For the first time, Zhang Shengyu, a student from Laiyang Middle School in Shandong, didn’t ask her mother to buy her a new schoolbag or any new pens for the beginning of the school term. “My old schoolbag can still be used, so there is no need to buy a new one,” Zhang said, “I’ve decided to be thrifty from now on.”

       As the center of the family’s attention, many of the one-child generation (一代人) do not know about the hardships of life. They sometimes have no idea of the value of things. Many students would throw away pens and erasers that haven’t been used up and buy new ones. Some like to compete with each other to see whose clothes and school things are more expensive.

       On its website in January, the Ministry of Education called on students to form good habits such as working hard, being helpful and thrifty, to avoid wasting food and to pay more attention to study and others.

       Many schools consider teaching the value of money to be an important lesson and encourage their students to be thrifty.

       Students at No. 44 Middle School of Shijiazhuang, Hebei planted many fruit trees in their school. Through taking care of the trees, the students learned how to value things.

       At Tie Yi Middle School in Xi’an, students organized a group to collect waste and reuse them. “What we students do are small things, but I think with everyone’s work, we can make a difference,” said Li Dongdong, 16, a student from the group.

1 The underlined word “thrifty” in Paragraph 1 means ______.

A. giving money to the poor              B. spending lots of money

C. spending no money at all                       D. using money carefully and wisely

2 Many of the one-child generation usually ______.

A. waste things                                      

B. know about the hardships of life

C. don’t know the prices of many things  

D. like competition with each other in study

3 In January, the Ministry of Education called on students to do the followings EXCEPT _________. 

A. working hard                                   B. being thrifty          

C. helping others                                 D. protecting environment

4 We can conclude that Li Dongdong ____________.

   A. took care of trees                     B. planted fruit trees

   C. collected waste                                       D. didn’t ask his mother for a new school bag

5 What is the best title of the passage?

A. School activities                                  B. Waste not, want not

C. Make a difference                    D. The problems of one-child generation 

　 The word, “photography”, was first used in 1839. It comes from the Greek words that mean “to write with light”. But photography could only give people static pictures. So scientists were trying hard to find ways to make pictures that can move. They made lots of experiments, but failed again and again. It was Eadweard Muybridge who finally succeeded. He was the first photographer to try this successfully. But how did he make it? It was an interesting story.

Back in 1872, people didn’t know exactly (确切地) whether all four of a horse’s hooves (蹄) left the ground at the same time when it was running. A gentleman called Leland Stanford made a bet with his friend about it. Most people believed that a horse always had one hoof on the ground, or it would fall over. But Stanford didn’t think so.

At that time, it was hard to know who could win the bet, because a horse’s legs move so fast that it is impossible to tell just by looking. So they needed a way to record the movement of a running horse. Then Stanford offered $25,000 to the famous photographer, Muybridge, to help find the answer. In the beginning, Muybridge failed to get clear images, but he didn’t give up. He continued to improve his cameras. In 1878, after many experiments, he managed to get a sequence (连续) of 12 photos. One of them clearly showed that all four of the horse’s hooves were off the ground at the same time. And when the photos moved fast, people could see a horse running.

Though is usually considered as the person who created the first movie in 1889, it was the work of Eadweard Muybridge and the bet that led to Edison’s invention.

53. The underlined word “static” in Paragraph 1 most probably means _______.

A. pretty　　　　　　　　　　　 B. dark　　　　　　　　　　　　 C. moving　　　　　　　　　 D. still

54. What did Leland Stanford make a bet with his friend about?

　 A. Whose horse ran faster.

　 B. whether a horse would fall over while running.

　 C. whether it was possible for scientists to make moving pictures.

　 D.Whether a horse’s hooves all left the ground at the same time while running.

55. Muybridge finally found the exact answer to the bet in _______.

　 A. 1839　　 　　　　　　　　 B. 1872 　　　　　　　　　　 C. 1878　　 　　　　　　 D. 1889

56. The passage mainly tells us _______.

　 A. that Thomas Edison created the first movie .

　 B. that Eadweard Muybridge created the first static pictures

　 C. how photography helped people know more about animals

　 D. how Eadweard Muybridge got pictures of motion (移动) successfully