One day I happened to meet an Englishman in the street and soon we began to talk．As I was talking about how I was studying English, the foreigner seemed to be very surprised, gently shaking his head and saying “You don’t say!” I was puzzled, and I thought, “Perhaps this is not a right thing to talk about．” So I said to him, “Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall? Have you ever been there?”
“Certainly! Everyone back home will laugh at me if I leave here without seeing it．The Great Wall is wonderful!” “Yes, it is one of the wonders in the world．And people of many countries have come to visit it．” As I went on telling him more about it, he stopped me again, “You don’t say!”
I couldn’t help asking, “Why do you ask me not to talk about it?”
“Well, I didn’t ask you to do so,” he answered, greatly surprised．
“Did you say ‘You don’t say!’?” I asked again．
Hearing this, the foreigner laughed loudly．He began to explain, “‘You don’t say!’ means ‘Really’．Perhaps you know little about English idioms(惯用语)．”
Wow! How foolish I was! Since then I have been careful with English idioms．
(1)
The writer was puzzled because _________．
[ ]
A．
the foreigner has some difficulty in understanding him．
B．
the writer himself didn’t understand the meaning of “You don’t say!”
C．
the foreigner was not polite．
D．
the writer was very clever
(2)
What made the foreigner laugh?
[ ]
A．
The English idioms
B．
The writer’s talking about the Great Wall
C．
The writer’s explanation
D．
The writer’s question
(3)
The story probably happened in _________．
[ ]
A．
China
B．
America
C．
England
D．
Canada
(4)
The writer was puzzled _________ in the passage．
[ ]
A．
once
B．
twice
C．
three times
D．
four times
(5)
The English idiom “You don’t say!” means “________”
You will have a lot of reading to do in this grade this year．You can do more of it in less time if you learn to read rapidly．
Perhaps you have been told about some habits (习惯) which keep a person from reading fast and have been strongly asked to break those habits which you might have．
Do you still have any of these bad habits?Check yourself by answering“yes”or“no”to these questions．
(1) Do you move your lips (嘴唇) when reading silently?
(2) Do you point to words with your finger as you read?
(3)Do you move your head from side to side as you read?
(4)Do you read one word at a time?
If you answer“yes”to any of these questions,start at once to break the habit．If you move your tips，hold your fingers over them，or hold a piece of paper be-tween your lips while you are reading．Then if your lips move，your will know it and can stop them．
If you point to words，hold the two sides of your book，one side with your left hand，the other side with your right hand．Then you won't have a free finger to use in pointing while reading．If you move your head，place your chin (下巴) in one hand and hold your head still (静止不动的)．
If you read no more than one or two or three words at a time，you need to work very hard in learning to take in (吸收) more words at each glance (一瞥) as your eyes travel across the lines of words．
Even if you do rather fast now，you can learn to read even faster．As you probably have been told，the secret of fast reading is to take in whole groups of words as each glance．Read in through groups and force (迫使) your eyes along the lines of words as fast as you can to make them go．Anyone who practices doing these things will he able to read faster．
(1)
You may hold your fingers over your lips while reading so as ______．
A．to tell others to be silent
B．to feel whether your lips move or not
C．to hold a piece of paper between them
D．to keep yourself from talking to others
[ ]
(2)
When you read，______．
A．don't keep your head still
B．don't hold your books with your hands
C．don't stand up near a desk
D．don't use your finger to point to words
[ ]
(3)
If you learn to read fast，______．
A．you can read more in less time
B．you can write faster
C．you can understand better
D．you can read less in more time
[ ]
(4)
You must _______ those habits that we are talking about in this reading．
