最近，三班的同学进行了一场讨论，话题是：学习英语应不应该从儿童时期开始？请你根据下表中的提示写一篇短文，介绍讨论的情况，并表达你自己的看法。

注意：1．词数：120词左右

      2．文章的开头已经给出，不计入词数。

参考词汇：基础foundation 汉语拼音Chinese pinyin

The students of Class 3 had a discussion about whether it is necessary to start learning English from childhood.

阅读下面短文，根据以下提示：1）汉语提示，2）首字母提示，3）语境提示，在每个空格内填入一个适当的英语单词，并将该词完整地写在右边相对应的横线上。所填单词要求意义准确，拼写正确。

My sister found a bird by the roadside. We named him

Jack and k____ him for about three years. He would greet us          1．_________

in a tree outside our bedroom, calling “Hello” as we ___（躺）in     2．_________

bed in the morning. He also passed ‘Hello” to the cats w_____          3．_________

they came into the room. We often played a trick _____ him.          4．_________

We’d throw a coin as far as p____. Jack would fly away             5．_________

and bring _____ back for us to throw again. He would also catch      6．_________

the food thrown to him from the o_____ side of the room and         7．_________

sing ______ （高兴地）. But the most wonderful thing about Jack    8．_________

was his musical _____（能力）. Leaving him at home all day, we      9．_________

would return at night to hear _____ he’d picked up from the radio      10．_________

in the day.

If you feel at present that you don’t have enough friends in your life, one reason may be that you have let yourself become too busy to make time for the relationships you already have. Starting and keeping friendship requires effort and commitment.

Many of us let our lives become so busy with work and other commitments that we don’t get around to scheduling time for pleasure and renewal（叙旧）with the friends, relatives and acquaintances we already have.

Making the effort to call your friends more regularly and to accept more of the invitations you receive from others can improve your social life in a hurry!

Are there any people you could call right now and be assured of a pleasant welcome? Are there people that you could count on to help you in time of difficulty? Can you have close talks with them? Do you have fun when you are together? Are you happy to have them in your life?

If you haven’t seen much of them lately, is it because you have become too busy? Have you grown apart? Was there an argument?

If the main reason you haven’t been getting together with the people you already know is that you have got too busy, take a good look at how you spend your time. Compare it with your real values and priorities（优先考虑的事）in life. Is your busy lifestyle really bringing you the quality of life that you want?

If you have become too busy for friends, why has this happened? Are you seeking material toys in your life at the expense of relationships with other human beings? Have you allowed your time to be over-committed because you never say “No” to anyone? Do you insist on doing things yourself that could be appointed to others? If so, why? Do you believe that everything depends on you?

Examine whether the way you are now spending your time accurately reflects your deepest values and priorities. Make sure that you schedule adequate time for the things that are truly most important to you.

If you really want to keep friends in your life, make a space in your schedule, and a space in your heart for them.

1．In this passage the author mainly discusses ____.

       A．how to balance friendship and work

       B．how to spend our spare time

       C．whether we should keep friendship

       D．whether we should invite friends to dinner

2．Which of the following doesn’t indicate a good relationship?

       A．You have someone to count on when you are in trouble.

       B．You have someone to have close talks with.

       C．You have fun when you are with someone.

       D．You feel depressed with others in life.

3．he reason why you have become too busy for friends may be the following EXCEPT that ____.

       A．you spend too much time seeking material toys in your life

       B．you feel it difficult to keep friendship

       C．you stick to doing everything all by yourself

       D．you never refuse whatever other people ask you to do

4．Which would be the best title for the text?

       A．Too Busy for Friendship?                     B．Too Busy with Work?

       C．How to Spend Your Time                     D．How to Make New Friends

The Internet has led to a huge increase in credit-card fraud. Your card information could even be for sale in an illegal web site.

Web sites offering cheap goods and services should be regarded with care.

On-line shoppers who enter their credit-card information may never receive the goods they thought they bought. The thieves then go shopping with your card number — or sell the information over the Internet. Computers hackers have broken down security systems, raising questions about the safety of cardholder information. Several months ago, 25, 000 customers of CD Universe, an on-line music retailer（零售商）, were not lucky. Their names, addresses and credit-card numbers were posted on a Web site after the retailer refused to pay US $157, 828 to get back the information.

Credit-card firms are now fighting against on-line fraud. Mastercard is working on plans for Web — only credit card, with a lower credit limit. The card could be used only for shopping on-line. However, there are a few simple steps you can take to keep from being cheated.

Ask about your credit-card firm’s on-line rules: Under British law, cardholders have to pay the first US $78 of any fraudulent（欺骗性的） spending.

And shop only at secure sites; Send your credit-card information only if the Web site offers advanced secure system.

If the security is in place, a letter will appear in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. The Website address may also start https: //—the extra “s” stands for secure. If in doubt, give your credit-card information over the telephone.

Keep your password safe: Most on-line sites require a user name and password before placing an order. Treat your passwords with care.

1．What do most people worry about the Internet according to this passage?

       A．Many stolen credit-cards were sold on the Internet.

       B．Too much fraud on the Internet.

       C．Many Web sites are destroyed.

       D．Many illegal Web sites are on the Internet.

2．What is the meaning of “fraud” in the passage?

       A．Cheating.             B．Sale.                   C．Payment.            D．Safety.

3．How can the thieves get the information of the credit card?

       A．The customers give them the information.

       B．The thieves steal the information from Web sites.

       C．The customers sell the information to them.

       D．The thieves buy the information from credit-card firms.

4．You are shopping on the site: http: // www. Shopping. com, and you want to buy a TV set, what does this article suggest to do?

       A．Order the TV set at once.

       B．Do not buy the TV set on this site.

       C．E-mail the site your credit-card information.

       D．Tell the site your password and buy the TV set for you.

Watercolor is the oldest paints known. It dates back to the early cave men who discovered they could add lifelike qualities to drawings of animals and other figures on the walls of caves by mixing the natural colors found in the earth with water.

Fresco （壁画）, one of the greatest of all art forms, is done with watercolor. It is created by mixing paints and water and applying these to wet plaster （灰泥）. Of the thousands of people who stand under Michelangelo’s heroic ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, very few know that they are looking at perhaps the greatest watercolor painting in the world.

The invention of oil painting by the Flemish masters in the fifteenth century made fresco painting go downhill, and for the next several centuries watercolor was used mainly for doing sketches（草图）or as a tool for study. It was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that English painters put back watercolor as a serious art form. The English have a widely-known love for outdoors and also small private pictures. The softness of watercolor had a remarkably strong attraction for them.

The popularity of watercolor continued to grow until the twentieth century. The United States passed England as the center for watercolor, producing such well-known watercolor artists as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth.

1．The purpose of the passage is to introduce ________.

       A．the gradual weakness of fresco painting

       B．oil’s power or influence over watercolor

       C．the discovery of watercolor in England

       D．the start and development of watercolor

2．In the 16^th and 17^th centuries the artists thought ________.

       A．watercolor was softer, and thus better.

       B．Oil painting lasted longer, and was better.

       C．Watercolor wasn’t fit for finished works

       D．Watercolor was too hard to use in any works.

3．According to the passage, watercolor painting was put back in England because ______.

       A．it was easy to use outdoors               B．it was a strong medium（媒介）

       C．it was extremely bright in color.           D．it was suited for popular tastes

4．What would the next paragraph most probably talk about?

     A．The works of famous US watercolor artists.

     B．Modern American oil painters.

     C．The weaknesses of oil as popular paints

     D．Techniques of producing watercolor