Don’t  you  want to go to school? You could tell your parents you’re ill. But last Monday, students from Shanghai and Zhejiang had an even better excuse: a typhoon(台风)!
Typhoon Khanun hit East China on September 11. In Shanghai, all the school were closed the next day, Monday.
It was the first time that Shanghai had to close schools because of  bad weather.
But some students still came to school that day. “ I didn’t get the notice that the school was closing,” said Shen Sheng, a Junior 2 student from Shanghai Aiguo School. “ But it was nice that we could play in school rather than study.”
The school kept Shen and other 20 students safe inside and let them play sports like table tennis.
But the storm wasn’t all fun games. Typhoon Khanun killed 14 people. In Zhejiang, it damaged about 8,000 houses. More than one million people had to be taken to safer places.
Every year, typhoons hit different places around the world. Most happen in July, August and September. This year 15 typhoons hit China. Khanun was the strongest. Typhoons bring strong winds and rains. The winds can blow away houses and cars. The rains are bad for farmers’ fields.
Typhoon also kills people. Earlier this month, Typhoon Talim hit East and Central China. It killed at least 124 people.
【小题1】When was the first time that Shanghai had to close all the schools?

Photography is about taking photographs. In 1826, a Frenchman named Niepce needed pictures for his business. But he was not a good artist. So he invented a very simple camera. He put it in a window of his house and took a picture of his garden. That was the first photograph.

The next important date in the history of photograph was 1837. That year, Daguerre, another Frenchman, took a picture of his studio. He used a new kind of camera and a different process. In his pictures, you could see everything very clearly, even the smallest details. This kind of photograph was called a daguerreotype.

Soon, other people began to use Daguerre’s process. Travelers brought back daguerreotypes from all around the world. People photographed famous buildings, cities and mountains.

In about 1840, the process was improved. The photographers could take pictures of people and moving things. The process was not simple. The photographers had to carry lots of films and processing equipment(设备). But this did not stop the photographers, especially in the United States.

Mathew Brady was a well-known American photographer. He took many pictures of famous people. The pictures were unusual because they were very life-like and full of personality. Brady was also the first person to take pictures of war. His 1862 Civil War pictures showed dead soldiers and destroyed cities. They made the war seem more real and more terrible.

In the 1880s, new inventions began to change photograph. Photographers could buy films readymade in rolls(卷). So they did not have to make the film themselves. Also, they did not have to process(冲洗) the film at once. They could bring it back to their studios and develop it later. They did not have to carry lots of equipment. And finally, the invention of the small hand-held camera made photography less expensive.

Photography is also a form of art. Some photographs were not just copies of the real world. They showed ideas and feelings, like other art forms.

Title: The    1  of Photography

What is your zodiac（生肖） animal? According to the Chinese lunar calendar（农历）, 12 animals mark 12 different years. It is the basis of the Chinese zodiac. Nowadays, Chinese zodiac animals have worldwide fame and are increasingly popular among western people.
The zodiac is an important part of Chinese culture. People believe that the characteristics of a zodiac animal influence the personality of every person born in that year. For example, people born in the Year of the Tiger are considered powerful and brave.
Zodiac animals also have some social functions. When people think it is not proper to ask: “How old are you”, they may change their question to “What is your zodiac animal?” With this question, you can figure out roughly which year someone was born and the person’s age.
Zodiac animals are not special to China. Many countries share a similar zodiac culture with China. For example, in the Japanese Zodiac, a wild boar（野猪）takes the place of a pig and the Vietnamese（越南的）zodiac has a cat instead of a rabbit.
But have you ever wondered how these 12 animals were chosen to represent each year? According to legend, the Jade Emperor（玉皇大帝）invited all the animals to join him for Chinese New Year. Only 12 animals went to see him. As a reward he named a year after each one in the order they arrived. The ox would have been the first to arrive, but the rat sat on his back and jumped off just before they arrived to come in first place.
【小题1】The characteristics of a zodiac animal may influence the _____ of every person born in that year.

July 20th, 1969 was an important day.Two American landed on the moon.Their names were Armstrong and Aldrin.They went there in a spaceship.Its name was Apollo 11.
Apollo 11 left Cape Kennedy on July 16th and went three hundred and eighty-five thousand kilometres.It took the two American three days to get there.On July 20th the spaceship landed in the Sea of Tranquility（宁静）.Armstrong first stepped onto the moon.They picked up some rocks and put them in the spaceship.They jumped up and down.They were tired after their moonwalk,so they rested.
On July 21st, Apollo 11 left the moon and returned to the Earth.Three days later, it came down in the Pacific Ocean.A ship took the men to America.
【小题1】The moon is  ________ kilometres away from the earth.