One morning, I stepped out of bed and put my feet on the floor. Suddenly, a mean little man jumped out from under the bed and stabbed (,) an ice pick   through my left foot. Figuratively   speaking, yes. I took another step and he stabbed it again. This went on all day. Step, stab, scream. Over the next few days, I started limping  . My whole body hurt. Even my hair. I kept thinking that the little man would get tired of stabbing me and go pick on somebody else.We often take things for granted until we lose them or they start to hurt. My brother deals with pain every day. He's also blind and suffers from cerebral palsy  , needs a walker to walk, doesn't take much for granted. I had to wonder: What would he think about my foot? Finally, after a week of pain, I went to see a very nice foot doctor. The doctor studied my foot, took X-rays, shook his head, and said the little man's name: Arthur Itis, or Arthritis  . I knew it well. I'd often heard it hissed angrily by my grandparents and parents, all attacked by Arthur's ice pick when they got older. "Wait," I said. "Doesn't Arthur usually just pick on old people?" The doctor smiled, looking at my chart. "How old are you?" I gave him a look. "Never mind," I said. "Can you fix it?" "Well," he said, "we can try." He listed several options and I chose the injection  . It didn't hurt much. Not half as much as the ice pick. That was yesterday. This morning, I awoke, took a few careful steps and ... hallelujah!It hurt just a bit, but no ice pick. I looked under the bed. No sign of Arthur. Maybe he was hiding in the closet, waiting for another day.But for now, he was gone, and I was grateful.My mind began to race with plans to do all the things I'd been putting off for days:unpack, clean the house, wash my hair ... Then it hit me. Another stab. Not in my foot. In my heart. I remembered that I hadn't called my brother in a long time. It's easy to take some things for granted. But it should never be the people we love. After having the injection, the author's   _  . A) felt regretful because it hurt so much B) was first satisfied with her recovery C) felt better but could still feel the "ice pick"pain D) was busy with housework that had been delayed for days
B

You have probably been told by your high school instructor that writing is an important and practical skill. However, you may not be convinced that the ability to write will be important in your own future. If so, you will be surprised at the results of a recent survey by the National Institute of Education. More than four thousand working men and women who had graduated fifteen years earlier were asked to name the courses they would have taken in college if they had known better. The designer of the survey expected people to name courses in computer science, mathematics, or business. But the course most often mentioned was writing. If you already have a job, you are probably not surprised at their answers. Many jobs require the ability to write. Despite the increasing use of the telephone and the computer, much information must be communicated in writing.Some ten million people--managers, engineers, sales representatives, and many others-- write regularly as part of their jobs. Summaries, reports, reports, letters and speeches are required in today's work world. The ability to write, therefore, is an important skill. The successful individual is almost always the one who can communicate successfully in writing. Writing communicates your thoughts and feelings to others; it also tells you something about yourself. Maybe this is what Eldridge Cleaver had in mind in his autobiography, "I started to write... to save myself...I had to seek out the truth... I had to find out who I am and what I want to be ,what type of man I should be ,and what I could do to become the best of which I was capable." The survey conducted by the National Institute of Education shows that. A) more than 4,000 working people value the course of writing B) many people regard computer science as a useful course C) some people would study business if they had a chance D) most people consider writing to be an important course
D

When you tidy your messy bedroom,it gets a lot easier to find things.Dreams may work the same way for a messy brain,helping you learn by organizing memories and ideas. To test how much dreams can help learning,Robert Stickgold had some students play a shapefitting game called Tetris   for a few hours and then go to sleep.Soon they were dreaming of falling Tetris shapes.Interestingly,the worst Tetris players had the most Tetris dreams and improved their game the most.Similar tests have shown the same results for all kinds of skills. As we dream,many important tasks are getting done.The brain decides what to keep and what to forget.It is connecting new experiences to older learning.In fact,the brain is learning all night long. Another important task of dreams may be to help us deal with emotions  .At night,emotions are in the driver's seat.People who have had an upsetting experience often dream  about  it  afterward.Often  the  dream event  changes somehow--another way the brain tries to make the memory less upset.So if your best friend moves away,you might dream that you're the one who's moving.In fact,dreams have a proven power to improve mood,and people who dream about what's bothering them usually feel better sooner than those who don't. Everybody dreams for a couple of hours every night--in the course   of your life,you'll spend about 25 years asleep and 6 years dreaming.There's probably no single answer to the question why we dream,but there doesn't have to be.One dream might help you remember your math facts,while another might lead to a new invention,or give you a fun,crazy story to tell your friends.It's all in a night's work for our busy,mysterious brains. What does the text focus on? A) Dreams and memories. B) Dreams and emotions. C) The benefits of dreams. D) The patterns of dreams.

C