Popeye the Sailor first became a popular cartoon in the 1930s.The sailor in that cartoon ate lots of spinach(菠菜) to make him strong. People watched him, and they began to buy and eat a lot more spinach. Popeye helped sell 33 percent more spinach than before! Spinach became a necessary part of many people’s diets. Even some children who hated the taste began to eat the vegetable.

Many people thought that the iron in spinach made Popeye strong, but this is not true. Spinach does not have any more iron than any other green vegetable.

People only thought spinach had a lot of iron because the people who studied the food made a mistake. In the 1890s, a group of people studied what was inside vegetables. This group said that spinach had ten times more iron than it did. The group wrote the number wrong, and everyone accepted it.

Today, we know that the little iron there is in spinach cannot make a difference in how strong a person is. However, spinach does have something else which the body needs—folic acid(叶酸).

It is interesting to point out that folic acid can help make a person strong. Maybe it was really the folic acid that made Popeye strong all along.   

1.A good title for this reading passage is______.

2.Why did many people eat spinach after they saw Popeye the Sailor?

3.A research group told people that spinach______.

4.Folic acid is ______.

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!"

1.The children shouted when the traveller was taking pictures of them because _______.

2.The traveller made an apology to (向……道歉) the head because _______.

3.The traveller explained how to use a camera to the head because _______.

4.Which of the following is NOT right?

There was a story many years ago of a school teacher--- Mrs. Thompson. She told the children on the first day that she loved them all the same. But that was a lie. There in the front row was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. He didn’t play well with the other children and he always needed a bath. She did not like him.

Then Mrs. Thompson got to know that Teddy was actually a very good boy before the death of his mother. Mrs. Thompson was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when, like all her other students, Teddy brought her a Christmas present too. It was his mother’s perfume(香水)。

Teddy said, “Mrs. Thompson, today you smell just like my Mom used to.” After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she stopped teaching reading, writing and math. Instead, she began to teach children.

Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. The boy’s mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he improved. By the end of the sixth grade, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class.

Six years went by before she got a note from Teddy. He wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. He went to college. Mrs. Thompson got two more letters from him with the last one signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M. D. (医学博士).

The story doesn’t end there. On his wedding day, Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson’s ear, “Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, for believing in me. You made me feel important and showed me that I could make a difference.”

Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back, “Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn’t know how to teach until I met you.”

1.What did Mrs. Thompson do on the first day of school?

2.What did Mrs. Thompson find out about Teddy?

3.In what way did Mrs. Thompson change?                                             

4.Why did Teddy thank Mrs. Thompson at his wedding?

Most American students have to say goodbye to fancy (高档的) fruits these days. In school restaurants across the country, cheaper fruits like apples and oranges have taken their place.

“People are afraid to spend now.” said Linda Morrow, who owns a shoe and handbag store. “They don’t know what the future will bring”. During the financial crisis (金融危机), several of the country’s biggest banks have been forced to sell or close. This has made lots of Americans afraid to buy expensive things.

The crisis began last year. Experts (专家) think it was because US banks lend money too easily. Last year a lot of people and companies, who borrowed money, found themselves unable to pay it back. This left the banks, as well as the people who put their money in the banks, without money. Since the banks borrowed money between themselves and even across borders (国界), the whole world was in trouble.

This month the US government agreed on a $700 billion plan to try to save the financial market. But no one is sure whether it will help or not. Last week presidents from 20 countries promised to work together to find a way out of the money trouble.

1.This passage is probably taken from ___________.

2.Why are people in the US afraid to spend?

3.From the passage, we still don’t know ________.

4.The best title for the passage is ___________.

My first job was at a local restaurant, where I worked for seven years and learned so many lessons, especially from a fellow   36 .

Helen was in her 30s and had extraordinary（非凡的） self-confidence, something I was really  37 . I looked up to Helen  38  she was doing what she loved—  39 people better. She always made everyone, customers and co-workers（同事）  40 and feel good.

Being a waitress changed my life. One of my  41 customers was Fred Hasbrook. He always ate an omelet, and when I saw him _42 , I tried to have it on his table as soon as he sat down.

Thanks to the new found confidence I  43 __from Helen, I dreamed of having my own  __44 . But when I called my parents to ask for a loan（贷款）, they said, “We just don’t have the money.”

The next day, Fred saw me and asked, “What’s   45  ? You’re not smiling today.” I  46__my dream with him and said, “Fred, I know I can do more if somebody  47 just have faith in(信任）me.”

Before long he handed me checks  48 __$50,000—along with a note that I have to this day. It reads, “The only collateral（抵押品）on this loan is my trust in your  49 as a person. Good people with a dream should have   50  __to make that dream come true.”

I took the checks to Merrill Lynch, where the money was provided for me. I  51 working at the restaurant, making  52 for the restaurant I would open. My plans soured（破灭）, and I lost the  53 .

Later I decided to apply for a job at Merill Lynch. Even though I had no experience, I was__54 and ended up becoming a pretty good agent.   55 ，I paid back Fred the $50,000, plus 14-percent annual interest. Five years later, I was able to open my own firm.

 ---Could you turn the TV down a little bit?

---______. Is it disturbing you?

He’s got himself into a dangerous situation         he is likely to be accused of meeting someone.

The population of China is larger than ______ of the United States.

---The novel gone with wind is said _____ into several languages.

These articles are written in simple language, _____ makes it easy to read.