O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank, when some money went missing from the bank O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the reader’s surprise.
【小題1】In which order did O. Henry do the following things?
a. Lived in New York.   b. Worked in a bank.      c. Traveled to Texas.
d. Was put in prison.    e. Had a newspaper Job.      f. Learned to write stories.

Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new baby. They find out that the new baby is going to be a girl, and day after day, night after night, Michael sings to his sister in Mommy's stomach.
In time, the labor pains come. But complications arise during delivery. Finally, Michael's little sister is born. But she is in serious condition. With alarm in the night, the ambulance rushes the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary's Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee. The days go by. The little girl gets worse. The pediatric (兒科的) specialist tells the parents, “There is very little hope. Be prepared for the worst.”
Karen and her husband contact a local cemetery about a burial plot. They have fixed up a special room in their home for the new baby, but now they plan a funeral. Michael keeps begging his parents to let him see his sister, "I want to sing to her," he says. But kids are never allowed in Intensive Care. Karen makes up her mind. She will take Michael whether they like it or not. If he doesn’t see his sister now, he may never see her alive.
She dresses him in an oversized suit and marches him into ICU. He looks like a walking laundry basket, but the head nurse recognizes him as a child and shouts, "Get that kid out of here now. No children are allowed. Never disturb patients here.” The mother rises up strongly and said," He is not leaving until he sings to his sister!"
Karen leads Michael to his sister's bedside. He gazes at the tiny infant losing the battle to live. And he begins to sing. In the pure hearted voice of a 3-year-old, Michael sings:" You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray…" Instantly the baby girl responds. The pulse rate begins to calm down and becomes steady.
“Keep on singing, Michael.”encouraged Karen with tears in her eyes. "You never know, dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away."
The next day, the very next day, the little girl is well enough to go home! Woman's Day magazine called it "the miracle of a brother's song". The medical staff just called it a miracle. Karen called it a miracle of Gods love!
Never give up on the people you love.
【小題1】What may the underlined words "the infant" refer to?

Dad loved children. And he always wanted a   21  family. Eventually, he got what he wanted with twelve children in the family. Without fail, he would show us all to visitors.
Once, Dad   22  presented the first three children in the family, Ann, Mary and Ernestine, to some visitors. Then he picked up a fourth child, and said, “And this is our   23  model, complete with all the improvements. And don’t think that this is all, we are   24  the 1953 model some time next month.”
But what he   25  most was taking us out for a drive. On one occasion a man in a village we were passing through shouted   26  that he had seen eleven people in our car, not   27  Mum and Dad.  28  , Dad called out over his shoulder, “You   29  the second baby up from the front here, Mister.”
Another time, Dad told us this joke, though we were not sure whether he was telling us the   30  . Mum, who was a psychologist, once went to give a lecture and left Dad in charge of the   31 . When Mum returned, she asked him if everything had been OK. He said everything was   32  except that one of the children had been taught a lesson because he had been   33 . When he pointed at the child that had been   34  Mum looked at him calmly and said, “That’s not one of ours, dear. He   35   next door.”

Florence Nightingale（南丁格爾） was born in a rich family. When she was young she took lessons in music and drawing, and read great books. She also traveled a great deal with her mother and father. 
As a child she felt that visiting sick people was both a duty and a pleasure. She enjoyed helping them. 
At last mind was made up. “I’m going to be a nurse,” she decided. 
“Nursing isn’t the right work for a lady,” her father told her. 
“Then I will make it so, “she smiled. And she went to learn nursing in Germany and France. When she returned to England, Florence started a nursing home for home. During the Crimean War in 1854 she went with a group of thirty eight nurses to the front hospitals. What they saw there was terrible. Dirt and death were everywhere to be seen — and smelled. The officer there did not want any woman to tell him how to run a hospital, either. But the brave nurse went to work. 
Florence used her own money and some from friends to buy clothes, beds, medicine and food for the men. Her only pay was in smiles from the lips of dying soldiers. But they were more than enough for this kind woman. 
After she returned to England, she was honored for her services by Queen Victoria. But Florence said that her work had just begun. She raised money to build the Nightingale Home for Nurses in London. She also wrote a book on public health, which was printed in several countries. 
Florence Nightingale died at the age of ninety, still trying to serve others through her work as a nurse. Indeed, it is because of her that we honor nurses today. 
【小題1】When she was a child, Florence ____ .

Once there was a piano player in a bar. People came just to hear him play. But one night, a lady asked him to sing a song.
"I don't sing." said the man.
But the lady told the waiter, "I'm tired of listening to the piano. I want the player to sing!"
The waiter shouted across the room, " Hey, friend! If you want to get paid, sing a song!"
So he did. He had never sung in public before. Now he was singing for the very first time! Nobody had ever heard the song Mona Lisa sung so beautifully!
He had talent (天賦）he was sitting on! He may have lived the rest of his life as a no-name piano player in a no-name bar. But once he found, by accident, that he could sing well, he went on working hard and became one of the best-known singers in the US. His name was Nat King Cole.
You, too, have skills and abilities. You may not feel that your talent is great, but it may be better than you think. With hard work, most skills skills can be improved. Besides, you may have no success at all if you just sit on your talent.
【小題1】The lady asked the player to sing a song because          .

When my grandfather died, my 83-year-old grandmother, once so full of life, slowly began to fade. No longer able to manage a home of her own, she moved in with my mother, where she was visited often by other members of her large, loving family. Although she still had her good days, it was often hard to arouse her interest.
But one chilly December afternoon three years ago, my daughter Meagan, then eight, and I were visiting her, when she noticed that Meagan was carrying her favorite doll.
“I, too, had a special doll when I was a little girl,” she told a wide-eyed Meagan. “I got it one Christmas when I was about your age. I lived in an old farmhouse in Maine, with Mom, Dad and my four sisters, and the very first gift I opened that Christmas was the most beautiful doll you’d ever want to see.”
“She had an elegant, hand-painted face, and her long brown hair was pulled back with a big pink bow. Her eyes were blue, and they opened and closed. I remember she had a body of kidskin, and her arms and legs bent at the joints.”
GG’s voice dropped low, taking on an almost respectful tone. “My doll was dressed in a pretty pink gown, decorated with fine lace. … Getting such a fine doll was like a miracle for a little farm girl like me — my parents must have had to sacrifice so much to afford it. But how happy I was that morning!”
GG’s eyes filled and her voice shook with emotion as she recalled that Christmas of long ago. “I played with my doll all morning long. And then it happened. My mother called us to the dining room for Christmas dinner and I laid my new doll down gently on the hall table. But as I went to join the family at the table, I heard a loud crash.”
“I hardly had to turn around — I knew it was my precious doll. And it was. Her lace skirt had hung down from the table just enough for my baby sister to reach up and pull on it. When I ran in, there lay my beautiful doll on the floor, her face smashed into a dozen pieces. She was gone forever.”
A few years later, GG’s baby sister was also gone, she told Meagan, a victim of pneumonia(肺炎). Now the tears in her eyes spilled over — tears, I knew, not only for a lost doll and a lost sister, but for a lost time.
Silent for the rest of the visit, Meagan was no sooner in the car going home than she exclaimed, “Mom, I have a great idea! Let’s get GG a new doll for Christmas. Then she won’t cry when she thinks about it.”
My heart filled with pride as I listened to my sympathetic little daughter. But where would we find a doll to match GG’s fond memories?
Where there’s a will, as they say, there’s a way. When I told my best friends, Liz and Chris, about my problem, Liz put me in touch with a local doll-make. From a doll supply house I ordered a long brown hair and a kidskin body to copy the outfit GG had so lovingly described. Liz volunteered to put the doll together, and Chris helped me make the doll’s outfit. Meagan wrote the story of the lost doll by giving examples.
Finally our creation was finished. To our eyes it was perfect. But there was no way it could be exactly like the doll GG had loved so much and lost. Would she think it looked anything like it?
On Christmas Eve, Meagan and I carried our happily packed gift to GG, where she sat surrounded by children, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. “It’s for you,” Meagan said, “but first you have to read the story that goes with it.”
GG no sooner got through the first page than her voice cracked and she was unable to go on, but Meagan took over where she left off. Then it was time to open her present.
I’ll never forget the look on GG’s face as she lifted the doll and held it to her chest. Once again her tears fell, but this time they were tears of joy. Holding the doll in her frail arms, she repeated over and over again, “She’s exactly like my old doll, exactly like her.” 
And perhaps she wasn’t saying that just to be kind. Perhaps however impossible it seemed, we had managed to produce a close copy of the doll she remembered. But as I watched my eight-year-old daughter and her great-grandmother examining the doll together, I thought of a likelier explanation. What GG really recognized, perhaps, was the love that inspired the gift. And love, wherever it comes from, always looks the same.
【小題1】GG moved in with her daughter because____.

I cheated on a unit test in math class this morning during second period with Mr. Burke. Afterward, I was too sick to eat lunch just thinking about it.
I came straight home from school, went to my room, and lay on the floor trying to decide whether it would be better to run away from home now or after supper. Mostly I wished I was dead. It wasn't even an accident that I cheated.
Yesterday Mr. Burke announced there'd be a unit test and anyone who didn't pass would have to come to school on Saturday, most particularly me, since I didn't pass the last unit test. I did plan to study just to prove to him that I'm plenty smart—which I am mostly—except in math.
Anyway, I got my desk ready to study on . Just when I was ready to work, Nicho came into my room with our new rabbit and it jumped on my desk and knocked the flashcards all over the floor. What a mess! Nicho and I finally took the rabbit outside but then Philip came to my room and also Marty from next door and before long it was dinner.
After dinner my father said I could watch a special on television if I'd done all my homework. Of course I said I had. That was the beginning. I felt terrible telling my father a lie about the homework.
It was nine o'clock when I got up to my room and that was too late to study for the unit test so I lay in my bed with the light off and decided what I would do the next day when I was in Mr. Burke's math class not knowing the 8- and 9-times tables. So, you see, the cheating was planned after all.
The next day, I'd go into class as usual, acting like things were going just great. I'd sit down next to Stanley Plummer—he is so smart in math it makes you sick—and from time to time, I'd glance over at his paper to copy the answers.
Lying on the floor of my room, I begin to think that probably I've been bad all along. It just took this math test to clinch it. I'll probably never tell the truth again. I tell my mother I'm sick when she calls me to come down for dinner. She doesn't believe me, but puts me to bed anyhow. I lie there in the early winter darkness wondering what terrible thing I'll be doing next when my father comes in and sits down on my bed.
"What's the matter?" he asks. "I've got a stomachache," I say. Luckily, it's too dark to see his face. "Is that all?" "Yeah." "Mommy says you've been in your room since school." "I was sick there too," I say. "She thinks something happened today and you're upset." That's the thing that really drives me crazy about my mother. She knows things sitting inside my head the same as if I was turned inside out.
"Well," my father says. I can tell he doesn't believe me. "My stomach is feeling sort of upset." I hedge. "Okay," he says and he pats my leg and gets up.
Just as he shuts the door to my room I call out to him in a voice I don't even recognize as my own. "How come?" he calls back not surprised or anything. So I tell him I cheated on this math test. To tell the truth, I'm pretty much surprised at myself. I didn't plan to tell him anything.
He doesn't say anything at first and that just about kills me. I'd be fine if he'd spank me or something. And then he says I'll have to call Mr. Burke. It's not what I had in mind. "Now?" I ask surprised. "Now," he says. He turns on the light and pulls off my covers. "I'm not going to," I say.
But I do it. I call Mr. Burke, and I tell him exactly what happened, even that I decided to cheat the night before the test. He says I'll come on Saturday to take another test, which is okay with me, and I thank him a whole lot for being understanding and all.
"Today I thought I was turning into a criminal," I tell my father when he turns out my light. Sometimes my father kisses me good night and sometimes he doesn't. I never know. But tonight he does.
【小題1】After the author cheated on the math test, he felt ____________.

King Midas used to love gold. One day he met a fairy who allowed him to make a wish for something. The king replied at once , ‘‘I love gold . I want everything I touch to change into gold”. ‘‘Very well , tomorrow morning, everything you touch will turn into gold .”Saying this, the fairy disappeared.
The king waited excitedly till the next morning. To his joy, everything he touched changed immediately into gold. ‘‘I’m the richest man in the world now.” He shouted.
Soon Midas became hungry. He sat down at his table. All the foods and drinks turned into gold in his hand. ‘‘I’m dying of hunger.” He cried.
Just then his daughter came running in . ‘‘Why are you so sad, dad?” she asked, putting her arms around him. There and then she became a golden statue. The king loved his daughter very much .Seeing this, he began to cry. He looked up and suddenly saw the fairy before him.  ‘‘Don’t you like the golden touch?” asked the fairy. ‘‘Please take it away,” begged the king, ‘‘give me back my daughter.”  ‘‘Well, you have learned your lesson. Go and wash in the river. Then the golden touch will be gone.” The king ran quickly to the nearby river.
【小題1】The fairy allowed the king to make a wish because              .

One day a few years ago a very funny thing happened to a neighbour of mine. He is a teacher at one of London’s big medical schools. He had finished his teaching for the summer term and was at the airport on his way to Russia to give a lecture.
He had put a few clothes and his lecture notes in his shoulder bag, but he had put Rupert, the skeleton (人體骨架) to be used in his lecture, in a large brown suitcase. At the airport desk, he suddenly thought that he had forgotten to buy a newspaper. He left his suitcase near the desk and went over to the shop.
When he got back he discovered that someone had taken his suitcase by mistake. He often wonders what they said when they got home and found Rupert.
【小題1】Who wrote the story?

San Francisco has its cable cars. Seattle has its Space Needle. And, Longview has its squirrel bridge. The bridge, which has attracted international attention, is now a local landmark.
The Nutty Narrows Bridge was built in 1963 by a local builder, Amos Peters, to give squirrels a way to cross the busy road without getting flattened by passing cars.
The original bridge was built over Olympia Way on the west edge of the library grounds. Before the bridge was built, squirrels had to avoid traffic to and from the Park Plaza office building where office staff put out a nutty feast for the squirrels. Many times, Peters and others who worked in and near Park Plaza witnessed squirrels being run over.
One day Peters found a dead squirrel with a nut still in its mouth, and that day’s coffee break discussion turned into squirrel safety. The group of businessmen cooked up the squirrel bridge idea and formed a committee to ask the blessing of the City Council(市政會(huì)).The Council approved, and Councilwoman Bess LaRiviere named the bridge “Nutty Narrows.”
After architects designed the bridge, Amos Peters and Bill Hutch started Construction, They built the 60-foot bridge from aluminum and lengths of fire hose(消防水帶). It cost 1,000.
It didn’t take long before reports of squirrels using the bridge started. Squirrels were even seen guiding their young and teaching them the ropes. The story was picked up by the media, and Nutty Narrows became know in newspapers all over the world.
In 1983, after 20 years of use, Peters took down the worn-out bridge. Repairs were made and crosspieces were replaced. The faded sign was repainted and in July 1983, hundreds of animal lovers attended the completion ceremony of the new bridge.
Peters died in 1984, and a ten-foot wooden squirrel sculpture was placed near the bridge in memory of its builder and his devotion to the project.
【小題1】The Nutty Narrows Bridge was built in order to ________.