Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955. He grew up in Seattle, Washington. He was a very clever boy. His favourite subjects at school were science and maths. When he was 13 years old, Bill started to play with computers. Al that time, computers were very large machines. Once he was very interested in a very old computer. He and some of his friends spent lots of time doing unusual things with it. In the end, they worked out a software program（軟件程序）with the old machine. Bill sold it for 4, 200 when he was only 17.

　　In 1973, Bill went to Harvard University. In his third year, he left Harvard to work for a company（公司）called Microsoft. Bill began his company in 1975 with his friend Paul Allen. They thought the computer would come into every office and every hone soon. So they began developing the software for personal computers. They improved（改進(jìn)）the software to make it easier for people to use computers.

(5) The word“personal”means _________.

"Can I see my baby?" the happy new mother asked. When the baby was lying in her arms and she moved the cloth to look upon his tiny face, she gasped(吃力地喘著氣). The doctor turned quickly and looked out of the hospital window. The baby had been born without ears. Luckily, time proved that the baby's hearing was perfect. Though the misfortune(不幸)happened to him, he grew into a handsome boy. Yet he felt ashamed when he communicated with others.

“You should get in touch with other young people,” his mother told him, with a kindness in her heart. The boy’s father talked with the family doctor about his ears. “Could nothing be done?” the father asked. “I believe I could give him a pair of outer ears, if they could be got,” the doctor replied.

Two years went by. One day, his father said to the son, “You are going to the hospital, Son. Mother and I have someone who will donate the ears you need, but it’s a secret.” The operation is a big success. Later he married and entered the diplomatic(外交的)service. One day, he asked his father, “Who gave the ears? Who gave me so much? I could never do enough for him or her.”

“You could, my son,” said the father, “but the agreement was that you are not to know…not yet.”

The years kept their secret, but one of the darkest days did come. He stood with his father over his mother’s casket(棺材). Slowly, the father stretched forth(伸出) a hand

and raised the thick, reddish brown hair to reveal the mother had no outer ears.

"Mother said she was glad she never let her hair be cut," his father whispered gently, "and nobody ever thought mother less beautiful, did they?"

1.Why did Mother gasp when she saw her newborn baby?

A. Because her son had a tiny face.    

B. Because she saw her son crying.

C. Because her son was in her arms.    

D. Because her son was born imperfect.

2.Who gave the son the ears?

A. His mother.      B. His father.      C. A doctor.        D. A stranger.

3.The underlined word “reveal” in the last but one paragraph means “________”．

A. see              B. show             C. find             D. search

4.The best title for the passage would be ________.

A. Mother’s hair                     

B. An unforgettable memory

C. Who gave me the ears?              

D. Who is my best respectable person?

5.The main purpose of the passage is to tell readers that ________.

A. The secret was kept until the mother died. 

B. Real love lies in what is done but not known.

C. The operation on the boy was a great success.

D. The boy entered the diplomatic service when he grew up.

It was reported today that in China, 56% of people who write blogs(博客) do so as a personal diary and 83% use their blogs for sending messages to friends. It was also found that there is a strong East- West difference. In places like the US, blogs that offer information on news attract more readers but in China, blogs are more likely to be about sharing personal feelings.
It seems that bloggers can be divided into three types: IT bloggers, bloggers who record their ordinary feelings and media（媒體） bloggers.
When blogging first started, the IT people had the technological advantage and they took the chance to put their thoughts on the web. Some of these IT people now have had over a million people read their blogs.
The next wave of bloggers did not have any training as writers or in IT and wrote about normal daily life. Media bloggers, however, are trained writers, such as journalists and editors. When the many media bloggers showed up, the everyday bloggers lost most of their readers. Media bloggers have the advantage of knowing how to communicate well through the written words.
However, the normal bloggers are still out there and increasing in number. It seems that blogging is the new way to express your feelings. People feel like the world is listening to, or rather reading, their problems, even if they are not.
【小題1】 From the passage we know that________.