Passage 4
From the world’s heaviest apple, the oldest lady to the world’s smallest dog, these are all parts of a group of the world’s strangest people and things. And they are all in the Guinness Book of Records(《吉尼斯记录》).
The book is going to celebrate its birthday this August. It began exactly half a century ago. And it’s always one of the best selling books in the world.
People now can break over 1000 records every week! Why do so many people want to break the records? Do they want their names in the book or meet more people around the world? “It gives people a chance to show they’re the best in the world.” said one of the record keepers Stewart Newport.
The book was started by Hugh Beaver from Britain. In 1951, he went shooting birds and talked with his friends about the fastest bird in Europe. Three years later, they were still talking about it. So Beaver believed that people must have different ideas. So, he decided to start a book to record the world’s truly greatest people and things in it!
The newest book came out last Tuesday. This book has a lot of interesting records. Here are two:
☆ A British dog, Whitney, is the world’s smallest dog. It’s only 76mm tall.
☆ An American woman Lee Redmond has the longest fingernails(指甲).They grew as long as 600 mm! She made the record in 1971.
【小题1】We can see everything in the Guinness Book of Records except         .

Yesterday my grandfather told me about his early days.   1   he left school, he found a job in a post office. He worked hard in the   2 . Soon he had more money than his friends because of his hard work. It seemed that he would have a   3   future.

When he was 25 years old, however, he began to   4   his job. He wanted a more exciting one, so he left the post office. Two months   5  , he found a new job in a big company. Workers in this company   6   traveled a lot. At first he really enjoyed the traveling. But after a year, he began to hate   7  . He had to move around and he was always in a car or on a train. The worst thing was that he couldn’t make any new   8  . Even so, his boss was not satisfied with him. Two years later he left the company.

He was   9  at that time so he sold his house. He had to accept a part-time job in a   10  shop. He was surprised to find that he loved it!  He made new friends every day and he enjoyed    reading books. Three years later, he  11   the shop owner’s daughter. Soon they had their first child. In the next ten years, they had another three   12   and four more book shops! He became very rich indeed.

“Life is wonderful,” he told me. “The most important thing is that you should always try your best. Never give up!”

1．A．While                      B．When                     C．Until                      D．If

2．A．factory                    B．theatre                   C．bank                      D．post office

3．A．bad                        B．bright                     C．sad                        D．interesting

4．A．be tired of               B．like                        C．love                       D．be crazy about

5．A．ago                         B．before                    C．later                       D．after

6．A．almost                     B．usually                   C．seldom                   D．never

7．A．it                             B．him                        C．her                        D．us

8．A．teachers                   B．classmates              C．friends                   D．wives

9．A．happy                      B．fun                        C．rich                      D．poor

10．A．cloth                      B．fruit                      C．book                     D．shoe

11．A．married                 B．understood            C．met                       D．visited

12．A．sisters                    B．brothers                       C．children                 D．cousins