(阅读理解)

“For a long time, I had no choice except going to a bar for a drink and karaoke to relax myself,” Yang Chen from a computer business said.

One day when he saw many toy dogs in a toy shop, he had an idea. “Why not do some kind of things and relax myself?” Then he began to make model planes, model ships and something else. The things he has made by himself don’t look as professionally made as those in the shop, but he likes doing it. “It’s not as much fun to play with things which are bought expensively from the shops,” he said.

More and more young people are like Yang, making or creating things on their own. They like doing it themselves. Though making things with our hands may take much time, DIYers enjoy doing it very much. They can make all kinds of things they like. DIY is becoming more and more popular in China. It may be to the young, yet many people remember when it was once a way of life.

During 1960s and 1970s, when there were not enough living things for people to live on, they had to use their own hands to do many things. Whitewashing the wall or making clothes was a part of life because there was no other choice. If you wanted something done, you had to do it yourself; and if you needed something, you made it yourself.

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阅读理解

“Life is speeding up．Everyone is getting unwell．” This may sound like something someone would say today．But in fact，an unknown person who lived in Rome in AD 53 wrote it．

　　We all love new inventions．They are exciting，amazing and can even change our life．

　　But have all these developments really improved the quality of our life?

　　Picture this．You’re rushing to finish your homework on the computer．Your mobile phone rings，a QQ message from your friends appears on the screen，the noise from the television is getting louder and louder． Suddenly the computer goes black and you lose all your work．Now you have to stay up all night to get it done．How happy do you feel?

　　Inventions have speeded up our life so much that they often leave up feeling stressed(紧张的) and tired．Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities，who have no telephones，no cars，even no electricity often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they live a simpler life．

　　One family in the UK went“back in time”to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today．The grandparents，with their daughter, and grandsons Benjamin，10，and Thomas，7, spent nine weeks in a l940s house．They had no washing machine，microwave，computer or mobile phones．

　　The grandmother，Lyn，said，“The more things you have，the more difficult life becomes．”The boys said they fought less．Probably，they said，because there was less to fight over，such as their computer．Benjamin also noticed that his grandmother had changed from being a trendy(新潮人物)，beer-drinking granny，to one who cooked things．

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阅读理解

In China, more and more middle school students are getting shorter sleeping time than before. Most students sleep less than nine hours every night, because they have much homework to do. Some homework is given by their teachers, and some by their parents. Also, some students don’t know how to save time. They are not careful enough while they do their homework, so it takes them a lot of time. Some students spend too much time watching TV or playing computer games. They stay up (熬夜) very late. Some students have to get up early every morning on weekdays to get to school on time by bus or by bike. It can be a long way from home to school. Schools and parents should cut down some of the homework so that children can enjoy more than nine hours of sleep every night for their health. For children, they should make the best use of their time. When they have enough time for sleeping, they will find it much better for both their study and health.

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(阅读理解)

Everybody needs water. All plants need water. We use water to wash cups, cars, clothes and ourselves.

Where does all water come from? It comes from the clouds. The clouds can change into rain. Some of the rain goes down the ground. Some of the rain water goes down the mountains into streams（小溪）. The streams come together to make rivers and lakes.

Water can change itself. When water gets very cold, it becomes ice. When water gets very hot, it becomes steam（小蒸气）.

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(阅读短文，选择最佳答案)

In England, people don’t usually talk about much. You can go on a bus, or in a train, and everyone sits looking out of the window. Often they read. They read books and papers, but they don’t talk much. When you meet English people, they often talk about one thing--the weather, so when you meet somebody in engliand, you can say, “Nice weather for the time of year!”“but it was a little cold yesterday,” somebody may answer. “ but it got a bit warmer later,” you can say. Talk like this, and the English will think, “How friendly you are!”

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(阅读理解)

In Britain winter is not very cold and summer is not very hot. There is not a great difference between summer and winter. Why is this?

Britain has a mild winter and a cool summer because it is an island country. In winter the sea is warmer than the land. The winds from the sea bring warm air to Britain. In summer the sea is cooler than the land. The winds from the sea bring cool air to Britain.

The westerly winds blow over Britain all the year. They blow from the southeast. They are wet winds. They bring rain to Britain all the year. Britain has a lot of rain all the year. The west of Britain is wetter than the east. The winds must blow over the highland in the west. They drop more rain there. The east of Britain is drier than the west.

The four seasons are all three months long. Winter is in December, January and February. Spring is in March, April and May. Summer is in June, July and August. Autumn is in September, October and November.

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(阅读理解)

There was a famous French writer who was a man of many achievements（成就）, in his own opinion（观点）, and he often told his friends that he could tell a person’s character from that person’s handwriting. One day a woman friend brought him a page of a boy’s handwriting. She said that she wanted to know what he thought of the boy’s character（性格）.

He studied the handwriting carefully for a few minutes. Then he looked up at the woman strangely. The woman, however, told him that the boy didn’t belong to her family and that he didn’t have to worry.

“Good,” said the writer, “then I can tell you the truth.” He went on to say that the boy was a stupid (愚蠢的)and lazy person. Then he said the boy should be watched carefully, if not, he would grow up to bring his family harm.“Isn’t that strange?” said the woman, smiling.“This is a page from your own exercise-book, on which you wrote when you were a child.”

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(阅读理解)

　　In the last fifty years，a lot of people have left Europe and have gone to live in Australia．One of them was a Hungary man．He lived in Australia for a long time，and he had a lot of good friends there．He always said to them，“Australia is beautiful, but Hungary is

beautiful，too．”

　　Then one year later he said,“I'm going back to Hungary now to visit my old home．”All of his friends said to him，“We want to go with you because Hungary is beautiful，and we want to visit it．”

The Hungarian Australian took all his friends from Sydney to Rome in a big plane，and then they went from Rome to Budapest in a train，as they wanted to see the mountains，the

villages and the towns．

　　They stayed in Budapest for four days，and they liked it very much．They said to the

kangaroos，“Come here，old friends! Come and see your Australian brothers!”But they did not move．

　　But when the Hungarian Australian spoke to them in Hungarian，“Come here!”，the kangaroos ran to him．

The other Australians laughed and said，“Look at that．They are Australian，but they only know Hungarian!”

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(阅读理解)

Mary works in an office in London, and she usually goes out and has lunch in a restaurant. She likes foreign food and often looks in the newspaper for the names of new restaurants, because she enjoys going to them and eating new things. Sometimes she says, “I don’t like this restaurant. I’m not going to come here again.” But often she says, “I like this one. I’m going to have my lunch here often.”

One day she sees the name of a new Greek restaurant in her newspaper, and she goes there for lunch. It is very small, but it is clean and nice, and the food is good.

But then Mary finds something hard in her mouth. She takes it out. It is a button.

“Look here, waiter!” she says,“I find this button in my food.”

“Thank you, thank you!” the waiter answers happily.“I’m looking everywhere for it.”

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(阅读理解)

Mr. Smith worked in an office, and he did a lot of important and difficult work. But when he was fifty he started to forget things, and this made his work difficult. One day he said to himself, “I’m going to see Dr. Black.”

He waited in the doctor’s waiting room with other patients, and then a nurse said to him, “You can go in and see Dr. Black now.”

Mr. Smith went in quickly, and the doctor said, “Please sit down, Mr. Smith. What can I do for you?” “Oh, doctor,” said Mr. Smith, “I can’t remember anything longer than half a minute, and this makes my work very hard. What can I do?” The doctor said,“When did this start, Mr. Smith?”

“When did what start?” Mr. Smith asked.

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