People have their own ways of saying things with their own special expressions. Some of these expressions are easy to understand. “As Easy as Falling off a Log (圆木)” is one such expression. It describes a job that does not take much effort. If you ever tried to walk on a falling tree log, you may understand what the expression means. It is easier to fall off the log than to stay on it.

There are several other expressions that mean the same thing. And their meaning is as easy to understand as falling off a log. One is “Easy as Pie.” Nothing is easier than eating a piece of sweet juicy pie, unless it is a piece of cake. “A Piece of Cake” is another expression that means something is extremely easy to do.

Another expression is “As Easy as Shooting Fish in a Barrel (桶)”. Clearly, fish in a barrel will be much easier to shoot than fish in a river. In fact, it would be as easy as falling off a log.

Sometimes, things that come to us easily also leave us just as easily. In fact, there is an expression “Easy Come Easy Go”. Another easy expression is “To Go Easy on a Person”. It means to treat a person kindly or gently, especially in a situation where you might be expected to be angry with him. A wife might ask her husband to go easy on their son, because the boy did not mean to destroy the toy. If you want to borrow some money to fix the car, you should look for a friend who is an “Easy Touch”. An easy touch or a soft touch is someone who is kind and helpful.

And there is one more expression that means do not worry or work too hard. Try to keep away from difficult situations. “Take it easy”, until we meet again.

1.Which of the following expressions has the same meaning with “As easy as falling off a log?”

A. Shooting fish in a barrel                         B. Walking on a falling tree log.

C. Staying on a log                                    D. Shooting fish in a river

2.A friend might tell you that his new job was___________.

A. easy come easy go                                   B. as easy as shooting fish in a barrel             

C. to take it easy                                             D. to go easy on a person

3.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A. That he goes easy on me means that he is angry with me.

B. He is always helping others, so he is an easy touch.      

C. When he asks me to repair his broken bike, I say, “A piece of cake. I can help repair it.”

D. When a girl loses her way, I say, “Take it easy, I will send you home.”

Computers can help many workers. They can also help thieves.

There was one thief who worked in a bank of the United States. He paid for everything he needed by check (支票). Then he told the computer not to take any money from his account for the checks he wrote. The bank’s computer did what he said. And it did not take any money from his bank account. One day the computer broke down. People had to do the computer’s work. They soon found out what was happening.

Another thief, who worked for a bank saw people filling in deposit forms (存款单). Many of these people did not know their account numbers, so they wrote only their names on the forms. They left empty places for their account numbers. The thief wrote his own account number in this place. When the computer read these forms it looked only at the account numbers. It did not look at the customers’ names. It paid the money on these deposit forms into the thief’s account .                           

Then there was the bank worker who told the bank computer to take ten cents off every customer’s account each month and put it into his own account. For a long time the bank’s customers did not notice that they were losing ten cents every month. But then someone did notice and told the bank. That was the end of that little game!

1.What was the first thief?

A．A computer engineer.                    B．A customer.        C．A bank worker.  D．We don’t know.

2.How did the first thief steal money from the bank?

A．He broke the computer down and stole money from it.

B．He paid for everything by check instead of cash.

C．He took money away from the bank.

D．He told the computer not to take away money from his account.

3.How many kinds of crimes in a bank are mentioned?

A．Two.             B．Three.            C．Four.             D．Five.

4.What can we infer from the passage?

A．None of the thieves has been caught by the police up to now.

B．A lot of money is missing from the bank of the United States each year.

C．The computers in the bank will be changed to prevent money from being stolen.

D．There will be no crimes in the bank any more since so many crimes have been found out.

I have been using the Internet since I was five years old, when my dad first sat me down in front of a computer and connected me the World Wide Web.
I’ve always felt like a master of the Internet world. AOL Instant Messaging, MSN, Gmail, Facebook. Myspace---I’ve got it all under control. I thought there was nothing more to it besides checking my e-mail and wasting my time, until I was introduced to electronic commerce(e-commerce): business on the Internet.
Some online business are run from one- room home offices. Others have hundreds of employee(雇员)spread across five different continent. Have you ever heard of Amazon. com, Yahoo. com?
My friends often said they got cheap textbooks off Amazon.com, or had a good deal(交易)on Steve Madden boots that were on sale at SteveMaden.com. Unfortunately for me, I continued my “e-commerceless” Web-surfing, unaware(不知道)of all the deals I was missing out on.
That is, of course, until my sister finally sold the idea to me.
“Why are all these packages arriving in the mail for you, Katy?” I asked her one day. Strange envelopes had been put on our doorstep for weeks now, each one always addressed to my sister; and we all know little sisters should never be getting more mail than their elders!
“Oh, it’s the things I ordered online!” she answered. I watched speechlessly as she opened them. There was no way our parents were letting her spend that much money- online or off!
“How much did all of this coat?”
“Oh, only about $15in all!” She said excitedly. “Everything on eBay is on sale! It’s way better than going to the mall.”
I felt as if my entire life, there had been a store right in my backyard that I had never walked into! That week, I ordered a used Spanish textbook for my summer course online for 10 percent of the publishing price. A few days later, I bought an iPod protector and a book or two via the wonderful eBay.com.
【小题1】From the first two paragraph we can conclude that the author        

The other day, I happened to meet someone I hadn’t seen for many years. I couldn’t believe the change in him. In fact, he didn’t even seem like the ___16___ person.
When I first knew Bill, back in college he was one of the most carefree(无忧无虑) people I had ever ___17___. Bill and I were in the same class in college, and ___18___ was never dull(枯燥的) when he was ___19___. With him there was one wild adventure (探险) after another. Sometimes I wonder how we ___20___ to study for our exams.
Last week I was in Huston on business and I ran into Bill in the bar at the hotel. At first I wasn’t ___21___ sure it was him. Was this short-haired businessman really the same person? I wasn’t really sure until I came near him but it indeed was Bill. Now he works for a bank. He talked most of the evening about his job, his new car and his house. How he had changed! Back when we were in college, the ___22___ thing Bill cared about was possessions(财物). Now they seemed to be his main ___23____.
I suppose it’ s ____24____ to expect people to remain the same, especially when I have changed so much myself. But I must say that I enjoyed the old Bill much more than the new one. Maybe he ___25____ the same way about me.

Four years ago my sweet mom went to be with her Lord. She did it her way.
I got the call at work, and I headed home quickly. Mom and Dad lived on a small farm that they had owned since I was seven. I hated going there every weekend. There was nothing for a young girl to do but watch the one station on the old TV set, if the weather allowed reception（接收）.
My mom, on the other hand, loved the peace and quiet of the land and loved to work in the garden among her flowers and vegetables. The place was simple, with no indoor plumbing or heat. We had a big wood stove in the kitchen that did its best to heat the little farmhouse, but it always seemed cold and too quiet to me.
In the evenings, my mom and I would sit for hours singing in the little kitchen. I sang the melody and Mom harmonized. Her favorite song was "Moon River" and we sang it over and over. Mom told me stories about how when I was a little girl, I could sing before I could talk. She loved to tell how my playpen（婴儿圈栏）sat in the kitchen next to the radio and there was one song I particularly loved called "Ivory Tower".
As time passed, I had my own children and went to visit the farm every week or two. The kids loved the farm and the tractor rides with my dad. Me, well, I still hated the silence of the farm. While my mom loved to sit at her kitchen table and look out at her garden and flowers and retell all the old stories, I missed the hustle and bustle（喧闹）of my life at home. But I sat there listening quietly as she reminisced.
Now, I sat back in the silence and the silence was deafening so I finally leaned over to turn on an old radio. Music always comforted me.
My heart skipped a beat. "Moon River" was playing on the radio. I sat there stunned, with a tear running down my cheek, as I listened to every familiar note.
Then the radio announcer of this oldie station came on. "Here's one we haven't heard in a while," and an unfamiliar song began. I began to cry harder as I heard the words sung over the airwaves. “Come down, come down from your Ivory Tower...”.
【小题1】The writer didn’t like staying in the farm for the following reasons EXCEPT that
________.