阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳答案。   

                                                                                                      C

    I have tried to write a ghost story that won't make you unhappy with yourselves, with each other, with the seasons, or with me. I hope it haunts your houses pleasantly.

Charles Dickens

    One Christmas Eve, old Scrooge and Bob were working busily in his office. It was a cold, foggy day. The fog was so thick that the houses opposite were like ghosts. It was only three o'clock in the afternoon, but it was already quite dark.

    "Merry Christmas, Uncle! God bless you!" cried a happy voice. It was Scrooge's nephew.

    "Bah!" said Scrooge "Humbug(骗人的话)!"

    "Christmas is a humbug! Surely you don't mean that, Uncle." Said his nephew.

    "I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What reason have you got to be merry? You're poor."

    "OK, then," replied the nephew cheerfully. "What reason have you got to be sad? You are rich. Don't be angry, Uncle!" said his nephew.

    "What else can I be?" answered the uncle, "I live in a world of fools! Merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you? It's a time for paying bills without money, It's a time for finding yourself a year older, but not richer. Everyone who goes around saying "Merry Christmas" should have his tongue cut out. Yes, he should!"

    "Uncle! Please don't say that!" said the nephew. "I've always thought of Christmas time as a good time, a kind, and a charitable, happy time. And so, Uncle, Christmas has never put any gold or silver in my pocket, but I think it has done me good. And it will do me good. And I say, God bless it!"

    Bob, standing in the corner of the room, applauded(鼓掌).He realized his mistake very soon, and went quickly bake to his work, but Scrooge had heard him.

    "One more sound from you, Bob Cratchit," said Scrooge, "and you'll celebrate Christmas by losing your job!"

    "Don't be angry with him, Uncle. Come and have dinner with us tomorrow."

    "No." said Scrooge.

    "I'm sorry you don't want to celebrate Christmas. But I do. So a Merry Christmas, Uncle!"

     "Good afternoon!" said Scrooge.

     "And a Happy New Year!" said his nephew.

     "Good afternoon!" said Scrooge again.

    His nephew left the room. He stopped to wish Bob a Merry Christmas. And Bob replied, "A

    Merry Christmas to you, too."

    One day, Thomas Edison came home from school and gave a letter to his mother. He {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (tell) her, "My teacher gave this letter to me and asked me to give it to my mother only." His {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (mother) eyes were full of tears as she read {#blank#}3{#/blank#} letter out loud to her child, "Your son is a genius (天才). This school is too small {#blank#}4{#/blank#} him and doesn't have enough good teachers to train him. Please teach him {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (you)."

    Many years after Edison's mother had died, Edison became one of the {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (great) inventors of the century. One day, he was going through the old closet (壁柜) and he found a folded letter which {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (give) to him by his teacher for his mother. He opened it. The message {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (write) on the letter was, "Your son is mentally (精神上) ill. We cannot let him attend our school any more, he has to leave the school."

    {#blank#}9{#/blank#} surprised and excited Edison was after reading it! And then he wrote in his diary, "Thomas Alva Edison was a mentally ill child, but his mother turned him into the genius of the century {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(success)."

An old carpenter was ready to retire. His boss was 1 to see the good worker go. He asked the carpenter 2 he could build one more house. The carpenter said yes, but his mind was no 3 on his work.

    He used poor materials and worked on the house 4. When the carpenter finished his work, the boss 5 the front-door key to him. "This is your house," he said. "A 6 for you."

    What a surprise! What a 7! If he had known he was building his 8 house, he would have done it differently. Now he had to live in the house he had poorly built.

    9 it is with us. Sometimes we build our 10 carelessly. At important points we do not try our best. Then with a pity we look at the situation we had 11. We find that we are now living in the house we have poorly built. But we don't have a 12 to make it all over again.

    Think of 13 as the carpenter. Think about your life. Build it 14. It is the only life you will ever build because life is a do-it-yourself project.

    Your life today is the 15 of your attitudes and choices you made in the past. Your life tomorrow will be that of your attitudes and choices you make today.

A fox who was running ahead of some hunters saw a woodcutter and asked him to find a hiding place. The woodcutter{#blank#}1{#/blank#}to hide him in his small wooden house, and did so. Some moments later, the hunters arrived and asked the woodcutter {#blank#}2{#/blank#}he had seen a fox around here. He replied in words that he had not seen one go past, but {#blank#}3{#/blank#}using his hands, he suggested where the fox was hidden. The hunters, however, took no notice of his body languages and{#blank#}4{#/blank#}believed what he said.

After they had gone, the fox came out from the house without saying{#blank#}5{#/blank#}.When the woodcutter asked why the fox didn't express thanks for saving him, the fox replied: "I would thank you if your body languages had agreed with your words."

Australia is a large island and the world's sixth largest country. Australia has many beautiful places for travelling, from the Great Barrier Reef to Sydney. There are also many beautiful beaches. That's the reason why I went to Australia. 

My first impression(印象) of Australia was the Western architecture(建筑风格), comfortable life and nice people. Sydney is made up of many exciting areas, each with its own feature. 

I borrowed a car and drove around Fraser Island. I worked on a farm at Bowen for a week. Working on a farm was very difficult. Almost all the people there were working to save travel costs. I also did this. It helped me understand the value of money. 

By travelling I felt that the world was small. I realised that I had to study English very hard to be an international person. I didn't speak English well, so I often lost my way. Whenever I asked them for directions, they were willing to help me. I heard that they thought of nature first of all when they built a building. They think about animals and plants. I'm impressed by it. Most of all, I learned about the Australians' kindness and love of nature. Whenever I think of Australia, I want to travel to Australia again. I miss Australia. 

Last month, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} 18-year-old Asian pop star Candy Wang {#blank#}2{#/blank#} ( interview) by Young World magazine. She explained that when she was a little girl, she used {#blank#}3{#/blank#}( be) very shy and her parents helped her deal with the shyness {#blank#}4{#/blank#} learning to sing. As she grew up, it was not difficult for her to sing {#blank#}5{#/blank#}( public).

For Candy, she found that there were many differences after she became famous. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} it was good to get tons of attention, Candy was always worried about almost everything. For example, how to appear to others? What to say? What to do? What's {#blank#}7{#/blank#}( bad), she had to give up the {#blank#}8{#/blank#}( private) because there were lots of guards around her.

To someone who wanted to be famous, Candy suggested that he/ she {#blank#}9{#/blank#}( prepare) themselves for giving up their normal lives. Once there were many times that Candy thought about giving up, but she {#blank#}10{#/blank#}( fight) on. The road to success is always difficult.