An Invisible Smile
Mr. Dawson was an old grouch, and everyone in town knew it. Kids knew not to go into his yard to pick a delicious apple. Old Dawson, they said, would come after you with his gun.
One Friday, 12-year-old Janet was going to stay all night with her friend Amy. They had to walk by Dawson's house on the way to Amy's house, but as they got close, Janet saw him sitting on his front porch and suggested they cross over to the other side of the street. Like most of the children, Janet was scared of the old man.
Amy said not to worry. Mr. Dawson wouldn't hurt anyone. Still, Janet was growing more nervous with each step closer to the old man's house. When they got close enough, Dawson looked up with his usual frown (皺眉), but when he saw it was Amy, a broad smile changed his entire face as he said, "Hello Miss Amy. I see you've got a little friend with you today."
Amy smiled back and told him Janet was staying overnight and they were going to listen to music and play games. Mr. Dawson said that sounded fun, and offered them each a fresh picked apple off his tree. They gladly accepted. Mr. Dawson had the best apples in the whole town.
When they left, Janet asked Amy, "Everyone says he's the meanest man in town. How come he was so nice to us?"
Amy explained that when she first started walking past his house he wasn't very friendly and she was afraid of him, but she pretended he was wearing an invisible smile and so she always smiled back at him. It took a while, but one day he half-smiled back at her.
After some more time, he started smiling real smiles and then started talking to her. Just a "hello" at first, then more. She said he always offers her an apple now, and is always very kind.
"An invisible smile?" questioned Janet.
"Yes," answered Amy, "my grandma told me that if I pretended I wasn't afraid and pretended he was smiling an invisible smile at me and I smiled back at him, sooner or later he would really smile. Grandma says smiles are contagious."
If we remember what Amy's grandma said, that everyone wears an invisible smile, we too will find that We're always on the go trying to accomplish so much, aren't we? It's so easy to get caught up in everyday life that we forget how simple it can be to bring cheer to ourselves and others. Giving a smile away takes so little effort and time, let's make sure that we're not the one that others have to pretend to be wearing an invisible smile.
【小題1】Kids were scared of Mr. Dawson because _____.

Former National Football League player and children’s author Tim Green has added another book to his list of accomplishments: Unstoppable. The book tells the story of a 12-year –old boy named Harrison, who survives life in a cruel foster home before he finally finds a loving family. Once he settles in and realizes his natural football ability, tragedy strikes again and he loses his leg to a deadly bone cancer. Unstoppable follows Harrison’s incredible journey as he faces many challenges in his life.
Tim Green says he decided to write a novel about a kid facing cancer after watching how his wife fought to survive her own illness. “Her mental and physical toughness were more heroic to me than anything I’d ever seen in the national sports leagues,” Green told TFK Kid Reporter Zachary J. Lewis.
After watching his wife’s battle, Green said, he knew he needed to write about a person who struggled through a serious illness. But because the target age for his books is teen, he needed to tell the story through the eyes of someone that age.
When friends introduced Green to Jeffrey Keith, Green knew he had found the right person to help him“ capture the heroism that it takes to fight cancer”. Cancer-survivor Jeffrey Keith lost his leg to disease at age twelve, but went on to be the goalie （守門員）for the Boston College Division 1 Lacrosse（長(zhǎng)曲棍球）Team and was also the first amputee to run 3,300 miles across the country. When Green heard Jeffrey Keith’s story, he knew it was the perfect narrative on which to base his next book.
TFK asked Keith what it felt like to read Unstoppable for the first time. “Tim captured what it felt like for me to go through this experience and battle back,” Keith said. “After I read the book, Tim asked me to describe it in one word, and I said ‘a(chǎn)wesome’. Tim’s work sends a message to all the kids across the country that are facing obstacles that can have nothing to do with cancer: you are all unstoppable, as long as you believe it.”
【小題1】Who inspires Tim Green to write the novel Unstoppable?

Many years ago in a small German town, a Jewish businessman had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the businessman’s beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain.
The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender’s wife and he would forgo her father’s debt. If she picked the white pebble, she need not marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.
They were standing on a pebble-strewn path. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. The sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag. No doubt she was caught in a dilemma.
What would you have done if you were the girl? Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:
1.The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2.The girl should know that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.
3.The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.
The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral (橫向的)and logical thinking.
Read on…
The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles. “Oh, how clumsy of me!” she said. “But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.” Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.
【小題1】The underlined word “forgo” in paragraph 2 may mean ________.

George Gershwin, born in 1998, was one of America’s greatest composers. He published his first song when he was eighteen years old. During the next twenty years he wrote more than five hundred songs.
Many of Gershwin’s songs were first written for musical plays performed in theatres in New York City. These plays were a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of his songs have remained popular as ever. Over the years they have been sung and played in every possible way — from jazz to country.
In the 1920s there was a debate in the United States about jazz music. Could jazz, some people asked, be considered serious music? In 1924 jazz musician and orchestra leader Paul Whiteman decided to organize a special concert to show that jazz was serious music. Gershwin agreed to compose something for the concert before he realized he had just a few weeks to do it. And in that short time, he composed a piece for piano and orchestra which he called Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin himself played the piano at the concert. The audience were thrilled when they heard his music. It made him world-famous and showed that jazz music could be both serious and popular.
In 1928, Gershwin went to Paris. He applied to study composition (作曲)with the well-known musician Nadia Boulanger, but she rejected him. She was afraid that classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style. While there, Gershwin wrote An American in Paris. When it was first performed, critics (評(píng)論家)were divided over the music. Some called it happy and full of life, to others it was silly and boring. But it quickly became popular in Europe and the United States. It still remains one of his most famous works.
George Gershwin died in 1937, just days after doctors learned he had brain cancer. He was only thirty-nine years old. Newspapers all over the world reported his death on their front pages. People mourned the loss of the man and all the music he might have still written.
【小題1】Many of Gershwin’s musical works were ________.

Four years ago my sweet mom went to be with God. She did it her way.
I got the call at work, and I headed home quickly. Mom and Dad lived on a small farm that they had owned since I was seven. I hated going there every weekend. There was nothing for a young girl to do but watch the one station on the old TV set, if the weather allowed reception.
My mom, on the other hand, loved the peace and quiet of the land and loved to work in the garden among her flowers and vegetables. The place was simple, with no indoor pipes or heating. We had a big wood stove in the kitchen that did its best to heat the little farmhouse, but it always seemed cold and too quiet to me.
In the evenings, my mom and I would sit for hours singing in the little kitchen. I sang the rhythm and Mom harmonized. Her favorite song was "Moon River" and we sang it over and over. Mom told me stories about how when I was a little girl, I could sing before I could talk. She loved to tell there was one song I particularly loved called "Ivory Tower".
As time passed, I had my own children and went to visit every week or two. The kids loved the farm and the tractor rides with my dad. Me, well, I still hated the silence of the farm. While my mom loved to sit at her kitchen table and look out at her garden and flowers and retell all the old stories, I missed the hustle and bustle(喧鬧) of my life at home. But I sat there listening quietly as she reminisced.
Now, I sat back in the silence and turned on an old radio. Music always comforted me.
My heart skipped a beat. "Moon River" was playing on the radio. I sat there shocked, with a tear running down my cheek, as I listened to every familiar note.
Then the radio announcer of this old station came on. "Here's one we haven't heard in a while," and an unfamiliar song began. I began to cry harder as I heard the words sung over the airwaves "Come down, come down from your Ivory Tower…".
【小題1】The writer didn’t like staying in the farm for the following reasons Except that ________.

You have to log on to your school's online system to check your grades, but you find the system is kind of inconvenient．What do you do?
When Daniel Brooks was a senior at Pioneer High School in the US, he came up with a Silicon Valley-style solution; he developed an iPhone app（application, 應(yīng)用程序）I C Connector．
When he tried out his school's new Web-based student information system earlier this year, he immediately noticed some shortcomings．He could no longer view his current grades for all his classes at once．Checking several classes required several clicks-which for a teenager is so much work．To save himself all this trouble, Brooks developed the app and sold it on the Apple app store．Now it has 2,300 users who have downloaded it across the US．
"It ended up on every iPhone and iPad and portable device that any student and teacher had on campus," said Scott Peterson, the campus tech support worker at Pioneer High．
Brooks said he didn't create the app to get rich - it is free．"A student is not going to want to pay 99 cents," Brooks said．"They just want to see their grades more easily．"
However, in the months that followed, Brooks experienced highs and lows．His app is now so successful that users want more, in particular, his teachers have started pushing him to develop a version for them．However, the company Infinite Campus, which developed the information system, has been less positive．
The company said in an e-mail that he was confusing users and violating the company's copyright by using Infinite Campus' name and logo in the app’s name．Brooks' father, Michael Brooks, has offered to change the name, but says he needs time to get Apple's approval．Daniel also e-mailed and called Infinite Campus．They got no response．
Daniel Brooks starts at a California university this autumn．Despite Infinite Campus' attitude, he continues to try to improve the app and hopes to put out an Android version soon．
【小題1】Why did Daniel Brooks develop an iPhone app IC Connector? （No more than 8 words）
_______________________________________________________
【小題2】What is Brooks' teachers' attitude towards the app he developed? （No more than 14 words）
________________________________________________________
【小題3】What does Paragraph 7 talk about between Infinite Campus and Brooks? （No more than 7 words）
________________________________________________________
【小題4】What does Brooks’ aim to do now? （No more than 10 words）
________________________________________________________
【小題5】Use one word to describe Brooks.

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        .

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?"
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choice in life.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that was incurable, and that I would live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is my doctors' code for preparing yourself to die.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. I was completely in despair. Later that evening, I had another examination and my wife told me that tumor turned to be curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I' m fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death. To tell the truth, no one wants to die. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. It clears out the old to make room for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.
Your time is so limited that you shouldn't waste it repeating someone else's life. Don' t be trapped by dogma（教條）— which is living with the results of other people' s thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart. It somehow already knows what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
【小題1】The doctor advised the author to go home and get his affairs in order because ______.

 In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five fays off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I’d hitch a ride (搭便車).
I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn’t give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured （使…放心）me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.
Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favour I’d been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.
After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, “You haven’t changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.” I couldn’t remember where I’d met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.
【小題1】The author had to hitch a ride one day in 1978 because_______.

One sunny day last September, Tim heard some shouting. Looking out to the sea carefully, he saw a couple of kids in a rowboat were being pulled out to sea.
Two 12-year-old boys, Christian and Jack, rowed out a boat to search for a football. Once they'd rowed beyond the calm waters, a beach umbrella tied to the boat caught the wind and pulled the boat into open water. The pair panicked and tried to row back to shore. But they were no match for it and the boat was out of control.
Tim knew it would soon be swallowed by the waves. "Everything went quiet in my head," Tim recalls(回憶). "I was trying to figure out how to swim to the boys in a straight line."
Tim took off his clothes and jumped into the water. Every 500 yards or so, he raised his head to judge his progress. "At one point, I considered turning back," he says. "I wondered if I was putting my life at risk." After 30 minutes of struggling, he was close enough to yell to the boys, "Take down the umbrella!"
Christian made much effort to take down the umbrella. Then Tim was able to catch up and climb aboard the boat. He took over rowing, but the waves were almost too strong for him.
"Let's aim for the pier(碼頭)," Jack said. Tim turned the boat toward it. Soon afterward, waves crashed over the boat, and it began to sink. "Can you guys swim?" he cried. "A little bit," the boys said.
Once the were in the water, Tim decided it would he safer and faster for him to pull the boys toward the pier. Christian and Jack were wearing life jackets and floated on their backs. Tim swan toward land as water washed over the boys' faces.
“Are we almost there?" they asked again and again. "Yes," Tim told them each time.
After 30minutes, they reached the pier.
【小題1】what does “it” in paragraph 2 refer to ?