Just how popular was Mini? Very. Every year her classmates voted(推舉) her the favorite student. The friends she had were much more than those of anyone else.
One day Mini was caught yakkety-yakking(大聲說笑) and ordered to stay back as punishment(懲罰). Staying back meant doing something “useful”, like helping in the library after school.
Now Mini’s school had a rule. Once a month, if you had something else to do the day you were punished, you could ask a friend to stand in for you.
Unluckily, her aunt was visiting Mini that day. That afternoon was the only chance Mini had of seeing her for another five years.
Mini needed someone to stand in for her. She asked Betty, her “best” friend. “Oh, no, Mini, I can’t,” Betty said. “I must help my brother do his homework.”
“Tony, will you stay back for me?” Mini asked another friend. “I wish you’d told me earlier. I have to go to a relative’s house with my father,” he said.
Now, Mini was beginning to doubt(懷疑) if even one of her friends would agree to stay. But she tried again. She asked three more friends and each one refused.
So, after school Mini stayed to help the librarian. And, when she found Mini crying after everyone had left, it was she who surprised Mini by allowing her to leave to meet her aunt. “I may have many friends,” Mini said to herself, “but in reality I have none.”
【小題1】What does staying back mean in Mini’s school?

My father often works very hard．And he doesn't often go to the   1  ．Here l will tell you a   2    story about him．

One afternoon，he   3   a ticket for the 7 o'clock film under the glass on his desk．He thought he happened to（碰巧）  4   work to do that evening and it was quite wonderful to pass the evening at the cinema．

He came back home at 6:30 and   5  finished his supper．Then he said good．bye and left．

But to our surprise，he came back about half an hour later．I asked what was the matter．He smiled and told us about what had happened．

__6   my father was sitting in his seat，a woman came and said that the seat was hers．My father was surprised．He   7   the ticket and looked at it carefully．It was Row 17，Seat 3．And then he looked at the seat．It was the same．   8    he asked the woman to have a careful look at her ticket again and to their surprise the seat shown on it was Row 17，Seat 3，too．

Why? What’s the matter? While they were wondering，suddenly the woman said，“The colors of the tickets are   9  ．” They looked at the tickets more carefully．After a while my father said，“Oh，I'm   10  ．My ticket is for the film a month ago!”

1．A．office                    B．cinema                 C．centre                    D．club

2．A．funny                    B．sad                      C．bad                        D．lucky

3．A．bought                  B．put                      C．found                    D．left

4．A．much                    B．some                   C．a(chǎn) little                    D．little

5．A．quietly                   B．quickly                C．suddenly                D．finally

6．A．Before                   B．When                  C．Because                 D．Unless

7．A．handed out             B．put out                 C．found out               D．took out

8．A．But                       B．Or                       C．So                         D．And

9．A．different                B．the same              C．red                        D．pink

10．A．sorry                   B．happy                  C．busy                      D．excited

George and Betty didn’t have much money, but they wanted to buy a car. Betty didn’t have a  36  , so she was always finding ways to save money.
She  37   vegetables in her garden so that she wouldn’t have to buy any. She made sandwiches for George to  38   to work so that he wouldn’t have to buy his lunch.
Every day George took the bus to go to work and go home. It was not a long trip 39   the bus was slow because of the traffic.
One day, the traffic was even  40  than usual.
“I could run faster than this bus!” thought George.
The next day   41  work he decided to have a try. He went to the bus stop but didn’t take the bus. He ran along beside it on the sidewalk. He had to run quite fast to 42  the bus.
He arrived home. Betty was  43  to see him panting (喘氣). She was worried. “What’s the matter?” she asked.
“I ran along beside the bus,” said George. “I saved two dollars and fifty cents without paying the fare.” He thought it would make Betty   44 , but it didn’t.
“ 45   didn’t you run beside a taxi?” she said. “You would have saved six dollars!”