The writer Margaret Mitchell is best known for writing Gone with the Wind, first published in 1936. Her book and the movie based on it, tell a story of love and survival during the American Civil War. Visitors to the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, Georgia, can go where she lived when she started composing the story and learn more about her life.
Our first stop at the Margaret Mitchell House is an exhibit area telling about the writer’s life. She was born in Atlanta in 1900. She started writing stories when she was a child. She started working as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal newspaper in 1922. One photograph of Ms. Mitchell, called Peggy, shows her talking to a group of young college boys. She was only about one and a half meters tall. The young men tower over her, but she seems very happy and sure of herself. The tour guide explains: “Now in this picture Peggy is interviewing some boys from Georgia Tech, asking them such questions as ‘Would you really marry a woman who works?’ And today it’d be ‘Would you marry one who doesn’t?’ ”
The Margaret Mitchell House is a building that once contained several apartments. Now we enter the first floor apartment where Ms. Mitchell lived with her husband, John Marsh. They made fun of the small apartment by calling it “The Dump ” .
Around 1926, Margaret Mitchell had stopped working as a reporter and was at home healing after an injury. Her husband brought her books to read from the library. She read so many books that he bought her a typewriter and said it was time for her to write her own book. Our guide says Gone with the Wind became a huge success. Margaret Mitchell received the Pulitzer Prize for the book. In 1939 the film version was released. It won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
【小題1】The book Gone with the Wind was _________.

Can dogs and cats live in perfect harmony in the same home? People who are thinking about adopting a dog as a friend for their cat are worried that they will fight. A recent research has found a new recipe for success. According to the study, if the cat is adopted before the dog, and if they are introduced when still young (less than 6 months for cats, a year for dogs), it is highly probable that the two pets will get along swimmingly. Two-thirds of the homes interviewed reported a positive relationship between their cat and dog.
However, it wasn’t all sweetness and light. There was a reported coldness between the cat and dog in 25% of the homes, while aggression and fighting were observed in 10% of the homes. One reason for this is probably that some of their body signals are just opposite. For example, when a cat turns its head away it signals aggression, while a dog doing the same signals submission.
In homes with cats and dogs living peacefully, researchers observed a surprising behavior. They are learning how to talk each other’s language. It is a surprise that cats can learn how to talk ‘Dog’, and dogs can learn how to talk ‘Cat’.
What’s interesting is that both cats and dogs have appeared to develop their intelligence. They can learn to read each other’s body signals, suggesting that the two may have more in common than was previously suspected. Once familiar with each other’s presence and body language, cats and dogs can play together, greet each other nose to nose, and enjoy sleeping together on the sofa. They can easily share the same water bowl and in some cases groom (梳理) each other.
The significance of this research on cats and dogs may go beyond pets ─ to people who don’t get along, including neighbors, colleagues at work, and even world superpowers. If cats and dogs can learn to get along, surely people have a good chance.
【小題1】The underlined word swimmingly in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______.

A Japanese toy maker declares that they have developed a gadget that translates dog barks into human language and plans to begin selling the gadget——under the name of Bowlingual——in U. S. pet stores and gift shops this summer.
Tokyo-based Takara Co. Ltd. says about 300, 000 of the dog translator gadgets have been sold since it was on sale in Japan late last year. It is forecasting far bigger sales once an English language translation for dogs comes to America in August. The United States is home to about 67 million dogs, more than six times the number in Japan.
"We know that the Americans love their dogs so much, so we don't think they will mind spending $ 120 on this product, " the Takara marketing manager said during an interview at a recent pet products conference in Atlanta.
Regarded as one of the coolest inventions of 2002 by Time magazine, Bowlingual is made up of a 3 - inch long wireless microphone that is fastened to a dog collar and sends out sounds to a small console (控制臺) that is connected to a database (數(shù)據(jù)庫). The console divides each bark into six emotional types——happiness, sadness, disappointment, anger, threat and desire——and shows common phrases, such as "You're ticking me off," that fit the dog's emotional state.
Takara says it has spent millions of dollars developing the gadget in cooperation（合作）with famous sound experts and animal behaviorists.
One thing that does appear certain is that the markets for animal translation products will likely remain a dog's world since Takara has no plans to develop a similar gadget for cats. "They are too unpredictable (反復無常) , " the marketing manager said.
【小題1】This passage mainly tells us that Bowlingual ___________.

One night this summer, on my way home from work I decided to see a movie. I knew the theatre would be air­ conditioned and I couldn’t face my 36 apartment. Sitting in the theatre I had to 37 the opening between the two tall heads in front of me. I had to keep changing the　38　every time she leaned over to talk to him, 39　he leaned over to kiss her. Why do Americans display such　40 in a public place？I thought the movie would help improve my English, but as it 41 ,it was an Italian movie. 42 about an hour I decided to give up the movie and 43　my popcorn. I’ve never understood why they gave me so much popcorn！It tasted pretty good , 44. With time going by, I understood 45 of the romantic­ sounding Italians. I just heard the 46 of the popcorn chewed between my teeth. My thought started to 47.I remembered when I was in South Korea, I 48 to watch a host on TV frequently. He seemed like a good friend to me, until I saw him　49　on TV in New York speaking　50　English instead of perfect Korean. He didn’t　51　have a Korean accent！I felt like I had been betrayed (背叛)．
When our family moved to the United States six years ago, none of us spoke any English. 　52 we had picked up a few words, my mother suggested that we all should practise English at home. Everyone agreed, but our house became terribly　53 and we all seemed to avoid each other. When we couldn’t avoid seeing each other, our expressions were stiff (僵硬的)．Sitting at the dinner table we preferred silence to　54　a difficult language. Mother　55　to say something in English but it came out all wrong and we all burst into laughter and decided to forget it！We’ve been speaking Korean at home ever since.

Mr. Lang worked in a factory. As a driver, he was busy but he was paid much. His wife was an able woman and did all the housework. When he came back, she took good care of him and he never did anything at home. So he had enough time when he had a holiday. A few friends of his liked gambling(賭博) and he learned it soon. So he was interested in it and nearly forgot anything except gambling. He lost all his money and later he began to sell the television, watches and so on. His wife told him not to do it but he didn’t listen to her. She had to tell the police. He and his friends were punished for it. And he was hardly sent away. After he came out of lockup(拘留所), he hated her very much and the woman had to leave him.
It was New Year’s Day. Mr. Lang didn’t go to work. He felt lonely and wanted to gamble again. He called his friends and they came soon. But they were afraid the police would come. He told his five-year-old son to go to find out if there were the policemen outside. They waited for a long time and didn’t think the police would come and began to gamble. Suddenly opened the door and in came a few policemen.
“I saw there weren’t any policemen outside, daddy,” said the boy, “so I went to the crossing and asked some to come.”
【小題1】Mrs. Lang did all housework because _______.

Along the river banks of the Amazon and the Orinoco there lives a bird that swims before it can fly, flies like a fat chicken, eats green leaves, has the stomach of a cow and has claws (爪) on its wings when young. They build their homes about 4.6m above the river, an important feature (特征) for the safety of the young. It is called the hoatzin.
In appearance, the birds of both sexes look very much alike with brown on the back and cream and red on the underside. The head is small, with a large set of feathers on the top, bright red eyes, and blue skin. Its nearest relatives are the common birds, cuckoos. Its most striking feature, though, is only found in the young.
Baby hoatzins have a claw on the leading edge of each wing and another at the end of each wing tip. Using these four claws, together with the beak (喙), they can climb about in the bushes, looking very much like primitive birds must have done. When the young hoatzins have learned to fly, they lose their claws.
During the drier months between December and March hoatzins fly about the forest in groups of 20 to 30 birds, but in April, when the rainy season begins, they collect together in smaller living units of two to seven birds for producing purposes.
【小題1】What is the text mainly about?

At a few minutes past five, Dave noted that the blanket of darkness was lifting. He was just able to make out the heavier masses that eventually appeared as the familiar trees that lined the road at the base of the hill. The upper reaches of the sky showed lighter shades of gray.
Dave got out of bed quietly and dressed quickly. He mixed a spoonful of instant chocolate into a glass of cold water, and his impatience forced him to finish the drink in gulps.
As he walked down toward the lake, Dave paused to reach for the fishing pole and gear box on the bench where he had left them the night before.
By the time he reached the small boat, a thick white mist (霧氣) had spread over the surface of the water. He stepped into the boat, sat down, and rowed out of the weed beds that lined the edge of the shore.
The outer fringe（邊緣）of the lake disappeared as the boat moved forward noiselessly. All he could see was the enveloping whiteness. He could not tell where the boat and the surrounding air met the surface of the lake.
Dave rowed steadily ahead, relying on a mental picture of the surroundings. Then the mist began to rise, slowly. It soon rested inches above the still surface of the lake. The heavy silence was now being broken by the fish breaking through the surface as they leaped out of the water for low-flying insects.
The magic time had arrived. Dave raised his pole. Dawn was broken. He was excited with expectancy.
【小題1】Dave got up early in the morning to _________.

A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts. It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what is on the printed text in the actual situation, so much the better.
A charge (指責) made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or making him sad. To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy stories were more often sorry for cruelty than those who had not. As to fears, there are, I think, some cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story. Often, however, this arises (出現(xiàn)) from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.There are also people who are against fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two -- headed dragons, magic carpets, etc. do not exist; and that, instead of being fond of the strange side in fairy tales, the child should be taught to learn the reality by studying history. I find such people, I must say so strong that I do not know how to argue with them. If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men trying to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girl -friend.
No fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world and no clever child has ever believed that it was.
【小題1】The author considers that a fairy story is more effective when it is ___________ .

My name is Chelsea Chowderhead. A chowder is a kind of soup. I was laughed at because of my last name as soon as I started school. So when my family moved to South Carolina, I asked my dad if I could change my name.
“You shouldn’t change who you are. Let people get to know you first and your name later. When you meet someone new, ask them a good question, something you’re really interested in. Once people start talking about themselves, they don’t judge(評價) you.”
Two days later I headed to my new school for the first day of class. At lunch, I noticed that there were twin brothers who were talking to each other. I remembered my dad’s advice, so I decided to try.
I noticed that their lunchboxes were identical. “What’s it like being a twin?” I asked.
They looked surprised. Then one said, “No one has ever asked us that!”
“Most of the time it’s good,” the other said. “When you’re a twin you always have someone to talk to and have lunch with.”
In no time we were laughing and talking. Then one of the brothers said, “I’m Nicholas, and this is my brother, Nathaniel. What’s your name?”
I took a deep breath and said, “I’m Chelsea Chowderhead.”
“Chowder? Like the soup?” asked Nathaniel.
“Yes,” I replied, looking down.
“Hey, cool! Do you want to come over after school and play basketball with us?” Nathaniel asked. I nodded.
And that is how I became friends with the twin brothers.
【小題1】Why did the writer want to change his name?

Once a young man was in deep love with a girl. This man folded 1,000 pieces of paper cranes (紙鶴) as a gift to his girl. Although he was a small branch manager in a company, and his __1__ didn’t seem too bright, they were very __2__ together until one day, his girl told him she was going to Paris and would never come back. She also told him that she couldn’t see any future for both of them, “so let’s go our own __3__ from now on…” The young man was __4__, but he agreed.
When he regained his __5__, he worked hard day and night, just to make something out of himself. Finally with all the _6__ work, this man set up his own __7__.
One rainy day, while this man was __8__, he saw an elderly couple sharing an umbrella in the rain, walking to somewhere. He __9__ that they were his ex-girlfriend’s (前女友)parents, so he drove slowly beside the couple, wanting them to find him in his expensive car and to know that he had his own company, car, etc.
To the man’s surprise, the couple were walking towards a cemetery (墓地). He got out of his car and followed them. And there he saw his ex-girlfriend —a photograph of her  __10__   as sweetly as ever at him from her tombstone, and those precious paper cranes in a glass bottle! He walked over and asked the couple why this had happened. They explained that __11__ she did not leave for France at all. She fell ill with cancer. In her heart, she had believed that he would __12_ some day. She didn’t want her __13__ to be his barrier(障礙). Therefore, she chose to leave him. She asked her __14__ to put his paper cranes beside her, because if the day comes when fate brings him to her again he can take some of those back with him.
The man just cried __15__. He was heartbroken once again.