I was eleven when we had to move out of the big old house in which I had spent my whole life. Each time I thought of that, I felt very sad. When the final day came, I ran to a corner and sat alone, trying not to let others see my tears. Suddenly I felt a hand patting me on the shoulder. I looked up, and saw my grandpa. "It isn't easy, is it, my grandson?" he said in a very low voice, sitting down beside me. I nodded through my tears, without a word. We sat silently for a long time. Then he said, "Good-by is such a sad word that it seems too cold for us to use. We must try to avoid it."
Then we walked slowly in the garden, hand in hand, to have a last look at each rock, each tree, each flower. We sat for a while by the small pond which was a favorite place of my grandpa's. "What do you see here, Tommy?" asked the old man. I looked at the water, not knowing what to say, and then replied, "I see something soft and beautiful, Grandpa." He pulled me close to him and said, "It isn't the pond or the trees or the flowers that are beautiful. It is the special place in your heart that makes you feel so." After a while, he continued, "I built the pond, and planted the trees and the flowers a long time ago. I started to build this beautiful home the day my only son was born." He stopped. After a long silence, he murmured(低声说), "One day a terrible war came, and my son, like many other people's sons, went away to fight. Five months later, a telegram came, telling us that my son had passed away...' he couldn't finish his sentence. I saw tears trickle from his eyes. "That afternoon I picked some roses from this place and put them in front of son's portrait (肖像), and said goodbye to him. You know who he was, Tommy?"
"My father?" I asked in a whisper, hoping my grandpa would say no. But he said, "That's rights my dear. ' Ann in arm, we cried. Then the old man held me ups and said softly, "My dear Tom, we axe going to move, but don't say good-bye to our old house, never."
Tom and his grandpa______ the old house.
A. were too sorry to leave
B. were both unwilling to say goodbye to
C. felt sorry when they were in
D. didn't know that they had to leave
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The speaker's experience in reading classified documents made him realize that ______.
A. others had been mistaken in interpreting events that they had observed
B. others knew more about current events than be did
C. he was the only responsible person who knew the truth about government affairs
D. he was a more impartial observer than anyone else in the government
What is the characteristic of the Martian surface according to observations over the past
A. Remaining stable all the time.
B. Appearing bright red.
C. Looking dark most of the time.
D. Changing from bright to dark or vice versa.
It may look like just another playgroup, but a unique educational center in Manhattan is really giving babies something to talk about. "It's a school to teach languages to babies and young children with games, songs--some of the classes also have arts and crafts," said Francois Thibaut, the founder of the Language Workshop for Children, a place where babies become bilingual.
Children as young as few months are exposed to French and Spanish before many of them can even speak English. Educators use special songs and visual (视觉的) aids to ensure that when a child is ready to talk, the languages will not be so foreign. "Children have a unique capacity to learn many languages at the same time," said Thibaut. "Already at nine months, a child can tell the differences between the sounds he or she has heard since birth and the sounds he or she has never heard yet." Thibaut says the best time to expose children to language is from birth to 3 years old. For the last 30 years, the school has been using what it caus the Thibarut Technique, a system that combines language lessons with child's play.
"I always wanted to learn Spanish, but by the time I got to high school it was too late to pick it up and speak fluently," said Marc Lazare, who enrolled his son at the school. "I figured at this age, two, it's a perfect time for him to learn."
Aside from learning a language, the kids also gain a tremendous sense of confidence. One young student boasted that aside from French, she can speak five languages (though that included "monkey" and "lion"). The school gives children the tools to communicate, and sometimes that gives them an advantage over their parents. "I think they sometimes speak French when they think ! won't understand them," said parent Foster Gibbons.
Depending on the age group, classes run from 45 minute up to 2 hours. Even when students are not in class, the program is designed to make sure the learning continues at home. Tapes and books are included so kids can practice on their own.
The word "bilingual" in the first paragraph probably means ______.
A. capable of using two languages
B. both clever and confident
C. aware of their own limitations and strengths
D. independent of their parents
The wandering ship was a dramatic symbol for a problem plaguing our age. In 1987, the ship, loaded with thousands of tons of New York garbage, spent weeks wandering from one port to another in search of a dump before finally returning home, mission unaccomplished.
New York, like other communities throughout the world is running out of space to put its trash. As throwaway societies, the US and other industrialized countries expect their garbage to be picked up by trucks that magically transported the refuse to some out-of-sight incinerator
(焚化炉) or dump. But in the developing counties of Asia, Africa and Latin America, thousands of tons of trash collected daily are thrown into open dumps, where it feeds huge populations of rats that swarm through poor neighborhoods.
"The world is literally swimming in garbage," says a scientist. "Communities worldwide are being forced to confront the problem." Green Peace spokesman Bryan Bence adds, "The crisis in garbage stems in part from the fact that we've ignored long-term disposal problem in favor of cheap quick fixes."
The garbage glut (过剩) has inspired many communities in the U.S., Japan and Western Europe to start recycling programs. Once considered a curious counter culture activity recycling has moved firmly into the mainstream.
Recycling involves separating usable products from trash, processing them so they can be substituted for more expensive raw materials and returning them to the marketplace as parts of new products. Many countries now have mandatory recycling programs, and others plan to follow the trend soon. Most notably, Japan has stood out as a model and leader of the waste management trend, recycling an estimated 65 percent of its waste. "That's what we should do, to the garbage crisis", says David Antonioli, a staff member with the New York Public Interest Research Corp. "The earth is not a dump!"
According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. The American ship eventually found a port and dumped its garbage before it returned home.
B. Throwaway societies don't need to transport their refuse and garbage to incinerator because they have a lot of space to put them.
C. The wandering ship with garbage reflected the fact that garbage problem became very serious.
D. The huge populations of rats swarm through poor neighborhood in many Western European countries because the garbage is thrown into the open dumps.