Once there was a huge apple tree. A little boy loved to come and play around it every day. He loved the tree and the tree loved to play with him.

      Time went by --- the little boy had grown up and he no longer played around the tree every day. One day, the boy came back to the tree and he looked sad. “Come and play with me,” the tree asked the boy. “I’m no longer a kid. I wouldn’t play around the tree any more.” the boy replied. “I want toys. I need money to buy them.” “Sorry, I don’t have money. But you can pick all my apples and sell them. So, you will have money.” The boy picked all the apples on the tree and left happily. The boy never came back after he picked the apples.

      One day, the boy returned and the tree was so excited, “Come and play with me,” the tree said. “I don’t have time to play. I have to work for my family. We need a house for shelter. Can you help?” “Sorry, I don’t have a house. But you can cut off my branches to build your house.” So the boy cut all the branches off the tree and left happily. The tree was glad to see him happy but the boy never came back since then. The tree was again lonely and sad.

       One hot summer day, the boy returned and the tree was pleased. “Come and play with me!” the tree said. “I am sad and getting old. I want to go sailing to relax myself. Can you give me a boat?” “Use my trunk to build your boat. You can sail far away and be happy.” So the boy cut the tree trunk to make a boat. He went sailing and never showed up for a long time.

Finally, the boy returned after he left for so many years. “Sorry, my boy. But I don’t have anything for you any more. The only thing left is my dying root,” the tree said with tears ①

“Good! Old tree root is the best place to lean on and rest. Come and sit down with me and rest.” The boy sat down and the tree was glad and smiled with tears ② ----

1.---Why did the boy pick all the apples on the tree?

----Because __________.

A. he wanted to eat them                    B. he needed money to buy toys

C. he liked the tree without apples             D. he wanted to share them with friends.

2.----When did the boy come back to the apple tree?

----He came back _________.

A. whenever he was happy                             B. if he missed the apple tree

C. when he was in times of difficulty                     D. as  soon as he was free

3.----What did the boy want at last?

----He wanted ___________.

A. to have a house to live in             B. nothing except a place to rest

C. the root of the apple tree            D. anything that the apple tree had

4.----What can we learn from the story?

----We should _________.

A. plant more apple trees      B. learn from the boy

C. always stay at home     D. be thankful to our parents

5.According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. The phrase “with tears ①” means that the apple tree was sad because the boy asked for too much.

B. The phrase “with tears ②” means that the apple tree was still happy because she could help the boy for the last time.

C. Each time the boy asked the apple tree for help, the tree tried her best to satisfy him.

D. After reading the passage, we can easily think of the old Chinese saying “Parents’ love is universal!”

Napoga Gurigo，a 12-year-old girl，lives in a village in Ghana. It is   1  for her family to get clean drinking water. The nearest place to get water is a muddy （混浊的） water hole half a kilometer away from her   2 . Animals and villagers use it alike. Each morning, Napoga leaves home at half past five to collect water for her family. Sometimes it   3  a few hours to get enough water. Napoga has no time to go to school for learning. In the neighboring areas, many boys and girls   4  Napoga. They can't keep strong and   5  just because they have not enough drinking water.
In fact, 70% of Earth's surface is water. But most of   6  is sea water. We can't use salty water in our daily life. Fresh water is what we __7__ drink, take showers and cook food. And fresh water covers only 1 percent of Earth's surface. In some areas people try to make deep wells （水井） to get water from   8 . But there still   9  enough for farming. Scientists say that 10  30 years, more people in the world will face all kinds of water problems than now. So we must do something to take care of our water resources (资源).

If you want to find out a piece of information about anything, the best place to search for it is Wikipedia. This online encyclopedia(百科全书) is written by thousands of people around the world. Anyone can add or change the information if he or she finds it not correct or not well written. In this way, people who know a lot about a certain subject can write about it even if they are not university professors.
What is more, Wikipedia includes articles written in about 235 languages. This fact makes it one of the few websites on the Internet that are truly international. It was started in 2001 by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales, as a free online English-language encyclopedia project. By April 2008 over 10 million articles had been put on Wikipedia. A quarter of the articles in English. Wikipedia is also a place where people can find the latest news.
However, Wikipedia has its own problems. There have been many complaints that some of the information on Wikipedia is not accurate and some important subjects are not included. This has led to arguments between the writers of articles. The people running Wikipedia say that the accuracy of the information is improving and that it is one of the top 20 visited websites on the Internet.
So, if you are looking for some information, why not try Wikipedia?
【小题1】Wikipedia is ___________.

China’s Zhou Yang won the Olympic Games women’s 1,500-metre short-track gold in 2009.

“I told myself a few days ago ‘Zhou Yang，you Can do this’”the18-year-old Olympic newcomer said. “I believed in myself. ”
“This gold medal will change things. It will give me more confidence. It will give my mum a better lifestyle. ”
China’s Shen Xue，aged 31，and Zhao Hongbo，aged 36， celebrated St. Valentine’s Day and the Chinese New Year by winning a gold medal in the pairs figure skating at the Vancouver Olympics . —“We have not competed(比赛) much in the last two years and we came back to compete at the Olympic Games as it is our dream to win an Olympic gold medal.”
China’s Wang Meng won again her Olympic women’s
500-metre short track skating title on Wednesday.
“I have a lot of confidence. I feel that it’s my duty to win that. It’s still the Chinese New Year holiday，”she said，“Kowtow(磕头)was the only way to express my thanks to the coaches. team leaders and teammates. ”
【小题1】How old is the Olympic newcomer，Zhou Yang, now?