A woman repeated a bit of gossip (流言) about a neighbour. Within a few days the whole neighbourhood knew the story. The neighbour was deeply hurt. Later the woman responsible (負(fù)責(zé)) for spreading the gossip learned that it was completely untrue. She was very sorry and went to a wise old man to find out what she could do to repair the harm.
“Go to the marketplace,” he said. “and buy a chicken, and have it killed, then on your way home, pluck (拔) its feathers and drop them one by one along the road. ” Although surprised by this advice, the woman did what she was told.
The next day the wise man said, “ Now, go and collect all those feathers you dropped yesterday and bring them back to me. ”
The woman followed the same road, but she was so discouraged when she found the wind had blown all the feathers away. After searching for hours, she returned with only three in her hand.
“ You see, ” said the old man, “it’s easy to drop them, but it’s impossible to get them back . So it is with gossip. It doesn’t take much to spread a gossip, but once you do, you can never completely undo the wrong.”
【小題1】The woman was very _________ the harm she had done to her neighbour.

A．happy about

B．a(chǎn)ngry about

C．sorry for

D．excited about

【小題2】Which of the following statements is TURE?

A．The gossip didn’t hurt anyone at all.

B．The wise man was not kind enough.

C．The woman found all the feathers at last.

D．The woman was given a lesson.

【小題3】What the wise man said has nearly the same meaning as the Chinese phrase “_________”

A．覆水難收

B．無(wú)中生有

C．欲速不達(dá)

D．得道多助

It’s important to learn about protecting our environment. Here is a 5R rule for us:
1. Reduce
If you want to reduce waste, you should use things wisely. Millions of trees are being cut down to make paper. If everyone uses a little paper carelessly and throw it out, soon we would not have any trees left. Other things are also being wasted, and people don’t know what to do with the waste in big cities. So it is necessary to reduce the waste
2. Reuse
You should always think of reusing the usable things before throwing them out. Give your clothes you do not use or the ones which are too small to the poor. With a family, you may pass on such clothes to younger brothers or sisters.
3.  Recycle
Bottles, cans and paper can easily be recycled. By doing so, we save lots of time and money. For example, coke cans are sent to a factory, where they are smashed flat（壓平）and melted (融化) and the melted things are made for new coke cans.
4.  Recover
When you buy a box of apples, there may be a few rotten（腐爛的）apples. You have two choices: one is to throw the whole apple away, or you could cut off the rotten parts and eat the good parts. In this way, you are recovering the eatable parts of food.
5.  Repair
If one of the legs of your table is broken, you can repair it instead of throwing it away. If you want to change for better ones, It is better for you to sell the old things or give them to other people who can use them after doing some repair. It is true that North America is a “throw-away” society（社會(huì)）. But the time has come to change our way of life so that we can protect our environment. Every one of us should try our best.
【小題1】_______ can be recycled.

A．Only hard things

B．Many things

C．Few soft things

D．All things

【小題2】The “recover” rule mainly requires us _______.

A．to throw waste things away

B．to cover waste things with earth

C．to get back the useful parts

D．to throw the whole things away

【小題3】We can infer（推斷） that the writer of this passage may live in _______.

A．China

B．Japan

C．Australia

D．America

【小題4】Which of the following is true?

A．We will have no resources（資源） of nature unless we can do with the waste.

B．Recycling is the best way to save resources.

C．If we waste less, we can save more resources of nature.

D．More things are wasted in developed countries than in developing ones.

One afternoon, my son came home from school and asked me, “Are all people the same even if their skin color is different?” I thought for a moment, then I said, “I’ll explain. Let’s go to a fruit store first. I have something interesting to show you.”
At the store, I told him that we needed to buy apples. And we bought some red apples, green apples and yellow apples.
After we got home, I told Adam, “It’s time to answer your question.” I put one of each type of apple on the table: first a red apple, followed by a green apple and then a yellow apple. Then I looked at Adam, who was sitting on the other side of the table.
“Adam, people are just like apples. They come in different colors, shapes and sizes. See, some may not even look as delicious as others.” As I was talking, Adam was examining each one carefully.
Then, I took each of the apples and peeled them, placing them back on the table, but in a different place.
“OK, Adam, tell me which one is the red apple, the green apple and the yellow apple.”
He said, “I can’t tell. They all look the same now.”
“Take a bite(一口) of each one. See if that helps you tell which one is which.”
He took big bites, and then a huge smile came across his face. “People are just like apples! They are all different, but if you take off the outside, they’re pretty much the same on the inside.”
“Right,” I agreed. “Just like everyone has their own features but they are nearly the same.”
He completely got it. I didn’t need to say or do anything else.
Now, when I eat an apple, it tastes a little sweeter than before. What perfect fruit it is!
【小題1】I took Adam to buy apples for         .            

A．supper

B．his question

C．a(chǎn) party

D．a(chǎn) present

【小題2】As soon as we got home, I put          on the table.

A．a(chǎn)ll the apples	B．three apples of different colors
C．three red apples	D．three peeled apples

【小題3】After Adam took big bites, he found they         .

A．looked the same

B．tasted good

C．tasted the same

D．weren’t delicious

【小題4】In the end, Adam understood that         .

A．people are much the same even if their skin color is different

B．people are different if their skin color is different

C．the apples look the same after they are peeled

D．a(chǎn)pples of different colors taste different

【小題5】I feel that apples taste a little sweeter than before because         .

A．they are delicious enough	B．they are perfect fruit for thinking
C．they are safe fruit	D．my son falls in love with them