My grandparents were married for over half a century, and played their own special game from the time they met each other. The goal of their game was to write the word “shmily” in a surprise place for the other to find.
“Shmily” was written in the steam left on the mirror after a hot shower, where it would reappear bath after bath. At one point, my grandmother even opened an entire roll of toilet paper to leave “shmily” on the very last sheet. Little notes with “shmily” scribbled (潦草地写) hurriedly were found on dashboards (仪表板) and car seats, or taped to steering wheels.
It took me a long time before I was able to fully appreciate my grandparents’ game. Skepticism (怀疑态度) had kept me from believing in true love — one that is pure and lasting. However, I never doubted my grandparents’ relationship. They had love down pat. It was more than their flirtatious (爱调戏的) little games; it was a way of life. Their relationship was based on devotion and passionate love.
Grandma and Grandpa held hands every chance they could. They stole kisses as they bumped into each other in their tiny kitchen. They finished each other’s sentences and shared the daily crossword puzzle and word jumble. My grandma whispered to me about how cute my grandpa was, how handsome and old he had grown to be. She claimed that she really knew “how to pick ‘em.”
But there came a dark cloud into my grandparents’ life: when my grandmother got breast cancer. Gradually it took over the whole of her body. One day, what we all dreaded finally happened. Grandma was gone.
“Shmily.” It was scrawled in yellow on the pink ribbons of my grandmother’s funeral bouquet (花束). The family came forward and gathered around Grandma one last time. Grandpa stepped up to my grandmother’s casket (棺) and, taking a shaky breath, he began to sing to her. Through his tears and sadness, the song came, a deep and throaty lullaby (催眠曲,). Shaking with my own sorrow, I would never forget that moment.
S-h-m-i-l-y: See How Much I Love You.
【小题1】The point of the article is to ________.
| A.give advice on how to keep love fresh |
| B.explain to readers the meaning of “shmily” |
| C.show the true love between the writer’s grandparents |
| D.express how much the writer loved her grandparents |
| A.To support the first paragraph. | B.To introduce the next paragraph. |
| C.To give the main idea of the article. | D.To make the article more interesting. |
| A.used to kiss her grandfather in secret |
| B.died from breast cancer, which spread all over |
| C.played crossword puzzle daily with her grandfather |
| D.considered her grandfather old and careless |
| A.She doubts whether it was true love. |
| B.She finds their way of expressing love strange. |
| C.She admires their romantic and passionate love. |
| D.She thinks she will never be able to love like that. |
Probably many of you know the idiom “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. But do you believe a tooth for an eye? That’s something a little bit different.
This strange exchange is neither a form of retribution(报应) nor an unexpected gift from the Tooth Fairy --- it’s actually a very generous gift from a young Irishman, Robert McNichol, 23, to his formerly blind father, 57-year-old Bob McNichol.
In 2005, Bob McNichol’s sight was destroyed in an accident when his eyes were doused(溅在……上面)with liquid aluminum(铝). Doctors predicted that he would never be able to see again.
But McNichol never liked to take no for an answer: when he heard about a unique operation called Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis, he knew he had to give it a shot, even though the success rate was a mere 65 percent.
In the technique, the eye socket(眼窝) is rebuilt and implanted(植入) with a human tooth and part of the jawbone, to provide support for an artificial cornea(角膜). Luckily for McNichol, Robert was willing to sacrifice one of his teeth to help his father regain his sight.
The technique isn’t simple: McNichol’s first stint on the operating table lasted ten hours, with a five hour follow-up session at a later date. But thanks to his son’s gift, he’s already seeing astonishing results.
“Now I have enough sight for me to get around and I can watch television. I have come out from complete darkness.” he told his friends.
【小题1】Bob McNichol lost his sight ____ .
| A.after he had an operation on his eyes |
| B.because of an accident |
| C.because he met with a serious traffic accident |
| D.when he was 57 years old |
| A.give it a try | B.make a remark | C.fire a gun | D.kick the ball |
| A.make the eye socket look prettier | B.cause his jawbone to function well |
| C.help his father take in more food | D.support the implanted artificial cornea |
| A.Father and son | B.A unique eye operation |
| C.A man defeating darkness | D.Blind man sees with aid of son’s tooth |
I sit at my kitchen table, while my daughter, Anna, sits next to my mother. On the wall hangs a photo of my father.
“When is Rick going to be here?” My mother asks, referring to my husband.
“I don’t know, Mom,” I answer patiently. “He’ll be here for dinner.”
I sigh and get up from the table. This is at least the tenth time she has asked that question.
While my mother and daughter play, I busy myself making a salad.
“Don't put in any onions,” Mom says. “You know how Daddy hates onion.”
“Yes, Mom,” I answer.
I scrub(洗擦) off a carrot and chop it into bite-size pieces.
“Don't put any onions in the salad,” she reminds me. “You know how Daddy hates onion.”
This time I can’t answer.
My mother had been beautiful. She still is. In fact, my mother is still everything she has
been, just a bit forgetful.
I cut off the end of the cucumber and rub it to take away the bitterness. Cut and rub. This
is a trick I have learned from my mother, along with a trillion other things: cooking, sewing,
dating, laughing, thinking. I learned how to grow up.
And I learned that when my mother was around, I never had to be afraid.
So why am I afraid now?
I study my mother's hands. Her nails are no longer a bright red, but painted a light pink.
Almost no color at all. And as I stare at them, I realize I am feeling them as they shaped my
youth. Hands that packed a thousand lunches and wiped a million tears off my cheeks.
Now my hands have grown into those of my mother's. Hands that have cooked uneaten
meals, held my own daughter's frightened fingers on the first day of school and dried tears
off her face.
I grow lighthearted. I can feel my mother kiss me goodnight, check to see if the window is
locked, then blow another kiss from the doorway. Then I am my mother, blowing that same
kiss to Anna.
Outside everything is still. Shadows fall among the trees, shaped like pieces of a puzzle.
Someday my daughter will be standing in my place, and I will rest where my mother now sits.
Will I remember then how it felt to be both mother and daughter? Will I ask the same
question too many times?
I walk over and sit down between my mother and he
r granddaughter.
“Where is Rick?” my mother asks, resting her hand on the table next to mine. And in that
instant I know she remembers. She may repeat herself a little too much. But she remembers.
“He’ll be here,” I answer with a smile.
【小题1】What’s wrong with the writer’s mother?
| A.She is very old. | B.She suffers forgetfulness. |
| C.She is absent-minded. | D.She is eager to see Rick. |
| A.He might have passed away for years. |
| B.He goes out for a walk by himself. |
| C.He is out doing something with Rick. |
| D.He loves the writer’s mother deeply. |
| A.Mother’s hands witnessed my growth as a youth |
| B.Mother’s hands are similar to mine as a youth |
| C.I like to feel mother’s hands when she was young |
| D.I realize her hands were exactly like those in her youth |
| A.Content. | B.Disappointed. | C.Loving. | D.Considerate. |
| A.Mother’s beauty | B.My father hates onion |
| C.Hard-working mother | D.Mother’s hands |
The train was already half an hour late. I had to arrive in Vienna at 7:15 in time to catch the 7:20 train to Paris, but there was no hope of that now. I told my problem to the conductor (列车员). He advised me to get off two stops before Vienna Station and take a taxi. When the time came, he even helped with my bag. He wished me good luck as I jumped off. A few minutes later I was racing towards the center of the city in a taxi. It was almost 7:25 when we stopped outside the station. I paid the driver quickly, picked up my bag and hurried inside. “Paris train?” was all I had time to say to the official I saw. You can see how I felt when he pointed to a train that was just moving out of the station.
【小题1】The writer couldn’t arrive in Paris in time because .
| A.he didn’t pay the driver | B.he took the wrong train |
| C.the train was late | D.the conductor advised him to get off early |
| A.as soon as the train stopped | B.after he heard the writer’s explanation |
| C.after he was passing the writer | D.when the train arrived in Vienna at 7:15 |
| A.The conductor advised him to get off two stops before Vienna. |
| B.The conductor took him to the center of the city in a taxi. |
| C.The conductor carried the bag for him. |
| D.The conductor showed him out of the station and called a taxi. |
| A.happy | B.angry | C.disappointed | D.sorry |
| A.The writer was lucky to catch the train. |
| B.The driver helped the writer catch the train. |
| C.The writer paid the bus driver quickly. |
| D.The conductor was very kind to the writer. |
The dream of flying like Buzz Lightyear never dies. For years, space-age inventors have tested one wearable jet pack after another. And time after time, the designs have been grounded by dangerous fuels, excessive weight, or very loud noise levels. Now a Canadian inventor has sidestepped those weaknesses with an aquatic jet pack. Designed for travel over lakes or oceans, it’s driven by pressurized water, not burning rocket fuel.![]()
When Raymond Li first told the idea for the aquatic jet pack to his friends, they said he must be nuts. How could a jet pack carry that much water? Its thrust-to-weight rate would be so low and it would never become airborne. Thrust-to-weight rate is a measure of the forward force produced compared with the weight of the vehicle. A vehicle with a low thrust-to-weight rate is relatively heavy for the amount of force it generates.
Li's genius idea was to place the jet pack’s engine and its water pump in a separate boat. The pump would draw water from the lake the boat was floating on. It would then force the water under pressure through a hose connected to the jet pack. The hose would be long enough to let the pack go up as high as 8.5 meters (28 feet) in the air.
Today, Li's invention, the Jetlev-Flyer, is ready to go into production. The pack itself, complete with jet nozzles (管嘴) and handlebars, weighs just 14 kilograms. The
boat is a floating pod. To take off, the operator hits a trigger on a handlebar, which starts the pump, and then turns the throttle. Two streams of high-velocity water shoot through the hose and out the nozzles, lifting the operator into the air. The operator hovers there or pushes down on the handlebars, zooming forward at speeds of up to 64 kilometers per hour, pulling the pod behind.
【小题1】All the following factors contribute to the failure of inventing a wearable jet pack EXCEPT ______.
| A.excessive water | B.unbearable noise | C.unsafe fuels | D.too much weight |
| A.improved | B.reduced | C.avoided | D.solved |
| A.exciting | B.crazy | C.realistic | D.creative |
| A.His friends encouraged him to do the invention. |
| B.He put the engine and its water pump in the same boat. |
| C.The success of his invention lies in his bravery. |
| D.His invention finally succeeded and will go into production. |
a. The throttle is turned. b. The operator is lifted into the air.
c. A trigger is hit. d. Two streams of water shoot out.
The pump is started.
| A.c, e, a, d, b | B.c, e, a, b, d | C.e, c, d, b, a | D.e, a, c, d, b |