Bamboo is one of the nature's most surprising plants. (1) 许多人称这种植物为树，但它是一种草。

Like other kinds of grass, a bamboo plant may be cut very low to the ground, but it will grow back very quickly. A Japanese scientist recorded one bamboo plant that grew almost 1.5 meters in 24 hours! Bamboo grows almost everywhere in the world except Europe.

（2）There are more than 1 ， 000kinds of bamboo that grow around the world on both mountains and plains （平原）．

      Not all bamboo looks the same．Some bamboo plants are very thin．They may only grow to be a few centimeters wide while others may grow to more than 30centimeters across．This plant also comes in different colors，from yellow to black to green．

      Many Asian countries have been using bamboo for hundreds of years．They often use bamboo for building new buildings．As a matter of fact，the cables （绳索） that hold up the hanging bridge across the Min River in Sichuan are made of bamboo．The bridge has been in use for more than 1，000years，and is still holding strong．

      In Africa，（3）engineers are teaching poor farmers how to use bamboo to find water ． These African countries need cheap ways to find water because （4 ）they have no money，and their fields often die from no rain and no water．It seems that bamboo is one of the best things they can use．Bamboo pipes and drills （钻） can help to make the poor thirsty fields be watered．

    Wendy is manager of customer service at ABC Products. She received the following letters from customers. Read the letters and answer the questions.

    It was December. Marie, a 13-year-old Australian girl was happy. It was Christmas, and Marie's mother was making a special cake. She put four small coins into the cake, and then she baked (烤) it.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}After dinner Marie and her family ate the cake. They found three coins in the cake and put them on the table.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}It was missing, but Marie's mother didn't notice.

    After Christmas Marie got sick. She coughed, and she couldn't speak. After six weeks she felt better, but she still couldn't speak.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Doctors at the hospital looked her over, and then said, "We are sorry, but we can't help her. " For 12 years Marie didn't speak. She grew up, she got a job, and she got married.

    But she never spoke. One day, when Marie was 25 years old, she got a sore throat at work.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}She coughed up something small and black. What was it? Marie didn't know. She took it to the hospital. A doctor at the hospital said, "This is a coin!" The doctor told Marie, "I think you can speak again.”{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A.Where was the fourth coin?

B.Marie's parents took her to hospital.

C.The four coins were for good luck.

D.The coin is difficult to find.

E.She began to cough.

F.Marie went to a special doctor, and soon she could talk.

    Arctic fox (北极狐) is a kind of small fox that lives in the Arctic. It grows about 50 centimeters (厘米) long, not including its tail, 30 centimeters tall and weighs from 3 to 7 kilos.

    The Arctic foxes are white or blue in color. The white ones are white in winter, but gray-brown in summer. The blue ones are blue-gray all year round. The Arctic foxes have long, thick hair that is called fur (毛皮). And the long fur covers their whole bodies, including both their cat eyes and rabbit feet, to keep them warm in the low temperature in the Arctic.

    The Arctic foxes feed mainly on birds, birds' eggs and other small animals. Teamwork is the way they look for food, and they don't like to do that alone.

    Baby Arctic foxes are very lovely. They don't open their eyes until a week after their birth. For the first half of the year, their parents offer them food. They begin to look for food on their own when they are about six months old. The next year they can live alone.

    Today the number of the Arctic foxes is becoming smaller and smaller, because people kill them for their fur to make beautiful coats for money. Something must be done to protect the Arctic foxes.