Not everyone has a chance to be a detective（侦探）, but I got one when I was 13 years old. It happened in 1994.
One afternoon, I was walking down the street when I saw my father’s new car. I expected(期望) to see my father in the driver’s seat. But to my surprise, I saw a young woman driving instead, “She has stolen my father’s car,” I thought. So I quickly stopped a taxi and got in. I said to the driver, “Follow that new car in front,” I told him why.
The taxi driver had a car phone, so I asked him to call the police. Soon we heard the sound of a police car. The police told the woman to stop the car using a loudspeaker. The taxi came to a stop, too. I got out right then and said to the woman, “This is not your car. It's my father’s car.”
The woman smiled and said, “Oh. You’re Mr. Johnson’s son, right? I've seen your photo in your father’s office.”
Before I could say one word, the woman explained that she was my father’s new assistant（助手）. My father had asked her to take his computer to the shop to have it repaired. He lent her his car. After hearing this, I called my father and he told us what the woman said was right. The police and the taxi driver laughed. I felt very sorry. It was both the first time and the last time I worked as a detective.
【小题1】 When did the story take place?

The Sound of Speed （速度）

Kathy was a university student. Like most students she had very little money, but she wanted to buy a car.

“If I can buy one really cheap that works, ”she thought, “I will save money on bus fares（车费）. Then I’ll have more to spend on food. ”

She spent a day looking at cars in the second-hand car yards（车场）.Most of them were much too expensive, but at last found one for＄250.

The car was rusty and the paint was badly damaged（损坏）,but it worked .

“It’s got a good engine ,”the salesman said, “and the gear box（变速箱）is O.K. Forget everything else.”

Kathy bought the car and drove it out of the car yard. Everything was wrong with it except for the engine and gear box, which worked very well.

“As long as they work,” Kathy thought, “nothing else matters. The salesman was right.”

Unfortunately, a few days later, while she was driving to her university, a police car drove up beside her and made her stop. A young policeman got out of his car and walked around Kathy’s car. He looked at it disbelievingly.

He made a list of the things wrong with the car. It was a very long list.

Then he looked inside the car.

“Does your speedometer work?” he asked.

Kathy shook （摇）her head.

“It is against the law（法律）,miss,” he said, “not to know how fast you are travelling.”

Kathy smiled at him sweetly.

“Oh, but I do know how fast I am travelling,”she said. “Up to 30 miles an hour, the doors rattle. Between 31 and 50 miles an hour, the whole car rattles. Over 50 miles an hour, I rattle.”

1．Why did Kathy want a car?

A．She liked driving

B．All her friend had cars.

C．College was a long way from her home

D．She wanted to save money on bus fares

2．What kind of car did Kathy buy?

A．a very fast car                 B．a rusty old car

C．an police car                  D．an expensive second –hand car

3．Why was Kathy pleased with the car at first?

A．It was a very good car.

B．The engine and gear box worked well.

C．There weren’t many things wrong with it. 

D．It went very fast

4．Why did the policeman look at Kathy’s car disbelievingly?

A．He thought Kathy was telling lies.

B．He did not trust students.

C．The car had so many things wrong with it.

D．Kathy had broken the law.

5．How did Kathy know how fast she was travelling?

A．She looked at the speedometer.    

B．It couldn’t go faster than 50 miles an hour.

C．Because she knew what the rattles meant.

D．The police officer told her.

Old age may not sound exciting. But recent findings offer good news for older people and for people worried about getting older. Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of 50. In fact, they say by the age of 85, people are happier with their life than they were when they were 18 years old.
The findings came from a survey of more than 340,000 adults in the United States. The Gallup Organization questioned them by telephone in 2008. At that time, the people were between the ages of 18 and 85. The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about mental or emotional stress.
Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of 24 and 25. The findings showed that stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties.
The study also showed that men and women have similar feeling patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men.
Researchers say they do not know why happiness increases as people get older. One theory is that, as people grow older, they grow more thankful for what they have and have better control of their feelings. They so spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
Professor Stone says the emotional patterns could be linked to changes in how people see the world, or maybe even changes in brain chemistry.
The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age.
【小题1】According to the survey of the Gallup Organization people are most likely to become happier      .

Old age may not sound exciting. But recent findings offer good news for older people and for people worried about getting older. Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of fifty. In fact, they say by the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they were when they were eighteen years old.

The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about mental or emotional stress. They also found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five.The findings showed that stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties.

The study also showed that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men.

Researchers say they do not know why happiness increases as people get older. One theory is that, as people grow older, they grow more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.

1.When will people become happier and experience less worry?

A. 18 years old     B. 80 years old     C. 50 years old    D. 25 years old

2.What does the underlined word“emotions”mean in Paragragh Two?

A. 体力           B. 情感          C. 智力         D. 目标

3.Who has the most sadness, stress and worry?

A. a fifty-year-old man             B. a fifty-year-old woman

C. a twenty-five-year-old woman       D. a twenty-five-year-old man

4.According to the last paragraph, why may people be happier at an older age?

A. They are more thankful for what they have

B. They have better control of their emotions

C. They spend less time thinking about their bad experiences

D. All of the above.