H. G. Wells lived from 1866 to 1946. He wrote many famous stories. He was best at writing stories about the future. One story is called The Time Machine. Here is the story.

    More than 100 years ago, there was an English scientist and inventor living in London. One day, four friends went to his house for dinner. The inventor was not there. Feeling hungry, they started dinner without him. Then they heard a sound. A few moments later, the inventor came in, looking dirty.

    He told his friends that he built a time machine. He could travel into the future.

    The inventor went thousands of years in the future. He met people called the Eloi. They were smaller than him. They had no machines. Growing fruit and vegetables was all that they did. They had no hobbies. Only one girl, Weena, spoke to him.

    Four days later, he met other people called Morlocks. They lived underground. They caught Eloi people and ate them! The inventor wanted to fight against the Morlocks. The Eloi didn't want to help him, not even the strong men. He tried to fight against the Morlocks. At last, Weena went underground with him. Unfortunately, Weena died.

    After that, he got in his time machine. He came back to his time. Seeing the future made him sad. The people in the future were worse. They were not clever.

    His friends didn't think it was a real story. But they never saw him again. Maybe he went to save the future.

    My parents told me we were going camping during winter vacation. Camping! They are always trying to get me outside more. It seems like my mom is always saying, "Brian, turn off the computer!" or "Brian, put down your phone and talk to us!" They don't understand that I'm in the zone when I'm using a keyboard, so of course I don't want to stop.

    We drove for an hour to Everglades National Park. As soon as we got there, I couldn't get a signal(信号) for my phone. Suddenly, I was facing three days of no contact with the outside world. My mom tried to tell me I'd like it, "You'll be able to look around more when you're not staring at a screen."

    We took a hike with a ranger(护林者) in the afternoon. He explained a lot to us about the Everglades. At first, I couldn't care less, but after a while I started listening. By the end of the hike, I realized there was more action going on in the park than in most video games.

    We did a lot of walking and that night I was really tired. Even so, I woke up in the midnight, and I was scared at first because of some strange sounds. But then I realized it was the barred owl that the ranger had described. It sounded like it was calling out "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?" Then I was not afraid anymore and went back to sleep.

    The next two days we did a lot more exploring. I saw that all the land and water and animals were connected in the Everglades. Small fish eat mosquito eggs; large fish eat those smaller fish; and alligators eat the large fish. If you got rid of(除掉) the mosquitoes, you might lose some of the other animals higher up the food chain too.

    After we left, we talked in the car about the Everglades. Right in the middle of our discussion, I heard a familiar sound from my phone. My friend Jeff was sending me a message. I reached for my phone, then put it back down. "Aren't you going to reply?" asked Mom.

    "I will in a little while," I said. My dad and mom looked at each other and just smiled.

    Donald was not very good at Maths. He couldn't understand the teacher's explanations. Even when the teacher explained something a second time, Donald still couldn't understand it.

    "Never mind," Donald told himself. "I'm quite good at other subjects. I'll cheat (作弊) in the Maths exam to get a good grade (分数), and then I won't be in trouble."

    "I'll sit next to the boy who does best in Maths," he thought, "and copy down his answers."

    The day of the exam came, and Donald sat next to Tommy, who was always at the top of the class in Maths. Donald carefully copied Tommy's answers onto his own exam paper. At the end of the exam, the teacher collected the papers and graded them in time.

    Then she said, "Well, boys and girls, I've decided to give a prize to the student who got the highest grade. It's difficult for me to decide who I'll give the prize to, however, because two students, Donald and Tommy, got the same grade."

    "Let them share it," one of the other students said.

    "I've thought about that," the teacher said," but I've decided to give the prize to one of them."

    The students were surprised when they heard this. They said, "That's not fair. They got the same grade."

    "That's true," the teacher said. "However, Tommy's answer to Question 18 was 'I don't know' while Donald's was 'Neither do I'."

    My father is seventy-five years old this year. But he looks very young. He looks like a sixty-year-old man. Now he can do everything all by himself. For example, he cooks, washes clothes, does the housework and so on.

    Every morning, my father goes out with a radio. He listens to the music or the news and goes to the park to play taijiquan. In the park, he talks and laughs with other old people. After coming back from the park, he begins to have breakfast and then he goes to the university (大学) for the old. He learns to draw there. In the afternoon, he plays on the computer for about one or two hours. After supper he watches TV and learns about the world. He goes to bed at about eight o'clock. He never stays up. He likes to share his ways of keeping healthy with others.

    Are you healthy? If not, what do you learn from my father's secret of keeping healthy?

    Sally was a student. Her mother's birthday is coming. She wanted to buy her a nice and cheap present(礼物).

    She went shopping after a quick and simple lunch. After she looked for half an hour, she found a shop. It was selling cheap umbrellas, and she decided to take a black one.

    She thought, "Mom can carry it when she is wearing any clothes." So she bought a lovely black umbrella and took it to school with her.

    On her way home on the train she felt hungry because she ate little for lunch. So she went to the buffet car(餐车). She left the umbrella on her seat. But when she got back. She couldn't see the umbrella!

    Sally began to cry. The other passengers felt very sorry for her and asked what was the matter. She told them she couldn't find the black umbrella, and she had to get off at the next station. After the three passengers heard this, they asked her for her mother's address(地址)so that they could send the umbrella to her if someone took it and brought it back.

    After a week, Sally got a letter from her mother. It said "Thank you very much for your lovely gifts, but why do you send me three black umbrellas?"

阅读下列短文, 从下面每个小题的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项。

One day, Ben was playing basketball in the living room, breaking a vase. To cover his terrible action, the frightened boy glued the pieces together and put the vase back to its place.

That evening her mother noticed the cracks (裂纹). But to her surprise, the repair work was actually very good. At dinner time, she asked her boy if he broke the vase. Fearing punishment, the boy said that a neighbor's cat jumped in from the window and knocked the vase off. His mother was quite clear that her son was lying. However, she said nothing.

Before going to bed, the boy was asked to go to the study. In the study, his mother didn't look angry. On seeing her son carefully come in, she gave him one chocolate, saying "This chocolate is a reward (奖励) for your imagination: a window-opening cat!" At that moment, the boy felt the chocolate was a hot potato. “Did mom find holes in my excuse?” he thought. “You know, all the windows were closed.” Mother continued calmly and took out two chocolates into his hand, “An award for the perfect repair.”

Now with the chocolates in hand, the boy wished the ground to open up and bury him! He told the truth. “So I have to punish you for your lie.” The mother said with a serious voice and took back his chocolates. The boy bent down his head in shame. “But your honesty should have the award—a box of chocolates.” The mother suddenly bent to kiss his cheek, speaking gently to the crying boy, “My son, honesty values more than anything.”