From the early days of history people looked for ways of telling the time, but it was not until the thirteenth century that machines for telling the time
were invented.These first clocks were very big. They had no faces or hands
but they did have a bell. It rang every hour.
     In the seventeenth century, people began to use clocks with faces and
hands and to carry small clocks with them.
     For a long time after that, men and women had pocket watches. These
were usually tied (检) to a button (纽扣) on the person's clothes.
     It is strange that wristwatches were not used until about 1914. The man
who made the first popular watch was walking in a park one day. There he
saw a woman with a pocket watch tied to her wrist (手腕) , she was feeding
her baby and she needed to have both hands free to hold the child.
     Now nearly everybody wears a watch all the time. If you have a
"waterproof"  watch, you don't even have to take it off when you go
swimming. Aboul 80 million wat-ches are made every year.

1. The first clock was invented___________.

A. in the seventeenth century
B. in the thirteenth century
C. in the early days of history
D. before the thirteenth century

2. Before the watches came into use,________.

A. the pocket watches were popular
B. people didn't use any watches
C. the clocks they used had no faces and hands
D. people used bells   

3. Which is the correct order of the invention according to the time?

A. Clock without faces and hands, wristwatch, pocket watch
B. Pocket watch , clock without faces and hands , wrist-watch
C. Wristwatch, pocket watch, clock without faces and hands
D. Clock without faces and hands, pocket watch , wristwatch

4. The underlined word "waterproof"means_______.        

A.无水的      
B.含水的      
C.防水的      
D.浸水的

5. Which of the following is the best title?

A. The Invention of Watches
B. How to Tell the Time
C. From Clocks to Watches
D. Watches Are Better Than Clocks

     The Spring Festival, Chinese Lunar New Year, is China's most significant holiday of the year, when families get together to celebrate. In modern times, however, the old ways of spending the New Year no longer meet the needs of young people, who have created various new ways to celebrate the traditional holiday.
    In today's society, people are not as stable as they used to be, changing jobs and moving to another city to work is quite common. Having a big family
reunion dinner is difficult.
    People who have a longer holiday such as Li Qian, a magazine editor,
prefer to go outside the city to celebrate.
   "We are going to walk alongside the Yellow River, chen go to the Shaaxi
countryside to celebrate the New Year,"said Li. "I feel that I can only have a
truly traditional New Year celebration in the countryside. "
     Last year, Li spent the  New Year with his friends in Junxian County ,
central China's Henan Province. Interested in folk craftwork , Li bought two boxes of local products such as a special kind of mud sculpture (混塑) and
New Year paintings, only available during the Spring Festival.
   "Everything in the countryside is very traditional, just like how people
celebrated the New Year in old times, while in the city there isn't much
holiday atmosphere," Li said. "The farmers are very down-to-earth and they
have kept all the traditions. "

     Greenland is the largest island in the world. It covers over 2 ,000,000 square kilometers. Most of
the island lies inside the Arctic Circle (北极圈), and a huge sheet (片) of Ice covers 85% of its area.
     Along the sea mountains rise from the sea. There are a few low trees in the southwest, but no forests.
In winter snow covers everything, but in summer very low plants cover the ground between the sea and
the Ice sheet. Norwegians (挪威) were the first Europeans to see the island  in AD 875, but no one
visited it until 982. Three years later a few Norwegians went to live there. In 1261 the people in Greenland decided to join Norway. Norway and Denmark united in 1380. This union ended in 1814, and Greenland
stayed with Denmark. Greenland is fifty times larger than Denmark, but it is still part of this small country.   

1. When you study a map of the world, you may notice that Greenland _____.

A. is the greatest country in Europe
B. lies just on top of Europe
C. is connected with Denmark and Norway
D. mostly lies within the Arctic Circle

2. What will you probably see when you come to the southwest of Greenland in summer?

A. Forests of very low trees.
B. Nothing but ice sheet everywhere.
C. Very low plants along the seaside.
D. Snow that covers everything there.

3. When did Europeans begin to live in Greenland?

A. In AD 875.
B. In AD 982.
C. In AD 1261.
D. In AD 985.

4. How long did Greenland stay with Norway?

A. About 120 years.
B. About 400 years.
C. About 550 years.
D. About 500 years.

5. Which of the following is NOT right?

A. Greenland now belongs to Denmark.
B. Norway and Denmark have been one countrysince 1380.
C. Norway and Demnark didn't unite until 1380.
D. The area of Denmark is one-fifty-first of that of Greenland.

     The best known vegetable in the world is the potato. It grows in many places and does not need rich
soil like many other crops. But until four hundred years ago the potato was not known to the Europeans.
But today it's one of the main foods in Europe. About half of the world's potatoes are grown in Europe.
      In France the potato was not grown for a long time. Here is a story about Louis. In 1778 he saw
some potato flowers for the first time. He liked them so much that he picked one and put it in his
buttonhole. He was interested in the flowers not the potatoes thmesleves.

根据短文内容判断对错。

(     )1. Potatoes are grown and eaten in Europe.
(     )2. The potatoes are grown only in the rich soil.
(     )3. Louis was the first man to eat the potato.
(     )4. At first the Europeans grew potatoes to eat.
(     )5. Louis liked the potato flowers better than the potatoes.

                                                    Teddy bears
     Children everywhere love toy bears, and people have been making them for
hundreds of years. They also like stories about young bears. Three of the most
famous storybook bears are Rupert Bear, Pooh Bear, and Paddington Bear , and
most children in Britain and America also know the story Goldilocks and the Three
Bears. At the moment so many children-and adults too-like toy bears that there are
shops that sell only toy bears of all kinds.
     Many people call toy bears although this name has been used only since the
beginning of the 20th century. The word "teddy"comes from Theodore and a man
called Theodore Roosevelt was the president of the United States from 1901 to 1909.Because people liked him very much, they called him Teddy, and because he had a
toy bear they called their own bears Teddy, too.

1. The story is about         .       

A. President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt
B. famous people who like bears
C. the people who made the first toy bears
D. toy and story-book bears

2. The first toy bears were made         .

A. one hundred years ago
B. a long time ago
C. at the beginning of the 20th century
D. when Roosevelt was president

3. Rupert Bear is the name of a        .

A. bear in a story          
B. toy bear
C. president of the US    
D. shop that sells bears

4. Teddy Roosevelt was a          .   

A. bear in a story
B. children's toy
C. president of the US
D. person who made toy bears

5. Toy bears are often called Teddy bears because          .

A. Teddy is another name for bear
B. President Roosevelt had a toy bear
C. a man called Teddy had a shop that sold bears
D. it is the name of a famous bear in a story

阅读短文,根据短文内容填词,每空一词.

     Many people have toy bears and there are many  6 about toy bears. We   7 call
toy bears "Teddy". This is   8   at the beginning of the 20th   9   a president of the
United States had a toy bear. People     10 the president very much and called him
Teddy.
6.        7.          8.          9.         10.