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     It was Thanksgiving morning and in the crowded kitchen of my small home I was busy preparing the
traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags huddling together inside the storm door on the top step.
     "Any old papers, lady?" asked one of them.
     I was busy. I wanted to say "no" until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals, wet with heavy snow.
     "Come in and I'll make you a cup of hot cocoa."
     They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I served them cocoa and bread with jam to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started
again on my household budget.
     The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking
at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, "Lady, are you rich?"
     I looked at my shabby slipcovers. The girl put her cup back in its saucer carefully and said, "Your cups match your saucers." Her voice was hungry with a need that no amount of food could supply. They left
after that, holding their bundles of papers against the wind. They hadn't said "Thank you." They didn't need to.They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful. Plain blue china cups and saucers
were only worth five pence. But they matched.
     I tasted the potatoes and stirred the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof over our heads, my man with a good steady job-these matched, too.
     I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy prints of small sandals
were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a while, I thought, just in case I should begin to forget how
rich I am.
1. Two children came to the writer's front door because __________.
A. it was Thanksgiving Day    
B. they were beggars
C. they wanted old papers          
D. they wanted a cup of cocoa
2. Why did the writer let the children in?
A. She showed great pity on them.    
B. She had old papers to sell. 66～70 CABCD
C. She wanted to invite them to her Thanksgiving feast.
D. She wanted them to see how rich she was.
3. The girl thought the writer was rich perhaps because __________.
A. she saw that the lady's room was comfortable  
B. she saw the cups matched the saucers
C. the writer's slipcovers were very new  
D. the writer was preparing a big meal while she was too hungry
4. From the passage, we can infer that whether you are rich depends on __________.
A. how much money you have had    
B. how you have helped others
C. how you feel about your life      
D. what job your husband is doing
5. The writer left the muddy prints of small sandals on the floor for a while to __________.
A. show her husband that someone had come      
B. remind her that she had helped two children
C. remind her that she was very rich in the neighborhood  
D. remind her how life should be

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     I wasn't interested in becoming a model at first. I worked as a receptionist in a beauty shop during high school. It was in South Dakota. A woman who had worked for Vogue-a famous fashion magazine said to me, "Why don't you go to New York and be a model?"
     So I went to New York at eighteen. I went to the first model agency, they thought that I was too
long-waisted. It was too bad since I came from South Dakota. I looked up in the telephone book. Hunting Hartford had just bought the agency. So I went there. I was in such a hurry that I couldn't give my name to the receptionist. About half an hour later, the man who had just taken over the agency-he had been a male model before-came in. I was just staring at this unfamiliar man when he said, "You! Come into my office!"
     How do you feel as a fashion model? Quite OK, I should say. But you stop thinking when you are
working. It takes a lot of nervous energy as well because the camera goes one, two, three very fast and
you have to move very fast. I like my job because it gives me freedom. I can have half a day off to do
things I like. I can't do that if I do a normal job. I never like becoming a secretary. They have to sit in the
office for eight hours a day, facing the same people.
     Most models, after one or two years, can't be still very interested in it. But I like being a model.
Maybe I was a born one, as many people say.
1. Who inspired the author's desire to become a model?
A. A woman customer in the beauty shop.
B. Hunting Hartford.
C. The author herself.
D. The author's father.
2. Why didn't the author return to South Dakota when she was first refused?
A. Because she had a strong desire to become a model.
B. Because South Dakota is far away from New York.
C. Because Hunting Hartford asked her not to go back.
D. Because she liked to be a receptionist at a beauty shop.
3. Which of the following is not true?
A. Hunting Hartford had an experience as a model.
B. Hunting Hartford thought the author might be a good model.
C. Hunting Hartford had always been a model agent.
D. Hunting Hartford accepted the author as a model.
4. Why did the author like being a model?
A. Because she liked the woman customer.
B. Because she liked the freedom.
C. Because she liked to have a regular work schedule.
D. Because she liked Hunting Hartford.
5. What can we learn from the passage?
A. Perseverance leads to your success.
B. Finding a job you like to do is important.
C. Both A and B.
D. Becoming a model is quite easy.

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     Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. "Football, tennis, cricket-anything with a round ball. I was useless," he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the
object of jokes in school gym classes in England's rural Devonshire.
     It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest, then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his
mind on building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first
marathon.
     The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat
across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway's School of Adventure in
Scotland, where he learned about the old man's cold-water exploits(成就). Intrigued, Saunders read all
he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future.
     Journeys to the Pole aren't the usual holidays for British country boys, and many people dismissed his
dream as fantasy. "John Ridgway was one of the few who didn't say 'You're completely crazy," Saunders
says.
     In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the
North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a close encounter with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit.
     Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he's skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation.
     This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, a 1,800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis.
1. The turning point in Saunders' life came when _________.
A. he started to play ball games
B. he got a mountain bike at age 15
C. he ran his first marathon at age 18
D. he started to receive Ridgeway's training
2. We can learn from the text that Ridgway _________.
A. dismissed Saunders' dream as fantasy
B. built up his body together with Saunders
C. hired Saunders for his cold-water experience
D. won his first fame for his voyage across the Atlantic
3. What do we know about Saunders?
A. He once worked at a school in Scotland.
B. He followed Ridgway to explore the North Pole.
C. He was chosen for the school sports team as a kid.
D. He was the first Briton to ski alone to the North Pole.
4. The underlined word "Intrigued" in the third paragraph probably means "_________".
A. Excited
B. Convinced
C. Delighted
D. Fascinated
5. It can be inferred that Saunders' journey to the North Pole _________.
A. was accompanied by his old playmates
B. set a record in the North Pole expedition
C. was supported by other Arctic explorers
D. made him well-known in the 1960s

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     The rumors had been spreading for months but it still came as a shock when the hospital would be
closing. It had served this poor neighborhood for nearly 100 years but it would close because of the health care crisis.
     The day after the announcement co-workers found out that pretzels(椒鹽餅干) had been eliminated.
Soft pretzels are the lifeblood of this city. So losing access to soft pretzels is no small matter.
     A week later, I decided to cheer up my co-workers by picking up some soft pretzels at a local store.
I arrived just as it opened so I was the only customer. But I only had $6 in my wallet. I was working inside a large office at the hospital and knew I'd need more than the half dozen pretzels my six dollars would buy. A man's voice interrupted my thoughts. "Can I help you?"
     I said, "I only have $6. I'm not sure how many pretzels I need. You see, I work at a hospital and it's
closing and they stopped selling pretzels." The man's smile disappeared. "What hospital?" "Oh,
Northeastern Hospital."
     The guy looked deeply shocked. "I used to sell medical supplies and that was one of my hospitals."
Then he turned around and grabbed a box of 25 pretzels and slid them across the counter.
     I was surprised by his generosity and started to reach for my wallet, "Oh I can pay. Please let me …
The guy smiled, "Just tell them Joe Sullivan said to do something nice for someone else."
     And so that day everyone in medical records was treated to a soft pretzel. Word spread fast as people came asking, "Is it really true?" It was as if I'd carried in a box of gold. It mattered to them that a stranger
cared.
1.The underlined word "eliminated" in Paragraph 2 means _____.
A. highly priced
B. added
C. overcooked
D. removed
2.Why did the author decide to buy pretzels for his co-workers?
A. To show his generosity.
B. To make them feel less sad.
C. To show his thanks to them.
D. To encourage them to work hard.
3.To buy 25 pretzels, the author should pay ____.
A. $25
B. $12.5
C. $12
D. $50
4.According to the passage, Joe Sullivan used to be a ____.
A. cook
B. doctor
C. shopkeeper
D. salesman
5. What can be the best title of the passage?
A. A nice treat
B. The rumor that came true
C. Tell them Joe cared
D. Northeastern Hospital is closing down