Going on a road trip? The St．Louis Arch，Statue of Liberty and Golden Gate Br_[dga are great tourist sites．But if you prefer offbeat destinations, check out the following roadside attractions．

     World's Largest Ball of Paint

     Alexandria, Ind．

     In 1977, Michael Carmichael set out to create the biggest ball of paint anywhere．Starting with a base-ball as center, he painted layer after layer of paint day after day, year after year．The ball weighs more than 1,300 pounds, with more than 20,000 coats of paint, which is recognized by Guinness World Records．Visitors can paint the ball themselves and become part of history．

     The Museum of Dirt

     Boston, Mass．

     The museum is the idea of Glenn Johnson．Labeled （贴有标签的） glass bottles contain such treasures as dirt from the Great Wall of China, as well as sand from a desert in Saudi Arabia and Omaha Beach in France．Best of all, the cost of seeing this museum is dirt cheap: It's free．

     Mount Horeb Mustard Museum

     Mount Horeb，Wis．

     It's heaven for hotdog lovers! This museum claims to have the world's largest collection of prepared mustards （芥末）．Its more than 4,100 bottles of spices come from 60 nations, including Turkey and China．Visitors learn the history of mustard, from how it's made to how it's advertised and sold．The museum's creator, Barry Levenson, loves mustard so much, he even puts it on ice cream!

     Paper House

     Rockport, Mass．

     Swedish immigrant （移民） Ellis Stenman was much ahead of his time in 1922, when he started to build a two-room house almost entirely out of newspaper．At the time, people didn't give much — if any —thought to recycling paper．In fact, "recycling" wasn't even a word yet．The house is framed with wood, but the walls are made of 215 layers of newspaper．In all, he used about 100,000 newspapers．

1．The underlined word "offbeat" in the first paragraph can be best replaced by______．

   A．great           B．foreign           C．unusual           D．historical

2．If you want to add your own work to what you visit, you may choose______ ．

   A．World's Largest Ball of Paint                B．The Museum of Dirt

   C．Mount Horeb Mustard Museum               D．Paper House

3．Which of the following is true of Barry Levenson according to the text?

   A．No spices but mustards can be found in his museum．

   B．He travels around the world to collect mustards．

   C．Mustard is advertised and sold in his museum．

   D．In a way, he shows much preference for mustard．

4．What can be inferred from the text?

   A．Michael must have the largest ball in the world． 

B．Glenn must have paid a visit to China．

   C．Lots of hotdog lovers will travel to Mount Horeb．

D．Ellis could be seen as a pioneer in his time．

 5．According to the text, we know that

   A．Michael will never stop painting the large ball

B．there is no charge at the Museum of Dirt

   C．Barry is the owner of the mustard museum

D．Paper House was completely made of paper

Unconventional in every way, Edward Estlin Cummings made striking use of grammar. His arts were poetry, painting, and drama, and in all of them he was an experimenter and innovator. The poetry—for which he is best remembered—was marked by strange combinations of words and expressions and produced in very strange printing. The unusual techniques that Cummings used served to present his ideas more forcefully and effectively than would have been the case with more ordinary styles.

Cummings was born in Cambridge, Mass, on Oct. 14, 1894. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1915 and received a master's degree in 1916. During World War I he served as an ambulance driver in France. He spent six months in a detention camp because of his friendship with another American who had supposedly criticized the Allied war effort. This experience increased his distrust for all officialdom（官场）, a distrust that showed itself in many of his later poems as well as in his first book, ‘The Enormous Room', published in 1922.

Between the two world wars Cummings divided his time between Paris and New York City. His first book of verse was ‘Tulips and Chimneys' (1923). In all he wrote 12 volumes of verse, which were collected in ‘Complete Poems' (1968). The strangeness of his style was criticized by some, but others found it meaningful.

Among Cummings' plays were ‘Him', first performed in 1927, and ‘Tom' (1935), a work based on ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin'. An experimental prose（散文） book, ‘Eimi' (1933), recorded a 36-day visit to the Soviet Union.

Cummings died at his home in North Conway, N.H., on Sept. 3, 1962. He was the second most widely read poet in the United States, after Robert Frost. He was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts.

61. The text is mainly about Edward Estlin Cummings’ ________.

A. life and works             B. greet artistic abilities

C. creative ideas              D. influence on American literature

62. Cummings was chiefly famous as _________.

A. a novelist       B. an artist       C. a poet      D. a playwright

63. What does the underlined part “This experience” refer to?

A. Cummings served as a driver in France.

B. Cummings spent half a year in prison.

C. Cummings made friends with an enemy.

D. Cummings criticized the countries fighting against Germany.

64. What do we know about Cummings from the text?

A. His writing style was unique.

B. He wrote three plays during his life.

C. He published his first book of poetry in 1922.

D. His poems were seldom read in the United States.

65. The passage is mainly developed by _______.

A. giving questions              B. examining difference  

C. following the time order        D. making comparisons

Many of us assume that with such a last name, Peter Buffett, 52, must enjoy a life of endless privilege. But the son of billionaire investor (投资人) Warren Buffett definitely doesn’t think so.
“People who are born with a silver spoon in their mouth can fall victim (受害者) to what my father has called a silver dagger (匕首) in your back,” Buffett told Reuters in an interview. “It leads to a sense of entitlement (特权) and a lack of personal achievement.”
Entitlement, he believes, is the worst thing ever. “Anybody who acts like they deserve (应得) something ‘just because’ is a disaster,” he said.
In his new book, Life Is What You Make It: Finding Your Own Path to Fulfillment, Buffett says that the only real inheritance (遗产) handed down from his parents was a philosophy (价值观): Forge your own path in life. It is a belief that has allowed him to follow his own passions, establish his own identity, and reap (收获) his own successes.
Did his father ever want him to go into finance? “It was encouraged for a moment when I was open to the idea,” he told Reuters. But as he grew older, it became clear the financial world “was not speaking to my heart.”
His father accepted his choice to become a musician. He began his musical career by writing music for TV commercials (广告). He then released his own albums.
“I am my own person and I know what I have accomplished in my life,” he told Reuters. “This isn’t about wealth or fame or money or any of that stuff, it is actually about values and what you enjoy and finding something you love doing.”
Along with the book, Buffett has begun a “Concert & Conversation” tour in which he plays the piano, talks about his life and warns against consumerist (消费主义) culture and damaging the environment.
“Economic prosperity (繁荣) may come and go; that’s just how it is,” he writes in the book. “But values are the steady currency (硬通货) that earn us the all-important rewards.”
【小题1】 What does “It” in the second paragraph refer to?