He was just an ordinary postman. Day after day, he shuttled(穿梭) back and forth across the village. For him, life was without waves.

One day, he was delivering mail as usual. When he looked up in the sky, he suddenly lost his balance. It was a little stone that tripped him up（绊倒）. He observed the stone that had embarrassed（难堪） him, finding it strange but beautiful. In his eyes, this stone was like a lost jewel（宝石）covered with dust. The postman then placed the stone in his bag carefully. Because of this stone’s arrival, his day was lightened. He suddenly had a bold thought—I can build a castle with such beautiful stones. How magnificent it will be!

His ordinary life started to be different since then. He still delivered mail, but he collected every stone he could find along the way. All those dusty stones, in his eyes, glittered like diamonds.

Gradually, his small bag couldn’t hold his stones any more and he needed to use a wheelbarrow to carry them. People didn’t understand what happened when they saw the postman delivering letters with a wheelbarrow full of stones.

After collecting enough stones, he started to build his castle. During the daytime, he passed along the dreams of others; and during the nighttime, he built his own dream. No one was willing to join in. But the postman was unmoved, still happily building his castle. Because he knew, the dream and the castle only belonged to him.

After 20 years of working day and night, the postman’s dream castle was finally completed. It was a magnificent castle just as he had imagined. It was a miracle arising from the ordinary.

This is a real story. The postman’s name is Xue Waller. The stone castle has become a famous tourist attraction in France, which is called“ ideal palace of Ferdinand Cheval.” At the entrance of the stone castle, there is a sentence—“I want to know how far a dream stone can go.”

1. The postman felt embarrassed because he _______.

A. lost his balance          B. lost his bag

C. delivered mail           D. found a stone

2. The postman’s own dream was to _______

A. collect stones             B. deliver mail

C. find diamonds           D. build his castle

3. The underlined word “glittered” in the third paragraph may mean ________.

A .shone             B. cleaned          

C. posted            D. hid

4.. Which of the following is not true?

A. A little stone tripped the postman up while he was delivering mail as usual.

B. The postman collected every stone he would find along the way.

C. The postman built his castle with the help of his family and friends.

D. The postman spent twenty years building his stone castle.

5.The postman named Xue Waller was ________.

A. German           B. French           

C.British            D. American

6. From the passage we can learn that ________.

A. The postman had a colourful life before the accident in which he lost his balance.

B. The postman gave up his job in order to built his stone castle.

C. The stone that tripped the postman up was a real jewel.

D. Though people didn’t understand him, the postman continued his dream-building a castle.

Birthdays are celebrated all over the world. Some ways to celebrate birthdays are rather similar from county to country---candles, cakes and birthday wishes. But there are also different ways to celebrate birthdays. Here are a few:

1.When someone is having a birthday in Denmark, what can you see outside the window?　     A. flowers                                B. presents                                         

C. a flagD. a chair

2. Flowers are put on the chair of the birthday child in      .

A. Japan   B. Denmark

C. IndiaD. Holland

3. In India, birthday children      .

A. give out chocolate to their classmates

B. share chocolate with their best friends

C. go to school in white clothes

D. wear new clothes to mark the special time

I am a mother of three and have recently completed my college degree. The last class I had to take was Sociology（社会学）. It was asked to go out and smile at three people.

I am a very   person and thought this would be a piece of cake. Soon after, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald’s. We were standing in line, waiting to be    , when all of a sudden everyone around us began to    away, and then even my husband did.

As I turned around I   a terrible “dirty body” smell, and there standing behind me were two poor    men. As I looked down at the short man, he was smiling. His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God’s Light as he stood there. He said, “Good day” as he ____ the few coins he had been holding.

The young lady at the counter asked him    they wanted. He said, “Coffee is all， Miss” because that was all they could      . He just wanted to be warm.

Then I really felt it—the compulsion（冲动）was      great that I almost reached out and hugged the little man ___ the blue eyes.

     That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging(判断) my every action. I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on         tray（托盘）.

I then walked around the corner to the     that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed man’s       hand. He looked up at me, with       in his eyes, and said, “Thank you.”

I       with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn: acceptance without condition.

1.A. friendlyB. healthyC. proudD. lucky

2.A. treatedB. servedC. welcomed    D. greeted

3.A. give    B. putC. moveD. throw

4.A. soundedB. tastedC. lookedD. smelled

5.A. happyB. carelessC. homelessD. pleasant

6.A. countedB. discoveredC. made    D. found

7.A. what B. howC. whyD. who

8.A. saveB. shareC. affordD. drink

9.A. such   B. tooC. veryD. so

10.A. ofB. in    C. withD. for

11.A. otherB. the otherC. anotherD. others

12.A. windowB. doorC. kitchenD. table

13.A. warmB. cleanC. dirtyD. cold

14.A. fearB. tearsC. hopeD. unhappiness

15.A. beganB. stoppedC. graduatedD. filled

--- What about taking a walk after dinner?

---______________.

A.Good idea     B.Never mind    

C.What a shame      D.You’re welcome

--- Zhou Yang won the 1500-meter Olympic title at the Sochi Winter Games on February 15.

---_______________________

A.I like swimming best   B.That’s all right  

C.Good luck              D.That’s great

His pronunciation is better, for he kept ______ a short passage after the tape every morning.

A.to read     B.reading    

C.read      D.reads

.Run for more than half an hour every day, ________ you can lose your weight easily.

A.or     B.and   

C.but      D.unless

The students were excited when they knew they ______ out for a spring out the next month.

A.went     B.had gone    

C.will go      D.would go

In my opinion, Li Jianrou is one of ___________ skaters this year.

A.luckiest     B.lucky   

C.the luckiest      D.luckier

________ Jeremy was hurt in the match, he didn’t give up and finished in ninth place.

A.When     B.Although    

C.Because      D.If