Pete Richards was the loneliest man in town on the day that little Jean Grace opened the door of his shop.
Pete's grandfather had owned the shop until his death. Then the shop became Pete's. The front window was full of beautiful old things: jewelry of a hundred years ago, gold and silver boxes, carved figures from China and Japan and other nations.
On this winter afternoon, a child stood there, her face close to the window. With large and serious eyes, she studied each piece in the window. Then, looking pleased, she stepped back from the window and went into the shop. Pete himself stood behind the counter. His eyes were cold as he looked at the small girl. “Please,” she began, “would you let me look at the pretty string of blue beads in the window?” Pete took the string of blue beads from the window. The beads were beautiful against his hand as he held the necklace up for her to see.
“They are just right,” said the child as though she were alone with the beads. “Will you wrap them up in pretty paper for me, please? I've been looking for a really wonderful Christmas present for my sister.”
“How much money do you have?” asked Pete.
She put a handful of pennies on the counter. “This is all I have,” she explained simply. “I've been saving the money for my sister's present.”
Pete looked at her, his eyes thoughtful. Then he carefully closed his hand over the price mark on the necklace so that she could not see it. How could he tell her the price? The happy look in her big blue eyes struck him like the pain of an old wound.
“Just a minute,” he said and went to the back of the shop. “What's your name?” he called out. He was very busy about something.
“Jean Grace,” answered the child.
When Pete returned to the front of the shop, he held a package in his hand. It was wrapped in pretty Christmas paper.
“There you are,” he said. “Don't lose it on the way home.”
She smiled happily at him as she ran out of the door. Through the window he watched her go. He felt more alone than ever.
Something about Jean Grace and her string of beads had made him feel once more the pain of his old grief. The child's hair was as yellow as the sunlight; her eyes were as blue as the sea. Once upon a time, Pete had loved a girl with hair of that same yellow and with eyes just as blue. And the necklace of blue stones had been meant for her.
But one rainy night, a car had gone off the road and struck the girl. After she died, Pete felt that he had nothing left in the world except his grief. The blue eyes of Jean Grace brought him out of that world of self-pity and made him remember again all that he had lost. The pain of remembering was so great that Pete wanted to run away from the happy Christmas shoppers who came to look at his beautiful old things during the next ten days.
When the last shopper had gone, late on Christmas Eve, the door opened and a young woman came in. Pete could not understand it, but he felt that he had seen her before. Her hair was sunlight yellow and her eyes were sea-blue. Without speaking, she put on the counter a package wrapped in pretty Christmas paper. When Pete opened the package, the string of blue beads lay again before him.
“Did this come from your shop?” she asked.
Pete looked at her with eyes no longer cold. “Yes, it did,” he said.
“Are the stones real?”
“Yes. They aren't the best turquoise(绿松石), but they are real.”
“Can you remember to whom you sold them?”
“She was a small girl. Her name was Jean. She wanted them for her sister's Christmas present.”
“How much were they?”
“I can't tell you that,” he said. “The seller never tells anyone else what a buyer pays.”
“But Jean has never had more than a few pennies. How could she pay for them?”
“She paid the biggest price one can ever pay,” he said.
For a moment there was no sound in the little shop. Then somewhere in the city, church bells began to ring. It was midnight and the beginning of another Christmas Day.
“But why did you do it?” the girl asked.
Pete put the package into her hands.
“There is no one else to whom I can give a Christmas present,” he said. “It is already Christmas morning. Will you let me take you to your home? I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas at your door.”
And so, to the sound of many bells, Pete Richards and a girl whose name he had not yet learned walked out into the hope and happiness of a new Christmas Day.
1.When Pete saw Jean Grace, he was ______.
A. very enthusiastic, hoping for some business to be done
B. cold but he still served the young customer
C. cold, unwilling to serve the young customer
D. very warm to the young customer though he did not want to sell anything to her
2.Pete did not say the price of the necklace because ______.
A. the seller never tells anyone else what a buyer pays
B. he priced the necklace too high
C. he knew it would disappoint the girl
D. he didn't want to sell the necklace
3.The eyes of Jean Grace brought Pete out of his world of self-pity and he ______.
A. tried to forget the memory of his sweetheart
B. began to look at the world optimistically
C. remembered his lost love
D. no longer felt the pain in him
4.A young woman came into the shop because ______.
A. she was afraid that there might be some mistake
B. she thought that the stones she had bought were not real
C. she was not sure if she could get more stones like those
D. she did not like what she had once bought
5.By saying “She paid the biggest price one can ever pay,” Pete meant that Jean Grace .
A. gave the most money for the necklace
B. gave all she had with her for the necklace
C. appreciated the value of the necklace
D. wanted to have the best thing in the shop
6. At the end of the story we see that Pete _____.
A. found another girl that he could trust
B. met someone who truly loved him
C. found a place to go at last
D. regained his ability to love
最近，学校以高考临近学习紧张为名，拟取消高三体育课，引发了同学们的不满。假如你是高三（1）班班长李华，代表全班同学给校长写一封信，反对取消体育课。具体要求如下：
1. 主要内容：理由、要求和建议
2. 词数要求：100左右
3. 开头已给出，不计入总词汇。
Dear principal,
I am Li Hua, monitor of Class 1, Senior 3...
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Yours
Li Hua
My dream is to become a school teacher in the future. In fact, I had the dream of becoming a teacher since my childhood. In my opinion, without teachers, no society could make progresses. There is no doubt whether teachers play an important role in children growth. Not only do teachers pass on knowledge for children, but they also teach children how to behave themselves. Comparing with other jobs, teaching is hard and the pay is lower. And to me, what great fun it is to be with children! They make me to feel young forever. Because I’ll study harder and try my best to realize my dream.
Trust has been considered as the basis of any relationship, including friendship. No relationship can last long with a lack of trust. Not many of your friends will have real faith in you as you would like to believe.1. Sometimes, it takes years, even a complete lifetime, to trust someone. However, how do we know if our friends have faith in us?
2.With whom will you share things that you don’t want everyone to know? It would be with a close friend, whom you trust as much as you trust yourself. While a few of your friends may be fiercely protective of their privacy and may not tell their secrets to anyone, those who do, surely find you trustworthy and reliable.
Whom do you look up to for advice when you need it the most? It has to be either your parents or your friends. 3.This is a shining example of trust. You only seek advice from people you hold in high regard and find dependable. The friends who trust you will never forget to include you in the important decisions of their life.
Arguments and heated discussions are a part of every relationship, and this is also true for friendship. 4.While some people find it difficult to forgive and forget, your friends will never have problems moving on. It is because they trust you and believe that you will never cause any pain to them on purpose.
There are times in life when you find yourself a lonely soldier. 5.Your friends will never let you down and will strongly stand for you when you need encouragement. You can determine that they trust you and believe in your beliefs, if they side with you when you need them the most.
A. People can be extraordinarily jealous sometimes
B. You know they will never pass on a wrong suggestion
C. In fact, winning trust is, by far, the most challenging aspect of relationships
D. Two people cannot have identical reactions to a situation and different opinions do exist.
E. No matter how close you are to your friends, you cannot take that comfort level for granted.
F. If your friends share their secrets, there’s a good possibility that they have much faith in you.
G. However, people who are fortunate to have been blessed with true friends are never alone in any battle.
An Ofsted (英国教育标准办公室）study reports that teachers are discouraging students who want to leave school and work as apprentices (学徒）in beauty salons (美容中心）or hair dressers.
Inspectors questioned 105 young people for a report on apprenticeships published on Wednesday. They found several examples of young people who felt they had been laughed at by their teachers for wanting to progress to work-based learning, particularly in care or hairdressing, rather than stay on at school.
Right or wrong, is it any surprise that this is happening? From 2014，the government will measure schools according to the rate of their pupils who go to university. Brian Lightman , general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, says the government has already put teachers under “very great pressure to focus on academic subjects”
On the other hand, the Education Act 2011，which came into force in November, places schools under a duty to give fair career advice to pupils. This advice must include information on all post-16 education and training choices, including apprenticeships. This doesn’t appear to be happening in several schools, according to Ofsted9S report. Many of the young people the inspectors talked to said the advice they had received on apprenticeships was “unsatisfactory”.
Schools were also blamed for lack of work experience courses, which are particularly important for teenagers considering an apprenticeship. They help students decide whether they enjoy a line of work and enable employers to see whether those on work experience have the potential to be hired as apprentices in future years.
But there is a good reason why they can’t do this: they’d be unable to adapt to GCSE (英 国齊通中等教育证书）exams if they did. Sometimes, it seems, schools just can’t win.
1.Why do teachers oppose the students’ leaving school and working as apprentices?
A. The government urges teachers to concentrate on academic subjects.
B. The students are only wasting time working as apprentices.
C. Employers are under great pressure of taking GCSE exams.
D. Employers don’t give students chances to work as apprentices
2.Pressure for schools to provide pupils with career advice comes from ______.
A. Association of School and College Leaders
B. Education Act 2011
C. GCSE exams
D. OFSTED
3.The underlined word “They” in Paragraph 5 refers to _____.
A. schools
B. employers
C. work experience courses
D. teenagers considering an apprenticeship
4.What does the author think of teachers’ discouraging students working as apprentices?
A. Surprising B. Understandable
C. Wrong D. Right
Amazing Rafting Adventures
White water rafting is one of the classic, wild, activities in the outdoors. It is also an opportunity for an unbelievable family adventure. Around the country, there are several rivers—and rafting outfitters—that are perfectly suited to the entire family.
Here are three of the best:
New River Gorge, West Virginia
Rafting in West Virginia is renowned for its established infrastructure, reliability, and easy access. These things make it an obvious choice for a family vacation. Famous areas, including the New River Gorge, offer everything from lazy floats to intense Class IV runs.
READ MORE: Water Water Rafting: Top 5 U.S. Locations
Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Jackson Hole provides a full range of opportunities in the outdoors—and white water rafting is certainly one of them. Popular trips include the rough rapids of the Snake River and gentle floats in nearby Yellowstone National Park.
READ MORE: What You Need to Know Before Visiting Yellowstone National Park
Grand Canyon, Arizona
For really bold families, a multi-day trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon is the penultimate adventure. Guided trips typically pack in boats-worth of supplies so the overnight adventures are far from “roughing it.” Instead, evenings are catered in a rugged luxury style, allowing everyone to rest up for the next day’s activities.
Whether looking for a casual float or a challenging adventure, white water rafting is a great option for any active family vacation.
1.What is the common feature of the three rafting adventures?
A. All three rafting rivers are suitable for the whole family.
B. All three rafting rivers are boring to access and reliable
C. All three rafting rivers are suitable for active families
D. All three rafting rivers offer overnight adventures
2.Which of the following about Grand Canyon, Arizona is NOT true?
A. A multi-day trip down the Colorado River is really challenging.
B. Really brave families will like to have a multi-day trip down the river
C. Everyone can rest for the next day’s activities.
D. People can only enjoy the rough rapids down the river
3.What is the author’s attitude to white water rafting?
A. Passive B. Encouraging C. Discouraging D. Negative
