He was just an ordinary postman. Day after day, he shuttled(穿梭) back and forth across the village. For him, life
was without waves.
One day, he was delivering mail as usual. When he looked up in the sky, he suddenly lost his balance. It was a little stone that tripped him up（绊倒）. He observed the stone that had embarrassed（难堪） him, finding it strange but beautiful. In his eyes, this stone was like a lost jewel（宝石） covered with dust. The postman then placed the stone in his bag carefully. Because of this stone’s arrival, his day was lightened. He suddenly had a bold thought—I can build a castle with such beautiful stones. How magnificent it will be!
His ordinary life started to be different since then. He still delivered mail, but he collected every stone he could find along the way. All those dusty stones, in his eyes, glittered like diamonds.
Gradually, his small bag couldn’t hold his stones anymore and he needed to use a wheelbarrow to carry them. People didn’t understand what happened when they saw the postman delivering letters with a wheelbarrow full of stones.
After collecting enough stones, he started to build his castle. During the daytime, he passed along the dreams of others; and during the nighttime, he built his own dream. No one was willing to join in. But the postman was unmoved, still happily building his castle. Because he knew, the dream and the castle only belonged to him.
After 20 years of working day and night, the postman’s dream castle was finally completed. It was a magnificent castle just as he had imagined. It was a miracle arising from the ordinary.
This is a real story. The postman’s name is Xue Waller. The stone castle has become a famous tourist attraction in France, which is called“ ideal palace of Ferdinand Cheval.”At the entrance of the stone castle, there is a sentence—“I want to know how far a dream stone can go.”
1.The postman felt embarrassed because he _______.
A．lost his balance
B．lost his bag
C．delivered mail
D．found a stone
2.The postman’s own dream was to _______
A．collect stones
B．deliver mail
C．find diamonds
D．build his castle
3.The underlined word “glittered” in the third paragraph may mean ________.
A．shone
B．cleaned
C．posted
D．hid
4.Which of the following is not true?
A．A little stone tripped the postman up while he was delivering mail as usual.
B．The postman collected every stone he would find along the way.
C．The postman built his castle with the help of his family and friends.
D．The postman spent twenty years building his stone castle.
5.The postman named Xue Waller was ________.
A．German
B．French
C．British
D．American
6.From the passage we can learn that ________.
A．The postman had a colourful life before the accident in which he lost his balance.
B．The postman gave up his job in order to built his stone castle.
C．The stone that tripped the postman up was a real jewel.
D．Though people didn’t understand him, the postman continued his dream —building a castle.
阅读理解
What is it like being a film star? What is it like n front of the camera? Students from Steamboat Spring Middle School in the US could tell you exactly what it’s like. They recently got a taste of the life of a star.
A local movie company wanted to produce a film. All the actors in this film were to be students. Fourteen students were chosen from the school. The film, called Ruby vs Wolfgang, was based on the story of little Red Riding Hood(小红帽). It came with a twist(改变), however—the story was told from the perspective(看法) of the wolf.
Zoe Walsh, a seventh-grader, signed up to do behind- the- scenes work. But she soon found herself in front of the camera instead. She played a strange middle school student in the film.
“It is just for fun,” she told the Steamboat Today. “Just pretending that you’re someone else.”
But there were also difficulties. It was very cold during shooting. Students had to put up with snow and icy wind.
Lack(缺乏) of experience was another problem. The director Michael Staley said he tried to “help each student bring out the wolf —or Whatever animal they representing—in themselves”
Erus Harrington, an eighth—grader, said he played a “nice, silly British guy”. He learned the British accent(口音) all at home.
“I just a kind of taught myself how to do it by watching videos,” he said “It makes me feel good after I do it because I’m proud of myself.”
The students will watch themselves on the big screen for the first time during the film festival at a local high school in May.
“I’m probably going to laugh at myself,” said Zach, the brother of Zoe.
1.Fourteen students were chosen as actors in this film, weren’t they?
2.Who did Walsh play in the film?
3.What were the two main problems for the actors?
4.How did Harrington learn the British accent?
5.Where will the students see the film acted by themselves on the big screen for the first time ?
6.What do the students think of being a film star after they got a taste of the life of a star according to the passage? (At least two different opinions)
_________ surprised he was to see his stolen bicycle again at the gate of the park.
A．HowB．What
C．What aD．What an
Five-star hotels provide better services than some small hotels. You _______ even use free WIFI there.
A．mustB．can
C．ought toD．used to
We’re heard much _______ about the missing plane, but we still don’t know where it is.
A．reportsB．ideas
C．newsD．stories
________ came to my house just now because there was a box of fruit in the doorway(门口).
A．SomebodyB．Anybody
C．NobodyD．Everybody
