阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。

    If cars had wings，they could fly and that just might happen，beginning in 2011.The company Terrafugia，based in Woburn，Massachusetts，says it plans to deliver its car­plane，the Transition，to customers by the end of 2011.

    “It's the next ‘wow' vehicle，” said Terrafugia vice president Richard Gersh.“Anybody can buy a Ferrari，but as we say，Ferraris don't fly.”

    The car­plane has wings that unfold for flying－a process the company says takes one minute－and fold back up for driving. A runway is still required to take off and land.

    The Transition is being marketed more as a plane that drives than a car that flies，although it is both. The company has been working with FAA to meet aircraft regulations，and with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to meet vehicle safety regulations.

    The company is aiming to sell the Transition to private pilots as a more convenient and cheaper way to fly. They say it saves you the trouble from trying to find another mode of transportation to get to and from airports：You drive the car to the airport and then you're good to go. When you land，you fold up the wings and hit the road. There are no expensive parking fees because you don't have to store it at an airport－you park it in the garage at home.

    The car­plane is designed to fly primarily under 10,000 feet. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,430 pounds，including fuel and passengers. Terrafugia says the Transition reduces the potential for an accident by allowing pilots to drive under the bad weather instead of flying into marginal(临界的) conditions.

    The Transition's price tag：$194,000.But there may be additional charges for options like a radio，a transponder or a GPS. Another option is a full­plane parachute.

    “If you get into a very awful situation，it is the necessary safety option，” Gersh said.

    So far，the company has more than 70 orders with deposits. “We're working very closely with them，but there are still some remaining steps，” Brown said.

    Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe grammar as the “rules” of a language; but in fact no language has rules. If we use the word “rules”, we suggest that somebody created the rules first and then spoke the language, like a new game. But languages did not start like that. Languages started by people making sounds which evolved (逐渐发展成) into words, phrases and sentences. No commonly-spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time. What we call “grammar” is simply a reflection (反映) of a language at a particular time.

    Do we need to study grammar to learn a language? The short answer is “no”. Very many people in the world speak their own, native language without having studied its grammar. Children start to speak before they even know the word“grammar”. But if you are serious about learning a foreign language, the long answer is “yes, grammar can help you to learn a language more quickly and more efficiently.” It's important to think of grammar as something that can help you, like a friend. When you understand the grammar (or system) of a language, you can understand many things yourself, without having to ask a teacher or look in a book.

So think of grammar as something good, something positive, something that you can use to find your way—like a signpost(路标) or a map.

    Except invented languages like Esperanto（世界语）. And if Esperanto were widely spoken, its rules would soon be very different.

    Scotland has long been characterized as a land of romance. It contains ruins of many ancient castles and abbeys，and there is an attractive beauty in its mountains，long deep valleys，and ribbon lakes.Each year those things attract a great number of tourists.

    Numerous islands line the coast.In the north are two large groups，the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands.Close to the west coast are the Inner and Outer Hebrides groups，and the islands of Arran and Bute.

    The land may be divided into three regions: the Highlands in the north，the Central Lowlands and the Southern Uplands.

    The Highlands are wild and picturesque(如画的)． A long valley called Glenmore crosses the Highlands from southwest to northeast.

    In the south of the Highlands are the Grampian Mountains，highest in the British Isles. Ben Nevis，the highest peak，rises to 1,243 meters.Ben Lomond rises from the shore of Loch Lomond，Scotland's largest freshwater lake.

    The Central Lowlands run from southwest to northeast and the greatest length is nearly 145 kilometers.The soil here is fertile，and there are four coalfields underlying the area.In the east is Edinburgh，Scotland's historic capital city，and in the west is Glasgow. Almost 90 percent of Scotland's population live in the Lowlands.

    In the Southern Uplands, the hills are generally less than 600 meters high. Their rounded or flat tops are often capped with dark peat(泥炭). Along the slopes are plants like grass and heather(石南花).

    I came to study in the United States a year ago .Yet I did not know the real American society until I was injured in a car accident because after the accident I had to see a doctor and go to court.

    After the accident .my roommate called a doctor for me. I was very grateful and determined to repay him one day. But the next day, he asked me to pay him $200 for what he had done. I was astonished. He had good reason to charge me, he said. And if I wanted to collect money from the person who was responsible for my injury, I'd have to have a good lawyer. And only a good doctor can help me get a good lawyer. Now that he had helped me find a good doctor, it was only fair that I should pay him.

    But every day I went to see the doctor, I had to wait about 50 minutes. He would see two or three patients at the same time, and often stop treating one so as to see another. Yet he charged me $115 each time .The final examination report consisted of ten lines, and it cost me $215.

    My lawyer was all smiles the first time we met. But after that he avoided seeing me at all. He knew very well the other party was responsible for the accident, yet he hardly did anything. He simply waited to collect his money. He was so irresponsible that I decided to dismiss him. And he made me pay him $770.

    Now I had to act as my own lawyer. Due to my inexperience, I told the insurance company the date I was leaving America. Knowing that, they played for time…and I left without getting a cent.

    Fireworks are exciting, but also hard to control. The Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang, though, has developed a way to harness the visual and physical power of fireworks to make art He recently used them to create a burning sculpture that stretched high into the sky. Guoqiang fittingly named the work Sky Ladder.

    Guoqiang built Sky Ladder by making a frame out of metal. He coated the frame with gunpowder, the main chemical material in fireworks.

    The artist tried one end of the frame to the ground and attached a large weather balloon to the other end. The balloon was filled with helium — a gas that is lighter than air. When released, the balloon floated upward, pulling the top of the ladder 500 meters into the sky. That's higher than the top of the Empire State Building.

    Guoqiang set fire to the bottom of the ladder, and the crackling（啪啪作响） flames raced skyward up the frame. The sculpture burned for two-and-a-half minutes before its flames began to die out from the bottom up.

    Dealing with explosive (炸药）is challenging, and conditions had to be perfect for Guoqiang to achieve his desired effect. He first attempted Sky Ladder in 1994, but bad weather prevented him from successfully completing the work. Guoqiang put Sky Ladder aside so that he could work on other projects, perhaps most famously the fireworks display that opened the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

    Finally, after two more failed attempts, Guoqiang successfully sent his flaming ladder skyward last year. He presented Sky Ladder in his hometown, a quiet fishing village near Huiyu Island, Quanzhou. He offered the work as a gift to his 100-year-old grandmother, other family members, his friends and his town.

    “Behind Sky Ladder lies a clear childhood dream of mine, "Guoqiang explains. “Despite all life's twists and turns, I have always been determined to realize it. The ladder rose toward the morning sun, carrying hope. For me, this not only means a return, but also the start of a new journey."

Not many years ago, a rich and kind old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money by selling and buying goods. When he was seventy-five, he gave f 12,000 to the village to buy land and equipment for a children's playground.

As a result of his kindness, many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaper man. During their talk, Johnson said that he was seventy-five and expected to live to be a hundred. The newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at seventy- five. Johnson had a sense of humor. He liked wine and drank some each day. "I have an injection(注射)in my neck each evening." he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of wine.

The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was seventy- five and had a daily injection in his neck. Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain, asking him for the secret of his daily injection.