Saturday morning was bright and fresh. There was a song in every heart, cheer on every face, and a spring in every step.

Tom appeared with a bucket（桶）of white paint in one hand and a brush in the other. His Aunt Polly told him to paint the fence（篱笆）around the garden. It was ninety feet long and nine feet high. He felt very blue.

Then he had a wonderful idea. He picked up his brush and started to work.

Soon Ben came along the road. He was happily eating an apple. He stopped to look at Tom. Tom went on painting and pretended（假装）not to see Ben.

“I’m going swimming,” said Ben. “Do you want to go swimming, Tom? But I guess you can’t. You have to stay and work, don’t you?”       

“Work?” Tom said. “This isn’t work. I’m enjoying myself. Does a boy get a chance to paint a fence like this every day?”

Ben thought about this. Tom continued painting carefully. Sometimes he stopped, stood back to look at the fence like an artist, and then added（增加）a bit more paint in just the right place. Ben was watching Tom paint with great interest. He was getting more and more eager（渴望的）to have a try himself.

After a while, Ben asked Tom if he would let him paint a little. Tom thought about it, and said, “No, Ben, I can’t. You see. Aunt Polly wants it to be done well. Aunt Polly said that I must paint it with great care.”

“Oh, please, Tom,” begged Ben. “I can do it. I’ll be really careful. Just let me try. I’ll give you half of my apple. Well, I’ll give you all of it!”

“Well, all right, Ben,” said Tom. “You must be very careful.”

He gave Ben his brush with worry on his face but joy in his heart. He sat down under the tree, and started to eat Ben’s apple. All day, boys came to make fun of Tom, but they ended up staying to paint. When Ben got tired, Billy was waiting. He gave Tom a kite for a chance to paint. Then Johnny offered him a basketball, and so on.

By late afternoon Tom had got all kinds of toys, and the fence had got three coats of paint. Later Aunt Polly came to look at the painted fence. She was so pleased with Tom’s work that she gave Tom a large cake!

1.Why did Tom pretend not to see Ben when he came and watched him painting?

    A. He saw Ben eating an apple happily.

    B. He tried to make Ben interested in it.

    C. He didn’t want to go swimming with Ben at all.

    D. He didn’t want Ben to share the chance to paint the fence.

2.What does the underlined word “spring” probably mean in Chinese?

    A. 春天             B. 弹簧           C. 泉                 D. 活力

3.What do you think of Tom?

    A. Honest.          B. Smart.         C. Shy.               D. Stubborn.

Johnny, a lizard (蜥蜴），lived between some rocks in the country, where he liked sunbathing every morning. One day, he felt so       that he didn’t notice some boys coming up behind him. The boys caught Johnny, and he could only escape from their hands by losing his       and running to hide.
The children watched his tail moving about, but they soon threw the tail away and left. Johnny came out to       his tail, but could find no       of it. Feeling so sad, he decided to       doing everything else in his life and spending all his time finding his tail. Days and months passed, and Johnny kept looking, asking everyone       they had seen his tail. However, there was      no news about it.
One day, he asked a boy and the boy       replied, “Why do you need two tails?” After hearing this, Johnny turned back and saw that he had grown a new, stronger tail. He suddenly realised how       it had been to waste so much time on a problem like it. Johnny headed for home.
    , he suddenly found his old tail on the roadside. Although it       terrible, Johnny was still excited to have it back. He picked it up and was about to       his journey. Just at that moment, an idea hit him that he shouldn’t look at the past and worry about it since it was not useful for      .
He then decided to       his old tail there, leaving with it all his past worries. As he continued his journey, all he took with him were thoughts of the present and the dreams of the       .
As we know, it’s not good to look at the past, unless it helps in the future. Let the past go with the wind.

Once there was a huge apple tree. A little boy loved to come and play around it every day. He loved the tree and the tree loved to play with him.
Time went by…the little boy had grown up and he no longer played around the tree every day. One day, the boy came back to the tree and he looked sad. “Come and play with me,” the tree asked the boy. “I’m no longer a kid. I wouldn’t play around the tree any more.” the boy replied. “I want toys. I need money to buy them.” “Sorry, I don’t have money. But you can pick all my apples and sell them. So, you will have money.” The boy picked all the apples on the tree and left happily. The boy never came back after he picked the apples.
One day, the boy returned and the tree was so excited, “Come and play with me,” the tree said. “I don’t have time to play. I have to work for my family. We need a house for shelter. Can you help?” “Sorry, I don’t have a house. But you can cut off my branches to build your house.” So the boy cut all the branches off the tree and left happily. The tree was glad to see him happy but the boy never came back since then. The tree was again lonely and sad.
One hot summer day, the boy returned and the tree was pleased. “Come and play with me!” the tree said. “I am sad and getting old. I want to go sailing to relax myself. Can you give me a boat?” “Use my trunk to build your boat. You can sail far away and be happy.” So the boy cut the tree trunk to make a boat. He went sailing and never showed up for a long time.
Finally, the boy returned after he left for so many years. “Sorry, my boy. But I don’t have anything for you any more. The only thing left is my dying root,” the tree said with tears ①.
“Good! Old tree root is the best place to lean on and rest. Come and sit down with me and rest.” The boy sat down and the tree was glad and smiled with tears ② …
【小题1】----Why did the boy pick all the apples on the tree?
----Because __________.

It was Friday. Andy Barton was in a bad mood . At six o’clock his __1__ programme, “Travel with us”, was on TV. Andy liked to get home in ___2___ for that. But then, just as he was leaving his office a little earlier , a customer (顾客) rang up with a few complaints for the next fif­teen minutes. “I can ___3__ get home in time if I hurry,” Andy told himself as he___4___out of the office. As he drove off in his car, he ___5___ that he was almost out of petrol(汽油). “I’ll have to stop at Fenton’s”, Andy thought. He ___6___Fenton’s because it was a self-service petrol station. “You do all the work yourself, but you pay___7____for the petrol,” he used to complain. At Fenton’s, the pump (泵) was not working properly and it ___8__ much time to get petrol. So when Andy got home, it was already two minutes past six. Just then the phone rang. “Shall I answer it?” Andy thought. He tried to___9__ his attention on the programme and forget the phone. But it kept ringing and finally he picked it up.

“Mr Barton?”__10__said. “Fenton’s Ga­rage here.”“Fenton’s?” Andy said. “Why, I was at your place only a few minutes ago, getting some petrol. Did I _11_ something behind or what?” “No, you didn’t, Mr Bar­ton.” And the voice went on. “That’s just the __12__ ! You went off without paying for your petrol, you __13___！ Now normally, when that happens, we ring up the police. But Luckily I knew you and I know it was a _14__.” “I’m really very sorry,” Andy said. “Oh, that’s all right, Mr Barton. But could you __15__round now and pay for your petrol? And please hurry! We close at half past six!”

1.                A．favourite       B．funny          C．popular   D．lovely

2.                A．chance         B．time           C．seat D．spirit

3.                A．surely          B．obviously       C．normally  D．still

4.                A．stepped        B．climbed         C．looked   D．rushed

5.                A．observed       B．noticed         C．thought   D．suggested

6.                A．hated          B．liked           C．meant    D．promised

7.                A．a little          B．the same        C．a lot D．the bill

8.                A．cost           B．spent          C．took D．spared

9.                A．draw           B．pay            C．fix   D．force

10.               A．a woman       B．a man          C．a recorder D．a voice

11.               A．lose           B．leave          C．forget D．destroy

12.               A．trouble         B．worry          C．excuse    D．reason

13.               A．remember      B．see            C．do   D．drive

14.               A．mistake        B．joke           C．trick  D．truth

15.               A．look           B．come          C．show D．turn

Michael and Dick are good friends, but they like to play jokes on each other. One holiday, they decided to go to London together. They went to the station and bought their tickets.
Michael got on the train first. He dropped his ticket on the platform when he got into the carriage. Dick, who was close behind, saw the ticket fall and quickly picked it up. He put it in his pocket, but didn’t tell Michael. After they had been in the train for a while, they heard the conductor coming down the corridor, shouting, “Tickets, please!” Michael looked for his ticket and of course couldn’t find it.
“Oh dear, I can’t find my ticket, Dick,” Michael said.
“Look for it carefully, Michael; it must be somewhere.” said Dick.
“No, I can’t find it anywhere. What shall I do?” said Michael.
“Perhaps you’d better hide under the seat; then the conductor won’t know you are here.” So Michael hid under the seat. At this time, the conductor came in. “Tickets, please,” he said. Dick handed him tow tickets and said, “This is mine. The other is my friend’s. But he prefers to stay under the seat.”
【小题1】Michael and Dick would spend their holiday in________.