The Longest Bicycle

The longest true bicycle was 28.1 meters long and had two wheels. It was built by the students at the  Delft  University  of Technology  in  the Netherlands. The bicycle was ridden more than 100 meters in Delft on December 11, 2002.  The Most Expensive Jeans

A pair of Levis jeans which was over 115 years old then was sold by Randy Knight to a Japanese buyer over the Internet on June 15, 2005. The jeans cost the buyer $60,000.

The Heaviest Apple

The heaviest apple weighed 1.849 kilos. It was grown by Chisato Iwasaki on his apple farm in Japan. Chisato picked the apple on October 24, 2005.                                    The Largest Mobile Phone

The Iargest mobile phone was the Sony Ericsson W810i. It was 2.50×1.14×0.49m and was measured (量) at the MTN Scien Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, on September 20, 2007.

1.The longest bicycle ______.

A. was made in the USA.

B. couldn't be ridden

C. was about 100 meters long

D. had only two wheels

2.Which of the following is NOT true about the most expensive pair of jeans?

A．It was sold over the Internet.

B．It cost the buyer $60,000.

C．It was sold to an American buyer.

D．It is more than 100 years old now.

3.According to the passage, what happened on October 24, 2005?

A．The heaviest apple was grown.

B．The longest bicycle was built.

C．The largest mobile phone was made.

D．The heaviest apple was picked.

My teachers suggested that I see a speech specialist (专家) in school.

I never really gave much thought to my speech. If other people understood what I was saying, then that was good enough. I didn’t mind repeating myself many times.

Before testing me, the speech specialist asked me what I thought of having good speech. I told her I thought it was not important.

“Well, when you are in an interview for a job, and they don’t know what you are saying, what are they going to say to you? Nice meeting you, bye,” she said.

Maybe good speech was important. I took part in 20-minute classes each week with the specialist.

After she tested me, she told me that I spoke too fast, and didn’t give enough eye contact (眼神交流). I learned that when I made eye contact with someone, it meant that I was talking to that person, and I could also see what he or she thought about what I was saying.

When my first speech class started, I found that I had been speaking too fast to be understood. Every time I spoke too fast, the specialist stopped me and told me to start again. At first, I got stopped after almost every other sentence. After a while, I felt my speech slow down. I wasn’t sure if people could understand me better, but my friends stopped asking me to repeat myself.

Speech is an important skill to have. If you do have good speech, that’s a good thing, but if you don’t have it, it is never too late to improve.

1.The article is probably taken from       .

A．a newspaper                           B．an advertisement

C．a detective story                        D．a science book

2.What did the writer think of having good speech before the classes?

A．It was very useful.                       B．It was nothing important.

C．It was impossible.                       D．It was good for interviewing.

3.What were the writer’s problems when he was speaking?

a. He spoke too quickly.

b. He never stopped once he started talking.

c. He seldom kept eye contact with people.

d. He didn’t give others time to ask questions.

A．a, b              B．b, c              C．a, c              D．b, d

4.From the sentence “but my friends stopped asking me to repeat myself,” we know that _____.

A．the writer’s friends couldn’t understand him

B．the writer still couldn’t make eye contact

C．the writer improved a lot

D．the writer didn’t slow down

5.Through the passage, the writer wants to tell us that _____.

A．seeing a speech specialist is necessary

B．speech is an important skill to have

C．good speech can help you make friends

D．good speech gets good affect

One day a man found a cocoon(茧)of a butterfly in the forest. He sat there for several hours and watched the butterfly. Suddenly a small opening appeared, and the butterfly made its great effort to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He cut off the remaining bit of the cocoon so that the butterfly could come out easily. But to his surprise, the butterfly got a heavy body and very small wings when it came out of the cocoon.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that the body would grow smaller at any moment and the wings would become larger and be able to fly. But neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling(爬) around with a heavy body and small wings. It was never able to fly.
The man was in his kindness, but he did not understand the nature rules. Before the butterfly came out of the cocoon, fluid (流体) from its body must be forced into its wings, and then it would be ready for flying. It must have a hard struggle(拼搏)to get through the small opening to get its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any difficulties, it would make us fail. We would not be as strong as we could have been; we could never fly.
【小题1】what was the butterfly doing at the beginning of the story?

Many people have to work on the weekend. Some people do not mind. Others think it is terrible.

　　One man thinks that working on the weekend can be dangerous. He is Graham Coates. Mr Coates works in an office in Brighton, England.

　　On Saturday, May 24, 1986, he went to the office to do some work. When he got on the lift(电梯), it stopped between floors. Mr Coates could not get out of the lift. He started to shout, but no one heard him. Then Mr. Coats remembered that it was a holiday in England. No one was going to come to work until Tuesday.

　　There was nothing for him to do. He had to wait until one of his workmates came to work and found him. With nothing to eat or drink, Mr Coats ended up sleeping for most of the day.

　　Now Mr. Coates says, "I only use lifts if they have telephones in them."

1.Mr. Coates thinks working on the weekend is_____.

A．interesting         B．terrible           C．happy            D．unhappy

2.Mr. Coates stayed in the lift for_____.

A．about twenty hours                      B．nearly two days

C．one week                             D．more than sixty hours

3.When Mr. Coates got out of the lift he_____.

A．was cold, weak, hungry and tired

B．wouldn't work there any more

C．said "I only use lifts if they have telephones in them."

D．went home at once

4.Why could Mr. Coates not get out of the lift? Because _____.

A．it was broken                          B．it was the weekend

C．it was in an office                        D．it was a holiday

5.In the lift, there was_________.

A．water            B．beer             C．telephone         D．nothing

Mr. White works in an office. He liked reading in bed when he was at school. It was bad for his eyes and now he is near-sighted. But he wouldn’t want anybody else to know about it and he never wears a pair of glasses. It often brings him some trouble.
One winter morning he was sent to a village school on business. He got off a bus at a stop in a small town. Then he had to walk there. The road to the village wasn’t smooth. There were stones here and there. He fell over several times and it made his clothes very duty. At last he got to the village. Suddenly it began to blow strongly and it got much colder. His hat was blown off while he was looking for the school. He had to run after it but he couldn’t catch it. He was wondering why his hat ran into a house as if it had legs. And then he ran into the house, too.
A big woman appeared and stopped him by shouting angrily, " What are you running after my hen for?"
【小题1】According to the passage, which of the following is true?