Have you ever heard anyone say“It’s raining cats and dogs”? It means“It’s raining hard!”
　　But sometimes cats and dogs do drop from the sky! Here’s how it happens.
　　Not so long ago, a country far away had many large rats. The people there said,“We need cats!”So cats were sent to them by airplane. But the country had many mountains. It was hard for an airplane to land. So the cats came down by parachute(降落伞). Did the cats like the ride? They didn’t say they didn’t! And today they are still catching rats!
　　In another country far away, there is snow the year around. People sometimes got lost in it.
　　“We need big dogs!”the people said.“The dogs could find people lost in the snow. The dogs could help bring them home. Where can we get big dogs?”
　　A man across the sea had big dogs to sell.“I will send dogs to you.”He said.“I have some very big ones. They can find people lost in the snow.”
　　He sent the dogs by airplane.
　　But the airplane didn’t land in the snow. The dogs came down by parachute—you guessed it!
　　Did the dogs like the ride? They didn’t say they didn’t! And today they are well and happy. They find anyone who gets lost in the snow. Then they help him get home. Good dogs!
　　Remember it, so you can say,“Yes, it does rain cats and dogs sometimes. They came down by parachute!”
　　1．The underlined word“it”in Paragraph 2 refers to_________.
　　A. the weather
　　B. the saying“It’s raining cats and dogs.”
　　C. the saying“It’s raining hard.”
　　D. the fact that real cats and dogs drop from the sky
　　2．Cats and dogs drop from the sky because_________.
　　A. there are many mountains in the country
　　B. it snows the year around in the country
　　C. it was hard for a plane to land in the two countries
　　D. coming down by parachute could save money
　　3．The underlined sentence“They didn’t say they didn’t!”in Paragraph 3 means“_________”.
　　A. Poor animals       B. Good animals
　　C. Have a nice trip       D. Thank you
　　4．Which of the following is not true according to the passage?
　　A. Cats and dogs can help people quite a lot.
　　B.“It rains cats and dogs.”usually means a heavy rain.
　　C. When the people saw cats drop from the plane, they were pleased.
　　D. The man across the sea didn’t want his dogs dropped by air.
　　5．The main purpose of the passage is to_________.
　　A. tell the readers a famous British saying
　　B. tell the readers of a new meaning about an old saying
　　C. show cats and dogs are our good friends
　　D. show parachutes is an important invention

　　Long ago, many people wrote diaries, too. Some of those old diaries have been found since（自从）the writers died. Some diaries are famous because we can learn about life long ago, or we can get to know something important, something interesting or something we want to know.

　　There are many famous diaries in the world. Most people in China and many people in other countries know the Diary of Lei Feng. Lei Feng was a Chinese soldier. In his short life he did a lot of good things. He was always ready to give but not to receive（得到）. He kept a diary. From the diary, people know what a man he was.

　　And many people in the world know Ann Frank's diary. From her diary people learn that how her family did from the German soldiers in Amsterdam, Holland during World War Ⅱ. Her diary tells about her life at that time. Some pages of her diary have been chosen for students to learn.

(1)People keep diaries so that（以便）they can tell others what they did.

(　　)

(　　)

(　　)

The story told to all American children about honesty(诚实) is about the cherry tree(樱桃树) that President George Washington cut when he was a boy．When his father returned home, he asked George if he knew anything about who cut the tree down．George replied, "Father, I can not tell a lie．It was I who cut down the cherry tree．"

In China, every child knows the story of Lei Feng, the young soldier who helped everyone and was very honest．The stories of George Washington and Lei Feng help us understand the importance of being honest．

Every teacher wants his or her students to be honest．If every student can be honest in their childhood, they will be honest when they become adults(成年人)．The country will then be known as an honest country and it will be respected(尊敬，尊重) by everyone．

Usually, it is the father and the mother who give the first lessons of honesty．George Washington learned honesty from his father．

A favorite Chinese story is about a young man who went to the market to buy food for his mother．There was a very young girl there who was selling flowers．The young man was asked to see and smell one flower and when the girl served another person, the young man stole the flower．

When he went home, he began to think what he had done．He went back to the market to see the girl．He told her that he was sorry and that he wanted to pay for the flower．

The little girl refused and said, "You do not need to pay for the flower, elder brother．Since you took it I thought you had a reason to take it．So I did not worry, about receiving money for it．"

The young man was ashamed(羞愧) that he stole the flower．He never forgot the kind-hearted peasant girl．To him it was a strong personal lesson and he could never forget about the importance of being honest．

1．According to the text, George Washington learned honesty from      ．

A．the textbook        B．his teacher                     C．his father         D．his mother

2．Who in human society is the first person to give lessons of honesty?

A．The parents．

B．George Washington’s father．

C．The eleventary school teachers．

D．A young girl who was a flower seller as told in a Chinese story．

3．Why is the education of honesty so important in school education?

A．Because it is one of the lesson required for study in every country．

B．Because if a child is honest in his/her childhood, he/she will be honest when growing up．

C．Because honest people are becoming less and less in most countries．

D．Because teachers are afraid of students stealing things when they are still in school．

4．The writer gives the favourite Chinese story             ．

A．as an example of a touching love story

B．to show what may happen to a dishonest person

C．as an example of the meaning of " honesty" in Chinese

D．to show that society as well as parents and teachers may also have an effect on the building up of a person’s character of honesty

5．Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A．If a person is honest in his childhood, he will be honest when he becomes an adult．

B．The story about George Washington’s childhood is known to everyone in the USA．

C．The young man who stole the flower admitted his wrong doing to his parents．

D．The young man was ashamed of his wrong doing and could never forget the lesson he received from the kind-hearted peasant girl．

　　Do you know something about tree rings（年轮）? Do you know they can tell us what the weather was like, sometimes even hundreds of years ago?

　　A tree will grow well in a climate（气候）with lots of sun shines and rainfall（雨量）. And little sunshine or rain fall will limit（限制）the growth of a tree. We can see the change of climate by studying the tree rings. For example, to find out the weather of ten years ago, count the rings of a tree from the outside to the inside, if the tenth ring is far from the eleventh ring, then we're sure that it was sunny and rainy most of that year. If it is near to the eleventh ring, then the climate that year was bad.

A．Tree rings grow far from each other.

B．Tree rings become thinner.

C．Trees don't need sunshine or rainfall.

A．whether a tree was strong or not

B．whether people took good care of the trees or not

C．whether the climate was good or not.

A．Trees could tell the change of the weather.

B．Trees could be used for burning and for building houses.

C．Trees could make weather not too hot or too cold.

A．Because bad weather stopped the growth of trees

B．Because they no longer had water and the land became sand

C．Because they didn't have enough trees for burning