I still remember my first day at school in London and I was half-excited and half-frightened. On my way to school I wondered what sort of questions the other boys would ask me and practiced all the answers: “I am nine years old. I was born here but I haven't lived here since I was two. I was living in Farley. It's about thirty miles away. I came back to London two months ago.” I also wondered if it was the custom for boys to fight strangers like me, but I was tall for my age. I hoped they would decide not to risk it.

    No one took any notice of me before school. I stood in the center of the playground, expecting someone to say “hello”, but no one spoke to me. When a teacher called my name and told me where my classroom was, one or two boys looked at me but that was all.

    My teacher was called Mr. Jones. There were 42 boys in the class, so I didn't stand out there, either, until the first lesson of the afternoon. Mr. Jones was very fond of Charles Dickens and he had decided to read aloud to us from David Copperfield, but first he asked several boys if they knew Dickens' birthplace, but no one guessed right. A boy called Brian, the biggest in the class, said: “Timbuktu”, and Mr. Jones went red in the face. Then he asked me. I said: “Portsmouth”, and everyone stared at me because Mr. Jones said I was right. This didn't make me very popular, of course.

    “He thinks he's clever,” I heard Brian say.

    After that, we went out to the playground to play football. I was in Brian's team, and he obviously had Dickens in mind because he told me to go in goal. No one ever wanted to be the goalkeeper.

    “He's big enough and useless enough.” Brian said when someone asked him why he had chosen me.

    I suppose Mr. Jones, who served as the judge, remembered Dickens, too, because when the game was nearly over, Brian pushed one of the players on the other team, and he gave them a penalty (惩罚). As the boy kicked the ball to my right, I threw myself down instinctively (本能地) and saved it. All my team crowded round me. My bare knees were injured and bleeding. Brian took out a handkerchief and offered it to me.

    “Do you want to join my gang (帮派)?” he said. At the end of the day, I was no longer a stranger.

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。

    It is one of the most annoying words in the English language and it seems there is no escaping it．The word “huh?” is in worldwide use, a study found.

    Researchers discovered that languages spoken in countries from Ghana and Laos to Iceland and Italy all include “huh?”, or something that sounds very like it. They said that while the study may sound silly，the word is an absolutely necessary part of speech. Without it and similar words, it would be impossible to show that we haven't heard or understood what had been said and this would lead to constant misunderstandings.

    But while other words used in the same context, such as “sorry” or “what”, vary widely across languages, “huh?” remains unchanged.

    The Dutch researchers carefully studied ten languages from around the world, including Siwu, which is spoken in Ghana, and an Australian Aboriginal language, as well as Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Mandarin Chinese.

    They analysed tapes of recorded conversations for words that sounded like‘‘huh?”and were used to request that whatever had Just been said be repeated. All contained a version of “huh?” The word was also found in another 21 languages. While there were subtle differences in each country, all sounded basically the same.

    This is surprising because normally unrelated languages will use very different words to describe the same thing. For instance, the Japanese for “dog” is “inu”, while the French is “chien”. It is thought that languages around the world have developed their own version of “huh?” because the sound is quick and simple to form, as well as being easily understood.

    The researchers，said that it might seem unimportant to carry out scientific research into a word like “huh?” but in fact this little word is an essential tool in human communication．They also have an answer for those who claim that “huh?” isn't a word. They say that it qualifies because of the small differences in its pronunciation in different languages. It also can be considered a word because it's something we learn to say, rather than a grunt or cry that we are born knowing how to make.

    Runners who encounter visual and auditory distractions (干扰)may be more likely to suffer leg injuries, according to research by the Association of Academic Physiatrists in Las Vegas. Runners often seek distraction from the task at hand. Whether it be music, texting, daydreaming, taking in the sights, or propping a book up on the treadmill(跑步机), more often than not a distraction is welcome. But, researchers from the University of Florida have recently discovered those distractions may lead to injury.

    Daniel Herman, MD, assistant professor at University of Florida, and his team conducted research on the effects of visual and auditory distractions on 14 runners to determine what effect these distractions would have on things such as heart rate, how many times a runner breathes per minute and how much oxygen is consumed by the body.

    The runners were all injury-free at the time of the study and ran 31 miles each week. Dr . Herman's team had each participant run on a treadmill three separate times. The first time was without any distractions. The second time added a visual distraction, during which the runners concentrated on a screen displaying different letters in different colors with the runner having to note when a specific letter-color combination appeared. The third time added an auditory distraction similar to the visual distraction, with the runner having to note when a certain word was spoken by a certain voice.

    When compared to running without distractions, the participants applied force faster to their left and right legs called loading rate, with auditory and visual distractions. They also experienced an increased amount of force from the ground on both legs, called ground reaction force, with auditory distractions. Finally, the runners tended to breathe heavier and have higher heart rates with visual and auditory distractions than without any distractions at all.

    "Running in environments with different distractions may unfavorably affect running performance and increase injury risk," explains Dr. Herman. "Sometimes these things cannot be helped, but you may be able to minimize potentially cumulative(累积的) effects. For example, when running a new route in a chaotic environment such as during a destination of marathon, you may want to skip listening to something which may require more attention - like a new song playlist."

    Dr. Herman's team will continue to investigate the potential relationship between distracted running and leg injuries, and any effect this relationship has on different training techniques that use auditory or visual cues.

    The plan: turn Mars into a blue world with streams and green fields, and then fill it with creatures (生物) from the earth. This idea may sound like something from a science fiction (科幻小说), but it is actually being taken seriously by many researchers.

    This suggested future for the "red planet" will be the main topic for discussion at an international conference hosted by NASA (美国宇航局) this week. Leading researchers as well as science fiction writers will attend the event. It comes as NASA is preparing a multi billion dollar Mars research programme. "Turning Mars into a little earth has long been a topic in science fiction," said Dr Michael Meyer, NASA's senior scientist for astrobiology (太空生物学). "Now, with scientists exploring the reality, we can ask what are the real possibilities of changing Mars."

    Most scientists agree that Mars could be turned into a little earth, although much time and money would be needed to achieve this goal.

    But many experts are shocked by the idea. "We are destroying our own world at an unbelievable speed and now we are talking about ruining another planet," said Paul Murdin, of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK. Over the past months, scientists have become increasingly confident they will find Martian life forms. Europe and America's robot explorers have found proof that water, mixed with soil, exists in large amounts on the planet.

    In addition, two different groups of scientists announced on March 28 that they had found signs of methane (甲烷) in the Martian atmosphere (大气). The gas is a waste product of living creatures and could be produced by microbes (微生物) living in the red planet's soil.

    But scientists such as Dr Lisa Pratt, a biologist at Indiana University, say that these microbes will be put in danger by the little earth project. "Before we have even discovered if there is life on Mars, we are talking about carrying out projects that would destroy all these native life forms, all the strange microbes that we hope to find buried in the soil," said Dr Pratt. This view is shared by Monica Grady, a planetary scientist at the Natural History Museum, London. "We cannot risk starting a global experiment that would wipe out the precious information we are looking for." she said, "This is just wrong."

    A traveller was staying in an Egyptian village. One day, she held up her camera to take pictures of the children. Suddenly the young ones began to shout at her. The traveller's face turned red and she apologized to the head for what she was doing, and told him she had forgotten that people in some places believed a person would lose his soul(灵魂) if his picture was taken. She explained to him the operation of a camera for a long time. Several times the head tried to say something, but he couldn't. When she believed that the head didn't fear any longer, the traveller then let him speak. With a smile, he said, "The children were trying to tell you that you forgot to take off the lens(镜头) cap!"

There are very few countries in the world that don't have some sort of legend（传说）or connect ion with dragons. Here are some great destinations to get a fix on dragon. 

France

Calais in France has a dragon standing 33 feet tall, 82 feet long, with a wingspan of more than 55 feet. It walks and moves as you would imagine a dragon does, and you can take it for a ride. The Calais dragon is a mechanical wonder, which is nearly too real to be called a fairground creature. 

Wales

In the UK, you will find a proud dragon country, Wales. Here there is the legend of two dragons: one white and one red. Wales' tale describes the two dragons fighting and the red one winning, so you will find it difficult to hurry about the country without coming across a red dragon. Dragons are sold in souvenir shops, sit by ancient castles, hang around in King Arthur's Labyrinth, and are featured on the national flag. 

Norway

The Vikings knew a thing or two about dragons. In the lovely film How to Train Your Dragon, they even flew them. But seriously, when you dig into Norway's Viking history and legends, you will find dragons mentioned everywhere, though not as cute as those in the film. From the figurehead in the Viking Ship Museum to jewelry, and decorations on buildings, be on the lookout for them when visiting Norway. 

Bhutan

The Druk or Thunder Dragon, is the national symbol and appears everywhere. The country is called Land of the Thunder Dragon, or Kingdom of Druk, and it's part of the national anthem（国歌）and its flag. Despite its fearful name, it's actually rather cute. The legend has it that the sound of thunder through the mountains is actually the dragon roaring.