In the sea there are many islands. In its warm waters there are some little ones. We call them coral(珊瑚) islands.
A coral island is very nice to look at. It looks like a ring of land with trees, grass, and flowers on it. One part of the ring is open to the water. There is a little round lake inside the island.
If you look into this lake, you will see beautiful coral. You may think they are flowers.
If you look at a piece of coral, you will see many little holes in it. In each of these holes a very small sea animal has lived. These sea animals make the coral.
They began to build under the water. Year after year, the coral grew higher and higher. At last it grew out of the water.
Then the sea brought to it small trees and something else. After some years, these things changed into earth. Sometimes the wind brought seeds to this earth. Sometimes birds flew over it and brought seeds to the island. The little seeds grew. In a few years there were plants all over the island. In a few more years there were trees growing there.
So you see, these islands were built little by little. The workers were very small. Don’t they teach us a lesson? Can you think what the lesson is?
【小题1】 In the sea _____.

A．there are no coral islands	B．there are some coral islands
C．the water is always warm	D．we can see many flowers and fishes

【小题2】A coral island looks like ______.

A．a round cake

B．trees, grass and flowers

C．a ring of land

D．a round lake

【小题3】There are ____ in the holes in corals.

A．flowers

B．little corals

C．grass

D．sea animals

【小题4】How did seeds of trees, grass and flowers come to the coral islands?

A．The wind and birds brought them to the coral islands.

B．Only the wind brought them there.

C．People brought them there.

D．Fishes brought them there.

【小题5】From the story we learn that _____.

A．small workers can’t do big things

B．only big workers can do big things

C．small workers can do big things if they work hard and work a long time

D．all small things can do things

On my eighth birthday, Dad bought me an accordion(手风琴） and said excitedly, "Once you learn to play, it'll stay with you for life." But I didn't want to play it. I just wanted to play games, But Dad asked me to take accordion lessons.
One day, I found a box in a corner. When I opened it, I saw a beautiful violin. "It was your father's," Mum said. "His parents bought it for him. I guess he got too busy on the farm to learn to play it."
I had to practice half an hour every day, and every day I tried to get out of it. But Dad didn't allow. I asked why. He answered, "Because you can bring people joy. You can touch their hearts." He added softly, "Someday you'll have the chance I never had: you'll play beautiful music for your family. And you'll understand why you've worked so hard." I was speechless.
The lessons stopped after I finished high school. When I grew up, I got married and moved into a new house. I put the accordion in the attic（阁楼）.
One afternoon, my two children found the accordion by accident (偶然). They got very excited. "Play it. Play it," they laughed and said. I started to play some simple songs. I was surprised I could still remember them. Soon the kids were dancing. Even my wife was laughing and clapping to the beat.
At that moment, my father's words came back to me, "Someday you'll have the chance I never had. And you'll understand." I finally knew why Dad had asked me to practice hard. Dad never learnt to play his violin. But I told my family, "This is my father's music."
【小题1】My father didn't learn to play his violin when he was young because _______.

A．he didn't like to play the violin

B．he had to support his family

C．he wanted to play games

D．he didn't keep on practicing

【小题2】How might the writer feel when he had to practice playing the accordion?

A．Delighted.

B．Excited.

C．Bored.

D．Relaxed.

【小题3】"Dad didn't allow" means "_______".

A．Dad didn't agree with me.

B．Dad didn’t keep me doing it.

C．Dad didn't help me do it.

D．Dad didn't see me do it.

【小题4】What were the writer’s children doing when he started to play simple songs?

A．Singing

B．Dancing

C．Clapping to the beat

D．Screaming

【小题5】Dad asked me to learn to play the accordion so that _______.

A．I could go to a better school

B．I could give myself much joy

C．I could be a useful man

D．I could make people happy

In the 13^th century, the famous Indian traveller, Marco Polo, travelled a long way to China. He saw many wonderful things. One of the things he discovered was that Chinese used paper money. In western countries, people did not use paper money until the 15^th century. However, people in China began to use paper money in the 7^th century.
A Chinese man called Cai Lun invented paper almost 2,000 years ago. He made it from wood. He took the wood from trees and made it into paper. He then put these pieces of paper together and made them into a book.
Now paper still comes from trees. We use a lot of paper every day. If we keep on wasting so much paper, there will not be any trees left on the earth. If there are no trees, there will be no paper. Every day, people throw away about 2,800 tons of paper in our city. It takes 17 trees to make one ton of paper. This means that we are cutting nearly 48,000 trees every day. Since it takes more than 10 years for a tree to grow, we must start using less paper now. If we don’t, we will not have enough time to grow more trees to take the place of those we use for paper.
So how can we save paper? We can use both sides of every piece of paper, especially when we are making notes. We can also use cotton handkerchiefs（手帕） and paper ones. When we go shopping, we can use fewer paper bags. If the shop assistant does give us a paper bag, we can save it and refuse（拒绝）it later.
Everyone can help to save paper. If we all think carefully, we can help protect trees. But we should do it now, before it is too late.
【小题1】When he was in China, Marco Polo __________ .

A．discovered Cai Lun invented paper	B．learned to make paper
C．saw many wonderful things	D．read a lot of books

【小题2】 People in western countries first used paper money in the _________ century.

A．17th

B．15th

C．13th

D．7th

【小题3】 About ________ tons of paper are thrown away every day in our city.

A．1,700

B．2,000

C．2,800

D．48,000

【小题4】 Which of the following is the way of saving paper?

A．To use both sides of every piece of paper.

B．To use the paper bags from shops more than once.

C．To use cotton handkerchiefs and paper ones.

D．All of the above.

【小题5】Which is the best title（题目） of the passage?

A．Saving paper.	B．The history of paper.
C．Cotton handkerchiefs back again.	D．Cai Lun, the great inventor.

A desert is a very dry land where there is hardly any rain. In the day, it can be so hot that you could fry an egg on the ground. But during the night it is sometimes so could that water would turn into ice.






Many desserts are covered in sand. But some have mountains, rocks, or lakes that have dried up in the heat. The Great American Dessert has cliffs(悬崖) that have been made into amazing and beautiful shapes by the wind. The Sahara Desert in Africa is mostly sand. The Australian Desert has red sand.
Sometimes it does not rain for a whole year in the desert. But there is water deep under the ground and some plants have roots that go very deep to find it. Other plants have roots that spread out(延伸) a long way so they can suck up the rain as soon as it falls.
One desert plant is the cactus, which has long, spreading roots. The cactus stores water inside its hard skin. This skin protects it from heat and cold.
Camels are a bit like cactus plants! They store water too—inside their bodies. They have special fur which protects them from the sun during the day and keeps them warm at night.
Some other animals live in deserts, too. They have to be very good at seeing and hearing because most of them only come out at night. This is why many desert animals have extra big eyes or ears.
A desert fox has bigger ears than a normal for. A gerbil has huge eye, so that it can see at night. It stays cool in the day by staying underground, like most desert animals.
Some people live in the desert but they always make their homes near an oasis. An oasis is where water comes from an underground river. Near an oasis, people can grow lots of plants and keep animals.
Life is hard in the desert, for people, animals and plants. But desert people like to live there.
【小题1】A desert is very dry because__________.

A．it is sandy	B．there is so little rain
C．the wind is strong	D．there is no water deep under the ground

【小题2】What does the underlined phrase"suck up"in paragraph 3 mean_________?

A．围堵

B．讨好

C．释放

D．吸收

【小题3】Some desert animals have extra big eyes or ears because__________.

A．the sunlight is too strong in the day	B．they need to see and hear well at night
C．it is very cold at nigh	D．they store water in them.

【小题4】Most desert animals stay cool in the day by_________.

A．storing water in side their bodies	B．drinking water as much as they can
C．staying underground	D．growing lots of plants

【小题5】Which of the following is true?

A．Desert people like to live in the desert though life is hard.

B．People in the desert usually fry eggs on the ground.

C．Camels have special fur to store water.

D．All the deserts are covered in sand.

A very young boy, Tom, lives a long way from the city. One day he goes to the city to visit his friend, Jack. Jack asks Tom to have lunch together. They go into the restaurant and sit down at a table. Tom looks around and he sees some old people put eye glasses on before reading their books, so after lunch he goes to a shop to buy some glasses, too. He walks along the road, and soon finds a shop. The man in the shop makes him try on a lot of glasses, but Tom always says, “No, I can’t read with these.”
The man in the shop becomes more and more puzzled (困惑的). At last he says, “Excuse me, but can’t you read at all?”
“No, I can’t.” Tom says, “If I can read, do you think I come here to buy glasses?”
【小题1】Tom meets some old people ____________ .

A．far away from the city	B．in the shop
C．in the restaurant	D．in the village

【小题2】When does Tom go to the shop?

A．After lunch.	B．Before lunch.
C．In the morning.	D．In the evening.

【小题3】Tom goes to the restaurant to ___________.

A．buy eye glasses	B．have lunch
C．buy some books	D．sell eye glasses

【小题4】Before reading their books, the old people in the restaurant ____________.

A．put their glasses on	B．drink tea
C．take their glasses off	D．buy glasses

【小题5】In fact(事实上), Tom _______________.

A．likes eye glasses	B．goes to the wrong shop
C．can’t read at all	D．knows the man in the shop