Why should we learn to swim?
Firstly, swimming is a good exercise for our health. Indeed doctors say it is the best exercise, because in swimming all the muscles of the body are used.
Secondly, swimming gives great pleasure. How nice it is, on a hot dusty day in summer, to take off one’s clothes and dive into the cool water of a rive or the sea, and to swim and float until one feels enough.
Thirdly, swimming may sometimes mean all the different between life and death, we never know when we may be in danger from water. We got on a voyage, and the ship in wrecked; we go for a pleasure sail on a lake and the boat turns over; we slip as we are walking along the bank of a river, and half in the water. If we can swim, we have chance for saving our own lives, but if we cannot swim, we are pretty certain to be drowned. So for our own safety, we should learn to swim.
Lastly, if we can swim, we may be able to save other people from drowning. How sad it is to see a friend drowning before our eyes while we cannot help just because we cannot swim.
(   )4.Who says that swimming is the best exercise?  _________.
A. Farmers  B. Dentists    C. Fishermen        D. Doctors
(   )5.When swimming, ________.
A. We don’t move at all   
B. all the muscle of the body are used
C. we move our legs only
D. we drink lots of seawater into our stomach
(   )6.Swimming ­­­­________.
A. gives great pain                     B. gives no pleasure   
C. gives much pleasure                  D. does harm to the body
(   )7.If we can swim, ________.
A. we are no longer humans, but fish        
B. we shall be drowned one day
C. we have a chance of saving our own lives  
D. we can’t walk any more

Indian boy Piscine Patel is troubled by his first name. It sounds like a rude word, and his classmates laughed at him. He decides to change his name to “Pi”.
But Pi’s name problems are nothing compared to what is waiting for him.
Pi’s father owns a zoo. He decides to move to Canada. The family, together with all the zoo animals, set sail across the Pacific. One day, a huge storm hits the ship. The next morning, Pi finds his family has sunk with the ship. He is the only person still alive.
He finds himself on a lifeboat with several animals, one of which is a tiger called Richard Parker. Soon, all the animals are killed and Pi is left alone with the tiger.
As the tiger becomes hungrier, Pi starts to fish to feed him. Otherwise, he himself will become the food.
The boy and the tiger develop an amazing relationship on the sea. Although he feels hopeless, Pi never gives up. After 227 days, the lifeboat finally lands on a beach in Mexico, but Richard Parker runs away into the forest.
The ship company finds Pi and asks what happened. Pi tells them about Richard Parker but the company doesn’t believe him. Pi then tells another story in which there is no tiger, but some other shocking details(细节).
Is there really another story? If so, which one is the truth? Maybe you will have your own answer after watching The Life of Pi(《少年派的奇幻漂流》), the latest 3D movie from American Chinese director Ang Lee.
【小题1】What’s the first trouble of the Indian boy Piscine Patel?

Have you ever heard an echo of your voice?

An echo is a reflected(反射)sound. Stand in a very large, empty hall with nothing on the walls. Then shout. The sounds you make will hit the walls and come back to you. The walls reflect the sounds. These reflected sounds are called “echoes”.

We can use reflected sound to make sound travel farther. Hold a watch about fifty centimeters from your ear. You cannot hear it. The sound of the watch travels a short way in all directions. It does not travel as far as your ear. You can make it travel to your ear by using a roll of cardboard(纸板筒).

Make the roll of cardboard about fifty centimeters long. Put one end over your ear and hold the watch at the other. Now you can hear the watch because the sound has not gone in all directions. It is reflected down the roll to your ear.

A megaphone(喇叭筒)works in the same way. It makes sound travel farther. It reflects the sound into a beam which can travel a long way. In the ship, the sailor uses the megaphone to make his voice travel. Without the megaphone, his voice cannot travel far.

We use reflected sound in many ways. We use it to measure the depth of the sea, for example. Among the animals, bats and whales use reflected sound to tell them where they are and what things are near them.

1. Which is the right order of hearing our echo in a very large, empty hall?

a. We hear the reflected sound       b. The sound returns to us  

c. The sound hits the walls          d. We make a sound

2.. From the text we learn that __________ .

3. If you haven’t got a megaphone, ____ will help you to make your voice travel farther.

An English traveler found himself in Norway with only enough money to buy the ticket for his journey back home. As he knew that it would take him only two days to get to England, he decided that he could easily spend the time without food. So he bought a ticket and got on the ship. The man closed his ears to the sound of the lunch bell. When dinnertime came, he didn’t go to dinning room, saying that he was not feeling very well.

　　The next morning he still didn’t have breakfast and at lunchtime he again stayed in his room. But at dinnertime he was so hungry that he went to the dinning room and ate everything the waiter put in front of him. He got ready for the quarrel.

“Bring me the bill,” he said. “The bill, sir?” said the waiter in surprise. “There isn’t any bill. On our ship meals are included (包括) in the money for the ticket,” said the waiter.

1.The story happened _______.

A．in England

B．on a ship from Norway to England

C．in Norway

D．on a ship from England to Norway

2.Why didn’t the traveler go to the dinning room first?

A．Because he had no money

B．Because he didn’t feel very well

C．Because he didn’t want to eat anything

D．Because he didn’t hear the sound of the bell

3.The traveler went to the dinning room to eat something because _______.

A．his friend had given him some money

B．the waiter had asked him to change his mind

C．he learned that there was no bill on the ship

D．he was too hungry

4.How many meals did the traveler have on the ship?

A．Only one          B．Two              C．Three            D．None