I was 9 years old when I found out my father had AIDS.
     AIDS wasn't something we talked about in my country when I was growing up. From then on, I knew
that this would be a family secret. When I was 12, his condition got worse.
     We couldn't afford all the necessary medications for him, and because Dad was unable to work, I had
no money for school supplies and often couldn't even buy food for dinner. I would sit in class feeling
completely lost, not knowing what the teacher was saying. I did not share my burden (负担) with anyone. When my father was moved to the hospital, the nurses would leave his food on the bedside table even
though he was too weak to eat by himself.
     I knew he was going to die, but after so many years of  keeping his illness a secret, I completely
know what to do when he reached his last days.  
     I was 15 when my father died. He took his secret away with him, having never spoken about AIDS to
anyone, even me.

1. What does "his condition got worse" mean in Chinese?
A. 他的条件得到了改善.    
B. 他的情况更加恶化了.
C. 他变得越来越坏了.      
D. 他的环境变得更坏了.
2. What can we learn from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3?
A. The writer couldn't understand his teacher.
B. The writer had special difficulty in hearing.
C. The writer was too troubled to focus on his lessons.
D. The writer was too tired to hear his teacher's words.
3. The sentence "I completely didn't know what to do when he reached his last days. "means _______.
A. I was out of thinking when his final days were coming
B. I tried to understand why he stayed in hospital for the last days
C. I was puzzled to see what he was doing before his death
D. When I lost my father,l understood I could do nothing

     ARLES, FRANCE---Andre Raffay has a problem. He needs a nice, large flat in the city of Arles, but he
doesn't have enough money to buy one. Every morning Andre sits in his neighborhood café (附近酒吧) and
reads the flat ads in the newspaper. He draws a circle around each ad for a flat that looks good. Then he goes
to the telephone to call the owner.
     "Hello. I'm interested in the flat near the park that is in today's paper," he says. "How much is it?" When
he hears the answer, he says, "Oh, my goodness! That's too much!" The same thing happens every day.
     One morning Andre sees a friend in the café. He tells him about his problem."I have a good idea, Andre.
I know a 90-year-old woman who has a beautiful flat. You can pay her something every month until she dies.
Then you can move into the flat. It will be yours!"
     Andre is excited. He thinks to himself, "How much longer can such an old lady live? We can probably have
the flat in a few years." He and his wife, Marie, go to visit Mrs. Calment. The flat is just what they want. It is
large and sunny, and it is near the centre of town. It even has a view of the park.
     Andre tells Mrs. Calment,"We will pay you $500 a month, and you can stay here for the rest of your life."
She is very happy. She says, "I really want to stay here. This is my home. Now I don't have to move to my
niece's (侄女) house in the country."
     They sign a contract (签了份协议) that says that Andre and his wife will pay Mrs. Calment $500 every
month. When she dies, the flat will belong to Andre and his wife.
     More than thirty years go by. Jeanne Calment is still alive. She is 121 years old, the oldest person in the
world. Poor Andre isn't alive any more, but his widow (寡妇) still sends Mrs. Calment $500 every month.
Their dream flat is a nightmare (恶梦).

1. They have paid the old woman _______ dollars since they first met her.

A. only $500
B. more than $45,000
C. over $120,000
D. about $180,000

2. Mr. Raffay never thought _______.

A. his dream would come true
B. he could buy what he wanted
C. his dream would become a nightmare
D. he would live until he got a good house

3. From the passage we can learn _______.

A. Mr. Raffay failed his plan
B. his friend fooled (愚弄) him with the old lady
C. his wife would get the flat at last
D. he was very kind and generous to the old

       You will have a lot of reading to do in this grade this year. You can do more of it in less time if you learn
to read rapidly. Perhaps you have been told about some habits which keep a person from reading fast and have
been strongly asked to break those which you might have.
       Do you still have any of these bad habits? Check yourself by answering "yes" or "no" to these questions. 
       (1) Do you move your lips (嘴唇) when reading silently?
       (2) Do you point to words with your finger as you read?
       (3) Do you move your head from side to side as you read?
       (4) Do you read one word at a time?
       If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, start at once to break the habit. If you move your lips, hold
your fingers over them, or hold a piece of paper between your lips while you are reading. Then if your lips
move, you will know it and can stop them.
       If you point to words, hold the two sides of your book, one side with your left hand, the other side with
your right hand. Then you won't have a free finger to use in pointing while reading. If you move your head,
place your chin (下巴)in one hand and hold your head still (静止不动的).
       If you read no more than one or two three words at a time, you need to work very hard in learning to take
in more words at each glance (一瞥) as your eyes travel across the lines of words.
       Even if you do rather fast now, you can learn to read even faster. As you probably have been told, the fast
reading is to take in whole groups of words as each glance. Read in thought groups and force (强迫) your eyes
along the lines of words as fast as you can make them go. Anyone who practices doing these things will be able
to read faster.

1. You may hold your fingers over your lips while reading so as（为了）______.

A. to tell others to be silent
B. to feel whether your lips move or not
C. to hold a piece of paper between them
D. to keep yourself from talking to others

2. When you read, ________.

3. If you learn to read fast, ______.

A. you can read more in less time
B. you can write faster
C. you can understand better
D. you can read less in more time

4. You must _____ those habits that we are talking about in this reading.

A. remember
B. have
C. get rid of (消除)
D. keep

A. How to read fast
B. Breaking the bad habits
C. Reading rules
D. Ways to read less in more time

     How could we tell time if there were no watches or clocks anywhere in the world?
     The sun was probably the world's first "clock",except(除了) in the far north,where the
Eskimos(爱斯基摩人) live.There,it's dark most of the winter,and light most of the summer.
But in most of the world,people have used ck.Even today,if you don't have a clock,you still
know that when the sun shines,it's day ,and when it's dark,it's night.the sun can also tell you
if it's morning,noon,or afternoon.
     People who live near the sea can tell time from the tides.In the day time,for about six hours,
the water rises higher and higher on the beach.And then it goes down and down for about six
hours.the same thing happens again at night.there are two high tides and two low tides every 24hours.
     Seaman on a ship learn how to tell time by looking at the moon and the stars.The whole sky is
their clock.
     In some places in the world the wind comes up at about the same time every day or changes
direction or stops blowing.In these places the wind can be the clock.
     A sand clcok is an even better clock.If you had fine dry sand in a glass shaped like the
one in the picture,you would have what is called an hour glass.The sand in the hourglass goes
from the top part to the bottom part in exactly an hour.When the hourglass is turned over,the
sand will take another hour to go back again.

1.According to the passage,there are _______ ways to tell time besides the clock and the watch.

A. 3      
B. 4    
C. 5    
D. 7

2.The Eskimos can't use the sun for a clock because ________.

A.they know very little about the sun      
B.the sun there never goes down in winter.
C.It's too cold for them to go out to watch the sun  
D.It has long dark winters and long light summers

3. "tides" in the passages means ________.

A. 洋流    
B. 潮汐  
C.  海啸
D. 波浪

4. In which page of a newspaper can you most probably read this passage?

A. news    
B. science    
C. business    
D. advertisement(广告)

5. What's the best title?

A.Different Ways to Tell Time
B.Useful Machine to Tell Time
C.The History of the Clock    
D.The Development of the Clock