People make good use of time in America. Americans think much about time, and from childhood they
learn to value time.As children, they are taught to be on time to go to school,to walk and to do everything. When they are having a good time, they say that time goes easily.  When a person is dying, they say he is
living on a borrowed time.
     Time is money. Time is knowledge. Time is everything in America. A working American has to work
hard for eight hours a day or forty hours a week,and this is the working time.In his free time,he also works hard for more money. Even on Saturday and Sunday he also works as usual. In the street you can hardly
see a man walking slowly. They walk very fast. In fact, they are running.
     They love time because time can bring them money and lots of things. But sometimes they also hate
time, because they feel they have become servants of the clock.

1. What do the Americans mean by "Time is money"?
A.If someone has time and works hard, he can make a lot of money.
B.It takes quite a lot of time to make money.
C.Working 'hard can bring people's health.
2. Americans think that it is wrong______ .
A.to work late
B.to get up early
C.to be on time to do everything
3. The passage says that a dying person______.
A.is having a good time
B.thinks time goes easily
C.is living on a borrowed time
4. From this passage we can be sure that______.
A.Americans live in a quick rhythm
B.Americans live a hard life
C.Americans always walk fast
5. Which of the following is the best title for this passage?
A.Time is money.
B.American's idea about time.
C.Never waste any time.

     Every year on my birthday since I was 11, a white gardenia(梔子花)was sent to my house. No
card ever came with it. Calls to the flower shop were not helpful at all. After some time I stopped
trying to find out the sender’s name and was just pleased with the beautiful white flower, in soft pink
paper.
     I couldn’t stop imagining(想像)who the giver might be, though. Some of my happiest moments
were spent daydreaming about the sender. My mother encouraged these daydreams. She, d ask me
if I had been especially kind to someone. Perhaps it was one of my classmates. Perhaps it was the
old man. He lived across from the street. I’d sent him his mail during the winter. As a girl, though, I
had more fun imagining that it might be a boy that I had met.
    A month before my high school graduation(畢業(yè)), my father died. I was so sad that I became
uninterested in my upcoming graduation dance, and I didn’t care whether I had a new dress or not.
My mother, in her won sadness, however, would not let me miss any of those things. She wanted her
children to feel loved. In fact, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia:
lovely, strong and perfect, with perhaps a bit of mystery(神秘).
     When I was 22, I got married. My mother died ten years after I was married. That was the year
the gardenia stopped coming.

1. What can we infer(推斷)from the passage?
A. The writer didn’t know who sent her the flower when she first received it.
B. The writer’s father died a month before she finished school.
C. The writer married at the age 22.
D. The gardenia means lovely, strong and perfect and a bit myserious.
2. The real sender of the white gardenia is______.
A. a boy the writer had met
B. the writer’s classmate
C. the old man living across the street
D. the writer’s mother
3. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. A Special Birthday
B. A Graduation Party
C. A mother’s Love
D. A Childhood Dream

     Taking an after-school class will give you a head start in high school. But if it means walking home
every day, even in snow and rain, would you do it?
     I did. I took part in an after-school Spanish class. Because it was after school, no school buses were
there to take me home when the class ended. And my parents couldn't pick me up, so I had to walk home.
     At first I hated the walk because of the long distance. But after a few months, I got used to (習(xí)慣于)
it and it became one of my daily activities, like getting dressed and brushing my teeth. And I began to
enjoy it. I got to see things like birds flying and trees changing color. A few times I saw something very
special, like a small snake near the sidewalk, or two cars that came very close to crashing!
     Many of my classmates saw what I did. Once, one girl in my class asked her mother to drive me
home because it was raining outside, and I didn't have an umbrella (雨傘). Some people who I didn't
know even gave me a ride - they thought it was too cold out.
     People always think walking long distances is difficult. Modern technology (技術(shù)) makes common
things, like walking, seem impossible. Many people, like myself, live in the country and are close to
nature, but also far away from it because of technology.
1. What class did the writer take part in after school?
A. Math class    
B. Spanish class  
C. Art class
D. English class
2. When did the writer begin to enjoy walking home?
A. At the very beginning.    
B. After a week.  
C. After a few months.      
D. After a year.
3. Why did the writer begin to enjoy walking home?
A. Because something interesting happened on the road every day.
B. Because the writer could get a ride from some strange people.
C. Because the writer enjoyed walking in the rain alone.
D. Because the writer could enjoy some interesting things happening on the road.
4. When it was a rainy or snowy day, ______.
A. some kind people would give him a ride
B. nobody saw him and nobody helped him
C. the writer would choose to stay at school
D. the writer's parents would come to pick him up
5. What does the last paragraph want to tell us?
A. It is difficult for many people to walk long distances.
B. Modern technology brings people a lot of inconvenience (不方便).
C. Modern technology makes people live better, but farther from the nature.
D. It is impossible for people to walk a long distance nowadays.

     Everyone needs friends. We all like to feel close to someone. It is nice to have a friend to talk, laugh,
and do things with. Surely, there are times when we need to be alone. We don’t always want people
around. But we would feel lonely if we never had a friend.
     No two people are just the same. Sometimes friends don’t get along well. That doesn’t  mean that
they no longer like each other. Most of the time they will make up and go on being friends. Sometimes
friends move away. Then we feel very sad. We miss them very much. But we call them and write to
them. It could be that we would even see them again. And we can make new friends. It is surprising to
find out how much we like new people when we get to know them.              
     Families sometimes name their children after a close friend. Many places are named after men and
women who have been friendly to people in a town. Some libraries are named this way. So are some
schools. We think of these people when we go to these places. There’s more good news for people
who have friends. They live longer than people who don’t. Why? It could be that they are happier.
Being happy helps you stay well. Or it could be just knowing that someone cares. If someone cares
about you, you take better care of yourself.

1.The first paragraph tells us _______.
A. none needs friends
B. we always need friends around us
C. making friends is the need in people's life
D. we need to be alone.
2.Which of the following is what the writer doesn't say in the passage?
A. People will feel lonely if they never have friends.
B. People will never see their friends after their friends move away.
C. People can know their friends in different ways.
D. People like their friends very much if they get to know them.
3.People who have friends live longer than people who don't because _______
A. they feel happier and are healthy
B. they get a lot of help from their friends
C. they take better care of themselves
D. both A and C
4. The main idea of this passage is _______.
A. that people are all friends
B. that people need friends
C. how to get to know friends
D. how to name a place