After fighting cancer for 13 years, my grandfather became ill enough to be admitted to  hospital. One morning, he was having trouble breathing, but continued to silently hold my  hand. I kept forgetting his special request that grandpa wanted me to fetch a New Year card that my late grandmother had given him on their last anniversary together. He used the card as  a bookmark in his Bible.

I just knew that I had to fetch his much-loved and much-requested gift. Leaving my  grandpa at his bedside, I rushed home. Jumping back into my car with the card in my hand,  was depressed when the car wouldn't start. I quickly ran to the nearest bus stop. As I waited  there, out of breath, I looked in my purse only to find a $20 note and 50 cents in change.

       A short while later, a bus appeared. I quickly got on and offered the driver the $20 note To my amazement, he told me  that he had no change and that I had to get off and wait for the next bus. I was horrified.

     A few minutes later, another bus came.<'Hey, where do you want to go?" asked another driver . I told him the hospital and  about my lack of change. Although he was going to completely different destination, he shouted, "Hop aboard- - -let's see what we can do."

     In exchange for my $20 note, he offered me two fives and a ten. Next, he picked up his phone and made a call. Just as we passed the corner, I could see the previous bus that I had tried to board waiting for me, at the next stop. My kind driver told me, to hop out and catch the, bus in front.

     After less than 20 minutes, I was back at the hospital. By then, grandpa was pale and blue. When I handed him the card, he laughed and cried. As he looked at it, I knew I had done the right thing in getting it for him. It was like telling grandma that he was coming.

21. Grandfather valued the New Year card because_____.

    A. it was a gift from his wife in memory of their marriage

    B. he often used it as a bookmark in his Bible

    C. he planned to send the card to his loved wife

    D. there were requirements from his wife on the card

22. We can infer from the passage that the second driver_____.

    A. would go by the hospital

    B. knew how important the card was to a patient

    C. was a person willing to help chose in need

    D. would specially send the author to the hospital

23.  The passage is mainly about______.

    A. the relationship between grandparents

    B. the kindness from bus drivers

    C. the last moment in grandpa's life

D. the action to satisfy grandpa's request

   The 16th Annual Our Own Words Teen Poetry & Fiction Writing Contest

Attention, teen writers!

Win cash, get published.

Entries will be accepted between March 8th and April 21st, 2015.

Awards ceremony at Lagerquist  Hall , Pacific Lutheran University on December 27th, 2015.

    Winning poems and stories will be published as written. Contest winners will read their work at the awards ceremony at Lagerquist Hall, Pacific Lutheran University on December 27th, 2015.

   Your poems and stories will be judged on the basis of originality, style, general presentation, grammar and spelling. All entries will belong to Pierce Country Library System and will not be returned. Winners' names may appear in newspapers and on the Library's  Website.

     You may enter both the short story and poetry categories, but you can only offer one entry per category.

24. To enter the contest, you should

     A. hand in a poem

     B . be a teenage student from Pierce County

     C. turn in published works

     D. pay some entry fees

25. Your poem or story will be judged on_____.

     A. how many words there are

     B. when you hand it in

     C. whether it is first written by yourself

     D. what topic it is about.

26. What information can we get from the passage?

     A. There will be 18 teenagers to be awarded in all.

     B. Your work will be published in newspapers.

     C. Your work will be returned to you if you fail.

     D. Winners will be awarded prizes in more than half a year.

27. The passage can be classified as______.

    A. a contest announcement

    B. an official report

    C. an art show review

    D. an exhibition explanation

     One evening, a man was on his way home when he saw a woman come by, hauling a cart full of flowers. The smell of her flowers perfumed the air with sweetness so easily that it seemed to lift his spirits. He had never experienced such wonder from the flowers of his own garden. "How much must I pay for your wonderful flowers?" he asked. "Take what you wish for." "What return must I make for them?" he asked again. "Your gratitude is enough." She said. So he filled his arms with flowers and hurried joyfully home. His wife and children also liked the remarkable flowers, for they, too, discovered that the sight of them was a delight and the smell of them refreshed the soul.

     In order not to lose his treasure. the man planted the flowers in his garden. Sunlight and water kept them amazingly beautiful and they still performed their powerful magic. When his children came to play in the yard, the man cautioned them against carelessness and wild play in case they damage the flowers. But the flowers remained hardy and strong as long as there are enough sun and moisture to nourish them.

     As the family grew and more children came to play in the garden, the man was even more concerned about his remarkable flowers. He even built a high wall to protect them with the  utmost care. Unfortunately, this began to cause consternation among the family members. If the children caused their father stress, he would refuse them access to the flowers. Later, he set up rules as to who could enter the garden and what they must do while they were there. He also established offices to determine accessibility. Eventually, it became necessary to have lawyers to defend, judges to weigh, guards to safeguard.

      The man's family, however, saw less and less of the flowers and experienced less and less of their magical power. In the meantime, many of them went out in search of the flower lady. Well, she was still out there, still giving away her amazing flowers.

28. The family found that the smell of the flowers could_____.

    A. remove their spirits

    B. make them energetic

    C. bring them what they want

    D. make them smell sweet

29. In order to protect the flowers, the man_____.

    A. asked the policemen to help him take care of the garden

    B. built a high building to keep the children away from the garden

    C. set up offices to decide, who can get close to the flowers

    D. employed lawyers, judges and guards to protect the flowers

30. What can we learn from the underlined sentence?

    A. The man began to prevent the, family members coming into his garden.

    B. The man asked the family members to enjoy his flowers but no one wanted to.

    C. What the man did made the family members less interested in flowers.

    D. What the man did made the family members panic.

31. What lesson can we get from the father's behavior?

    A. To give is more fruitful than to get.

    B. Shared beauty is real beauty.

    C. A problem shared is a problem halved.

D. Many hands make light work.

         When an ice cube melts, it creates a puddle  (水坑). When an ice sheet  (冰盖)melts, it  raises sea levels. It sounds simple, but scientists have debated for decades whether both the  Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets actually were shrinking, and how much that melting  contributed to rising sea levels.

    Now, a new study has provided the best evidence of how the polar ice sheets are  responding to our warming world. In the study. an international team of scientists looked at 20  years of' data in the ice sheets collected by 10 satellite missions. The team's conclusion: The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets both are losing ice overall. The researchers also found that between 1992 and 2011,  meltwater from those shrinking ice sheets caused sea levels to rise by about 11 millimeters.

       Over the 19 years studied, the Greenland ice sheet lost 2.7 trillion metric tons of ice. The

Antarctic ice sheet also shrank by about l.3 trillion metric tons. Previously, some scientists disagreed whether the Antarctic sheet, the largest mass of ice in the world, was shrinking or growing or neither.

    While the Earth is warming overall, the effect of climate change varies from region to region. Over the last 15 years, for example, scientists have something disagreed over how climate change has affected the polar ice sheets. Many studies found that the sheets lost a lot of ice-and that not enough snow fell on the sheets to compensate for the loss. But other studies found that the loss of ice was balanced by the gain in snowfall.

     Richard Alley, a glacier scientist at Penn State University, said that many of those studies looked at different areas, and over different time periods. In addition, the studies didn't all use the satellite data in the same way. Those differences made, it difficult to compare the results.

  The data in the new study matched time periods and areas. The study also combined measurements from kinds of satellites.

32. Why does the author use a common-sense phenomenon as the beginning?

    A. To present the reason for ice sheet melting.

    B. To show us the result of a scientific experiment.

    C. To give a simple example to introduce the topic.

    D. To present a common daily finding obvious to the readers.

33. The researchers reached their conclusion by_____.

    A. analyzing the findings of former studies

    B. observing the Antarctic and Greenland

    C. referring to the data from satellites

    D. making measurements in the Antarctic and Greenland

 34. What does the underlined phrase "compensate for" in paragraph 4 refer to?

    A．Cut down.

    B．Lead to．

    C．Bring about.

    D．Make up for.

35. Which of the following might be the best conclusion for the passage?

    A. Ice sheets are shrinking due to global warming.

    B. People are suffering from climate change.

    C. Rising sea levels makes people live in danger.

    D. Shrinking ice has nothing to do with sea levels.

RAISINS(葡萄干)

    It is believed that raisins were discovered in the Middle East, where they were treasured. Any food that wouldn't spoil in the hot sun was very valuable. Prehistoric drawings in France show that raisins have been enjoyed in southern Europe for thousands of years.   36    .In 1000 B.C. the Jews paid their taxes with raisins. Two jars of raisins in ancient Rome could buy one slave boy.  37  ．

In North America, the original mistake of leaving grapes to wither（枯萎）on the vine was  not the only time raisins accidentally became popular. In the 1870s many people were growing grapes in California.    38    .Most Americans had never heard of raisins at that time. In September, 1873 a severe heat wave struck the area. Before the growers could pick all their grapes, the heat shriveled（使枯萎）them on the vine. The grapes were lost. One grower took the dried grapes to a grocer in San Francisco.    39    .The new accidental raisins grew into a major industry in California. Today almost all the raisins eaten in the United States are grown  in California. California produces a third of the world's raisins.

     __40  .Raisins also provide potassium, magnesium, calcium and certain B vitamins. Without added preservatives(防腐剂),raisins will stay fresh, delicious and nutritious if kept in  a cool place.

    Raisins are tiny, portable and above all delicious.

A. The grapes were either eaten as fresh fruit or were made into wine.

B. The grocer's customers discovered that raisins made a delicious treat.

C. They have been used for necklaces and as religious symbols.

D. The grocer was unwilling to buy the dried grapes.

E. Raisins are high in iron, which is important to children's growing bodies.

F. Roman doctors believed raisins could cure anything from mushroom poisoning to old age.

G. Raisins are children's favorite snacks