One day, Mr. Smith went to a dinner party. He was wearing very old clothes. He came into the room. But people in the room didn't look at him. They didn't ask him to sit at the table. He wasn't happy. But he said nothing.

    Mr. Smith went home quickly and put on his best clothes. He went back to the party. Everyone in the room stood up and looked at him. They gave him good food to eat.

    Mr. Smith took off his coat, and put it on the food and said, "Eat, coat!"

    The other people were surprised and asked, "What are you doing? Why do you do that?"

    Mr. Smith answered, "I am asking my coat to eat food. When l wore old clothes, you didn't look at me. You didn't ask me to sit down. Now I am wearing these nice clothes. And you give me good food. Now I see, you give the food to my coat, not to me."

阅读短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

    Some of the greatest problems we face today are the destruction (破坏) of our environment． Brown clouds, polluted water, endangered wild animals．．, these problems seem so huge．

    So my family does what we can． We take cloth bags to stores instead of using plastic bags． We walk where we don't have to drive．．．

    But does it do any good? When I am the only one in line at the market with cloth bags, am I doing any good? Does my walking to stores make any real difference to the world?

    I recently learned something about flamingos (火烈鸟) which like to get together in groups of a thousand or more． Every year, when the time comes for migration (迁徙), a few of them first takeoff from the lake． But none of the others seem to notice, so the small group returns．

    However, the next day they try again． This time few more fly along with them, but most of them still pay no attention, so they return again． They try for several times． Every time a few more birds join in but, since the thousands of others still take no notice, the great migration plan is once more stopped．

    Then one day something changes． The same small group of birds once again starts flying and a small number more join in just as before, then more． Finally, they all take flight and the migration really begins．

    What a spectacular sight it must be—thousands of flamingos taking off into the sky at once!

    A few can make a difference． Even if you're the one to take the first step, and continue trying, others will someday take notice and together we will solve even our greatest problems．

    There was once a boy called Jim in a village. Whenever Jim asked people to do things, no one would listen to him. He was sad. So Jim asked a wizard to solve the problem by using magic. The old wizard tried a lot of spells, but didn't work.

    A young man heard about the problem .He went to Jim and said that he knew the solution. He gave Jim two small pieces of paper. “These are two spells, my boy. Use the first before you ask others to do something, and use the second when they have done it. A smile is also necessary, "the young man said. Jim was happy and tried to use the spells. When he asked people to do something. He said “Please "before his words and "Thank you "after they had done it. People were very surprised that Jim could be polite. Soon, they became happy to do what Jim asked them to do. The wizard was surprised, and asked the young man about the spells. ”It's not magic. When I was a child, my teacher told me that with good manners you could get anything you want. And he was right. Jim only needed good manners to get what he wanted.”

Dear Yang Kai,

    Would you like to go out for a picnic with my brother and me at 3: 30 on Sunday afternoon?

    We will have the picnic in Yingze Park. You know where it is, don't you? You can take the No. 6 bus to the park. After you go into the park, walk straight on for about five minutes until you come to a small but clean river. There is a bridge over it. Go across the bridge and turn left. After walking for ten minutes, you will come to a hill. Walk to the other side (边) of the hill and you will see a lake (湖). We will have the picnic by the lake.

    I'm sure you will find us easily. Don't forget (忘记) the time.

Yours,

Hao Gang

    A taxi hit a truck. A policeman spoke to the taxi driver and the truck driver. He also spoke to Tom. Tom was a witness(目击者). This is what they said.

    Truck driver: I was driving from the airport to Newtown. A car crossed the road, so I slowed down. I did not stop. A taxi hit the back of my truck. Nobody was badly hurt but both vehicles were damaged.

    Taxi driver: I was driving behind a truck a few kilometres from Newtown. The truck stopped suddenly. The driver did not give me a warning. I was driving very slowly. I could not pass the truck because there were two cars coming near from Newtown. My taxi hit the truck, and some glass cut my left hand.

    Tom: I saw the traffic accident about a kilometre from the airport. A truck was going to Newtown. It was not going very fast. There was a taxi about two hundred metres behind the truck. It was going fast. When the truck slowed down, the taxi hit it. The taxi driver was not looking at the truck. He was looking out of the window at something. My friend saw the accident too.

    Tom's friend spoke to the policeman and agreed with Tom.