Ben Jones was walking home from school one day when he saw a black cat. It was walking across the srteet in front of him. Ben stopped, turned around, and walked down a different srteet to go home. Why did he do that?
    "It's unlucky when a black cat crosses the street in front of you,”says Ben,“I did not want to walk down that street!”
     Many people think that some things bring bad luck. For example, some people think that 13 is an unlucky number. They never invite 13 people to a party.
    "I never walk under a ladder(梯子),”says Ben.“And I never open an umbrella inside the house. They both bring bad luck.”And what brings good luck?“We have a horseshoe over the front door of our house for good luck,”says Ben.
 “And when I find a peney on the ground, I always pick it up. That brings me good luck all day!”

    Dan was the doorman of a club in a big city. Every day, thousands of people passed his door, and a lot of them stopped and asked him, “What's the time, please？”

    After a few months, Dan said to himself, “I'm not going to answer all those stupid people any more. I'm going to buy a big clock and put it on the wall here.” Then he did so.

    “Now people aren't going to stop and ask me the time.” He thought happily.

    But after that, a lot of people stopped, looked at the clock and asked Dan, “Is that clock right?”

A

    An Englishman was showing a foreign visitor around London.“What's that strange building?” asked the visitor.“That's the Tower (塔) of London.”“I see. How long did it take to build it?”“About 500 years.”“In my country we can build it in a few months.”said the visitor. After they came to St. Paul's Cathedral (大教堂), the visitor asked the same question. “Nearly forty years,”said the Englishman. “In my country we finish it in forty days at most,” said the visitor. This went on all day. They visited most of the best known buildings in the city. Every time they saw a new one, the visitor asked what it was and how long it took to build it. Then he said they could do the same thing much faster in his country. At last the Englishman got angry with the visitor though he tried not to show it. Several days later they came to the House of Parliament (议会) and the visitor asked his usual question, “What's that?” The Englishman answered, “I have no idea. It wasn't there last night.”

根据短文内容，选择正确答案。

    Tom is ten years old. He loves watching TV. But for one year, he didn't watch TV at all. What was the reason? Tom's parents said they would give him $600 if he didn't watch TV for a year. Tom's parents thought he watched TV too much.

    One day his mother read a story in a newspaper about a boy who didn't watch TV for a year. She showed the story to Tom. Tom liked the idea. He turned off the TV right away, and said," It doesn't trouble me not to watch TV. I just want the money. "At first, Tom's parents were very happy. Tom read books and newspapers, played outside, and played computer games, but soon he got bored.

    Every evening, he asked his parents." What are we doing tonight?" Sometimes his mother and father wished he would watch TV just for one evening. Tom always said," No, it would cost me money!" Finally the year was over, Then Tom started watching his favorite TV shows all day again. Tom got the money from his parents. What did he plan to do with the $600?"I want to buy myself a TV set!" he said.

    People say that George Washington, the first president of the United States, never told a lie. But it seems that the president was not without faults.

    A New York library recently found that Washington borrowed two books from the library in 1789. He would have to pay the library 300,000 dollars for being 220 years late.

    On October 5, 1789, when the first president borrowed the books form the New York Society Library, he didn't sign his name in the borrower's book. He just wrote "president" to show who had taken them out.

    The two books should have been brought back a month later but were never returned. Workers at the library realized the books were missing.

    The New York Society Library doesn't expect anyone to pay the fine. But it hopes that someone will return the books.

    A young woman turns around and around quickly, and jumps high. In the background, a young girl reads a rejection(拒绝)letter from a ballet school." You have the wrong body for ballet," it says, " and at thirteen, you are too old." This was one of the most popular advertisements(广告)of 2014 and it describes American Ballet Theatre's principal(主要的)dancer Misty Copeland.

    This was not a real letter. But Copeland says it is very similar to letters from her childhood. While many dancers start at the age of three, Copeland only began to study ballet in 1995 as a thirteen­year­-old girl. People often told her that she was too old，or that she didn't have the perfect body type(She is only 157 cm tall). Her family moved a lot, and it was sometimes difficult for her to attend ballet classes. But Copeland loved dancing and did not want to give up. She stayed with her ballet teacher during the week and spent time with her family only at the weekend. This was a difficult life, but she worked hard and won her first national competition when she was fourteen years old. Copeland joined the American Ballet Theatre in 2000 and performed in many ballets over the next few years. In 2007, she became a solo(单独的) performer, and in 2015 she became its principal dancer.

    Copeland is now a dancer, author and Broadway performer. She also starred in the 2015 film A Ballerina's Tale. So what's next? According to Copeland, anything is possible：My career(职业)really is just now beginning.