When I was about 12, I had an "enemy", a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings (缺点). Sometimes she said I was thin. Sometimes she said I was lazy. Sometimes she said I wasn't a good student. Sometimes she said I talked too much, and so on. I tried to boar (忍受) her as long as I could. At last, I became very angry. I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.

   He listened to me quietly, and then he asked, "Are the things she said true or not? Mary, didn't you ever wonder what you're really like? Go and make a list of everything she said and make the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said."

   I did as he told me and I was very surprised to discover that about half the things were true. I brought the list back to my dad. He refused to take it. "That's just for you," he said. "You know the truth about yourself better than any other people. When something that is said about you is true, you'll find it will be helpful to you. Don't shut off your brain and your ears. You should listen to them all carefully, but hear the truth and do what you think is right."

   Many years has passed. The situation often appears in my mind. In our life, we often meet with some trouble and we often go to someone and ask for advice. For some advice, you need to treasure (珍惜) all your life!

My friends and I finished lunch at a hotel when it started to rain heavily. When it became lighter, I decided to get my car at my office three streets away.

My friends said that I shouldn’t go, mainly because I would give birth to a new baby and was seven months pregnant then. I told them that I’d be very careful. One of them wanted to come with me but I asked her to stay with another friend who needed help with her baby.

I walked out of the hotel and started making my way to the car. At the crossing, a black car stopped and a man came out with an umbrella. Before I knew what was happening, he walked right towards me. To my surprise he stopped in front of me and said he’d go with me together. I said there was no need for him to do so, but he still offered to help. During our walk, he kept telling me to walk slower, as the ground was wet. When we got to my car, I thanked him and he went away. I did not get his name. Even I can’t remember what he looks like. Did he stop for me? I’ll never know.

So how did I pay it as a return? I was at home when I noticed two Indian workers walking in the heavy rain. Maybe they were on their way to the working place near my home.            . They were surprised by my action. They were very thankful to me, wondering why a stranger was offering such kindness. I was so relaxed and happy that day.

When I was eleven, my mother worked all day. As a sister, I had to look after my younger sister on weekends. At that time, my little sister was about three years old and she missed Mum all the time.

   One day, she started crying for Mum after lunch. She was so young and really needed Mum. To make her stop crying, I dressed her up, helped her to put on the shoes, carried her on my back and walked out to the park. Soon she fell asleep (入睡) on my back.

   Before we got to the park, I found one of her shoes lost. I took her off my back and put her down.

   I knew we needed to find that shoe, for our mother didn't have enough money to buy her new shoes. I had to go back to find it, so I told my sister to wait right there.

   A man happened to hear my words and stopped me just before I walked off. He asked me, "Are you leaving your sister here to find the shoe? What will you do if she is not here when you return?" I didn't know how to answer that question. "It's OK if you can't find the shoe, but it is not OK to lose your sister," he added. Then he sent us to Mum's workplace by taxi and left without another word.

   People always say, "Do not believe in strangers (陌生人)." But during my whole life, the kindness of the man is always in my mind. I feel regretful that I can't find him and say "Thank you". I do not even remember what he looked like, but he taught me a lesson－people are more important than things.

根据材料内容选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Years ago I worked at a factory in a small county. Every day I got up very early and often did much extra work at night.  I was so tired and exhausted. My whole life was hopeless. Then one day I read the following article from a magazine:

   “A woman went to live with her husband in camp on the Mojave Desert during the war. She simply hated the place: the heat was almost unbearable, 125 degrees in the shade, the wind blew incessantly, and there was sand--sand everywhere. Finally, in desperation(不顾一切地)she wrote her parents in Ohio that she couldnˈt stand it another minute and was coming home.

 Quickly came the reply by airmail from her father--just two lines:

  ‘Two men looked out  from prison bars. One saw the mud, the other saw stars.’

  The daughter did some real thinking, not only with the intellect (思维)but also with her heart. She decided to stick to her post. She made friends with the natives,  learned to love the country, and eventually wrote a book about it. The desert hadnˈt changed, but her attitude had. Because she listened with her heart to the words her  father sent, a whole new world opened up to her.”

   A change of attitude could change everything.

   After reading the article, I was deep in thought（陷入沉思）…

My father woke me up early one summer morning when I was fourteen and said: "Get up, you're going with me to cut the grass in the garden."

   The idea that my father thought f was old enough to help him in his business made me feel proud and excited. From sunup to sundown, my father, my younger brother and I worked in the large garden. By the end of the day I was too tired to say a word but I felt good. This was my first time to help my father in his business. I got $6 for my work that day.

   One day my father found some leaves I had missed and pulled me aside. "Take away these leaves!" he said, "and don't make me have to tell you to do it again." The message was clear. Today I value the importance of doing a job well the first time. It will never fail to impress(给……留下印象) the person you are working for.

   After two years, my father told me and my brother that he felt we were old enough to cut the grass by ourselves. Every Saturday during my last two years of high school, we set off early in the morning with the same strong wish we had gained while working under our father.

   Looking after the garden Was neither exciting nor high paying, but that didn't matter. It taught me that any job was a good job and that whatever I was paid was more than I had before.

   A newspaper reporter once asked me how someone could possibly live with hard work and low pay. "If you're only thinking about hard work and money, you probably don't want to do any better than you are doing." I answered. In every job, from cutting the grass to washing dishes, I've learned much. I've learned something that helps me in my next job. If you work hard enough, you can learn from any job you do.

根据材料内容选择正确答案。

A first－grade student whose best friend is fighting against cancer thought that hours of playing and telling jokes was not enough—he wanted to show his buddy just how he understood the hard time he was going through.

Seven－year－old Vincent Butterfield decided the only way was to cut off his hair in support of his best friend Zac who lost his hair through chemotherapy (化疗)．

Zac Gossage is receiving treatment (治疗) but still goes to Union Central Elementary School in Missouri every day, because thatˈs where he gets to play on the swing with Vincent. Vincent found out that Zac might lose his hair because of the chemotherapy treatment. So one day, he showed up in the first grade class wearing a cap. He said to his teacher Mrs. Koester, “I have a surprise for Zac.” And he pulled off his cap and other kids saw that he already had all his hair cut off.

“I did it just to make Zac feel heˈs not the only one without any hair，”said Vincent.Vincent has also been raising money for his best friend after learning how expensive his chemotherapy treatments are. He asked his mother to make more than 20 scarves and gloves. He and his mother sold them at the price of 10 dollars each, raising over $200 for Zac. The encouragement from Vincent seems to be working. Though Zac is receiving treatments, he has hardly missed any days of school. He knows that Vincent is out on the playground, waiting for him at the break.

When asked what friendship was, Vincent looked at his friend Zac, thought for a moment and responded, “Itˈs a beautiful thing.”

Clearly, wisdom doesnˈt always come with age.

  Mr. Brown is a driver. He has two cute dogs. The black dog is big and the white dog is small. He likes them a lot. Mr. Brown has a good friend, Mr. Jones. He is a driver, too. They work in the same hospital. One Sunday morning, they would like to go fishing on a farm. Mr. Jones comes to Mr. Brown's home. He finds there are two holes（洞）in the door（门），a big hole and a small one. He says to Mr. Brown, "My friend, why are there two holes in your door?" "I want the two dogs to come in and go out. " Mr. Brown says. " But why are there two holes?"asks Mr. Jones. " How can the big dog gothroughthe small hole?" Mr. Brown says.

When I was a child, my parents often took me to an old house in a thick forest. No other children ever stayed there. I didn’t even have the choice of playing with a brother or sister.

I could never understand what the attraction of the house was, even for my parents, who enjoyed nothing better than to sit in silence with a good book. The woman in the house, my father’s distant cousin, was a terrible cook and her food was inedible.

One day, when I was wandering around the garden behind the house, I noticed a wooden house which had clearly been abandoned(被遗弃的). As I walked towards it, I heard a noise, like an animal moving hurriedly away. Then I saw a man with a long beard standing at the door. I was greatly surprised.

“Please don’t tell them you saw me,”he said.“They never use this place, and I have nowhere else to live.” “Don’t worry,”I said.“I won’t tell anyone. But are you all right out here? I mean—do you have enough to eat?”The old man shook his head.

The same evening, I took a small plastic bag into the dining room and, while no one was looking, emptied some of the food into it. Later, I got out of the back door secretly and gave the food to the old man, whose name I had discovered was Alan.

I had never seen anything else as lovely as the smile of satisfaction on Alan’s face when he ate the food. From then on, my visits to the old house had a purpose, and I enjoyed every minute of the rest of my stay.

 Are you sad that you don’t have a nice face? Are you worried that you are not cleverer than your classmates? If so, reading the story of Beethoven(贝多芬) may help you.

   Beethoven was born in a small city in Germany in 1770. His father was an actor and he always drank much. His mother was in bad health and she died when Beethoven was seventeen. They lived a poor life.

   Beethoven was a talented(有天赋的) child in music. At that time people thought he was as clever as Mozart. His father wanted to make money from his talent, so he told him to practice and play all the time. If he didn’t do that, his father would be angry with him and beat him. Beethoven was very short and ugly. He couldn’t hear well from the age of 22 and later he heard nothing. He once fell in love with three girls, but they all left him for some reasons at last. But all these didn’t make him give up music. He kept writing music, and later he became a great musician. On a snowy day in 1827, Beethoven died of illness. His life was so short that he didn’t leave much music. But people think he was one of the best musicians in the world.