Ireland has had a very difficult history. The problems started in the 16th century when English rulers tried to conquer (征服) Ireland. For hundreds of years, the Irish people fought against the English. Finally, in 1921, the British government was forced to give independence to the south of Ireland. The result is that today there are two "Irelands". Northern Ireland, in the north, is part of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland, in the south, is an independent country.

    In the 1840s, the main crop, potatoes, was affected by disease and about 750,000 people died of hunger. This, and a shortage (短缺) of work, forced many people to leave Ireland and live in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. As a result of these problems, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 6.6 million in 1851.

    For many years, the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Today, many people still work on the land but more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside, where things move at a quieter and slower pace.

    The Irish are famous for being warm-hearted and friendly. Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer, once said that the Irish were “the greatest talkers since the Greeks”. Since independence, Ireland has revived (复兴) its own culture of music, language, literature and singing. Different areas have different styles of old Irish songs which are sung without instruments. Other kinds of Irish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.

    Not every parent looks forward to the day when their child goes off to school. In fact some parents are not sending their children to school at all. Instead they are choosing to teach their children at home. This is called homeschooling. Parents, caregivers, or private tutors educate children individually at home instead of sending them off to be formally educated in public or private schools. In the U.S. only about three percent of children are homeschooled.

    There are many reasons why some parents choose to homeschool. One reason is that some parents do not feel their children are safe in school because of bullying (恃强凌弱). It is said that bullying is very common in the school. Other parents want their children's education to be based on their religion or moral beliefs. Yet other parents think the education in school is not good enough. Homeschooling is also seen as a choice for families that live in rural areas, and families that move frequently.

    There are many different ways to homeschool, and homeschooling allows parents to design lessons based on their children's needs. Families can purchase textbooks to use or create their own materials. Some parents follow a philosophy called unschooling, which allows a child to determine when and how they want to learn based on their natural ability. Some worry that homeschooling means students won't have opportunities to communicate with others.

    To solve this problem, some families have created activities, where a group of homeschooled students will learn and play together and participate in activities that would normally happen in school like field trips.

    Besides, being homeschooled doesn't mean a student cannot go to college. Most colleges accept homeschooled students. And the homeschooled students can get the same degrees, too.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    One of the best-loved American writers was William Sydney Porter, or O. Henry. From 1893 he lived with his family in a house in Austin, Texas, which is now a museum. Visitors to Austin can see the house. It was saved from destruction (破坏) and turned into a museum in1934. The museum is a good way to learn about the interesting life of the American writer.

    William Porter rented this house in Austin and lived there with his wife Athol and daughter Margaret for about two years. Many objects in the museum came from the Porters. Others did not. An important piece in the room is the original photo over here. It was taken there in the house about 1895. The piano there goes back to the 1860s. His wife took lessons on it when she first moved to Austin.

Porter wasn't a successful writer in the beginning. He worked at a farm, land office and bank. He also loved words and writing. The museum has a special proof (证明) of Porter's love of language — his dictionary. It is said that he had read every word in that dictionary.

    Later William Porter was forced to leave Austin because he was charged (指控) with wrongdoing at the bank and lost his job. Because he was afraid of a trial (审判), he left the country secretly. But he returned because his wife was dying. After her death, he faced the trial and served three and a half years in a prison in Ohio.

    William Porter would keep his time in prison a secret. But there was one good thing about it. It provided him with time to write. By the time he was freed, he had published 14 stories and became well known as O. Henry. Porter later moved to New York City and found great success there. He published over 180 stories in the last eight years of his life.

    The Lumière Brothers had their film shows, taken over 100 years ago, to 100 paying customers on December 8, 1985. One of their earliest films was a 30-second piece which showed a section of a railway platform. As the train approached, panic started in the theatre: people jumped and ran away. In their confusion, the audiences feared that a real train was about to crush them. That was the moment when cinema was born.

    Early cinema audiences often experienced the same confusion. In time, the idea of films became familiar, the magic was accepted — but it never stopped being magic. Film has never lost its unique power to embrace its audience and transport them to a different world.

    One effect of this realism was to educate the world about itself. Cinema makes the world smaller. Long before people travelled to America or anywhere else, they knew what other places looked like and how other people worked and lived. Undoubtedly, in the lives recorded in film people knew more about American life. Hollywood has dominated the world film market. American imagery — the cars, the cities, the cowboys became the primary imagery of film. Film carried American life and values around the globe.

    And, thanks to film, future generations will know the 20th century more familiarly than any other period. We can only imagine what life was like in the 14th century or in classical Rome. But the life of the modern world has been recorded on films. We shall be known better than any preceding generations.

    The “star” was another natural consequence of cinema. The cinema star was effectively born in 1910. Because everybody in the world seems to know who they are, they appear more real to us than we do ourselves. The star as magnified human self is one of cinema's most strange and enduring legacies(遗产).

    Cinema films originally were planned as short stories, because early producers doubted the ability of audiences to concentrate for more than the length of a reel. Then, in 1912, an Italian 2-hour film was hugely successful, and Hollywood settled upon the novel-length narrative that remains the dominant cinematic convention of today.

    And it has all happened so quickly. Almost unbelievably, it is only 100 years since that train arrived and the audience screamed and fled, perhaps, suddenly aware that the world could never be the same again — that, maybe, it could be better, brighter, more astonishing and more real than reality.

    Have you heard about "Survival Holidays"? It is for children to go into the lonely place for exciting activities. Now about 1,100 companies are allowed to take children into the great outdoors without their parents.

    The reason why people like "Survival Holidays" is that they think being close to nature is good for children. Many children in big cities spend all time watching TV and playing computer games. "Survival Holidays" gives them an important change.

    Is "Survival Holidays" a wonderful idea? Maybe it is. Children need more free time to play. They need to be left on their own, without adults disturbing (干扰) them. Parents care too much about their children. They like to see the children being busy with activities that are controlled (控制) by adults, which causes many problems. Children don't know what to do when they are in danger. Even something like crossing a small river seems to be a hard challenge. Children are not comfortable with danger. Even slight danger like getting their feet wet or falling down seems very terrible to them.

    Many people think the survival activities are good for children. Even years later, they will still remember what they have learned. Some have learned to stay calm in dangerous times. Some have learned how to keep safe. Others have learned how to work in a team. All these skills will help them a lot in their lives.

    Jimmy is an automotive mechanic (汽车修理技工), but he lost his job a few months ago. He has a good heart, but always feared applying for a new job.

    One day, he gathered up all his strength and decided to attend a job interview. His appointment was at 10 a.m. and it was already 8:30. While waiting for a bus to the office where he was supposed to be interviewed, he saw an elderly man wildly kicking the tyre of his car. Obviously there was something wrong with the car. Jimmy immediately went up to lend him a hand. When Jimmy finished working on the car, the old man asked him how much he should pay for the service. Jimmy said there was no need to pay him; he just helped someone in need, and he had to rush for an interview. Then the old man said, "Well, I could take you to the office for your interview. It's the least I could do. Please, I insist." Jimmy agreed.

    Upon arrival, Jimmy found a long line of applicants waiting to be interviewed. Jimmy still had some grease (油渍) on him after the car repair, but he did not have much time to wash it off or have a change of shirt. One by one, the applicants left the interviewer's office with disappointed looks on their faces. Finally his name was called.  The interviewer was sitting on a large chair facing the office window. Rocking the chair back and forth, he asked, "Do you really need to be interviewed?" Jimmy's heart sank. "With the way I look now, how could I possibly pass this interview?" He thought to himself.

    Then the interviewer turned the chair and to Jimmy's surprise, it was the old man he helped earlier in the morning. It turned out that he was the General Manager of the company.

    "Sorry I had to keep you waiting, but I was pretty sure I made the right decision to have you as part of our workforce (职工) before you even stepped into this office. I just know you'd be a trustworthy worker. Congratulations!" Jimmy sat down and they shared a cup of well-deserved coffee as he landed himself a new job.