There was once a king who had a great palace with a wonderful garden. In the garden, there lived all kinds of animals. All of them

enjoyed living there.

 There was only one thing in the garden that the king hated: an old tree in the center of the garden. It was so old and dry. This made

the king so angry that he finally asked some people to cut it down and turned the place into a swimming pool. However, after the tree was cut down, the animals left the garden. Without the animals, the garden was not so beautiful as before. The king was sad, but he didn't know what had happened.

 A young man went to the king, and said he could explain what had happened. “This was because you cut the old tree down,” said the young man. “There were thousands of moths (飞蛾)which lived in the tree. Birds needed the moths to eat and then they produced wastes for plants to grow. The plants then attracted many other animals to your garden. So your garden became very beautiful. But as you cut the tree down, the animals had to leave.

“Excellent!” said the king, “I'll make you rich and you will try to make my garden beautiful again.”

“I'm afraid it will take many years to finish. It will take many years for the natural balance(生态平衡) to get back again,” said the young man.

 The king was sad, but all he could do was just to wait.

    Sandwich was an Englishman. He lived in the 18th century. Sandwich was rich(有钱的), but he liked to play cards for money. He often played for 24 hours, and didn't even stop to have his meals. He ordered his servants(仆人) to bring him some meat and bread. He put the meat between the two pieces of bread and held the food in his left hand while he played cards with his right hand. People liked Sandwich's idea, and from then on they ate bread and meat as Sandwich did.

    From the name of the man, Sandwich, we have the word of the food "sandwich" today.

阅读下面短文，根据短文内容，从A,B,C三个选项中选出可以填入空白处的正确答案。

A

    A famous symbol in American culture is a cartoon animal—Mickey Mouse. Mickey first 1 in a cartoon in New York in 1928. Walt Disney was the father of Mickey. He made lots of cartoons with Mickey. Many people around the world love the mouse with two 2 ears. He was so popular because he was like a common man, but he always tried to face any danger and solve the problems all by himself. In Disney's early films, Mickey was 3,he lost his house and girlfriend, Minnie. 4,he never gave up his efforts and always won at last. Most people want to be like him. Now Mickey Mouse is still one of the most popular 5 characters in the world.

CACBA

B

    Maria Montessori is a famous Italian educationalist, whose method of teaching has influenced people all over the world.

    Born in Italy in 1870, Montessori became the first woman doctor in her country after she graduated from medical school in 1896. Later, working with poor children, she set up a “Children House” in Rome in 1907. The rooms were bright and colorful. This was the place where she developed the Montessori Method, which was formed during 1908-1913.

    Maria thought that children must be free to learn without being criticized(批评) or limited. She let the children make their own choice of what they wanted to do and work with their own speed, not the rest of the class or the teacher. As a result, children enjoy learning and this gives them confidence and makes them happy. The Montessori Method also teaches children skills to help them become independent. Very young children learn to dress themselves, to cook and to put their toys and clothes away. It's a way of teaching which encourages children to learn by doing and experimenting. Children are encouraged to repeat activities as often as they wish, and they develop their observation(观察) skills by doing different activities. In addition, the Montessori Method thinks that teacher is a guide, not a leader of the classroom, helping to open students' eyes to wonder around them.

    A typical room in a Montessori school has many things children can use. The furniture is light so they can arrange it as they wish. Because the environment offers many activities, children like to work together and they develop a social life based on cooperation(合作)rather than competition.

    Maria Montessori travelled around the world to train teachers to use her method. In 1950, she received the World Peace Education Badges.