The nine-year-old Marc Yu is called Little Mozart. He is too short to reach the pedals (踏板) of a piano. Marc, from California, USA, says, “The problem is that my legs aren’t straight enough, so I have to get very close to the piano.”

Marc’s 34-year-old mother played Beethoven’s CDs to him when she was pregnant . Marc started playing the piano at a birthday party when he was only two. While the other children were singing “twinkle, twinkle, little star …”, he walked over to the piano and started playing the song. It astonished his mother, because that was the first time he’d been near a piano. Marc gave his first public performance, playing Beethoven, at six, the same age as Mozart. After that concert, Marc won a ￡225,000 university scholarship.

At present he practices the piano eight hours a day. He also studies part-time at the famous Colbum Music School in Los Angeles, and flies once a month to China for lessons at Shanghai Music School. Marc says, “I like playing the piano because it makes me have a lot of different feelings —sadness, excitement, happiness and so on. I like playing difficult pieces, especially those that my teacher says I shouldn’t.”

1.The nine-year-old Marc Yu is from       .

A．China            B．France            C．Canada           D．the United States

2.Marc played the piano at the age of        for the first time.

A．two              B．five              C．six               D．nine

3.According to the passage, the underlined word “astonished” means “     ” in Chinese.

A．使……理解                           B．使……担心

C．使……惊奇                           D．使……难过

4.At present Marc practices playing the piano        .

A．once a month                          B．eight hours a day

C．in his free time                         D．only on weekends

5.What Marc says in the last paragraph tells us that       .

A．he likes challenges                      B．he doesn’t like challenges

C．he is afraid of challenges                  D．he wants to be happy and famous.

In less than two months, Junior 3 students around the country will take the senior high school entrance (入学) exam. They are studying hard for this big challenge. Do they have time to do something in memory of their middle school years? Many do.

Leng Jingze, 15, from Tianjin said that in her class students are already writing goodbye messages for each other. "Even the head teacher has a plan," said Leng. "She plans to put all our class photos and the Chinese compositions we have written onto a CD and give each student one," said Leng. "She will also write something for each student."

Wang Zeyu, 16, in Changchun, Jilin said his classmates are making "lucky stars" as graduation gifts. They are making the cheerful stars from colored paper. "Before making a lucky star, you write some words for the person on the paper," said Wang. "He or she can read the words later." Who does Wang want to make a lucky star for? He said he wanted to make one for his head teacher. "I'll write: Dear teacher, you always look so serious," said Wang. "But we know you have a warm heart. Smile more!"

In Xiao Xia's school in Beijing, each Junior 3 student will get a yearbook (毕业年鉴) , in which the graduating classes will put their photos and self-introductions. "Most classes have written an article as the self-introduction," said Xiao, 15. "We have written a poem in the ancient style!" The poem records the big events of the class's history and is in the shape of the number 9. "Nine is our class number," said Xiao, who felt very proud of the idea. "Our class may be not the one with the best school grade but it must be the most creative one," said Xiao. "I feel lucky to study in such a class!"

1.Leng Jingze's head teacher plans to ____________.

A. put all the class photos onto a CD

B. put the student's Chinese compositions onto a CD

C. give each student a CD

D. all above

2. Wang Zeyu wanted to make a "lucky star" for his teacher because ____________.

A. his head teacher wasn't serious enough

B. he doesn't like his head teacher

C. his head teacher sent him a gift

D. he wanted his head teacher to smile more

3.From the last paragraph, we know that ____________.

A. most classes in Xiao Xia's school have written a poem as the self-introduction

B. 9 is the lucky number for Xiao Xia's Class

C. Xiao Xia's class has very creative ideas

D. each graduating class will get a yearbook to put their photos and self-introductions

4.The passage is probably from ____________.

A. a newspaper     B. a novel         C. a letter      D. a diary

My brother has_______pictures,but he doesn’t like_____of them.

Dear Earthmen(地球人)，
I enjoy my stay on your interesting planet(星球).
I think I know the life on Earth now and I would like to tell you my ideas.
First of all you live in boxes. Every morning you leave your boxes and get into smaller boxes on wheels(轮子). All these small boxes run around and around, and finally stop to rest. You leave these boxes on wheels and go to very large tall boxes.
After resting all day, you get back in your little boxes. There you sit and look at very small glowing boxes with moving pictures in them.
There is only one thing I don’t know. Some angry boys fought for a little round (圆的) ball. Everyone shouted(大声喊) but they kept fighting. They were angry, because they had to stay in boxes all day, I think.
Thank you for this chance(机会) to get to know you.
Yours,
The man from Mars(火星)
【小题1】How many kinds of “boxes” does the man from Mars tell us？