This is a story from One Thousand and One Nights.
A long time ago, there were two 1 , Cassim and Ali Baba. When Ali Baba grew up, he cut wood to make a living. One day, when he was 2 wood in a forest, he saw forty thieves go to a cave(山洞). When the thieves said “Open Sesame(芝麻)”, the 3 of the cave opened. When they said “Close Sesame”, it closed. After the thieves left, Ali Baba went into the cave and took some 4 away. But Cassim found it and made Ali Baba 5 him everything. Cassim wanted to steal some gold, too. When Cassim went into the cave, the thieves 6 and killed him angrily. Cassim's 7 was very worried about Cassim. She asked Ali Baba to 8 her husband. The next day, Ali Baba went to the cave and found that Cassim was 9 . Ali Baba took his brother's body away. So the thieves knew there was someone else. They followed Ali Baba and 10 to kill him, too. But Ali Baba was very clever and killed all the thieves instead. Finally, Ali Baba gave all the gold in the cave to the poor.
A
Happy Time is a program on ABC Radio. John Brown is an announcer of the program. Most of the girls and boys like the program. They also like John Brown. Some of them often make calls to him and thank him for his work. There are lots of letters to him every day, too.
John Brown gets up at 6:00 am every day. He leaves home at 6:30 am and gets to his office at 7:15 am. The program begins in fifteen minutes. He always plays some new songs for his listeners.
John finishes his work at 6:30 pm. He drives home every day. He likes reading newspapers and listening to music in the evening. Sometimes he takes his dog for a walk after dinner.
B
The great ship, Titanic, left England for America in April 1912 for its first time. It was carrying 2,200 people.
Titanic was the largest and finest ship at that time. People thought it was safe to be on the ship because it was divided into 16 compartments(密封舱). Even if four of those were broken, it would still be able to stay on sea.
Four days later, when Titanic was crossing the sea, the man on watch(值班) suddenly saw a very large iceberg(冰山) in front of the ship. The great ship turned quickly in time, but soon there was a loud sound from the bottom. The captain went down to see what the matter was. To his surprise, he found the ship was going down fast into the sea because five compartments had been broken! Hundreds of people jumped out into the water. As there were no enough lifeboats, about 1,500 people were killed.
C
A driver stopped his car on a street side to have a rest. As he lay down in the seat and closed his eyes, a person came up and knocked at the window to ask the time. The driver opened his eyes and looked at his watch. “It's 8:05,” he said. Then he went to sleep again. But soon he was awoken again because a second person was knocking at the window. “Sir, do you know the time?” he asked. The driver looked at his watch again, and told him it was half past eight. In this way, the driver thought he could not have a good rest, so he wrote a short note and stuck it on the window for all to see. It said, “I don't know the time.” Again, he lay down in the seat to sleep. A few minutes later, a third person came and began to knock at the window. “Hey, sir,” he said, “It's a quarter to nine.”
D
Almost all people like flowers. Some people like flowers because of their smells, shapes, colors and so on. Others like flowers because they think different flowers have different meanings. Flowers have their own language. For example, red roses mean “love” and sunflowers mean “loyalty”(忠诚). People in more than 100 countries have chosen their own national flowers which say something about their countries' spirit. In 1994, China announced to choose a national flower. Some people liked the peony(牡丹) but others liked the plum blossom(梅花). They couldn't agree with each other. So it has not been decided yet.
People like to buy different flowers in different seasons. Where do all the beautiful flowers in shops come from? They may come from faraway places, so the prices are high.
a. Farmers grow flowers in their fields.
b. Planes, trains or buses take the flowers to different places.
c. Flower shopkeepers buy flowers from the flower markets. They look after the flowers and throw away the broken or bad ones. They cut the flowers to make them more beautiful.
d. You go to buy the flowers in the shops. When you buy a flower, you're paying lots of people: the farmer, the driver of the plane, train or bus, the seller in the flower market and the flower shopkeeper.
So you'd better keep your flowers for a long time. But how? Why not dry them? It's easy! Sand drying is a way. Dry and clean sand is one of the oldest things for drying flowers. And it's also one of the cheapest ways.
•Fill a box half-way with sand.
•Put the flowers on top of the sand.
•Put the box in a warm and dry place.
•Leave the flowers there for one to three weeks.
•Take them out and they will be dry.
Michael worked in a factory near a forest. One day, his boss ordered him (cut) down some trees in the forest. When Michael wanted to cut down a tree, a bird flew down and said that the tree was (it) home and it asked Michael not to do that. Michael didn't know what to do, he finally agreed. The bird was happy and (tell) Michael a secret.
The next morning, Michael got up earlier usual. He went to find the bird and followed it to a mountain. Michael saw much gold there. The bird said, “You can pick as gold as you can. , there is one thing you should keep mind — remember to leave before the sun comes up.” Then Michael picked some gold and left (quick).
His life became (good) than before. Michael told Daniel the secret. Daniel went to the mountain, too. But he was too greedy(贪婪的). He wanted more gold and didn't leave. At last, after the sun came up, the gold turned into stones. What happened to Daniel? He became a bird.
