Squirrels(松鼠),asanimals loved by many people, are getting ready for winter. They are looking for nuts(坚果), digging(挖) holes in the ground or finding holes in trees. They keep the food they will need during the coming months there, when the weather is cold and sometimes snowy.

Squirrels spend a lot of time in trees which are like restaurants for them. Among their favorite things to eat are nuts and other parts of trees. Squirrels may also eat other animals. And anyone who has a bird knows squirrels love bird food!

Squirrels stay active all winter, so they need plenty of food to help keep their energy. Squirrelstend to bury(埋) food underground, piece by piece. Some squirrels may collect food together and bury underground.

When they need the food in the winter, squirrels use their memories and sense of smell to help them find what they buried. Sometimes, you’ll even see them digging through the snow just to find food.

Squirrels build home in trees. Some squirrels spend much of the winter in underground holes which are warmer.

When spring comes, squirrels change their eating habits to new plant growth. Sometimes they forget to dig up all their buried nuts. That’s why you’ll sometimes find a little tree growing in a place you know, but neither you nor your family planted it. It must have been the squirrels.

Everyone wants to be successful. But only a few of them succeed. As we know Rome(罗马) was not built in a day. On our long way to success, there are many difficulties getting in the way. If we lose heart and give up halfway, nothing can be achieved. So, if you want to be a successful person, you must have a strong mind and perseverance (毅力). Throughout the history, we have had many famous successful people in the world, no one is weak-minded. Take the great American scientist Edison as an example, he tried experiment after experiment and had one failure (失败) after another before he finally invented the light bulb, which lighted up the whole world. So we know that perseverance is one of the secrets of success. And one needs to work hard to achieve his dream, just as the famous saying goes “ Hard work leads to success.”

Look at those people around us. We’ll find that diligent people always achieve more than others. Why is that? Because they work harder than others. That’s why so many of our classmates with so-so IQs can go far ahead of others. And still, our world is changing all the time; we must try our best to keep up with it. So, one can never be locked alone inside his own room, doing his research work and only learn the knowledge from the books. He has to learn more things around the world through different ways.

Whenever the sun dropped and the blue sky came up, my father and I used to climb the mountain near my house. Walking together, my father and I used to have a lot of conversations through which I learned lessons from his experiences. He always told me, “You should have goals like climbing the mountain.” Without the mountain-climbing that we both enjoyed, we couldn’t have enough time to spend together because my father was very busy. I really got a lot from mountain-climbing. It gave me time to talk with my father and to be in deep thought as well as develop my patience (耐力).

Once we climbed a very high mountain. It was so challenging for me because I was only ten years old. During the first few hours of climbing, I enjoyed the flowers and trees, and the birds’ singing, but as time passed, I got a pain in both of my legs. I wanted toquitclimbing. In fact, I hated it at that moment, but my father said to me,“You can always see a beautiful sky at the top of the mountain, but you can’t see it before you reach the top. Only there at the top, can you see all of the nice things, just like in life.”

At that time, I was too young to understand his words. But later after that, I got new hope and confidence (信心). I found myself standing at the top of the sky, which was as clear as crystal (水晶).

Billy Dengler, a 14-year-old boy, is in the eighth grade. A month after he was born, Billy’s mother, Terri, noticed that his eyes weren’t quite as big as a normal baby’s. She took Billy to the hospital, and the doctor said Billy would never be able to see.

Although Billy can’t see, he has never let that hold him back or make him different . Billy began teaching himself computer programming by using a screen reader when he was just seven years old. He is a certified Google developer（谷歌认证开发者） now. Google even tried to offer him a job last year when he discovered a problem in one of its systems, but Billy wasn’t old enough.

Billy’s dream school would be Stanford University or MIT, where he could get a very good education in computer science. After he leavesschool, whether he will go to work at a company like Google or design a software company of his own isn’t still to be decided. However, he says he will definitely（绝对地） do something great.

“It’s a sighted world,” Billy said. “You can’t let anything get in the way of your dreams, and if you do that, you can’t move forward and make your dreams come true.”

  I think it’s hard for a teenager to live in the modern society. For example, how to go to school is a problem I often worry about. Every afternoon, my father picks me up at the gate of school. Many parents pick up their children, too. Most of them drive private cars. Of all the cars, Anna’s father’s car is the best. Anna seems to have a very rich father. She always has beautiful dresses, shoes and bags. Besides these, she is also beautiful. But she has no friends in school. When other students are playing, she never joins them. I don’t like her because she is too perfect. It makes me uncomfortable to make friends with her. She seems to have everything.

  One afternoon, when I went to my father’s car, I saw a small thing fall out of Anna’s bag. So I called her quickly. However, she didn’t look back and kept going. I felt very angry with her.

  During the dinner, my father asked me, “Why do you look unhappy?”

  “Today I saw something fall out of Anna’s bag, so I called her. But she didn’t answer me. She is arrogant.” I said angrily.

  “Oh, I know that girl. She has no friends and is unhappy because she was born deaf. I’m sure that she didn’t hear you.. ”

  What my father said suddenly woke me up. Because she is deaf, she does not talk or play with anyone at school. She seems to have everything, but in fact she doesn’t.

  No everyone is perfect, even the perfect man has his weakness.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案。 

Cindy, Jerry and Mary are giving their opinions about a good friend.

Cindy: I think a good friend should be honest(诚实的). That’s more important than any other thing and is where a good friendship starts. If a friend isn’t honest, he may lose his friends’ trust.

Jerry: I think a good friend has to be generous. Here “generous” doesn’t mean he has to give his friends his lunch money or his clothes. It means he should share(分享) his ideas and feelings with his friends. In fact, his friends can know him better in this way.

Mary: In my opinion a good friend should understand(理解) his friends. When there’s something wrong between him and his friends, he must put himself in his friends’ place and think more for his friends.

Many of you have heard a Cinderella (灰姑娘) story, but you may not know that there are over a hundred different ways to tell the Cinderella story. When writers tell the same story in a different way, it is called their “version” of the story. The story of Cinderella has many different versions. Let’s read two of them and find out how they are different.

The version that most people know is the oldest one written in 1697 by Charles Perrault from France. This is the version where the birds help make Cinderellas’s dress and the mice turn into carriage men (马车夫) and help Cinderella go to the dance in a pumpkin (南瓜) carriage. In this version, many of the animals are Cinderella’s friends. They help her meet the Prince. Cinderella marries the Prince and they live happily together ever after.

In another version of this story written in the 1850s by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm from Germany, the birds help Cinderella in the whole story. Cinderella’s father gives her a little tree when he comes back from a party. She plants the little tree and her tears water it until it grows into a tall tree.

The birds now live in the tree and they give Cinderella a dress of gold and shoes of gold. Cinderella goes to the party to meet and dance with the Prince. Later, he finds Cinderella at home doing work for her stepmother (继母). Cinderella marries the Prince and they live happily ever after.

Now you can understand what the word “version” means and how more than one writer can tell a story in a different way. That is why there are may versions of the same story.

B

I still remember quite clearly the day when my parents got divorced（离婚）．Dad kissed me goodbye and left．

For a long time Mum and I lived a peaceful life．Then one day，Jim came over for lunchwearing a blue suit with a short brown tie and a green shirt．I couldn’t believe this was going to be my new stepfather．It couldn’t be true that my beautiful mother would marry someone who dressed like a clown （小丑）．I hated him．

Lunch was terrible．Mother kept trying to start a conversation，but neither Jim nor I would say much．Finally I offered to bring in the dessert just to get away from the clown．

Something unpleasant（不愉快的）happened，but I didn’t mean （故意）to do it．I guess the plate slipped．But one minute I was handing Jim his blackberry pie，and the next，dark purple berries were oozing （渗出）all over his shirt and tie．

I wasmortified．My face turned bright red．Jim looked very much surprised at first，but then he began to laugh．I started to laugh too．Maybe this guy was all right，after all．Then I had a quick look at my mother．She looked happier than I had seen her in a long time．

An African proverb says that a single hand cannot tie a bundle. Everyone needs friends to help them sail through the rough seas of life. Even the strongest and richest person still needs friends. Our money and strength would have no value if we had no friends to share with us. The best friendship is a give-and-take relationship. We need the support of our family, friends and the community. In turn we also give support to the society, our friends and our family.

The word “friend” has many meanings. It could be the bus driver who takes you to and from work every day. It could be a parent, a wife or husband, a brother or sister, or even the unknown person who helped you just once when you could not find your way. Real friends share not only our happiness but our sadness as well. This may explain why we have the expression “a friend in need is a friend indeed”.

  Friendship is like the sunshine that keeps us warm. It is like the refreshing raindrops on the fields that give the farmers hope of a good planting season. Without friends our life would be like a desert where our only friend would be loneliness and sadness. The most lucky person is the one who has friends from all levels in the society. A driver might find friends not only among the other drivers but among farmers, bankers, students or teachers. We should never forget our old friends when we make new ones. We should treasure each of our friends whether poor or rich, beautiful or not. Each friend isunique in his or her own way. And all together, they enrich life and make it very colorful.

It was a nice day. Mrs Smith took all her children to the park. She told them not to go anywhere by themselves. All of them said they wouldn’t.

On the way Alan said, “I want a lolly (棒棒糖), Mummy.”

“You all can have a lolly in the park if you follow the rule (遵守规则).”

When they got to the park, Mrs Smith sat under a big tree. The children ran off to play. In ten minutes, when Mrs Smith looked up, she saw Alan, Shona and Fiona, but didn’t see Jack anywhere. “Fiona, where’s Jack?”

“I don’t know, Mummy. He’s not here.” Mrs Smith asked Alan and Shona. They didn’t know, either.

They walked around the park looking for Jack. At last they found him near the lolly man.

“Jack, what are you doing here? Now we have to go home because you don’t follow the rule.”

“But, Mummy, I want a lolly.”

“You can’t have one today, Jack.” Mrs Smith bought lollies for the three other children. When they got home, she talked to Jack. “Mummy has many children, Jack. To keep you safe, we have to follow rules.” Jack was sorry. He never broke rules again.

根据材料内容选择最佳答案。