Sea Mail

　　Some people don't need a mailbox to send a message. They use a bottle instead. Here are two stories about people who sent a message in a bottle. Both stories are true.

　　In 1956, a sailor from Sweden was on a ship. He wrote a letter, asking any young woman to write to him. He put the letter in a bottle and threw the bottle into the sea.

　　Two years later, a man found the bottle on a beach in Italy. He read the letter and showed it to his daughter. She was 18. As a joke, she wrote to the sailor. They began to exchange letters. In a few months, they were married.

　　Here is the second story. Back in 1924, a boy from Arkansas wrote his name on the back of his picture. He put the picture in a bottle and dropped the bottle into a river.

　　The bottle was not found for many years. Then one day a man named Bill picked it up on a beach in Florida. He pulled the picture out of the bottle and looked at it. He could hardly believe his eyes. The boy in the picture was his old friend, Tom, from Arkansas. Bill had not seen Tom for 25 years. Somehow the bottle had come to the right place.

1．What is the main idea of the whole story?

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2．After the sailor wrote a letter, he ________.

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3．The sailor and the girl from Italy ________.

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4．The man named Bill looked at the picture of Tom and was ________.

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5．At the end of the story, Bill and Tom must have been ________.

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Hanging Gardens of Babylon(巴比伦空中花园)

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built in the 7^th century BC and are considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were amazing not only because of their beauty, but also because of their location.
In the 7^th century BC a king named Nebudchadnezzar II created the gardens as a sign of love for his wife, Amyitis. According to legend, Amyitis, the daughter of the king of the Medes, was homesick. She missed the green hills and valleys of her homeland.
Upon marrying Nebudchadnezzar II, Amyitis moved to the ancient chief city of Babylon. The area was in the Mesopotamian desert, and the climate there was totally different from where she had left. So the new queen was very sad about the flat and the sun-baked desert. To make Amyitis happier and more comfortable the king decided to build her a series of magnificent gardens.
Many think of the gardens as an otherworldly creation that hung in the air somehow. But experts agree that the gardens were actually built on a mountainside, rather than actually “hanging”.
The hanging Gardens of Babylon are famous. Stories of them spread throughout the ancient world, and ancient writers recorded a large number of descriptions of the gardens, but some wonder whether this paradise of the past ever existed. There are no historical records of it except stories. Whatever may happen, even the idea of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is amazing. They were essentially impossible to create because of the climate, but they were kept in the minds of many as a botanical beauty created in the middle of unattractive desert scenery.
【小题1】Hanging Gardens of Babylon are considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, aren’t they?
【小题2】What makes the Hanging Gardens of Babylon so amazing and famous?
【小题3】Why did the king Nebudchadnezzar II create Hanging Gardens of Babylon?
【小题4】What made the Hanging Gardens of Babylon essentially impossible to create?
【小题5】According to the experts, were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon really hanging or built on a mountainside?
【小题6】Did Hanging Gardens of Babylon really exist? What makes you think so? (In no more than THREE sentences)

My stutter（口吃）had always been much of a problem. I'd had so many specialists for my______35________ over the years. As l walked down the hallway to meet a new one, memories popped in my head of how painful（痛苦的）being a kid who stutters had been. It______36________ hurt.

    “Hello! I'm Mrs. Claussen. I hear you're from Texas!"

    “Ye-Ye-Ye-Yes m-m-m-m-m-m-m-aam I am…”My heart felt like it was pounding through my chest and my hands were dripping wet. I really blew that

______37________ .

    “Well," she said with a ______38________Smile. 161've always liked Texas."

    She turned out to be the best speech specialist I've ever had, not like those who

    told me to clap my hands while speaking. She was______39________.She spent the first several weeks just talking to me - asking me all kinds of questions about myself, especially my feelings. And she______40________ . She then began to teach me about the speech. Not just about my speech, but about everybody's.

       I______41________ in my old school and was a pretty good tenor（男高音）, but I learned that the new school's singing group was all filled up. It was such bad news, for I thought that was the one thing I could really do well - and I could do it

______42________ stuttering. Somehow Mrs. Claussen finally got me in the group. I felt like she really cared about me as a person, not just a speech student.

     During the next two years, my speech didn't get much better - except with her. When I was in college, things got worse. I once even wondered if I would ever be able to______43________ ! It was a very depressing time, and I often felt alone. When I was feeling really sorry for myself, I remembered Mrs. Claussen had told me whether I could______44________ my speech was all up to me. She had told me not to fight for perfect speech, just better speech. She was right about that. I finally improved my speech greatly.

     Many years have passed, but I think of her from time to time, wondering if she had as much______45________  0n her other students as she had on me. I like to think that she did. Her name was Mrs. Claussen... and she______46_______ . I'II never forget her.

1.A. speech                     B. study                  C. dream                 D. fear

2.A. maybe                      B. even                            C. still                              D. never

3.A. instruction                 B. description                    C. introduction                   D. presentation

4.A. shy                           B. cold                              C. weak                   D. kind

5.A. silent                                 B. simple                 C. direct                            D. different

6.A. cried                        B. listened                C. waited                 D. stopped

7.A. sang                          B. spoke                            C. played                 D. clapped

8.A. against                      B. besides                   C. beyond                D. without

9.A. practise                    B. communicate                 C. report                           D. reply

10.A. train                               B. share                  C. change                D. follow

11.A. advice                    B. influence             C. dependence                  D. action

12.A. continued               B. taught                           C. agreed                D. cared

People cannot reach an agreement on the use of science and technology. For example, will radiation from electronic equipment destroy the environment? Should medical scientists change gene structures to prevent genetic disease or to create “more perfect” human beings? While people are arguing about these and others, technology continues to influence our everyday lives—the home, health and education, entertainment and communication, and so on.
Some people carry on active social lives with computers —their own or the ones in public places like cafes, social centers, libraries, and so on. Communicating with others in chat rooms,  computer users can get to know people they might never meet in traditional ways. With live online video connections, two people with cameras in their computers can see and talk to each other from separate places.
With modern telephone technology, most people stopped writing lettters—especially personal letters and notes. But now, writing to communicate has returned in electronic form, or e-mail, which is a way of sending messages from one computer to another. For some computer users, the wish to communicate intelligently or creatively with others makes them want to write better.
Computer technology has also made it possible to run a house electronically. From turning lights on and off to starting the coffee and cooking the hot meal, computers are taking care of people at home. Many modern machines have computer chips that allow their owners to program them. For instance, you can “instruct” a microwave oven how to cook a dish. Most entertainment equipment operates with computer technology too. Computers can even start cars automatically so that on cold winter mornings you can get into a warmed-up vehicle and drive off.
Although much of the technology in our everyday lives has good effects, there are some uses that raise questions. For example, are interactive media ( i.e., a combination of television, telephone, and computer) going to control minds, cause people to forget about family life and personal relationships? What effects will the genentic engineering of food have on people’s health? High-tech medical treatments can make a person live a much longer life, but can they improve the health and happiness of human beings? Only time will tell, but, in the meantime, science and technology will continue to move forward. 
【小题1】What does the underlined word “ chips” mean?