The other day Roy Price went “home”to his sister’s house. It’s her home now; and it’s also the house he was born in, Pat, his sister, kissed him and said, “You haven’t changed much, Roy. Let me see, now – when did we meet last?”

    “Thirty years ago,”he answered.“I came here for a week, do you remember? And I was right thirty then.”He added, “You’ve changed very little.”But it wasn’t true. Pat looked like an old lady.

    The next morning Roy walked through the small town alone. The place looked very different. There were lots of traffic signs beside the roads. There was a new car park, a new post office, a new… . He remembered suddenly that the bus used to stop anywhere: you just put up your hand and it stopped. One surprise followed another. But Roy’s biggest surprise was the people. He didn’t recognize（認識）anybody at all. He thought perhaps everyone here seemed old. He went into the post office and bought some stamps. “Where are all the children and young people?”he asked the postmaster. The old fellow looked up and answered, “Children? They’re in school, of course.”

    At lunch Pat said, “The town looks nice, doesn’t it?”

    “It’s all different, Pat. It used to be an exciting place, but now it’s full of old people. I don’t understand…”

    “There are a few newcomers, but the ones we knew are still here. You’re not young yourself, Roy, are you?”

1. The house Roy was born in is now his ___________ home.

    A. mother’s                  B. sister’s                            C. new                  D. own

2. In the eyes of Roy, the small town looked ___________ and people seemed ___________.

    A. different, old             B. different, young        C. old, young         D. old, new

3. In the passage the writer mainly wants to tell us that ___________.

    A. people in the small town were old like Roy’s sister

    B. Roy hasn’t changed much but his sister has changed a lot

    C. Roy’s hometown has changed a lot since he left 30 years ago

    D. Roy didn’t recognize anybody because he had been away for 30 years

Like many people, I have no clear idea about heroes. At some point, we all wonder if we need a hero and what a hero really is.
Although there are a lot of differences in cultures, heroes around the world generally share a number of characteristics (特點) which give us courage and make us want to learn from them. 
A hero does something worth talking about. A hero has a special story to tell and people think highly of it. But a hero is not just the person with great fame (聲譽) .
A hero has powers (力量) larger than himself. Some people want to live like a hero, and they have to experience life with new and further meaning. A sure test for would-be heroes is what or whom they serve. What do they want to live and die for? If the answer suggests they serve only their own fame, they may be famous persons but not heroes.
A hero has a vision from the mountaintop. He has the power to move people. He creates new possibilities. Without Gandhi, India might still be part of Britain. Without Martin Luther King, Jr., Americans might take different buses, eat in different restaurants, go for walks in different parks, and shop in different stores because of the different colors of their skin.
There might be changes in society without a hero, but the speed of change would be rather slow. Thanks to heroes in history, they make the society develop so rapidly.
【小題1】According to this passage, a hero is a person who always __________.

Many years before the United States was founded(建立), Americans had already invented barbecues. But the first barbecues, in fact ,were the invention of the Taino Indians of Haiti, who dried their meat on raised frames(架子)of sticks over fires. Spanish explorers spelled the Taino word as barbacoa, and as time passed, English settlers along the Atlantic coat had their own barbecues.

One summer day in 1773, Benjamin Lynde, a citizen of Massachusetts, wrote in his diary, “Fair and hot ; Browne;hack overset.” That is , on a bright and hot day he went to the Brownes to attedn a barbecue, and his carriage(馬車)fell over. It shows that the barbecue had its social occasion by that time. Large animals would be roasted whole on frames over hot fires, and neighbours would be invited to dinner.

In later centuries, as settlers moved to the west, the barbecue went along with it, reaching an especially large size in Texas, where a pit (坑)for fuels(燃料) such as tree branches might be over ten feet deep. Today , the barbecue grills(燒烤架)which are fueled by charcoal(木炭) or electricity are likely to be small and easy to move , and can cook only parts of an animal at a time, but people still have barbecues out of doors and always invite their neighbours or friends over.

1.Who invented the barbecues first in history?

   A.American people.      B.Taino Indians.           C.Spanish explorers.     D.English settlers.

2.The second paragraph mainly tells us that the barbecue_______________.

   A.is only held on a hot sunny day                 B.welcomes people who keep diaries

   C.is held both indoors and outdoors               D.has its social occasion for over 200 years

3.The underlined expression “ social occasion” can be best translated into______________.

   A.社交功能            B.社會福利               C.社會地位            D.社會背景

4.The following are all the barbecue ways    EXCEPT __________________.

   A. drying meat on raised frames of sticks over fires

   B. roasting a whole animal over a pit full of burning tree branches

   C.cooking parts of animals over fires on grills fueled by charcoal

   D.heating meat in the bright and hot daylight