Ever since Jerusha started her college, she began to write letters. Through a series of letters, from freshman to senior in college, she shared her life and study with an unknown gentleman, who never wrote back. Here is the very first letter.

The hardworking blacksmith Jones used to work all day in his shop and so hard-working was he that at times he would make the sparks(火星) fly from his hammer.
The son of Mr.Smith, a rich neighbour, used to come to see the blacksmith every day and for hours and hours he would enjoy himself watching how the tradesman worked.
“ Young man, why don’t you try your hand to learn to make shoe tacks (钉) , even if it is only to pass the time ? ” said the blacksmith. “ Who knows, one day, it may be of use to you .”
The lazy boy began to see what he could do. But after a little practice he found that he was becoming very skilled and soon he was making some of the finest tacks.
Old Mr. Smith died and the son on account of the war lost all his goods. He had to leave home and was forced to live in another country. It so happened that in this village there were many shoemakers who were spending a lot of money buying tacks for their shoes and even at times when they paid high prices they were not always able to get what they wanted, because in that part of the country there was a high demand for soldiers’ shoes.
Our young Mr. Smith, who was finding it difficult to earn his daily bread, remembered that once upon a time he had learned the art of making tacks and had the sudden idea of making a bargain with the shoemakers. He told them that he would make the tacks if they would help to get him settled in the workshop. The shoemakers were only too glad of the offer. And after a while, Mr. Smith found that he was soon making the finest tacks in the village.
“ How funny it seems, ” he used to say, “ even making tacks can make money. My trade is more useful to me than all my former riches.”
【小题1】The young man learnt to make shoe tacks because ___________.

No one knows for sure when advertising first started. It is possible that it grew out of the discovery that some people did certain kinds of work better than others did them. That led to the concept of specialization, which means that people would specialize, or focus, on doing one specific job.

Let’s take a man we'll call Mr. Fielder, for example. He did everything connected with fanning. He planted seeds, tended the fields» and harvested and sold his crops. At the same lime, he did many other jobs on the farm. However, he didn't make the bricks for his house, cut his trees into boards, make the plows (犁) , or any of the other hundreds of things a farm needs. Instead, he got them from people who specialized in doing each of those things.

Suppose there was another man we shall call Mr. Plowright. Using what he knew about fanning and working with iron, Mr. Plowright invented a plow that made fanning easier. Mr. Plowright did not really like fanning himself and wanted to specialize in making really good plows. Perhaps, he thought, other farmers will trade what they grow far one of my plows.

How did Mr. Plowright let people know what he was doing? Why, he advertised, of course. First he opened a shop and then he put up a sign outside the shop to attract customers. That sign may have been no more than a plow carved into a piece of wood and a simple arrow pointing to the $hop door. It was probably all the information people needed to find Mr, Plowright and his really good plows.

Many historians believe that the first outdoor signs were used about five thousand yean; ago. Even before most people could read, they understood such signs. Shopkeeper« would carve into stone, clay, or wood symbols for the product they had for sale.

A medium, in advertising talk, is the way you communicate your message. You might say that the first medium used in advertising was signs with symbols. The second medium was audio, or sound, although that term is not used exactly in the way we use it today. Originally, just the human voice and maybe some kind of simple instrument, such as a bell, were used to get people's attention.

A crier, in the historical sense, is not someone who weeps easily. It is someone, probably a man, with a voice loud enough to be heard over the other noises of a city. In ancient Egypt, shopkeepers might hire such b person to spread the news about their products. Often this earliest form of advertising involved a newly arrived ship loaded with goods. Perhaps the crier described the goods, explained where they came from, and praised their quality. His job was, in other words, not too different from a TV or radio commercial in today's world.

41. What probably led to the start of advertising?

A. The discovery of iron.                      B. The specialization of labor.

C. The appearance of new jobs.             D. The development of fanning techniques.

42. To advertise his plows, Mr. Plowright ______.

A. praised his plows in public                 R. placed a sign outside the shop

C. hung an arrow pointing to the shop     D. showed hut products to the customers

43. The writer makes up the two stories of Mr. Fielder and Mr. Plowright in order to ______.

A. explain the origin of advertising          B. predict the future of advertising

C. expose problems in advertising           D, provide suggestions for advertising

44. In ancient Egypt, a crier was probably someone who ______.

A. owned a ship

B. had the loudest voice

C. ran a shop selling goods to fanners

D. functioned like today's TV or radio commercial

45. The last two paragraphs are mainly about ______.

A. the history of advertising                   B. the benefits of advertising

C. the early forms of advertising             D. the basic design of advertising

The man _______ at the meeting was Mr. Wang.

My school makes students take one religion (宗教) class every year. But religion is really hard, especially with Mr Frank Smith for a teacher.
Mr Smith is 55 years old, with grey hair and a moustache (胡子). He always wears a blue school T-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes with long white socks. My friends say he looks like a cat.
In his class, we did yoga (瑜珈) and meditation (冥想) (actually most of the children in my class lay on the ground sleeping), tasted some strange tea, had classes outside in the garden, and watched videos and movies about Tibetan Buddhism (藏传佛教), God, and so on.
It was fun sometimes. However, the course (课程) was quite hard when it came to tests. The girls often worked until one or two o'clock in the morning on nights before the tests, but they still got bad scores.
When our test scores were bad, he would give us some makeup assignments (补考作业). Once I got a B, which I thought was bad, so I asked Mr Smith for an assignment to bring up my grades.
As a matter of fact, his assignments were often worse than the tests. The tests were just a lot of multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blanks, or short essays (文章). But his assignments usually included a speech in class.
I was not afraid of public speaking, yet it took me three days to collect the information, two days to write the speech, one day to make a PowerPoint and several hours to prepare. I knew my presentation (课堂展示) was good, because I saw Mr Smith's big smile when he listened to me. He gave me an A at last.
After finishing the course, I may not remember how hard it was or the meaning of some vocabulary. But through Mr Smith, I learned a lesson that will be with me my whole life. That is: no matter what we do, we need to put our hearts into it, and then our work will pay off.
【小题1】The religion class is hard because Mr Smith _______.