【题目】It was Saturday. As always, it was a busy one, for "Six days shall you labor and do all your work" was taken seriously back then. Outside, Father and Mr. Patrick next door were busy chopping firewood. Inside their own houses, Mother and Mrs. Patrick were engaged in spring cleaning. Somehow the boys had slipped away to the back lot with their kites. Now, even at the risk of having Brother caught to beat carpets, they had sent him to the kitchen for more string(线). It seemed there was no limit to the heights to which kites would fly today.

My mother looked at the sitting room, its furniture disordered for a thorough sweeping. Again she cast a look toward the window. "Come on, girls! Let's take string to the boys and watch them fly the kites a minute."

On the way we met Mrs. Patrick, laughing guiltily as if she were doing something wrong, together with her girls.

There never was such a day for flying kites! We played all our fresh string into the boys' kites and they went up higher and higher. We could hardly distinguish the orange-colored spots of the kites. Now and then we slowly pulled one kite back, watching it dancing up and down in the wind, and finally bringing it down to earth, just for the joy of sending it up again.

Even our fathers dropped their tools and joined us. Our mothers took their turn, laughing like schoolgirls. I think we were all beside ourselves. Parents forgot their duty and their dignity; children forgot their everyday fights and little jealousies. "Perhaps it's like this in the kingdom of heaven," I thought confusedly.

It was growing dark before we all walked sleepily back to the house. I suppose we had some sort of supper. I suppose there must have been surface tidying-up, for the house on Sunday looked clean and orderly enough. The strange thing was, we didn't mention that day afterward. I felt a little embarrassed. Surely none of the others had been as excited as I. I locked the memory up in that deepest part of me where we keep "the things that cannot be and yet they are."

The years went on, then one day I was hurrying about my kitchen in a city apartment, trying to get some work out of the way while my three-year-old insistently cried her desire to "go park, see duck."

"I can't go!" I said. "I have this and this to do, and when I'm through I'll be too tired to walk that far."

My mother, who was visiting us, looked up from the peas she was shelling(去皮). "It's a wonderful day," she offered, "really warm, yet there's a fine breeze. Do you remember that day we flew kites?"

I stopped in my dash between stove and sink. The locked door flew open and with it a rush of memories. "Come on," I told my little girl. "You're right, it's too good a day to miss."

Another decade passed. We were in the aftermath (余波) of a great war. All evening we had been asking our returned soldier, the youngest Patrick Boy, about his experiences as a prisoner of war. He had talked freely, but now for a long time he had been silent. What was he thinking of what dark and horrible things?

"Say!" A smile sipped out from his lips. "Do you remember no, of course you wouldn't. It probably didn't make the impression on you as it did on me."

I hardly dared speak. "Remember what?"

"I used to think of that day a lot in POW camp (战俘营), when things weren't too good. Do you remember the day we flew the kites?"

【1Mrs. Patrick was laughing guiltily because she thought_________.

A. she was too old to fly kites

B. she should have been doing her housework then

C. her husband would make fun of her

D. her girls weren’t supposed to play the boy’s game

【2By "we were all beside ourselves," the writer means that they all _________.

A. felt confused B. looked on

C. went wild with joy D. forgot their fights

【3What did the writer think after the kite-flying?

A. The boys must have had more fun than the girls.

B. All the others must have forgotten that day.

C. Her parents should spend more time with them.

D. They should have finished their work before playing.

【4Why did the writer finally agree to take her little girl for an outing?

A. She suddenly remembered her duty as a mother.

B. She thought it was a great day to play outside.

C. She had finished her work in the kitchen.

D. She was reminded of the day they flew kites.

【5】The youngest Patrick boy is mentioned to show that _________.

A. the writer was not alone in treasuring her fond memories

B. his experience in POW camp threw a shadow over his life

C. childhood friendship means so much to the writer

D. people like him really changed a lot after the war

【题目】The passages below discuss the retirement age.

Passage 1:

In the United States,the financial crisis has left the country with 11 million fewer jobs than Americans need now.No matter how tough the policy ,we are not going to find 11 million new jobs soon.So common sense suggests we should make some decisions about who should come first:older people,who have already worked three or four decades at hard jobs? Or younger people,many just out of school,with fresh skills and ambitions?

The answer is obvious.Older people who would like to retire and would do so if they could afford it should get some help.The right step is to reduce,not increase,the retirement age.As a rough cut,why not make it a law to set a three—year window during which the age for receiving full Social Security benefits would drop to 62——providing a voluntary ,one—time,grab-it-now bonus for leaving work? Let them go home! With a secure pension(退休金)and medical care,they will be happier.Young people who need work will be happier.And there will also be more jobs.With pension security, older people will consume services until the end of their lives.They will become.each and every one,an employer.

Passage 2:

Too many people see longer working lives as a worry rather than an opportunity—and not just because they are going to be chained to their desks.Some worry that there will not be enough jobs to go around.This misunderstanding,known to economists as the“lump of labour fallacy(劳动总量固定的谬论)”,was once used to argue that women should stay at home and leave all the jobs for breadwinning males.Now /span>lump-of-labourites say that keeping the old at work would deprive(剥夺)the young of employment.The idea that society can become

better-off by paying more of its citizens to be idle(无所事事的)is clearly ridiculous.On that reasoning,if the retirement age came down to 25 we would all be as rich as Bill Gates.

【1In Passage 1,one reason for suggesting earlier retirement in the US is the_______

A.tough policy B.stable pension

C.high unemployment D.free medical care

【2In Passage I,the writer suggests encouraging older people to retire earlier by____________.

A.cutting their pension if they remain at work

B.giving them an extra sum o f money on retiring

C.convincing them that young people need work

D.offering them a bonus each year for three years

【3Lump-of-laborites believe that____________.

A.young citizens should be better paid

B.the old should leave jobs for the young

C.males should earn bread for the family

D.earlier retirement will lead to a poorer society

【4What is the author’s attitude towards earlier retirement in Passage 2?

A.Negative. B.Positive.

C.Unconcerned. D.Tolerant.

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