阅读下列材料，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出最佳选项。

    After that, we went on down the river. It was very dark that night and it wasn't easy to see where we were going. Suddenly, a big steamboat came at us very fast, and the next minute it was right over us. Jim and I jumped off the raft (木筏) into the water. The boat hit the raft and went on up the river.

    When I came up out of the water, I couldn't see Jim anywhere. I called out his name again and again, but there was no answer. “He's dead!” I thought. Slowly, I swam to the side of the river and got out. I saw that I was near a big old wooden house. Suddenly a lot of very angry dogs jumped out at me. They made a terrible noise and someone called from the house, “Who's there?”

“George Jackson,” I answered quickly. “I've fallen off a river boat.”

    Well, the people who lived in that house were very kind, and they took me in and gave me some new clothes and a good meal. I told them that my family were all dead, so they said I could stay with them as long as I wanted. It was a beautiful house and the food was good there, so I stayed.

    A few days later one of the slaves in the house came to me and said, “Come with me!” Together, we went down to some trees by the river. “In there!” he said and went away.

    On the ground, I found a man, asleep. It was Jim! I was really pleased to see him. When the steamboat hit the raft, Jim told me, the raft didn't break up. Jim swam after it and caught it. Then he began to look for me.

We decided to leave at once. It's all right living in a house for a little while, but you feel more free and easy and comfortable on a raft.

______________

    Brian was a funny student. He loved watching comedies（喜剧） best and hoped to become a comedy actor one day.

When he heard about the talent show to be held at this school, Brian decided to take part in. He had never acted on stage（舞台） before, and he was very excited. But some students laughed at him. “You are not funny but silly,” Ken, one of his classmates, said to his face. “No one will like what you do,” another boy also said to him, loudly.

Brian couldn't understand why they were so unkind to him. For a moment, he thought about giving up the show. But he remembered how much his friends liked his jokes, and also his teachers said he was very funny. So he decided to prepare for the show.

    Brian did a great job at the talent show. Everyone loved his performance, and he won the first prize! His teachers and friends were proud of him. Even so, Ken told Brian that he was not funny, and that he would never be successful. Brian didn't understand why Ken said so, but he realized that it had nothing to do with him. He confidently continued to work towards his goal.

   As the years went on, Brian met more people like Ken. “you'll do a terrible job,” they said to him. Luckily, most people encouraged him and some helped him to become even funnier. He got a lot of opportunities to perform in movies. He was even invited to appear on television. His fans thanked him because his comedies made them feel good when they were unhappy.

    Now Brian is a big comedy star! He is doing what he loves best. He never feels stressed like those unkind people, and he laughs all day long!

    "Listen carefully to what I say,"  the time traveler said, "I shall tell you something that you will not agree."

    "Why will we not agree?" I asked.

    "Because the science and mathematics you know are not correct," he said. "You believe there are only three dimensions(三维空间)-length, breadth(宽) and thickness."

    "There is nothing to argue with that, "  the youngest member of our little group said.

    "Exactly!"  the time traveler answered, "But there is also a fourth dimension - time."

    "We all know about time, " another member of the group said. "Time passed."

    "I do not agree,"  the time traveler said, "Length, breadth and thickness do not pass. They stay in the same place in space.  We move about them. I can prove that time is the same. It does not pass. We move in time the same way that we move in breadth, length and thickness."

    None of us believed the time traveler, and we argued with him for many hours.

    "If we could travel back in time,"  the scientist said, "We could do things to change the future."

    "If we could travel forward in time," the doctor(博士) said, "we could do things that change our present."

    The time traveler smiled, "It is clear," he said, "that there is only one way I can show you that I am right. We must do an experiment. Please wait here."

    He left the room and soon returned, carrying what looked like a clock.

    "This is a model of a time machine. It took me two years to make it," the time traveler said. "I want all of you to understand that when I start the machine, it will immediately travel in time and disappear from the present."

    He turned to the youngest of all. "Give me your hand," he said.

    The young man put out his hand. The time traveler took it and placed it on the machine. Immediately, there was a sudden wind, and the little machine disappeared.

    I was certain this was not a trick, but the doctor was not so sure.

    "Are you asking us to believe," he said, "that the machine is now in a different time?"

    "Certainly! In my laboratory, a full-size machine is almost complete. As soon as it is complete, I shall send myself on a journey through time. Would you like to see my machine?"

    "Are you serious about this?" the doctor asked.

    "I have never been more serious about anything," the time traveler said, "Come."

    We followed him to his laboratory. There, we saw the actual machine, not quite complete, but large enough for a man to sit in.

    Li Shizhen (李时珍) was one of the most famous doctors in Chinese history.  He was born in Qichun, Hubei in 1518.

    Both of Li Shizhen's father and grandfather were doctors. Li Shizhen's grandfather was a country doctor who traveled in the countryside with a bag of herbs (药草) and medications and cured (治愈) people. His father was doctor who wrote several books.

    Li Shizhen used to help his father in his medical practice when he was young. Li Shizhen's father wanted him to enter politics (从政). Li Shizhen studied for the exams and passed the country-level examination, but he was never able to pass the imperial (帝国的) examination.

    When he was 38, he cured the son of the Prince of Chu and was invited to be an official in that court (宫廷) A few years later, he became an official at the Imperial Medical Institute.

    Even though he fulfilled his father's dream, he didn't want to continue working for the court.

    One year later, he left the court and returned to be a doctor again.

    Li Shizhen. was famous for his book, Compendium of Materia Medica 《本草纲日》He spent 27 years writing the book. Unluckily, Li Shizhen died before the book was officially published. It is such a successful book. Now it is still one of the most important medical books in China.

    Victor's hobby was collecting stamps. He had stamps from many countries, like England, Canada and China. On his birthday, can you guess what people gave him? That's right-stamps.

    Victor's favourite stamps came from France. He had almost every stamp from 1954 to 2004. He only needed one. That was a 1974 special edition. It was very hard to find.

    He looked for it everywhere. He asked his friends and relatives to help him. But nobody could find the stamp. It made Victor very sad.

    "Don't worry. Never give up," his father said to him. If you have enough patience, you'll find it one day.

    "I hope so," Victor said

    Victor also liked writing. He had a penfriend in France. They wrote to each other every month. Victor's penfriend, Phillip, usually used new stamps to send letters. Sometimes, his mother gave him stamps to use. Once Phillip's mother gave him a big, green stamp. It looked old. When Victor received the letter, he was very surprised. On the envelope, he looked carefully at the stamp. It was the 1974 special edition stamp. Victor was so happy. He told his sister, his mother and his father. "You see," his father said. "You did find your stamp. So it's good to have two things in life."

    "What are they?" Victor asked.

    "Friends and patience," he answered.

    About twenty of us had been fortunate enough to receive invitations to a film-studio(影棚) to take part in a crowd- scene. Although our "act" would last only for a short time, we could see quite a number of interesting things.

    We all stood at the far end of the studio as workmen prepared the scene, setting up trees at the edge of a winding path. Very soon, bright lights were turned on and the big movie-camera was wheeled into position. The director shouted something to the camera operator and then went to speak to the two famous actors nearby. Since it was hot in the studio, it came as a surprise to us to see one of the actors put on a heavy overcoat and start walking along the path. A big fan began blowing tiny white feathers down on him, and soon the trees were covered in "snow". Two more fans were turned on, and a "strong wind" blew through the trees. The picture looked so real that it made us feel cold.

    The next scene was a complete contrast(对比). The way it was filmed was quite unusual. Pictures taken on an island in the Pacific were shown on a glass screen. An actor and actress stood in front of the scene so that they looked as if they were at the water's edge on an island. By a simple trick like this, palm trees, sandy beaches, and blue, clear skies had been brought into the studio!

    Since it was our turn next, we were left wondering what scene would be prepared for us. For a full three minutes in our lives we would be experiencing the excitement of being film "stars"!