I went home one Saturday afternoon in the autumn of 1993 to get some work done in the garden. While sweeping leaves on the ground, my five-year-old son Nick came over and asked me to write something on a piece of paper to make a sign for him.                       
“What for?” I asked.
“I’m going to sell some of my stones, " he answered.    
Nick was fascinated with stones and had collected many stones from all over. “I’m busy to
do that for you. Go and ask your mum for help." I said.
A short time later, Nick returned with a sign, reading. " Stones. One Dollar Each”. He took the sign, a small chair and 4 of his best stones and walked to the road in front of our garden. There he put the stones in a line and sat down on the chair.
After half an hour, nobody passed by. I walked to him and asked him to go back, but he didn't.
Another half hour later, a small car came down the road. I watched as Nick stood up, holding his sign up. A woman rolled down a window and read the sign. I couldn't hear their talk, but I saw the woman turn to the driver and the man reach for his pocket.
I sat in the yard, as Nick ran to me. Waving the dollar, he shouted. "I told you I could sell one stone for a dollar — if you believe in yourself, you can do anything."
【小題1】Why didn't the writer help his son?

A man came home from work late, tired, to find his 5-year-old son waiting for him at the door.
“Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?”
“If you must know, I make  $20  an hour.”
“Oh,” the little boy replied, with his head down.He thought for a moment, looked up and said, “Daddy,could you lend me $10?” The father was furious, “If you asked for the money to buy a toy or some other rubbish, then go straight to your room and think about why you are being so selfish!”
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. After about an hour or so, the father calmed down, and started to think, “Maybe I was too hard on you just now.” said the man, “Here’s $10.”
“Oh,thank you,Daddy!.”he said happily.Then, the boy took out some coins.When the father found that the boy already had money, he got angry again.
“Why do you want more money since you already have some?” the father shouted angrily.
“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do.”the lillte boy replied, “Daddy, I have $20 now.Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow.I would like to have dinner with you.”
【小題1】At first,the father didn’t lend the boy any money because      .

Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, was not very handsome, and he knew he was not.
One day, Lincoln was walking on the road when he was stopped by an ugly man .The man had a gun in his hand. He took aim (瞄準(zhǔn)) at Lincoln’s nose. Lincoln was very surprised, but he pretended(假裝) not to be afraid. He asked the man, “What do you want, sir?”“I’ve promised myself,” said the man, “if I find a man who is uglier than I, I’ll kill him.” Then Lincoln looked at the man’s face carefully and then said, “Please take aim at me, sir. If I were uglier than you are, I would not want to live.” The man looked at Lincoln again, after a minute, he said, “You are right!” And he went away.
【小題1】Abraham Lincoln was famous because ____.

                            
There were two McDonalds—Mac and Dick—and they were brothers. In 1948, they owned a restaurant in California, they liked working in the restaurant, but they got tired of the customers ordering so many different things to eat.
“If we gave customers a smaller menu, we could make some of the food before they came, and they wouldn’t have to wait so long for their meals,” said one of the brothers. The other brother agreed and said, “And if we made the customers come to the counter, we wouldn’t need any waiters or waitresses. We could also use plastic plates so there wouldn’t be any washing-up.”
These were such good ideas that McDonald brothers used them, and the customers were very pleased. They got their meals very quickly—in less than a minute—and they paid only 15 cents for hamburgers and 10 cents for fries. The first McDonald’s restaurant had no seats for customers to sit on. This meant that people had to take their food away, and that no one had to clean up any tables after them.
Then a man called Ray Kroc came to the brothers and asked to buy their business. They agreed to sell it to him for＄27 million. After that, people paid Ray Kroc to open their own restaurants using the McDonald’s name and menu. Before long, there were McDonald’s restaurants all over the United States, and nowadays, they are all over the world—even in China and Russia. The most successful McDonald’s business is in Hong Kong of China. The Hong Kong McDonald’s sells more hamburgers every day than any other McDonald’s anywhere else in the world.
McDonald’s restaurants are so successful because children love going to them. They like the food, and they like the toys and games they can get at McDonald’s.
【小題1】The McDonald brothers offered customers fewer kinds of foods so that _____.

Creighton Carvello was called the Memory Man. He could remember hundreds of playing cards and pages of the telephone numbers in only a few seconds.
Creighton was born in India in 1944. He was the middle child of five and his father worked on the railways. In 1949, the Carvello family returned to England and settled(定居) in Middlesbrough, where Creighton spent the rest of his life. His father first noticed his great talent when, aged 7, he started to memorize information from cigarette cards with pictures of planes and cars.
After leaving school, Creighton developed his talent by memorizing more and more information. He soon became popular as he performed in clubs to show his great memory. He remembered the telephone number of anyone called Smith who lived in the Middlesbrough area. He first got into the record books in his thirties. He travelled around the world, showed up on television and amazed the audience with his memory.
Creighton was a man of many talents, including writing songs, drawing and telling jokes.
In his last years, Creightton moved to care home. The old people there would test his memory with questions such as naming what day of the week they were born on. Only days before he died, one lady gave her date of birth, July 29, 1921 and Creighton immediately replied, “Friday”. He died on November 18, 2008.
【小題1】What was Creighton most famous for?
a.      His songs  b. His jokes  c. His drawing  d. His memory
【小題2】How many children were older than Creighton in his family?
a.      Two  b. Three  c. Four  d. One
【小題3】What happened when Creighton was five?
a.      He left school.  b.He first got into the record books.
c.His family returned to England. d.His father first noticed his great talent.
【小題4】Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
a.      Creighton spent the rest of his life in India.
b.      Creighton was forced(強(qiáng)迫) to memorize things by his father.
c.      Creighton played the piano in clubs after leaving school.
d.      Creighton was a talented man.
【小題5】What can we learn from the last paragraph?
a.      Creighton didn’t have a family.
b.      Creighton died young because he memorized too many things.
c.      Creighton died at the age of 60.
d.      Creighton still had a good memory several days before he died.

Mr Green is an Englishman. He teaches English well His English classes are very interesting. He likes us and we like him, too.
Mr Green has two children----Mike and Nancy. Mike is eight and his sister Nancy is five. Mike goes to school but Nancy doesn’t. Mr Green likes to wear a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Football is his favorite sport. After school we often have a basketball match. Sometimes Mr Green watches and joins us. He plays basketball just for us.
【小題1】 Mr Green is _________.

Sam woke up suddenly. Someone was moving around in the next room. “Maybe it’s his grandmother, getting a glass of water,” he told himself. But the next room was the living room. It wasn’t near the kitchen. Sam’s parents were away, and there was only his grandmother in the house with him. He looked at his watch. It was three thirty! Too early for his grandmother to get up!
He got out of bed and opened the door very quietly. The window was open. A man was standing near it and looking in the dark drawers. His grandmother kept her money there! He thought quickly. Yes, the radio! He turned it on and a man’s voice filled the room. The thief felt scared and jumped onto the window. Then he jumped down two floors to the ground. He gave a shout.
His grandmother was awake and she called the police right away. The thief couldn’t get up, because his leg was badly hurt. When the policemen came, they were very happy. “Great, Sam,” said a policeman. “This man is a famous thief.”
根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，判斷正(T)誤(F)。
【小題1】The living room was next to Sam’s bedroom. It was near the kitchen.
【小題2】Only Sam and his grandmother were sleeping in the house that night.
【小題3】.Sam shouted, so the thief was scared and jumped out of the house.
【小題4】The thief wasn’t hurt at all after he jumped out of the house.
【小題5】The policemen were very happy because they caught the famous thief.

One day a poor man was cutting a big piece of wood (木頭) near a river. Suddenly his old axe (斧子) fell into the water. He felt very sad because he lost his only axe. Then all at once a beautiful fairy (仙女) came out and asked the man what was the matter.
“I have lost my axe.” he said, “It fell into the water when I was cutting the wood.”[來源:學(xué)|科|網(wǎng)]
The fairy showed him a gold axe and asked, “Is that yours?”
“No.” said the man.
The fairy then showed him a silver (銀) axe and asked again, “Is this yours?”
“No.” again answered the man.
Then she showed him the old axe.?
“Yes, that is mine.” called out the happy man.
“I know it well enough.” said the fairy, “I only wanted to see if you would tell me the truth, and now I’ll give you the gold axe and the silver axe besides (包括) your own one.”
根據(jù)短文，判斷正（T）誤（F）。
【小題1】 The man was so poor that he only had one axe.
【小題2】 The old axe fell into the river when the man was cutting the wood.
【小題3】. The fairy asked the man if he lost a gold axe, then the man said “No”.
【小題4】. When he saw his own axe, the man was very happy.
【小題5】. At last, the man had two axes.

Mary was a 911 operator(接線員) in Los Angeles. One Thursday morning, she was surprised to get a call from a young child who said, “Mom is ill, Mom is ill”, again and again. Mary hurried to find the address of the call. She called the police. In a minute, the policemen and doctors arrived at the house. They broke the door open, and they couldn’t believe their eyes. The little child was so young that maybe she could not walk! She was sitting beside her mother and holding her mother’s hand. Tears(眼淚) were running down her face.
The doctor gave the woman some medicine and soon she woke up. Later, she told people , “Everyone was surprised that my daughter could call 911. One Monday I tried to teach her how to call 911.” “It’s the first time I’ve seen a two-year-old child call 911.”
【小題1】 What did Mary do every day? ______________

Mr. Evens works in Sydney. Last week he had a two weeks’ holiday, but he didn’t know where to go. He said to his friend Robert, “I hate the hot weather here, but I can’t find a cool place in Australia. How will I take my holiday?”
“That’s easy,” said Robert. “You’d better go to Moscow. Snow and ice are covering the ground now.”
Mr. Evens agreed with his friend. He bought an air ticket and soon arrived in Moscow. He made a happy journey（旅程） there. But one day He got into trouble. After lunch he went to a park outside the city. He saw a dog following him while he was walking past a house. It was hungry and wished him to give it some food to eat. Bad luck! He had no piece of bread or cake in his pockets. He tried to send it away, but it began to bark at him. He wanted to look for a stick but couldn’t find anything except snow and ice. Suddenly he saw a stone in the ground. He tried to pick it up but he failed.
“How strange Russians（俄國人） are!” Mr. Evens said to himself. “They do not tie their dogs, but firmly(牢牢地) tie the ground!”
【小題1】Mr. Evens is _______________.