Where do most writers get their ideas? For Yoshiko Uchida, it all began with Brownie, a five-month-old puppy. So excited was Yoshiko by Brownie’s arrival that she started keeping a journal, writing about all the wonderful things Brownie did and the progress he made.
Soon she was writing about other memorable events in her life, too, like the day her family got their first refrigerator. She also began writing stories, thanks to one of her teachers. Yoshiko wrote stories about animal characters such as Jimmy Chipmunk and Willie the Squirrel. She kept on writing, sharing the kitchen table with her mother, who wrote poems on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes.
Yoshiko grew up in the 1930s in Berkeley, California. Her parents, both of whom had been born in Japan, provided a loving and happy home for Yoshiko and her sister. They also provided a stream of visitors to their home who later found their way into Yoshiko’s stories. One visitor who later appeared in several of Yoshiko’s stories was the bad-tempered Mr. Toga, who lived above the church that her family attended. Mr. Toga would scold anyone who displeased him. The children all feared him and loved to tell stories about how mean he was and how his false teeth rattled (咯咯響) when he talked.
Yoshiko also included in her stories some of the places she visited and the experiences she had. One of her favorite places was a farm her parents took her to one summer. The owners of the farm, showed Yoshiko and her sister how to pump water from the well and how to gather eggs in the henhouse. They fed the mules that later pulled a wagon loaded with hay while Yoshiko and the others rode in the back, staring up at the stars shining in the night sky. Yoshiko, who lived in the city, had never seen such a sight. As Yoshiko gazed up at the stars, she was filled with hope and excitement about her life. The images of that hayride stayed with her long after the summer visit ended, and she used them in several of her stories.
The experiences Yoshiko had and the parade of people who marched through her young life became a part of the world she created in over twenty books for young people, such as The Best Bad Thing and A Jar of Dreams. Because of such books, we can all share just a little bit of the world and the times in which this great writer grew up.
【小題1】The author tells about Mr. Toga’s false teeth in Paragraph 3 in order to ____________.

A．show health care was not good enough in Berkeley during the 1930s

B．provide an interesting detail in Yoshiko’s life and stories

C．show Yoshiko’s young life was difficult and frightening

D．tell about a beloved relative who helped Yoshiko learn how to write

【小題2】In Paragraph 4 “the stars” probably refer to ____________.

A．family relationships	B．terrors in the night
C．limitless possibilities	D．sacrifices to benefit others

【小題3】 What does the underlined part in the last paragraph mean?

A．Yoshiko loved to write about parades.

B．Yoshiko met many interesting people.

C．Yoshiko liked to go for long walks with others.

D．Yoshiko preferred to talk to her pets instead of to people.

【小題4】What is the main idea of this story?

A．People who live in the city should spend as much time as they can in the country.

B．Writers like Yoshiko Uchida must communicate with as many writers as possible.

C．Those who move to the United States often miss their homelands for many years.

D．Writers like Yoshiko Uchida look to the richness of their lives for material.

Kieron Williamson, a seven-year-old British boy, is being recognized as an art genius after selling 16 paintings for 18, 000 pounds in just 14 minutes. This boy has artistic skills that would be the envy of any serious painter and drawn comparisons to Pablo Picasso, a child prodigy（神童）who became one of the most recognized artists of the 20th century.

 It all began on a family holiday to Cornwall on the southwest English coast when Kieron was five. Inspired by the view, he asked his parents for his first sketch-pad （速寫紙）. From that moment on, he became deeply interested. While supportive, Kieron’s parents are careful not to push their son. He only paints when and what he wants.

 He has a waiting list of hundreds and requests for his works have been flooding in. His father said a sale of Kieron’s works held in November even drew a buyer from Japan. “We had people driving down that night, there were people on the door waiting to come in the morning who had been standing outside, the phones were going mad as soon as the door opened at nine o’clock and within 14 minutes all the 16 pictures had gone, ” he said.

All this talent, money and high praise could so easily go to a young boy’s head, but Kieron said his friends keep him grounded. “Some of them want to be as good as me and some of them think. . . Umn, ‘you are not too special’, ” he said.

    Kieron’s favourite painter is British artist Edward Seago and he has spent some of his earnings buying a work by his hero. The rest is being invested by his parents until he reaches 25. Kieron’s parents and his younger sister Billi-Jo don’t see him as anything other than a normal seven-year-old boy who likes to tear around the house and who’s mad about football. But for now, with so much still to learn, there’s only one thing he wants to be when he grows up. He said, “I think I’ll definitely be an artist. ”

26. According to Paragraph 1, we can know Kieron Williamson ________.

A. painted 16 paintings in only 14 minutes

B. draws as well as Picasso did

C. is one of the most recognized artists

D. has unusual ability in painting

27. What made Kieron Williamson begin to love painting?

A. His first sketch-pad.

B. His parents’ encouragement.

C. The view at the seaside.

D. His swimming near the coast.

28. In Kieron Williamson’s friends’ opinion, he ________.

A. is famous but a little proud

B. isn’t very special from other children

C. isn’t worth praising at all

D. is hard to get along with

29. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ________.

A. Edward Seago thinks highly of Kieron’s painting

B. Kieron likes doing sports and painting instead of studying

C. Kieron’s family is very poor

D. Kieron wants to be a great painter

30. The passage mainly tells us________.

A. a seven-year-old painting genius

B. how to be a great painter

C. Kieron Williamson may become the second Picasso

D. the painting changed Kieron Williamson’s life greatly

  Where do most writers get their ideas? For Yoshiko Uchida, it all began with Brownie, a five-month-old puppy. So excited was Yoshiko by Brownie’s arrival that she started keeping a journal, writing about all the wonderful things Brownie did and the progress he made.

Soon she was writing about other memorable events in her life, too, like the day her family got their first refrigerator. She also began writing stories, thanks to one of her teachers. Yoshiko wrote stories about animal characters such as Jimmy Chipmunk and Willie the Squirrel. She kept on writing, sharing the kitchen table with her mother, who wrote poems on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes.

Yoshiko grew up in the 1930s in Berkeley, California. Her parents, both of whom had been born in Japan, provided a loving and happy home for Yoshiko and her sister. They also provided a stream of visitors to their home who later found their way into Yoshiko’s stories. One visitor who later appeared in several of Yoshiko’s stories was the bad-tempered Mr. Toga, who lived above the church that her family attended. Mr. Toga would scold anyone who displeased him. The children all feared him and loved to tell stories about how mean he was and how his false teeth rattled (咯咯響) when he talked.

Yoshiko also included in her stories some of the places she visited and the experiences she had. One of her favorite places was a farm her parents took her to one summer. The owners of the farm, showed Yoshiko and her sister how to pump water from the well and how to gather eggs in the henhouse. They fed the mules that later pulled a wagon loaded with hay while Yoshiko and the others rode in the back, staring up at the stars shining in the night sky. Yoshiko, who lived in the city, had never seen such a sight. As Yoshiko gazed up at the stars, she was filled with hope and excitement about her life. The images of that hayride stayed with her long after the summer visit ended, and she used them in several of her stories.

The experiences Yoshiko had and the parade of people who marched through her young life became a part of the world she created in over twenty books for young people, such as The Best Bad Thing and A Jar of Dreams. Because of such books, we can all share just a little bit of the world and the times in which this great writer grew up.

1. The author tells about Mr. Toga’s false teeth in Paragraph 3 in order to ____________.

A. show health care was not good enough in Berkeley during the 1930s

B. provide an interesting detail in Yoshiko’s life and stories

C. show Yoshiko’s young life was difficult and frightening

D. tell about a beloved relative who helped Yoshiko learn how to write

2.In Paragraph 4 “the stars” probably refer to ____________.

A. family relationships                  B. terrors in the night

C. limitless possibilities                   D. sacrifices to benefit others

3. What does the underlined part in the last paragraph mean?

A. Yoshiko loved to write about parades.

B. Yoshiko met many interesting people.

C. Yoshiko liked to go for long walks with others.

D. Yoshiko preferred to talk to her pets instead of to people.

4.What is the main idea of this story?

A. People who live in the city should spend as much time as they can in the country.

B. Writers like Yoshiko Uchida must communicate with as many writers as possible.

C. Those who move to the United States often miss their homelands for many years.

D. Writers like Yoshiko Uchida look to the richness of their lives for material.

 

  Where do most writers get their ideas? For Yoshiko Uchida, it all began with Brownie, a five-month-old puppy. So excited was Yoshiko by Brownie’s arrival that she started keeping a journal, writing about all the wonderful things Brownie did and the progress he made.

Soon she was writing about other memorable events in her life, too, like the day her family got their first refrigerator. She also began writing stories, thanks to one of her teachers. Yoshiko wrote stories about animal characters such as Jimmy Chipmunk and Willie the Squirrel. She kept on writing, sharing the kitchen table with her mother, who wrote poems on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes.

Yoshiko grew up in the 1930s in Berkeley, California. Her parents, both of whom had been born in Japan, provided a loving and happy home for Yoshiko and her sister. They also provided a stream of visitors to their home who later found their way into Yoshiko’s stories. One visitor who later appeared in several of Yoshiko’s stories was the bad-tempered Mr. Toga, who lived above the church that her family attended. Mr. Toga would scold anyone who displeased him. The children all feared him and loved to tell stories about how mean he was and how his false teeth rattled (咯咯響) when he talked.

Yoshiko also included in her stories some of the places she visited and the experiences she had. One of her favorite places was a farm her parents took her to one summer. The owners of the farm, showed Yoshiko and her sister how to pump water from the well and how to gather eggs in the henhouse. They fed the mules that later pulled a wagon loaded with hay while Yoshiko and the others rode in the back, staring up at the stars shining in the night sky. Yoshiko, who lived in the city, had never seen such a sight. As Yoshiko gazed up at the stars, she was filled with hope and excitement about her life. The images of that hayride stayed with her long after the summer visit ended, and she used them in several of her stories.

The experiences Yoshiko had and the parade of people who marched through her young life became a part of the world she created in over twenty books for young people, such as The Best Bad Thing and A Jar of Dreams. Because of such books, we can all share just a little bit of the world and the times in which this great writer grew up.

The author tells about Mr. Toga’s false teeth in Paragraph 3 in order to ____________.

A. show health care was not good enough in Berkeley during the 1930s

B. provide an interesting detail in Yoshiko’s life and stories

C. show Yoshiko’s young life was difficult and frightening

D. tell about a beloved relative who helped Yoshiko learn how to write

In Paragraph 4 “the stars” probably refer to ____________.

A. family relationships                 B. terrors in the night

C. limitless possibilities                  D. sacrifices to benefit others

What does the underlined part in the last paragraph mean?

A. Yoshiko loved to write about parades.

B. Yoshiko met many interesting people.

C. Yoshiko liked to go for long walks with others.

D. Yoshiko preferred to talk to her pets instead of to people.

What is the main idea of this story?

A. People who live in the city should spend as much time as they can in the country.

B. Writers like Yoshiko Uchida must communicate with as many writers as possible.

C. Those who move to the United States often miss their homelands for many years.

D. Writers like Yoshiko Uchida look to the richness of their lives for material.

Where do most writers get their ideas? For Yoshiko Uchida, it all began with Brownie, a five-month-old puppy. So excited was Yoshiko by Brownie’s arrival that she started keeping a journal, writing about all the wonderful things Brownie did and the progress he made.

Soon she was writing about other memorable events in her life, too, like the day her family got their first refrigerator. She also began writing stories, thanks to one of her teachers. Yoshiko wrote stories about animal characters such as Jimmy Chipmunk and Willie the Squirrel. She kept on writing, sharing the kitchen table with her mother, who wrote poems on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes.

Yoshiko grew up in the 1930s in Berkeley, California. Her parents, both of whom had been born in Japan, provided a loving and happy home for Yoshiko and her sister. They also provided a stream of visitors to their home who later found their way into Yoshiko’s stories. One visitor who later appeared in several of Yoshiko’s stories was the bad-tempered Mr. Toga, who lived above the church that her family attended. Mr. Toga would scold anyone who displeased him. The children all feared him and loved to tell stories about how mean he was and how his false teeth rattled (咯咯響) when he talked.

Yoshiko also included in her stories some of the places she visited and the experiences she had. One of her favorite places was a farm her parents took her to one summer. The owners of the farm, showed Yoshiko and her sister how to pump water from the well and how to gather eggs in the henhouse. They fed the mules that later pulled a wagon loaded with hay while Yoshiko and the others rode in the back, staring up at the stars shining in the night sky. Yoshiko, who lived in the city, had never seen such a sight. As Yoshiko gazed up at the stars, she was filled with hope and excitement about her life. The images of that hayride stayed with her long after the summer visit ended, and she used them in several of her stories.

The experiences Yoshiko had and the parade of people who marched through her young life became a part of the world she created in over twenty books for young people, such as The Best Bad Thing and A Jar of Dreams. Because of such books, we can all share just a little bit of the world and the times in which this great writer grew up.

1.The author tells about Mr. Toga’s false teeth in Paragraph 3 in order to ____________.

A. show health care was not good enough in Berkeley during the 1930s

B. provide an interesting detail in Yoshiko’s life and stories

C. show Yoshiko’s young life was difficult and frightening

D. tell about a beloved relative who helped Yoshiko learn how to write

2. In Paragraph 4 “the stars” probably refer to ____________.

A. family relationships                 B. terrors in the night

C. limitless possibilities                  D. sacrifices to benefit others

3. What does the underlined part in the last paragraph mean?

A. Yoshiko loved to write about parades.

B. Yoshiko met many interesting people.

C. Yoshiko liked to go for long walks with others.

D. Yoshiko preferred to talk to her pets instead of to people.

4. What is the main idea of this story?

A. People who live in the city should spend as much time as they can in the country.

B. Writers like Yoshiko Uchida must communicate with as many writers as possible.

C. Those who move to the United States often miss their homelands for many years.

D. Writers like Yoshiko Uchida look to the richness of their lives for material.