The Right Way to Sit

　　If you are writing or studying, it makes very much difference where the light comes from. People who use books and pens every day have to be specially (特殊地) careful about the way the light shines on their work.

　　Every house gets its light either from daylight through windows which is the very best to use or from the lamps or electricity; but whichever (無論哪個(gè)) kind of light it is, the way it slants (傾斜) towards our books or our work is a matter of great importance to the eyes.

　　Take a book, stand with your back toward the window, and try to read. Your shadow falls all over the page and makes it almost as bad for your eyes as if you were in a dark room.

　　Now turn around and face the window. The page is in the shadow again, while the bright light is in your eyes.

　　Try standing with your right side toward the window. This is very good for reading, but if you were writing, the shadow would fall across the page and bother (干擾) you a little.

　　There is just one other way: stand with your left side to the window. Now everything is perfect (完美的) for reading and for writing, too.

　　Whatever (無論什么) kind of light is in the room, the rule about the right way to sit is always the same.

1．When reading or writing, people should pay special attention to ________.

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2． ________ makes much difference to the eyes.

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A．The daylight through the windows

B．The light from the lamps or electricity

C．The way the light slants towards our books or our work

D．The way a house gets its light

3．It is bad for your eyes when you read a book ________.

[　　]

A．with your back toward the window

B．facing the window

C．with your right side toward the window

D．both A and B

4．Everything is OK for reading and writing when you ________.

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A．stand with your left side toward the window

B．stand with your right side to the window

C．sit with your right side to the window

D．sit with your back toward the window

Sea Mail

　　Some people don't need a mailbox to send a message. They use a bottle instead. Here are two stories about people who sent a message in a bottle. Both stories are true.

　　In 1956, a sailor from Sweden was on a ship. He wrote a letter, asking any young woman to write to him. He put the letter in a bottle and threw the bottle into the sea.

　　Two years later, a man found the bottle on a beach in Italy. He read the letter and showed it to his daughter. She was 18. As a joke, she wrote to the sailor. They began to exchange letters. In a few months, they were married.

　　Here is the second story. Back in 1924, a boy from Arkansas wrote his name on the back of his picture. He put the picture in a bottle and dropped the bottle into a river.

　　The bottle was not found for many years. Then one day a man named Bill picked it up on a beach in Florida. He pulled the picture out of the bottle and looked at it. He could hardly believe his eyes. The boy in the picture was his old friend, Tom, from Arkansas. Bill had not seen Tom for 25 years. Somehow the bottle had come to the right place.

1．What is the main idea of the whole story?

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2．After the sailor wrote a letter, he ________.

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3．The sailor and the girl from Italy ________.

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4．The man named Bill looked at the picture of Tom and was ________.

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5．At the end of the story, Bill and Tom must have been ________.

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　　On the evening of his arrival in New York, Jimmy wanted to make a call to Mother. He found a telephone booth nearby and put some coins into a box in it, dialed 734 － 8681. At first the line was busy and then his call was put through. Jimmy was very glad to say “Hello” to his mother. Just then came a sweet lady's voice behind him.

　　“Are you through?”

　　“Yes. ”Jimmy turned and said.

　　With a polite “Excuse me”, the lady took up the receiver and dialed. Jimmy had to wait outside until she put down the telephone.

　　After a while, Jimmy dialed again and heard Mother' s voice from far.

　　“What's wrong with you? Why did you ring off just now?”

　　“I myself don't know why…”Jimmy didn't finished calling, and suddenly a young man ran over and asked anxiously (焦急地) .

　　“Are you through?”

　　“Yes.”

　　With saying “OK”, the man quickly set the receiver to his ear and dialed. Jimmy did not know what to do. Just imagine (想象) how worried Mother was in London!

1．Where did Jimmy come from?

[　　]

A．He came from the United States.

B．He came from England.

C．He came from New York.

D．We don' t know from the passage.

2．A“telephone-booth” is a place where ________.

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3．By saying “Are you through?”, the lady meant “ ________?”

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A．Have you finished calling

B．Can you go through the telephone-booth

C．Have you finished your work

D．Are your call put through

4．From this passage we can see that ________.

[　　]

A．the two Americans were not polite.

B．sometimes the same sentence can have different meanings in different countries

C．American English and British English are very different

D．Jimmy understood what the two Americans meant at last

　　Most dog owners feel that their dogs are their best friends. Almost everyone likes dogs because they try hard to please their owners. One of my favorite stories is about a dog who wanted his owner to please him.

　　One of my friends has a large German shepherd (牧羊犬) named Jack. Every Sunday afternoon, my friend takes Jack for a long walk in the park. Jack likes these long walks very much.

　　One Sunday afternoon, a young man came to visit my friend. He stayed a long time, and he talked and talked. Soon it was time for my friend to take Jack for his walk, but the visitor didn't leave.Jack became very worried about his walk in the park. He walked around the room several times and then sat down directly (徑直地) in front of the visitor and looked at him. But the visitor paid no attention. He continued talking. Finally, Jack couldn't stand (容忍) it any longer. He went out of the room and came back a few minutes later. He sat down again in front of the visitor, but this time he held the man's hat in his mouth.

1．The dog in this passage ________.

[　　]

A．like other dogs tried hard to please his owner

B．tried hard to like his owner

C．tried hard to make his owner happy

D．tried hard to make his owner please him however

2．Jack was the name of ________.

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3．The dog sat down directly in front of the visitor ________.

[　　]

4．What does the word “it” in the sentence “Jack couldn't stand it any longer” refer to?

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A．His walking around the room several times.

B．His sitting in front of the visitor.

C．His owner's visitor's staying and talking.

D．His taking walk in the park.

5．Why did the dog hold the visitor's hat in his mouth this time?

[　　]

A．Because he wanted to play with the hat.

B．Because he wanted to remind the visitor that he should leave .

C．Because he was a friendly dog.

D．Because he was angry with his owner.

　　Mr. Grey had a nice shop in the busy street of a small town. He sold jewelry (珠寶), watches, clocks and some other things. All went well for some years, and then his shop was broken into at night twice in one month. Three weeks had passed, yet the police had not done much to catch the thief, so Mr. Grey decided to do something about it himself. He bought a good camera (照相機(jī)) and fixed it up in his shop, and put some cheap jewelry in front of it for the thief, so that it could take a photo of anyone who stole the jewelry .

　　A few nights later, the thief did come, but he was clever enough not to touch any of the cheap jewelry that Mr. Grey had put there for him. He took only the camera, which was worth about five hundred pounds.

1．Mr. Grey was ________.

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2．At first things were going on ________.

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3．What did Mr. Grey do at first in order to catch the thief?

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4．Mr. Grey bought a good camera ________.

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A．to make his shop look more beautiful

B．to take photos for his family

C．to stop the shop from being broken into

D．because he hoped to find out the thief with its help

5．The end of the story tells us that the thief ________.

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A．was found out and put into prison

B．stole the expensive camera

C．took the cheap jewelry

D．stole both the jewelry and the good camera

Are You an Owl or a Lark?

　　Do you start the day very slowly, and really wake up in the afternoon? Then you may be an owl (貓頭鷹) . Are you full of pep (精力) in the morning and tired out later on? Then you may be a lark (云雀).

　　Owls and larks are different kinds of birds. Scientists use these names for different kinds of people, too. Owls are people who take more time to wake up. They seem to have more pep as the day goes on. Larks are people who are wide awake and busy right away. They may slow down in the afternoon.

　　The way we feel affects the kind of work we do. Larks do better work in the morning. They are more wide awake then. Owls do better work in the afternoon or at night. That can make a difference in a job or at school. Larks would probably do better on school tests first thing in the morning. Owls would do better later in the day.

　　Decide how you feel at different hours of the day. Try to save your hardest work for your best hours.

1．People who are called larks ________.

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2．An owl must be a bird that ________.

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3．You could be called a lark if you ________.

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4．A person called an owl would want to ________.

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5．What is the main idea of this story?

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　　The Japanese pay much attention to the luck of telephone numbers. The bathhouses, for example, like to use 4626, because when read in Japanese, it has the same pronunciation (發(fā)音) as “have a good bath.” Both the clothes shops and the butcher' s (肉店) like 4129 better than any other numbers because this number can either be read as “good dress”or “good meat”.

　　Since these numbers are connected with something nice, people can remember them very easily. So they have become advertisements (廣告) for the shops.

　　On the other hand, there are also telephone numbers which are regarded as forbidden (禁止) by the Japanese people. 1564, for example, has the sound of “kill people”while the number 4219 has the sound of “people die”.

　　At present, there are about 44 million telephones in Japan, yet it is almost impossible for everyone to get a luckily telephone number. So these numbers have become commodities (商品) and can be sold as goods. The price can reach as expensive as 222 thousand Japanese yen (日元).

1．The Japanese people pay much attention to some numbers because these numbers ________.

[　　]

A．a(chǎn)re linked with something nice

B．a(chǎn)re connected with something interesting

C．a(chǎn)re easy to remember

D．Both A and C

2．The number 4626 sounds in Japanese like ________.

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3．The clothes shops like ________.

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4．It is possible for ________ to get a lucky telephone number.

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5．Some telephone numbers can be sold as goods because they ________.

[　　]

The Robots Are Coming

　　Robots are becoming a big part of our lives. There may be half a million robots in the U. S. 20 years from now.

　　These machines are changing the way work is being done. Thousands of robots are used in factories. These robots are not like the robots in movies. They don' t walk or talk. Instead, a robot may be just a metal arm. The robot arm can do a certain job in a factory over and over again. It can do jobs that people may not want to do. A robot never gets tired of doing the same thing.

　　Sometimes a robot gets to do more exciting work. In Canada, police are using a robot on wheels. This robot's job is to take apart bombs that may go off .

1．Robots are getting ________.

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2．Robots are probably put in factories to ________.

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3．Another title for this story could be ________.

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4．A robot in a factory would not ________.

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5．The robot in Canada can probably ________.

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　　Jim was a young man in his early twenties who was studying to be a carpenter (木匠) . He was a good worker, honest and worthy of trust, so his boss was pleased with him. As he was such a likable man and easy to deal with, he was popular with his workmates , too. They also made fun of him a great deal but he never got angry with them and would only laugh.

　　But Jim's one great shortcoming (缺點(diǎn)) was that he could never tell a lie, no matter how hard he tried, not even a little one. In fact, he was so honest and shy that he would blush (臉紅) even when he was telling the truth. He used to stand in front of the mirror and practise lying while looking himself in the eyes at the same time. But as soon as he saw his face starting to go red he had to look away .

　　One morning, however, he didn' t feel like going to work because he had been to a party the night before and it hadn't ended till the early hours of the morning. And so far the first time in his life he decided to take the day off. He rang his boss, pretending to be a woman. He spoke in a high voice. “Hello, ”he said nervously (神經(jīng)緊張地). “I'm afraid Jim can't come to work today. He isn't feeling very well. ”

　　Poor Jim was thankful that his boss couldn' t see him just at that moment because his hands were trembling (發(fā)抖) and his face was bright red.

　　“Thank you for letting me know, ”said Mr. Woods, his boss, and then just as he was about to hang up, he said, “Just a moment, madam, who' s speaking”.

　　“Oh! ”he stammered (口吃地說), and going all out for making a voice like a woman, he cried in a loud voice: “This is my landlady speaking!”

1．Jim was ________.

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2．He was a ________.

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A．skillful worker

B．skillful carpenter

C．researcher studying how to be a carpenter

D．being-trained carpenter

3．His boss was ________ with him.

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4．His work mates used to ________.

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5．Telling lies always made him ________.

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6．At the end of the story poor Jim let the cat ________.

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　　Wake gently this morning to a different day.Listen .There is no bray of buses,no brake growls, no siren howls and no horns blow. There is only the silence of a city hushed by snow. ------Lilian Moore

1．What is the main idea of the poem?

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2．What is the best title for the poem?

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3．What has snow brought to the city?

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4．Why does the poet say this day is “different”?

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5．A picture of the main idea of this poem would show ________.

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