阅读下列短文，然后从每小题A、B、C、D中选出能回答所提问题或完成所给句子的最佳答案．

     Nadia Comaneci，a famous gymnast （体操运动员），was born in Romania in 1961．

    When shewas doing cartwheels （侧手翻%）on the playground at the age of 7，a PE teacher saw her．He told her family that she was very good and advised Nadia to train in the capital of Romania．Although it was a long way from her home，Nadia went because she loved gymnastics （体操）．

    After that，she trained hard and took part in lots of competitions．In 1975，she was named as one of the Athletes of the 20th Century．

    In 1976，Nadia went totheOlympicsinCanada．She was so fantastic in the competition that everyone waited for the score，a high score．But the scoreboard showed1，00!

    Everyone was surprised．There wasn't a sound for a moment．Then a voice came，"Ladies and gentlemen，Nadia Comaneci…10!"

    The audience（观众）cheered very loudly．So what happened？Well，when the scoreboard was built，no one thought a score of 10，00 was possible．The decimal point （小数点）was in the wrong place!In fact，the scoreboard only had three digits（数位） to show scores，such as 9.50 or 9.85 at that time．

    In the 1976 Summer Olympics．Nadia Comaneci scored a perfect 10，which was thought impossible before．From then on，she was looked as a hero．In 1984，she got retired（退休的）．

    Miss Bailey taught me English in Junior school. She cycled to school, and then when entering the school gate, she would gave her bicycle to anyone of us to park it for her. It was a privilege（特别恩典）when Miss Bailey gave her bicycle to you. One day Shankar stood at the gate, Shankar was a hunchback（驼背的人）.

    We laughed and said, “Move out of the way, Shankar! Miss Bailey is going to enter!” Miss Bailey drove in and we all rushed to offer our hands to her. But Miss Bailey looked past us all. “Will you park it for me?” she asked. We looked back to see who it was and were surprised to see it was towards Shankar. “I don't think so, Miss Bailey!” stammered （结结巴巴地说）Shankar. “Why! You lazy fellow!” said Miss Bailey playfully. “You don't want to help your teacher, do you?” “ Of course I want to, Miss Bailey!” whispered Shankar. “But I might drop your cycle!” “ If you drop it ,you pick it up!” said the teacher with a smile.

    With that she gave her cycle to Shankar and didn't look to see how he'd manage. Pretending she had confidence in his abilities, Miss Bailey turned and walked to class. We watched Shankar as he held her bike, we held our breath as we thought it was going to fall. Dines rushed to help. “Leave it!” Shankar said, and we all stopped. It seemed that his hump（驼背）disappeared as he drew himself up to his full height, and then with growing confidence, he pushed Miss Bailey's cycle to the parking lot. The school bell rang, and we rushed to class. Shankar was the last to enter, but we were surprised; it was a different boy who walked in.

    Miss Bailey didn't even look at him as he walked to her and handed her the key. From that day on, Shankar was ready to answer the questions in class, his grades went up and a smile appeared on his face.

My mother's loving hands

    Night after night, she came to help me sleep, even long after my childhood years.

    I don't remember1it first started making me a little angry-my mum's hands pushing my hair that way. But it really made me uncomfortable, for they2rough(粗糙的)against my young skin. Finally, one night, I3her, "Don't do that anymore. Your hands are too rough！”She didn't say anything, 4she never did it again.

    Years later, I missed my mother's5and her goodnight kiss on my face. I'm not a little girl any more. My mum is6her mid-seventies, and her rough hands are still doing things for my family and me.

    Now my own children have7. It was late on Thanksgiving Eve. As I slept in my bedroom, a familiar hand ran across my8to push the hair from my head. Then a kiss, ever so softly, touched my brow(额头).

    Taking my mum's hand, I told her how9I was for that night I shouted at her. But my mum didn't know what I was talking about. She had forgotten it long ago.

    That night, I10with a new appreciation(感激)for my mother's caring hands. And the guilt(内疚)that I had carried around for so long was nowhere to be found.

The Maya (玛雅) number system(体系) appeared in the fourth century, which was about 1,000 years earlier than the time when the European number system was created. It is different from the Arabic number system with a base 10 (十进制). The Mayan system had a base 20. This system is believed to have been used because the Mayans lived in such a warm area and there was hardly a need to wear shoes, 20 was the total number of fingers and toes, so the system was workable. Therefore, there were two important numbers in this system. Besides 20, the other important number is 5, which had a connection with the number of fingers and toes on one hand or foot.

 The Mayan system used two symbols (符号). A dot (.) was used to mean the units ( one to four) and a dash (—) meant five. The Mayans were also the first to create symbols of nothing ( or zero). The most common symbol was that of a shell but there were several other symbols. It is interesting to learn that with all of the great experts on Maths and scientists in ancient Greece and Rome, it was the Mayan Indians who came up with this symbol zero or nothing. The following picture is a form of different numbers and how they would have been written.

 From further study, people found that the 360 day calendar(日历) also came from the Mayan. They actually used base 18 when they made the calendar. Each month included 20 days with 18 months in a year. This left five days at the end of the year which was month in itself, full of danger and bad luck. In this way, the Mayans had invented the 365 day calendar.