Look at the light and beautiful snowflakes（雪花） falling．Do you want to hold them in your hands? They are always lost when they meet your hands．

Well, this isn’t just a problem for you．It was a problem for Wilson Bentley, too．

In the 1870s, Wilson Bentley was just a teenager．His family lived in a small town in northeast America．Winters there were long and hard．Bentley’s mother was once a schoolteacher．She taught him at home．Bentley didn’t go to school until he was 14．He was a quiet boy, and loved reading his mother’s books．

But it was his mother’s microscope（显微镜） that interested him．When the other boys were playing with balls, little Bentley was studying the things like drops of water, flowers and snowflakes．Bentley loved watching snowflakes．For the next two years, young Bentley spent many winter days in a cold room watching these ice crystals（晶体） through the microscope．

The boy thought they were so beautiful that he started to draw pictures of them．But there were so many snowflakes that he couldn’t draw them all．

How could he keep their beauty forever? Bentley thought of buying a camera．

The boy and his mother asked his father to buy one．But his father didn’t agree．He thought the whole thing was a bad idea．He thought the only thing a farmer should do was farming．

But finally Bentley did get a camera．For more than a year he tried to take pictures of snowflakes．On January 15, 1885, during a snowstorm, Bentley took the first ever photo of an ice crystal with his camera．“It was the greatest moment of my life,” Bentley said later．

For 13 years, Bentley worked quietly and took thousands of photos of ice crystals．Later he became known as “Snowflake” Bentley．

1．The best title for this passage is “______”．

   A．Snowflake Photos                              B．“Snowflake” Bentley

   C．Long and Hard Winters                    D．Teenage Photographer

2．What kind of person do you think Wilson Bentley was?

   A．He was outgoing                                B．He was too serious

   C．He was interested in learning                D．He was very warm-hearted

3．The “ice crystals” in the fourth paragraph refers to “______”．

   A．water drops      B．rain drops       C．flowers                D．snowflakes

A

Today almost everyone knows computers and the Internet. If I ask you “What is the most important in your life?” maybe you will say “Computers and the Internet.”

The first computer was made in 1946. it was very big but it worked slowly. Today computers are getting smaller and smaller. But they work faster and faster. What can computers do? A writer has said, “People can’t live without computers today.”

The Internet came a little later than computers. It is about twenty-five years later than computers. But now it can be found almost everywhere. We can use it to read books, writer letters, do shopping, play computer games or make friends.

Many students like the Internet very much. They often go into the Internet as soon as they are free. They make friends on the Internet and maybe they have never seen these friends. They don’t know their real names, ages, and even sex. They are so interested in making the “unreal friends” that they can’t put their hearts into study. Many of them can’t catch up with others on many subjects because of that.

We can use computers and the Internet to learn more about the world. But at the same time, we should remember that not all the things can be done by computers and the Internet.

1. The Internet can not be used for______.

A. studying B. shopping C. thinking D. playing

2. When the computer was invented, it was______.

A. large and worked quickly B. small and worked slowly

C. large but worked slowly D. small but worked quickly

3. The Internet was born in about________.

A. 1960 B. 1970 C. 1980 D. 1985

4. Which of the following is TRUE?

A. Few students like going into the Internet. B. Students use the Internet to make “unreal friends.”

C. These “Unreal friends” often meet each other D. Students know the friends on the Internet very well

5. What does the writer think of the Internet?

A. It is wonderful B. It can make students study harder

C. It is not good for students D. It is helpful, but we can’t do everything on it.

B

Until a few years ago, only boys could become students at the university of Ruritania （鲁里坦尼亚大学）. Later the university decided to take girls in. But one of the teachers, Mr Goller, was not pleased at all. He had not wanted to let girl students in.

Mr Goller always began his lessons with the word “Gentlemen!” What could he do now? Well, when the girl students came to his lessons for the first time, he still began with the word. For him the girls were just not there. Then one day there was only one boy in his class among a lot of girls. For a moment, Mr Goller didn't know what to do. Then he began, “Sir! ”

Finally a terrible day came when there were no boys in his class He came into the room, looked at the girls and said, “Oh, nobody's here today!” he turned and went out without giving his lessons.

6．Several years ago, ______.  

A．there was no girl studying in the university.

B．Mr Goller didn't teach in the university

C．the university let girl students in

D．most of the students in the university were boys.

7．Mr Goller usually said “______”when he began his lessons. 

A．Sir　B．Good morning　C．Gentlemen　D．Hello

8．When the girls came to his lessons, Mr Goller was ______. 

A．surprised　B．afraid　C．glad　D．unhappy

9．The writer wants us to know how Mr Goller ______.  

A．agreed to let the girls in　B．didn't like his teaching

C．always didn't know What to do with the girls　D．only liked to teach boy students.

10．We can know from the passage that ______.    

A．the boy students didn't enjoy Mr Goller's lessons

B．we will not see the girl students in Mr Goller's class.

C．Mr Goller was loved by his students

D．Mr Goller will not work in the university.

Over the last 70 years, researchers have been studying happy and unhappy people and finally found out ten factors that make a difference. Our feelings of well-being at any moment are decided to a certain degree by genes. However, of all the factors, wealth and age are the top two.
Money can buy a degree of happiness. But once you can afford to feed, clothe and house yourself, each extra dollar makes less and less difference. Researchers find that, on average, wealthier people are happier. But the link between money and happiness is complex. In the past half-century, the average income has sharply increased in developed countries, yet happiness levels have remained almost the same. Once your basic needs are met, money only seems to increase happiness if you have more than your friends, neighbors and colleagues.
“Dollars buy status (social position), and status makes people feel better,” say some experts, which helps explain why people who can seek status in other ways, scientists or actors, for example, may happily accept relatively poorly-paid jobs.
In his research, Professor Alex Michalos found that the people whose desires, not just for money, but for friends, family, job, health, rose furthest beyond what they already had, tended to be less happy than those who felt a smaller gap. Indeed, the size of the gap predicted happiness about five times better than income alone. “The gap measures just blow away the measures of only income.”says Michalos.
Another factor that has to do with happiness is age. Old age may not be so bad “Given all the problems of aging, how could the elderly be more satisfied?” asks Professor Laura Carstensen. In one survey, Carstensen interviewed 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and asked them to fill out an emotion questionnaire. She found that old people reported positive emotions just as often as young people. Some scientists suggest older people may expect life to be harder and learn to live with it, or they’re more realistic about their time running out. Older people have learned to focus on things that make them happy and let go of those that don’t.
“People realize not only what they have, but also that what they have cannot last forever,” she says. “A goodbye kiss to a husband or wife at the age of 85, for example, may bring far more complex emotional responses than a similar kiss to a boy or girl friend at the age of 20.”
【小题1】Some actors would like to accept poorly-paid jobs because the jobs__________.