Gordon Williams’s hobby may seem strange to people when they meet it for the first time. But it is a traditional craft(手藝).He builds model ships inside old bottles.
Gordon has always loved ships, especially sailing ships from the old days. His interest in this hobby began many years ago when he visited a museum in Ottawa, Canada, where there was a display of model ships in bottles. Gordon thought the display was wonderful. But he wondered how the craftsman got the ship through the thin neck of the bottle. Gordon decided to find it out.
He found an old master craftsman who was willing to teach him the necessary skills. First, Gordon takes an old bottle. Then he puts in a layer of putty(一層油灰),carefully shaped and painted it look like the sea. Next he builds the ship. To get the ship through the neck of the bottle, Gordon holds down the masts(桅桿).Once the ship is inside the bottle, he takes a long, thin tool to raise the masts.
Gordon has completed well over one hundred models. His wish is to build bigger model ships, such as aircraft carriers. This will be more challenging, as he will have to build the ship actually inside the bottle. His hobby certainly needs time, patience and a steady hand.
根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，選擇最佳答案，并在答題卡上按要求作答。
【小題1】What’s their opinion when people first meet Gordon’s hobby?

Mr. King worked in a factory. He liked playing soccer and spent much time on it, so he was sometimes late for work. His boss was so angry that he fired Mr. King. Mr. King couldn't find another job. Finally he got into trouble and lived a difficult life.
One of his friends felt sorry for turn and introduced him to a headmaster, whose school was just in need of swimming coach (教練). Mr. King began to teach the school children to swim. He wasn't a good coach. Two months later, the children learned nothing. Few of them could swim.
It was a hot Saturday. The children wouldn't stay in the classroom and wanted to swim in the river. Mr. King failed to stop them. Before they started, he drew a red line below the knee of each child. He said to them, "Come out of the river at once if the water reaches the line."
【小題1】Why did the boss fire Mr. King?

Conor Grennan was unwilling to be a volunteer(志愿者). The 29-year-old American was not sure if he had the skills or a strong feeling for it.
However, he went to work at an orphanage(孤兒院) in Nepal. His first thought was to make people impressed.
"I thought that if I volunteered just once. I could retell the story over and over," Grennan said in a Huffington Post article.
However, his three-month stay it the orphanage turned into in unusual experience. It was 2004 and Grennan had given up his job to begin a year-long around-the-world trip, His first three months were spent in Nepal.
When he arrived in the village, he knew nothing about the children or the local culture. When he opened the gate of the Little Princes Children's Home, he was faced by the excited children.
The young American ended up caring for 18 children. He later discovered that they were trafficked(被拐賣的)children. So he walked through the mountains with great difficulty to find the kids' families, "I started walking with photos of the kids." he told the Reuters reporter. "I would show up in villages and show photographs around. I went with 24 photos, and I found 24 families."
At the same time, he put his heart into Nepalese culture.
Grennan said, “Volunteering is the single best way to see how the rest of the world lives.”
He also encouraged others to do what he had done. He believes that volunteering needs only making decisions to show up.
Grennan's fight against child-trafficking has changed him. His book, Little Prince, came out last week.
【小題1】At first, Grennan simply wanted to _______by volunteering in Nepal.

Pearl and June were good friends and spent most of their time together.
They were both very old and they worried about their health. Most of the time they talked about nothing else.
They worried about their food. Was it clean? Would it give them pains in the stomach?
They worried about the weather. Was it too cold and wet? Would it give them pains in their bones?
They worried about pollution in the air. would it give them pains in their chests(胸部)and throats(喉嚨)?
They worried about being hurt in a car accident, killed in a plane crash, getting sick, and so on.
All they could think about was being ill or hurt.
One day they went on a train journey together.
“We’ll need some food,”Pearl said.
“We’ll buy some bananas,”June said.“They are good to eat and always clean.”
And so they bought two bananas to eat on the train.
It was not long before they were hungry.
Pearl took out the bananas and gave one to June. Then she peeled(剝)the skin of her banana and took a large bite of it.
At that moment the train went into a tunnel. Everything went black.“Don’t eat your banana,”Pearl shouted at June.“Mine has made me go blind!”
【小題1】What did the two old ladies talk about most of the time? _________

Mr. Green and his wife had a dog. When they went out, they always left the dog inside the house. One evening they wanted to go to the cinema, so they left the dog in the house and locked the door and their garden gate. They went off in their car.
When the film was finished, they went home. They opened the gate and put the car away. When they came to the front door, they found that the glass in the door was broken. The door was not locked and it was open. A robber! They went in and quickly looked in all the rooms to see if the robber had taken their things. However, everything was in the right place and nothing at all was missing.
The dog was sleeping in the sitting-room. The wife was angry with the dog.“Why didn’t you guard(保衛(wèi))the house?”she said. The dog was pleased to see Mr. and Mrs. Green. It began to wag(搖)its tail and then it went to a comer of the room and picked up something in its mouth. It went to the wife and dropped the thing at her feet. When she went to pick it up, she was very surprised. Can you guess what the dog’s present was ?It was a man’s finger!
The end of the story is this. Mr. Green telephoned the police and told them everything. Three days later the police caught the robber. They found him easily.
【小題1】That evening Mr. Green and his wife __________.

Mr. Whitcomb Judson was a really clever man. He invented a special train that was pushed along by air and in 1893 he invented something like a zip(拉鏈) that could be used to open and close clothes. It could be used on men’s trousers and on ladies’ dresses. He did not call his invention a ‘zip’ but everybody says that he was the ‘Father of the Zip’. Mr. Judson tried to sell his invention but no one wanted it because it did not work very well. A Canadian changed Mr. Judson’s invention and made it better. He made a zip that worked very well in 1913.This is the same zip we use today.
【小題1】Mr. Whitcomb Judson was a _____ man.

I went home one Saturday afternoon in the autumn of 1993 to get some work done in the garden. While sweeping leaves on the ground, my five-year-old son Nick came over and asked me to write something on a piece of paper to make a sign for him.
"What for?" I asked.
" I’m going to sell some of my stones, " he answered.
Nick was fascinated with stones and had collected many stones from all over.
" I’m too busy to do that for you. Go and ask your mum for help," I said.
A short time later, Nick, returned with a sign, reading, " Stones, One Dollar Each". He took the sign, a small chair and 4 of his best stones and walked to the road in front of our garden. There he put the stones in a line and sat down on the chair.
After half an hour, nobody passed by. I walked to him and asked him to go back, but he didn’t.
Another half hour later, a small car came down the road. I watched as Nick stood up, holding his sign up. A woman rolled down a window and read the sign. I couldn’t hear their talk, but I saw the woman turn to the driver and the man reach for his pocket.
I sat in the yard, as Nick ran to me. Waving the dollar, he shouted, "I told you I could sell one stone for a dollar -- if you believe in yourself, you can do anything. "
【小題1】Why didn’t the writer help his son?

Jack is a twenty-year-old young man．Two years ago，when he finished middle school，he found work in a shop．Usually he works until ten o’clock in the evening．He is very tired when he gets home．After a quick supper he goes to bed and soon falls asleep．His grandma who lives downstairs is satisfied with him．
One day，on his way home，he met Mary．They were both happy．He asked the girl to his house，she agreed happily．He bought some fruit and drinks for her．And they talked about their school，teachers， and their future．They talked for a long time．
“Have a look at your watch，please，”said the girl．“What time is now?”
“Sorry，something is wrong with my watch，”said Jack．“Where’s yours?”
“I left it at home．”
Jack thought for a moment and found a way．He began to stamp his foot on the floor，“bang！bang！bang！”
The sound woke his grandma up．The old woman shouted downstairs，“It’s twelve o’clock in the night，Jack．Why are you still jumping upstairs?”
【小題1】Jack was      when he finished middle school．
A．sixteen         B．eighteen        C．twenty    
【小題2】The old woman is satisfied with Jack because     ．
A．he’s her grandson             B．he can keep quiet
C．he gets up early
【小題3】From the story，we can know that Mary is Jack’s     ．
A．classmate      B．colleague        C．a(chǎn)unt
【小題4】The underlined word“stamp”in the story means      in Chinese．
A．蓋印          B．跺             C．貼郵票
【小題5】Jack stamped his foot on the floor in order(為了)     ．
A．to make his grandma angry
B．that his grandma was going to tell him the time
C．that his grandma was going to buy him a watch

Learn a second language
There was once a young mouse that lived in a hole in a wall. One day, the young mouse woke up from his sleep and looked out of the hole. As he looked out, a fantastic smell came to his nose. “Cheese!” the mouse said happily to himself. “I’ll go and get it now and have it for breakfast.”
But then he remembered his parents’ words. His parents were very clever mice and often said to their son, “Always wait before you go for a piece of cheese.”
So the young mouse waited quietly. Then he heard a quiet “Miaow” and he knew the cat was there. He stayed in the hole and said to himself, “I’m glad I listened to my parents and learned to wait.”
The next day, he looked out again. He put his nose out of the hole, and the beautiful smell of cheese came to his nose again. He could see the cheese. It was only a few centimetres away. But he sat still and waited quietly. This time he did not hear any cat noises. Instead he heard a very quiet “Woof, woof.”
“It’s a dog!” he thought. “If the dog is there, the cat won’t be there. I expect the dog has chased the cat away, so I’m safe.” The mouse ran out of the hole and started eating the cheese. He did not see the cat, which caught him and ate him.
When the cat finished her meal, she said to herself, “I’m glad I listened to my parents and learned a second language.”
【小題1】Who told the mouse to wait before going for a piece of cheese?

Here are two stories from different parts of the world. They seem strange but, believe it or not, they re all true!
John Lee was an Englishman who refused to be hanged! In 1884 the police said Lee had killed an old woman who he used to work with. There was nothing to show that Lee had killed the woman. Lee told the police he hadn’t done it, but no one believed him and he was going to be hanged. On the day of the hanging, however, the door in the floor, through which Lee’s body would fall, did not open. They tried three times but each time the door stayed closed, even though it had worked well the day before. In the end they sent Lee back to prison, where he lived for the next twenty-two years. At all times, John Lee said he hadn’t killed the woman, and he believed it was the "hand of God" that had saved him from death by hanging.
The police in Venezuela (委內(nèi)瑞拉)in South America followed a man home one night. He was the thief they wanted to catch. However, half of his house was standing in Venezuela and the other half was standing in Colombia (哥倫比亞). Venezuela’s neighbor. When the police entered the house, the man ran upstairs to his bedroom, which was in Colombia, and called his lawyer (律師). The Venezuelan police were not allowed to enter Colombia so they could not enter the bedroom. They asked the police in Colombia to help. The Colombian police refused to help because the man’s crime (罪行)was not a crime in Colombia. In the end, the Venezuelan police gave up and went back to the police station.
【小題1】The underlined（下劃線) word "hanged" in this passage probably means _.