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.

1.The turning point in Saunders' life came when ________.

2.We can learn from the text that Ridgway ________.

3.What do we know about Saunders?

4.The underlined word "Intrigued" in the third paragraph probably means ________.

5.It can be inferred that Saunders' journey to the North Pole ________.

　Moreno, Stanley, and 23 other students from Westfield State College were on vacation in Acapulco, Mexico. This was the last night in the hotel. It was 4 am, Moreno and Stanley came back from a party.

　　Just as Stanley went to sleep, he heard loud noise outside. From the balcony (阳台) of their fourth-floor room, Moreno and Stanley saw black smoke out of one window and heard people shouting.

　　Moreno ran out into the corridor and began knocking on doors and shouting, "Fire!" After that, he went upstairs in a hurry to tell other people. At the same time, Stanley was downstairs helping people get through the smoke-filled room. There he joined forces with Nalewanski, a 21-year-old boy who had a room on the second floor.

　　"Let's go," Nalewanski said. He and Stanley wet their shirts in the bathroom and put them around their mouths and noses so they could breathe. Then they ran up the stairs. On the fourth floor they found Moreno feeling terrible (Moreno had made it up to the eighth floor before turning back). But after making sure he could get back down on his own, they continued upstairs, knocking on the doors on every floor.

　　In the end, no one was seriously hurt. Moreno said, "There were hundreds of people in the hotel. It was our duty to help them."

1. 　　　 students from Westfield State College were on vacation in Acapulco, Mexico.

2. Which floor does Stanley live on?

3. Nalewanski and Stanley put their wet shirts around their mouths and noses in order to 　　　 .

4. What is the correct order?

　　　a. Moreno told other people.

　　　b. No one was seriously hurt.

　　　c. Nalewanski joined them to save people.

　　　d. Stanley and Moreno saw the smoke.

5. From the fourth paragraph, we can know 　　　

It was a quiet village in which there was a military camp. It was far from the towns and cities and there were some high mountains around. Of course it was a good place for training the new soldiers. But it was difficult for the young men to go outside. Mr. White, an officer of forty, was strict with them and he hardly let them leave the camp.

　　Once Mr. White was ill in bed. He couldn't work, so a young officer, Mr. Hunt, began to train the new soldiers instead of him. He knew the young men well and let nine soldiers go to the nearest town to have a holiday. But night fell and none came back to the camp. He was worried about it and stood at the gate. It was five to twelve when Mr. Hunt decided to go to the town and see what was happening with the young men. He started the car quickly and set off. At that moment the nine soldiers came back. It seemed they were all drunk. Of course they found the officer was angry.

　　"I'm sorry, sir," said the first soldier. "I left the town on time. But something was wrong with my bus on my way here. I had to buy a horse and made it run fast. Bad luck! It died and I had to run back."

　　And the other seven soldiers said they were late for the same reasons. It was the last soldier's turn. He said, "I'm sorry, sir. I got on a bus on time, but…"

　　Having heard this, the officer became even angrier and stopped him at once. He called out, "If you say something was wrong with your bus, I'll punish you at once!"

　　"No, no, sir," said the young man. "My bus was all right, but their horses were in the way!"

1.The military camp was built in the village to _______.

A．stop the soldiers going to towns

B．stop the soldiers meeting their friends

C．train the new soldiers

D．make the young men live quietly

2.The nine soldiers returned to the camp late because _______.

A．something was wrong with their buses

B．their horses died on the way back

C．it took them much time to run back

D．they all had drunk much in the town

3.The underlined phrase in the way in the last paragraph means ______.

A．stopping somebody from moving

B．getting drunk

C．standing on the road

D．running very fast

The weather was fine last night. My friend named Steve and I decided to sleep in the open air. I found the sleeping bags under the bed in my room. I also packed some snacks. We could hardly wait for it to get dark. We opened our sleeping bags and put them on the grass in front of my house. Steve and I played some games, talked about something interesting and had a snack. In the end it got dark. We were just falling asleep when we heard something unusual.
“Maybe it is just a small animal,” I said. Steve said nothing, but I could feel he was frightened. After I looked around, I was sure it wasn’t an animal. It was my little brother, Tommy.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “You know, Tommy, you frightened us.”
“Sorry, Bill,” he said. “It’s hot in the room. I want to sleep outside with you.”
“Well, OK,” I said. “Just come and lie down next to us.”
“Good night, Bill and Steve,” said Tommy. “And thanks.”
【小题1】What did Steve and Bill decide to do last night?                              
【小题2】Where did Bill find the sleeping bags?                                    
【小题3】How did Steve feel when he heard something strange?                        
【小题4】What did Tommy come out of the house to do?                               
【小题5】How many persons slept in the open air at last in the story?