When people want to know about the weather, they usually go to their radios, TVs, newspapers, or to the Internet. However, you can also find many weather signs among wildlife, because of their highly developed senses. Drops in air pressure produce an effect on small animals in many ways. Mice and deer are good weather indicators. People who spend a lot of time outdoors have observed that, before a storm, field mice come out of their holes and run around. Deer leave high ground and come down from the mountains.
Birds are especially good weather indicators because they also show the effect of a pressure drop in many ways. For example, some birds become irritable(暴躁) and quarrelsome and will fight over a piece of bread. Other birds chirp and sing just before a storm. It seems they know they won’t get another chance for an hour or two. Birds also look for safe places before a storm. You will sometimes see birds settling in trees or gathering together on a wire close to a building. Pre-storm low pressure make the air so thin that birds have difficulty flying.
It is unusual to see many birds flying overhead in the summertime, rather than during the periods in the spring or autumn. Watch for other weather signs if you see this. If they fly in the wrong direction, they may be flying ahead of a storm.
By paying closer attention to some important signs in nature, we can become better prepared for any kind of weather.
【小题1】The word “indicators” in paragraph 1 probably means          .

Shopping on the Internet is becoming more and more popular. Why do people use the Internet to shop? Some people say it is more convenient. They don’t have to leave their homes to order something; they can shop for anything they want at any time; they can find things for sale that they can’t find in the stores near their homes. Still other people say they can find better prices on the Internet.

If you want to buy something on the Internet, you need a credit(信用)card. You have to type your credit card number and information on the website(网页) and send them to the store over the Internet. You have to be sure that the store will not use your information in the wrong way. You don’t want someone to get your credit card numbers, so be careful with it, because people sometimes steal(窃取) credit card numbers from stores.

The Internet is also a good place to go window-shopping. Window-shopping is when you look at the things for sale in a store, but don’t plan to buy anything. In window-shopping you can see what kinds of things you are able to get and how much they cost. Somestores like Ross Stores have a website for information about their stores, but not for shopping. Some stores have a website for information about their stores, and you can shop on-line there, such as office Depot, Payless Shoe Source, Safeway. Some stores like Amazon. com are only for on-line shopping.

1..Some people use the Internet to shop because______.

2. The Chinese meaning of the word“convenient”in this passage is “______”

A. 时髦的                                             B 较近的                            C方便的                             D可用的

3. If you want to shop on the Internet, you need______.

4.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

I’ve loved my mother’s desk since I was just tall enough to see above the top of it as mother sat doing letters. Standing by her chair, looking at the ink bottle, pens, and white paper, I decided that the act of writing must be the most wonderful thing in the world.

Years later, during her final illness, mother kept different things for my sister and brother. “But the desk,” she’d said again, “it’s for Elizabeth.”

I never saw her angry, never saw her cry. I knew she loved me; she showed it in action. But as a young girl, I wanted heart-to-heart talks between mother and daughter

They never happened. And a gulf opened between us. I was “too emotional(易动感情的)”. But she lived “on the surface”.

As years passed I had my own family. I loved my mother and thanked her for our happy family. I wrote to her in careful words and asked her to let me know in any way she chose that she did forgive me.

I posted the letter and waited for her answer. None came.

My hope turned to disappointment, then little interest and, finally, peace—it seemed that nothing happened. I couldn’t be sure that the letter had even got to mother. I only knew that I had written it, and I could stop trying to make her into someone she was not.

Now the present of her desk told, as she’d never been able to, that she was pleased that writing was my chosen work. I cleaned the desk carefully and found some papers inside--- a photo of my father and a one-page letter, folded(折叠) and refolded many times.

Give me an answer, my letter asks, in any way you choose. Mother, you always chose the act that speaks louder than words.

1.The writer began to love her mother’s desk____________.

   A. after Mother died.

   B. before she became a writer.

   C. when she was a child

   D. when Mother gave it to her

2. The passage shows that _____________.

   A. mother was cold on the surface but kind in her heart to her daughter

   B. mother was too serious about everything her daughter had done

   C. mother cared much about her daughter in words

   D. mother wrote to her daughter in careful words

3.The word “gulf” in the passage means ____________.

   A. deep understanding between the old and the young

   B. different ideas between the mother and the daughter

   C. free talks between mother daughter

   D. part of the sea going far in land

4.What did mother do with her daughter’s letter?

   A. She had never received the letter.

   B. For years, she often talked about the letter.

   C. She didn’t forgive her daughter at all in all her life.

   D. She read the letter again and again till she died.

5.What is the best title of the passage?

   A. My Letter to Mother        B. Mother and Children

   C. My Mother’s Desk         D. Talks between Mother and Me

When you are reading something in English, you may often meet with a new word. What’s the best way to know it?

You may look it up in the English-Chinese dictionary. It will tell you a lot about the word: the pronunciation, the Chinese meaning and how to use the word. But how can you know where the word is thousands of English words? How to find it in the dictionary both quickly and correctly?

First, all the English words are arranged(安排) in the letter order. In the dictionary you can first see the words beginning with letter A, then B, C, D…. That means, if there are two words “desert” and “pull”, “desert” will be certainly before “pull”. Then if there are two words both beginning with the same letter, you may look at the second letter. Then the third, the fourth… For example, “pardon” is before “plough”, “judge” before “just”, etc.

Do you understand how to look up in the dictionary?

The dictionary will be your good friend. I hope you’ll use it as often as possible in your English study.

1.This passage is about______.

2.In the dictionary you may not find_______.

3.In an English-Chinese dictionary, the last word______.

4.Which group of words is in the right order in an English-Chinese dictionary?

5.In the passage the writer tries to tell us that_______.