It was on the afternoon of the day of Christmas Eve, and I was in Mrs. Prothero’s garden, waiting for cats, with her son Jim. It was snowing. Patient and cold, our hands wrapped in socks, we waited to snowball the cats. The wise cats never appeared. We were so still in the snow that we never heard Mrs. Prothero’s first cry from the bottom of the garden. Or, if we heard it at all, it was, to us, like the cry of the neighbor’s Polar cat. But soon the voice grew louder. “Fire!” cried Mrs. Prothero.

And we ran down the garden, with the snowballs in our arms, towards the house; and smoke, indeed, was pouring out of the dining room.

This was better than all the cats in Wales standing on the wall in a row. We loaded with snowballs, stopped at the open door of the smoke-filled room. Something was burning all right; perhaps it was Mr. Prothero, who always slept there after midday dinner with a newspaper over his face; but he was standing in the middle of the room, saying, “A fine Christmas!”

There was no fire to be seen, only clouds of smoke and Mr. Prothero standing in the middle of them, waving his slipper as though he were conducting.

“Do something,” he said.

And we three all our snowballs into the smoke—I think we missed Mr. Porthero—and ran out of the house.

“Let’s call the police,” Jim said.

“And Emie Jenkins, he likes fires.” But we only called the fire-brigade, and soon the fire-engine came. Mr. Porthero went out just in time before they turned the hose (水管) on.

1.Why were the boys in Mrs. Prothero’s garden?

A.They were about to start a snowball fight.

B.They were waiting to see if there would be any fires this year.

C.They were waiting to hear Mrs. Porthero’s first cry.

D.They were waiting for the neighbour’s cats to appear.

2.The underlined phrase “snowball the cats” (in Paragraph 1) means “__________”.

A.make cats out of snow B.bury cats under the snow

C.throw snowballs at the cats D.play tricks on cats

3.When the boys saw smoke pouring out of the dining room, __________.

A.they were joyful and excited B.they were frightened and worried

C.they were sorry for Mrs. Prothero D.they were worried about Mr. Prothero

首字母填空,每空一词.

You may not realize it, but you are doing much more than just studying when you are at school. School is also the p 1. where you learn to get along well with people. But this is not always easy. What can you do if you just don't like one of your classmates?

If you d 2.that you have problems getting along with your classmates or friends, the most important thing to learn is tolerance(宽容). Tolerance is the ability to realize and respect the differences in others. We cannot change the w3. that other people do, so it is important to learn to live h 4. with them.

Tolerance will make everyone get on b 5. with each other. Knowing others constantly(不断地) make us understand others’ differences

Something different does not exactly mean that it is bad. Tolerance t 6.us to keep an even temper and open mind.

You need to remember an old saying, "Treat others how you want to be treated. "You would like to be treated kindly by your classmates, s 7. it is important to treat them kindly too. if you tolerate something, it does not mean that you have to like it. No one is asking you to change who you are or what you believe in. Tolerance just m 8. that you should respect the differences in others and not to try to make them change.

It is important to practice tolerance because it will make e 9. life easier. Learn to accept people for their different abilities and i10.. The world is very different, and practicing tolerance in your own school and city can help make things better.

Imagine that the battery on your mobile phone has run out. You can't make any calls for help and no one can contact you. You are all alone--- well, not quite. Just reach into your pocket and take out a piece of sugar. Put it into the battery, wait a minute and you are back on the phone.

Thanks to a couple of American scientists, this situation could become real. Swadesh Chaudhuri and Derek Lovely have invented the “bacteria battery”. This kind of battery gets its power from bacteria that eats sugar and turns it into electricity.

“This is a special organism (有机体),”Lovely said. “You can get enough electricity to power a cell phone battery for about four days from a spoonful of sugar.”

In the past, bacteria batteries have been expensive and not long-lasting. But this battery uses a more efficient bacterium that can turn 80 percent of sugar into electrical energy. This is 30 percent more than similar batteries can manage.

The bacteria battery could become as small as a household battery. It is also cheap and stable, because sugar can be taken from waste and crops.

But the sugar-to-electricity process is slow: it could take weeks for the bacteria to change a cup of sugar into electricity.And it produces “greenhouse” gases which pollute the environment.

The scientists understand there is a lot more work to be done. “It is still young,” said Lovely.

“Where we are now is where solar power was 20 or 30 years ago.”

He also believes the battery will be used in scientific equipment at the bottom of the ocean.

Other ideas include using sugar in the blood to run medical devices in the human body and taking sugar from animal waste to provide energy to power homes in rural areas.

1.What's the passage mainly about?

A.How to change sugar into electricity. B.A scientific invention of a new type of battery.

C.How to use the new bacteria battery. D.A new kind of mobile phone and its future.

2.Which of the following is NOT the advantage of the newly-developed battery?

A.Convenient. B.Stable. C.Inexpensive. D.Quick.

3.Which of the following are the scientists working on to improve the new battery?

A.Increase the bacteria. B.Solve the pollution problem.

C.Bring down the price. D.Change the size of the battery.

4.What does the underlined sentence actually mean?

A.The bacteria battery shares some similarities with solar energy.

B.Scientists will continue their work until they find solar power.

C.There is still much room for the improvement of the bacteria battery.

D.The bacteria battery will be as popular as solar power in twenty or thirty years.

5.According to the last paragraph, who will find the bacteria battery less useful?

A.Divers. B.Farmers. C.Doctors. D.Architects.

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