Dear friends,
My name is Helen. I’m 12 years old. I   36   from Taxas, America. I’m really   37   in Chinese geography. It’s fun! And I hope you can tell me more. I like hamburgers best,   38   I try to eat them twice a week   39   it’s a kind of   40   food. And I like to drink lemon   41   . As for sports, I often go swimming with my parents on weekends.
I   42   in Cobb Street School. My   43   subjects in school are ME and art. They are really fun! After school, I like to go to the   44   with my family or friends. I like action movies and cartoons. They’re   45   How about you? Do you often go to the cinema with your family or friends?
Yours,
Helen

People live in different houses. You may know a wooden house or a paper house. But do you know a(n)  36  house?
In 2008, the first ice house in North America opens its  37  to welcome some visitors. The floors, windows and walls are all made of ice. It has ten bedrooms  38  twenty people can stay there each night. Visitors to the house 39  in ice beds, sit on ice chairs and eat from ice plates. Well, the toilets are not made of ice, of course. It’s usually below zero so it is very  40  inside the house. However, do the visitors just sit there to  41  warm? No, visitors have to  42  special clothes. These can make  43  feel warm until morning.
Workers  44  about four weeks designing the ice house. Visitors can only stay in this ice house in winter. It isn’t  45  in hot summer. Because this house is so special, it is becoming popular with young people.

Long long ago, there was a man whose name was Frank. He loved his  46  very much. A special day was coming. It was his wife’s birthday. Frank decided  47  something for her.
The next day he  48  home and said to his wife, “I bought something  49  you.” “Thank you!” said his wife  50 . “What have you bought for me?” “I’ve bought a gold ring. Here it is.” He took it out for his wife to see. Carelessly, he dropped it onto the ground. He began to look for it on the ground, 51  it was dark in the house and he could not see  52 . Then he went out and began to look for it in the street.
He looked and looked. After a while, a friend came along. “What’s the matter with you?” asked his friend. “I am  53  for my ring. It was for my wife. But I lost it just now.” said the poor man. “  54  did you lose it?” “I lost it in my house.” “You lost your ring in your house, but you are looking for it in the street. How foolish you are!” “Ah,” said the man, “but it is dark in my house. I will never find it there. Anyhow, here in the street, it is much  55 . I can see everything more clearly.” My dear friend, do you think Frank could find his gold ring in the street?
【小題1】 A. wife         B. daughter      C. son
【小題2】 A. to show  B. to buy  C. to cook
【小題3】  A. go B. goes     C. went
【小題4】 A. for   B. with     C. to
【小題5】 A. angrily     B. sadly    C. happily
【小題6】 A. but  B. so         C. because
【小題7】  A. something    B. anything       C. nothing
【小題8】  A. asking   B. calling  C. looking
【小題9】A. Where       B. When   C. Why
【小題10】 A. darker     B. brighter        C. harder

Dr. Brown liked reading in bed when he was at school. But it was ___1___ for his eyes and now he is near-sighted. He doesn’t want ___2___ to know about it and he never wears ___3___. It often___4___ him some trouble.
One day he was invited to a village school. He took a bus to a small town. Then he had to __5__ to the village school. The road to the village was very bad. He fell over(摔倒) some times and it __6___ his clothes dirty. ___7___ he got to the village. Suddenly it began to blow(刮風(fēng)) heavily and his hat was off. He felt his hat run into a fence(籬笆). So he ran __8__ it into the house, too. An old woman __9___ him angrily and shouted(喊叫),” ___10___ are you running after my little duck?”

Many students have hobbies, such as reading, painting, growing vegetables in their gardens, and looking after animals. Some hobbies are relaxing and ___(46) are creative. Hobbies can develop your interests and help you learn new skills.
David Smith is a student. His hobby is writing. ___(47) the summer of 2000, he spent four weeks on a summer camp. As well as the usual activities, such as sailing, climbing and mounting biking, there was a writing workshop with a profession ___(48). “She asked us to imagine that we were in a story. Then we wrote about our ___(49) at the camp.”
In senior high school David wrote a story about teenage life, and it ___(50) as a book in 2003. Many teenagers love his book, and as a result, David has become a ___(51) young writer.
David has been very lucky ___(52) his hobby has brought him enjoyment and success. But he is ___(53) interested in many other things. “I like playing volleyball, too.” says David. “I spend some of my free time playing volleyball for my school team. ___(54) I’ll write more books in the future, but I’m not sure.”
It’s something difficult ___(55) that we shouldn’t spend all our time on our favourite hobby. There are many other interesting things to do in life, and we should try to do something new or different.

Stuart and Steve were twin brothers. Stuart loved to play basketball. But Steve loved to read books.
One day Stuart was playing basketball   1  he fell and broke his leg. When they took him to the hospital, the doctor said he wouldn’t be able to play for six months. Steve went   2  him and brought him books on basketball. At first Stuart wasn’t going to read them. Then he began to read them and   3  that there were ways he could play basketball better. He began to think that books weren’t that   4 .
When Stuart’s leg started getting better, Steve would help him by going for walks with him.   5  Stuart’s doctor said he could start playing basketball again. Then Stuart showed Steve how to toss (投) for baskets. Steve found that he enjoyed it.
Then Stuart was ready to   6  the basketball games. Steve went to games and enjoyed himself. They then   7  practiced basketball and read books together.
So you can see, when   8  happens, something good may also happen. Steve showed Stuart about books and Stuart showed Steve about basketball. So you can also   9  showing others something that you like to do and they can show you something that they like to do.   10  you can find new things to do.

  Long ago，in a small village of Wakefield lived two farmers，Harry and Peter．Harry was very hard．working while Peter was  36 ．Every day Harry got up early and came home late，but Peter walked around for fun．
One summer there was no   37 and the crops(莊稼)were dying．Harry thought，“I must do something to save these crops，or they shall die．”With this  38 in mind，he went out to find a river so that he could dig a canal(溝渠)to his field．He walked on and on, feeling tired and thirsty．After a  39 search，he found a river full of blue water．He was
very happy．He started digging a canal to his field.  40 it was noon his wife sent their daughter to bring Harry home  41 lunch．But Harry did not go．He did not want to
leave his work unfinished．He completed his work  42 at night．He Was very satisfied．
He went home。had a good meal and  43 into a sound sleep．
Peter did the same．But he was not at all determined(有決心的)．He also  44 digging a
canal to his field but he didn’t have his work completed．His field did not get  45 water
and all his crops died．
Harry’s field would be watered when needed．He had a good harvest because of his hard work．

閱讀下面短文，掌握大意。然后從A.B.C.D四個選項中選出最佳選項 
I was waiting for the bus when I met the woman. “You look   26  . Come and sit here,” she said. “ 27   are you going?”
“I don’t know. I just want to catch a  28    and see what it will be like at the end.”
“I’m afraid you’ll see  29   there. Why don’t you enjoy the sights on the way?”
“How can I do that while my heart’s   30   ?” I asked sadly. My best friend had left me.
The woman seemed to understand my feeling. “Don’t cry, little girl. I’ve had a similar experience to you. Thirty-five   31   ago, my husband left our three children and me. I was deadly sad. I decided to kill myself and the children, so I took    32   to the sea.   33  ，they seemed to know what would happen, so they   34   loudly. Their cry suddenly woke me 35   . How could I  36    my hope to live for one of life’s problems? After that, I worked hard to raise the children. Now they all live   37    and one of them has his own family.
Then the woman gave me a   38  , “We should never wait for the door to   39     before us. We should find the key to the  40   or try to find another way”
The bus came and I got on it with a smile

A 14-year-old boy from the USA was described as a hero yesterday after he saved the life of a woman in another country．
Dean Bluey from Dallas，Texas，was a school boy who has much  31  in computer．One day，he  32  an email to a friend on the Internet．Suddenly he received a message saying “Help! Pain! Help!”．"The message was from Finland，  33  kilometers away from America．
“I didn’t know  34  I should do，”Dean said to a reporter afterwards．“It was really difficult to tell if the message was real．”So Dean did nothing at first． 35   the message kept coming．
“By then it was easy to see that someone was in trouble,” Dean explained. He   36  and discovered that the sender was a student called Tarja, who was alone in a university library. She was ill. What was  37  , there was no phone around her. Her only way of communicating with the world was by email. Dean got in touch  38   the police immediately. And they realized that the situation was quite serious. They called the police in Finland. Then an ambulance rushed to the library.   39  , she was still alive and was sent to the hospital quickly.
“I’m glad she’s OK,” Dean said. “It’s hard to believe, but   40   saved her life.”

A group of frogs were traveling through the forests, but unluckily two of them fell into a hole. The other frogs tried to help them. When they saw how 51 the hole was, they cried to the two frogs that they could not be saved. The two frogs didn’t 52 and tried their best to jump up out of the hole. The other frogs 53 saying that they were sure to die. 54, one of the two frogs, who heard what the other frogs were saying, 55 . Then he fell down and died.
The other frog, however, 56 to jump as hard as he could, and at last made it out. When he 57 , the other frogs asked, "Didn’t you hear us?" The frog, who had a poor 58, explained, "I thought you were encouraging me all the timid."
The story teaches us a 59 : There is power(力量) of life and death in the tongue. An 60  word to those who are down can help them out while a discouraging word can kill them.