Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was seventy-five, he gave 12,000 to the village school to buy land and equipment for a children’s playground.
As a result of his kindness many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman. During their talk，Johnson said that he was seventy-five and expected to live to be a hundred. The newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at seventy—five. Johnson had a sense of humor. He liked whisky and drank some each day. “I have an injection(注射)in my neck each evening.” he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of whisky. The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was seventy-five and had a daily injection in his neck. Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain asking him for the secret of his daily injection.    
【小題1】Johnson became a rich man through _________.    

A．doing business.	B．making whisky.
C．cheating.	D．buying and selling land.

【小題2】The gift of money to the school suggests that Johnson __________.    

A．had no children.	B．was a strange man.
C．was very fond of children.	D．wanted people to know how rich he was.

【小題3】Many people wrote to Johnson to find out  __________.    

A．what kind of whisky he had.	B．how to live longer.
C．how to become wealthy.	D．in which part of the neck to have an injection.

【小題4】The newspaperman ____________.    

A．should have reported what Johnson had told him.

B．shouldn‘t have asked Johnson what injection he had.

C．was eager to live a long life.

D．should have found out what Johnson really meant.

【小題5】When Johnson said he had an injection in his neck each evening he really meant that ______.    

A．he liked drinking a glass of whisky in the evening

B．he needed an injection in the neck.

C．a daily injection in the evening would make him sleep well.

D．there was something wrong with his neck

Family traditions were important in our house, and none was more appreciated than the perfect Christmas tree.
“Dad, can we watch when you trim(修剪) the tree?” My eldest son, Dan, nine, and his seven-year-old brother John, asked.
“I won’t be cutting this year,” my husband Bob said. “Dan, you and John are old enough to measure things. Do it all by yourselves. Think you boys can handle it?”
Dan and John seemed to grow six inches in their chairs at the thought of such an amazing responsibility. “We can handle it,” Dan promised. “We won’t let you down.”
A few days before Christmas, Dan and John rushed in after school. They gathered the tools they’d need and brought them out to the yard, where the tree waited. I was cooking when I heard the happy sounds as the boys carried the tree into the living room. Then I heard the sound that every mother knows is trouble: dead silence. I hurried out to them. The tree was cut too short. John crossed his arms tight across his chest. His eyes filled with angry tears.
I felt worried. The tree was central to our holiday. I didn’t want the boys to feel ashamed every time they looked at it. I couldn’t lower the ceiling, and I couldn’t raise the floor either. There was no way to undo the damage done. Suddenly, a thought came to my mind, which turned the problem into the solution.
“We can’t make the tree taller,” I said. “But we can put it on a higher position.”
Dan nodded his head sideways. “We could put it on the coffee table. It just might work! Let’s try it!”
When Bob got home and looked at the big tree on top of the coffee table, Dan and John held their breath.
“What a good idea!” he declared. “Why didn’t I ever think of such a thing?”
John broke into a grin. Dan’s chest swelled with pride.
【小題1】The underlined part “grow six inches” (Para. 4) implies the brothers felt        .

A．proud

B．nervous

C．embarrassed

D．Scared

【小題2】What happened after the brothers moved the Christmas tree into the living room?

A．They rushed to school.

B．They began to decorate the tree.

C．They got angry with each other.

D．They found the tree was cut short.

【小題3】How could the short tree be turned into a perfect one?

A．By making the tree taller.

B．By lowering the ceiling.

C．By placing it on a coffee table.

D．By raising the floor.

【小題4】What Bob said in the last but one paragraph showed        .

A．he was a little disappointed

B．he was too stupid to think of the idea

C．he appreciated what the brothers had done

D．he should not have given them the task

Henry Edwards Huntington was born in 1850 in Oneonta, New York. In 1872 he went to work for his uncle, one of the owners of the Central Pacific Railroad. Twenty years later, Huntington moved to San Francisco at his uncle’s request to share management of the Southern Pacific Railroad. On the way to San Francisco, he visited San Marino, and later bought it, which is home to his collections today.
In 1902, Huntington moved his business operations to Los Angeles, where he developed the street railway system that created the structure of the Los Angeles area. He greatly expanded the existing electric railway lines, creating an extensive inter-urban system providing the transportation necessary. Huntington’s business interests continued to grow particularly in the areas of water, power, and land development; at one time he served on as many as 60 corporate boards throughout the United States.
At the age of 60, he announced his decision to retire in order to devote time to his book and art collections and the landscaping of the 600-acre farm. In 1911 the large Beaux Arts building, in the charge of the architect Myron Hunt, was completed.
In 1913, Huntington married Arabella Duval Huntington. She shared his interests in collecting. As one of the most important art collectors of her generation, she was highly influential in the development of the art collection now shown in the former building.
In 1919, Henry and Arabella Huntington signed the agreement that conveyed their San Marino property and collections to a nonprofit educational trust, creating the Huntington, one of the world’s great cultural, research, and educational centers.  
Henry E. Huntington died in 1927, leaving his great treasures the Huntington, including the world-famous Huntington Library, Art Gallery, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California to the public, which hosts more than 500,000 visitors each year.
【小題1】What can you learn about Huntington from the first two paragraphs? 

A．He worked in many fields before he came to Los Angeles.

B．He built a house to store his art collection in San Marino.

C．He did a lot to the USA railway development.

D．He founded the Central Pacific Railroad.

【小題2】What did Huntington do after his retirement?

A．He devoted himself to his personal interests.

B．He worked part time for non-profit business.

C．He was in charge of an educational center.

D．He shared his wife’s interests with her.

【小題3】Which of the following can best describe Huntington?

A．An excellent artist.	B．A talented architect.
C．An ambitious educator.	D．A successful businessman.

【小題4】 This article is most probably taken from_______.

A．a science fiction

B．a newspaper report

C．a novel

D．a biography

Once there was a man who liked to eat mangoes(芒果). One day he decided to get the sweetest mango from the very top of the tree. Mangoes which are exposed to the sun the most are the sweetest.
So he climbed up to the top, where the branches were thin. He managed to pick up a few sweet reddish fruits, but, in an attempt to climb down, he slipped and started falling towards the ground. Fortunately, he caught the branch as he was falling and remained helplessly hanging on the tree. Then he started to call nearby villagers for help. They immediately came with a ladder and sticks, but could do little to help him.
Then after some time one calm and thoughtful person arrived - a well-known sage who lived in a simple hut nearby. People were very curious to see what he would do, as he was famous in solving many people’s problems in the area and sometimes very complicated ones.
He was silent for a minute and then picked up a stone and threw it at the hanging man. Everybody was surprised. The hanging mango lover started to shout: What are you doing?! Are you crazy? Do you want me to break my neck?”  The sage was silent. Then he took another stone and threw it at the man. The man was very angry: “If I could just come down, I would show you!”
That’s what everybody wanted - that he came down. But how? Now everybody was tense(緊張), as to what would happen next! Some wanted to punish the sage, but they didn’t. The sage picked another stone and threw it again at the man, even more forcefully. Now the man on the tree was enraged and developed a great determination to come down and take revenge（報仇）.
He then used all his skill and strength and somehow reached the branches which were safe to start going down. And he made it! Everybody was amazed.
However, the rescued man found the sage gone. He stood there, realizing that the man really helped him because he induced him to try his best and save himself.
“I should be thankful and not angry.”
【小題1】What happened after he had picked a few sweet reddish mangoes?

A．He remained hanging helplessly on the tree.

B．He slipped and fell to the ground suddenly.

C．He was climbing down quickly but carefully.

D．He shouted loudly for help but no one helped.

【小題2】How did the man feel when the sage hit him with a stone?

A．He was nervous.

B．He kept silent.

C．He was angry.

D．He felt surprised.

【小題3】What do you think motivated the man to climb down?

A．Courage.

B．Assistance.

C．Carefulness.

D．Revenge.

【小題4】From the story we know that the sweetest mango must be the one        .

A．on the tree for the longest time	B．hidden in the middle of a tree
C．on the very top of the a tree	D．exposed to sunlight less often

【小題5】The best title of this passage will be _____.

A．Anger saves one’s life.	B．Wisdom does count.
C．Skill and strength count.	D．Anger is the biggest enemy.

The centenary（百年）of the birth of William Faulkner, one of the great modern novelists, was celebrated in September 1997. Faulkner wrote about the southern states of the United States of America where he grew up, and where his family had an important part to play in the history of that region. His work became a touchstone for insights into the troubled issues of southern American identity, race relations, and the family interrelationships of the old time southern gentry(貴族).
Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi on September 25, 1897. Despite his interest in writing, he left Oxford High School, Mississippi, without graduating. After World War I, he entered the University of Mississippi as a special student, a right to study which was granted to retired soldiers, although Faulkner had only finished training with the Air Force in Canada, and not entered combat(戰(zhàn)斗).
Faulkner began to write poems, a verse play, short stories and finished his first novel Sartoris in 1928. His fiction was centered for 14 of the 19 novels published during his lifetime in a fictional region called Yoknapatawpha County. The name is said to come from the Indian Chickasaw word meaning split land.
In December 1950, Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. When he accepted it in Stockholm, his speech emphasized that he wished to continue writing, but in a positive way that affirmed the power of humanity to prevail over adverse circumstances. As he said in his speech, he still felt that, despite the threat of nuclear war then hanging over the world, the central concern of the writer should be “the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself”. He wanted the tensions and problems that he had cast the spotlight on in the southern states of America to be resolved by the life-affirming attitudes and action of his characters. Like playwright Tennessee Williams, Faulkner was a major voice who spoke for the troubled heart of the southern states of America. His achievement is all the more remarkable because, as a schoolboy, he was not only a frequent absentee but also reportedly failed to reach pass grades in English class. His collected short stories, novels, poems, and other writings form a legacy( 遺產) of literature which casts profound illumination(啟發(fā)) on the special culture of the South, a culture which developed from a history and social circumstances that were always unique.
From the focus on a fictional county, and by remaining true to his view of a close-knit but real society that reflected the greater world around him, Faulkner in the end fashioned a legend of the Deep South that is one of the major achievements of the 20th century literature.
【小題1】Which of the following statements about William Faulkner is NOT true？

A．William Faulkner’s work focuses on several troubled problems of southern America.

B．William Faulkner died one hundred years ago.

C．Although William Faulkner did not graduate from high school, he had great interests in writing.

D．William Faulkner once took part in the army when he was young.

【小題2】Why did William Faulkner write about the southern states of America?

A．They were the place where he grew up and his family took an important role in the history of that region.

B．His work became a touchstone.

C．He cared about the troubled issues of southern America.

D．He felt sympathy for the poor in southern America.

【小題3】Which of the following statements about Tennessee William is true?

A．Both Tennessee William and William Faulkner are playwrights.

B．Tennessee William was a major voice who spoke for the troubled people in southern America.

C．Like Faulkner, he once won Nobel Prize for literature.

D．Tennessee William had to pursue his writing career through difficult times.

【小題4】What was William Faulkner’s attitude toward the troubled issues of southern America?

A．He reflected them by writing and criticized them.

B．He intended to call on the troubled people to rebel.

C．The troubled issues of southern America just provided many elements for his novels.

D．He advocated resolving them in positive attitudes and actions.

On a Friday night, a poor young artist stood at the gate of a New York subway station, playing his violin. Many of passers-by slowed down their paces and put some money into the hat of the young man.
　　The next day, at the same place, he put his hat on the ground gracefully. Different than the day before, he took out a large piece of paper and laid it on the ground and put some stones on it. Then he adjusted the violin and began playing. It seemed more pleasant to listen to.
　The words read, “Last night, a gentleman named George Sang put an important thing into my hat mistakenly. Please come to claim it soon.”
　　Seeing this, people wondered what it could be. After about half an hour, a middle-aged man ran there hurriedly and rushed through the crowd to the violinist and grabbed his shoulders and said, “Yes, it’s you. You did come here. I knew that you’re an honest man and would certainly come here.”
　　“Are you Mr. George Sang”? asked the young violinist.
The man nodded.   “Did you lose something?”　“Lottery. It’s lottery.” “Is it?” The violinist took out a lottery ticket and asked.
　　George nodded promptly and seized the lottery ticket and kissed it, then he danced with the violinist.
　　The story turned out to be this: George Sang bought a lottery ticket, winning a prize of $500,000. After work, he passed the station and felt the music was so wonderful that he took out 50 dollars and put it in the hat. However, the lottery ticket was also thrown in. The violinist was a student at an Arts College and had planned to attend further study in Vienna. He had booked the ticket and would fly that morning. However when he was cleaning up he found the lottery ticket. Thinking that the owner would return to look for it, he cancelled the flight and came back to where he was given the lottery ticket.
When asked why he didn’t take the lottery ticket for himself, the violinist said, “Although I don’t have much money, I live happily; but if I lose honesty I won’t be happy forever.”
【小題1】 What is the sequence(順序) of the story?
a. The violinist tried to look for the ticket-owner            
b. George Sang won a lottery  
c. George Sang threw $50 and his ticket in the hat of a violinist’s 
d. The violinist found the owner of the lottery ticket
e. A young student played the violinist near a subway station.

A．c, d, e, a, e

B．b, c, e, d, a

C．b, e, c, a, d

D．c, a, d, b, e

【小題2】 George Sang was so ______that he kissed the lost ticket and danced with the violinist.

A．moved

B．disappointed

C．mad

D．pleased

【小題3】By telling the story, the writer intends to tell us that__________.

A．getting rich overnight is important

B．showing sympathy for others is important

C．being honest is of great importance

D．school fees are high at the present time

【小題4】We can infer from the passage that______.

A．The Arts College the young violinist was going to attend is not in New York.

B．Many people usually put their money in their hat in the distant past.

C．George Sang may give some money to the young violinist as a reward.

D．all the people who win lotteries are generous and easy-going.

Each time I see a balloon, my mind flies back to a memory of when I was a six-year-old girl. It was a rainy Sunday and my father had recently died. I asked my mom if Dad had gone to heaven. “Yes, honey. Of course.” she said.
“Can we write him a letter?”
 She paused, the longest pause of my short life, and answered, “Yes.”
My heart jumped. “How? Does the mailman go there?” I asked.
“No, but I have an idea.” Mom drove to a party store and returned with a red balloon. I asked her what it was for.
“Just wait, honey. You’ll see.” Mom told me to write my letter. Eagerly, I got my favorite pen, and poured out my six-year-old heart in the form of blue ink. I wrote about my day, what I learned at school, how Mom was doing, and even about what happened in a story I had read. For a few minutes it was as if Dad were still alive. I gave the letter to Mom. She read it over, and a smile crossed her face.
She made a hole in the corner of the letter where she looped (纏繞) the balloon string. We went outside and she gave me the balloon. It was still raining.
“Okay, on the count of three, let go. One, two, three.”
The balloon, carrying my letter, darted upward against the rain. We watched until it was swallowed by the mass of clouds.
Later I realized, like the balloon, that Dad had never let his sickness get him down. He was strong. No matter what he suffered, he’d persevere, dart up, and finally transcend this cold world and his sick body. He rose into sky and became something beautiful. I watched until the balloon disappeared into the gray and white and I prayed that his strength was hereditary. I prayed to be a balloon.
【小題1】What does the underlined sentence imply?

A．When the girl asked if they could write to her father, her mother felt it hard to answer.

B．When the girl asked if they could write to her father, her mother thought her a creative girl.

C．When the girl asked if they could write to her father, her mother believed it easy to do so.

D．When the girl asked if they could write to her father, her mother found it easy to lie.

【小題2】When the girl was told that she could send a letter to her father, she _________.

A．jumped with surprise	B．became excited
C．didn’t know how to write	D．was worried that it couldn’t be delivered

【小題3】In the eyes of the author, what was the rain like?

A．An incurable disease.	B．An unforgettable memory.
C．The hard time her father had.	D．The failures her father experienced.

【小題4】What would be the best title for the passage?

A．An unforgettable experience.	B．The strong red balloon.
C．Fly to paradise.	D．A great father.

In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what "keeping up with the Joneses" is about. It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbors.
　　The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighborhoodoutside New York City.. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbors.
　　It was like a race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They had to move back to an apartment in New York City. Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbors. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it "Keeping up with the Joneses” because "Jones" is a very common name in the United States. "Keeping up with the Joneses" came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand's series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
　　People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are "Joneses" in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.
【小題1】Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ______.

A．want to be as rich as their neighbors

B．want others to know or to think that they are rich

C．don't want others to know they are rich

D．want to be happy

【小題2】 It can be inferred from the story that rich people like to ________.

A．live outside New York City

B．live in New York City

C．live in apartments

D．live with many neighbors

【小題3】What's the author's attitude to keeping up with the Joneses?

A．Negative.

B．Positive.

C．Supportive.

D．Objective.

The grandfather of Nell Trent owns a shop of odds and ends. He wants to make sure his grandfather is provided for when he dies. His memory of his daughter’s suffering and early death gives him a fear of poverty. Gambling(賭博) becomes an addiction for Nell’s grandfather, which results in his financial and physical ruin. Nell and her grandfather flee from their home and begin a journey that has no destination. For Nell, all she wants is a peaceful existence with enough to live on.
They come across many interesting people on their travels and often meet with the kindness of strangers. Yet, in a colorful world, they also face the reality of the Industrial Revolution. From simple villages and fields of flowers, they go into a dirty city full of mass unemployment and plague (瘟疫) victims --- where children die of starvation and many are abandoned.
The story isn’t only about Nell and her grandfather, but also the people who are connected to them directly or indirectly. There is Richard Swiveller, a careless young man who is a friend of Nell’s older brother, who wants Swiveller to marry Nell for the fortune he thinks she has. Daniel Quilp is a cruel moneylender, who manages to fool the grandfather into borrowing large sums of money from him. There is honest Kit, a boy employed at the shop, who becomes a victim even though he never harms other people. Kit desires to help Nell, whom he considers an angel that has always inspired the best in him. The mysterious Bevis Marks, who is a generous customer to some people and an enemy to others, also has his own reasons for looking after Nell and her grandfather.
Unlike Dickens’ other works, The Old Curiosity Shop is a book of contrasts: the purity of Nell compared to the dishonesty of Quilp, fresh air and scenic villages to the polluted, stone-covered city, etc. Even people’s reaction to the book presented a cruel contrast. At first, Nell Trent was praised and considered Dickens’ best character. Later, she was criticized by many well-known people like Oscar Wilde. While characters in Dickens’ other books are moving towards a better future, Nell and her grandfather are fleeing for their life and their story is moving towards a sad ending. 
【小題1】We can infer from the first two paragraphs that ___________.

A．Nell’s mother died young because of poverty

B．Nell’s grandfather made a fortune by gambling

C．Nell died of starvation during her journey

D．Nell had no one to turn to on her travels

【小題2】What’s the third paragraph mainly about?

A．The plot (情節(jié)) of the story.	B．The characters in the story.
C．The background of the story.	D．The inspiration behind the story.

【小題3】The Old Curiosity Shop is different from Dickens’ other works because it ___________.

A．is full of contrasts	B．has a surprise ending
C．reflects Dickens’ own life	D．is set in the Industrial Revolution

My husband and I had just opened up a pet sitting business earlier that year. Our customers had slowly risen from three to thirty a month. We were busy through those hot summer months, driving between visits. Our services were strictly held at the pet owner’s home. It was almost too busy for the two of us, but we were making good money! 
We asked pet owners new to our services to phone two weeks ahead so we had enough time to meet the owners and pets at their homes and make any following meetings before the owner leaves.
One day, we decided to take on a new customer just two days before they would leave. We met the family, filled in a form, and spent some time with their dog, Hercules. He playfully jumped on us and touched our hands and arms using his tongue. The family laughed as he did this, showing us that he was very loving.
Two days later I appeared at the house, alone. I came up to Hercules and said hello happily. I filled up his water bowl and cleaned any messes he made. Meanwhile, he was so lovely sitting beside. I thought this would be the good picture to send to the owners, a usual service. After the light and “click” sound went off, Hercules rushed at me. I didn’t know what had just happened until I noticed the drops of blood. I ran out and did the only thing — calling my husband.
Then I went to neighbors for help. My husband arrived after ten minutes. The helpful neighbor and my husband led Hercules back into his pen (圈). Then my husband and I took off to the hospital.
I must have looked like I was shot when I walked into the hospital. The nurses quickly moved me to a room. I asked the doctor in a weak but playful manner, “ Am I going to die？” He replied, “Finally.”
【小題1】According to the text, the author’s work was        .

A．tiring and dangerous	B．easy and free
C．well paid	D．done outdoors

【小題2】What did the author often do during her work?  

A．Cleaning the clients’ house.

B．Walking the pets outside.

C．Bringing the pets to her own house.

D．Taking a photo of pets to the owners.

【小題3】It can be inferred from the text that the author was attacked because         .

A．Hercules feared the sound and the flash

B．the author attacked Hercules first

C．Hercules was very hungry then

D．the author treated Hercules badly

【小題4】The doctor’s answer gave us a sense of         .

A．anger

B．humor

C．carelessness

D．patience