We know that trees are useful in our everyday life. They   1  us many things, such as wood, oxygen, rubber, medicines and many other things. They can  2  tell us a lot about our climate. The following are the reasons. If you   3  a tree, you can see that it has many rings. Most trees grow one new ring   4  year. Because of the reason, we know   5  a tree is. A tree over a hundred years old means that it has more than a hundred   6 . When the climate is dry or very cold, the trees do not grow very much and their rings are usually   7 . When it is wet and warm, the rings are much thicker. If the rings are suddenly very thin or suddenly very thick, this means that the   8  changed suddenly. If we look at the rings on this tree, we can learn about the   9  for a hundred years. We can see  10  our climate is changing today.

Betty is not a traditional American beauty. She is unfashionable, has thick red glasses, untidy hair and large metal braces (牙套) on her teeth. But this hasn’t stopped her from becoming one of American’s favorite TV characters. So how did she manage to do it?

The answer is that charm can be more attractive than beauty. Betty is the main character in a TV show Ugly Betty. The show is about her life as an office worker at a fashion magazine in New York.

　　The TV show has just started. Betty has many exciting experiences and romantic stories. Betty is often looked down on and laughed at by the people around. But she manages to do better than others with her hard work, charm and wisdom. The show tells us about how a girl goes from an ugly young duck into a beautiful swan.

　　Though you may know the ending of the show from the beginning and the story is familiar to many of us, it has still been a big success in the USA. It has attracted a large number of viewers and won two Golden Globes awards, one of the highest honors for a television program in the USA.“ I think you can see a bit of Betty in all of us, and I mean men as well, because it’s about the underdog (弱者)”，says Ashley Jensen, who plays one of the characters on the show.

　　The program is so successful because of the good performance of the 23-year-old actress America Ferrera who plays the role of Betty. She brings the character alive on the screen.

1.Betty is popular because of ____.

A. her clothes 　　　　　B. her charm 　　　   C. her metal braces  　　　D. her appearance

2.In Paragraph 4, the underlined word “it” refers to (指的是) ____.

A. the beginning 　　　　B. the ending 　　  　C. the story 　　　        D. the show

3.Which is the reason for the success of the show?

A. A large number of viewers. 　　　　　　B. Her life as an office worker.

C. The wonderful performance. 　　　　　 D. Two Golden Globes awards.

4.Which of the following is NOT true according of the show?

A. Betty is a girl of wisdom.

B. Betty acts as a beautiful swan on the show.

C. Betty is an American favorite TV character.

D. Betty is often looked down on by the people around.

5. What can be the best title for the passage?

A. Beauty from within. 　　　　　  B. A romantic story.

C. An ugly girl. 　　　　　　　　  D. An exciting experience.

Homesick is a compound (复合的) word made up of “home” and “sick”. You know

  1  each word means on its own, of course. But think about what the words mean when they are   2  together. “Homesick” means “Thinking of home, unhappy away from home.” In other words, it means “sick for home”.

　　Now think for a minute   3  the word SEASICK. If you change the word “home” in the definition (定义) to the word “sea”, would the definition  4  “seasick” ? Does seasick mean “thinking of sea, unhappy away from sea”? It means something quite  5 . Seasick means “made sick by the only place where you are on the sea.” It means “sick because of the sea.” When you are homesick, the only place you want to be is at home. When you are seasick, the   6  place you want to be is at sea.

　　Have you ever   7  a person being heartsick? Heartsick does not mean that something is wrong with a person’s heart. People are heartsick when they are   8 down deep inside as if (好像) their hearts are broken.

　  And so, when you are carsick, you are “made sick by the movement of a car on the road.” You are sick because of the car, not sick for it.

You can see, then, that   9  compound words are what they seem at first glance (一瞥). Think about the compound words, such as handshake and   10 . Perhaps you may write definitions for them. It must be helpful to know something like this in your English study.

1.                A．what           B．that            C．which    D．who

2.                A．read           B．used           C．thought   D．understood

3.                A．for            B．from           C．about    D．like

4.                A．fit             B．read           C．get D．have

5.                A．different        B．same           C．right D．wrong

6.                A．first            B．only           C．safe D．last

7.                A．heard of        B．heard from      C．thought over   D．thought about

8.                A．hit            B．hurt           C．loved D．moved

9.                A．not others      B．not every       C．not all    D．not other

10.               A．careful         B．southern       C．illness D．handwriting