Question

Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia (栀子花) was delivered to my house. No card or note came with it. I was delighted by the beauty and perfume (香味) of the flower. But I never stopped imagining who the giver might be. My mother helped me to imagine. She’d ask me if I had been kind to someone. Perhaps the neighbor I’d helped carry the groceries for. As a teenager, though, I had more fun thinking that it might be a boy I loved.

When I was 17, a boy broke my heart. The night he called for me the last time, I cried myself to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, there was a message on my mirror in red lipstick: “Heartily know, / when half-gods go, / the gods arrive.” I thought about those words from Emerson for a long time. When I finally went to get the glass cleaner, my mother knew everything was all right again. She did understand me.

One month before my high-school graduation, my father died of a heart attack. I lost all my interest in graduation, the senior-class play and the prom (毕业舞会). But my mother would not hear of my skipping (略过) any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable, imaginative, believing that there was a magic in the world and beauty in the face of hard times. Actually she wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia – loveable, strong and perfect. My mother died 10 days after I was married. I was 22. That was the year the gardenias stopped coming.

1.After the writer turned 12, she began to receive_____ on her birthday every year.

A. a birthday card B. a birthday cake C. a white gardenia D. a beautiful book

2.When the writer was 17, _____ .

A. her father died of a heart attack B. she lost her mother

C. a boy sent her some flowers D. a boy broke up with her

3.What do we know from the story?

A. The writer didn’t like the white gardenia. B. The writer’s father didn’t love her.

C. The writer’s mother was very wise. D. The writer sent a gardenia to her mother every year.

4.Finally, the writer found that _____ was the flower giver.

A. her father B. her mother

C. the neighbor she lent a hand to D. a boy she fell in love with

5.Which do you think is the best title?

A. Life without Father B. High school graduation

C. Mystery of the white gardenia D. A girl’s growing pain

Answer 1