letter arrived addressed to“Sarah Meyers’ Family”and bearing(盖有)a York, Pa(宾州)post mark.
“Dear Sarah, family & friends,
Your letter to Grandpa Bernie Meyers safely reached the address and was read by him.I understand they can’t keep material things up there, so it drifted back to Earth.Those who live in Heaven just keep thoughts, memories, love and things like that.Sarah, whenever you think about your grandpa, he know and is very close by with love.
Sincerely yours
Don Kopp(also a grandpa)
Kopp, a 63-year-old retired clerk, had found the letter and the nearly deflated balloon while hunting in northeastern Pennsylvania(宾夕法尼亚州)——almost 600 miles from Wilmette.The balloon had floated over at least three states and one of the Great Lakes before coming to rest on a tree.
“Though it took me a couple of days to think of what to say,”Kopp notes,“it was important to me that I write to Sarah.”
“I just wanted to hear from Grandpa somehow,”says Sarah.“Now I think I have heard from him.”
(1)
What did Sarah want to do after her grandpa died?
[ ]
A.
She wanted to say good-bye to him
B.
She wanted to post a letter to her grandpa
C.
She wanted to give her grandpa a birthday gift, a helium balloon
D.
he wanted to make an experiment with a helium balloon
(2)
How did Sarah send a letter to her grandpa?
[ ]
A.
She put the letter into the balloon
B.
She stuck the letter on the balloon
C.
She used the helium balloon to tie the letter to
D.
She wrote something on the balloon and then let it go up
(3)
Which sentence is NOT true?
[ ]
A.
The letter drifted back to Earth
B.
The letter went up to Heaven
C.
The letter was caught on a tree
D.
The letter was received by a grandpa
(4)
Who answered the letter?
[ ]
A.
Her grandpa
B.
A retired clerk
C.
A hunter
D.
Both B and C
(5)
What is the best title for the passage?
[ ]
A.
Love finds a way
B.
A letter from Heaven
C.
A surprising answer
D.
An unexpected result
阅读理解
Two year s ago, Wendy Ha snip, 47,experienced a brain injury that left her speechle s s for two week s.When she finally recovered, she found her self talking with what seemed to be a French accent.“I phoned a friend the other day, and she spent the fir st ten minute s laughing, ” Ha snip said at the time, “while I have nothing again st the French.”
Ha snip suffered from foreign accent syndrome(外国口音综合症), a rare condition in which people find them selve s speaking their own language like someone from a foreign country.The condition u sually occur s in people who have experienced a head injury or a stroke-a sudden lo s s of con sciou sne s s, sen sation, or movement cau sed by a blocked or broken blood ve s selin the brain.
The condition wa s fir st identified during the Second World War in a Norwegian woman who se head wa s injured during an attack by the German military.The woman recovered but wa s left with a German-sounding accent, to the horror of fellow villager s who avoided her after that.
Re searcher s have di scovered that the combined effect of the damage to several part s of the brain make s victim s lengthen certain syllable, mi spronounce sound s, and change the normal pitch(音高)of their voice.Tho se change s in speech add up to what sound s like a foreign accent.
Another re searcher, a phonetician, say s victim s of the syndrome don't acquire a true foreign accent.Their strangely changed speech only re semble s the foreign accent with which it ha s a few sound s in common.
When an Engli sh woman named Annie recently developed foreign accent syndrome after a stroke, she spoke with what seemed to be a Scotti sh accent.However, Annie' s Scotti sh coworker s said she didn't sound at all like a Scot.
(1)
According to the pa s sage, people ________ may have foreign accent syndrome.
[ ]
A.
who se parent ha s experienced a head injury
B.
who have lived in a foreign country for a long time
C.
who have lo st their con sciou sne s s owing to a stroke
D.
who have learned foreign language from their coworker s
(2)
If a per son suffer s foreign accent syndrome, ________.
[ ]
A.
hi s coworker s will be afraid of him and avoid contacting with him
B.
he ha s more chance of suffering stroke again
C.
he will speak a fluent foreign language like native speaker s
D.
hi s speech only ha s a few sound s in common with the foreign accent
(3)
Writing thi s pa s sage, the writer' s main purpo se i s to ________.
[ ]
A.
introduce foreign accent syndrome and some related information
B.
warn people not to be at the ri sk of experiencing a stroke
C.
make it clear that foreign accent syndrome can be cured
D.
tell a story of an injured woman during the Second World War