An old friend once came visiting Nasruddin. And he brought along a big to him. Nasruddin’s wife it and they enjoyed the feast for dinner. The next morning, they had delicious chicken soup. The friend enjoyed his stay with Nasruddin. When he was , Nasruddin returned his friend’s thanks by thanking the for bringing the big chicken along. An hour later, Nasruddin heard a knock on the door. When he opened it, a man himself and entered, “I’m a friend of your friend who brought you that big chicken!”
Not wanting to turn away the of a friend, Nasruddin invited the man inside and him to stay for lunch. The man immediately. They had some lovely chicken cooked for lunch, which the man also enjoyed. After lunch, the man left thanking Nasruddin for the chicken.
The next day there was no pause as another entered with the same : “I am a friend of the friend of the friend who had come here with a huge chicken!” Nasruddin and asked the man to come right in and have a . A few minutes later, a bowl of soup was before him. Just one sip(一小口) told the man that this “soup” was nothing but water.
“There is nothing in the soup!” the man protested _ __.
“Not at all!” Nasruddin smiled. “This is the soup of the soup of the chicken!”
Moral of the story: When people your generosity, don’t turn them away rudely. Instead, invite them in and serve them a they will never forget---just as Nasruddin did.
1.A. Egg B. basket C. dinner D. chicken
2.A. Valued B. killed C. cooked D. ate
3.A. Short B. safe C. sudden D. secret
4.A. Promising B. leaving C. standing D. explaining
5.A. Latter B. next C. owner D. colleague
6.A. Expressed B. praised C. admired D. introduced
7.A. freely B. obviously C. quickly D. frequently
8.A. Father B. teacher C. relative D. friend
9.A. Asked B. persuaded C. alarmed D. supported
10.A. Replied B. accepted C. passed D. prepared
11.A. tasty B. previous C. usual D. big
12.A. Child B. thief C. friend D. stranger
13.A. Rule B. invitation C. tale D. exploration
14.A. smiled B. doubted C. shook D. agreed
15.A. rest B. meal C. bath D. smoke
16.A. hidden B. placed C. pushed D. thrown
17.A. Bitter B. waste C. polluted D. boiled
18.A. Sadly B. eagerly C. angrily D. violently
19.A. take pride in B. take advantage of C. lose sight of D. pay attention to
20.A. chance B. term C. lesson D. Report
5 Ways Pets Improve Your Health
Pets help relieve stress
________1.A powerful hormone(荷尔蒙) is released when you look at your companion animal, which brings feelings of joy. It is also accompanied by a decrease in a stress hormone.
Pets boost your fitness
A dog is the best companion for a stroll---even better than a friend. _______2. A separate study found that dog owners walked 300 minutes a week on average, while people who didn’t own dogs walked just 168 minutes a week.
Pets provide social support
Pets can provide social support for their owners, who tend to have more overall benefits than non-owners. The calming presence and the social bond that pets bring can be very powerful. Animals give something to focus on instead of the negative thoughts a depressed person may have. ________3.
Pets boost your self-esteem(自尊)
Pets are completely non-judgmental. ______4._ And that boosts self-esteem. Confidence can be improved by the fact that dogs love you no matter what, and to the same extent, cats are very loving to their owners.
_______5.
Whether your parents and you take turns walking the dog or it is always your job to feed the cat, research has proven having a pet is good for the whole family. Pets can be a very important bridge between family members. Pets can also provide the ultimate learning experience---how to treat others with kindness, caring, and responsibility.
A. Pets improve relationships
B. Pets bring your family closer together
C. Dog walkers improved their fitness more than people who walked with other people.
D. Simply being in the same room with your pet can have a calming effect.
E. So they are more likely to take on leadership roles and tend to be more confidence.
F. When a pet pays attention to you, it is giving you unconditional love and acceptance.
G. They don’t care what you look like or how you behave---they love unconditionally.
Do Algebra (代数) problems 15 through 25. Give the different forms of the verbs on page 50 of your French workbook. Read page 12 through 20 of the Shakespeare play, and when you have finished that, don’t forget to fill the missing chemical symbols on the Periodic Table of Elements worksheet.
Homework is a major part of going to class, and it helps students grasp important concepts. Luckily, you can do a few things to make homework less painful.
First, be sure you understand the assignment. Write it down in your notebook or day planner if you need to, and don’t be afraid to ask questions about what is expected. It is much easier to take a minute to ask the teacher during or after class than to struggle to remember later at night!
Second, use any extra time you have in school to work on your homework. Many schools have study halls that are specifically designed to allow students to study or get homework done. It is attractive to hang out with friends during study periods or unscheduled time, but the more work you can get done in school, the less you will have to do at night.
Third, pace yourself. If you don’t finish your homework during school, think about how much you have left and what else is going on that day, and then budget your time. Most high school students have between 1 and 3 hours of homework a night. If it is a heavy-homework day and it seems like you have got an assignment on every subject but gym and lunch, you will need to devote more time to homework schedule, especially if you are involved in sports or activities or have an after-school job.
1.The first paragraph is probably _______.
A. examination items B. a list of homework.
C. some teacher tasks D. some learning methods
2.What is the author’s attitude towards homework’s effect on students?
A. Opposing. B. Impatient.
C. Approving. D. Concerned.
3. One way to reduce your burden of homework at night is to _____.
A. take part in studying teams
B. appeal for teachers’ aid at any time
C. focus full attention on teachers’ lecture
D. make full use of the time at school
4.Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?
A. Why students should do homework
B. How to make homework less work
C. It is high time teachers gave less homework
D. Who is to blame for children’s poor eyesight
Iceland is experiencing a book boom（繁荣时期）.
It is hard to avoid writers in Reykjavik. There is a phrase in Icelandic, “ad ganga med bok I maganum”, meaning everyone gives birth to a book. Literally, everyone “has a book in their stomach”. One in 10 Icelanders will publish one.
“Does it get rather competitive?” I ask the young novelist, Kristin Eirikskdottir. “Yes. Especially as I live with my mother and partner, who are also full-time writers. But we try to publish in alternate years so we do not compete too much.”
“Writers are respected here,” Agla Magnusdottir tells me. “They live well. Some even get a salary.” Magnusdottir is head of the new Icelandic Literature Centre, which offers state support for literature and its translation. “They write everything --- modern sagas(长篇英雄故事), poetry, children's books, literary and extraordinary fiction --- but the biggest boom is in crime writing,” she says.
So what has led to this phenomenal book boom? I would say it is due to a crop of good writers, telling interesting tales with elegant economy and fantastic characters.
Iceland's black lava(火山岩) riverbeds, its steaming, bubbling earth, with its towering volcanoes and fairytale streams also make it the perfect setting for stories. Solvi Bjorn Siggurdsson, an Icelandic novelist, says writers owe a lot to the past. “We are a nation of storytellers. When it was dark and cold we had nothing else to do,” he says. “Thanks to the poetic works and medieval（中世纪的） sagas, we have always been surrounded by stories. After independence from Denmark in 1944, literature helped define our identity.”
Siggurdsson shows respect to Iceland's Nobel Literature winner, Halldor Laxness, whose books are sold in petrol stations and tourist centres across the island. Locals name their cats after Laxness and pay a visit to his home. “When Laxness won the Nobel Prize in 1955 he put modern Icelandic literature on the map,” Siggurdsson tells me. “He gave us confidence to write.”
1.The underlined phrase in the passage suggests that ________.
A. Icelanders love collecting books.
B. Icelanders love writing very much.
C. there are a lot of great books in Iceland.
D. it is competitive to publish a book in Iceland.
2.What kind of book is the most popular in Iceland?
A. Poetry. B. Medieval sagas.
C. Crime novels. D. Children’s stories.
3. Which of the following is true according to the passage?.
A. Siggurdsson won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955.
B. Icelanders publish books to increase their income.
C. Writers in Iceland don’t benefit from its literary tradition.
D. Iceland possesses some factors to be a perfect setting for stories.
An American research company shows that $248.7 billion online sales are expected by 2014. It seems as if we can’t get enough of spending money through countless online clicks today. Following are some of the incredible things that you can buy online!
1) Parents
51-year-old Michael Amatrudo from Connecticut put a posting on Craig list in 2009 to sell his elderly parents, asking for $155 in return.
2) Chewing Gum
Bidding for Britney Spears’ chewing gum reached $14,000 in 2004. The pop star’s half-eaten sandwich also went for over $500.
3) Kidney Stone
Star Trek actor William Shatner sold his kidney stone for $20,000 when he put it up for sale online to see how much a piece of him was worth. He ended up giving the money to charity.
4) An Imaginary Friend
This imaginary guy went (or might still be going) by the name of Jon Malipieman and was sold on eBay for $3,000 by a man who claimed:
“My imaginary friend Jon Malipieman is getting too old for me now. I am now 27 and I feel I am growing out of him. He is very friendly. Along with him, I will send you what he likes and dislikes, his favorite things to do and his personal self portrait.”
5) Souls
The website demonical.com is probably the creepiest site I have ever visited. You can sell your own soul or buy the souls of people such as Fidel Castro and Woody Allen (both selling for $950). Bill Gate, whoever that is, has his soul for sale at $1,300 while Michael Jacobsen’s soul is being sold for $3000.
6) A Rock That Looks Like Meat
The screen shot from eBay tells us that people are bidding over $1 million for this “naturally formed bbq pork rock”. Absolute madness.
1.What is the author’s purpose for writing the passage?
A. To introduce some unbelievable things online.
B. To call on customers to resist the products.
C. To attract readers to visit the related websites.
D. To encourage readers to buy the things online.
2.Which is probably sold at the highest price according to the passage?
A. Chewing Gum. B. Kidney Stone.
C. An Imaginary Friend. D. A Rock That Looks Like Meat.
3.According to the text, _____ is most likely to have starred in a film.
A. Britney Spears B. William Shatner
C. Jon Malipieman D. Fidel Castro
4.What can be inferred from the text?
A. Michael Amatrudo charged a high price for selling his elderly parents.
B. William Shatner sold the kidney stone so as to donate the money to charity.
C. Jon Malipieman was sold because he was not wanted any longer.
D. The soul of Michael Jacobsen is worth more than that of Woody Allen.
My father passed away in a nursing home on a September day. I never remembered him telling me he loved me. Upon hearing his death, I didn’t feel the need to cry. I struggled with my lack of strong feelings over his passing, knowing it was not healthy for me to avoid sadness.
On Christmas Day of the year, I was reflecting on as many good memories of my father as I could. I decided to work out my feelings, so I sat down and wrote my father a letter.
Dear Daddy,
I remember something today. I remember when I was 3 years old, mom carried me right before bedtime and you sang “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep” to me, and I remember your voice like it was just yesterday. I remember the warmth of you lying next to me and how special I felt at that moment. Then my mom carried me off to my own bed to tuck me in.
I remember times when I could sit out on the porch with you and watch an approaching thunderstorm, and you would tell me the scientific facts behind lightning and thunder. I thought you knew everything.
I remember you taking my two brothers and me on trips to a stream out in the country on summer days. We would walk along the stream, picking wildflowers to take home to mother.
I want to thank you for giving me an appreciation of nature and science and of God’s beautiful creation, Earth. I want to thank you for making us take part in “family worship” every evening after dinner. I remember that Bible stories and the Golden Rule on how to treat others, and I learnt how to appreciate music in my life from the hymns we sang. I also learnt to harmonize with my sisters.
And most of all, I want to forgive you. I forgive you for not being able to tell me that I was a special girl and that you loved me. I longed for your spoken affection. But I realize something in your own upbringing would not allow you to express your feelings verbally（口头地）. I realize that you did the best that you could with what you knew.
I signed the letter and put it into my wooden box to join many other cards and letters from my family and loved ones that I cherished. But somehow, it had not brought any relief I desired.
On New Year’s Eve, I remember the letter to my father. I took it outside to the yard. Then I built a fire and dropped it into the flame and watched it burn.
As I thanked my father for giving me life, the tears came. I released all the grief and whispered, “you were my father… and I love you.”
1.Why did the writer struggle with the feelings upon hearing her father’s death?
A. Because she couldn’t accept her father’s death.
B. Because she wanted to hold back her sadness.
C. Because she knew she should have felt sad.
D. Because she had a mixed feeling of love and hatred.
2.The writer spent much happy time doing memorable things with father EXCEPT that ___.
A. father sang songs for her before bedtime
B. father taught her nature, science, and history
C. father took her on trips in nature
D. father read Bible stories for her
3. It can be inferred from the text that ______.
A. the writer burned the letter directly after finishing writing it
B. father’s growth influenced his way of expressing himself
C. the writer never expected father to express his true feelings
D. the writer didn’t forgive her father completely after his death
4.Which can be chosen as the best title for the story?
A. Daddy, I miss you.
B. A regretful letter to father
C. Happy time with daddy
D. The flames of forgiveness
