When you read an article you will understand and remember it better if you can work out how the writer has put the ideas together．Sometimes a writer puts ideas together by asking questions and then answering them．For example，if the article is about groundhogs（土拨鼠），the set of questions in the writer’s head might be：
What does a groundhog look like？
Where do groundhogs live？
What do they eat？…
In the article，the author might answer those questions．
Sometimes an author writes out her questions in the article．These questions give you signals．They tell you what the author is going to write next．Often an author has a question in her head but she doesn’t write it out for you．You have to work out her question for yourself．Here’s a sample reading for you to practice this method.
Earthworms
Do you know how many kinds of earthworms there are？There are about 1800 kinds in the world！ They can be brown，purple，green．They can be as small as 3 cm long and as large as 3 m long．
The best time to see earthworms is at night，especially a cool，damp night．That’s when they come up from their burrows（地洞）to hunt for food．Earthworms don’t like to be in the sun．That’s because they breathe through their skin，and they can’t breathe if their skin gets too dry．Earthworms must come out of the earth if it rains a lot，because they can't breathe in their flooded burrows．What a dangerous life！
Earthworms don't have eyes，so how can they tell when it's dark？ They have special places on their skin that are sensitive to light．These spots tell whether it’s light or dark．If you shine a flashlight on an earthworm at night，it will quickly disappear into the ground．
Earthworms don't have ears either，but they can hear by feeling movements in the earth．If you want to hear like an earthworm，lie on the ground with your fingers in your ears．Then have a friend stamp his or her feet near you．This is how earthworms feel birds and people walking，and moles digging，near them．
Earthworms are useful．Farmers and gardeners like having lots of earthworms in their land because the worms help to make better soil when they dig．That digging keeps the soil loose and airy（通风的）．In one year earthworms can pile up as much as 23,000 kg of castings in an area about the size of a football field．
【小题1】What’s the purpose of reading Earthworms?

Have you ever had the strange feeling that you were being watched? You turned around and, sure enough, someone was looking right at you!

Parapsychologists (灵学家) say that humans have a natural ability to sense when someone is looking at them. To research whether such a“sixth sense”really exists, Robert Baker, a psychologist (心理学家) at the University of Kentucky, did two experiments.

In the first one, Baker sat behind unknowing people in public places and stared(盯着）at the backs of their heads for 5 to 15 minutes. The subjects（受试者）were eating, drinking, reading, studying, watching TV, or working at a computer. Baker made sure that the people could not tell that he was sitting behind them during those periods. Later, when he questioned the subjects, almost all of them said they had no sense that someone was staring at them.

For the second experiment, Baker told the subjects that they would be stared at from time to time from behind in a laboratory setting. The people had to write down when they felt they were being stared at and when they weren’t. Baker found that the subjects were no better at telling when they were stared at and when they weren’t.

Baker concludes that people do not have the ability to sense when they’re being stared at. If people doubt the outcome of his two experiments, said Baker,“I suggest they repeat the experiments and see for themselves.”

1.The aim of the two experiments is to ________.

A．explain when people can have a sixth sense

B．study how people act while being watched in the lab

C．study whether humans can sense when they are stared at

D．prove why humans have a sixth sense

2.The underlined word “outcome” in the last paragraph most probably means ________.

A．value             B．result             C．performance       D．connection

3.In the second experiment, the subjects _________.

A．could tell when they were stared at

B．could tell where they weren’t stared at

C．couldn’t tell who they were stared at or who they stared at

D．couldn’t tell when they were stared at or when they weren’t

4.What can be learned from the passage?

A．People are born with a sixth sense.

B．The experiments support parapsychologists’ idea.

C．The subjects do not have a sixth sense in the experiments.

D．People have a sixth sense in all places.

The best way of learning a language is using it. The best way of learning English is talking in English as much as possible. Sometimes you’ll get your words mixed up(混淆) and people will not understand you. Sometimes people will say things too quickly and you can’t understand them. But if you keep your sense of humor(幽默感), you can always have a good laugh at your mistakes you make. Don’t be unhappy if people seem to be laughing at your mistakes. It’s better for people to laugh at your mistakes than to be angry with you, because they don’t understand what you are saying. The most important things for learning English is: “Don’t be afraid of making mistakes because everyone makes mistakes(犯错).”

1.The writer thinks that the best way for you to learn a language is_____.

2.What should you do in learning English?

3.When you make a mistake, you should_____.

4.The story tells us that_____.

If you love books, then“Three Cups of Tea”will be your favorite. It will take you on an adventure（冒险）to one of the highest mountains in the world. You will learn how the people and children there lived and how the writer, Greg Mortenson , helped build an education system.
While climbing K2 in Pakistan, one of the world’s most difficult mountains to climb, Greg Mortenson became ill and got lost. He got help in a small village. The people of the village took good care of him, feeding him and letting him sleep in a villager’s house. They also gave him their best food: sweet tea.
When Mortenson was fine, he found that the children of the village worked and studied outdoors. Their teacher came only three times a week and they didn’t have blackboards. They used sticks（枝条）to write on the ground.
The day he left the village, he told them he would come back and build a school. His school would have both boys and girls. Later on, he came back and helped build a school, so the kids were able to study in the classroom with real writing instruments.
That was in 1993. Today Mortenson is going to build 80 schools in Central Asia. He started a foundation（基金）called the Central Asia Institute to raise money for these schools. He has helped more than 18,000 girls receive education so far.
【小题1】“Three Cups of Tea”is the name of a        .

Some students think it difficult to learn English well. That’s because they don’t find the right way. I think reading is very important for students. The more you read, the better you’ll understand.
Reading is helpful to listening, speaking and writing. If you often read English aloud, you’ll improve your listening. On the other hand, listening a lot can help you to read better. Reading English everywhere when you are free, if you wish. You can get a lot of knowledge when you read. Sometimes you need to express your ideas, you can either speak or write. That means you are using what you learned from reading. The same as Chinese, the more you read, the better you can write. If you want to remember something, you should read again and again.
So from now on, you’d better do more reading. It’s a good way to learn English well.
【小题1】 Some students think it difficult to learn English well because _________.