A rabbit is running into his hole. You may ask, “What happened?”

Well, when a rabbit sees something dangerous, it runs away. Its tail moves up and down as it runs. When other rabbits see this tail moving up and down, they ran, too. They know there is danger. The rabbit has told them something without making a sound. It has given them a signal.

Many other animals use this kind of language. When a bee finds some food, it goes back to his home. It can’t tell the other bees where the food is by speaking to them, but it does dance in the air. This tells the bees where the food is.

But animals say things by making sounds. A dog barks, for examples, when a stranger comes near. A cat purrs(發(fā)出呼嚕呼嚕的聲音) when pleased. Some birds make several different sounds, each with its own meaning.

But human beings have something that no animals have---- a large number of words about things, actions, feelings or ideas. We are able to give each other information to tell or inform other people what is in our mind or how we feel. By writing words down we can remind ourselves of the things that have happened, or send messages to people far away. No animals can do this. No animals has the wonderful power of language.

No one knows how man learned to make words. Somehow he learned to make them. As centuries went by, he made more and more new words. This is what we mean by language.

People in different countries made different kinds of words. Today there are about fifteen hundred different languages in the world. A very large English dictionary, for examples, contains four or five hundred thousand words. But we don’t know all these. The words we know are called vocabulary. We should try to make our vocabulary larger. Read as many books as possible. When we met a new word, look it up in the dictionary. A dictionary is the most useful book.

1.What’s the meaning of the underlined word?

2.A dog can tell something__________.

3.It has been proved that no animals are able to_________.

4.Generally speaking, what we mean by “vocabulary” is_______.

5.What must we do in order to make our vocabulary larger?

Many years ago, an earthquake happened suddenly. A lot of buildings

collapsed(倒塌)。 It killed over 100,000 people in a few minutes. Shortly

after the earthquake, a father rushed to the school where his son studied

only to find the building had fallen down. He remembered his promise to

his son:“No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you!”

The tearful father began to dig to look for his son. Some parents

felt hopeless and tried to pull him off. But he asked,“Are you going

to help me now?”And then he kept on digging. The fireman came.

They tried to pull off and said,“Danger! Leave here!” But the

father who loved his son deeply,asked,“Are you going to help me now?”

The policeman came up and said,“It’s over.Leave here!We’ll do it.”

Still he asked again and again,“Are you going to help me now?”

He went on alone because he needed to know,“Is my boy alive or

is he dead?” He dug for 8 hours…12 hours…24hours…36hours…then, in the 38^th hours, he pulled back a large stone And heard his son’s voice. He cried,“Tom!”He heard back,“Dad? It’s me, Dad! I told other kids you’d save me. I believe you would keep your promise.”“Get out, boy!”“No dad! Let the other kids out first. Because I know you’ll get me out! No matter what happens, I know you’ll always be there for me!”

Judge the following sentences true(T) or false(F)

1.More than one hundred thousand people lost their lives in this earthquake.

2.Other parents and fireman did their best to help the father.

3.The father knew that his son was alive.

4.The boy believed his father would let him out of danger.

5.The other kids were saved first.

----What did you see on the large farm last Sunday?
----Oh, I saw about three ________ hens and _________ of eggs.

Dear sir,
I read your story (of the 4^th February) about the cost of living in the country rather than in the town, and I agree with most of your opinions.My husband and I lived in the middle of Horlton until two years ago a seaside (海邊) town of nearly five hundred thousand people.When my husband stopped working, we moved to our present house in a small village at the foot of Roland Hill, and there is no doubt (疑問) that our costs are higher now.
I have to do my shopping in small shops, where the food is more expensive than in city supermarkets; it costs more to travel by bus; and because the men who come to mend the television or the washing-machine, have to come further, we have to pay them more.
But it does not cost us much to enjoy what is beautiful in the country; and peace and quiet are cheap.It takes many people a lot of time and money to drive into the country to enjoy the simple things of life; yet we can enjoy them just by going out of the front door.It costs more to live here than it did in Horlton, but now life really is worth (值得) living.
Yours faithfully,
Edith Randall (Mrs)
【小題1】Horlton was __________.