When I was a little girl, my family lives in a small village. There was a very beautiful river near my home. The water was clean and cool. I liked to go fishing there with mom. We would catch fish, look for clams and play in the water. There were also a lot of  birds near the river. We would spend all day watching the birds. Life was beautiful and wonderful in the old days.

Now my family lives in the city. Last Sunday my daughter asked me to take her to see the beautiful river I was always talking about. “I want to go fishing there with you and Grandma ao much,” she said.

When we went to the river, we only saw a factory and a mountain of garbage(垃圾). My mom was surprised, my daughter was quite despondent, and I was sad—the river was my best friend. I grew up with it. Now there are no fish in it; the birds are gone, too. I hear it crying for help. But what can I do ?

1.Where was the writer born?

A．In a city           B．In a village         C．In a foreign country  D．In a mountain

2.When the writer went back to see the river, what did she find?

A．The pollution in the river was very serious.

B．The river was a good place for children to play.

C．Bird-watching was more and more popular along the river.

D．There were many more fish in the river.

3.Who is “Grandma” in the reading?

A．The writer’s daughter                   B．The writer’s mom

C．The writer                             D．The writer’s grandmother

4.What does the underlined word “despondent” mean?

A．高兴的           B．惊喜的           C．失望的           D．麻木的

5.What did the writer mean when she said, “I grew up with it”?

A．She helped clean the garbage out of the river.

B．She spent much time playing around the river.

C．She had many friends who lived near the river.

D．She grew well by eating fish and clams from the river.

先阅读短文，然后从文中每小题的四个选项中选出一个可以填入短文中相应空白处的最佳答案。

I did very badly at school. My headmaster thought I was useless and when I was 14, he said, “You’re never going to be    (1)  but a failure(失败者).

After five years of poor jobs, I fell    (2)  with a very nice girl. But her mother said to me, “You’ve    (3)  in everything you’ve ever done. You can’t give any happiness to my daughter!” It was the frustrating thing that could have changed me later. I decided to do something    (4)  about my life, because I wanted to show her that what people said about me was    (5) .

So I tried hard with my writing and went to college. My first book came out while I was at college. After college I    (6)  during the day in high schools and went to evening classes at college. Later, I gave up that job to write full time. At the same time, I was offered a part­-time job as a    (7)     at Leeds University. I began to feel    (8)  of myself –here was once a poor boy who’d left school early, now teaching at the university. My writing career(生涯)   (9)  when I discovered my own style.

Now I’m rich and    (10)  , have been on TV, and met lots of film stars. But what does that mean? I just wish all the people who have put me down had said: “I believe in you. You’ll succeed.”

Zhang Li lies in bed sadly. The 24-year-old young man lost his right leg because of a blood disease. The doctor said that his 10 years of smoking had caused the disease. “I began to smoke when I was in Junior 3. It made me feel like a man and I thought it looked cool. Now I know I was really wrong.” said Zhang.
It is a mistake many teenagers make. It is said that about 40 million of the country’s young people between 13 and 18 have tried smoking. Nearly 68 percent of teenager smokers smoked their first one before the age of 13. Those who live in big cities started even earlier. Many teenagers see people smoking in the movies. But in real life, stars like Jackie Chan think smoking is a bad thing. In fact, smoking is one of the top killers in China. Each year one million people die from smoking-related(与吸烟有关的)diseases. Smoking causes illnesses like lung cancer and heart disease.
Doctors say that the younger a person starts smoking, the worse it will be. If a person starts smoking as a teenager, he or she may live twenty-two years less than non-smokers.
【小题1】What kind of disease did smoking cause for Zhang Li?
A. Lung cancer.  B. Blood disease.   C. Heart disease.
【小题2】From the passage, we know Zhang Li started to smoke when he was      years old.
A. 13 B. 14   C. 18
【小题3】 The city’s young people          .
A. knew that smoking was a bad thing
B. tried smoking when they were in Junior 3
C. started smoking earlier than those in the country
【小题4】Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
A. Zhang Li had a disease and lost his left leg.
B. Smoking may cause many kinds of diseases.
C. Smoking may make you have a shorter life.
【小题5】 What does the underlined word “non-smokers ” mean in English?
A. People who like smoking.
B. People who smoke.
C. People who don’t smoke.

Did you visit the Shanghai World Expo last summer? What impressed (给……留下印象)  you? 21st Century Kids invites four kids to talk about their experiences. They are back from the Expo. What did they bring us? Let’s see what they have to say.

I went to the SAIC-GM Pavilion (上汽集团通用汽车馆). I found my dream car there. It is a green car. Its name is “Leaf”. Chinese engineers made the car. Its roof is in the shape of a leaf. The roof takes in CO₂ and changes it intoelectricityfor the car.
The Japan Pavilion is full of high technology. The “Wonder Camera” is cool. It can find a smiling face in a crowd. When you’re smiling, it takes a photo of you. I want to invent something like that in the future.
My favorite pavilion is the Germany Pavilion. I watched the Energy Source show. Visitors made a ball swing back and forth (来回摇摆) by using only their voices. It’s amazing! Although we had waited for quite a long time before we entered the hall, I think it is well worth seeing with your own eyes.
I like painting, so my parents took me to the France Pavilion to see the famous paintings. But the French cooks caught my eye. I saw them cook. My mom told me that they are some of the best cooks in the world. The dish they cooked looked like a painting. So, being a cook is my second dream job.
【小题1】 The 21st Century Kids seems to be _____.

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?