After spending three days in a wheelchair, I was ready to quit. Not only did I have to battle cracked
and uneven pavements, I had to deal with the bad attitude of pedestrians and a cold rain. But I didn't give
up because of people like Tiffany Payne.
    Payne, who has been using a wheelchair for 18 years, laughed at me,
    "Imagine trying to get around town in the winter," she said.
    I could see her point: You're battling to get to a doctor's appointment, but no one has shoveled after a
big snowfall. Your choices: Move out and risk getting stuck, or reschedule the appointment.
    Those of us fortunate enough to get around on our own two legs don't give a second thought to the
person in a wheelchair next to us at a crosswalk. That would require us to look down.
    So I decided to try using a wheelchair to get a sample of what their lives are like. It wasn't long before
I saw that people who use wheelchairs are forced to deal with a lot of trouble.
    During my experiment, I was ignored by store staff while shopping and bumped into by inattentive
walkers without so much as an apology. Some people even gave me angry looks as if I were the one at
fault.
    Once in a store, a woman bumped into me trying to get to the new iPad. She didn't say, "Excuse me."
    When salespeople did offer assistance, they talked to people who were with me, instead of me. I
wanted to yell, "Hey, I'm down here!"
    Some salespeople talked to me as though I were a child or acted like they didn't want to be bothered
with me.
    People who use wheelchairs want to be treated like everyone else. They also comprehend, so you
don't have to speak to them in a childlike, sing-song voice. It's not very appealing, especially when the
person is an adult. And most importantly, remember they have feelings that can be hurt just like yours.
    Spending three days in a wheelchair made me look differently at those who have to use one. I hope
you do the same. 

1. The author writes the story to           .

A. help those in wheelchairs gain self-confidence
B. share his experience of acting as a wheelchair user
C. ask people to show sympathy for those in wheelchairs
D. call on people to respect and help those in wheelchairs

2. During his three days in a wheelchair, the author met all of the following difficulties EXCEPT           . 

A. bad road conditions
B. poor attitudes of ordinary people
C. terrible medical service
D. bad weather

3. What can we conclude from the article?   

A. A wheelchair user may feel offended when you do not address him or her directly.
B. Assistants in big stores are usually kind to people in wheelchairs.
C. People in wheelchairs should fight for fair treatment.
D. People in wheelchairs are usually hard to get along with.

4. Which of the following statements would the author agree to?

A. Look down on a person in a wheelchair.
B. Speak to a person in a wheelchair in a sing-song voice.
C. Treat a person in a wheelchair as you would treat any other person.
D. Offer assistance to a person in a wheelchair without asking for permission.

     As one approaches some crossroads, one comes to a sign which says that drivers have to stop when
they come to the main road ahead. At other crossroads, drivers have to go slow, but they do not actually
have to stop (unless, of course, there is something coming along the main road); and at still others, they do not have either to stop or to go slow, because they are themselves on the main road.
    Mr. Williams, who was always a very careful driver, was driving home from work one evening when
he came to a crossroads. It had a "Slow" sign, so he slowed down when he came to the main road,
looked both ways to see that nothing was coming, and then drove across without stopping completely.
     At once he heard a police whistle, so he pulled in to the side of the road and stopped. A policeman
walked over to him with a notebook and pencil in his hand and said, "You didn't stop at the crossing."
"But the sign there doesn't say "Stop"," answered Mr. Williams. "It just says "Slow", and I did go slow."  
The policeman looked around him, and a look of surprise came over his face. Then he put his notebook
and pencil away, scratched his head and said, "Well, I'll be scolded. I am in the wrong street!"        

1. Which of the following statements is correct? ?

A. Stop signs can be found at every crossroads.
B. At crossroads with a "Slow" sign, drivers never have to stop.
C. At crossroads with a "Slow" sign, drivers have to stop and then go slow.
D. At some crossroads, drivers needn't stop or go slow.

2. What do you think the policeman would do in the end?

A. Fine Mr. Williams.                    
B. Take him to the police station.
C. Apologize to Mr. Williams.            
D. Give Mr. Williams his notebook and pencil.

3. Which might be the best title for this passage?

A. Signs at the crossroads              
B. A careful driver
C. A policeman and a driver            
D. Policeman in the wrong street

     When other nine-year-old kids were playing games, she was working at a petrol station. When other
teens were studying or going out, she struggled to find a place to sleep on the street.But she overcame
these terrible setbacks to win a highly competitive scholarship and gain entry to Harvard University. And
her amazing story has inspired a movie,"Homeless to Harvard:The Liz Murray Story" shown in late April.
    Liz Murray, a 22.year-old American girl, has been writing a real-life story'of willpower and
determination.Liz grew up in the shadow of two drug-addicted parents.There was never enough  food
or warm clothes in the house.Liz was the only member of the family who had a job.Her mother had
AIDS and died when Liz was iust l5 years old.The effect of that LOSS became a turning point in her life.
Connecting the environment in which she had grown up with how her mother had died.she decided to do
something about it.
    Liz went back to school.She threw herself into her studies,never telling her teachers that she was
homeless.At night, she lived on the streets.".What drove me to live on had something to do with
understanding,by understanding that there was a whole other way of being. I had only experienced a
small part of the society,''she wrote in her book Breaking Night.
    She admitted that she used envy to drive herself on. She used the benefits that come easily to
others,such as a safe living environment,to encourage herself that"next to nothing could hold me down".
She finished high school in just two years and won a full scholarship to study at Harvard University. But
Liz decided to leave her top university a couple of months earlier this year in order to take care of her
father,who has also developed AIDS."I love''my parents so much. They are drug addicts.But I never
forget that they love me all the time."
      Liz wants moviegoers to come away with the idea that changing your life is''as simple as making a
decision".

1. In which order did the following things happen to Liz?
a.  Her mother died ofAIDS.    
b. She worked at a petrol station.
c. She got admitted into Harvad.  
d. The movie about her life was put on.
e. She had trouble finding a place to sleep.

A. b,a,e,c,d    
B. a,b,c,e,d    
C. e,d,b,a,c    
D. b,e,a,d,c

2.The main idea of the passage is_______.

A. how Liz managed to enter Harvard University
B. what a hard time Liz had in her childhood
C. why Liz loved her parents so much
D. how Liz struggled to change her life

3. What actually made her go towards her goal?

A. Envy and encouragement.    
B. Willpower and determination.
C. Decisions and understanding.  
D. Love and respect for her parents.

4. When she wrote''What drove me to live on...1 had only experienced a small part of the 
    society",she meant that______.

A. she had little experience of social life    
B. she could hardly understand the society
C. she would do something for her own life
D. she needed to travel more around the world

     Last summer I went through a training program and became a literacy volunteer (掃盲志愿者). The
training I received, though excellent, did not tell me how it was to work with a real student, however.
When I began to discover what other people's lives were like because they could not read, I realized the
true importance of reading.
     My first student Marie was a 44-year-old single mother of three. In the first lesson, I found out she
walked two miles to the nearest supermarket twice a week because she didn't know which bus to take.
When I told her I would get her a bus schedule. She told me it would not help because she could not read
it. She said she also had difficulty once she got to the supermarket, because she couldn't always remember what she needed. Since she did not know words, she could not write out a shopping list. Also, she could
only recognize items by sight, so if the product had a different label, she would not recognize it as the
product she wanted.
      As we worked together, learning how to read built Marie's self-confidence, which encouraged her to
continue in her studies. She began to make rapid progress and was even able to take the bus to the
supermarket. After this successful trip, she reported how self-confident she felt. At the end of the program, she began helping her youngest son, Tony, a shy first grader, with his reading. She sat with him before he
went to sleep and together they would read bedtime stories. When his eyes became wide with excitement as she read, pride was written all over her face, and she began to see how her own hard work in learning
to read paid off. As she described this experience, I was proud of myself as well. I found that helping
Marie to build her self-confidence was more rewarding than anything I had ever done before.
     As a literacy volunteer, I learned a great deal about teaching and helping others. In fact, I may have
learned more from the experience than Marie did.

1. Why didn't Marie go to the supermarket by bus at first?

A. Because she liked to walk to the supermarket.    
B. Because she lived far away from the bus stop.
C. Because she couldn't find the right bus.  
D. Because she couldn't afford the bus ticket.      

2. What did the author do last summer?

A. She worked in the supermarket.
B. She gave single mothers the help they needed.
C. She went to a training program to help a literacy volunteer.
D. She helped someone to learn to read.

3. What did the writer think of her work as a literacy volunteer?

A. meaningful      
B. Interesting      
C. Tiring    
D. Touching

     In 1977, Jack, an Italian-American who lived in San Francisco, flew from America to Italy to visit his
relatives. On the way, the plane made a one-hour stop to refuel (加油) at the New York Airport.
     Thinking that he had arrived, Jack got out and spent three days in New York, believing he was in
Rome.
     When his relatives were not there to meet him, Jack thought they had been caught in the heavy Roman
traffic mentioned in their letters. While looking for their address, Jack could not help noticing that
modernization had changed most, if not all, of the ancient city's landmarks. He also noticed that many
people spoke English with strong American accent. However, he just thought that Americans got
everywhere. He also believed that so many street signs were written in English especially for the
Americans. Jack spoke very little English himself so he asked a policeman in Italian the way to the bus
station. As chance would have it, the policeman came from Italy and replied in the same language. After
twelve hours traveling round on a bus, the driver handed him over to a second policeman. After brief
argument with the policeman, Jack was very surprised to find that the Rome police had employed someone who did not speak his mother tongue.
     Jack did not believe he was told that he was in New York. In order to get on a plane to San Francisco, the policeman raced him to the airport in a police car with sirens (報警器) screaming. "See," he said to his interpreter. "I know I'm in Italy. That's how they drive."

1. Where did Jack live?

A. In Italy              
B. In San Francisco    
C. In New York        
D. The story doesn't mention

2. Why did Jack spend three days in New York?

A. He thought he had arrived in Italy
B. He did not want to go to Italy
C. He wanted to see some relatives first in New York
D. He wanted to have short rest in New York

3. Which of the following is Not true?

A. The first policeman could speak Italian fluently
B. The second policeman could not speak Italian at all
C. Jack had a brief argument with the second policeman
D. Jack could speak much English