A Christina from Spain
On the last day of the year, the 31^st of December, people wait till 12 pm. Everybody must have 12 grapes(葡萄) to eat at midnight. At each sound of the clock, we must eat a group. But we can’t ever finish eating the grapes on time! Usually when people still have some grapes in their mouths, they look at each other and start to laugh. This tradition started in Spain long ago. One year, when there were a lot of grapes, the king of Spain decided to give grapes to everybody to eat on New Year’s Eve.
B Cordon from Britain
On New Year’s Day in Britain, people have parties. At 12 o’clock, the music stops, and we listen to the radio. On the radio we hear Big Ben, the famous clock in London. Then everybody sings a song about friendship and kisses their friends. We say “Happy New Year” to each other. It’s lucky if a tall man with dark hair is the first person to come to the house in the new year. So I go and visit as many friends as I can. They all give me a drink.
C Angela from Brazil
In all cities in Brazil, we have a big party on New Year’s Eve, especially in Rio de Janeiro. People in this city go to the beaches to watch fireworks(焰火)。We put flowers in the sea and think about things we want for ourselves or others. We usually wear white clothes for good luck during the New Year.
【小題1】Picture___________ is about paragraph 1.

【小題2】Who have parties on New Year’s Day?
A. People in Spain.  B. People in Britain.
C. People in Brazil.  D. Both B and C.
【小題3】From the 2nd paragraph, we can infer (推斷)that___________.

Like most cultures around the world, the Zulu people of Africa tell stories that have animals as heroes. These stories are meant to entertain, but they are also used to teach important lessons to children. This is one of those stories.
One hot afternoon, Jackal was walking along the rocky road sniffing (嗅) the ground. He was hoping to smell a mouse or a lizard (蜥蜴), or something else that would be good to eat. He was so much lost in sniffing that he wasn’t really paying attention to what was around himself.
Suddenly, Jackal looked up to see his neighbor, Lion, walking straight toward him. He did not have enough time to get away. Jackal had played many tricks (捉弄) on Lion over of something quickly.
“Help! Help!” cried Jackal as he quickly jumped upon a large rock hanging over the road. “The rocks are falling down, and I can’t hold them much longer. We shall both be crushed (壓碎) if you do not do your best to hold these rocks back, Lion”
At once, Lion pushed his strong shoulder against the rocks to keep them from moving any further. “I’ll just run over here to get something to stop the rocks,” shouted Jackal as he ran away to safety. Lion stayed leaning against the unmoving rocks for quite a long time before he realized that Jackal had tricked him yet again!
【小題1】Why was Jackal sniffing the ground?

A Christina from Spain

  On the last day of the year, the 31^st of December, people wait till 12 pm. Everybody must have 12 grapes(葡萄) to eat at midnight. At each sound of the clock, we must eat a group. But we can’t ever finish eating the grapes on time! Usually when people still have some grapes in their mouths, they look at each other and start to laugh. This tradition started in Spain long ago. One year, when there were a lot of grapes, the king of Spain decided to give grapes to everybody to eat on New Year’s Eve.

B Cordon from Britain

On New Year’s Day in Britain, people have parties. At 12 o’clock, the music stops, and we listen to the radio. On the radio we hear Big Ben, the famous clock in London. Then everybody sings a song about friendship and kisses their friends. We say “Happy New Year” to each other. It’s lucky if a tall man with dark hair is the first person to come to the house in the new year. So I go and visit as many friends as I can. They all give me a drink.

C Angela from Brazil

In all cities in Brazil, we have a big party on New Year’s Eve, especially in Rio de Janeiro. People in this city go to the beaches to watch fireworks(焰火)。We put flowers in the sea and think about things we want for ourselves or others. We usually wear white clothes for good luck during the New Year.

1.Picture___________ is about paragraph 1.

2.Who have parties on New Year’s Day?

A. People in Spain.   B. People in Britain.

C. People in Brazil.  D. Both B and C.

3.From the 2nd paragraph, we can infer (推斷)that___________.

A. People listen to the radio at home.

B. Cordon can’t drink much. 

C. Cordon is a tall man with dark hair.

D. there are no people near Big Ben.

4. On New Year’s Day, Brazilians usually wear white clothes because_________.

      A. that reminds them of their happy life

B. they hope that can bring them good luck

C. they think that they look beautiful in white

D. that’s what they have to do during the New Year

5.This article mainly tells us ________________.

     A. what people in Britain do on New Year’s Day

     B. when and where people have New Year parties

     C. why people in different countries like the New Year

     D. what people around the world do on New Year’s Day

A crow(烏鴉) is about twenty inches(英寸) long and black all over. Crows are dirty birds because they live on bad food. Crows eat a lot of waste food. In this way they are more useful to us than any birds. They clean up the dirty things in our streets. Crows are always hungry. They look for food all day, and in the evening you can see them in large numbers flying back to their nests(巢) in the trees. They sleep there at night.
Crows are much noisier than other birds. Very often a large number of crows will get together on one house and talk. Sometimes they talk together, and sometimes they do it by turns(輪流) like human beings(人類). It is easy to tell(判斷) from crow’s sound if they are pleased or angry. Perhaps crows talk a lot because they are friendly birds. A pair of crows will live together all their lives, and if one of them dies, the other one becomes very sad and quiet for the rest of its life and some time later it dies too.
【小題1】Crows “l(fā)ive on bad food” means “ _________ ”.