A

    Annie is a neighbor's daughter. When her birthday month came around I found out she felt blue and lonely.

    Her family is quite small and kind of poor so there wouldn't be any birthday visitors. I wanted to send her a card and maybe a small gift to make her happy.

    I told some of my friends I would like to have a birthday party for the girl. I asked them for help. Then I bought some small presents, a cake and something else.

    When the day came, my friends and I went to her house. When she got home after school, we gave the presents to her and wished her a happy birthday.

    It was so easy to do something helpful. My friends helped take the party. They still laugh and talk about it. And Annie tells me she likes the birthday very much and she can still remember it!

Pablo Picasso was born in Spain in 1881. His father was a painter and art teacher who gave his son the first lesson in drawing. He won a prize — “Science and Charity” for his first important painting when he was only fifteen. He studied in several cities in Spain. But there was no one to teach him all that he wanted to know. When he was nineteen, he visited Paris.

Paris was then the center of the world for artists. Everything that was new and exciting in the world of paintings seemed to happen there. When he was twenty-three, Picasso moved there to live and lived in France for the rest of his life.

    When he was over ninety, this great painter still lived his life like a young man. He was still looking for new ideas and new ways to use his artistic materials.

    When he died in 1973, he was ninety-one years old.

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳答案。   

                                                                                                      C

    I have tried to write a ghost story that won't make you unhappy with yourselves, with each other, with the seasons, or with me. I hope it haunts your houses pleasantly.

Charles Dickens

    One Christmas Eve, old Scrooge and Bob were working busily in his office. It was a cold, foggy day. The fog was so thick that the houses opposite were like ghosts. It was only three o'clock in the afternoon, but it was already quite dark.

    "Merry Christmas, Uncle! God bless you!" cried a happy voice. It was Scrooge's nephew.

    "Bah!" said Scrooge "Humbug(骗人的话)!"

    "Christmas is a humbug! Surely you don't mean that, Uncle." Said his nephew.

    "I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What reason have you got to be merry? You're poor."

    "OK, then," replied the nephew cheerfully. "What reason have you got to be sad? You are rich. Don't be angry, Uncle!" said his nephew.

    "What else can I be?" answered the uncle, "I live in a world of fools! Merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you? It's a time for paying bills without money, It's a time for finding yourself a year older, but not richer. Everyone who goes around saying "Merry Christmas" should have his tongue cut out. Yes, he should!"

    "Uncle! Please don't say that!" said the nephew. "I've always thought of Christmas time as a good time, a kind, and a charitable, happy time. And so, Uncle, Christmas has never put any gold or silver in my pocket, but I think it has done me good. And it will do me good. And I say, God bless it!"

    Bob, standing in the corner of the room, applauded(鼓掌).He realized his mistake very soon, and went quickly bake to his work, but Scrooge had heard him.

    "One more sound from you, Bob Cratchit," said Scrooge, "and you'll celebrate Christmas by losing your job!"

    "Don't be angry with him, Uncle. Come and have dinner with us tomorrow."

    "No." said Scrooge.

    "I'm sorry you don't want to celebrate Christmas. But I do. So a Merry Christmas, Uncle!"

     "Good afternoon!" said Scrooge.

     "And a Happy New Year!" said his nephew.

     "Good afternoon!" said Scrooge again.

    His nephew left the room. He stopped to wish Bob a Merry Christmas. And Bob replied, "A

    Merry Christmas to you, too."

    Linda and Lily are sisters. Linda is fourteen1old and Lily is eleven. They2in Beijing with their parents this year. They are3in Beijing, so they don't know much about it. They are students, but they are not in the same school. Linda's school is not near (在……附近) her home. How4is it from her home to school? It's about five kilometers. So she usually goes to school5bus. She walks to the bus stop near her home first. And then she6a bus to school.7usually takes her half an hour to get to school.

    Lily's school is8one kilometer from her home. She usually9her bike to school.10when she gets up early sometimes, she will walk to school. She likes walking in the fine weather (天气). When she goes to school by bike, it usually takes her ten minutes. When she walks, it always takes her twenty — five minutes.

Johnny, a lizard (蜥蜴), lived between some rocks in the country, where he liked sunbathing every morning. One day, he felt so 1 that he didn't notice some boys coming up behind him. The boys caught Johnny, and he could only escape from their hands by losing his 2 and running to hide.

The children watched his tail moving about, but they soon threw the tail away and left. Johnny came out to 3 his tail, but could find no 4 of it. Feeling so sad, he decided to 5 doing everything else in his life and spending all his time finding his tail. Days and months passed, and Johnny kept looking, asking everyone 6 they had seen his tail. However, there was 7 no news about it.

One day, he asked a boy and the boy 8 replied, "Why do you need two tails?" After hearing this, Johnny turned back and saw that he had grown a new, stronger tail. He suddenly realised how 9 it had been to waste so much time on a problem like it. Johnny headed for home.

10 , he suddenly found his old tail on the roadside. Although it 11 terrible, Johnny was still excited to have it back. He picked it up and was about to 12 his journey. Just at that moment, an idea hit him that he shouldn't look at the past and worry about it since it was not useful for 13 .

He then decided to 14 his old tail there leaving with it all his past worries. As he continued his journey, all he took with him were thoughts of the present and the dreams of the 15 .

As we know, it's not good to look at the past, unless it helps in the future. Let the past go with the wind.