I was shopping in the supermarket when I heard a young voice.“Mom，come here！There's this lady here my size！”

     The mother rushed to her son；then she turned to me to say sorry to me.

     I smiled and told her，“It's OK.”Then I talked to the boy，“Hi，I'm Dory Kramer. How are you？”

     He studied me from head to toe，and asked，“Are you a little mommy？”

“Yes，I have a son,” I answered.

    “Why are you so little?”he asked.

    “It's the way I was born,” I said.“Some people are little. Some are tall. I'm just not going to grow any bigger.”After I answered his other questions，I shook the boy's hand and left.

     My life as a little person is filled with stories like that. I enjoy talking to children and explaining why I look different from their parents.

     It takes only one glance( 一瞥) to see I’m different. I stand three feet nine inches tall(=1.14 metres).I was born a dwarf．In spite of this，I did all the things other kids did when I was growing up.

     I didn't realize how short I was until I started school. Some kids called me names (辱骂).Then I knew. I began to hate the first day of school each year.

     But I learned to smile and face the fact that I was going to be noticed my whole life. What I lacked in height，I made up for in personality. When people are rude，I remind myself，“Look what else I have－a great family，nice friends.”

1.Why did the mother say sorry to Dory Kramer?

A．Because the boy ran into the author.

B．Because the boy hit the author.

C．Because the boy said the author was fatter than him.

D．Because the mother thought the boy's words had hurt the author.

2.What does a dwarf look like?

A．Of medium height.            B．Very tall.

C．Very short.                      D．Very thin.

3.When did the author realize that she was too short?

A．When she grew up.

B．When she was 47 years old.

C．When she began to go to school.

D．When she met the boy in the supermarket.

 We are in a world full of competition. Our parents compete (竞争) with others in their offices, our brothers and sisters compete with others in their colleges, and we compete with our classmates in school. Many of us give up in the face of competition and will never be successful. ①can’t, others, why, we, do, better, than One important reason is that we have no self-confidence (自信).

In fact, everyone is born equal. You can do what others do. Although your classmates may be better than you in some ways, you may be better than them in other subjects. So everyone has his or her own advantages. Don’t look at things from a single (单个的) point of view. Try to discover your own advantages, and believe that you can do better than others in those ways.

Competition is not so terrible. Don’t be afraid of it. And don’t be afraid of those classmates who are better than you. ②Remember that self-confidence is the first step to success. Believe in yourselves, and you will be successful one day.

任务一: 1. Are we living in a world full of competition?

任务二: 2. How can you improve your self-confidence according to the passage?

任务三: 3. 将①处画线部分单词连成一个完整的特殊疑问句。

任务四: 4. 将②处画线部分译成中文。

任务五: 5. What’s the main idea of this passage?

阅读理解

You may know that more people drink coffee than tea around the world. And that, after oil, it is the second biggest traded commodity（商品）. You may also know that the drink comes from beans which are first roasted and then ground. But what else do you know about this popular drink?

It is said that the story of coffee started with an Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi. One day Kaldi was surprised to see that his goats were behaving very strangely. Instead of grazing（吃草） quietly, they were jumping around, almost dancing. He also noticed some red “cherries” from a plant that the goats were eating. He tried some himself and was surprised by the feeling of extreme happiness and excitement. He felt like dancing too!

But it wasn’t used as a drink at first - it was used as food. The coffee berries, mixed with animal fat, were used by monks to stay awake during long hours of prayer. From Ethiopia, coffee was later cultivated in Yemen and the first hot drink was developed there around AD 1000. Three centuries later Muslims were keen coffee drinkers and as Islam spread, so did coffee. Coffee houses appeared in Cairo and Mecca.

For hundreds of years the plants were protected safely. But some beans were smuggled（偷运）out of Arabia and taken to India. In the 17th century, coffee was soon grown in a new continent. From India to Indonesia, a century later the beans were once again smuggled to Brazil. Brazil is now the largest coffee producer in the world.

It was the caffeine（咖啡因）that made the goats dance and kept the monks awake. Although it is found in other soft drinks and tea, coffee has the most caffeine. In the short term, a couple of cups of coffee can prevent fatigue and delay sleep. But several cups a day, every day, can cause anxiety and restlessness.

1.What is the world’s biggest traded commodity?

A. Oil   B. Coffee   C. Tea

2.Why did the goatherd want to dance?

A. Because he liked to dance with his goats.

B. Because he found his goats behaving strangely.

C. Because he ate some red “cherries” from a plant.

3. Which of the following events came first?

A. Coffee houses appeared in Mecca.

B. Coffee became a drink.

C. Coffee spread as Islam spread.

4. Which sentence is true?

A. Monks were the first to drink coffee.

B. Too much coffee can make people anxious.

C. Brazilians liked drinking coffee the most.

5. Around the world more people drink coffee than tea because _____.

A. coffee berries can be eaten

B. coffee has the most caffeine

C. coffee can prevent fatigue and delay sleep

Although Huai’an isn’t ____ capital of Jiangsu, it is ___ city with many places of  interest.

  A. a, a    B. a, the   C. the, a    D. the, the

America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon. They don’t feel hurt. If the same two people meet again, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand .Friendships between us develop more slowly but may become lifelong feelings, extending（延伸）deeply into both families.

There is another difficult point for us to understand. Although Americans treat friends warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to them if it requires a great deal of time. But in China, we are usually generous with our time. We, as hosts, will appear at an airport even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take a day off from our work to act as guides to our friends. It is opposite in America. Americans cannot manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily plans. They will probably expect the visitors to get themselves from the airport to the hotels. And they expect the visitors will phone them from there. Once the visitors arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real.

For Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to restaurants, except for business matters. Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. So accept their hospitality（好客）at home and enjoy your visit in America!

1. The underlined phrase "pick up" in Paragraph 1may mean "_________________".

   A. put down     B. give up       C. pay no attention to    D. continue

2. From the passage, we can know_________________.

 A. Americans are always generous with their time.

B. Americans don't feel hurt if their friendships disappear soon.

C. Chinese friendships develop more slowly but will never disappear.

 D. Chinese friendships develop faster than American friendships.

3.This passage is most probably written for __________________.

A. American students                B. Chinese students

C. Chinese visitors to America         D. American visitors to China