Passage 3
A smile will tell people around you that you are a kind and friendly person. However, many people don’t smile because they think they have ugly teeth. For example, one of my classmates, Mike, doesn’t have very nice teeth, so that is why he seldom opens his mouth. He even says that he has lost confidence because of his teeth. So it is very important for us to look after our teeth. In fact, a lot of people have this problem. Some people inherit teeth problems from their parents, while others’ teeth are damaged because of bad habits, like heavy smoking, eating too much sugar or not brushing teeth often. If your teeth are in bad shape, you should see a dentist and ask for help. They can help improve your teeth and tell you how to take care of them.
Smiling can help you to feel more confidence and make people think of you as a more friendly person. If you want to keep healthy, you should not only smile but also laugh. An Indian doctor called Kataria said that young children should laugh about 30 times a day, while adults should laugh between 7 and 15 times a day. So please take this chance to smile and laugh now.
【小題1】What has made Mike lose his confidence?

DIY, which means Do It Yourself, is quite popular in UK. Lots of stores and supermarkets sell DIY things. TV programs show people how to DIY.
English people like DIY. There is a saying in UK---“An Englishman’s home is his castle”. Huge numbers of people spend their holidays making their homes beautiful “castles”. If there is anything that needs fixing around their houses, such as painting the walls or putting in a new shower, they will do the jobs themselves. They share DIY experiences with their friends. More and more people have discovered the joy of DIY. Sometimes people also DIY for saving money. With the economic downturn at present, many people can not afford to buy a bigger house. They are looking at how they can make their houses better without spending a lot of money. It is not surprising that DIY is so popular.
DIY can be difficult. There is a huge market for DIY furniture which people need to put together themselves with a few basic(基本的) tools (工具). However, people often find it not easy to build a piece of furniture because they can’t understand the instructions. Sometimes the instructions are simple and clear, but the furniture itself is difficult to build. One thing is for sure, though most DIY projects are started with the best intentions (目的，意圖), many of them may not get finished. DIY can also be dangerous. For example, anything electrical should be done by a professional worker. Unluckily, many people don’t care about this warning and put themselves in danger. It is reported that in just one year over 230 000 people were hurt while doing DIY in UK, including 41 000 who fell off ladders (梯子).
Therefore, DIY can bring us fun and help us save money, but it is not always as easy as it is thought to be if we bite off more than we can chew. Maybe factories should make products that are easier and safer for us to DIY.
【小題1】How do many English people spend their holidays according to the passage ?

Bob always took the newspaper to Grandpa White’s home before going home. Grandpa White’s was at the end of the road. Bob liked Grandpa White. He was often waiting for him near the front gate with sweets or a nice cake. Besides, He often asked Bob about things he was doing, what he was going to do for the summer and what he liked to do.
The thing that Bob didn’t like about Grandpa was his never-ending stories about his boyhood（童年）in California. Bob was never asked to hear about Grandpa’s boyhood, but he couldn’t get away.
After Grandpa’s wife died in October, Bob could see that Grandpa was lonelier than ever. He would often join Bob halfway along the road and walk along with him as he gave out the newspapers. Grandpa seemed to have all day, and Bob was often late giving newspapers to his customers（訂報者）. Bob didn’t want to complain, but the customers were unhappy.
【小題1】When he took the newspaper to Grandpa White, Bob would often receive _______.

We can see walls everywhere in the world. But the Great Wall of China is the biggest of all. The Chinese call it. “The Ten-thousand-Li. Great Wall.” It’s in fact (事實) more than 6,000 kilometers long. It’s 4-5 meters wide. In most places, five houses or ten men can walk side by side. When you visit the Great Wall, you can’t help wondering (疑惑) how the Chinese people were able to build (建造) such a great wall thousands of years ago. Without any modern machine (機器), it was really very difficult to build it. They had to do all the work by hand. It took millions of men hundreds of years to build it.
The Great Wall has a history of over two thousand years. The kings began to build the first parts of it around two thousand seven hundred years ago. Then, Qin Shihuang had all the walls joined up (連起來). He thought that could keep the enemy (敵人) out of the country.
Today the Great Wall has become a place of interest. Not only Chinese people but also people from all over the world come to visit it.
【小題1】The Great Wall is the biggest of all walls in _______.

Some people think only school children do not agree with their parents, however, it is not true.
Communication is a problem for parents and children of all ages. If it’s hard for you to communicate with your parents, don’t worry about it. Here are some advice for you to bridge the generation gap (消除代溝).
Don’t argue with your parents. Don’t get to your parents when you are angry. Your parents probably won’t consider your ideas if you are shouting at them. And you can’t express yourself well if you are angry. Go someplace to cool off. Make sure you understand why you are unhappy. Then think about what you want to say to your parents. If you don’t think you can speak to them at the moment, try writing a letter.
Try to reach a compromise (和解). Perhaps you and your parents disagree on something. You can keep your disagreement and try your best to accept each other. Michael’s mother didn’t agree with him about buying a motorcycle. They argued over it. But they finally came to a compromise. Michael bought the motorcycle, but only drove it on certain days.
Of course, your parents might refuse to compromise on something. In these situations, it is especially important to show love and respect (尊敬) to them. Showing respect will keep your relationship(關系) strong.
Talk about your values. The values of your parents are probably different from those of your own. Tell your parents what you care about, and why. Understanding your values might help them see your purposes in life.
A good relationship with your parents can make you a better and happier person. It is worth having a try!
【小題1】The passage tells us _______ have a communication problem.

Your computer has been playing music for years, one CD at a time. Now hundreds of songs can be stored in your PC if they' re in the MP3 format (格式).

John: Here’s a good shop. Shall we buy mother’s birthday present here?
Mary: Yes, that’s a good idea. Shall we go inside?
Tom: No. Let’s look in the window. Shall we buy her a sweater?
Anne: Er, no. It’ll soon be summer. Let’s buy her a blouse to wear. There’s a nice one in the window.
John: No, she has two blouses. Let’s buy a ring.
Mary: Oh, no! They’re diamond rings. Look at the price. The cheapest is ＄15.
John: A real diamond ring is at least ＄500.They only look like diamonds.
Tom: Shall we buy a table? It’s only ＄15.
Anne: It doesn’t look good, just like a big box. Mum likes chairs.
Tom: But they haven’t any here.
Mary: What about a pen? So cheap! Only ＄10.
John: She has a lot of pens and pencils. All of them are new. 
Tom: Oh, look here. These flowers are beautiful.
Mary: They aren’t real and will never die.
John: And they’re the cheapest of all these things. Yes, let’s buy them.
Anne: All right.
【小題1】Who finds the shop to buy the present first?

Passage 1

Many people go to church(教堂) on Sunday, but others don’t. Many people sleep late on Sunday morning, but others don’t. Some people work on Sunday, but most don’t. However, almost everyone reads the Sunday paper.
Often the paper is waiting outside the door when the family gets up. The newspaper boy has put it there. The paper has many advertisements(廣告) and many different parts.
The parents in the family like the front page and the world news part. Many men also read the sports pages and the financial(財經的)pages.
Most men don’t read the women’s pages, but the mother of the family usually does. The women’s pages have the news about parties and some good ideas about food, health and clothes.
Most Sunday papers have interesting stories. Children enjoy them. Old people read the death notices. They tell about people who have died during the week.
There is something for everyone in the Sunday paper.
【小題1】This passage tells us ________.

Almost all people like flowers. Some people like flowers because of their smells, shapes, colors and so on. Others like flowers because they think different flowers mean different things. Flowers have their own language. For example, red roses mean “l(fā)ove” and sunflowers mean “l(fā)oyalty(忠誠)”. So people in more than 100 countries have chosen their own national flowers which say something about their countries’ spirit. In 1994, China talked about choosing a national flower. Some people liked the peony(牡丹) but others liked the plum blossom(梅花). They couldn’t agree with each other. So it has not been decided yet.
People like to buy different flowers in different seasons. Where do all the beautiful flowers in shops come from? They may come from far away, so their price is higher.
a. Farmers grow flowers in their fields.
b. Planes or trains or buses take the flowers to different places.
c. Flower shopkeepers buy flowers from the flower markets. They look after the flowers and throw away the broken or bad ones. They cut the flowers to make them more beautiful.
d. You go to buy the flowers in the shops. When you buy a flower, you’re paying lots of people: the farmer, the driver of the plane or train or bus, the seller in the flower market and the flower shopkeeper.
So you’d better keep your flowers from far away for a long time. But how? Why not dry them? It’s easy! Sand drying is a way. Dry, clean sand is one of the oldest things for drying flowers. And it’s one of the cheapest.
·Fill a box half-way with sand.
·Put the flowers on top of the sand.
·Put the box in a warm, dry place.
·Leave the flowers there for one to three weeks.
·Take them out and they will be dry.
【小題1】The underlined words “national flowers” most probably means ______.