Have you ever dreamed about sending a letter to yourself or your friends in the future? While express mail represents high speed，there is another type of mail appearing in China as a new business--future mail．
"The letter should be sent next ' Mother's Day’ and not a day earlier!" Lin Xiaofan，a senior high school student in Hefei，instructs one of the companies offering the service．
Lin Xiaofan wrote the letter to her mother in advance to express her love to her mother for next Mother's Day．
"Offering this service makes people slow down and let them understand the meaning of 'time' in another way，" said Zheng Zhimin，manager at a "future mail" company in Hefei． Zheng thinks "future mail" letters are "reminders of care，friendship and love"．
While "future mail" is becoming more and more popular，some people are wondering what will happen if the postal address changes or if the company goes broken before the letters arrive．
Zheng said customers are glad to complete an acceptance form and make an assessment（评估） so they can be compensated（赔偿） if their letters or goods are lost or damaged．
Most of the business' customers are college students and young white-collar workers．Psychologists said young Chinese might have a new way to express their feelings through this service．
"Most people put their hopes and wishes in the letter so they can experience the connection between the past and the present while they receive the letter．It can help people re-understand the meaning of 'time' ，" said Wang Kaiyu，a sociologist in Anhui Province．
Express mail is a（n） ____ way to send your letters．
| A．slow | B．fast |
| C．impossible | D．ancient |
____ are interested in future mail service now．
| A．College students | B．Blue-collar workers |
| C．Old people | D．Young children |
Through the future mail service，people can ____．
| A．forget friendship | B．show feelings |
| C．misunderstand "time" | D．make an assessment |
According to the passage，future mail is ____．
| A．dangerous | B．expensive |
| C．difficult | D．safe |
You had better use future mail if you want to____．
| A．save money from sending express mail |
| B．send a birthday gift to your friend quickly |
| C．talk with your e-friends about your life freely |
| D．express your wishes for your father's next birthday |
An English traveler found himself in Norway with only enough money to buy the ticket for his journey back home, As he knew that it would take him only two days to get to England, he decided that he could easily spend the time without food. So he bought a ticket and got on the ship. The man closed his ears to the sound of the lunch bell(铃子). When dinner time came, he didn’t go to dinner room, saying that he was not feeling very well.
The next morning he still didn’t have breakfast and at lunchtime he again stayed in his room. But at dinner time he was so hungry that he went to the dinner room and ate everything the waiter put in front of him. He got ready for the quarrel(吵架).
“Bring me the bill (账单),” he said. “The bill, sir?” said the waiter in surprise, “There isn’t any bill, On our ship meals are included (包括) in the money for the ticket,” said the waiter. The story happened_________.
| A．in England | B．on a ship from Norway to England |
| C．in Norway | D．on a ship from England to Norway |
Why didn’t the traveler go to the dinner room first?
| A．Because he had no money | B．Because he didn’t feel very well. |
| C．Because he didn’t want to eat anything. | D．Because he didn’t hear the sound of the bell. |
The traveler went to the dinner room to eat something because__________
| A．his friend had given him some money | B．The waiter had asked him to change his mind |
| C．he learned that there was no bill on the ship | D．he was too hungry |
How many meals did the traveler have on the ship?
| A．Only one. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．None. |
After the traveler finished eating,___________.
| A．he had a quarrel with the waiter over the bill |
| B．he drank a lot |
| C．he asked the waiter to bring him the change (零钱) |
| D．he came to know that travelers on the ship had free (免费的)meals |
Do you like traveling? How can you make your trip interesting? Here’s some advice.
Read!
Before you leave, you should find some information about the place, such as its geography, history and people. You can introduce that place better by reading.
Take photos!
If you want to take some photos, remember to choose the most special sights. Don’t choose the sight you can see in other places. For example, Qingdao and Ningbo are coastal cities, so don’t only take photos of the sea. You should take photos of something else, too.
Taste!
You’d better taste some specials(特产) in the area. Food in some places is very delicious. So why not taste it? Maybe you have just one chance to taste it in your life.
Write!
When you visit a place, you should take a pen and a notebook, so you can write down what you see and what you think during the trip.How many pieces of advice about traveling are mentioned(提及) in the passage?
| A．Two | B．Three | C．Four. | D．Five |
Before we travel to a place, we should__________.
| A．learn something about it | B．decide which hotel to stay at |
| C．decide when to leave | D．Know which bus to take |
The underlined word “coastal” means_________ in Chinese.
| A．内陆的 | B．新兴的 | C．沿海的 | D．现代的 |
You should_______ during your trip.
| A．take no photos | B．taste some specials | C．write down what you eat | D．read more books |
What’s the best title(题目) for the passage?
| A．How to make your trip interesting | B．The most popular way to travel |
| C．How to make a travel plan | D．The best place to travel |
Everyone needs friends. Friends bring us happiness and hope in our lives. But the ability to make friends changes from person to person. To some people, making friends is easy, and to others it’s very difficult.
Making friends is a skill, and the first thing is to know how to get on with others.
If you have trouble in making friends, maybe I can tell you how to do it.
Realize your own good points. You have skills and talents(才能) that others will like.
Believe that you are a good person and have something nice to share with others.
Be humourous. Learn to laugh at yourself and your weakness. Remember to smile at others.
Respect(尊敬) the others. Everyone has his own idea. Learn how to listen to others’ ideas without trying to make them accept(接受) yours.
Be kind. If you are kind to others, they will usually be kind to you. There are hundreds of little things you can do to show your kindness. Open the door for someone. Wave to a friend and so on.
Don’t complain(抱怨). Learn to accept what you can’t change, and work hard to change what you can. No one is willing to hear your complaints all the time.
Never give up. Even if you are faced with some closed-minded people, never give up. And try to find someone who will understand you.Why do we need friends according to the passage?
| A．Friends can do everything for us. | B．Friends can bring us happiness. |
| C． Friends accept our ideas all the time. | D．Without friends, we could not live. |
What’s the first thing we should learn in order to make friends?
| A．To help others. | B．To smile to others. |
| C．To get on with others. | D．To listen to others’ complaints. |
Which of the following shows a sense of humour?
| A．Opening the door for someone. | B．Complaining to others all the time. |
| C．Laughing at ourselves and our weakness. | D．Finding someone who will understand us. |
How many pieces of advice does the writer provide when we have trouble in making friends?
| A．Five. | B．Seven. | C．Nine. | D．Eleven. |
What should we do when we have trouble in making friends?
| A．Respect others. | B．Complain. | C．Give up. | D．Laugh at them |
In the 13th century, the famous Indian traveller, Marco Polo, travelled a long way to China. He saw many wonderful things. One of the things he discovered was that Chinese used paper money. In western countries, people did not use paper money until the 15th century. However, people in China began to use paper money in the 7th century.
A Chinese man called Cai Lun invented paper almost 2,000 years ago. He made it from wood. He took the wood from trees and made it into paper. He then put these pieces of paper together and made them into a book.
Now paper still comes from trees. We use a lot of paper every day. If we keep on wasting so much paper, there will not be any trees left on the earth. If there are no trees, there will be no paper. Every day, people throw away about 2,800 tons of paper in our city. It takes 17 trees to make one ton of paper. This means that we are cutting nearly 48,000 trees every day. Since it takes more than 10 years for a tree to grow, we must start using less paper now. If we don’t, we will not have enough time to grow more trees to take the place of those we use for paper.
So how can we save paper? We can use both sides of every piece of paper, especially when we are making notes. We can also use cotton handkerchiefs（手帕） and paper ones. When we go shopping, we can use fewer paper bags. If the shop assistant does give us a paper bag, we can save it and refuse (拒绝) it later.
Everyone can help to save paper. If we all think carefully, we can help protect trees. But we should do it now, before it is too late.When he was in China, Marco Polo __________ .
| A．discovered Cai Lun invented paper | B．learned to make paper |
| C．saw many wonderful things | D．read a lot of books |
People in western countries first used paper money in the _________ century.
| A．17th | B．15th | C．13th | D．7th |
About ________ tons of paper are thrown away every day in our city.
| A．1,700 | B．2,000 | C．2,800 | D．48,000 |
Which of the following is the way of saving paper?
| A．To use both sides of every piece of paper. |
| B．To use the paper bags from shops more than once. |
| C．To use cotton handkerchiefs and paper ones. |
| D．All of the above. |
Which is the best title（题目） of the passage?
| A．Saving paper. | B．The history of paper. |
| C．Cotton handkerchiefs back again. | D．Cai Lun, the great inventor. |
One day, a farmer was walking along a road with his son Thomas. The father said, “Look! There’s a horseshoe. Pick it up and put it in your bag.” Thomas said, “It isn’t worth the trouble.” His father said nothing but picked it up himself. When they got to a nearby town, they had a rest. There the farmer sold the horseshoe and with the few pennies he bought some cherries.
The father and the son continued their way. The sun was well up in the sky, and there wasn’t a house or even a tree where they could have a rest. Thomas felt too thirsty to walk on. At this time, his father dropped a cherry on the ground and Thomas picked it up quickly and ate it. After a while, his father dropped another cherry and once again, his son lost some time in picking it up and putting it in his mouth.
And so they went on. The old farmer dropped the cherries and the son picked them up. When Thomas had eaten up all the cherries, his father said to him, "My dear son, if you had bent down earlier to pick up that horseshoe. it would not have been necessary for you to bend so many times for the cherries. Always remember the lesson that anyone who does not worry about the little things will find that he cannot do the great things.Who picked up the horseshoe at last?
| A．Thomas. | B．The old father. |
| C．Both the father and the son. | D．Neither the father nor the son. |
The farmer bought _______ with the money after he sold the horseshoe.
| A．some food | B．some water | C．some cherries | D．some pennies |
When the son refused to pick up the horseshoe, the father _______.
| A．felt very happy | B．didn’t say anything | C．beat the son | D．became a little angry |
The father dropped the cherries one by one, because _______.
| A．he wanted his son to eat them all | B．he wanted his son to do more exercise |
| C．he wanted to teach his son a lesson | D．he wanted his son to pick them up |
From the story, we can learn that _______.
| A．cherries are so delicious that most of us like to eat them |
| B．a horseshoe is so expensive that it can bring us a lot of money |
| C．if the boy wants to eat cherries, he must pick up the horseshoe |
| D．if we want to do some great things, we should start with some small ones |