Johann Gutenberg, who worked as a goldsm...

Many people say pennies are not worth saving. After all, a penny is only worth a cent. But one unusual penny turned out to be worth a lot more when a coin collector paid $1.7 million for it earlier this month.

The coin is one of a kind. It is the only penny that the Denver mint(铸币厂) made out of copper, instead of steel, in 1943. Because it is unique, it is also very valuable. No penny has ever sold for so much money.

The Changing Penny

The Lincoln penny first appeared in 1909. For 34 years, the one-cent coin was made out of copper. Then, in 1943, the penny changed. World War II was going on, and copper was needed for equipment. So for one year, pennies were made out of steel instead. At least most of them were.

Only a few coins were made out of unused copper. There are three main mints, or places where coins are made, in the United States. Of the known copper pennies from 1943, twelve were made in the Philadephia mint, and five were made in the San Francisco mint. Only one was made in the Denver mint.

Nobody knows for sure why a copper penny was made at the Denver mint in 1943, coin dealers Andy Skrabalak told Time for Kids. “There is a rumor that a mint employee made the coin in the middle of the night.”

A Special Set

The coin collector who bought the $1.7 million penny wants to remain unknown. But the reason for the trade is known. He already had two copper pennies from 1943 – one from the San Francisco mint and one from the Philadephia mint. To complete the set, he needed the Denver penny. The three coins will go on display at a coin exhibition in Tampa, Florida.

The collector who sold the penny is also keeping his name a secret. It took four years to convince him to give up the rare coin. Now that he has finally donating all of the money to charity.

1.Why is the Lincoln penny worth over one million dollars?

A. Because it has a history of thirty-four years.

B. Because it was made out of a rare material.

C. Because it was made on one night of 1943 by the Denver mint.

D, Because it was the only coin Denver mint made out of copper in 1943.

2.Before the Lincoln penny was sold, people thought one-cent coins __________.

3.At least how many copper coins were made in 1943?

4.What can we learn about the collector who sold the penny?

Mother Teresa was born in Yugoslavia, on August 27^th, 1910. She attended the government school near her home until she was eighteen. At that time, some doctors and nurses from Yugoslavia were working in India, and they often wrote to the school about their work. She decided to join them one day.

When she finished school, she went first to Britain. Then a year later she went to India, where she began to train to be a teacher. After training, she was sent to Calcutta, where she taught geography at a school and soon after became headmistress(女校长).

However, although she loved teaching, in 1946 Mother Teresa left the school and went to work in the poor parts of Calcutta. Later she trained to be a nurse in Panta, and then began her work helping the poor and comforting the dying in the streets of the city. Slowly, others came to help her, and her work spread to other parts of India.

Mother Teresa is now a well-known person. Many photos have been taken of her, as she travels the world to open new schools and hospitals in poor countries. In 1979, she was given the Nobel Peace Prize for the lifetime of love and service she has given to the poor.

1.What first inspired Mother Teresa to work in India?

2.In which order did Mother Teresa do the following things?

a. Trained to be a nurse                        

b. Went to India.

c. Helped the dying.                          

d. Studied to be a teacher.

e. Went to Britain.                            

f. Worked as a headmaster.

3.Mother Teresa gave up teaching because she wanted to ___________.

4.Mother Teresa is now a famous person because she has ___________.

I did very badly at school. My headmaster thought I was ____36____ and when I was 14 years old, he predicted, “You are never to be ____37____ but a failure.”

After 5 years of poor jobs, I fell in love with a very nice middle-class girl. It was the best thing ____38____ could have happened to me. I ____39____ I should do something positive with my life because I wanted to prove ___40___ her that what people said about me had gone ___41___, especially her mother, who once said to me, “Let’s ____42____ it. You’ve failed every thing you’ve ever done.” So I tried hard with my ____43____ and went to ____44____. My first novel ____45____ while I was still a college student.

After college, I taught during the day in high schools and attended ____46____ classes at London University, where I ____47____ a degree in history. I became a lecturer at a college and was thinking of ____48____ that job to write full time when I was ____49____ a part-time job at Leeds University. I began to feel proud of myself---here was a working-class boy who’d ___50___ school early, now teaching at the university.

My writing career ____51____ when I discovered my own writing ____52____. Now I’m rich and famous, have been on TV, and met lots of film stars. _____53____ what does it mean? I just wish that all those people who have ____54____ me down had just said, “I believe in you and you will be ____55____.”

2.A. nothing         B. something        C everything        D. anything

It is a general rule that children’s games and books seek to teach and ______ at the same time.

 We should admit the fact that some families still can not afford their children going to school education, university ________.