Potato chips are Americans' favorite snacks(零食). Where do potato chips come from? In 1853 a native(本土) American named George Crum made the first potato chips. Crum was a chide(头目) in an expensive restaurant in Saratogasprings， New York. One day， a customer(顾客) did not like the French fries. He said they were too thick(厚的). So Crum made more， this time thinner. The customer still didn't like them. Crum got unhappy. He decided to make the customer angry. So he cut the potatoes， very thin. The customer loved them.

    Other people wanted Crum's  potato chips. Now， there was a new food on the menu— Saratoga chips. Soon Crum opened his own restaurant and made his special chips.

    It took a long time to make potato chips. People peeled the potatoes by hand. Then in 1920，the automatic(自动的) potato peeler changed everything. Now it was faster and easier to make potato chips. Now potato chips were not a specialty. They were a popular snack food， but only in the north.

    A salesman named Herman Lay wanted to sell potato chips in the south. He sold potato chips in bags. His business grew. Today， Americans eat a lot of potato chips every day.

    An old carpenter(木匠) was ready to leave his work. He told his boss about his plans to leave the house building company and live a free life with his wife.

    The boss was sorry to see his good worker go. He asked the carpenter if he could build just one more house as personal help. The carpenter agreed. But soon it was easy to see that his heart wasn't in his work.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    When the carpenter completed his work, his boss came and handed the front-door key to him. The boss said, “This is your house, my gift to you.”

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}If the carpenter had known he was building his own house, he would have done it all differently. However, it was too late to regret. Now he had to live in the house he had built not too well.

    Life is like the house.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Think about your “house”. Each day you need to place a brick(砖) or build a wall. Build wisely and make every effort to do the work well. It's the only life you will build for yourself.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}And your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitude and choices you make today.

A. We should build our house with others' help.

B. Think of yourself as the carpenter.

C. Your life today is the result of your attitude and choices in the past.

D. He built the house with poor skills and bad materials.

E. What a surprise! What a shame!

A—G为七本畅销书，看完叙述后，请根据题意为每个人选择最合适的一本书。

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Today people write to, even talk to others on the computer. Nancy wants to learn more about it.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Mary is a good mother. She believes eating proper food is important. She likes to help her children grow better with proper food.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Jack often sits at the desk studying all night, but he still gets poor grades. He hopes to do better on the tests.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Bob's sister wants him to move to New York. But he isn't sure whether that is a good idea. He needs to know more about the country.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Jenny is confused that there are too many used plastic bags and old newspapers at home. She doesn't know what to do with them.

    Tom Jenkins enjoyed fishing and spent most of his time by the river.

    He enjoyed being in the fresh air and being on his own. There was no one to trouble him and the time passed happily for him.

    Unluckily, he was not a very good fisherman. He either fished in the wrong place, used the wrong bait(鱼饵)or pulled in his line too quickly. Whatever the reason was, he never caught anything big enough to eat.

    However, he did not like to admit this to his wife. He thought she would complain if she knew he was wasting his time. She would try to stop him from going fishing. She might even make him take her shopping. It was very important to Tom, therefore, that she thought he was a good fisherman.

    For this reason, on the way home from the river he always visited the local fish shop and bought something. Then he told his wife he had caught it and they had a good fish for their dinner.

    One evening, after yet another day's unsuccessful fishing, Tom stopped at the fish shop as usual on his way home. "I'll have three perch(鲈鱼), please," he said to the shopkeeper. "And throw them to me, as usual, so I can tell my wife I caught them."

    The shopkeeper laughed and said, "I suggest you take a nice salmon(鱿鱼)instead."

    "Oh why?"

    "Your wife came in an hour ago and said, "When Tom comes in, make sure he 'catches' a salmon."

    I love to write! Even since I was a little girl, I wrote stories on my notebooks and on little scrips of paper. I told stories to my friends. As a grown-up, I have written over 100 books! That's a lot! As a teacher, it's my goal to encourage all of my students to love to write.

    Writing is easy if you're careful enough, I told them. Everyone I meet is a possible character.

    Everything I see or I do is a possible scene in a book. Start looking around you. You'll be amazed at what you discover.

    Anyone can be a writer. You just put your pencil on your paper and write what you like to read, step by step.

    Create great characters. If you know your characters well, they'll write the story for you.

    Interest the reader right at the beginning. You can start your stories with dialogue or action. If you can make the reader ask questions, then he has to keep reading to find out the answers.

    Following the steps. The steps for every story is almost the same: Introduce the characters and the conflict(冲突); things get worse; all seem lost; the hero saves the day!

    Balance is the key. Remember, when writing, it never hurts to add a little humor.