Mr. Gao lives in a town. When he was twenty-five, his son was born. He calls him Gao Ling. The little boy is clever. He and his wife love him very much. It’s September 1st today. A new school year begins. Gao Ling is happy and wears his most beautiful clothes. He’s going to school with his new bag. “Let me take you to school, dear.” said Mrs. Gao. “Thank you, Mummy,” said the boy. “The school is not far from here. I can go there myself.”

At school a teacher met the  little boy and asked, “What’s your name, my little friend?” “Gao Ling, sir.” answered the boy. “How old are you?” “Six, sir.” “What’s your father’s name?” “Gao Daling, sir.” “How old is  he?” “He is six, too, sir.” “Oh,” the teacher said in surprise. “Is he as old as you?”

“Yes, sir,” said the boy. “He became a father only on the day when I was born.”

1.Mr. Gao is _____now.

2.Mr. and Mrs. Gao love their son because_____.

3.Gao Ling didn’t let his mother take him to school because_____.

4.Gao Ling went to school_____.

5.Gao Ling thought_____.

A boy called Mario had many friends, and he was proud of it. Whoever he met, he would like to show off(炫耀) how popular he was at school.
One day, his grandpa said to him, “Mario, I know that you don’t have as many friends as you think. Many of them are not true to you.”
Mario thought maybe his grandpa was right. However, he wasn’t sure how he could test whether his schoolmates were real friends or not, so he asked his grandpa. The old man answered, “I have just exactly what you need. It’s in my room. Wait a minute.” The old man left, soon returning as if(好像) carrying something in his hand, but Mario could see nothing there.
“Take it. It’s a very special chair. Because it’s invisible, it will be hard for you to sit on it. However, if you manage to sit on it, you can use the chair’s magic power（力量） to tell who your real friends are.”
Mario took the strange invisible chair to school. At break time he asked everyone to form a circle, and he put himself in the middle, with his chair.
“Nobody move. You’re about to see something amazing，” said Mario. Then he tried sitting on the chair. Having difficulty seeing it, he missed and fell to the ground. Everyone had a pretty good laugh. “Wait, wait,” said Mario, making another try. But again he missed the seat.
Mario didn’t give up. He kept trying to sit on the magic chair. Finally, he did it. This time he felt himself in mid-air.
Then he experienced the magic that his grandpa had been talking about. Looking around, Mario saw George, Lucas and Diana holding him up, so he wouldn’t fall. But some schoolmates whom he had regarded as friends had done nothing but made fun of him. Mario was quite thankful to his grandpa, who helped him test who his true friends were.
【小題1】Mario’s grandpa gave him a special chair to _____.