More than a hundred years ago, an American produced a game. He called it indoor tennis. The Americans were not interested in it at first so he sent it to his London friends and it became very popular in Britain.The game was then played across the dining room table, or on the floor with the net hung between two chairs. The balls were made of cork or rubber.The bats were made of wood.
A few years later a hollow ball like the one we use today was invented. The game then quickly spread all over the world. An Englishman once made a bat covered with rubber. He first played the game in England and called it “ping-pong”. “Ping”was the sound of the bat when it hit the ball. and “pong” was the sound of the ball when it hit the table.
【小题1】Who invented the game of ping-pong?
A  A Chinese  B An Englishman  C An American  D We don’t know
【小题2】The game was first known as_________.
A ping-pong tennis   B  table tennis
C outdoor tennis     D indoor tennis
【小题3】What did the British think of the game?
A Moving  B Interesting  C Terrible  D Well
【小题4】In the early days the ball was ______________.
A hollow       B covered with rubber
C made of cork and rubber  D made of plastics
【小题5】The name of ping-pong has something to do with_______.
A sound  B size  C history  D  place

Who are the top students in the world, do you know? Last week the Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (经济合作与发展组织) picked the best students in the world. They are Finnish (芬兰的). The OECD gave a test to 280 000 15-year-old students from more than 40 coun­tries and regions (地区) last year. The OECD wan­ted to know how well students were doing at school.
Finnish students were No. 1 in the reading test and second in maths after Hong Kong students. Those from Japan and Finland were top in science. In the problem solving, Finnish students came sec­ond to those from South Korea. The test also showed Finland had more top students than the other countries.
Finns (芬兰人) of your age have done a really good job but don’t have a sense of envy. You can learn from them. Most Finnish students make good use of the Internet. Of course not for computer games, but for doing more exercises and finding out more information.
Libraries are also important. Finland spends a lot of money on them. Many students have a free card. They read for at least one or two hours a day.
What do you usually do on the Internet? How often do you go to libraries?
【小题1】Students from which country or region did best in the reading test?

If you put a buzzard(秃鹰) in a cage without a roof(顶棚), the bird will be a prisoner. Even though it can fly, it can’t fly through the open roof. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 3 or 4 meters. Without space to run, he will not even try to fly, but will stay in his small jail(监牢) for the rest of his life.

The ordinary bat that flies around at night cannot take off from the ground. If it is placed on the ground, all it can do is shuffle(穿梭) about helplessly. If it reaches a higher place, it will be able to throw itself into the air. Then it takes off quickly. But on flat ground, it will never fly.

A bee dropped into a cup will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but keeps trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will look for away where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.

In many ways, there are lots of people like the buzzard, the bat and the bee. They are struggling with all their problems and frustrations(挫折)，not realizing that the answer is right there above them.

1.A buzzard can’t fly through the open roof of a cage because       .

A．it is too big and heavy to fly up

B．it feels the space is too small to start the flight

C．it gets used to living in the cage without a roof

D．it would like to spend the rest of his life in the jail

2.Paragraph 2 mainly tells us that        .

A．the bat is a kind of smart bird

B．the bat can take off quickly on flat ground

C．the bat flies only at night

D．the bat can only take off from a higher place

3.Which is NOT true about the bee?

A．The bee doesn’t try to find a way to escape.

B．The bee will die if it isn’t taken out of the cup in time.

C．The bee always wants to escape from the cup near the bottom.

D．The bee doesn’t see the way out at the top.

4.What’s the purpose of the story?

A．Many people are like the buzzard, the bat and the bee.

B．Animals will also give up when in trouble.

C．We should try new ways to deal with difficulties.

D．We should solve problems by ourselves.