Japan is made up of a chain of islands that lie off the coast of Asia. People came to live in Japan from the nearby countries of China and Korea. From these older countries, the Japanese borrowed ideas, inventions and habits.

For many years, the Japanese built houses like those in China. They dressed themselves like a Chinese. From China came their way of writing and their habit of drinking tea.

In more recent times, the Japanese have borrowed things from our country, the United States. They have a government like ours. They do much work in science, as we do. Baseball is a favorite sport in Japan, just as it is here.

Things change when they come to Japan. The Japanese improve on almost everything they borrow. The art of garden making came from Korea and China, but the Japanese gardens are special. Each garden has a waterfall, a pond, and small bridges. There are few flowers in Japanese gardens. But the gardens are green during all the year round because they have many evergreens. Japanese gardens have a different kind of beauty.

1. The first paragraph of the passage tells us that ________ centuries ago.

A．the Japanese borrowed ideas only from China and Korea

B．people came to live in Japan from neighbouring Asian countries

C．Japan is much older than Korea

D．many Japanese came from the United States

2. In the third paragraph of the passage the italic (斜体)words “just as it is here” mean”________”

A．just as it is in the United States

B．just as it is in China

C．just as it is in Japan

D．just as it is in Asia

3. Why did the Japanese change the things they had borrowed?

A．They wanted very much to be different from others.

B．They didn’t like them the way they were.

C．They wanted visitors to like the change.

D．They tried to make them better.

4. From the passage we can see that ________.

A．Japanese gardens are different from those in other countries but not very beautiful

B．Japanese gardens are full of life during all the seasons

C．Japanese gardens are not very big

D．There are many flowers in Japanese gardens

5. Choose a statement from the following sentences that is NOT true.

A．The government of Japan is like that of the United States.

B．People in the United States like playing baseball.

C．The Japanese invented the habit of drinking tea.

D．Japan is made up of many islands.

Almost all people like flowers. Some people like flowers because of their smells, shapes, colors and so on. Others like flowers because they think different flowers mean different things. Flowers have their own language. For example, red roses mean “love” and sunflowers mean “loyalty(忠诚)”. So people in more than 100 countries have chosen their own national flowers which say something about their countries’ spirit. In 1994, China talked about choosing a national flower. Some people liked the peony(牡丹) but others liked the plum blossom(梅花). They couldn’t agree with each other. So it has not been decided yet.
People like to buy different flowers in different seasons. Where do all the beautiful flowers in shops come from? They may come from far away, so their price is higher.
a. Farmers grow flowers in their fields.
b. Planes or trains or buses take the flowers to different places.
c. Flower shopkeepers buy flowers from the flower markets. They look after the flowers and throw away the broken or bad ones. They cut the flowers to make them more beautiful.
d. You go to buy the flowers in the shops. When you buy a flower, you’re paying lots of people: the farmer, the driver of the plane or train or bus, the seller in the flower market and the flower shopkeeper.
So you’d better keep your flowers from far away for a long time. But how? Why not dry them? It’s easy! Sand drying is a way. Dry, clean sand is one of the oldest things for drying flowers. And it’s one of the cheapest.
·Fill a box half-way with sand.
·Put the flowers on top of the sand.
·Put the box in a warm, dry place.
·Leave the flowers there for one to three weeks.
·Take them out and they will be dry.
【小题1】The underlined words “national flowers” most probably means ______.

?? Of all the seasons of the year, I think that spring is the loveliest and most 1.? season. In the bitter cold winter, we long for the spring when the weather is 2. hot nor cold. Everything seems to be fresh and wakening. It is a time 3.? going on picnics. It is also the time 4. we Chinese have the 5.? festival ----the Spring Festival, according to our country’s custom.

? In spring, there are all ?? 6.? of flowers blooming in gardens and parks. Grass and trees turn ? 7.??? . Birds sing in the woods. The climate is mild and the air is invigorating. Poets describe spring as a season ? 8. ? of hope, as the “year’s king”.

? Spring is a splendid picture in our life. Spring 9.?? to us and we should make good use of it. We should study and work ? 10.?? .