阅读理解:阅读下列短文，然后从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、 C、和D)中，选出最佳选项。

Chinese writer Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012.Mo,who was born in 1955 into a farmer's family in Gaomi County in Shandong Province, is the first Chinese national to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In his early years, life was not easy and he experienced hunger. These things have influenced Mo Yan's later writings.

60-year-old Park Geunhye(朴槿惠)was elected the new President of South Korean in December, 2012. She becomes the country's first female head of state and her term will last five years from 2013. “I will become a president who puts people's living before anything else.” She told the cheering people in central Seoul as the accepted her win. “I will keep my promises.”

Barack Obama (bom in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1961), who was elected the 44^th President of the United States in 2008, has been elected again to a second term, fighting against Republican Challenger Mitt Romney. Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard I aw school. His father was from Kenya. And his mother was born in Wichita, Kansas.

      He was an old manwho fished alone in a small boat on the sea and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish, the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone with another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his boat empty. The sail looked like the flag of failure forever.

      The old man was thin with deep wrinkles (皱纹) in the back of his neck. His face was terribly brown because of the strong sunlight on the sea every day and his hands had the deep scars (伤疤) from dealing with heavy fish on the lines. But none of these scars were fresh. Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful.

      “Santiago,” the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from the sea. “I could go with you again. We've made some money.”

        The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.

      “No,” the old man said. “You're with a lucky boat. Stay with them.”

      “But remember how you went eighty-seven days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks.”

      “I remember,” the old man said.

     “It was papa who made me leave. I am a boy and I must follow him.”

     “I know,” the old man said. “It is quite normal.”

       "He hasn't mush faith(信心)"                       

     “No,” the old man said. “But we have. Haven't we?”

     “Yes,” the boy said. “Can I offer you a beer on the Terrace?”

    “Why not?” the old man said “Between fishermen.”

    Once upon a time, there was an owl(猫头鹰) in the middle of a dark forest. All the animals knew that he was the wisest among 1 of them. So they often went to him and told him their problems. Then the owl always told them 2 to solve their problems.

    One day, a little bird came to the owl. She was 3.

  “What's wrong with you?” asked the owl.

  “I'm not happy at all, Mr. Owl. I don't want to be a bird any more.” the bird 4.

  “Why don't you want to be a(n) 5?” asked the owl.

  “Because I am so small and weak,” she cried. “I want to be as big and strong as the lion. He is important, but I am not. ”

    Then the owl said 6 in her ear. Then the bird dried her tears and 7 away. One week later, the bird came back. “Thank you very much, Mr. Owl. You are so 8,”she said to the owl. “I'm very happy now. Every day, I watch out for （监视）lions and tigers.  9 they come near, I shout as loudly as I can. Then they all run and hide. They often 10 me for that. I am useful and important now. ”

    The wise owl smiled and said: “Dear, no one in the world is useless.”

    On the first day of school our teacher introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.

    I turned around to find a little old lady with a warm smile. She said, “Hi, handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old.”

    “Why are you in university at such a YOUNG age?” I asked. She replied, “I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of kids, and then retire and travel.”

    I knew she was joking. I was curious what might have encouraged her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

    “I always dreamed of having a university education and now I'm getting one!” she told me. We became friends. Every day we would talk nonstop after class. I always enjoyed listening to this “time machine” as she shared her wisdom and experience with me. And Rose easily made friends wherever she went.

    At the end of the term we invited Rose to make a little speech. She cleared her throat(喉咙) and began, “We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. I've learned a few secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.”

    “There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity(机会) in change...”

    The mystery(悬疑) stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are famous all over the world.

    The detective in his stories is called Sherlock Holmes. He solves mysteries in a most surprising way. Through it all, his assistant, Dr Watson, watches with admiration(钦佩). Watson then writes up the story of the mystery afterwards.

    This is a useful story writing skill. Because Watson is not very clever, the story remains a mystery until the end. The readers can sometimes pick up some clues before he does! Then, to make Watson understand the mystery, Holmes has to explain it all, step by step. So we, the readers, get to see it step by step too. Watson is almost as good a character in the story as Sherlock Holmes!

    The very first time they meet, Holmes greatly surprises Watson. When they are first introduced, Holmes says to Watson, "How do you do? I see you have been to Afghanistan.”

    Watson is too amazed by this to ask Holmes how he knows this. Watson has, indeed, been to Afghanistan. Later, he asks Holmes about it. Holmes explains that there is nothing magical about what he does. He gets to know it all by very, very careful observation (观察).

Observation One

    Watson was introduced to Holmes as a doctor. Yet Holmes thought that the way he stood and walked made him seem like a soldier. So, this meant he was probably an army doctor.

Observation Two

    Watson's face was quite dark skinned. But his wrists(手腕) were pale. So his dark face was probably sunburnt. This meant that he had been to a hot, sunny country. As he was a working doctor, this was not a holiday. He must have gone with the army.

Observation Three

    At the time, the British army had soldiers at bases in many parts of the world. So there were still a lot of places to choose from. However, Holmes saw that Watson looked very tired and he was always holding his left arm, as if it was painful. So, he had probably been with the army to a place where they were fighting. There was only one place where the British army was fighting at that time: Afghanistan.