A few months ago, a strange thing happened in my life. I heard a strange sound outside the window every night. I was scared and didn't know what to do. I thought there might be a thief standing outside the window was closed. I asked my parents to see what it was. But they didn't find anything. They thought it might be the wind. But I didn't think so.

    That lasted for a few days. I couldn't sleep well. Sometimes I even couldn't fall asleep, One day, I bought a flashlight(手电筒) in a market. At midnight, as soon as I heard the strange sound, I jumped out of my bed with the flashlight. I saw a black cat jumping up and down near thewindow. He might want to make friends with my pet cat, but he couldn't get into my house.

    Do you think it is strange? Have you ever had this kind of experience in your life?

⑴--⑷根据短文内容，回答问题⑸英译汉

    Basketball players are usually very tall. Because they need to put the ball into the basket. Other sports players may be shorter than them.

    Short people often have better balance (平衡) than tall people, so they don't fall over very often. In some sports the players must have good balance, for example, table tennis, they don't need to have long legs to run fast! Some of the fast runners in the world are not very tall. Some people are tall and some are short. The tallest man in the world is 2.41 meters tall. Today young people in many countries grow taller than their parents. This is because they eat better than their parents. Good food can help children grow.

根据短文内容，回答下列问题。

    China is a country with many colorful days and festivals. The Dragon Head Raising Day (Longtaitou) is one of them. This special day is on the second day of the second month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It stands for the start of spring and farming.

    The dragon is important for Chinese people. We Chinese people call ourselves the" descendants(传人)of the dragon" . Therefore, people celebrate the Dragon Head Raising Day with many customs.

    On the day in ancient times, people put ashes in the kitchen. This was to" lead the dragon into the house". People believed that with the help of the dragon, they could have a good harvest(收成)in autumn.

    Also, people cat special foods that day. The foods are usually named after dragons. For example, people eat" dragon whisker(细须)"noodles and dumplings called "dragon teeth " .

    Today, many customs have faded away(消退). But one that has remained is the cutting of hair. It is said that a haircut during the first lunar month may bring bad luck to the uncles of the family-mainly mother's brothers. So many people have their hair cut on the Dragon Head Raising Day.

Give water, save lives

A bottle of water may not seem like much to you, but thousands of bottles will be of great help for people who live in drought-hit(遭受旱灾) areas in China.

Since last autumn, there has been very little rain in Southwest China. Some places, especially in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, have experienced a serious drought. Crops (庄稼) died, the land cracked(裂开), and wells (井) and rivers dried up. More than 20 million people are having difficulty in finding safe drinking water.

After learning about the drought, many people around the country helped by giving water, money and other things.

Last week, every member of the Communist Youth League (共青团员) and Young Pioneers(少先队员) were encouraged to give one bottle of water to the drought-hit areas. Students in primary schools and middle schools quickly joined the activity. In Yuhua Primary School in Xi' an, 900 students bought over 1,000 bottles of water with their pocket money. They also wrote their wishes on the bottles.

The serious drought has also made students realize the importance of saving water. Students from Nanshan Middle School in Huizhou, Guangdong went on the street to tell people to take part in water-saving activities.

"I've heard that some children in drought-hit areas don't have enough drinking water. They have to drink muddy ( 含有泥土的 ) water. I feel really sad about that," said one student. "I decide to take a shower twice a week instead of every day to save water," he said.