It's Jim's birthday today. He is five years old. He gets many nice birthday presents(礼物) from his family and one of them is a big drum (鼓). “Who gives him the drum?” his father asks. “His grandfather does,” answers Jim's mother. Jim likes his drum very much. He makes a noise(噪音) with it, but his mother doesn't say anything about it. His father is not at home. He is working in a school. So he doesn't hear the noise. But one of the neighbours (邻居) doesn't like the noise at all. So one morning she takes a knife and goes into Jim's room. Jim is making a noise with the drum. She says to him, “Hello, Jim. Do you know there is something nice in your drum? Here's a knife. Open the drum and let's find it.”

阅读理解

    American Sign Language, often called ASL, is used by most people with hearing problems in the United States and Canada.

    Besides ASL, there are more than fifty sign languages used throughout the world today, including Mayan Sign, British Sign, Israeli Sign, and Chinese Sign. Like spoken languages, sign languages are different from each other. But all sign languages are based on sight instead of sounds.

    Sign languages have several main visual (视觉) parts that work together to express meaning. The first part is the shape made by the hands. Movement is also important. Moving the body or organs (器官) like hands affects the meaning of the shape. The place where the sign is made and the direction the hands face are crucial as well. Other visual clues (线索), such as the expression on a person's face, can sometimes change a sign's meaning. For example, a change in a smile can show whether a signer is happy, very happy, or overjoyed. Raising the eyebrows can mark a question.

    In sign languages, the visual parts are combined (结合) in different ways to create signs.

These signs stand for things, actions, feelings, and ideas. ASL has about 4,000 different signs. Like spoken  languages,  sign  languages  cannot  be  translated  word-for-word.  

    For English word may be represented by a series of signs in ASL. Or several English words may be

represented by a single ASL sign. Unlike spoken languages, the signs are organized according to sign-language grammar and the most important word or idea is signed first.

    In ASL, the letter signs are made with one hand. Signers would rarely, if ever, spell out all the words they are signing. That would be as awkward and slow as speakers spelling each spoken word. However, American Sign Language does not have signs for proper names, so signers may use the alphabet to spell these. Also, sign languages often borrow words from other languages. They may spell words using finger spelling which is done with a set of hand shapes that stand for letters of the alphabet.

    Sign languages  develop  naturally  when  people  with  shared  culture  and  needs  want  to communicate with each other. Signers are closely linked to each other, perhaps more than to speaking people in their own communities. Signers share points of view, values, needs, and problems,as well as languages.

    Cinderella is a beautiful girl. She has two ugly stepsisters. They are not kind to Cinderella. Cinderella does all of the work at home. She must cook, clean and do everything.

    One day, a letter comes to the house. It is a letter from the prince. He will have a big party. He would like the three girls to come. The prince wants to find a wife.

    Cinderella can't go to the party because she doesn't have beautiful clothes. The day of the party arrives. Cinderella met a fairy godmother. She gives Cinderella a coach, two horses and a beautiful dress. But magic will stop working at 12 o'clock.

    The prince's palace is full of people. They are all happy to be at the big party. All the girls want to marry the prince. Then Cinderella walks into the palace. "Who is she?" everyone asks. "She's so beautiful," they say.

    The prince sees Cinderella. He asks her to dance with him. All night long they dance and talk. The prince and Cinderella fall in love. At twelve o'clock, Cinderella runs out.

    Cinderella runs and loses one of her glass shoes. She must get home before twelve. She is late. She runs into the house. Now, she is wearing her old dress again.

    The prince finds Cinderella's shoe. "I know this shoe. It is that beautiful girl's. I'll find her," he says. The next morning, he goes from house to house to find her. He goes to Cinderella's house. The two ugly stepsisters try on the shoe, but their feet are too big.

    "Can I try it on?" asks Cinderella. "Yes," the prince says, so Cinderella tries the shoe on. It fits her foot. "I have found my princess," the prince says. Soon Cinderella and the prince get married. They live happily ever after.

    The Kennedy Elementary school band(乐队)is special. That's because Tony Boland, a member of it, is a 79-year-old flute(长笛)player. His story tells us that you're never too old to toot the flute.

    After working at the school for more than ten years, Tony joined the fifth graders in the band. His grandchildren were at the school. He help with reading.

    He started tooting the flute many years ago, when his wire tried to throw away(扔掉)their daughter s flute.

    "You will play better if you play with others," he told a reporter.

    Brian Enabnit thought Tony would make a difference to the band. "He's great. He's helping the students around him, "Enabnit said.

    Tony practises with the students once a week and performs with them. They played at the Dubuque Community School District's Band Festival earlier this month.

    Fifth-grade student Courtney Less thought her older classmate was successful. "He's an excellent player," Courtney said. "All of us are afraid when giving a performance, but he isn't."

    Here is a picture of my birthday party. My friends and I are all very happy at the party. Peter is eating the birthday cake. My mother makes it for us and it's delicious. My sister Molly is singing. And Selina is playing the guitar for her. Selina's father is a music teacher and he teaches Selina to play the guitar. Dave is talking about basketball with my brother. Where am I? I'm in front of Dave.

Last year, George's family went to Paris for the summer holiday. George was{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(兴奋的) about the news. Paris is a wonderful place to visit. It was his{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(第一) time to{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(旅行) by plane. They got there{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(晚) and{#blank#}5{#/blank#}(去) out with the lights on. They had dinner in a French{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(饭店). It sold delicious{#blank#}7{#/blank#}(食物). It was a very hot day in summer,{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(因此) they went to{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(猜) what George did? He stayed on the beach and{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(观看) people surfing. They all had a good time there.