A woman had a _____ escape yesterday when her car left the road．

       A．sharp               B．narrow             C．good           D．smooth

The day was warm and the sun shone down like a new beginning on my life. I was waving goodbye to my son, the last one of my fledglings （剛會飛的鳥）to leave home and go to new woods, "University actually" . I felt so lighthearted after spending many years looking after my four children—cooking, washing, ironing, teaching them how to look after themselves and manage their finances—that I actually thought “At long last, freedom".

But, as I watched my last one leave, although it was a joyous occasion, I realized I had not really prepared for this day, I was too tied up with bringing up these adults of the future to realize that they would all leave the nest and lives independently.

At first I didn't know what "I" wanted to do. I tried a part time job, which ended in me running out in tears. I started a business making soft furnishings, but that didn't work either.  I grew my own veggies and fruit, which lasted 3 years, until I was advised by my doctor that my feet couldn't take any more "tools” driven through them.

I began wondering if I had a future of my own. I cried for the life I was used to, and hadn't known or wanted anything different.

Then one day I saw an ad. for foster parents, I discussed it with my husband who was always behind everything I tried and with great disturbance , I rang up the number.

I now laugh and sing with my 14-year-old foster daughter, even when my cooker is a mess and my bathroom is a disaster area. I now know, 8 years later, what “I” was meant to be doing with all the spare hours, days, and weeks I had on my hands when my last fledgling flew the nest. The sun shines once again in my home.

1.How did the mother first feel when her last child went off to university?

A．Lonely.

B．Anxious.

C．Relieved.

D．Annoyed.

2.The underlined phrase “was tied up with” in the second paragraph means “        ”.

A．was occupied in	B．was associated with
C．was tired of	D．was addicted to

3.In the third paragraph, the poor mother did all the things just to         .

A．live a greener and healthier life

B．earn more money for her kids’ education

C．shift her attention and ease her anxiety

D．start her own decorating business

4.What did the empty-nested mother think of her husband?

A．Skilled

B．Supportive

C．Stubborn

D．Open-minded

5.Thanks to the foster daughter, the author         .

A．got rid of her busy work

B．forgot her other children

C．found a suitable job

D．knew what she really wanted

 

“The pen is more powerful than the sword(劍).” There have been many writers who used their pens to fight things that were wrong. Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of them. She was born in the U.S.A. in 1811.One of her books not only made her famous but has been described as one that excited the world, and was helpful in causing a civil war and freeing the enslaved race. The civil war was the American Civil War of 1861,in which the Northern States fought the Southern States and finally won.

This book that shook the world was called Uncle Tom’s Cabin. There was a time when every English-speaking man, woman, and child has read this novel that did so much to stop slavery. Not many people read it today, but it is still very interesting. The book has shown us how a warm-hearted writer can arouse(喚起) people’s sympathies. The author herself had neither been to the Southern States nor been a slave. The Southern Americans were very angry at the book, which they said did not at all represent true state of affairs, but the Northern Americans were wildly excited over it and were so inspired by it that they were ready to go to war to set the slaves free. According to the passage______.

    A．every English-speaking person has read Uncle Tom's Cabin

    B．Uncle Tom's Cabin was not very interesting

    C．those who don't speak English cannot have read Uncle Tom's Cabin

    D．the book Uncle Tom's Cabin did a great deal in the American Civil War

How old was Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe when her world famous book was published?

    A．About sixty years old.    B．Over fifty years old.

    C．In her forties.           D．Around twenty years old.

What do you learn about Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe from the passage?         

A．She had been living in the north of America before the American Civil War 

broke out.

    B．She herself encouraged the Northern Americans to go to war to set the slaves free.

    C．She was better as writing as swinging(揮舞)a sword.

    D．She had once been a slave.

What can we learn from the passage?　　

A．We needn’t use weapons to fight things that are wrong.

B．A writer is more helpful in a war than a soldier.

C．We must understand the importance of literature and art.   

D．No war can be won without such a book as Uncle Tom's Cabin .

When I was small and my grandmother died, I couldn’t understand why I had no tears. But that night when my dad tried to cheer me up, my laugh turned into crying.

.   So it came as no surprise to learn that researchers believe crying and laughing come from the same part of the brain. Just as laughing has many health advantages, scientists are discovering that so, too, does crying.

Whatever it takes for us to reduce pressure is important to our emotional (情感的) health, and crying seems to study found that 85 percent of women and 73 percent of men report feeling better after crying.

Besides, tears attract help from other people. Researchers agree that when we cry, people around us become kinder and friendly and they are more ready to provide support and comfort. Tears also enable us to understand our emotions better; sometimes we don't even know we're very sad until we cry. We learn about our emotions through Crying, and then we can deal with them.

Just as crying can be healthy, not crying — holding back tears of anger, pain or suffering — can be bad for physical (身體的) health, Studies have shown that too much control of emotions can lead to high blood pressure, heart problems and some other illnesses. If you have a health problem, doctors will certainly not ask you to cry. But when you feel like crying, don't fight it. It's a natural — and healthy — emotional response (反應).

60. Why didn't the author cry when her grandmother died?

A. Because her father did not --ant her to feel too sad.

B. Because she did not love her grandmother.

C. Because she was too shy to cry at that time.

D. Tie author doesn’t give the explanation.

61, It can be inferred from the text that ______.

A. there are two ways to keep healthy

B. crying does more good to health than laughing

C. crying and laughing play the same roles

D. emotional health has a close relationship to physical health

62. According to the author, which of the following statements is true?

A. Crying is the best way to get help from others.

B. Fighting back tears may cause some health problems.

C. We will never know our deep feelings unless we cry.

D. We must cry if we want to reduce pressure.

63. What might be the most suitable title for the text?

A. Power of Tears         B. How to Keep Healthy

C. Why We Cry           D. A New Scientific Discovery

“A good book for children should simply be a good book in its own right,”says Mollie Hunter. Born and brought up near Edinburgh, Mollie has devoted her talents to writing primarily for young people. She firmly believes that there is and should always be a wider audience for any good book whatever its main market is. In Mollie’s opinion it is necessary to make full use of language and she enjoys telling a story, which is what every writer should be doing, “If you aren’t telling a story, you’re a very dead writer indeed.”she says. With the chief function of a writer being to entertain, Mollie is indeed an entertainer. “I have this great love of not only the meaning of language but of the music of language,”she says. “This love goes back to early childhood. I’ve told stories all my life. I had a school teacher who used to ask us what we would like to be when we grew up and, because my family always had dogs, and I was very good at handling them. I said I wanted to work with dogs, and the teacher always said‘Nonsense, Mollie; dear, you’ll be a writer.’So finally I thought that this woman must have something, since she was a good teacher and I decided when I was nine that I would be a writer.”

   This childhood intention is described in her novel, A Sound of Chariots, which although written in the third person is clearly autobiographical (自傳體的)and gives a picture both of Mollie’s ambition and her struggle towards its achievement. Thoughts of her childhood inevitably(不可避免的)brought thoughts of the time when her home was still a village with buttercup meadows and strawberry fields-sadly now covered with modern houses. “I was once taken back to see it and I felt that somebody had lain dirty hands all over my childhood. I’ll never go back,”she said.“Never.”“When I set one of my books in Scotland,”she said,“I can recall my romantic feelings as a child playing in those fields, or watching the village blacksmith at work. And that’s important, because children now know so much so early that romance can’t exist for them, as it did for us.”

What does Mollie Hunter feel about the nature of a good book?

A. It should not aim at a narrow audience.

B. It should be attractive to young readers.

C. It should be based on original ideas.

D. It should not include too much conversation.

In Mollie Hunter’s opinion, which of the following is one sign of poor writer?

A. Being poor in life experience

B. Being short of writing skill.

C. The weakness of description

D. The absence of a story.

What do we learn about Mollie Hunter as a young child？

A. She didn’t expect to become a writer.

B. She didn’t enjoy writing stories.

C. She didn’t have any particular ambition.

D. She didn’t respect her teacher’s view.

In comparison with children of earlier years, Mollie feels that children now are _____.

A. more intelligent

B. better informed

C. less eager to learn

D. less interested in reality

What’s the writer’s purpose in this text?

A. To share her enjoyment of Mollie Hunter’s book.

B. To introduce Mollie Hunter’s work to a wider audience.

C. To provide information for Mollie Hunter’s existing readers.

D. To describe Mollie Hunter’s most successful books.