When Allison Winn was eight and her family adopted a dog named Coco, they had no idea how much the little creature would change her life. “Coco helped me feel better,” says Allison, who was recovering from l4 months of treatment for a brain cancer at the time. “She would cuddle(偎依) with me when I didn't want to play.” Allison loved Coco so much that she told her parents she wanted to help other sick kids find the same kind of comfort.

She started small, raising money by selling lemonade and home-made dog biscuits in front of her house. Her first customer was the mailman. By the end of that summer, she had raised nearly $l,000, enough to adopt and train two dogs and give them to children with cancer. Now, a little more than two years later, some groups gather to make dog treats for Allison's cause.

Her organization, the Stink Bug Project, named after a picture she drew in memory of the end of her treatment, is run and managed in partnership with the Morgan Adams Foundation. Stink Bug helps families adopt pets from the Trained K9 Companion Program, where the rescued dogs are taught commands. Allison's mother, Dianna Litvak, who helps run Stink Bug, hopes to extend the pet-adoption program statewide and continue donating some of the money to help fund children's cancer research.

“Allison has figured out how to help - in a way that no one else has,” Litvak says. “We involve her younger sister, Emily, her friends, the adopting families, and some others. It took the love of a little girl to wrap all that together into one amazing package.”

Go to stinkbugproject. org to donate or to buy Allison's dog biscuits.

1. At the beginning, Allison's family .

A. wanted other sick children to get the same comfort

B. didn't know the sufferings of fighting a cancer

C. thought a dog's company would harm her health

D. didn't expect a dog could change her so much

2.How did Allison start her cause?

A. She helped advertise lemonade and home-made dog biscuits.

B. She earned some money by doing small business.

C. A mailman donated some money to her.

D. Some groups gave her a hand.

3.According to Paragraph 4, Allison's mother feels .

A. calm B. worried C. embarrassed D. proud

4.What's the passage mainly about?

A. Helping to make dog treats.

B. Adopting a dog for your child.

C. Giving dogs and love to kids with cancer.

D. Raising money to train pets.

We took a rare family road trip to the Adirondacks in late August,and it was as refreshing and exhausting as family vacations tend to be.Toward the end of our long drive home, even the kids were leaning forward in their seats urging my lead foot on.At that point in a road trip,even sixty-five miles per hour feels slow. We have become numb to our speed and numb to the road signs flashing by.

My family lives on the edge of Lancaster County. Only thirty miles from home,I hit the brakes,and we began to roll,slowly,behind a horse-drawn carriage. We began to open our eyes again.We saw familiar green hills and the farm with the best watermelons. I rolled down the windows, and we breathed again.Just-cut hay and a barn full of dairy cattle.

At five miles per hour,you remember what you forget at sixty-five.You are thinking about a place,even when you are moving from place to place.

I am a placemaker. A homemaker, too. I am a mother of a young kid at home,and also a writer and a gardener.But,for me,those roles are wrapped up with the one big thing I want to do with the rest of my life:I want to cultivate a place and share it with others.

The place I make with my family is a red-brick farmhouse built in l880. It has quite a few nineteenth-century bedrooms and a few acres of land,and we love nothing more than to fill them with neighbors and friends. We grow vegetables and flowers,keep a baker’s dozen of egg—laying chickens,and,since we moved in three years ago,we have planted many,many trees.

Living with my life’s purpose does not allow for much travel. I need to be here,feeding the chickens and watering the tomatoes. Any extra in the budget,and we spend it on trees.

But I learned something at the end of our family road trip.Travel can help me in the task of caring for my own place.When I slow down and pay attention to the road between here and there,travel tells me the connections between my place and all the other places.

1.What does the author try to express in the first paragraph?

A.The tiredness of her past family life.

B.Her disappointment at the family road trip.

C.The family’s eagerness to return home.

D.Kids’excitement at driving fast on the road.

2.Why did the author slow her car some miles from her home?

A.Because she made a way for a horse-drawn carriage.

B.Because she enjoyed the scenery along the road.

C.Because she needed a break after the long drive.

D.Because she wanted to get rid of a fast-paced life.

3.What can be the best title of the passage?

A.On the Way Home

B.Never Travel again

C.Escape from a Family Life

D.Life on the Farm

I look back sometimes at the person I was before I rediscovered my old professor. I want to talk to that person. I want to tell him what to look out for, what mistakes to avoid. I want to tell him to be more open, to ignore the temptation of advertised values, to pay attention when your loved ones are speaking, as if it were the last time you might hear them.

Mostly I want to tell that person to get on an airplane and visit a gentle old man in West Newton, Massachusetts, sooner rather than later, before that old man gets sick and loses his ability to dance.

I know I cannot do this. None of us can undo what we’ve done, or relive a life already recorded. But if Professor Morrie Schwartz taught me anything at all, it was this: there is no such thing as “too late” in life. He was changing until the day he said good-bye.

Not long after Morrie’s death, I reached my brother in Spain. We had a long talk. I told him I respected his distance, and that all I wanted was to be in touch—in the present, not just the past—to hold him in my life as much as he could let me.

“You’re my only brother,” I said. “I don’t want to lose you. I love you.”

I had never said such a thing to him before.

A few days later, I received a message on my fax machine. It was typed in the sprawling, poorly punctuated, all-cap-letters fashion that always characterized my brother’s words.

“HI I’VE JOINED THE NINETIES!” it began. He wrote a few little stories, what he’d been doing that week, a couple of jokes. At the end, he signed off this way:

I HAVE HEARTBURN AND DIAHREA(腹泻) AT THE MOMENT—LIFE’S A BITCH. CHAT LATER?

[signed] SORE TUSH.

I laughed until there were tears in my eyes.

This book was largely Morrie’s idea. He called it our “final thesis.” Like the best of work projects, it brought us closer together, and Morrie was delighted when several publishers expressed interest, even though he died before meeting any of them. The advance money helped pay Morrie’s enormous medical bills, and for that we were both grateful.

The title, by the way, we came up with one day in Morrie’s office. He liked naming things. He had several ideas. But when I said, “How about Tuesdays with Morrie?” he smiled in an almost blushing way, and I knew that was it.

After Morrie died, I went through boxes of old college material. And I discovered a final paper I had written for one of his classes. It was twenty years old now. On the front page were my penciled comments scribbled to Morrie, and beneath them were his comments scribbled back.

Mine began, “Dear Coach . . .”

His began, “Dear Player . . .”

For some reason, each time I read that, I miss him more.

Have you ever really had a teacher? One who saw you as a raw but precious thing, a jewel that, with wisdom, could be polished to a proud shine? If you are lucky enough to find your way to such teachers, you will always find your way back. Sometimes it is only in your head. Sometimes it is right alongside their beds.

The last class of my old professor’s life took place once a week, in his home, by a window in his study where he could watch a small hibiscus(木槿) plant shed its pink flowers. The class met on Tuesdays. No books were required. The subject was the meaning of life. It was taught from experience.

The teaching goes on.

1.What kind of a person was the author before he rediscovered Professor Morrie Schwartz?

A. He was very open to life’s challenges.

B. He cared much about the people he loved.

C. He was probably lost in the material world.

D. He kept close contact with his teacher.

2.What did the author learn from Professor Morrie?

A. Pain past is pleasure.

B. Life is a difficult journey.

C. It’s never too late to mend.

D. Tomorrow is another day.

3.According to the passage, what is the author’s attitude toward life now?

A. He is very content with his life.

B. He is willing to make changes in his life.

C. He has always been hopeful about the future.

D. He prefers to live in the past.

4.The underlined sentence in the passage implies that ________.

A. he was so glad to reconnect with his brother

B. his brother’s style of writing was really funny

C. his brother was good at telling jokes

D. it was surprising to receive the message

5.According to the author, which of the following is the criterion of a good teacher?

A. Being skillful in what he/she teaches.

B. Being able to understand what you need.

C. Being willing to teach you all he/she knows.

D. Being good at changing you for the better.

6.Where in the entire book would this passage be best placed?

A. In the acknowledgments of the book Tuesday with Morrie.

B. In the first chapter of the book Tuesday with Morrie.

C. At the turning point of the book Tuesday with Morrie.

D. At the conclusion of the book Tuesday with Morrie.

New Orleans, Louisiana, was established as part of the French Empire in 1718.

Its location on the east bank of the Mississippi River gave it control of the American hinerland and it became strategically important to many nations. It was transferred from France to Spain, returned to France, and finally sold by Napoleon to the United States in 1803. The city was the site of a famous battle fought in 1815 between the British, who hoped to control it, and the Americans under General Andrew Jackson.

The riverbed of the Mississippi is constantly silting(淤积)and the river is now actually higher than the city. Levees hold back the river and giant pumps are used to move water from the city into the river.

Although New Orleans has been a part of the United States for almost two centuries, its population takes great pride in its French heritage. Louisiana still retains parts of the Code Napoleon which, for many years, was its only law.

New Orleans is carefree city and it boasts its hot, spicy Creole seafood and its native Dixieland Jazz. The Jackson Square neighborhood maintains its French colonial homes and in other sections are pre-Civil War mansions. Visitors are surprised to find that behind this interesting surface of yesteryear is a busy industrial and port city. Grain and coal come from the Midwest and foreign goods are unloaded here. New Orleans is no longer a sleepy Southern town----but it's still fun to visit.

1. The battle of New Orleans was fought by Jackson against______.

A. France B. Britain C. Spain D. The North

2.According to the passage, the Code Napoleon was _______.

A. an agreement to sell Louisiana

B. a body of laws

C. a city plan

D. a military code for the army

3.Which of the following elements does not apply to the attitude of the citizens of New Orleans?

A. Pride in their French heritage.

B. A desire to retain colonial buildings.

C. A refusal to engage in trade and commerce

D. A praising of Dixieland Jazz.

4. Tourists visiting New Orleans are surprised to encounter _____.

A. Creole food B. Dixieland jazz

C. a busy city D. authentic colonial homes

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网