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!
【小题1】From Paragraph 3, we know that ______.

It’s not easy to be an astronaut’s son．Everybody expects you to be special or perfect. I often wonder how my father ever had a son like me. I mean he’s so special and so good at everything he does. Even in middle school he was monitor and captain of the football team.

Well, to be honest, I often dream about being some kind of hero or doing something special—like saving a child from a burning building One morning my teacher said there would be a Father’s Day writing competition for the whole school．“I hope we have a winner right here in my class.”

When I got home，I started to think about what to write．My father is an astronaut. No, I wouldn’t start like that. That was the way others saw him．How did I see my father?

Hmm…I saw him sitting with me in the dark when I had a terrible dream．I remembered how he hugged me for hours when my dog Spotty was killed by a car. Yes, these were the things I was going to write. To me，he wasn’t just a famous astronaut. He was my dad．

My parents and l went to school Thursday night. There were so many people in the big hall! My dad looked at me, and I shrugged(耸肩).

The third prize was announced and it was not me．1 was relieved(释然)and disappointed(失望) at the same time. The second prize was announced.  I t  was me. I went up to the stage and read what I had written，“My father’s son”．When I finished，Dad put his hand on my shoulder．“Son，this is the proudest moment of my life.’’

It was the proudest moment of my life, too. Maybe I’ll never be a great hero or win a Nobel Prize, but it was enough just to be my father’s son.

1.The writer felt it        to be the son of a famous person．

A．1ucky                       B．natural           C．hard                D．pleasant

2.In order to_        the writer would like to save a child from a burning building．

A．become astronaut                      B．become a great hero

C．be made school team captain            D．be made monitor

3.What did the boy probably write in his composition?

A. A lot of special things he had done．     

B. The story of his father as an astronaut．

C. The unforgettable time he spent with his father．

D. The experiences his father had in middle school．

4.What is the best title for the passage?

A．My daydream                                                 B．My father’s son 

C．My famous father                                  D．My happy family

Ever thought of moving to a new country? How about starting a new country? Patri Friedman is planning to do just that. He left Google years ago to set up the Seasteading Institute. And his dream is to build seasteads-----floating micro-nations in the middle of the ocean.
So, what will life on a seastead be like? Probably a bit like life on a cruise liner (游轮), but much larger, with shops, gyms, swimming pools, schools and other areas. In fact, the early seasteads may actually be specially-rebuilt cruise liners. But as science advances, Friedman believes they’ll become more like floating cities, with several hundred people.
Seasteading raises a lot of questions. First of all, how will the new countries make money? The Seasteading Institute has suggested several money-making ideas, including ocean-based theme parks, casinos (赌场) and fish farming. There’s also the questions of safety. With storms, typhoons and pirates (海盗) , the high seas are a dangerous place. However, the Institute says that it can stand bad weather and prevent crimes with its well-designed systems.
So, is this just a day dream? Well, maybe not. One of the people behind the project is Peter Thiel. He founded PayPal and was one of the first investors (投资者) in Facebook. So far, he’s donated $ 500,000 to the project.
And Friedman isn’t wasting any time. He recently announced the creation of the Poseidon Award. This will be given to the first seastead with fifty people. Friedman is hoping to hand out the award in 2015.
【小题1】Where did Friedman use to work?

My father woke up early one summer morning when I was fourteen and announced, “Get up, you’re going with me to cut the grass in the garden.”
The idea that my father thought I was old enough to help him in his business made me feel proud and excited. From sunup to sundown, my father, my younger brother and I worked in the large garden. By the end of the day I was too tired to say a word but I felt happy. This was my first time to help my father in his business. I got $6 for my work that day.
One day my father found some leaves I had missed and pulled me aside. “Take away these leaves!” he said. “And don’t make me have to tell you to do it again.” The message was clear. Today I value the importance of doing job well the first time. I will never fail to impress (留下印象) the person I’m working for.
After two years, my father told me and my brother that he felt we were old enough to cut the grass by ourselves. Every Saturday during my last two years of high school, we set off early in the morning with the same wish we had gained while working under our father.
Looking after the garden was neither exciting nor high paying, but that didn’t matter. It taught me that any job was a good job and whatever I was paid was more than I had before.
A newspaper reporter once asked me how someone could possibly live with hard work and low pay. “If you’re only thinking about hard work and money, you probably don’t want to do better than you are doing,” I answered. In every job, from cutting the grass to washing dishes, I’ve learned much. I’ve learned something that helps me in my next job.
If you work hard enough, you can learn from any job you do.
7. The writer ______ from working in the garden.
A. learned to work hard to get money
B. found he could be well paid
C. felt he could impress others by working hard
D. learned any job was good though he might be paid less
8. When the writer finished high school, maybe he was ______ years old.
A. fourteen             B. eighteen             C. twenty           D. twenty-two
9. The writer’s father was ______.
A. very strict but helpful
B. lazy and easy to get angry
C. careful and enjoyed working in the garden
D. funny and hard-working
10. Which is the most important to the writer according to the passage?
A. Finishing work as quickly as possible.
B. Asking no money for your work.
C. Keeping learning from any job you have.
D. Keeping on looking for different jobs.