At the age of 60, my father was hit by a car when he walked to a nearby supermarket to buy vegetables. After 1 for two months in hospital, he finally woke up. His waking up excited all our family. Unfortunately, he didn’t know any of us. Doctors said his brain was hurt so 2 that he had lost all his memory. And his mental age ( 心理年龄 ) was only five. We were sorry to hear about the bad news.

Since I was his only child, it was my 3 to look after him. He forgot almost everything, but he did remember he liked sweets. I used the sweets as a way of stopping bad behaviour. I would give him one sweet if he didn’t sit on the ground, a second for stopping painting on the wall, and another for not trying to put clothes on the dog.

Dad became the 4 child in town. He climbed up the tree to catch a bird and couldn’t get down after it flew away. He broke my window with a ball and cleaned our telephone in water like washing clothes. When I told him he was doing 5 things, he would answer smilingly, “I like that!”

It is eight years since the accident. Dad has accepted the fact that he is the grandfather of my children but not a brother. He has also accepted that they grow taller but his 6 stays the same. Though it is still tiring to take care of him, he brings us a lot of fun. In some way I think it is a happy thing to look after dad like looking after a child. How many people can have the chance to care for a child-like parent?

1 ． A ． sitting B ． waiting C ． staying D ． sleeping

2 ． A ． slowly B ． quickly C ． seriously D ． heavily

3 ． A ． duty B ． turn C ． hobby D ． habit

4 ． A ． cleverest B ． oldest C ． bravest D ． kindest

5 ． A ． wrong B ． useless C ． dangerous D ． helpless

6 ． A ． weight B ． age C ． look D ． height

Back home, almost everyone gets time off at Christmas. This year I asked my Chinese boss how many days I could get off in December. “I am afraid none. We don’t do Christmas,” she answered.

I was very sad at the thought of not seeing my family. However, I took my boss’ words as a challenge. I would make Christmas in China.

First step—Christmas food. In the UK, we always eat mince pies( 肉馅饼 ) during Advent(the December of days before Christmas). They are like little apple pies with spice( 香料 ) and brandy( 白兰地酒 ). According to tradition, the number of mince pies you eat during Advent has to do with the number of months of good luck you will have next year. So I needed to get at least 12 before December 25.

Sadly, I didn’t find key mince pie ingredients in China. I wouldn’t give up. I put five Chinese spices into my own “mincemeat”. Then, I made my little pies in the shape of baozi and jiaozi . Delicious.

Next step—Christmas cards. I was very glad to find many shining cards with Chinglish( 中式英文 ) greetings in my local supermarket. My favourite read : “Let’s merry !” “Merry” is not a verb. The Chinese often hear “Merry Christmas”, so they wrote the sentence. For me, it’s an interesting joke.

I call my Chinese Christmas “Chingmas”. I had a party with “Chingmas pudding” and “ baijiu butter”. I even had some Chingmas carols. The song God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen became God Rest You Merry, Tian’anmen.

1 ． The writer got ________off in December.

A ． a week B ． ten days C ． none D ． three days

2 ． In the UK, the traditional food on the December days before Christmas is ________.

A ． mince pies B ． apple pies C ． spice D ． brandy

3 ． The writer need to get at least 12 mince pies because she ________.

A ． loved eating mince pies very much B ． wanted to be lucky every month next year

C ． wanted to send some mince pies to her family D ． wanted to prepare food for a Christmas party

4 ． The writer ________ when she didn’t find key mince pie ingredients in China.

A ． gave up making mince pies, and made some baozi and jiaozi

B ． used Chinese spices and made little pies in the shape of baozi and jiaozi

C ． gave up on making any Christmas food and bought some delicious Chinese food

D ． bought some traditional Christmas food from the supermarket

5 ． The underlined word “merry”probably means ________.

A ． marry B ． play C ． work D ． be happy

6 ． What is the passage mainly about?

A ． The difference between Christmas and Chingmas. B ． The reasons why the writer likes Christmas so much.

C ． The writer’s experience of having Christmas in China. D ． The way people celebrate Christmas in the UK.

If something really embarrassing ( 尴尬的 ) just happens to your friend, what should you do? If your friend starts laughing, you’ll have a funny story to share. Sometimes your friend seems really upset ( 沮丧的 ). In these cases, try to remember the golden rule: do to others what you want done to you.

A real friend won’t point out your embarrassment to others. He will let the moment pass. That way, when he gets into an embarrassing situation, you’ll be likely to let it pass too. Give a friend a break in an embarrassing moment. The next time you find yourself in a similar situation, you’ll be glad you did.

There’s no way to completely avoid ( 避免 ) embarrassing moments. You can’t control everything that happens, so sooner or later you’re going to be in a situation when you feel embarrassed. The key is to control your reaction and try not to be upset.

Remember that you’ll probably be laughing about it in a few days, so try to see the funny side of it right away. If it’s something so embarrassing that you know you’ll never laugh about it, understand that the pain will disappear over time.

Always keep in mind that you’re not alone. Everybody has embarrassing moments, and while you’re sure that everybody is going to remember this moment forever, the truth is that they’ll probably forget it. Most of us remember the moments when we were embarrassed, but very few of us remember other people’s embarrassing moments. So while you may never forget the time you dropped your milk in front of everybody or you split ( 裂开 ) your shorts in the gym class, chances are everybody else will forget.

Embarrassing moments sometimes seem to be the end of the world, but really, everybody has them. Sometimes embarrassing moments help people to remember the good things about you, many years from now.

1 ． What does the passage mainly talk about?

_____________________________________

2 ． What do you think of “the golden rule” mentioned in Paragraph 1? Why?

_____________________________________

3 ． What should you do if your friend is in an embarrassing situation?

_____________________________________

4 ． What does the underlined word “he” refer to?

_____________________________________

5 ． Why needn’t you worry about your embarrassing moments?

_____________________________________

6 ． What is the advantage of your embarrassing moments?

_____________________________________

Which of the following words matches the sound /ˈwɔːtə(r)/?

A ． want B ． water C ． waste D ． waiter

Which of the following underlined parts is different in pronunciation from the others?

A ． He gave me some more orang es to eat. B ． Simon had a lot of chanc es to improve his oral English.

C ． There are many match es in the box. D ． Alice has read many interesting stori es since she went to school.