Many children love to play with snow in winter. But Long Chuan has come to hate it.
This year his hometown suffered from snowstorms (遭受暴风雪) for nearly a month. The heavy snow stopped cars and trains, broke the electricity (电) tower and turned tap water to ice.
Every day Long Chuan had to walk several kilometers to carry drinking water. “I couldn’t ride a bike and it took me 3 hours to walk to school. I can’t remember how many times I slipped (滑倒) on the hard ice, ” said Long Chuan.
Long is not alone. This year millions of people in central and southern China had a freezing winter without enough water and electricity. The biggest snowstorms in 50 years killed more than 100 people. They also cost the country 111.1 billion yuan.
Experts (专家) say a special type of climate condition (气候条件), La Nina, caused the storms. During a La Nina, the water in the Pacific Ocean (太平洋) near the equator (赤道) becomes colder than usual. It changes the weather around the world.
Besides China, Canada, the US and Middle Eastern countries also met with heavy snowstorms this winter. The special climate caused the recent flooding (洪水) in Australia, too.
However, experts say that people have destroyed the environment (环境). Global warming (全球变暖) may be causing these terrible weather events to happen more and more often.
【小题1】What took place in Long Chuan’s hometown last winter?

1. Sandy got a lot of presents at her ________ (nine) birthday party.

2. Something has been done to reduce the price of buildings. People are very happy when  ________ ( hear) it.

3. It took me an hour ________ (do) my homework last night.

4. Playing too many computer games is          (harm) to you. 

5. My shoes are broken. They need                 (repare).

6. Mr. Black said that he ____________（come）back in five minutes.

7.Look, a young man                      (lie) on the ground.           

8. She is very hungry. She _____    _ （not eat）anything for three days.

It was Mary’s birthday．Her uncle wrote a letter and told her he would like to send her some chickens．She was very happy because she liked eggs and chicken．”I can keep the chickens for their eggs or eat them，”she thought．
When the chickens arrived the next day, they were all in a box．Mary took the box off the truck and began to carry it into her garden，but the box of chickens was so heavy that she dropped（落下）it．The chickens all ran out．They ran here and there．Mary spent hours in trying to find them．
A few hours later her uncle came．He asked．”Did the chickens arrive safely?” ”Yes，but I dropped the box．The chickens ran everywhere．It took me the whole morning to look for them，”Mary said．
“Did you find them all?” asked her uncle．”I hope so，”Mary answered，”But l only caught（抓住）eleven of them” “That’s very interesting．I only sent you six．”her uncle laughed．
【小题1】Mary got a letter from her _____．

It took me _______ hour to finish my homework.

A.a         B. an         C. the