Zheng He, the Columbus of the East, was an amazing man.
     He was born in 1371 and, 11 years later, was caught by the army of a rich young man called Zhu Di
and made to work for him. Over time the rich man saw that Zheng He was very clever and strong and they
became close friends. In 1403 Zhu Di was made the King of China and he asked Zheng He to join his new
government.
     The King wanted to learn more about the world and show other countries his power. He ordered many
new ships to be built and made Zheng He their leader. Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He led seven sea trips
to different parts of the world. He certainly travelled to India, Africa and the Middle East. A few people think
his ships may have even reached South America and Australia.
     Each trip lasted between two and four years and it is believed he sailed more than 50 000 kms during the
years of his travels. With 28 000 men and over 300 ships, such as boats for food, water and even soldiers'
horses, Zheng He led a fleet (舰队) whose size would not be equalled by Europeans for over 500 years I
     On these trips he brought with him many Chinese goods like silk and medicine to give to foreign kings or
to sell for local goods. He returned from each trip with boats filled with expensive things such as gold and
jewellery, foreign guests and strange animals like a giraffe.
     It is a pity that we may never learn everything about Zheng He' s travels. After he died in 1433, the new
king, who believed these trips were unlucky and too expensive, had them stopped and he burned almost all
the books about Zheng He's travels. It is only in the last 50 years that historians have begun to carefully study
the adventures of the great Zheng He.

1. Why did the Chinese King want Zheng He to sail to many different countries?

A. To bring new countries under the control of China.
B. To show the world how strong the King was.
C. To receive gifts from the kings of other countries.
D. To discover unusual animals.

2. What do we know about Zheng He from the passage?

A. He sailed to all seven continents.
B. Each of his trips lasted one year.
C. He died at the age of 62.
D. He was a successful businessman.

3. Which of the following did Zheng He NOT bring with him from China?

A. Medicine.
B. Gold.
C. Animals.
D. Silk.

4. What happened after Zheng He died?

A. He was forgotten for ever.
B. His ships were all burned.
C. The new king wrote a book about him.
D. Sea trips to other countries were stopped.

5. In what order did the following happen?
a. Zhu Di became the King.
b. Zheng He was caught by soldiers.
c. The books about Zheng He were all burned.
d. Foreigners were brought to China.
e. Zheng He visited India.
f. New ships were built.

A. e, b, a, f, d, c
B. b, a, e, d, c, f
C. f, a, b, d, c, e
D. b, a, f, e, d, c

     What is your favorite cartoon? It may be difficult for you to decide. But for pianist Lang Lang, Tom and
Jerry is the best one.
     When Lang was two years old, he saw Tom playing the piano. This was his first time to enjoy western
music and this experience encouraged him to learn to play the piano.
     His talent at the keyboard has taken him from Shenyang to the world.
     Lang became a good piano student at three. Ever since, the boy has been doing better and better. In 1997,
the 15-ycar-old boy studied at a famous American music college.
     Lang's performances are energetic. He is well-known for making facial expressions and moving around
while playing the piano.
     The road to success has never been easy. Lang's father stopped his job to look after him, while his mother
stayed in Shenyang to make money. But Lang considers himself lucky and believes he should give something
back. He has helped the children in poor areas a lot.

     People often said Thomas Edison was the greatest genius of his age. There are only a few men in all
of history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light.
But Edison could never be pleased only because someone said he was a genius. "There is no such thing as
genius," Edison said. He thought what people called genius was mostly hard work.
     But Edison was a dreamer as well as a worker. From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the
secrets of nature. He tried to understand them, and then he tried to learn what he could usefully do with them.
     Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people would do almost anything instead of the difficult work
of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking could give men
enjoyment and pleasure.
     Edison could not understand how anyone could not be interested in life. As he loved to think, he also
loved to work. On the day he became 75 years old, someone asked him what idea he had about life. "Work,"
he answered, "Discovering the secrets of nature and using them to make men happier." He said he had enough
inventions in his mind to give him another 100 years of work.

1. According to Thomas Edison, what's genius?

A. Hard thinking.
B. Hard work.
C. Useful dreams.
D. Useful inventions.

2. After exploring the secrets of nature, Edison always tried to _______.

A. write down what he had learnt
B. carry out a new experiment
C. make them useful in life
D. share them with others

3. Edison could not understand _______.

A. how anybody enjoyed life
B. how anybody loved working
C. why anybody loved thinking
D. why anybody was tired of life

4. The last sentence in the passage means that _______.

A. Edison was born to be a great inventor
B. Edison was able to live another 100 years
C. Edison was ready to make his 100 th invention
D. life was too short for Edison to work for human beings

     When Wayne Mix was a child in the 1930s, his family sent him to a school for the deaf and blind. He
learned American Sign Language. With American Sign Language, deaf people use their hands to communicate.
They can spell words with their fingers, or they can use signs for whole words. Wayne communicated with
teachers and friends in sign language. He graduated at the age of 20. In those days, people who were deaf did
not get jobs and were not part of the community (社区), so Wayne went back to the family farm. His family
did not know sign language, so Wayne communicated a little by making simple motions (手势) with his hands.
He was never able to tell them his thoughts and feelings.
     Wayne's father died in 1971. There was no place for Wayne to live, so they sent him to Mountain
Meadows nursing home. He was only 51 and much younger and healthier than the other people in the nursing
home, but he was treated like the 80 and 90-year-old people because he did not hear or speak. No one knew
that Wayne was able to use sign language.
     Twenty-nine years passed slowly and silently for Wayne. Then one day he saw a visitor using sign
language with her deaf mother during a visit to the nursing home. He walked up to them and signed, "I'm
Wayne Mix."
     Suddenly everything changed for Wayne. He found many people who knew sign language. These-people
communicated through sign language, e-mail, television with subtitles and a special telephone that prints (打印)
the words that are spoken. It was a whole new world for Wayne. Now he could tell people his feelings, his
needs, and his thoughts.
     The people in Wayne's town were sad about the thousands of days in Wayne's life when no one knew
that he could communicate. They wanted to help Wayne to do some of the things he always wanted to do.
The workers at the nursing home found out that as a young man he loved to swim, and' he loved to see
pictures of dolphins swimming. When he started signing again, they asked him where he wanted to go.
"Water." Wayne signed.
     Mountain Meadows workers had an idea. "Let's send Wayne to Sea World in San Diego. "They told other
people in town about their idea. Many people in Wayne' s . town and in other states gave money to help
Wayne make the trip. The people at Sea World were very kind to Wayne. They let him swim with the dolphins
and help them feed all the sea animals. Newspapers wrote about Wayne, so many people gave money to buy
him a special TV and a telephone set. These were things Wayne never knew about before.

1. How did Wayne Mix communicate with his teachers in the school?

A. In American Sign Language.
B. By drawing pictures.
C. By spelling words on their hands.
D. By making simple 'motions.

2. Why did Wayne Mix go to live in the nursing home?

A. Because his family moved to another town.
B. Because nobody in his family knew the sign language.
C. Because his family was not able to provide him a room to live in.
D. Because he like to talk with the old people living in the nursing home.

3. How did Wayne's life change after he met a visitor using sign language in the nursing home?

A. He told the visitor who he was.
B. His life stayed the same as before.
C. He could send e-mails and make telephones to his new friends.
D. He could "talk" with people, telling them his needs and feelings.

4. Why did people feel sad after Wayne began to communicate with others again?

A. Because he was sent to the nursing home at a young age.
B. Because he failed to communicate with his family for such a long time.
C. Because he was not able to communicate with others while he could.
D. Because they were not sure how to look after Wayne later on.

5. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A. Wayne tried to find a job after he graduated from the school but failed.
B. Many people gave money to buy Wayne a special TV and a telephone set.
C. The nursing home workers sent Wayne to a Sea World to swim.
D. Wayne Mix lived in silence all his life though many people helped him.

1. Charles works in the city center and wants to take up a sport that he can often do during his lunch break.
    He enjoys a game in which he can play with his workmate on the desk to relax.
2. Isabel, aged 17, is a Chinese girl who studies in the US now. She never misses any matches played by
    Houston Rockets. She hopes to follow in Yao Ming's steps.
3. Alex likes water sports very much. He is good at showing different styles, such as butterflies, frogs and
   so on. Believe it or not, he can dive under water for 2. 5 minutes.
4. Tara comes from America. Now she teaches English in a middle school in Beijing. In her free time, she
   would like to go in for a traditional sport so that she can learn more about China.
5. Toby is a student in charge of PE lesson in Riverside Middle School. These days he is training hard for
    the coming sport meet. He wants very much to break the school record of 175cm.

        A                         B                           C                D                E
1._______2._______3._______4._______5._______

     Yao Ming was born in China in 1980. In his last season with the Shanghai Sharks, he scored 32.4 points
per game. Now the big man from China is helping the Houston Rockets in the NBA. He is the son of two
great basketball players and learnt how to play basketball when he was young. Now, as one of the stars in the
NBA, he is working hard to make his dream come true and show the world that Chinese basketball players
love this game too!  
     Pele was a football player that everyone knew. He was born in Brazil (巴西) in 1940. He started playing
for Santos when he was only 16 and he didn't retire (退役) until 1977. He played for Brazil 111 times and he
scored 97 international goals. Pele came from a poor family. He started playing football in the street, like many
people around the world do. He was soon picked to play for Santos and quickly became an international person.
     Steffi Graf was born in Germany in 1969. She won the tennis semi-final (半决赛) at Wimbledon in 1985
when she was only 16, but she lost the final to another great tennis player, Martina Navratilova. People were
surprised by the strength and power of her game. She soon became a famous tennis player and she has won
most of the main matches several times.

1. In the passage, ______ is the youngest player.

A. Pele
B. Yao Ming
C. Steffi Graf
D. Martina Navratilova

2. ______ comes from the South America and is very famous all over the world.

A. Pele
B. Yao Ming
C. Steffi Graf
D. No one

3. In which year did Pele start playing for Santos?

A. In 1940
B. In 1956
C. In 1969
C. In 1977

4. From the passage, we know that ______.

A. Steffi Graf was born in Wimbledon in 1985
B. Steffi Graf won the tennis final when she was only 16
C. Martina Navratilova was also a tennis player
D. Steffi Graf has won few of the tennis players

5. Which of the following is NOT true?

A. Yao Ming is on the Houston Rockets now.
B. Pele became famous soon after he was picked to play for Santos.
C. Steffi Graf was a famous tennis player.
D. Martina Navratilova lost the tennis final at Wimbledon in 1985.

     Steve Ballmer is always exciting, as he was this time in front of over 2,000 students from Qinghua
University and Beijing University.
     Ballmer, president (总裁) of Microsoft Corp., received a warm welcome at Qinghua University when he
gave a talk on the next generation (一代) of the Internet on September 19th. He came to China last week for
a two-day visit, during which he slept only four hours and had many meetings with government officials (政府官员) and men of business. After all those business matters, he came to Qinghua and was asked thousands
of questions from the excited students.
     Ballmer, who joined Microsoft in 1980, is the first business manager hired (聘用) by Bill Gates, a
schoolmate of Ballmer at Harvard. Gates first dropped out of school to start Microsoft and Ballmer was still
studying, but he also gave up his studies and joined Bill Gates' five-year-old Microsoft in 1980.
     In his talk to the students, Ballmer described what the Internet will bring to their life. He said there are
several hundred Qinghua graduates now working or being trained at Microsoft both in China and in the US.
He also warned the students not to drop out of school and follow the examples of Bill Gates and himself.

1. Ballmer gave a talk on ___________ at Qinghua.

A. the future of the Internet
B. how to use the software made in his company
C. what computers will bring to universities
D. his own experience from Harvard to Microsoft

2. It seemed that Ballmer came to China mainly ___________.

A. to meet some government officials
B. to give a talk at Qinghua University
C. to manage business matters
D. to visit places of interest

3. He encouraged Chinese students ___________.

A. to work for Microsoft in China or in America
B. to follow the examples of Bill Gates and himself
C. to work on software
D. to go on and finish their college education

4. From the passage we know Steve Ballmer ___________.

A. graduated from Harvard University
B. asked the students a lot of questions
C. is president of Microsoft Corp
D. started Microsoft Corp. in 1980