The famous director of a big and expensive movie planned to film a beautiful sunset over the ocean, so that the audiences could see his hero and heroine in front of it at the end of the film as they said goodbye to each other for ever.He sent his camera crew(摄制组) out one evening to film the sunset for him.

The next morning he said to the men,“Have you provided me with that sunset?"

“No,sir," the men answered.

The director was angry. “Why not?"he asked.

“Well, sir,"one of the men answered,“we're on the east coast here, and the sun sets in the west. We can get you a sunrise over the sea, if necessary, but not a sunset."

“But I want a sunset!"the director shouted.“Go to the airport,take the next flight to the west coast, and get one."

But then a young secretary had an idea.“Why don't you photograph a sunrise," she suggested，“and then play it backwards? then it'll look like a sunset."

“That's a very good idea!" the director said. Then he turned to the camera crew and said, “Tomorrow morning I want you to get me a beautiful sunrise over the sea."

The camera crew went out early the next morning and filmed a bright sunrise over the beach in the middle of a beautiful bay(海湾). Then at nine o'clock they took it to the director. “Here it is, sir，" they said, and gave it to him. He was very pleased.

 They all went into the studio(摄影棚).“All right，"the director explained，“now our hero and heroine are going to say good?bye. Run the film backwards so that we can see the ‘sunset'behind them."

The “sunset" began, but after a quarter of a minute ,the director suddenly

 put his face in his hands and shouted to the camera crew to stop.

“The birds in the film were flying backwards, and the waves on the sea were going away from the beach."

1.One evening, the director sent his camera crew out  ________.

A. to watch a beautiful sunset          B. to find an actor and an actress

C. to film a scene on the sea           D. to meet the audience 

2.Why did the director want to send his crew to the west coast?

A. Because he changed his mind about getting a sunset.

B. Because he was angry with his crew.

C. Because it was his secretary's suggestion.

D. Because he wanted to get a scene of sunset. 

3. Which of the following is NOT true?

A. The crew had to follow the secretary's advice.

B. If you want to see a sunrise, the east coast is the place to go to.

C. The camera crew wasn't able to film the scene the first day.

D. The director ordered his crew to stop filming the “sunset". 

4.The director wanted to film a sunset over the ocean because  ________ .

A. it went well with the separation of the hero and the heroine

B. when they arrived at the beach it was already in the evening

C. it was more moving than a sunrise

D. the ocean looked more beautiful at sunset 

5. After the“sunset" began, the director suddenly put his face in his hands ________ .

A. because he was moved to tears

B. as he saw everything in the film moving backwards

C. as the sunrise did not look as beautiful as he had imagined

D. because he was disappointed with the performance of the hero and heroine

Chinese star Yao Ming has retired. Yao made it official Wednesday, telling a news conference that a series of foot and leg injuries forced him to end his playing career at the age of 30.
“I will formally end my career,’’ said Yao, who became a household name in China before starting his NBA career with the Houston Rockets in 2002. Yao played eight seasons in the NBA.
“Today is an important day for me and holds a special meaning for both my basketball career and my future,’’ Yao said. “I had to leave the court since I suffered a stress fracture（断裂） in my left foot for the third time at the end of last year. My past six months were a painful wait. I have been thinking about my future over and over. Today I am announcing a personal decision, ending my career as a basketball player and officially retire. But one door is closing and another one is opening.’’
Yao said he would return to work with his former Chinese team, the Shanghai Sharks, with the possibility of becoming general manager. He already owns the club and wants to contribute more. “My playing career started with the club. I hope I can do something for it,’’ Yao said.
He later appeared with his family on the stage to the applause and cheers of the crowd. He thanked a lot of people — his family, former coaches, even players like Shaquille O’Neal — “for making me a better player.’’
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey was among those attending the farewell(告别) conference Wednesday. Morey made the long trip from Houston. Morey said 20 hours on planes was tiring but “I would be sorry if I wasn’t here.” “It’s a big moment,’’ Morey added. “Yao had a sense of humor, a great attitude and sense of responsibility. I hope we can continue his culture in the NBA.’’
【小题1】Yao Ming has retired from basketball because of _____.

O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank, when some money went missing from the bank. O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the reader’s surprise.

1. In which order did O. Henry do the following things?

a. Lived in New York.   b. Worked in a bank.       c. Travelled to Texas.

d. Was put in prison.    e. Had a newspaper Job.     f. Learned to write stories.

2.People enjoyed reading O. Henry’s stories because       

3.O. Henry went to prison because       .

4.What do we know about O. Henry before he began writing?

5.Where did O. Henry get most material for his short stories?

It was Monday. Mrs Smith’s dog suffered from hungry, but there was not any meat in the house.
　　Considering that there was no better way．Mrs．Smith took a piece of paper, and wrote the following words on it: “Give my dog half a pound of meat．” Then she gave the paper to her dog and said gently: “Take this to the butcher, and he's going to give you your lunch today．”
　　Holding the piece of paper in its mouth, the dog ran to the butcher's．It gave the paper to the butcher．The butcher read it carefully, recognized that it was really the lady's handwriting and soon did it as he was asked to．The dog was very happy, and ate the meat up at once．
　　At noon, the dog came to the shop again．It gave the butcher a piece of paper again．After reading it, he gave it half a pound of meat once more．
　　The next day, the dog came again exactly at noon．And as usual, it brought a piece of paper in the mouth．This time, the butcher did not take a look at paper, and gave the dog its meat, for he had regarded the dog as one of his customers．
　　But, the dog came again at four o'clock．And the same thing happened once again．To the butcher's more surprise, it came for the third time at six o'clock, and brought with it a third piece of paper．The butcher felt a bit puzzled．He said to himself, “This is a small dog．Why does Mrs．Smith give it so much meat to eat today?”
　　Looking at the piece of paper, he found that there were not any words on it!
【小题1】It seemed that the dog knew well that the paper Mrs．Smith gave it_______．
　 

My favorite English teacher could draw humor out of the driest material. It wasn’t forced on us either. He took Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, Addison’s essays, and many other literary wonders from the eighteenth century and made them hilarious, even at eight o’clock in the morning. The thing that amazed me most was that the first time I read these works on my own, some of them seemed dead, but the second time, after his explanation, I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen the humor. The stories and poems and plays were suddenly filled with allusions(典故) and irony and hilarious moments. I learned more from him than from any other teacher.

My least favorite English teacher also made people laugh. Some students found him to be wonderfully funny. Many others did not. He assigned journals over a six-week period, to be written every day. At the end of the six weeks I had a notebook full of bits and pieces about my ideas, short stories, reactions to what we had read, and so on. Our teacher announced that we would be grading each other’s journals. Mine was passed to Joe, that class clown, who always behaved in a funny or silly way. He saw it fit to make a joke of and said, “This writing isn’t fit to line the bottom of a birdcage.” Our teacher laughed at that funny remark. It hurt me so much that the anger from it has driven my writing and teaching ever since.

So what makes the difference? Humor is one of the most powerful tools teachers or writers have. It can build up students and classes and make them excited about literature and writing, or it can tear them apart. It is true that humor is either productive or counter-productive and self-defeating.

1.The passage mainly discusses ________.

A. teaching                     B. literature                    C. humor                D. knowledge

2.The underlined word “hilarious” in Paragraph 1 probably means ________.

A. funny                B. tiring                          C. inspiring                       D. brilliant

3.The English teacher the writer disliked most ________.

A. was not able to make students laugh                   B. hurt his student’s feelings

C. didn’t let his students do the grading                  D. had no sense of humor