When you are about to do something brave, a cheerful wish of “Good luck!” from a friend can be helpful. But if you think you need lots of luck, what else might you do?

In the UK and US there are some strange traditions for bringing yourself a little more good luck. Some are hundreds of years old and some are much newer.

Have you heard the saying “When you wish upon a star”? If you are looking up at the sky on a clear night and you see a sudden flash of light, it is probably a shooting star! Seeing one doesn’t happen very often. The saying goes that if you see one you have been very lucky, and so if you make a wish, it will come true.

Maybe you have heard of the lucky rabbit’s foot. Some people believe that rabbits are lucky animals, so they carry a part of the rabbit, its foot, for good luck. There are all kinds of strange, unclear rules about which of the rabbit’s feet is the luckiest. It is said that this good luck tradition is the oldest one of all. However, as the funny saying goes, “Depend on the rabbit’s foot if you will, but remember it didn’t work for the rabbit!”

People in Britain love trees. If it is autumn and leaves are falling from the trees, some people try to catch the leaves as they fall because they think each leaf they catch will bring them a lucky month in the following year—they will need to catch 12 falling leaves to have a whole of good luck!

1.From Paragraph 3, we know that ______.

2.British people try to catch 12 falling leaves because ______.

3.In Paragraph 5, the underlined word “them” refers to（指）______.

One day, a teacher was giving a speech to his students. He held up a glass of water and asked the class, "How heavy do you think this glass of water is?"

The students' answers ranged from 20 g to 500 g. "It does not matter on the weight itself. It depends on how long you hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it is OK. If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you will have to call an ambulance (救护车). It is exactly the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. "

If we carry our burdens (负担) all the time, sooner or later, we will not be able to carry on, the burden becoming increasingly heavier. "

"What you have to do is to put the glass down, rest for a while before holding it up again.”

We have to put down the burden sometimes, so that we can be refreshed (使恢复) and are able to carry on.

So before you return home from work tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it back home. You can pick it up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you are having now on your shoulders, let it down for a moment if you can.

1.The teacher brought a glass of water to the class because_________.

A. he was very thirsty??????????

B. his arms were strong????

C. it was a good example???????

D. he wants to share the water with students??

2."A glass of water" in this passage referred to (指)_________.

A. knowledge????? B. the burden?????? C. the time????????? D. the money???????

3.According to the teacher, you may feel_________ if you put down the burden sometimes.

A. more stressed???? B. much heavier???? C. more relaxed????? D. much happier

4.This was a lesson about_____

A. how to relax oneself in life???????? ???

B. how to solve a physics problem???

C. how to keep fit by drinking water???????

D. how to study well

5.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A. You could become heavier and heavier if you held a glass of water in your hand.

B. All the students in the class knew what the weight of the glass of water exactly was.

C. The teacher had a good way of making his lesson clear and easy to be understood.

D. All the students can understand the teacher’s lesson.

Thomas Edison was a great American inventor. He was born to a poor family in 1847. His mother taught him at home. He often observed things carefully and he made over 1,300 inventions during his life time. He was often said to be the greatest genius(天才) of his age. There are only a few men in all of history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light. But Edison could never be happy only because someone said he was a genius. “There is no such thing as genius,” Edison said. He also said that what people called genius was mostly hard work. But Edison was a dreamer as well as a worker. From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the secrets of nature. Nature, he often said, is full of secrets. He tried to understand them; then, he tried to learn what could usefully be done with them.

Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people will do almost anything instead of the difficult work of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking can give men enjoyment and pleasure.

Edison could not understand how anyone could be uninterested in life. As he loved to think, he also loved to work. On the day he became 75 years old, someone asked him what ideas he had about life. “Work, ” he answered back, “discovering the secrets of nature and using them to make men happier.” He said he had enough inventions in his mind to give him another 100 years of work.

1.Edison was______________.

A．interested in changing people’s ideas

B．interested in discovering the secrets of nature

C．very much uninterested in nature

D．uninterested in making people happier by discovering the secrets of nature

2.Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?

A．Many other people have changed Edison’s life.

B．Edison has changed the lives of many other people.

C．Only a few men in history can change other people’s lives.

D．Edison invented the electric light.

3.The last sentence in the passage most probably implies(意指)___________.

A．people of his time were ready to give Edison another 100 year’s work

B．Life is too short for Edison to invent more for human beings

C．Edison made 100 inventions in his life

D．Edison was able to live and work for 100 years