In early autumn I applied for admission to college. I wanted to go nowhere but to Cornell University, but
my mother fought strongly against it. When she saw me studying a photograph of my father on the sports
ground of Cornell, she tore it up.
     "You can't say it's not a great university, just because Papa went there."
     "That's not it at all. And it is a top university." She was still holding the pieces in her hand. "But we can't
afford to send you to college."
     "I wouldn't dream of asking you for money. Do you want me to get a job to help support you and Papa?
Things aren't that bad, are they?"
     "No," she said. "I don't expect you to help support us."
     Father borrowed money from his rich cousins to start a small jewellery shop, His chief customers were
his old college friends. To get new customers, my mother had to help. She picked up a long-forgotten
membership in the local league of women, so that she could get to know more people. Whether those people
would turn into customers was another question. I knew that my Parents had to wait for quite a long time
before their small investment (投资) could show returns. What's more, they had not wanted enough to be rich
and successful; otherwise they could not possibly have managed their lives so badly.
     I was torn between the desire to help them and change, their lives, and the determination not to repeat their
mistakes. I had a strong belief in my power to go what I wanted. After months of hard study I won a full
college scholarship (奖学金). My father could hardly contain his pride in me, and my mother eventually gave
in before my success.

1. The author was not allowed to go to Cornell University mainly because _____.

A. his father graduated from the university
B. his mother did not thinks it a great university
C. his parents needed him to help support the family
D. his parents did not have enough money for him

2. The father started his small shop with the money from _____.

A. a local league
B. his university
C. his relatives
D. his college friends

3. Why did the mother renew her membership in the league?

A. To help with her husband's business
B. To raise money for her son
C. To meet her long-forgotten friends
D. To better manage her life

4. According to the text, what was the author determined to do in that autumn?

A. To get a well-paid job for himself
B. To improve relations with his mother
C. To go to his dream university
D. To carry on with his father's business

     In the fall of 1985, I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and
dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am later I am still a bright-
eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.
     My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family
to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw
from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.
     Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopt and biological
children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic and very emotional. A year later
came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No.3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.
     You can imagine how fully occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 81. Our home was a
complete zoo-a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up
on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant talking as few as one class each semester. 
     The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to
stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit, But I knew I should set an example for
them to follow through the rest of their lives.
     In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college
degree!
     I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you're looking at a big challenge from
the outside it looks huge, but when you're in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won't
arrive in your life on one day. It's a process. Remember: little steps add up to big dreams.

1. When the author went to Howard University, her dream was to be _____.

A. a writer
B. a teacher
C. a judge
D. a doctor

2. Why did the author quit school in her second year of college?

A. She wanted to study by herself.
B. She fell in love and got married.
C. She suffered from a serious illness.
D. She decided to look after her grandma.

3. What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 4 and 5?

A. She was buy yet happy with her family life.
B. She ignored her guilty feeling for her sons.
C. She wanted to remain a full-time housewife.
D. She was too confused to make a correct choice.

4. What does the author mostly want to tell us in the last paragraph?

A. Failure is the mother of success.
B. Little by little, one goes far.
C. Every coin has two sides.
D. Well begun, half done.

5. Which of the following can best describe the author?

A. Caring and determined.
B. Honest and responsible.
C. Ambitious and sensitive.
D. Innocent and single-minded.

                                                     When milk arrived on the doorstep
     When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s, we had a milkman delivering milk to our
doorstep. His name was Mr. Basil. He wore a white cap and drove a white truck. As a 5-year-old boy, I
couldn't take my eyes off the coin changer fixed to his belt. He noticed this one day during a delivery and
gave me a quarter out of his coin changer.
     Of course, he delivered more than milk. There was cheese, eggs and so on. If we needed to change
our order, my mother would pen a note-"Please add a bottle of buttermilk next delivery"-and place it in the
box along with the empty bottles. And then, the buttermilk would magically appear.
     All of this was about more than convenience. There existed a close relationship between families and
their milkmen. Mr. Basil even had a key to our house, for those times when it was so cold outside that we
put the box indoors, so that the milk wouldn't freeze. And I remember Mr. Basil from time to time taking
a break at our kitchen table, having a cup of tea and telling stories about his delivery.
     There is sadly no home milk delivery today. Big companies allowed the production of cheaper milk, thus
making it difficult for milkmen to compete. Besides, milk is for sale everywhere, and it may just not have
been practical to have a delivery service.
     Recently, an old milk box in the countryside I saw brought back my childhood memories. I took it home
and planted it on the back porch (门廊). Every so often my son's friends will ask what it is. So I start telling
stories of my boyhood, and of the milkman who brought us friendship along with his milk.

1. Mr. Basil gave the boy a quarter out of his coin changer ____.

A. to show his magical power.
B. to pay for the delivery
C. to satisfy his curiosity.
D. to please his mother.

2. What can be inferred from the fact that the milkman had the key to the boy's house?

A. He wanted to have tea there.
B. He was a respectable person.
C. He was treated as a family member.
D. He was fully trusted by the family.

3. Why does home milk delivery no longer exist?

A. Nobody wants to be a milkman now.
B. It has been driven out of the market.
C. Its service is getting poor.
D. It is forbidden by law.

4. Why did the author bring back home an old milk box?

A. He missed the good old days.
B. He wanted to tell interesting stories.
C. He missed it for his milk bottles.
D. He planted flowers in it.

     It was Saturday. As always, it was a busy one, for "Six days shall you labor and 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. Patric, 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 housed. 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. "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?"

1. Mrs. Patrick was laughing guiltily because she thought _____.

A. she was too old to fly kites
B. her husband would make fun of her
C. she should have been doing her how
D. supposed to the don't game

2. By "we were all beside ourselves" writer means that they all _____.

A. felt confused
B. went wild with joy
C. looked on
D. forgot their fights

3. What did they think after the kite-flying?

A. The boys must have had more fun than the girls.
B. They should have finished their work before playing.
C. Her parents should spend more time with them.
D. All the others must have forgotten that day.

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

A. She suddenly remembered her duty as a mother.
B. She was reminded of the day they flew kites.
C. She had finished her work in the kitchen.
D. She thought it was a great day to play outside.

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

     Tim Richter and his wife, Linda, had taught for over 30 years near Buffalo, New York-he in computers,
she in special education. "Teaching means everything to us," Tim would say. In April1998, he learned he
would need a heart operation. It was the kind of news that leads to some serious thinking about life's purpose.
     Not long after the surgery, Tim saw a brochure describing Imagination Library, a program started by
Dolly Parton' s foundation (基金会) that mailed a book every month to children from birth to age five in the
singer's home town of Sevier, Tennessee. "I thought, maybe Linda and I could do something like this when
we retire," Tim recalls. He placed the brochure on his desk, "as a reminder."
     Five years later, now retired and with that brochure still on the desk, Tim clicked on imagination library.
com. The program had been opened up to partners who could take advantage of book and postage discounts.
The quality of the books was of great concern to the Richters. Rather than sign up online, they went to
Dollywood for a look-see. "We didn't want to give the children rubbish," says Linda. The books-reviewed
each year by teachers, literacy specialists and Dollywood board members-included classics such as Ezra Jack
Keats's The Snowy Day and newer books like Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama series.
     Satisfied, the couple set up the Richter Family Foundation and got to work. Since 2004, they have shipped
more than 12,200 books to preschoolers in their in their area. Megan Williams, a mother of four, is more than
appreciative:"This program introduces us to books I've never heard of."
     The Richters spend about ＄400 a month sending books to 200 children. "Some people sit there and wait
to die," says Tim. "Others get as busy as they can in the time they have left."

1. What led Tim think seriously about the meaning of the life?

A. His death problem
B. His love for teaching
C. The influence of his wife
D. The news from the Web

2. What did Tim want to do after learning about Imagination Library?

A. Give out brochures.
B. Do something similar.
C. Write books for children
D. Retire from being a teacher.

3. According to the text, Dollly Parton is _____.

A. a well-known surgeon
B. a mother of a four-year-old
C. a singer born in Tennessee
D. a computer programmer

4. Why did the Richters go to Dollywood?

A. To avoid signing up online.
B. To meet Dollywood board members.
C. To make sure the books were the newest.
D. To see if the books were of good quality.

5. What can we learn from Tim's words in the last paragraph?

A. He needs more money to help the children.
B. He wonders why some people are so busy.
C. He tries to save those waiting to die.
D. He considers his efforts worthwhile.