There was once a man called Mr. Flowers, and flowers were his only joy in life. He spent all his spare time in one of his four glass-houses and grew flowers of every color, with long and difficult names, for competitions, he tried to grow a rose of a new color to win the silver cup(银杯) for the Rose of the Year.

Mr. Flowers’ glass-houses were very close to a middle school. Boys of around thirteen years of age were often tempted to throw a stone(石头) or two at one of Mr. Flowers’ glass-houses. So Mr. Flower did his best to be in or close by his glass-houses at the beginning and end of the school day.

But it was not always possible to be on watch at those times. Mr. Flowers had tried in many ways to protect his glass, but nothing had been useful. He had been to report to the headmaster, but this bad not done any good. He had tried to drive away the boys when they threw stones. He had even picked up all the stones around his garden, so that the boys would have nothing to throw, but they soon found others.

At last Mr. Flowers had a good idea. He put up a large notice. It was made of good, strong wood. It was some meters away from the glass-houses. On it he had written the words: DO NOT THROW STONES AT THIS NOTICE. After that, Mr Flowers had no further trouble: The boys were much more attempted to throw stoned at the notice than at the glass-houses.

1.It was Mr. Flowers’ hope to ____

A．build glass-houses in his spare time

B．grow the rose in a glass-house

C．win a silver cup for growing a rose of a new color

D．grow a rose with the longest name

2.Boys were often tempted to ____

A．throw stones at Mr. Flowers’ glass-houses

B．throw stones at Mr. Flowers from their school

C．be in or close by Mr. Flowers’ glass-houses

D．play with Mr. Flowers near his glass-houses

3.Mr Flowers stayed in or close by his glass-houses ____

A．at times when school-boys were walking near them

B．all the school day when there were no boys around

C．where he could not be seen by the boya passing

D．in his spare time at the beginning and end of the school day

4.Mr. Flowers had tried to ____ to protect his glass.

A．be on watch in his spare time

B．ask the headmaster for help

C．pick up all the stones around his garden

D．do all the above

5.Mr. Flowers’ good idea was to ____

A．write some words on the glass

B．put up a larger notice to cover his glasshouses

C．give the boys something else to throw stones at

D．send for policemen

 

Mr. Li was in bed and was trying to go to sleep when he heard the bell ring . He turned on the light and looked at his clock. It was half past twelve. “Who can it be at this time of night?” he wondered. He decided to go and find out .So he got out of bed, put on his dressing gown and went to the door. When he opened the door, there was nobody there. “That’s very strange.” He thought. Then he went back to his bedroom, took off his dressing gown, got back into bed, turned off the light and tried to go to sleep.
A few minutes later he heard the bell ring again. Mr. Li jumped out of bed very quickly and rushed to the door. He opened it, but again he found no one there. He shut the door and found a piece of paper with some words on it: “It is now after midnight, so it is April 1st. April fool to you!”
“Oh, it was the English boy next door!” Mr. Li exclaimed, and almost smiled, He went back to bed and fell asleep immediately. The bell did not ring again.
【小题1】Mr. Li was trying to go to sleep when he heard ________.

A． the telephone ring

B． the bell ring

C． someone knock at the door

D． someone shout

【小题2】He turned on the light and _______.

A． got out of bed

B． looked out of the window

C． looked at his watch

D． looked at his clock

【小题3】When he opened the door for the first time, there was ________ there.

A．a boy

B．a piece of paper

C．someone

D．nobody

【小题4】There were some words on the piece of paper: “It is now_____ April 1st . April fool to you!”

A． before midnight, so it is

B． after midnight, so it is

C． before noon, so it will be

D． after noon, so it was

【小题5】The English boy rang the bell because he ________.

A． had something important to tell Mr. Li

B． Wanted to give Mr. Li a piece of paper

C． Wanted to make fun of Mr. Li

D． Wanted to borrow Mr. Li’s bell

One morning, a blind* boy sat in front of a building with a hat by his feet .He held a sign* which said,“I am blind. Please help me. There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat .He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps* and ask,“Are you the one who changed my sign in the morning? What did you write?”

The man said,“I only wrote the truth. I said what you said, but in a different way.”

What he had written was,“Today is a beautiful day, but I can’t see it.”

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

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Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty* of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

The first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

There are at least two lessons we can learn from this simple story.

The first is: Treasure*what you have. Someone else has less. Try your best to help those who need your help.

The second is: Be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way.

1.On the sign what the man wrote was,“_______.”

A. Treasure what we have already had.

B. Today is a beautiful day, but I can’t see it.

C. We are so lucky that we are not blind.

D. Try your best to help those who need your help.

2.The word“recognized”here in Chinese means______.

A.承认                                    B.接受

C.表扬                                    D.认出

3.From the passage we know that _____.

A. the boy always has a hat on his head.

B. the man is one of his friends.

C. the boy is blind and needs help.

D. the boy works for the man.

4.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A .The hat began to fill up after the man wrote some words on the sign.

B. The man took away all the few coins from the hat.

C. The boy wanted to get enough money to go to school.

D. Nobody wanted to give any coins to the blind boy.

 

On June 26, 2000, two scientists, called Francis Collins and Craig Venter, told the world that they could read the whole “map” of the human body: DNA. DNA is something that everybody has, and it tells the body what to do. DNA is the reason that we look like our mother and father, because we get some of their DNA to make our own.
People have been trying to understand the human body for a long time. In 1860, Gregor Mendel discovered a special reason why we look the same as other people in our family. It is because of small things named “genes” in our body. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick made another discovery and found out that those small parts are real messages written in the DNA with a special language.
In 1961, Marshall Nirenberg and Johann Matthaci found a message in DNA showing how DNA tells the cell（细胞）to build its parts. Scientists have now found all the words in the DNA map, but we still do not understand what they all do. By understanding what just one “word”   means, we can help save more people from several illnesses.
Most people hope that this will help make better medicine and help sick people. Other people worry that when people begin to know more words and find out lots of other information, we might use it in a wrong way, just to make people more attractive, or stop sick people from getting jobs. Man would have to meet a lot of trouble if DNA technic wasn’t limited（限制）in use.
【小题1】When did we first know why we look like other people m our family?

A．In 1860

B．In 1953

C．In 1961

D．In 2000

【小题2】What does the underlined word “ genes” mean?
A. The “map” of DNA.                B. A special language.
C. Small parts of DNA.                D. DNA
【小题3】What did the two scientists first discover in 1961 ?
A. The “map” of DNA.               B. A new illness.
C. The language of DNA.              D. A message of DNA.
【小题4】What can we do if we understand some “ words” of the language inside the body

A．Make people get new jobs.

B．Make medicine for illnesses.

C．Make maps of human.

D．Make people less attractive.

【小题5】What do people think about this work’?

A．It can cause good or bad results.

B．It can cause only good results.

C．It can cause good results but won’t work.

D．It can cause only bad results.

The story below is a true story that happened in September.

During the month of September, a dear friend of mine lost her husband suddenly in an accident. The tragedy was a great shock to everyone.

This accident was sudden and certainly unexpected. It made me realize the fact that you just don’t know when a loved one is no longer going to be with you. We sometimes take our loved ones for granted(当然)，and we expect that they will be with us all the time. However, as we all know, life does not work that way and sometimes we get a wake-up call that shocks us and makes us stand back and realize how short life is.

To cheer her up, I tried to imagine if I were in her shoes how I would feel. It was impossible to imagine what she was going through. What words could I say to help her?Sometimes words just can’t express our feelings. Sometimes our actions are much more meaningful than words. So I gave her a hug(拥抱)…

Life is too short, and we should treasure(珍惜) every day staying with our loved ones.

1.The writer’s friend lost her husband _______.     

A．in spring

B．in summer

C．in autumn

D．in winter

2. What does the underlined word “ tragedy” mean in Chinese?

A 机会           B. 生存        C．悲剧            D. 闹剧

3. To cheer her friend up, the writer ______.

A．gave her some flowers

B．said some words

C．did nothing

D．gave her a hug

4. In the writer’s opinion, life for us is ______.

A．short

B．serious

C．unexpected

D．meaningless

5. According to Paragraph 3, what did the writer realize from the accident?

A． We don’t know when we will lose our loved people.

B． Sudden and unexpected accidents happen everywhere.

C． Her friend was unlucky to meet the accident.

D． Accidents usually took place in September.