Last week, the manager of an old jeweler's shop received a letter marked "personal". As he was very busy, the letter lay on his desk till teatime. When he opened it, a $100 note fell. out onto his desk. With the note was a short letter. This is what it said:
Dear sir,
I got engaged (订婚的) forty years ago. Unfortunately at that time there was a lot of unemployment and I lost my job. I was out of work for about six months before I got another one. Of course I was very short of money.
I came to your shop to buy a wedding ring one day. The assistant brought some rings for me to have a look, later she was called away, and then I put one of the rings into my pocket. When she came back, I said I did not know the size of my girlfriend's finger.

So I left the shop without paying for the ring. My wife died a month ago, and the fact that I never paid for her ring has been on my conscience
(让我良心不安) all these years. I always feel guilty about that. At that time the ring cost $ 20, and I think that is about five times- $100 at today's price. Now I am sending you that amount.
Yours truly,
A customer
After reading the letter, the manager said, "Well, well, well, life is full of surprise!"
【小题1】The ring that the customer put into his pocket was_______ at that time.

At East China University of Science and Technology, students who finish their food in the dining hall can get a coupon(优惠券) when they return their tray(餐盘). They can exchange coupons for small gifts, such as books, magazines, mobile phone covers and hand warmers.
“It’s been a big surprise,” said Liang Zhaoyun, 19, a student in the university of Shanghai. “It makes us try our best to finish the food!”
But some food in the dining hall is so poorly prepared that students are reluctant to finish it all. Some schools have paid some attention to it.
“The dishes in our canteen are all right, generally speaking. We’ve tried our best to make it tasty. But of course it’s difficult to make all the students love it.” said Wang.
Other universities also pay attention to the size of food. At Nanjing University, rice is divided into three different-sized bowls that students can choose from.
“I like to try different dishes at each meal. So I had to throw away a lot of food because the bowls were too big. But now the dining hall offers small sizes. It’s great because I can try different dishes at half price and don’t waste so much food,” said Fan Peng, a student from Nanjing University.
But what if you really can’t finish all your food? Some universities also provide a take-away service. If you can’t finish all your food, you can get a box to take the leftovers home. Even if you feed the cat, it’s not wasted.
So you see, if we call on students not to waste food, schools should also improve the service and meal quality.
【小题1】How can the students at East China University of Science and Technology get a coupon?

Venice is an attractive city in Italy. Tourists throughout the world love traveling to Venice. But sometimes you’ll have such strange experiences. One moment you walk across the Rialto Bridge, and there’s nothing special. Unfortunately, when you come back to the bridge an hour later, it’s underwater and everyone’s wearing rain boots.
That’s just the way it has always been, which may be considered seriously by Italian government. Before the sea comes to Venice, the government has decided to build the MOSE gates. Actually(实际上), there were many kinds of gates that were built to stop the floods, but all the gates were just built on the ground. Besides, the flooding was becoming worse. Industrial(工业的)factories built nearby on the mainland also made the condition get worse, causing the city to sink about 0.75 feet in the 20th century.
So the Italian government asked some of Italy’s biggest construction and engineering companies to build the MOST project, which was planned to be built under the sea water to stop floods. Now the government are using 3 000 people and expect to spend nearly five billion euros(欧元) on it. The MOSE gates are being built at the inlets(海湾).Each MOST gate is 197 feet long ,28.5 to 37 feel tall, and weight up to 22 tons. It’s nearly the size of a 20-story building. Before the gates are in use, under the sea full of water. When the flood comes, the water in the gates will be poured out, and then the gates will be filled with air. So the gates can go up with the sea water. Once they’re in the right place, they will stop the sea water pouring into Venice. These gates will be able to deal with floods up to 10feet,and as long as the sea level(平面)rises no more than two feet in the next 100 years, the MOSE will work as expected.
The MOSE project is now two-thirds done. The head engineer, Giovanni Cecconi, said, “This is a war. During the war, it’s not important that you win. It’s important that you’re alive. We’ve alive.” Anyway, this project is saving Venice from falling.
根据短文内容选择最佳答案。
【小题1】The underlined word “construction” in the passage means “_______”in Chinese.
A.建筑  B. 农业  C. 交通
【小题2】Before building the MOSE gates, the Italian government _______ to stop the floods.
A. never built gates on the ground
B. built many kinds of gates on the ground
C. built some gates which were under the ground
【小题3】When the flood comes, _______ can describe the working steps of the MOSE gates.

【小题4】Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. The Italian government ate using 3000 people and expect to spend nearly five billion dollars on the MOSE.
B. The MOSE project is half done now.
C. Each MOSE gate is 197 feet long, 28.5 to 37 feet tall, and weighs up to 22 tons.
【小题5】The best title for this passage should be _______.
A. The Journey to Venice
B. The MOSE Project in Venice
C. Several Kinds of Floods in Venice

Once there were two crows (乌鸦)whose opinions(观点) were always opposite.
One day, one of the crows said to the other, “ You should realize, of course, that I can fly much higher than you.”
“ Don’t be ridiculous (荒谬的).” the other crow said. “ Everyone knows that I can fly much higher than you.”
“No, you can’t” the first crow said.
“Yes, I can” the second crow replied, and the argument went on and on.
At last they decided to have a contest to solve the argument.
“ We will compete to find out who can fly higher while carrying a bag” the first crow said.
They argued for some time because of the size of the bag, but at last came to an agreement.
Then there was a further argument about what each bag would be filled with. Finally, they agreed that the first crow would fill his bag with cotton and the second crow would fill his with salt.
The first crow thought he was clever to agree to this, because salt is much heavier than cotton. At last they were ready for the contest. Holding their bag in their mouths, they flew into the sky.
They had not been flying for long. However, when it began to rain- as the second crow had expected it would. Can you guess who could fly higher?
【小题1】The two crows were arguing about ____