Matt and his wife lived in the country. Matt was very mean and hated spending money. One day a fair（交易会）came to the nearby town.
They went to the fair and looked at all the things to buy. Matt’s wife wanted to buy a hat only costing $28, but was refused. Later on, a comb of $5 attracted her attention, but he would not let her spend any money.
Then, in a nearby field, they saw a small airplane. “Fun flight!” the notice said, “$10 for 10 minutes.”
Matt had never been in an airplane and he wanted to go on a fun flight. However, he didn’t want to pay for his wife either. “I’ve only got $10,” he told the pilot. “Can my wife come with me for free?” The pilot wasn’t selling many tickets, so he said, “I’ll make a bargain with you. If your wife doesn’t scream, she can have a free flight.”
Matt agreed, and got into the small airplane with his wife. The pilot took off and made his airplane do all kinds of things. At one moment it was flying upside down.
When the plane landed, the pilot said, “OK, your wife didn’t make a sound. She can have her ride free.”
“Thank you,” Matt said, “it wasn’t easy for her, you know, especially when she fell out.”
【小题1】How much did the couple spend at the fair?

Homework and stress are rarely reduced inside the classroom. Meanwhile, outside the classroom, the pressure is on to find scholarships for college.
According to Braintrack, a higher education database with worldwide reach, more than 3 billion US dollars (18 billion yuan) in private scholarships are awarded to college students annually. Average awards range from $2,000 to $3,000.
The scholarship application process is similar to the college application process: forms to be completed, test scores and transcripts to be sent, essays to be written and often interviews to be prepared for.
A few great places to start looking for scholarships are: www.fastweb.com, www.finaid.org and www.collegexpress.com.Check out the annual scholarship guidebooks Scholarships, Grants & Prizes by Peterson’s and the Ultimate Scholarship Book: Billions of Dollars in Scholarships, Grants and Prizes by Gen Tanabe and Kelly Tanabe.
Be selective. Thoroughly research the qualifications required by each of the scholarships. Don’t waste your time applying for those that are need-based if you can’t produce the appropriate documents.
Research past recipients (接受者). Check out the websites of the organizations sponsoring the scholarships. Many post the biographies of past recipients. You don’t need to have cured cancer, but if you don’t think your résumé (履历) measures up to the past winners’, you might be better served by moving onto the next scholarship on your list. Prepare for the interview.
You’ll want to dazzle them with your personality, but above all you’ll want to be prepared. Find someone you trust to conduct a similar interview with you – someone who will be honest with you and provide valuable suggestions.
Let your personality shine through in your essays. The essays are the best way for students to share who they are, where they’ve come from, what they’ve overcome and so on. Tell your story in an interesting and persuasive  way. And if you do have an interview, send a thank-you note afterward.
By Lee Bierer
1.What is the author’s main purpose in writing the article?

A．To explain where to find scholarships for US colleges.

B．To inform readers of the scholarship application process.

C．To introduce some typical scholarships offered by US colleges.

D．To give tips on applying for US college scholarships.

2.If you want to learn about past recipients of a scholarship, you can use __.

A．www.collegexpress.com

B．the annual scholarship guidebooks published by Peterson’s

C．the websites of the organizations sponsoring the scholarships

D．The Ultimate Scholarship Book: Billions of Dollars in Scholarships, Grants and Prizes

3.The underlined word “dazzle” in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to ___.

A．influence? B．impress? C．guide? D．present

4.To increase your chance of winning a scholarship, you are advised to ____.

A．apply for as many scholarships as you can

B．tell an interesting story in your essay

C．do a similar interview to help you prepare for the real one

D．have a talk with past recipients and try to talk like they do

Below is a web page from http://www.parents.com/.

Kid of the Year Photo Competition
Enter your kid’s photo today and win! We’re giving away 52 weekly $250 prizes from Readers’ Choice votes. PLUS our editors will select one entry to win our grand prize of $7,000.
Official Competition Rules
No purchase necessary to enter or win.
The Kid of the Year Photo Competition entry period begins at 12:00 a.m.
January 23, 2011, and ends January 21, 2012 (“Entry Period”). Entries must arrive by 9:00 p.m.
on January 21, 2012 (“Entry Deadline”). Entries will not be acknowledged or returned.
SPONSOR(赞助商): Meredith Corporation, 1716 Locust Street, Des Moines, Iowa.
ENTRY: There will be two methods of entry.
Share My Entry:
Visit http://www.parents.com/photos/photo-contests-1/kid-of-the-year/ and click the button to enter.
Facebook Entry:
Visit http://Facebook.com/ParentsMagazine and click the Kid of 2011 tab(选项卡).
Then complete the registration form and follow the instructions to upload one album of up to six photos
of your child aged three months to eight years. You may provide one description and one album title that will
be applied to all photos. Photos, without any brand names or trademarks, must be taken by participants,
non-professional, unpublished and may not have won any prize or award. Photos must be .jpeg or .bmp image
formats (格式) and cannot be over 3 MB
This promotion is in no way sponsored, supported or run by, or associated with Facebook. You are
providing your information to Parents Magazine and not to Facebook. The information you provide will
only be used to run the promotion and register for Parents.com.
LIMIT: One entry per family, per child, per week. One weekly prize per child. For entries of more
than one child in a family, the entry process must be completed separately for each child. No group entries.
【小题1】We can learn from the passage that _________.

A．provide a description and an album title for the kid’s photos B．go to Meredith Corporation to fill out the registration forms C．complete the entry process separately for each of her kids D．provide the information to Facebook if she chooses Facebook Entry

The Man behind Blue Jeans

Levi Strauss was born in 1829 in Bavaria, Germany. He was the fifth of six children. His father sold dry goods from door to door. (Dry goods include many different things: fabric, thread, scissors, combs, buttons, yarn, etc.)

In 1845, his father died. All six children decided to go to the United States. Two of Strauss’ bothers started a dry goods company in New York City. Strauss’ sister Fanny and her husband started a similar business in San Francisco. Strauss decided to go to the southeastern part of the United States. For eight years, he walked along the country roads selling dry goods from door to door –just like his father in Bavaria.

In 1853, Strauss decided to move to San Francisco. (At that time, thousands of people traveled to California to look for gold.) On the way to California, Strauss sold almost all of his dry goods. He had only one thing left—some canvas.

In California, Strauss tried to sell the canvas to the gold miners. He said they could make tents from the canvas. But they weren’t interested in canvas for tents. Strauss didn’t know what to do with the canvas. Then, he had an idea. Strauss could see that the miners needed new pants. There were holes in their pants because the fabric wasn’t strong. He decided to make the canvas into pants. They called them “Levi’s”. Later, Strauss stopped using canvas and used a different fabric. It was a heavy cotton fabric—the same kind people wear today.

Levi Strauss died in 1902. He never married and left his money to his nephews. He left the world much more—the jeans that so many people wear.

________ isn’t a kind of dry goods.

 A. Thread    B. Gold    C. Comb    D. Yarn

What is canvas?

A. Tent.    B. Pants.    C. A very strong fabric.

D. Anything which is used to make all kinds of trousers.

Why did the miners call the pants “Levi’s”?

A. Because the pants belonged to Levi Strauss’ father

B. In memory of Levi Strauss’ father.          C. It’s the name of Levi’ Strauss’ nephew.

D. Because the pants are Levi’s invention.

Which of the following is NOT true about Levi Strauss?

A. He was born in Germany.     B. His parents had six children.

C. He had five children.        D. He died in 1902.