学进去

In the summer of 1978 an English man named Steven was driving his tractor through a field of wheat when he discovered something strange. Some of his wheat was lying on the ground. The flattened wheat formed (形成) a circle about six meters across. Around this circle were four smaller circles of flattened wheat.

There years later a farmer who lived nearby discovered almost the same circles in one of his fields. These circles were larger—nearly 15 meters across. That same year, another English farmer discovered three circles of flattened wheat on his lined—one large circle between two small circles. During the following years, farmers in England found circles in their fields more and more often.

The circles are called “crop circles” because they usually appear in fields of wheat or com. The wheat in the circles lies on the ground but is never broken; it keeps on growing, and the farmers can later harvest it. Farmers always discover the crop circles in the morning, so the circles probably form at night. They appear only in the months from May to September. What causes the crop circles?

At first, people thought that some kids were making them as a joke, or that farmers were making them to attract tourists. (In fact, in 1991, two men said they made the circles themselves, but many scientists don’t believe them.) People tried to copy them: They tried to make circles exactly like the ones the farmers had found. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t enter a field of wheat without leaving tracks, and they couldn’t flatten the wheat without breaking it.

Several times people reported seeing strange objects near the fields where crop circles later appeared. Many people believe that these crop circles are the messages sent by living things from outer space (外屋空间) or the marks left by their spaceships.

Scientists who have studied the crop circles try to find out what causes them. In the summer of 1990 some scientists spent three weeks in the part of England where many circles have appeared. They had all the latest high－tech equipment (最新高科技设备). The equipment—worth 1.8 million dollars —got nothing. But one night, as the scientists were watching a field, crop circles formed in the field behind them, which were quite different from the others. The scientists had neither seen nor heard anything.

When Steven discovered the crop circles on his land in 1978, he said, “It was just like something that had landed in the field from the air and gone back up again. I don’t know what to make of these things.”

Crop circles have appeared in England, Japan. the United States and Russia. Experts from all over the world have studied them, and they say what Steven said: They don’t know what to make of these things.

A．

B．

C．

D．

Rose is my English teacher. She is from England. She can speak a little Chinese. She goes to school from Monday to Friday. So she often buys things on Saturdays or Sundays. Today is Saturday. Rose goes to a shop. She comes out of her car and goes into the shop.

“What can I do for you?” The girl in the shop asks her in Chinese. Rose thinks she can tell the girl what she wants in Chinese. So she says in Chinese, “A quilt（被子）, please.”

Then the girl goes to the back of the shop. “My Chinese is not bad. The girl understands me,” she thinks.

Rose is happy. Soon the girl comes back. She shows Rose a cup.

Anne and Joseph are talking about an interesting question. Why do some people change their names? There can be many reasons. Hanna changed her name to Anne because she thought it would be easier for people to remember. On the other hand, Joseph is thinking about changing his name to an unusual name because he wants to be different.

People have a lot of reasons for changing their names. Film stars, singers, sportsmen and some other famous people often change their names because they want names that are not ordinary, or that have special sound. They chose the “new name” for themselves instead of the name their parents gave them when they were born.

Some people have another reason for changing their names. They have moved to a new country and want to use a name that is usual there. For example, Li Kaiming changed his name to Ken Lee when he moved to the United States. He uses the name Ken at his job and at school. But with his family and Chinese friends, he uses Li Kaiming. For some people, using different names makes life easier in their new country.

In many countries, a woman changes her family name to her husband’s after she gets married. But today, many women are keeping their own family name and not using their husband’s. Sometimes, women use their own name in some situations (情况) and their husband’s in other situations. And some use both their own name and their husband’s.

Steve Ballmer is always exciting, as he was this time in front of over 2,000 students from Qinghua University and Beijing University.

Ballmer, president(总裁) of Microsoft Corp. , received a warm welcome at Qinghua University when he gave a talk on the next generation (一代) of the Internet on September 19th. He came to China last week for a two-day visit, during which he slept only four hours and had many meetings with government officials (政府官员) and men of business. After all those business matters, he came to Qinghua and was asked thousands of questions from the excited students.

Ballmer, who joined Microsoft in 1980, is the first business manager hired (聘用) by Bill Gates, a schoolmate of Ballmer at Harvard. Gates first dropped out of school to start Microsoft and Ballmer was still studying, but he also gave up his studies and joined Bill Gates’five year－old Microsoft in 1980.

In his talk to the students, Ballmer described what the Internet will bring to their life. He said there are several hundred Qinghua graduates now working or being trained at Microsoft both in China and in the US.

He also warned the students not to drop out of school and follow the examples of Bill Gates and himself.

A man went to a fast—food restaurant to buy his lunch. “Hi,”a worker said. “May I help you?”

“I’d like a hamburger, large chips, and a Coke,” the man said.

“Anything else? the worker asked. “

“No, ” the man answered. “That’s it.”

“Is that for here or to go?” the worker asked.　

“To go, “the man said.

The worker put the man’s lunch in a bag. The man took out his money and paid for his lunch.

“Thank you,” the worker said. “Have a nice day.”

The man took the bag and walked to a park. He sat down and opened the bag. He was surprised. There was no hamburger in the bag. There were no chips. There was no Coke. There was only money in the bag—a lot of money ! The man counted the money. Two thousand dollars! Why was the money in the bag? Where was the man’s lunch?

The manager of the fast—food restaurant needed to go to the bank. He put two thousand dollars in an envelope(信封). He put the envelope in a bag and put the bag down. The worker gave the manager’s bag to the man by mistake. So the manager had a hamburger, chips and a Coke, and the man had two thousand dollars. What should the man do?

Hi, my name is Simon. I’m Chinese, but I live in England. I speak English very well, but I sometimes make mistakes! Yesterday we went on a school visit to a farm. I was very happy. I said I wanted to see a ship. Everyone looked surprised and I didn’t know why. My teacher said, “Simon, we are going to go to a farm, not to a lake or the sea. There are no ships at the farm.” Then I knew my mistake. I wanted to say “sheep”, the animal that says, “baa …”, not “ship”, a big boat on the water! It was very funny. My friends laughed. Then we all said the words: “sheep, ship”!