Thomas Edison lit up the world with his invention of the electric light. Without him, the world might still be in the dark. However, the electric light was not his only invention. He also invented the motion picture camera and 1200 other things. About every two weeks he created something new.
Thomas Edison was born in 1847. He attended school for only three months. His mother taught him at home, but Thomas was mostly self-educated. He started experimenting at a young age.
When he was 12 years old, he got his first job. He became a newsboy on a train. He did experiments on the train in his spare time. Unluckily, his first work experience did not end well. They fired him when he accidentally set fire to the floor of the train. Then Edison worked for five years as a telegraph operator, but he continued to spend much of his time in experimenting his first patent(专利权) in 1868 for a vote recorder run by electricity.
Thomas Edison was totally deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other, but he thought of his deafness as a blessing in many ways. It kept conversations short, so that he could have more time for work. He always worked 16 out of every 24hours. Sometimes his wife had to remind him to sleep and eat.
Thomas Edison died at the age of 84. He left a great many inventions that greatly improved the quality of life all over the world.
【小题1】How often did Edison make a new invention?

用正确的单词填空。

1. The people ______ travel all over the world think China is a beautiful country.（定语从句引导词）

2. I can’t say anything ______ moves us deeply.（定语从句引导词）

3. Paper is made ______ wood.

4. The trees can stop the flood from ______ (wash) the earth away.

5. By the end of last term, we ______ (study) three thousand words.

6. You must practise ______ (play) the piano every day.

7. Edison was a great American ______ (invent).

8. He hasn’t enough ______（经验）for the job.

9. It’s good to tell ______ (true).

10. You’d better ______ (not go) to the supermarket.

Edison often said, “1 will discover what the world needs, then I will try to invent it.”  It is true that he did more than any other man of his time in inventing things. He made more than one thousand inventions in his life and all these have changed our way of living. Edison was one of the greatest inventors in the world. When Edison died in 1931, someone said people should turn off all the lights in their homes, streets and factories for several minutes in honour of this great man. Of course it was impossible to do so. And this shows what Edison's inventions mean to people's life.

1.All the things Edision invented were _________ people needed at that time.

A. what    B. that      C. then       D. which

2.Edison _________in inventing new things.

A. took all his time         B. paid all his money

C. spent his most time       D. spent his most money

3.Edison had _________ inventions in all his life.

A. thousands of               B. over one thousand

C. only one thousand           D. less than a thousand

4. Edison was dead for nearly _______ years.

A. fifty           B. severity-six     C. sixty     D. eighty

5.It was __________ to turn off all the lights in honour of the greatest inventor.

 A. possible    B. not true     C. nice     D. important

Thomas Edison was a great American inventor. He was born to a poor family in 1847. His mother taught him at home. He often observed things carefully and he made over 1,300 inventions during his life time. He was often said to be the greatest genius(天才) of his age. There are only a few men in all of history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light. But Edison could never be happy only because someone said he was a genius. “There is no such thing as genius,” Edison said. He also said that what people called genius was mostly hard work. But Edison was a dreamer as well as a worker. From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the secrets of nature. Nature, he often said, is full of secrets. He tried to understand them; then, he tried to learn what could usefully be done with them.

Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people will do almost anything instead of the difficult work of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking can give men enjoyment and pleasure.

Edison could not understand how anyone could be uninterested in life. As he loved to think, he also loved to work. On the day he became 75 years old, someone asked him what ideas he had about life. “Work, ” he answered back, “discovering the secrets of nature and using them to make men happier.” He said he had enough inventions in his mind to give him another 100 years of work.

1.Edison was______________.

A．interested in changing people’s ideas

B．interested in discovering the secrets of nature

C．very much uninterested in nature

D．uninterested in making people happier by discovering the secrets of nature

2.Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?

A．Many other people have changed Edison’s life.

B．Edison has changed the lives of many other people.

C．Only a few men in history can change other people’s lives.

D．Edison invented the electric light.

3.The last sentence in the passage most probably implies(意指)___________.

A．people of his time were ready to give Edison another 100 year’s work

B．Life is too short for Edison to invent more for human beings

C．Edison made 100 inventions in his life

D．Edison was able to live and work for 100 years