Marco Polo was born in Venice in 1254. He was the most famous foreigner to visit Asia during the
Middle Ages. He wrote a book about his travels. In his book he wrote all the things he saw and heard.
Many people in the west read the book, but few believed what Marco Polo said in the book. He told
stories about a lot of strange people and places. But at that time nobody knew these places and the
people.
     When Marco Polo was still very young, he decided to travel together with his father. It took them
more than three years to travel to China, later he became a friend of the Chinese emperor (皇帝) . He
learned to speak Chinese when he traveled around, and he talked to many people in Chinese. The
emperor liked him and made him a Chinese Official. At that time Marco Polo was only thirty years old.
After nearly seventeen years’ travel in the east, Marco and his father wanted to go back home.
     When Marco and his father arrived in Venice many years later, their family and friends saw them
again. They couldn’t believe their eyes because Marco and his farther were quite old. Marco Polo and
his father had been away for almost 25 years.
1. Marco Polo was                 foreigner who ________ to Asia during the Middle Ages.
2. Marco Polo wrote a famous book ________ “The Travels of Marco Polo". He told people _______
he saw and heard in the book.
3. Many people in the west read the book, but ________ believed ________.
4.It took Marco Polo and his father over three years to________.And Marco Polo worked as _______
in 1284.
5. Marco Polo and his father had been away ________. When they got back home in Venice, they were ________.

     What do 17-year-old boys usually do ? Play computer games, read books or play basketball? But to
Zac , all interests in   his  life are from the sea. He is a 17-year-old  US  sailor.   After  a   hard 13-month
voyage, he and his 11-metre sailboat arrived at a Southern California harbour. He becomes the youngest
person to sail around the world alone.  
     When Zac was just a child, he had a dream-driving his own boat to travel around the world . so he
saved all his pocket money . When he was 16 years old, he had 6,500 dollars. He bought a sailboat, and
started his journey with the support of his father, a ship builder.
     On June 14, 2008, Zac left Marin Del Rey, south of Los Angeles, and celebrated his 17th birthday at
sea near Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
     During his 28,000-mile journey , he came over many difficulties. When he came back home , he was
welcomed by a lot of people. It is said fewer than  250 People  have sailed around the world alone. The
number of reaching the top of Mount Everest is three  times as large  as the number of sailing around the
world alone.  
参考词汇:voyage航海    harbour 港湾    sail 航行  Mount Everest珠穆朗玛峰  
Cape of Good Hope 好望角

1.Where are Zac's interests from?
______________________________________________________________________
2.How long did he spend in traveling around the world?
______________________________________________________________________
3.What was his father's job?
______________________________________________________________________
4. Was his journey difficult?
______________________________________________________________________
5. Which number is smaller ,the number of reaching the top of Mount Everest or the number of sailing
around the world alone?
______________________________________________________________________

     February 11th is the birthday of the most famous American inventor, Thomas Alva Edison.
Edison was born in 1847. He was not a good student when he was a young boy. His teacher said
he was one of the most dumb headed(笨头笨脑的)students. He did badly in many subjects and
left school after only three months. So his mother took him home and taught him herself. Edison
didn't like school at all, but he loved science. He liked to ask questions.
     One day his father found him sitting on some eggs. His father asked him why. The boy didn't
answer. He asked his father instead, "Why can't I hatch(孵化)chickens, but hens can?"
     Edison invented 1328 things in his life, and these things made our lives more comfortable(舒适的)
and the world more beautiful. People will never forget him.

1. Edison was born _____.

A. in winter
B. one hundred years ago
C. in Canada
D. in January 

2. Edison's teacher said _____.

A. he was one of the cleverest boys
B. he was a good student
C. he was not a good student
D. he could learn many things

3. Edison's mother _____.

A. taught him at home
B. taught him at school
C. was a teacher
D. took him to another school

4. One day Edison sat on some eggs. He _____.

A. liked to sit there
B. wanted to break the eggs
C. wanted his father to look for him
D. wanted to hatch chickens

5. We now know Edison _____.

A. was a good student
B. was a dumb headed student
C. was very clever
D. wasn't famous

     A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said, "I am
blind, please help."
     There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket
and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put
the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the
man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy heard his footsteps and asked,
"Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"
     The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."
     What he had written was, " Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it." Do you think the first sign
and the second sign were saying the same thing?
     Of course, both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by
putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of
the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.
     The first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they
were not blind.

1. A blind boy sat on the steps of a building in order to______.    

A. wait for some people                    
B. get money from others
C. make the writer help him              
D. hold up a sign

2.The man ______when he saw the blind boy.    

A. took away the blind boy's money              
B. gave the boy a new hat
C. brought the boy a sign                      
D. gave the boy some money and wrote some words on the sign

3. What happened to the blind boy after the man wrote the words on the sign?    

A. The boy was taken away by the police
B. Nobody gave the blind boy money any more
C. More people dropped money into the boy's hat
D. The blind boy could see the beautiful day

4. What do you think of the sign written by the man?

A. It has the different meaning to the first sign
B. It has the same meaning to the first sign and is expressed in another better way.
C. The man's sign tells people it is a beautiful day
D. People know the boy is blind after reading the man's sign

5. What can we learn from this passage?

A. It's helpful of us to help people in need
B. There are many poor people in the world like the blind boy
C. It's a good way to make money by holding a sign
D. We should learn to speak to others in a suitable way

     A 16-YEAR-OLD is usually a high school student. However, Zhang Xinyang, 16, has just entered
 Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (北京航空航天大学) as the youngest PhD (博士生)
  student in China.
     Zhang is from Liaoning. His father found his son had a better memory than other children when Zhang
  was only 3. The little boy remembered more than 1,000 Chinese characters (汉字) in just three months.
     Many students consider studying to be boring and hard, but Zhang enjoys it. His favorite subject is
 math. It's also what he does best.
     When Zhang was 10, he became the youngest college student in China after joining Tianjin Engineering
  College. In less than three years, Zhang finished all four years of schoolwork and his final thesis (毕业论
 文). At 12, Zhang passed the exam for a master's course at the Beijing University of Technology (北京工
 业大学).
     At the time, people said that Zhang must have spent all his time studying and never got a chance to play.
  But Zhang has many interests besides his studies.? He loves almost all kinds of sports, especially soccer
 and basketball.
     Although Zhang is a star student, professor Zhou Meng, his doctoral supervisor (博士生导师), will not
  treat him any differently. "He has a strong learning ability, but I'll ask him to do everything other students
  do."
     When he talks about the future, Zhang says he wants to enter a post-doctoral (博士后的) research
 station. "I hope to do some great things in math," he said.
     注解:  experience 经历     undergraduate student 本科生 
               graduate student 研究生     doctoral student 博士生 

1. What does Zhang Xinyang think about studying?

    A. It's boring.    
    B. It's hard.  
    C. It's enjoyable.    
    D. It's tiring.

2. Which of the following about Zhang Xinyang is NOT true?

    A. He could remember things quickly when he was a little boy.
    B. He is good at studying and his favorite subject is math.
    C. He spent all his time studying before going to college.
    D. He has many interests, like soccer and basketball

3. The correct order of the following events is _____.
a. Zhang remembered 1,000 Chinese characters in just three months.
b. Zhang entered Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
c. Zhang passed the exam for a master's course.
d. Zhang became the youngest college student in China.

    A. bacd      
    B. abcd      
    C. adcb      
    D. adbc

4. The passage is mainly about _____.

    A. what Zhang likes to do in his free time
    B. Zhang's experiences growing up
    C. why Zhang became the youngest PhD student
    D. what Zhang wants to do in the future

     Doctor Seuss was born in 1904. By the middle 1950s, he had become one of the best-loved and
most successful children's book writers in the world. His books are very popular with young readers.
They enjoy the invented words and the pictures of unusual funny animals and plants.
     In 1954, life magazine published(刊登) a report about school children who could not read. The
report said many children's books were not interesting. Doctor Seuss strongly hoped to help children
and decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read. He used words with the same ending
sound, like fish and wish. He did not receive training in art. Yet, he drew the pictures for most of his
books. 
     In 1957, Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 230 words to write the book and
even a six-year-old should be able to read it. It was a fun story and easy to read. Children loved it. Their
parents loved it, too. Today it is still one of the stories they like best. The success of The Cat in the Hat
made him want to write more books for children. In 1960, he wrote a book using less than fifty words.
The book is called Green Eggs and Ham.
     In 1984, Doctor Seuss won a Pulitzer Prize (普利策奖). He was honored for the education and
enjoyment his books provided(提供) American children and their parents.
     He died at the age of 87, but his influence(影响) remains. Millions of his books have been sold
worldwide. People say his books helped change the way American children learned to read. Yet, his
books are loved by people of all ages. Doctor Seuss once said, "I do not write for children. I write for
people.
1. Doctor Seuss learned from the magazine that _____.
A. some school children could not read 
B. many children's books were interesting
C. children wanted to learn to read
D. a writer for children was wanted
2. People like his books because the books _____.
A. are cheap and easy to get 
B. were written in different languages
C. are easy and interesting to read 
D. were written with invented words
3. He wrote the book The Cat in the Hat at the age of _____.
A. 50          
B. 53            
C. 56          
D. 87
4. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Doctor Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham with over 230 words.
B. Doctor Seuss wrote books only for children in the United States.
C. The Cat in the Hat was written only for six-year-old children.
D. His books provided education and enjoyment for Americans.
5. From the text we know that Doctor Seuss _____.
A. won a Pulitzer Prize soon after his death
B. sold millions of his books himself worldwide
C. changed American children's way of reading
D. wrote the largest number of books in the world