Vanilla is my best friend. She is a lovely girl with two big, beautiful eyes. But she always hides them behind a pair of black glasses.

One day, though, I nearly ended our friendship. I remember that day clearly. We were sitting in class. The teacher was giving us our results for a Chinese test. I had done badly. I felt so sad that I wouldn’t talk to anyone. At lunchtime, I even stayed in the classroom alone. Suddenly, I heard a voice. It was Vanilla. “You look very unhappy,” she said. “What’s wrong?” I looked up at her, but said nothing. I knew Vanilla had got a good mark in the test. I thought she was making fun of me. I stayed silent (安静), but Vanilla didn’t go away. She kept asking me questions: “Is it because of the exam? Do you want me to show you the right answers?” I looked away from her. When I looked up again, Vanilla had gone. And so had my exam paper! I didn’t know what to do. I looked everywhere for my paper, but couldn’t find it.

In the afternoon, Vanilla came up to my desk and gave me my exam paper back. I looked at it and got a big surprise. Vanilla had written the right answer next to every one of my mistakes（错误）. My face went red. Vanilla had been trying to help me all along. How mean (卑劣的) I had been to her when she was being so nice. I wanted to hug her, but all I did was to hold her hands and said, “Thank you.” That afternoon, Vanilla and I walked home together. I felt so happy that I had to thank her again. We were still best friends.

(    ) 6. The sentences “ But she always hides them behind a pair of black glasses.” Really means _________.

A. she doesn’t want others to see her eyes

B. there is something wrong with her eyes

C. she likes to wear dark glasses          

D. she is often shy

(    ) 7. The writer felt sad because ________ in the Chinese test.

A. she got a good mark                 B. Vanilla had done better than her

C. she didn’t have a good mark          D. the teacher was angry with her

(    ) 8. Vanilla really came to the writer to _______.

A. make fun of her                     B. help her

C. find out what had happened to her       D. show her the right answers

(    ) 9. Vanilla left the writer because she __________.

A. wanted to write the right answers for the writer

B. didn’t know what to do to help her friend

C. was angry with the writer

D. wanted to go home for lunch

(    )10. Which of the following phrases has the same meaning as “make fun of”?

A. Saying “hello” to.                  B. Seeing me off.

C. Looking after.                      D. Laughing at.

E–book is short for electronic(电子) book. It is usually read on personal computers. Some mobile phones can also be used to read e–books.
Earlier e–books were written for a certain group of readers and were about only a few subjects. With the development of the Internet, knowledge and answers to a lot of questions mainly come from e–books. This is why the e–book business is increasing quickly.
E–books have many advantages. First, they save time. We don’t need to go a bookstore to buy books. Besides, we can find the topic we want to know about on the Internet, and then we can quickly get many e–books on similar topics. Second, e–books save money. Some e–books cost us little money, and there are millions of e–books on the Internet that we can get for free. Third, more trees are saved because e–books don’t need to be printed on paper. Fourth, e–books make reading more convenient. You can carry a whole library of hundreds of books with you in a small computer or any e–book reader(阅读器), without worrying about their weight.
But e–books have certain disadvantages. They need a personal computer or an e–book reader, and the information can be lost if its file format(文件格式) is not supported(支持) or changed in the reader’s computer.
However, e–books provide us with a new way of reading. That is good.
【小题1】Why is the e–book business increasing quickly? Because______________.