In our house, there are lots of comic(滑稽的) books. Some are on the table in the living room. Some are under my bed. Some are under Neal's bed.

　　Neal is my brother. He is seven, two years younger than I am.

　　Every Saturday we do our work first. Then mother lets each of us buy a comic book about animals or children.

　　We can hardly wait to get home to read them! We lie on the floor between our bed. Everything is very quiet then－until we burst out laughing. Mom calls our laughs “explosions”. I guess they sound that way to her.

　　Yesterday I heard Mrs. Easton ask Mom, “Do you really LET your boys read comic books? I must say I am surprised!” Mom said,“Of course I let them!” Then she said, “That is, I let them read comics about animals and children. Not all comic books are bad. Some are very good.”

　　“I wonder why children like comic books?” Mrs. Easton asked.

　　Mom laughed. “I really don't know,” she answered. “But we know they do!”

　　Well, no one asked me. But I could tell Mrs. Easton and mother why we like comics!

　　The ones Neal and I read are funny. The people and the animals in them are smart. They are not goody-goody (虛假的), the way they are in some stories.

　　Comic books are something like space ships. They take Neal and me to the planet Mars or to a rabbit's house. They bring us old friends and new friends. Donald and Mickey and Bugs and Elmer seem like real people to us!

　　We like comic books most of all because we never know what will happen next. In some books, you can always tell what's going to happen.

1．The stories in the comic books often make the two brothers very sad and angry.

2．The two brothers won't get new comic books before they finish doing their work every Saturday.

3．All the grown-ups know clearly why children like reading comic books.

4．The stories in comic books can take children to places they have wanted to and help them meet a lot of friends.

5．The two brothers like comic books best of all because they can always guess what will happen next.

　　No one knows how man learned to make words. Maybe he began by making sounds. As time went by he made more and more sounds and more and more words. This is what we call languages.

　　People in different countries made different kinds of words. Today there are fifteen hundred different languages in the world.

　　Some animals also have their own languages.

　　When a bee has found some food, it goes back to its home. It wants to tell other bees where the food is. But it can't speak. So it does a little dance in the air. In this way it tells other bees where the food is.

1．All languages began by making sounds.

2．People from different countries have their own languages.

3．There are about 150 different languages in the world.

4．All animals have no languages.

5．A bee can't tell other bees where the food is－because it can't speak.

　　The women's club(俱樂部)always had a meeting every Friday afternoon. One Friday afternoon a professor from the university came to talk to them about an important problem after they had tea and asked some questions.

　　The professor talked to the club about the problem of food and population(人口) . “There is not enough food in the world everybody,”he said. “More than half the people in the world are hungry. And when they get more food, they have more babies, so they never stop being hungry. Somewhere in the world, a woman is having a baby every minute, day and night. What are we going to do about it?”He waited for a few seconds before he continued(繼續(xù)), but before he began to speak again, one of the women said, “Well, why don't we find that woman and stop her?”

1．The women invited a professor to give them a lesson every Friday afternoon.

2．The professor talked to the club about the problem of food and population.

3．The professor thought that people got more babies when they had more food.

4．He said a certain woman was having a baby every minute somewhere in the world.

5．The woman of the club was very quick and bright.

　　James wrote a play for television about a family who came to England from India, and the play was very interesting. It was bought by an American TV company(公司) .

　　James was then invited to go to New York to help them. He lived in Washington, which is an hour away from New York by air. The plane was going to take off at 8:30 in the morning. So he had to be at the airport at about 7:30. He ordered a taxi for 6:30 and went to sleep. He forgot to wind the clock, and it stopped after midnight. Also the driver of the taxi had to work very late that night and he got up very late the next morning.

　　James woke with the feeling that something was wrong. He looked at his clock. It stood there silently with the hands pointing to ten past twelve. He turned on the radio and knew it was ten. He was late for the plane.

　　He was just preparing his coffee when the radio sent out another news, “Reports are coming in of a plane crash (飛機(jī)墜落) near Washington airport. A Boeing 707 fly to New York crashed shortly after taking off this morning. Plane number 2234…”James suddenly turned pale(蒼白) .

　　“My plane,”he said aloud. “If I haven't been late, I'd have been on the plane! ”

1．James was a writer from England.

2．He had to reach the airport at half past eight.

3．James would like to take a taxi at six thirty.

4．The driver came to pick him up on time.

5．When he turned on the radio he heard the speaker saying that he missed the plane.

6．The plane crashed while flying towards London.

7．Sometimes bad things can change into good ones.

　　A man went to see his doctor one day because he was suffering (受……之苦) from pains in his stomach(胃) . After the doctor had examined him carefully, he said to him, “Well, there's nothing really wrong with you, I'm glad to say. Your only trouble is that you worry too much. Do you know, I had a man with the same trouble as you in here a few weeks ago, and I gave him the same advice as I'm going to give you. He was worried because he couldn't pay his tailor's bills. I told him not to worry his head about the bills any more. He followed my advice, and when he came to see me again two days ago, he told me that he now feels quite all right again. ”

　　“Yes, I know all about that, ” answered the patient sadly. “You see, I'm that man's tailor(裁縫).”

1．The man's stomach pains were imaginary.

2．The man's stomach pains were caused by too much worry.

3．The doctor told him about a man who had come to him with different pains.

4．The doctor told him about another patient who had come to him with stomach pains.

5．The earlier patient had made some clothes for the new one.

6．The new patient had made some clothes for the earlier one.

7．The earlier patient hadn't paid his tailor, because his doctor had advised him not to.

8．The earlier patient hadn't paid his tailor because he was worried .

9．The earlier patient had paid his tailor, and then he had felt quite all right again.

10．The tailor was worried because the earlier patient hadn't paid him.

　　I got up very early this morning. My parents took Lily and me to a small village. We visited a farmer's house there. We went there in a big bus with lots of other people.

　　Everybody called the farmer Uncle Li, and his wife Aunty Li. They were very happy to see us. They had a big house, a sitting-room and a kitchen in it. They were all clean and tidy. We sat in the sitting-room for a short time. There was a round table in the middle of the room. On it were cups of tea, bottles of orange, fruit and nuts. I like the peanuts very much.

　　Uncle Li's house was not far from a lake. From the lake they could catch fish. We saw his ducks swimming in the lake.

　　There were a few fruit trees behind his house and there was a vegetable garden. Uncle Li grew tomatoes, cabbages and peas. Near the garden there was a small house. It was full of farm animals. Uncle Li told us he often went to town to sell his chickens, ducks, fish and vegetables.

　　There are five people in Uncle Li's family. They are always very busy, but they feel very happy.

1．Lily and Lucy went to the farm house by themselves.

2．Uncle Li had a big house with a sitting-room and a kitchen in it.

3．From the lake they could catch fish and ducks.

4．There were few fruit trees behind Uncle Li's house.

5．Uncle Li often went to town to sell his farm animals and vegetables.

　　Mr. Briggs got a job with an insurance (保險) company after he left school and went around visiting people in their homes to sell them life insurance.

　　One day, after he had been working for the company for about a year, the insurance manager sent for him and said, “Mr. Briggs, I have been looking at your record as a salesman with our company, and there is one thing that surprises me about it. Why have you been selling insurance only to people over 95 years old, and why have you been giving them such generous (慷慨的) conditions (條件) ? You'll ruin(毀滅) our company if you go on like that. ”

　　“Oh, no sir, ”answered Mr. Briggs at once. “Before I started work, I looked at the figures for deaths in this country during the past ten years, and I can tell you that extremely few people die at the age of 95 or above each year. ”

　　True or false

1．Mr. Briggs worked in his office all the time.

2．Mr. Briggs worked outside his office some of the time.

3．Mr. Briggs's job was to sell life insurance to very old people.

4．Mr. Briggs himself chose to sell insurance to very old people only.

5．He gave the old people very good conditions.

6．He gave the old people he sold life insurance to very hard conditions.

7．He did not want to ruin the company he worked for.

8．He wanted to ruin the insurance company.

9．He was quite right in what he was doing, because few people of 95 or more die each year.

10．Although few people of 95 or more die each year, this did not mean that he was right in what he was doing.

　　Tom saw an advertisement in a newspaper for a beautiful, modern bicycle which cost ￡54.99, so he went to the shop which had put the advertisement in and asked to see one of their wonderful bicycles.

　　The shopkeeper was very happy to show one to Tom, who examined it carefully and then turned to the shopkeeper saying, “There isn't a lamp on this bicycle, but there was one on the bicycle in your advertisement.”

　　“Yes, sir,” answered the shopkeeper, “but the lamp isn't included (包括) in the price of the bicycle. It's an extra (額外的).” “Not included in the price of the bicycle?” Tom said angrily.“But that's not honest. If the lamp's in the advertisement, it should have been included in the price you gave there. ”

　　“Well, sir, ”answered the shopkeeper calmly, “there' s also a girl on the bicycle in our advertisement, but we don' t supply one of them with the bicycle either. ”

　　True or false

1．In the picture in the advertisement, there was a lamp on the bicycle, but no girl.

2．In the picture in the advertisement, there was a girl on the bicycle, but no lamp.

3．In the picture in the advertisement, the bicycle had a lamp and a girl on it.

4．Tom became angry because there was only one lamp on such an expensive bicycle.

5．Tom became angry because the lamp was an extra.

6．The bicycle cost ￡ 54.99 with the lamp, but without the girl.

7．The bicycle cost ￡ 54.99 with the girl, but without the lamp .

8．The bicycle cost ￡ 54.99 without either the lamp or the girl.

　　Jean was a very beautiful young girl, so she was quite used to some men showing their admiration (贊賞) for her, and to others being confused (混亂) and shy when they saw her.

　　One summer, when Jean was travelling abroad (在國外) , she went into a cafe in a small town, sat down and waited to be served.

　　The young waiter was talking to someone at the bar when she came in, and at first he did not pay any attention to her, because he had not looked at her properly. Then he turned round and saw how beautiful she was. His face went bright red, and he hurried over to take her order.

　　“I' d like coffee without cream, please, ”Jean said.

　　The waiter hurried out, and came back a few minutes later without the coffee.

　　“I' m very sorry, ” he said, “but we haven' t got any cream. Would you like your coffee without milk?”

　　True or false

1．Some men admired Jean because she was confused.

2．Some men admired Jean because she was beautiful.

3．Jean made some men shy .

4．Jean was shy of some men.

5．At first, the waiter wasn't in a hurry to serve Jean because he hadn't seen how beautiful she was.

6．At first the waiter wasn't in a hurry to serve Jean because he was confused.

7．The waiter's face reddened because he was hurrying.

8．The waiter's face reddened because Jean was so beautiful.

9．Coffee without cream tastes the same as coffee without milk.

10．Coffee without milk tastes different from coffee without cream.

閱讀理解

閱讀下面短文，然后按要求做題．

The following is today's TV programs.

根據(jù)所給材料判斷對錯．

1．If you want to know what is happening in the world, you can watch TV either in the morning or in the evening.

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2．People who like basketball will watch TV at 9:00.

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3．If the teacher asks you to write something about a foreign country, you will be interested in the program at 7:15.

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4．We can listen to some interesting English stories in the program Happy English today.

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5．The children who like cartoons can enjoy themselves twice today.

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