Dear Reader,
Imagine an 11-year old girl whose days are often spent washing clothes, looking after a baby, working hard in the field.
Imagine a little girl who knows there will not be enough food for dinner, who can’t fill her stomach with water because it’s polluted, and who has watched life slip away from her father, little brother and sister because the family is too poor to see a doctor.
Is it hard to believe? For Maria Pastora, these are the real life.
Maria would gladly walk miles to school, but her mother, now alone, needs her badly at home. If Maria grows up without any schooling, what will be her future?
But for just 52 pennies a day, you can sponsor a child like Maria. Through “Save the Children”, you can help Maria’s mother get the tools and ways she needs to turn their poor food into a good dinner and the money she needs to buy clothes and school things for Maria.
To help Maria most, your money is put together with that of other sponsors, so hard-working people can help themselves. Build a school, a hospital…bring in clean water. This is what “Save the Children” has been about since 1932.
For you there are many rewards. Have the chance to write to or hear from your sponsored child. Receive photos or progress reports. Know you are reaching out to another person. Not with a handout(施舍物), but a “handup”. That’s how “Save the Children” works. But without you, it can’t work. Please take a moment now to fill in and post the form below to help a child like Maria and her village.
It can make such a difference in her life and yours.
【小题1】We can most probably read the letter in __________.

完形填空(阅读下面的短文，然后从四个答案中选出最佳答案)

Thomas Edison 1 a famous American scientist. He was born 2 1847. When he was 3 child, he liked to 4 how things worked. He was in school 5 only three months. He 6 his teacher a lot of strange questions. Mostof them 7 his lessons. 8 teacher thought the boy 9 bright and was not worth 10 11 he told this to Edison's mother, she took her son 12 school. As she 13 a teacher, she taught him 14 . The boy read 15 . Soon he 16 very interested in science, 17 the age of ten, Edison 18 a chemistry lab for himself. Ever since then, he never stopped searching for new and 19 ways 20 .

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On June 26, 2000, two scientists, called Francis Collins and Craig Venter, told the world that they could now read the whole “map” of the human body: DNA. DNA is something that everybody has, and it tells the body what to do. DNA is the reason that we look like our mother and father, because we get some of their DNA to make our own.

People have been trying to understand the human body for a long time. In 1860, Gregor Mendel discovered a special reason why we look the same as other people in our family. It is because of small things named “genes” in our body. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick made another discovery and found out that those small parts are real messages written in the DNA with a special language.

　　In 1961, Marshall Nirenberg and Johann Matthaei found a message in DNA showing how DNA tells the cell (细胞) to build its parts. Scientists have now found all the words in the DNA map, but we still do not understand what they all do. By understanding what just one “word” means, we can help save more people from several illnesses.

　　Most people hope that this will help make better medicine and help sick people. Other people worry that when people begin to know more words and find out lots of other information, we might use it in a wrong way, just to make people more attractive, or stop sick people from getting jobs. Man would have to meet a lot of trouble if DNA technology (技术) wasn’t limited (限制) in use.

1.When did we first know why we look like other people in our family?

A. In 1860. B. In 1953. C. In 1961. D. In 2000.

2.What did the two scientists first discover in 1961?

A. The “map” of DNA. B. A new illness.

C. The language of DNA. D. A message of DNA.

3.What can we do if we understand some “words” of the language inside the body?

A. Make people get new jobs.

B. Make medicine for illnesses.

C. Make maps of human.

D. Make people less attractive.

4.What do people think about this work?

A. It can cause good or bad results.

B. It can cause only good results.

C. It can cause good results but won’t work.

D. It can cause only bad results.