long ago people made fires from lightning(闪电)。 But they had to keep the fire burning, for they couldn’t start it again if there was no lightning. Later, they found out hitting two piece of stone together could make a spark (火花). The spark could fire dry leaves. In this way they could make the fire again if it went out. Then people also learned to make a fire by rubbing. They made a hole on a big piece of wood and put a smaller stick into the hole. They turned the stick again and again. After a few minutes they got a fire.
As years went by, people learned other ways to make a fire. Sometimes they used the heat from sun. they held a piece of glass in the right way and made a piece of paper on fire.
About two centuries ago, people began to make matches (火柴). Matches brought people a quick and easy way to make fire. Today matches are still being used, but people have more new ways to make fires. One of them is to use an electric fire starter. Of course an electric fire starter is much more expensive than a box of matches. But it is more useful.
【小题1】 A spark can _________.

One day a lonely girl found two weak birds while she was walking in the woods(树林).She took them home and put them in a small cage. She fed them with love and the birds grew strong. Every morning they greeted her with a beautiful song. The girl loved them very much and wanted their singing to last forever.
One day the girl left the cage’s door open. The larger and stronger of the two birds flew out of the cage. The girl watched worriedly as it circled(盘旋) high above her. She was afraid that it would fly away and she would never see it again. So when it flew close, she grasped(抓) at it wildly. She was very happy that she held it tightly within her hand! Suddenly, she felt something had happened to the bird. She opened her hand and was surprised to find the bird was dead. Her love for the bird killed it.
She noticed the other bird jumping in the cage. She could feel that it wanted to be free. It hoped to fly into the clear, blue sky. She lifted(举起) it from the cage and flew it into the air. The bird circled once, twice, three times…
When the bird was flying happily in the sky, she was so glad. Just then the bird flew closer and sat softly on her shoulder. It sang the sweetest song she had ever heard.
The fastest way to lose love is to hold it tight; the best way to keep love is to let it fly!
【小题1】The girl loved the two birds very much because _____.

For many people the subject of hiccups (嗝) is a joke, but for Harry Mendes, a fifteen-year-old schoolboy from Birmingham, it was something quite different.

His hiccups began one Sunday lunch time and continued day and night for two weeks. After the first week, Harry's parents took him to hospital, but it took another week for the doctors to cure his attack.

Harry, who is now back at school, described what happened to him.

“When I began to hiccup, I drank a glass of water but that didn't do any good. That evening I had hiccups every four seconds. We tried everything to stop them. I held my breath and drank cold drinks. My father even tried to give me a shock but that didn't work either.”

After a week of sleepless nights, he went to hospital. The doctors took an X-ray of his chest but they couldn't find anything wrong.

“They gave me some medicine and my hiccups slowed down, but it was another week before the medicine worked completely and my hiccups stopped.”

Harry was very lucky. The world record holder is the American farmer Charles Osborne, who hiccupped for sixty-eight years. He stopped in 1990 at last, but nobody knows why.

1.Harry's hiccups lasted ____.

  A. a week              B. fourteen days          C. twenty-eight days           D. one month

2.His hiccups started after he ____.

  A. drank a glass of water                              B. went to hospital

C. ate an Indian meal                                 D. finished his homework

3.His parents decided to take him to hospital when he ____.

  A. hiccupped for four seconds                    B. held his breath

  C. hiccupped at night                           D. couldn't stop hiccupping

4.His hiccups completely stopped one week after the doctor ____.

   A. gave him some medicine                      B. took an X-ray of his chest

   C.gave him a shock                            D. let him drink cold drinks

5.What does “shock” in this passage mean？

A.震惊            B.休克            C.喷嚏             D.哈欠

根据短文内容和首字母提示，在下文空格处填入适当的词使短文完整。（每空一词）

At last, the mid-term exams are over. You’ve done the hard work, b 1. you can’t relax. You have to prepare for the next exams. Do you hate exams? If you do, you’re not alone. Students in o 2. countries hate them as well.

Luckily for them, British students have f 3.  exams than Chinese students. And they o 4. have them once a year. Every summer they take a test in each subject. Each test lasts about an hour. These exams don’t count for much. Even if a student does really b 5. they still progress to the next year. When the results come out they are then placed in an end-of-year report. The report is sent to the child’s p 6. . It describes how the student studied at school.

This report is private（私密的）, so only the teacher, the student and his or her parents see it. This m 7.  that the students don’t know how other students scored in the test. Some students choose to tell each other, but others keep it s 8. .

Parents’ meetings are held t 9. a year, at the end of the winter term and then at the end of the summer term. Children go to meet their teachers w 10.  their parents and discuss their performance at school.

The 2012 London Olympic Games will be held on July 28^th. Do you have time to go there? If you do, maybe you will meet some foreign friends. But do you know their characteristics(特征)?
The Germans are very quiet and they always keep calm. They don’t like to speak more words. They look very serious. They like different kinds of amusements. The Germans are very hard-working. They like tidiness, especially the women, who always keep their home clean.
In some ways, the Englishmen look the same as the Germans. They are very quiet and never talk too much with the strangers. They are really polite, so we often hear they say “Thank you.” or “Sorry”. The gentlemen are also the Englishmen.
The French’s holidays are very long. They like traveling and usually spend their long time staying in other countries. The Frenchmen are more outgoing than the Germans. It is very easy to make friends with them.
Compared to the Frenchmen, the Americans are more outgoing. And they are even opener than all of the Europeans. They don’t like to depend on others. So it is very common that the students do part-time jobs in their free time. And in Americans’ eyes, success is an important part in their life.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “tidiness” mean in Chinese?
A.整洁                 B.安静                     C.时尚        
【小题2】In the writer’s eyes, the gentlemen are__________.
A. the Americans       B. the Frenchmen           C. the Englishmen        
【小题3】You can find it easy to __________ the Frenchmen.
A. depend on           B. make friends with       C. do part-time job with
【小题4】According to the passage, __________ are very quiet.
A. only the Germans        B. only the Englishmen
C. Both the Germans and the Englishmen
【小题5】Which is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Characteristics of the foreigners are the same.
B. All of the Europeans are as outgoing as the Americans.
C. It’s important to be successful in Americans’ eyes.