Throughout history, people have been interested in knowing how language first began, but no one knows exactly where or how this happened. However, we do know a lot about languages, the language of today and also the languages of earlier times. There are probably about three thousand languages in the world today. Chinese is the language with the most speakers. English, Russian and Spanish are also spoken by millions of people. On the other hand, some languages in the world have less than one hundred speakers.

There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo-European. The original language of this family was spoken about 4,500 years ago. Many of the present-day languages of Europe and India are modern forms of the language of 4,500 years ago.

    Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from the English of 500 years ago. In time, some even die out completely. About 1,000 years ago, English was a little known relative of German spoken on one of the borders of Europe.

If a language has a number of speakers, or if it is very old, there may be differences in the way it is spoken in different areas. That is, the language may have several dialects. Chinese is a good example of dialect differences. Chinese has been spoken for thousands of years by many millions of people. The differences between the dialects of Chinese are so great that speakers of Chinese from some parts of China can’t understand speakers from other parts.

1.The first paragraph mainly tells us that_______.

A. most people in the world speak Chinese

B. there are thousands of languages in today’s world

C. man has much knowledge about languages

D. some people know several languages

2.Most European and Indian languages_______.

A. will soon die out completely

B. were once a relative of English

C. are no longer spoken

D. come from the same family of language.

3.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

  A. Chinese is the language with the most speakers.

  B. English was a well-known relative of German spoken on one of the borders of Europe.

  C. A language has many speakers, but there may be no differences in the way it is spoken in different areas.

  D. Speakers of Chinese from some parts of China can understand speakers from other parts.

4.It is considered a most difficult thing for one to learn to speak Chinese because_______.

A. there are great differences between the dialects of Chinese

B. Chinese and many foreign languages are not of the same family

C. Chinese is a very old language

D. there are great differences between the old Chinese and the present-day Chinese

5.The underlined word “dialect” in the last paragraph means_______.

A. a special language spoken by Chinese

B. the sign used by Chinese people in a special area

C. the difference between the old and today’s Chinese

D. the form of a language used in one part of the country

 Today is Wednesday. He _______be at home. He _______be at school.

A. can't; can                                                          B. can't; must

C. mustn't; must                                                      D. mustn't; can

Today is Sunday. All of us go to school early. Our teachers are going to take us to Blue Sky Park. The park is near our school. We can go to the park on foot.
Blue Sky Park is very beautiful. There are many trees, a football field, a big playground and a small lake in it. It’s a sunny day today, but there are not many people in the park. Li Lei is sitting under the tree. Han Mei and Lu Lu are playing on the playground. A bird in the tree is watching them. Look at me. I am playing football with other boys. How happy we are! Where are Miss Fang and Mr. Wu? They are boating on the lake. All of us have a good time in the park. We want to visit it again.
【小题1】It’s        today.

One morning, a blind boy sat beside a building with a hat by his feet. He held a sign which said, “I am blind. Please help me.”

There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognizedhis footsteps and asked, “Are you the one who changed my sign in the morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said, but in a different way.”

What he had written was, “Today is a beautiful day, but I can’t see it.”

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beautiful day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

The first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

There are at least two lessons we can learn from this simple story.

The first is: Treasure (珍惜) what you have. Someone else has less. Try your best to help those who need your help.

The second is: Be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way.

1.From the article we know that________.

2.On the sign what the man wrote was, “                .”

3.According to the article, which of the following is TRUE?

4.The word “recognized” here in Chinese means _______.

5._______ is the best title (题目) for this story.

Think of life as a game in which you are playing with five balls in the air. You name them work, family, health, friends and spirit and you keep all of them in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce (弹跳) back.
But the other four balls, family, health, friends and spirit, are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be broken. They will never be the same. You must understand that and try to have balance in your life. How?
Don’t look down on your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different and each of us is special.
Don’t let other people set goals for you. Only you know what is best for yourself.
Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Don’t be afraid of difficulties. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible. The quickest way to receive love is to give it; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.
Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is a treasure you can always carry easily.
Don’t use time or words carelessly. You can’t get them back. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift; that’s why we call it “the present” Life is not a competition, but a trip, step by step.
【小题1】The passage tells us not to _________ because everyone is special.