D. hunt rabbits by themselves and try to catch more

A

Many years ago, a young woman doctor named Jessie received a present－

“a parrot” at her birthday party. She was always busy in the hospital and spent

little time with the parrot. So over time the parrot developed a bad attitude(态

度).

It got to the point that every word out of the bird’s mouth was obnoxious.

Sometimes the parrot even shouted at Jessie. She tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else she could think of to “clean up” the bird’s attitude.

Finally, Jessie was angry and shouted at the parrot. The parrot shouted back. Jessie lost her temper and shook the parrot. The parrot became even more rude. Jessie threw the bird into the fridge angrily. For a few minutes the parrot kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total silence.

Fearing that she’d hurt the parrot, Jessie quickly opened the door to the fridge.

The parrot walked out onto Jessie’s arms and said “I believe I may have offended(冒犯) you with my rude language and actions. I am so sorry for what I said and did just now and I will do everything I can to correct my rude attitude.”

Jessie couldn’t believe the change in the bird’s attitude.

As she was about to ask the parrot what had made such a change in his attitude, the bird spoke-up, very softly, “May I ask what the turkey did?”

41. The parrot was given to Jessie as her ______.

A. gift

B. prize

C. food

D. patient

42. The underlined word “obnoxious” means ______ in English.

A. strange

B. impolite

C. boring

D. scary

43. Jessie tried to change the parrot’s attitude by ______.

A. saying polite words

B. cleaning up the room

C. playing rock music

D. shouting at the parrot

44. Jessie opened the door to the fridge quickly, because ______.

A. she was afraid of hurting the parrot.

B. she needed to get something in it.

C. she had something to talk with the parrot.

D. she wanted to say sorry to the parrot.

45. The parrot might be ______ when it saw the turkey in the fridge.

A. happy

B. frightened

C. angry

D. sleepy

B

Abbreviations(缩写) are now widely used in our daily lives. Here are some of them. Are you familiar with them?

R.S.V.P. stands for a French phrase, “répondez, s'il vous plaît,” which means “please reply.”If R.S.V.P. is written on an invitation, it means the invited guest must tell the host(主人) whether or not they plan to attend the party as soon as possible. Because the hosts who are planning a dinner party or a wedding need to know how many people to count on and how much food and drink to buy. More important, though, it is polite to reply someone who was nice enough to invite you, even if it is to say that you are sorry that you will not be able to attend.

B.Y.O.B. has been used first in the early 1970s to mean “bring your own bottle (of wine)”, although in