Mary is 99. Benjamin is 2.

“Benjamin just turned 2 years old, we’ve been neighbors with Mary long before he was born,” Benjamin’s mom, Sarah Olson said. But she didn’t see Mary much until last year when the COVID-19 hit and her family had to stay home. The Olsons started playing in their yard more, and Mary would be in hers. As Benjamin grew over the year, learning to walk and talk, he started to play with Mary more.

“He would run over to Mary when he would see her in the yard and he would bring her a ball,” Olson said. “And she created this game that we call Ping Ball, where Benjamin brings her a ball and Mary reaches her cane(手杖) over our fence, flips it over and kind of kicks it to Benjamin back and forth.” 

“She’s just Mary, or in the past couple of days, he’s been calling her ‘Mimi’,” Olson said. “We’ll be playing inside and he’ll go, ‘Mimi? Mimi?’ and we’ll go outside and look for Mimi.” “She’ll call out, ‘Hey Benjamin!’ when she sees him, and it’s just been so cute to watch it,” she said.

And for Mary, who was isolated alone during the pandemic(疫情), a friend was just what she needed. “We learned how much she looked forward to seeing him playing in the yard and how Benjamin kind of kept her going in the pandemic when she wasn’t able to see anyone else,” Olson said.

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1.What’s the relationship between Mary and Sarah Olson?

A Friends.

B Neighbors.

C Strangers.

D Grandma and granddaughter.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据第二段…we’ve been neighbors with Mary long before he was born可知，玛丽和莎拉·奥尔森是邻里关系。故选B。

2.What can we learn from Paragraph 2?

A Sarah Olson gave up her job.

B Benjamin was too young to do anything.

C Mary got close to Benjamin not long ago.

D The Olsons just moved to Mary’s community recently.

解析：选C。C 推理判断题。根据第二段可知，奥尔森一家平时忙于工作，不经常见到玛丽，新冠疫情让两家开始热络起来，由此推断玛丽不久前才近距离接触本杰明。故选C。

3.What did Mary and Benjamin have in common?

A They both felt lonely at that time.

B They both had the same birthday.

C They both needed looking after.

D They both liked playing a ball game.

解析：选D。D 细节理解题。根据第三段可知，本杰明抱个球去找玛丽玩，玛丽创造一个球类游戏，本杰明和她在一起，玩得很起劲。故选D。

4.The underlined word “ Mimi” refers to____.

A Mary

B Mary’s pet

C a friend of Benjamin

D Benjamin’s great grandmother

解析：选A。A 细节理解题。根据第四段可知，本杰明称呼玛丽为“Mimi”。故选A。

5.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A The old always feel lonely in their life.

B Benjamin gave Mary some mental support.

C Mary was able to see her friends often.

D The pandemic didn't cause people’s separation.

解析：选B。B 推理判断题。根据最后一段可知，对玛丽来说，她在疫情期间被单独隔离了。她十分渴望朋友的出现。本杰明在她看不到其他人的情况下，让她在疫情中坚持下去。由此说明本杰明给予了玛丽一些精神支持。故选B。