In a small village in England about 150 years ago, a mail coach (邮车) was standing on the street.  Around the coach many people were talking to one another about it.  Mail coach did not come to that village so often in those days.  People had to pay a lot of money to get a letter.  The person who sent the letter did not have to pay.  The person who got the letter had to pay the postage (邮资).  “Here?s a letter for Miss Alice Brown,” said the mailman.  Everyone turned to a girl of about eighteen who was standing by the coach.  “I?m Alice Brown,” she said in a low voice.  The mailman gave her the letter.  Alice looked at the envelope for a minute, and then handed it back to the mailman.  “I’m sorry I can?t take it,” she said.  “I don?t have enough money to pay the postage. ” The people standing around were very sorry for the girl.  They were silent for a while.  Then a gentleman came up to the mailman and paid the postage for Alice’s letter.  When the gentleman gave her the letter, she said with a smile, “Oh, thank you very much, sir.  This letter is from the young man I’m going to marry.  His name is Tom.  He went to London to look for work.  He has to get enough money for our marriage (结婚).  I’ve waited a long time for this letter, but now don’t need it.  I don’t have to open the envelope because there is nothing inside. ” “Really?” the gentleman said in surprise.  “How do you know that?” “He told me that he would put some signs on the envelope.  Look, sir, this cross in the corner means that he is well, and this circle means he has found work.  That’s very good news. ” The gentleman was Sir Rowland Hill.  He did not forget Alice and her letter.  “The postage to be paid by the receiver has to be changed,” he said to himself.  He thought and thought for many years.  At last he had a good plan.  “The postage has to be much lower,” he said.  “What about a penny (便士) for a letter? And the person who sends the letter pays the postage.  He has to buy a stamp and put it on the envelope. ” “A good idea!” people said when they heard of his plan.  The Government decided to adopt (采纳) the plan.  The first postage stamp was put out in 1840.  It was called the “Penny Black”.  It had a picture of the Queen on it.  
【小题1】The first postage stamp was made ________.  

Long ago ,there lived in Greece a learned man. He was so well known for his good knowledge of almost everything that lots of people from all over the country came to learn from him. The great man taught his students whole-heartedly and answered their questions with great patience.
One day a student asked him, “ My dear teacher, didn’t you say you yourself have many ,many more questions about things than we do? But I think we students have far more than you.”
With a smile on his face, the teacher drew two circles ,one as large as a big cake, the other smaller. Then he said , “Of course, I have learned much more. But it’s wrong to think that a teacher has fewer questions than his students. Now, look at these two circles. The inside of the bigger one is my knowledge of things, and the inside of the smaller one is yours. Out of the circles is what is still unknown to us. Since mine is larger, I have to use the longer line to draw the bigger circle. That means I have more opportunities to face what is still unknown. And that’s why I myself have more questions than you do. The more you learn , the more questions you have. You will never learn enough ,you know.”
【小题1】The learned man drew two circles to show _____.

Animals grow up in different ways. They have lots of lessons to learn.
Some animals are born helpless but their mothers protect them. A newborn kangaroo is the size of a bee. She stays in her mother’s safe pouch. She doesn’t open her eyes for at least five months. A newborn monkey cannot walk. He is carried by his mother.
Other baby animals can walk soon after they’re born. They learn to run with their mother when danger is near. A baby zebra（斑马）can run an hour after she is born.
Some baby animals are born in a place that is safe. Other baby animals are born in the open. Baby wolves are born in large holes. A baby elephant is born on open, grassy land. Other elephants make a circle（圈）to protect her.

Animals that drink their mothers’ milk are called mammals. A mother bear’s milk is fatty and rich. Baby bears need lots of fat to keep warm in winter. They have milk for six months. Baby zebras drink milk for six months or more! As baby animals grow they need solid（固体的）food. Baby lions eat what their mother can catch.
【小题1】Which baby animals don’t open their eyes for at least five months?

In the summer of 1978 an English man named Steven was driving his tractor through a field of wheat when he discovered something strange. Some of his wheat was lying on the ground. The flattened wheat formed(形成)a circle about six meters across . Around this circle were four smaller circles of flattened wheat.
　 Three years later a farmer who lived nearby discovered almost the same circles in one of his fields. These circles were larger—nearly 15 meters across . That same year , another English farmer discovered three circles of flattened wheat on his land—one large circle between two small circles. During the following years, farmers in England found circles in their fields more and more often.
　 The circles are called “crop circles” because they usually appear in fields of wheat or corn. The wheat in the circles lies on the ground but is never broken; it keeps on growing, and the farmers can later harvest it. Farmers always discover the crop circles in the morning, so the circles probably form at night. They appear only in the months from May to September. What causes the crop circles?
　 At first, people thought that some kids were making them as a joke, or that farmers were making them to attract tourists.(In fact, in 1991, two men said they made the circles themselves, but many scientists don’t believe them.) People tried to copy them: They tried to make circles exactly like the ones the farmers had found. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t enter a field of wheat without leaving tracks, and they couldn’t flatten the wheat without breaking it.
　 Several times people reported seeing stranger objects near the fields where crop circles later appeared. Many people believe that these crop circles are the messages sent by living things from outer space(外层空间)or the marks left by their spaceships.
　 Scientists who have studied the crop circles try to find out what causes them. In the summer of 1990 some scientists spent three weeks in the part of England where many circles have appeared. They had all the latest high-tech equipment(最新高科技设备). The equipment—worth 1.8 million dollars—got nothing. But one night, as the scientists were watching a field, crop circles formed in the field behind them, which were quite different from the others. The scientists had neither seen nor heard anything.
　 When Steven discovered the crop circles on his land in 1978, he said, “It was just like something that had landed in the field from the air and gone back up again. I don’t know what to make of these things.”
　 Crop circles have appeared in England, Japan, the United States and Russia. Experts from all over the world have studied them, and they say what Steven said: They don’t know what to make of these things.
【小题1】Which picture is probably the one formed in the field behind the scientists?

【小题2】“Flattened wheat” means ___________.