A Horseshoe and Cherries

One day，a farmer was walking along a road with his son Thomas. The father said to his son，“Look! There’s a horseshoe. Pick it up and put it into your bag.” Thomas said，“It is not worth(值得) the trouble.” His father said nothing but he picked it up himself. When they got to a nearby town，they had a rest. There the farmer sold the horseshoe and with the few pennies(便士，貨幣單位) he bought some cherries(櫻桃).

The father and the son continued their way. The sun was well up in the sky，and there was not a house or even a tree where they could have a rest. Thomas felt too thirsty to walk on. At this time，his father dropped a cherry on the ground and Thomas picked it up quickly and ate it. After a while，his father dropped another cherry and once again，his son lost no time in picking it up and putting it in his mouth.

And so they went on. The old farmer dropped the cherries and the son picked them up. When Thomas had eaten up all the cherries，his father said to him，“My dear son，if you had bent(彎腰) down early to pick up that horseshoe，it would not have been necessary for you to bend so many times for the cherries. Always remember the lesson that he who does not worry about the little things will find that he cannot do the great things.”

1. Who picked up the horseshoe at last_______ .

A. The son. B. Both the father and the son.

C. The father. D. Neither the father nor the son.

2. The farmer bought some_______ with the money after he sold the horseshoe.

A. bread B. water C. cherries D. pennies

3. When the son refused to pick up the horseshoe，the father_______ .

A. beat the son B. didn’t say a word

C. felt very happy D. became very angry

4. The father dropped the cherries one by one，because_______ .

A. he wanted to teach his son a lesson

B. he wanted his son to do more exercise

C. he wanted his son to eat all of them

D. he wanted to laugh at his son

5. From the story，we can learn that_______ .

A. cherries are so delicious that most of us like to eat them

B. a horseshoe is so expensive that it can bring us a lot of money

C. if we want to eat cherries，we must pick up a horseshoe

D. if we don’t worry about the little things，we cannot do the great things

Key：1. C 2. C 3. B 4. A 5. D

A Young Man and an Old Man

A young man and an old man were waiting for a long-distance bus at a bus-station. They sat next to each other.

“What’s that in your bag?” asked the young man，pointing to a bag beside the old man.

“Gold，nothing but gold，” answered the old man.

“What?” the young man said to himself in surprise. “So much gold? My God(上帝)! How I hope to get so much gold!” Then he thought about how to get the bag.

The old man looked tired and sleepy and it was clear that he could hardly keep his eyes open.

“Are you sleepy，sir?” asked the young man. “Then you’d better lie down on the chair and have a good rest. Don’t worry about the bus. I’ll wake you up in time. ”

“It’s very kind of you，young man，”the old man said and lay down. Soon he fell asleep.

The young man took the bag quietly. But when he was going to go away，he found a part of his woolen coat was under the old man’s body. Several times he tried to pull it out，but he failed. At last he took off his coat and ran away with the bag.

The young man ran out of the station as fast as possible.

When he reached a place where he thought the old man couldn’t find him，he stopped and quickly opened the bag.

He didn’t expect there was nothing but a lot of small stones in it. He hurried to the station at once. But when he got there，the old man had left.

1.The young man was surprised when_______ .

A. he heard there was much gold in the bag

B. the old man opened his bag

C. he saw a lot of gold in the bag

D. the old man looked tired and sleepy

2. The young man tried his best to get the bag because_______ .

A. it was big enough to hold his woolen coat

B. he wanted to put some gifts into it

C. he thought it was full of gold

D. it was too heavy for the old man to carry

3. The young man took off his coat because_______ .

A. the weather was hot and he didn’t need it

B. the gold was much more important than his coat

C. he was worried that the old man would be ill

D. the old man was too tired and he wouldn’t wake him up

4. At last the young man_______ because of the stones in the bag.

A. was happyB. was angry

C. found his coat D. got the gold

5. From this passage we know_______ .

A. the young man was clever

B. the old man was silly

C. the old man gave the young man some gold

D. the young man was very bad

Key：1. A 2. C 3. B 4. B 5. D