A young father was visiting an old neighbor. They were standing in the old man’s garden, and talking about children. The young man said,“How strict should parents be with their children?”
　  The old man pointed to（指着）a string (细绳) between a big strong tree and a thin young one.
　 “Please untie (解开) that string.” said the old man. “But first pull the string tight so that（以便于）the young tree is straight again.” The young man did so. He untied the string and only found that the young tree bent（弯）over to one side.
　 Then the old man said,“There, it is the same with children. You must be strict with them. But sometimes you must untie the string to see how they are getting on. If they are not yet able to stand alone，you must tie the string tight again. But when you find that they are ready to stand alone，you can take the string away.”
【小题1】The story is about ____________.
　　    A. how to take care of young trees　   
B. how strict parents should be with their children
C. how the young father should get on with his old neighbor
【小题2】 The young man untied the string ________________.
　　    A. in order to throw it away  　　
B. so that both of the trees wouldn’t grow straight
　　    C. and found that the young tree bent over to one side
【小题3】When could the string be taken away?
　　    A. When the old man left.　  　　
B. When the young man untied it next time.
　   　C. When the young tree grew strong enough.
【小题4】 At last the old man told the young man ________________.
　　    A. that he should be strict with his children if they could not 
stand alone
　　    B. that he should always be strict with his children
　　    C. that he should be hard on his children
【小题5】We learn that the big strong tree and the thin young one are like _________.
A. the young father and the old neighbor   　　
B. parents and their children
　　     C. the old neighbor and the children of young father

Escaping (逃) from a fire is a serious matter. Knowing what to do during a fire can save a life. It is important to know the ways you can use and show them to everyone in the family, for example, you can use stairways, roofs and fire escapes, but no lifts.
From the lower floors of buildings, to escape through windows is possible. Learn the best way of leaving by a window with the least chance of serious injury(伤害).
The second floor window is usually not very high from the ground. An average (平均) person, hanging from the window by the fingertips will have a drop of about six feet to the ground--about the height of an average man. Of course, it is safer to jump a short way than to stay in a burning building.
Windows are also useful while you are waiting for help. Be sure to keep the door closed, before opening the window. Otherwise, smoke and fire may be drawn into the room. Keep your head low next to the window to be sure you get fresh air.
On the second or third floor, the best windows to escape from are those which open onto a roof (屋顶) . From the roof a person can drop to the ground more safely.
【小题1】You can try to escape a fire except _____.

As we know, there are differences between western culture and Chinese culture. We can see  differences  when we pay attention to the words that are used. Let’s look at the words about describing animals. Most phrases in Chinese about the dog. For example, “ a  homeless dog”, “a running dog”,  and “ a dog catching a mouse”, have negative meanings.
But in western countries, dogs are considered honest and good friends of humans. In English, people use dogs to describe positive behavior. For example, ”You are  lucky dog” means you are a  lucky person.   And  “Every dog has its day” means__________. To describe a person’s serious illness, they say “sick as a dog”. The  word  “dog-tired”  means  “ very tired”. The  words  about animals are used in positive or negative ways in different cultures. We can learn about many differences in cultures by comparing how certain words are used.
【小题1】The correct Chinese meaning about “ a homeless dog” is “_________”.

Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. "Football, tennis Cricket — anything with a round ball, I was useless." he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England’s rural Devonshire.
It was a mountain bike he received for his 15^th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon.
The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s school of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man’s cold-water exploits (成就). Intrigued, Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future. Journeys to the Pole aren’t the usual holidays for British country boys, and many people dismissed his dream as fantasy. "John Ridgway was one of the few who didn’t say, ’You are completely crazy,’" Saunders says.
In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer encounter (遭遇) with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit.
Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation.
This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis.
【小题1】The turning point in Saunders’ life came when ________.

The world is not only hungry but also thirsty for water. This may seem strange to you, since nearly 70% of the earth’s surface is covered with water. But about 97% of that is sea water or salt water. Man can only drink and use the other 3% of fresh water from rivers, lakes, underground and so on. And we can not even use all of that because some of it has been made dirty.
Earth Day is April 22. But on all other days, we must also remember how important water is. The water that we use is the most important natural resource on the earth. Today we face serious water problems. One of them is water pollution. All kinds of things from cars, factories, farms and homes make our rivers, lakes and oceans dirty. Polluted water is very bad for people to drink. And dirty water is bad for fish, too.
How do cars and factories make our water dirty? First they pollute the air. Then when it rains, the rain water makes our drinking water dirty. Dirty rain, called acid rain is also bad for plants, animals and buildings. Scientists say that in 30 years, more than half of the people in the world won’t have enough clean water. We have to learn how to stop wasting water. One of the first steps is to develop ways of reusing it. Today in most large cities, water is used only once and then sent out into a sewer system (下水道). From there it returns to the sea or goes underground.
But even though every large city reused its water, we would still not have enough. So we should make use of sea water by removing the salt in it. If we can take these steps, fresh water won’t be used up.
【小题1】The world is thirsty for water because _______.