Mary and Peter were having a picnic near a river when Mary noticed something flying overhead.“ 1 ,” she shouted to her friends. “ That's a spaceship up there and it's going to 2 here.”
Frightened(吓唬) by the strange silver colored spaceship,3 of the young people got in their 4 and drove away quickly. But Peter5 Mary and always close to her. They, more 6 than frightened, watched the spaceship land, saw a door open. When nobody 7 , they went to the spaceship and looked into。In the center of the floor 8 was a pile of food. Peter followed Mary into the spaceship and didn't 9 the door close behind him. The temperature fell quickly and the 10young people lost consciousness(知觉).
When they woke up, they were 11to see that they were back by the river 12 . The spaceship had gone. Their car was nearby.
“What 13 ?” said Mary.
“Don't ask me; perhaps we had a 14 .”Peter said slowly. “Did you … did you see a spaceship?”
“Yes,” said Mary. “Oh, Peter, we 15 have seen a UFO coming from another world.”
A young officer was at a railway station. On his way home, he wanted to telephone his mother to tell her the time of histrain, so that she could meet him at the station in her car. He looked in all his pockets, but found that he did not have the right money for the telephone, so he went outside and looked around for someone to help him.
At last an old soldier came by, and the young officer stopped him and said, "Have you got change for tenpence?"
"Wait a moment, " the old soldier answered, beginning to put his hand in his pocket, "I'll see whether I can help you. "
"Don't you know how to speak to anofficer?" the young man said angrily. "Now let's start again. Haveyou got change for ten pence?"
"No, sir, " the old soldier answered quickly.
B
December 25 is Christmas Day(圣诞节). Christmas is an important holiday in many countries. OnChristmas Day, most families get together for a big dinner. They give presents to each other and visit friends. The Christmas tree is an important part of the Christmas holiday. Most families buy trees. The families decorate(装饰) the tree together. Parents usually tell their children that Father Christmas comes during the night and brings presents to good children. Of course, Father Christmas isn't real. The parents of the children are really“Father Christmas”. They put the presents under the tree or into their children's stocking(长统袜)after the children go to sleep.
C
No one knows how man learned to make words. Perhaps he began by making sounds like those made by animals. Perhaps he grunted（发出呼噜声）like a pig when he lifted something heavy. Perhaps he made sounds like those he heard all round him—-water splashing（飞溅）, bees humming（嗡嗡作响声）, a stone falling to the ground. Somehow he learned to make words. As the centuries went by, he made more and more new words. This is what we mean by language.
People living indifferent countries made different kinds of words. Today there are about fifteen hundred different languages in the world. Each contains four or five hundred thousand words. But we do not need all these. Only a few thousand words are used in everyday life.
The words you know are called your vocabulary. You should try to make your vocabulary bigger. Read as many books as you can. There are plenty of books written in easy language. Your dictionary is your most useful book.
used, just, line, heard, happy, came, piece,from, well
We can often see dog owners taking their dogs for a walk. But have you of taking penguins(企鹅) for a walk? Here is a of news from Japan. In Tokyo Zoo, penguins go out for a walk inevery day. It is said that this can make them happy and stop them
being homesick(想家的). The penguins in the zoo didn't eat and were not kind to workers when they first came to the zoo, maybe they were not to the life in the zoo. So the zookeepersup with this good idea.Theylet them walk as they did in South Pole. Now, all these penguins have become .
Astronauts used to only have freeze-dried powders and semi-liquid pastes（冻干粉和半液状的糊糊）for meals. Now US scientists want to grow vegetables in mini-greenhouses on the Moon. They look forward to(provide) astronauts or space travelers with fine dinners of fresh vegetables in the future.
Paragon, a company that works with NASA, has designed the "Lunar Oasis（月亮绿洲）".
"Lunar Oasis" is a small greenhouse. It looks like a bell jar put into a 46cm-tall frame. The frame is designed to protect plants while they grow on the Moon.
They plan to send the small greenhouse into space (successful) in 2020. Scientists will put brassica（芸苔）seeds —like acabbage —in the greenhouse. Because this kind of vegetable goes from seed to flower in just 14 days, it can complete (it) life cycle in just one night on the Moon.
The Moon greenhouse has been compared to an experiment at the South Pole. The South Pole greenhouse, now in its(five) year, allows workers living in the coldest place on Earth to have (tomato), lettuces, strawberries and herbs.
"Living on the Moon seems so far away, but it is (importance) that we do this research now," said Jane Poynter, the president of Paragon.
