Benjamin Banneker was born a few months before another great American—George Washington. Benjamin was black, but he was not a slave (奴隶). He and his mother and his grandmother were free. Benjamin's grandmother came from England. In America she got a job and worked for many years to pay for her boat trip across the ocean. After working many years, she saved enough money to buy a farm. Benjamin lived with her for a while. She taught him to read, write and do arithmetic (算术).

    Benjamin's neighbours knew that he was clever. They were not surprised when he built a large wooden clock. He made each piece after studying a small pocket watch. The clock made him famous, for it was one of the first clocks built in America. People from other places began to send hard problems of all kinds to Benjamin to settle.

    Thomas Jefferson heard of Benjamin Banneker's ability to settle hard problems. He asked Banneker to help build the city that was to be the capital of the United States—Washington, D.C. Banneker worked hard on the plans for the city. He marked where the streets and buildings—the Capitol (美国国会大厦), the White House, and many other places should be built.

    Later, L' Enfant, the Frenchman who had designed the new city, had a quarrel, and went back to France in anger. He took all of the plans away. The workmen couldn't build without any plans to follow.

    For a while it seemed that the plans for the capital might have to be changed, but Benjamin Banneker remembered the plans he had helped draw. He drew each again as he had built each piece of his clock.

    If it weren't for Benjamin Banneker, Washington,

    D.C might look very different from the way it does today.

Do you like taking a trip? Now many students like riding bikes to take a trip. But it may be dangerous. For your own safety (安全), do the following things. 

Wear a bike helmet because it can protect (保护) your head. Look for a helmet that is right for you. The best helmet can't protect you if it isn't right for you. 

Wear the right clothes. They can make you feel better. They can also protect you. Bright-colored clothes like white help people see you clearly--even in the nighttime. Don't wear dark-colored clothes like black or brown when you are riding a bike. 

Follow the rules on the road. Always ride on the right side of the road. Please first look behind you before you turn left or turn right. And don't ride too closely (接近) to the cars--the cars may stop and the door may open suddenly! Also, don't just listen to music when you are riding a bike. If you listen to music, you may not know there is a car behind you. 

If you follow these tips, you'll be safe riding on the road. 

"Everybody loves bargain (减价品). " is a famous saying. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} In our daily life, one person's useless or broken object may be another person's bargain. That is why Americans don't throw things away. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} And they put up a "For Sale" sign to have a yard sale. 

Over the years, many people's houses have been filled useless objects. It seems wasteful to throw them away. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} The sellers put an ad (广告) in a newspaper first. It tells others when and where the yard sale will take place. Early in the morning, people take their things out of the house. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Anything can be sold at a yard sale, such as old toys, tools, books, tables and chairs. Some people go to yard sales to find a special thing. However, some people don't sell their old things. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Later, they may hold their own yard sales to sell all the things they have bought. 

The lion dance is part of traditional Chinese culture. People often perform in the night before the Chinese New Year. They1 perform it for other happy occasions. People think the lion dance can2 good luck and success. 

There are many different stories3 how the lion dance began. One of them is like this：Hundreds of years ago，a monster called Nian came to a village in China. The villagers were4 . A lion chased Nian away. A year later，Nian5 again，but this time the lion couldn't help. So the villagers made a "lion" by themselves. Their "lion"danced，jumped and chased Nian away. For this6 ，people began to perform the lion dance before the Spring Festival to chase bad luck away. 

There are7 different kinds of lion dances. In the southern lion dance，the dancers8 hard to perform like a real lion. Their "lion" may shake its body. The dance can be funny. The9 kind is the northern lion dance. It has more martial art skills like rolling，leaping and jumping. Both kinds are very interesting to watch，but it takes a lot of10 to perform well. 

Cola is bad for our health. Cola is sweet, because it has sugar in it. Too much sugar can let you get fat. Drinking one bottle of cola each day can make you get fifteen pounds（磅） each year. And because the sugar in cola can make you feel full, you can't eat much healthy      food, such as fruit, vegetables and rice. And cola is bad for your teeth and bones（骨头）. Drink water, please. Water is very important to our body. It keeps us healthy. We get water from drink and food, especially（特别是） from fruit and vegetables. But it's better to drink water. If you don't like plain（清淡的） water, you can put a little 100% fruit juice into it. 

Hundreds of years ago, life was much harder than it is today. People didn't have modern machines. There was no modern medicine, either.

Life today has brought new problems. One of the biggest is pollution. Water pollution has made our rivers and lakes dirty. It kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us talk louder and become angry more easily. Air pollution is the most serious kind of pollution. It is bad to all living things in the world.

Cars, planes and factories all pollute our air every day. Sometimes the polluted air is so thick (厚的) that it is like a quilt over a city. This kind of quilt is called smog(烟雾).

Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. Factories must now clean their water before it is thrown away(倾倒) and they mustn't blow dirty smoke into the air.

We need to do many other things. We can put waste things in the dustbin and not throw them on the ground. We can go to work by bus or with our friends in the same car. If there are fewer people driving, there will be less pollution.

Rules are not enough. Every person must help to fight pollution.

根据语篇内容，从每小题所给的A、B、C三个选项中选择最佳答案。