I remember a time l went shopping on my first visit to Hung Kong．Coming from cold and cloudy England，I was prepared for the sun and dressed in a T-shirt and a short skirt．Not having much chance to enjoy the sun in the UK and having naturally fair skin(白皙皮肤)，my legs were very white．In the UK this is not a fashionable look at all．Most women spend every sunny day out in the suit trying to get darker skin．The darker the shin，the better the look．I have tried to get darker but nothing works for me!

    As I walked around one shop，two shop girls didn’t take their eyes off me the whole time，talking quietly to each other in Chinese．I began to feel uncomfortable and asked my friend if we could leave．After we left the shop, she asked me what was wrong．I complained(抱怨)about the shop girls being very rude and always looking at my legs．I was embarrassed(尴尬) that they were talking about my white skin．My friend laughed，“They weren’t laughing at you．They were saying how nice your legs are．Many Chinese women want to have white skin like yours．In fact，there are many beauty products in the shops to make skin whiter and a lot of money is spent on them．”

    It just goes to show that we are never happy with what we have．The grass is always greener on the other side．If the women of the West and East thought the same way，western women wouldn’t spend so much money on cream that makes skin darker and women from the East wouldn’t need to use cream that makes skin whiter．

    根据短文内容，选择最佳答案

1．The writer is telling about her first shopping ___________．

    A．in the East    B．in England    C．in Hong Kong D．in the West

2．What did the writer prepare to do during her visit?

  A．She prepared to buy a T-shirt．

  B．She prepared to enjoy the sun and get darker skin．

  C．She prepared to show some beauty products．

  D．She prepared to make her skin whiter．

3．The writer had white legs because __________．

  A．she lived in a cold and cloudy country

  B．she wanted them to be that way

  C．she didn’t like dark skin

  D．she spent so much money on her legs

4．Why did the writer think the shop girls were laughing at her?

  A．Because the writer was talking with her friend loudly．

  B．Because the writer had no money with her．

  C．Because they talked and laughed at her friend．

  D．Because they didn’t take their eyes off her the whole time．

5．In Chinese．the sentence“The grass is always greener on the other side．”implies(深层含义为)“__________”．

  A．另一边的草地要比这边的绿．

  B．那座山上的草总是绿的。

  C．这山望着那山高。

  D．这山比那山高。

“How many common English words were invented by Shakespeare?”
How long did it take people to find the answer to this question 15 years ago? And now! You can google it and find the answer immediately!
Google is the most popular Internet search engine（搜索引擎）in the world. It was invented by two students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They met in 1993, when they were studying computer science at Stanford University, USA. They dreamed of producing something that could also answer any question in seconds.
Internet search engines at that time were slow and gave many websites that weren’t useful. In January 1996, Page and Brin decided to make a better and faster search engine. They thought the results should be based on the most popular websites.
Nobody would give them money for their project, so they used their own money. They also borrowed money from family and friends. Then, in 1998, they were given a cheque for $100,000, and they started their own company(公司). Their first office was in a friend’s garage(车库).The company name is Google, a word which comes from mathematics. A “google” is a very high number — 1 followed by a hundred zeros.
The Google search engine was soon used by thousands of people worldwide because it was fast, easy and correct. By 2002 it was the biggest search engine on the Internet. Now, more questions have been answered by Google than any other Internet service, from sport to science, and from music to medicine. Google hopes that in the future all the world’s information will be put on the Internet, so that everybody can find everything.
【小题1】Why did the writer begin this passage by asking you a question?

Mr. King worked in a factory. He liked playing soccer and spent much time on it, so he was sometimes late for work. His boss was so angry that he fired Mr. King. Mr. King couldn't find another job. Finally he got into trouble and lived a difficult life.
One of his friends felt sorry for turn and introduced him to a headmaster, whose school was just in need of swimming coach (教练). Mr. King began to teach the school children to swim. He wasn't a good coach. Two months later, the children learned nothing. Few of them could swim.
It was a hot Saturday. The children wouldn't stay in the classroom and wanted to swim in the river. Mr. King failed to stop them. Before they started, he drew a red line below the knee of each child. He said to them, "Come out of the river at once if the water reaches the line."
【小题1】Why did the boss fire Mr. King?

I was woken up by a strange sound. I saw something moving by my window. I was terrified and ran downstairs. I found my mom in the kitchen, getting my brother ready for school.
"Mum, did you hear anything? I, uh. I thought I saw an alien."
"Are you all right? Just a dream ! "Mum answered.
Then I went back to my room. As I walked to the window, I cried, I saw a little alien, no more than three feet tall, with big and black eyes. It tried to run between my legs and escape through the window. Although I was scared, for some reason, I squeezed (挤) my legs together in time to catch it. It took out something and hurt me. I felt a terrible sense of nothingness and fainted (晕倒). Then I woke up.
At first, I could hardly move. I wasn't sure whether it was a dream or not. I pulled myself out of the bed and walked downstairs. I saw my mum in the kitchen. She was really getting my brother ready for school, wearing her pink clothes. Then I realized it was just a dream because in my dream she was wearing her work clothes.
From then on, I always dreamt about aliens and all the dreams felt so real. At that time, I really thought maybe I had some kind of relationship with aliens. About two months later, I stopped having such dreams. Later I realized that l used to have those dreams because I always read books or watched TV programs about aliens before I fell asleep!
【小题1】What did the writer first do when he saw the alien?

A poor farmer had a friend who was famous for the wonderful apple tree he grew.

     One day, his friend gave the farmer a young apple tree and told him to plant it. The farmer was pleased with the gift, but he did not know where to plant it.

     He was afraid that if he planted the tree near the road, strangers would steal the fruit. If he planted the tree in one of his fields, his neighbors would come at night and steal some of the apples. If he planted the tree near his house, his children would take the fruit. Finally he planted the tree in his wood. But without sunlight and good soil(土壤),the tree soon died,

     Later the friend asked the farmer why he had planted the tree in such a poor place. "What's the difference? " the farmer said angrily and then told what he had thought.

     "Yes," said the friend, "but at least someone could have enjoyed the fruit. Now you not only have robbed everyone of the fruit, but also you have destroyed (毁掉) a good apple tree !"

1.What gift did the farmer get from his friend one day?

2.How many people are there in the story?

3.Where did the farmer plant the apple tree at last?

4.Why did the apple tree soon die?

5.Who destroyed the apple tree?