Now machines are widely(广泛地)used all over the world. Why are machines so important and necessary for us? Because they can help us to do things better and faster.

A washing machine helps us to wash clothes fast. A printing machine helps us to print a lot of books, newspapers, magazines and many other things fast. Bikes, cars, trains and planes are all machines. They help us to travel faster than on foot.

The computer is a wonderful machine. It was invented(发明) not long ago. It not only stores(贮存) information but also stores numbers millions of times as fast as a scientist does.

Let’s study hard and try to use all kinds of machines to build China into a modern country.

Mr Brown was going away for a week. Before he left，he said to his son，“If anyone asks for me，you can tell him that your father has been out for doing something，and will be back in a week，then be sure to ask him to sit down for a cup of tea.”

“OK，Dad，” said his son. But he was afraid his son couldnˈt remember this，he wrote these words down on a piece of paper and gave it to him. His son put it into his small pocket，took it out and looked at it every now and then.

Four days passed，but no one came to see his father. The boy thought that there was no man to come and that the piece of paper was of no more use for him，so he burnt it that evening.

The next afternoon，someone knocked at the door. The boy opened it. A man was standing at the door and said，“Where is your father?” The boy put his hand into his pocket at once and looked for the piece of paper. He could not find it. He suddenly remembered he had burnt it，so he shouted，“No more.”

The man was very surprised. He asked，“No more? I met your father last week. When did it happen?”

“Burnt yesterday evening.”

Mr. Smith had two sons .One is seven years old, and the other is five. One morning during the holidays, when he was cleaning the car, his younger son came and asked him for some money for sweets.

      “Sweets are bad for your teeth,” Mr. Smith said. “Take these two oranges instead(代替), and give one to your elder brother,” One of the oranges is quite a lot bigger than the other one , and as the small boy liked oranges very much, he kept that one for himself, and gave his brother the smaller one.

      When the elder boy saw that his younger brother had a much larger orange than his own ,he said to him, “It’s selfish(自私的)to take the bigger one for yourself. If(如果) father had given me the oranges, I ’d have given you the bigger one.”

      “I know you would,” answered his younger brother.” That’s why I took it.”

Mr Smith gave his son some money for sweets.

The sweets are good for boys’ teeth.

The younger boy bought some sweets for himself.

The younger boy gave the bigger orange to his brother.

The elder boy is not selfish.

注：recommend推荐；spice（调味）香料

根据材料内容选择最佳答案。

  Not only kids of Tiger Moms go to Harvard.

   Dawn Loggins of Lawndale, N.C. is on her way to Harvard, one of the eight world-famous universities in the eastern US. Nobody encouraged her to study or paid for her special classes. This girl created her own future.

   The teen was abandoned by her family last summer, when her parents and two sisters moved to Tennessee. She found herself homeless and had to spend the night on friendˈs sofas.

   The school bus driver learned about Dawnˈs situation and invited Dawn to move in with her family. Soon, Dawn had a job at Burns High School. She worked from 6 a.m. to 7:40 a.m. before the first school bell rang. she swept floors and picked up trash again in the afternoons, before diving(跳水)into her studies in the evenings.

   Dawnˈs hard work paid off. she finished school with a 3.9 GPA and scored 2,110 on the SAT.

   "There were times when I felt like it would be easiest if I gave up," the 18-year-old said."But it was never in me to give up, because I realized that I was never going to be successful unless I got an education."

   Even before Dawnˈs family left her, she led a difficult life. Her family was poor and cups of noodles were often the only food. Dawn "studied by candlelight" because her parents couldnˈt afford to pay the electricity bill(电费).

   Dawn has now reconnected with her family. They are proud of her accomplishments(成就) and are attending her high school graduation.

根据材料内容选择最佳答案。

  The idea that red means stop and green means go has influenced our lives in more ways than just traffic signals(信号). We have been taught from a young age that the color red means danger and green means it's okay to move forward. But why were those colors chosen for traffic lights in the first place? For something we have to look at every day, why couldn't they have been prettier colors?

    Well, it's important to know that before traffic lights for cars, there were traffic signals for trains. At first, railway companies used red to mean stop, white to mean go, and green to mean warn. As you could imagine, trains ran into a few problems with white meaning go. For example, one train mistook a bright star for a white light and something unexpected happened. Because of that, railway companies finally moved green meaning go and used yellow to mean warn. And it's been that way ever since.

    Red has always been a color that means danger, long before cars were even around. This most likely started because it's the color with the longest wavelength (波长) so it can be seen somewhere farther than other colors.

    But, believe it or not, yellow was once used to mean stop. Back in the 1900s, some stop signs were yellow because it was too hard to see a red sign in a poorly lit area. Finally, highly reflective materials(高反射材料) were developed and red stop signs were born. Since yellow can be seen well at all times of the day, school zones, some traffic signs, and school buses continue to be printed yellow.

    So next time you are impatiently waiting at a traffic light, don't get so mad at them, they've certainly come a long way.

Lockheed Martin, American space system company (空间系统公司) has found a really cool way to inspire the young minds of today to the research fields in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

It may look like a normal yellow bus, but all the magic happens once you get inside. Meet the“Mars (火星) Experience Bus,” part of Lockheed Martin’s new“Generation Beyond” national education program to get the kids joining in studying what goes on outside of our home planet. The bus offers a virtual reality (VR,虚拟现实) experience making the teenagers feel like they are driving on Mars.

The VR experience was developed by taking advantage of software (软件) created for today’s best video games, so you can imagine the picture shown is top level. The kids do seem really excited to see the bus take a virtual trip on the red planet and search unknown places. It’s certainly a great way of leaning about the universe by virtual reality working on a common bus.

The Lockheed Martin’s bus will start a tour in the United States to allow kids from different parts of the country to take a ride in it. The Generation Beyond project also includes an iPhone app for iOS providing real-time information about weather reports for Mars, and there’s also a free deep space course for middle school teachers and students.

Everyone has a beautiful memory about school which is hard to forget. Among many things, relationships are the hardest to leave behind. Some schools try to stop students’ puppy love in different ways. Anything about “love” relationship is not allowed. For example, a middle school in Fu’an, Fujian Province forbids(禁止) boys and girls to sit together for meals and forbids boys to look at girls for a long time; a middle school in Luohe, Henan Province sets rules that boys and girls should meet in bright places with at least 5 other classmates, and if they meet in private they will be asked to go home with parents for more than a week and even advised to leave school; a middle school in Jinan, Shandong Province forbids everyone to send food and gifts to or receive them from the opposite sex(异性). It also forbids students to help the opposite sex with bags and coats and requires a “44 cm” distance between boys and girls.

Some students are not satisfied with such rules. “Why should we have strict places for different sexes to eat? It’s not using bathrooms!” Some people who care about the intelligence development of the students say that they should be more creative with fewer rules. For this, I’d like to say that middle school students are going through puberty(青春期). It’s normal for them to have some feelings for the opposite sex. Schools should provide correct guidance and education instead of giving simple and cruel rules and asking the students to follow.

The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Grain Rain (谷雨), as the last term in spring, starts on April 19 and ends on May 4.

Grain Rain comes from the old saying,“Rain brings up the growth of hundreds of grains”, which shows that this period of rainfall is very important for the growth of crops. Here’s something that you may not know about the Grain Rain.

（1）. ________

Grain Rain falls between the end of spring and the beginning of summer, and the temperature rises much higher than it does in March. With dry soil and heavy winds, sandstorms may happen more often. （2）. ________

There is an old custom in southern China that people drink tea on the day of Grain Rain. Spring tea during Grain Rain is good for the eyes. It is also said that drinking tea on this day would prevent bad luck.

（3）. ________

People in northern China have the tradition to eat the vegetable toona sinensis during Grain Rain. An old Chinese saying goes“toona sinensis before the rain is as tender as silk (嫩如丝)”. The vegetable is good for the stomach and skin.（4）. ________

The Grain Rain Festival is celebrated by fishing villages in northern China. Grain Rain marks the start of the fishermen’s first voyage (航行) of the year. The custom dates back to more than 2000 years ago.

  a. Eating toona sinensis

  b. Sandstorms happen

  c. Grain Rain Festival

  d. Drinking tea

An old gentleman whose eyesight(视力) was falling came to stay in a hotel room with a bottle of wine(酒) in each hand. On the wall there was a fly which he took for a nail(钉子). So as soon as he hung them on, the bottles fell broken and the wine split all over the floor.

When a waitress discovered what had happened, she felt really sorry for him and wanted to give him a hand.

So the next morning when he was out taking a walk in the garden, she put a nail on the wall exactly where the fly had stayed.

Now the old man entered his room. The smell of the split wine reminded him of the accident. When he looked up at the wall, he found the fly was there again! He walked to it carefully and hit it with all his strength.

On hearing a loud cry, the waitress rushed in. To her great surprise, the poor old man was there sitting on the floor, his face was pale and a lot of blood was running on his right hand.