Starting a stamp collection is easy and not very expensive. Before you start, you need to decide
what kind of stamps you want to collect. Most people collect stamps that they are interested in: a
certain country or an animal, a famous person or even a sport. Whatever you choose, you will find
that there is a world of knowledge in stamps: you will learn about people, geography, building, history
and culture.
     You can collect stamps from letters, ask your friends to let you have their old stamps, or you can
buy used stamps. When you get a letter with a stamp on it, carefully cut out the stamp. Leave lots of
space around the stamp so that you will not damage it. Put the stamp in water and wait until you can
safely remove the stamp. Carefully remove the stamp off the letter. Place the wet stamp between two
clean pieces of paper. A stamp can get wrinkled(褶皺的) when it dries, so put some books on top.

1. What does the writer think of collecting stamps?

A. Hard        
B. Expensive          
C. Useful          
D. Boring

2. What does the underlined work "damage" mean?

A. 損壞        
B. 保存              
C. 利用            
D. 刪除

3.What's the correct order when we try to get a stamp on a letter?
①Remove the stamp off the letter.
②Place the wet stamp between two pieces of paper.
③Cut out the stamp.
④Put the stamp in water.
⑤Put some books on top.

A. ①→②→⑤→③→④                  
B. ③→④→①→②→⑤
C. ④→①→②→⑤→③                  
D. ③→①→④→②→⑤

     Beep …beep … There went the bell! Robbie opened his eyes. He had been sitting in the room
for a whole day, and now it was time for him to do something.
     Robbie looked out of the window. It was still snowing heavily and there was ice on the window. It
was another cold day. Robbie was told to turn the heat on before the family got home. And he did it.
     Then Robbie was told to do some cleaning work at once. It was an easy job for him, but a tough
one for his master, Helen. He kept on working until every room was clean and tidy.
      For now, he had to cook supper for the family.
     The first thing Robbie did was to get the big pot(鍋) in the kitchen. Then he put some water in the
pot and put it on the stove. He used one of his hands to cut up a chicken and added the pieces to the
water to make a good soup. Then he got some tomatoes, cabbages and carrots to make a vegetable
salad.
     At ten past eight he laid the table. Then he put some bread, the chicken soup and the salad on it.
What a sweet smell! The moment he turned on the lights, the whole family came home.
     "The soup smells great, Victor," said Helen. "You really know how to tell Robbie what to do."
Robbie is one robot that really saves the family a lot of work.

1. What is Robbie?

A. A cook.      
B. A robot        
C. A cleaner      
D. A computer

2. What do the underlined words "did it" in the second paragraph mean?

A. Looked out            
B. got home    
C. turned the heat on       
D. did some cleaning

3. What time did Robbie lay the table?

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A. The story happened on a rainy day.
B. Robbie didn't have to be told what to do.
C. Helen found it easy to do cleaning work at home.
D. Victor and Helen felt comfortable when they got home.

     If you go to Brisbane, Australia, you can easily get a small book called "Discover Brisbane" free.
The book tells you almost everything in Brisbane: the restaurants, the shops, the cinemas, the streets,
the buses, the trains, the banks, etc. Here is something about on page 49:
     ANZ Banking Group
     Corner of Greek & Queen Streets…………………………………228 3228
    Bank of New Zealand
    410 Queen Street…………………………………………………221 0411
     Bank of Queensland
     229 Elizabeth Street………………………………………………229 3122
    Commonwealth Banking Group
    240 Queen Street…………………………………………………237 3111
    National Australia Bank Ltd.
    225 Adelaide Street………………………………………………221 6422
    Westpac Banking Corp.
    260 Queen Street…………………………………………………227 2666
    Banking Hours:
    Mon.--Thurs. 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
    Fri.9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
    All banks close Sat. Sun. & Public Holidays.

1. From the material, we can know ______.

A. Brisbane is a city in Australia        
B. "Discover Brisbane" is expensive  
C. "Discover Brisbane" has about 49 pages    
D. "Discover Brisbane" tells you everything in Brisbane

2. You can find Bank of Queensland on ______. 

A. Queen Street                
B. Elizabeth Street
C. Adelaide Street          
D. the corner of Greek Street and Queen Street

3. ______ seems to be the banking center in Brisbane.

A. Greek Street            
B. Elizabeth Street
C. Queen Street            
D. Adelaide Street

4. At 5:30 p.m., you can go to ______  to put your money in or take your money out.

A. no banks        
B. ANZ Banking Group 
C. National Australia Bank Ltd.    
D. Commonwealth Banking Group

5. In Australia, the banks have their longest service hours on ______.

A. Fridays    
B. Mondays and Thursdays    
C. weekends    
D. public holidays

     Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is the color
of most growing plants, too.
     Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something
that is not yet finished or plants that are not ripe.
     For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the
fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century
or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in war (戰(zhàn)爭). By the
eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today--a person who is new in a job.
     About one hundred years ago, greenhorn was a popular expression in the American west.
Old-timers used it to describe a man who had just arrived from one of the big cities in the east. The
greenhorn didn't have the skills that he would need to live in the hard, rough country.
     Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression
comes from the early nineteen hundreds.
     A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well.
You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after
your plants have died.
     The Green Revolution (革命) is the name which was given some years ago to the development of
new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution
was the result of hard work by agricultural (農(nóng)業(yè)的) scientists who had green thumbs.

1. According to the passage, a greenhorn means ______ now.

A. a young cow or ox whose horns have not yet developed    
B. a soldier who has not had any experience in war  
C. a person who is new in a job  
D. a man who doesn't have the skills to live in the country

2. The meaning of the underlined word "ripe" in the second paragraph is ______.

A. 未完成的      
B. 成熟的    
C. 青澀的      
D. 老練的

3. Which of the following about the Green Revolution is NOT right?

A. If there weren't the Green Revolution, we would have no rice to eat.
B. The expression "the Green Revolution" appeared several years ago.  
C. Because of the Green Revolution, we have more kinds of rice and other grains.
D. Agricultural scientists with green thumbs started the Green Revolution.

4. We can know from the passage that ______.

A. all growing plants is green    
B. green is the most important color in nature    
C. a person with a green thumb can make plants grow well
D. the expression "a green thumb" has a history of two hundred years

5. The main idea of the passage is ______.

A. a greenhorn              
B. a green thumb  
C. the Green Revolution      
D. the word "green" and its story

     My 10-year-old Donna said, "Mom, I made a new friend at school today. Can she come over
tomorrow?" Donna was a shy girl and I wanted her to make some friends to bring her out of her shell.
     "Sure, honey, that sounds great." I said, thinking back to my own best friend, Lillian. We lived across
the street from each other in Washington Heights, New York. We met at the age of 10, too. Like my
daughter, I was shy, but Lillian drew me out. She was one of the friendliest people in school, with shiny
black hair and a mile-wide smile.
    In senior high school, Lillian went on a trip to Florida. This was the first time we had to be away
from each other for a few days. "I'll be back soon." she told me. But three days later, Lillian's sister
told me that she had fallen into a river and hadn't come out any more. Soon, my family moved to New
Jersey. Whenever I thought of her, tears came into my eyes.
    The next day Donna brought her new friend home. "Hi, Mrs. Loggia." the little girl said. Her hair was
so shiny and black and she shot me a big smile. "My name is Laura."
    My daughter's new friend was so much like Lillian. I was still puzzled (迷惑) when Laura's mom
came to pick her up later that afternoon. I opened the door to let her in. "Judy!" she cried. "It's me,
Lillian's sister, from Washington Heights." Yes, my daughter's friend looked familiar. She was Lillian's
niece.

1. The underlined words in the first paragraph "to bring her out of her shell" mean ________.

A. to help her become less shy              
B. to help her become smart
C. to help her live happily                  
D. to help her walk out of her house

2. Laura looked familiar to the writer because she ________.

A. was Lillian's niece
B. was as old as her daughter      
C. was from Washington Heights          
D. had shiny black hair and a big smile, too

3. Why did the writer lose her best friend?   Because ________.
A. she moved to New Jersey    
B. they were different from each other
C. her best friend travelled to Florida
D. her best friend lost her life on a trip

4. "I knew we would be best friends forever." is a sentence from the passage and should be
put at the end of ________

A. Paragraph 2      
B. Paragraph 3        
C. Paragraph 4      
D. Paragraph 5

5. We can infer (推斷) from the passage that ________

A. Laura is outgoing
B. Laura helps Donna a lot
C. Laura and Donna are of the same age
D. Judy moved to New Jersey because of Lillian's death