The Girl From the Street
The workers who brought the girl to the orphanage（孤兒院）knew little about her. The streets where they found her had been her home for many years. Her parents were unknown. They left her long ago. At the orphanage, the girl, like all the children there, was taught to read and write. While she was studying at the orphanage, she learned something else—to be independent（獨立）. At twenty-one, she left the orphanage and began working as a secretary.（秘書）And then, in 1975, while she was still working as an ordinary secretary, something special happened. She entered the Miss Hong Kong competition and won it. This was the turning point in her life. Now her name, Mary Cheung, was known to everybody.
Mary entered the competition because she wanted to show that orphanage girls could be something. Winning the competition gave her the chance to start a new life. This led her first into television and then into business as a manager. When she was working as a manager, she had trouble with her reports. “My English just wasn’t good enough.” She says. Luckily, she had a boyfriend (who later became her husband) to help her.
Mary studied management（管理）at Hong Kong and graduated in 1980, She started her own business in 1985. But she did not stop developing herself. She then studied at the University of Hong Kong. Since 1987, she had spent a lot of time on photography. She has held several exhibitions of her work in many places---China, New Zealand and Paris. She still found time, however, to work on TV, write for newspapers and bring up her family.
The girl from the street has come a long way, but her journey is not finished yet.
【小題1】Before Mary Cheung was brought to the orphanage, ___________.

Mum gives little Jerry twenty yuan. Then little Jerry goes shopping. He gets on a bus and sits down next to an old woman. Then he sees the old woman’s bag is open. There is twenty yuan in it. He quickly looks into his pocket. The money isn’t there now! Little Jerry is sure that the old woman is a thief(賊). He wants to take back the money from the old woman’s bag. He carefully puts his hands into the old woman’s bag, takes the money and says nothing. Then, the old woman shouts, “Where is my money? I can’t find it. There is a thief on the bus.” Little Jerry feels strange(奇怪的). Then he sees twenty yuan under his seat. Little Jerry is thinking a question now, “Am I a thief?”
【小題1】________ is sitting beside little Jerry.

Who is the greatest teacher in Chinese history? You can’t think of anyone else when you hear people read Confucius’ 2,500–year–old words: “All study but no thinking makes people puzzled. All think but no study makes people lazy. ”
September 28^th was Confucius’ birthday. He was born in the Kingdom of Lu(魯國), in today’s Shandong Province. Chinese look upon Confucius as the greatest thinker and also the greatest teacher. He had about 3,000 students. For more than 2,500 years, Confucius’ ideas have been around in people’s everyday lives. Now they have gone far into Western countries and South Asia. People can still hear them today.
Why are his ideas so popular? They help not only in everyday life but also in society(社會). Confucius’ most important ideas are kindness and good manners. Confucius said young people should take care of the old. People should give up thinking of themselves and work for others. As a great teacher, Confucius said that all should go to school if they wanted to learn.
Some of Confucius’ popular words are “A kind person should care others” and “Be strict with yourself, but be kind to others.” People use his ideas to help themselves and society. Now, more than 100 internet web sites are teaching people about Confucius and his ideas.
“Kindness and honesty are the best values(價值) of the world today, ” said 79–year–old Kong Fanjin who is studying Confucius.
【小題1】Confucius was     .

On the terrible day, father took me to school. When he stopped in front of the school, I didn’t want to get out of the car. I looked at the students outside the building and suddenly felt sick. I slowly opened the car door and slowly got out. The body brace(支架) I wore made it hard for me to move and made me feel ugly. How I wished I were still in my school with all my friends. I didn’t know anyone here. I could feel that everyone was looking at me. I was sure that I would be the ugliest and strangest person they had ever seen. Tears fell on my new dress.
I struggled(奮力) to get through that day, and all the day for the following three days. I feel ugly for most of the time. I could hardly wait to take off the brace.
That day finally arrived on a rainy Thursday in Spring. I was so surprised and excited when the doctor said that I could take off the brace. From that day on, I began to love rain. I was free at last.
I danced up the stairs to the school building the next morning. I wanted everyone to see me, but to my surprise, no one said a word about my brace for the whole day, even Danielle, my best friend. I couldn’t wait to ask her, “Danielle, don’t you notice anything different about me? It’s the brace. The brace is gone.”
Danielle just looked at me and said, “ I know the brace is gone, but I don’t think it’ll make much difference. With or without it, you are still my friend.”
【小題1】How did the girl feel when she first went to the school?
A. She was surprised
B. She was upset.
C. She was angry.
【小題2】Which of the following is TRUE?
A. The girl’s classmates didn’t like her because she was strange.
B. The girl was always unhappy while she was wearing the brace.
C. The girl’s classmates changed their ideas after she took off the brace.
【小題3】The girl took off her brace ___________.
A. The following three days
B. the next day
C. on a rainy Thursday
【小題4】The girl _____________ in that school before she wore the body brace.
A. had never studied
B. had already studied
C. had known some friends
【小題5】What do we learn from the passage?
A. Danielle was quite different from the others in the class.
B. It was not ugly to wear a brace.
C. Few of the girl’s classmates thought that she was ugly.