" Wanted: A violin. Can’t pay much. Call…"

      The ad in the newspaper made me remember my childhood. Because my family was  36  , I couldn’t have a violin. So I asked, "Daddy, may I have a   37  ？" Daddy’s face looked sad. But a few weeks later, Daddy went home with a case in his hand. Inside the case was a second—hand violin for seven dollars.

      No one could know how   38  I was when I took my violin to school for my first lesson. Several years later, I became famous as a violinist. And then, I carefully   39  the violin away.

      Now   40  this ad, I discovered the case deep in my closet(储藏室). I put it on the table. Then I picked up the   41   , walked to the telephone and called the number.

      Later in the day, a man aged about 30 knocked at the door. "I’ve been expecting

someone can answer my advertisement.  My daughter wants a violin so    42   ," he said, examining my violin. "How much is it?"

      I said, "   43  dollars. "

      "Are you surer" he asked. "Seven dollars," I   44   and then added, "I hope your daughter will be   45   to have it and enjoy it as I did. "

      I smiled, but I found my tears roiling down my face.

1. A. rich            B. poor            C. large            D. small

2. A. drum          B. guitar           C. violin           D. piano

3.A. surprised      B. excited          C. bored           D. interested

4.A. carried         B. put             C. took            D. threw

5.A. about         B. by              C. in              D. for

6. A. ad           B. violin            C. case          D. newspaper

7.A. badly         B. easily          C. quickly         D. luckily

8. A. Ninety         B. Twenty         C. Seven           D. Five

9. A. repeated       B. showed          C. reminded        D. suggested

10.A. clever          B. sad            C. afraid            D. happy

Difficult times often bring out the best in people. Many well-known people come to help those who are in trouble. And this was the case for basketball player Yao Ming. He hosted a television show in Shanghai and raised US $ 300,000 to help researchers (研究员) find a medical cure. Fund-raising, or charity, is an act of goodwill(好意) towards others.
Charities in the West have more ways. Look at a typical day for Ruth, a rich woman in the UK, for example. Ruth wakes up in the morning and collects her post. There’s a letter addressed to her with a picture of a half-dead, beaten(筋疲力尽的) horse. It’s from a charity asking Ruth to donate money to save the animals. She turns on the television, and sees a picture of a wide–eyed child dying of hunger in Africa with a request (请求) for money to help the child. The tickets for the charity shows often cost her a lot of money, but she doesn’t mind because most of the money is going to a charity that fights AIDS. She feels good about going because she’s helping the sick.
Edna, a little old lady, looks after a second-hand shop—a charity shop. Any profit (收益) it has made goes to a cancer(癌症) charity. Now that she doesn’t have to work, she has lots of time to offer her services for free.
For people like Yao Ming, Ruth and Edna, charity is a virtue (美德) that holds the same importance in life as faith and hope. “As you look back on your life, the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others,” said Scottish writer Henry Drummond.
【小题1】Yao Ming hosted a television show to _____.