The Greatest Gift

One day,I was telling my mother about a new girl in school.Suddenly she asked,“Who are your two best friends,Helen?”

“Jill and Jaime.”

“Well,what about Karen and Cindy?”

“I don’t know who their best friend are.”

“No,”she said.“I mean,why aren’t they your best friends?”She seemed upset and hurt.

“But they’re my sisters.”

“Yes,but they can still be your best friends.Friends may come and go,but your sisters will always be there for you.”

At the time, the idea of my sisters being my closest friends seemed strange to me.We used to fight over toys,food,attention and what to watch on television.But my mother never let the three of us forget it:sisters are lifelong friends.Her wish was to give us something that she had never had.When she gave birth to three daughters,the fulfillment（实现）of her dream had only just begun.She had given us each a gift-our sisters-and she wanted to make sure we did not take that gift for granted.She would frequently tell us how lucky we were,constantly take us to places together so we grew closer,and wold even punish us equally,giving us yet another bonding（亲密关系）experience.

It was something in between Mom’s lectures,the family vacations and the shared memories that we realized that Mom was right.Today I share things with my sisters that I share with no one else.My sister Cindy and I ran the New York City Marathon together,side by side,holding hands when crossing the finishing line.When Karen got married,I was her maid of honor.The three of us trust each other with our greatest secrets.

It was twenty-three years age that my mother first asked me who my two best friends were.Today she doesn’t have to.She already knows.

One day.one of Helen’s sisters asked her to be her best friend.

A.True

B.False

C.Not Given

Mom believed that sisters should be the best friends to each other.

A.True

B.False

C.Not Given

Helen found it easy to accept the idea of having her sisters as her best friends.

A.True

B.False

C.Not Given

Helen and her sisters never argued and fought.

A.True

B.False

C.Not Given

To help her daughters become best friends,Mom sent them to the same school.

A.True

B.False

C.Not Given

Helen’s sisters were the greatest gift that Mom gave Helen.

A.True

B.False

C.Not Given

Mom punished the sisters equally to make them understand they were connected by blood tie.

A.True

B.False

C.Not Given

Helen and Cindy’s friendship was shown by their running the New York Marathon together.

A.True

B.False

C.Not Given

Helen’s sister Cindy was not married.

A.True

B.False

C.Not Given

The three sisters seldom share their secrets.

A.True

B.False

C.Not Given

Hares and Rabbits

    One of the gentlest of all animals is the hare.When you consider how mild this animal is,you might wonder how it can survive in a world full of enemies.But then you’ve also probably noticed its strong hind（后面的）legs.Those legs give it plenty of speed .And you know how rapidly hares and rabbits breed（繁殖）.That’s another reason why they manage to survive.

    Hares and rabbits have long,sharp front teeth.Their hind legs are longer than their front legs so that they run faster uphill than downhill.When they are hunted,they use tricks such as taking huge leaps to break the smell or signal danger to each other by hitting the ground with their hind feet.Hares and rabbits are purely vegetarians（素食者）.They can live very well on the inner bark of trees.

    There are many differences between hares and rabbits.Hares are larger,and their feet and ears are longer.Hares do not dig holes or live in groups,as do rabbits,Hares are born open-eyed and with thick fur,while rabbits are born blind and hairless.

North America is the home of many differences types of hares.One of the best known is the jack hare,a large hare with very long ears.Jacks are so fast that they can sometimes make a leap of six meters.

    The March hare,whom we know from Alice in Wonderland,is a common European hare.In March,they are always busy in mating,thus acquiring its name.

    Unlike hares,rabbits are social animals,living together in holes.A rabbit may mate when it is six month old and its young are born within a month.So if the rabbit has no natural enemies, it can become quite a pest.

People are curious about the survival of the hare because           .

A.their legs are not strong enough

B.their growth is not fast enough

C.they are too gentle

D.they run too slow

Hares and rabbits use tricks when they             .

A.run uphill

B.are hunted

C.signal danger

D.take huge leaps

Compared with hares,rabbits            .

A.have longer feet

B.have thicker fur

C.are born open-eyed

D.like to live in groups

Many people get to know the March hare from the fact that it            .

A.has long ears and legs

B.digs a lot of holes in March

C.can make a leap of six meters

D.appears in Alice in Wonderland

Rabbits’ natural enemies prevent them from             .

A.becoming a big trouble

B.breeding when young

C.living in holes

D.becoming social animals

Pawn Shops（当铺）

①Pawn shops are businesses where people bring their possessions to sell or to get a short-term loan.Pawn shops may be large or small, clean or dirty,but they are all full of stories. The United States has about ten thousand of them.

②In the past few years, pawn sops have been doing business with more people than ever before. That is because many lenders(贷方)now do business only with individuals having good credit records or a high-paying job. Often, the individuals most in need of a loan have poor credit records. But they do not need a good job or credit record to get a loan from a pawnbroker(典当商).They only need to have something of value.

③When a traditional lender agrees to provide a loan, it may take days or weeks

before an individual receives floe money.But pawnbrokers will give a loan in just

a few minutes based on the resale value of an object and without asking about the

person's job or credit history.

④Many pawn shops specialize in jewelry. But most shops accept almost anything of value, including computers, musical instruments, guns, old coins and so on. The item. itself acts as the security, or collateral(抵押物)，for the loan. If the loan is not repaid, the object can be sold. Customers can get the object Back at any time by repaying the loan plus the interest and fees they agreed to pay.Or they can pay the interest and leave the item at the pawn shop for a while longer.

⑤The National Pawnbrokers Association is a national trade group representing pawnbrokers. The association calls pawn-brokering“one of humankind's oldest

financial institutions.” It says pawnbrokers operated three thousand years ago in

ancient China and in early Greek and Roman times.

Paragraph①

A.Quick loan from a pawnbroker

B.Properties of a pawnbroker

C.How does a pawn shop run?

D.What is a pawn shop?

E.Pawn-brokering:a trade with a long history

F.Recent development of pawn shops

Paragraph②

A.Quick loan from a pawnbroker

B.Properties of a pawnbroker

C.How does a pawn shop run?

D.What is a pawn shop?

E.Pawn-brokering:a trade with a long history

F.Recent development of pawn shops

Paragraph③

A.Quick loan from a pawnbroker

B.Properties of a pawnbroker

C.How does a pawn shop run?

D.What is a pawn shop?

E.Pawn-brokering:a trade with a long history

F.Recent development of pawn shops

Paragraph④

A.Quick loan from a pawnbroker

B.Properties of a pawnbroker

C.How does a pawn shop run?

D.What is a pawn shop?

E.Pawn-brokering:a trade with a long history

F.Recent development of pawn shops

Paragraph⑤

A.Quick loan from a pawnbroker

B.Properties of a pawnbroker

C.How does a pawn shop run?

D.What is a pawn shop?

E.Pawn-brokering:a trade with a long history

F.Recent development of pawn shops

People bring their valuable things to pawn shops to            .

A.turn to pawn brokers

B.the borrower’s job or credit history

C.the customers repay the loan

D.pay back the agreed sum of money

E.get a loan

F.the customers pay the interest

People who have poor credit records are more likely to           .

A.turn to pawn brokers

B.the borrower’s job or credit history

C.the customers repay the loan

D.pay back the agreed sum of money

E.get a loan

F.the customers pay the interest

Pawnbrokers pay more attention to the resale value of an object instead of           .

A.turn to pawn brokers

B.the borrower’s job or credit history

C.the customers repay the loan

D.pay back the agreed sum of money

E.get a loan

F.the customers pay the interest

If customers want to get their objects back they must            .

A.turn to pawn brokers

B.the borrower’s job or credit history

C.the customers repay the loan

D.pay back the agreed sum of money

E.get a loan

F.the customers pay the interest

The pawn shop may keep the object for a longer time on the condition that            .

A.turn to pawn brokers

B.the borrower’s job or credit history

C.the customers repay the loan

D.pay back the agreed sum of money

E.get a loan

F.the customers pay the interest

Resources

Resources are found in nature.They make a better quality of life for humans.Soil,air,water,sunlight and trees are all examples of resources that humans use every day,whether they know it or not.               

A natural resource is a material found in nature and used by living things.Air,rocks,metals,oil and salt are all natural resources.Renewable（可再生的）resources are resources that can be replaced.           Trees that are cut down can be replaced quickly when seeds or baby trees are planted.Water from our bathtubs（浴盆）can be cleaned for use.Plants,wind and rain can help clean the air to make it safe to breathe even if it comes out of a car or a factory.

Sometimes resources cannot be replaced after they are used.           Once nonrenewable resources are all used up,mature will not be able to replace them.Oil,natural gas,soil and metals are all examples of nonrenewable resources.

Coal is another example of a nonrenewable resources.             Humans mine the coal underground and use it as an energy source.Once humans have mined all the coal from inside Earth ,there will be no more for us to depend on.            For example,wind and water turbines（涡轮机）are now being used to produce energy.

A.These are called nonrenewable resources

B.They replace some of the need to burn coal

C.It is made by nature deep in Earth

D.Without resources,humans could not live on Earth

E.Trees,air,water and energy from the sun are renewable resources

F.Luckily,humans are finding new ways to replace coal

In English,when we meet people for the first time,there are some safe topics to talk about,such as weather,or which part of the country they come from.We wouldn’t ask them whether they were            ,or how much they earned,or how           they were.

We learn these politeness rules very           on in life,from around age three.“How old are you?”asks Auntie Ann at little Jimmy’s fourth birthday party.“I’m four”,           Jimmy.And then he says,“How old are you?”But Auntie Ann won’t say.And           .Jimmy learns that one thing you should never           is ask a lady her          !

This is one of the rules of polite          which is found in cultures and languages in many party of the            ,but not everywhere.In some Asian cultures questions about age are very            .It’s just their way of being friendly.

A.conversation

B.age

C.married

D.says

E.common

F.generally

G.early

H.asks

I.gradually

J.do

K.old

L.world