1 . In ancient Egypt (埃及) , women did not go out to work. They stayed and worked at home. Many Egyptian men were farmers. Some men were builders or fishermen. Other men worked as artists. Some other important people did not do any farming.

The weather in Egypt was very hot. Ancient Egyptians did not wear many clothes. Men, women and children often wore simple robes (长袍) made of thin cloth. People, including women, shaved (剃) hair from their heads to keep cool.

Children in ancient Egypt grew up to do the same jobs as their parents. Girls stayed at home with their mothers. They learned to look after the home. Boys worked with their fathers. They learned to do the jobs their fathers did.

Many of the games played by ancient Egyptians are similar to games we still play today. Children played racing and jumping games. They also played ball games and with wooden toys. Older children played a game like chess.

The kings of Egypt (the pharaohs 法老) had enough power to master their country. The people thought that the pharaoh was a god. He owned everything. Everyone had to do what he told them to do. The pharaohs built huge tombs (墓). When a pharaoh died, he was buried in the tomb. The tombs were often in the shape of pyramids (金字塔).

3 . Have you ever counted the number of digits (数字) in your mobile phone number?     1     China has the longest mobile phone numbers in the world.

The 11 digits can be divided into three parts. Each part has a different meaning.     2     For example, 120 is for China Mobile Communications Corporation (中国移动) and 188 is for China Unicom (中国联通). The fourth to the seventh digits tell you which region the number is in. And the last four numbers mostly don’t have any special meanings.

The main reason for using 11 digits is that we have the largest population in the world. The number of telephone users are of course a lot bigger than other countries too. We once had 10 digits.     3     So we began to use 11 digits starting from 1999. 11 digits can be used to make tens of billions of mobile phone numbers, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

    4     Usually, the service provider will use a canceled (取消的) number after 3 to 6 months. If you call a number that you haven’t called for a long time, you may find that it’s owner has changed.

Besides China, Britain and Japan also use 11-digit mobile phone numbers. But their numbers always start with 0. So they cannot create as many numbers as us.     5     Canada’s mobile phone numbers are perhaps the world’s shortest: they use seven digits.

4 . On the bottom of most plastic packaging (塑料包装), there is a small triangle (三角) with a number written inside. These little symbols are not easy to be noticed, but are really important. They tell you what kind of plastic it is and whether it can be recycled (回收利用) or not.

5 .     1     Your head houses store (储存着) the most valuable part of your body — your brain. As you are reading, your eyes send pictures to your brain which makes meaning from what you see. Your brain helps you to remember and think, and makes sure your body is doing what it should.

    2     Your skin covers your body. In most parts of your body, the skin is just as thick as half a centimeter. If you have your skin cut, it will have a quick cure and stop viruses from getting into your body. Your skin also helps you feel the heat and coldness of the environment around you. Hair grows from inside the skin. When you feel hot, extra heat comes out through your skin. As a result, your body temperature drops.

    3     Muscles (肌肉) are found in most parts of your body. They work with your bones to help you move — whenever you cry or smile, eat or speak, walk or dance, etc.

    4     Your body needs to take in oxygen (氧气) from the air and give out the unwanted carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) in the body. When you breathe, air comes through your nose and mouth into your lungs (肺) where oxygen flows to different parts of your body.

    5     When dust or a strong smell gets into your nose, you sneeze (打喷嚏). This is the way your body cleans up the dust in your nose. Your lungs push out the air and try to clear your nose.

Your brain is the most     6     part of your body. It can make your body to do what it should. If you have your     7     cut, it will have a quick cure and stop viruses from getting into your body. Muscles can work     8     your bones to help you move around. Your nose and mouth can     9     air to different parts of your body. Sneezeing is the good way to     10     your nose.

6 . Many people like to read the Guinness Book of World Records (《吉尼斯世界纪录大全》), and some people want to be in it! How do people get their names in the book? They do something new and different, such as (比如) making the world’s largest (最大的) cake with more than (多于) 54,000 eggs.

For many people, it is fun to make world records. It’s exciting. But who eats the cake? While (当……时候) some people are making world records, others don’t have much food to eat. Hunger is a very serious (严重的) problem in many places. How many old people do not have enough (足够的) money to buy good food? How many children go to bed without (没有) dinner? The answer is “too many”.

7 .

A giant (大) panda is a kind of bear. It has a white face with black patches (斑点) around its eyes. It also has black ears, shoulders and legs. The rest of its body is white.

Home

Pandas live high up in the mountains of Central and Western China. They live in the bamboo forests there.

Food

Pandas in the wild usually eat bamboo. In zoos, their menu includes bamboo, apples and carrots. A giant panda can eat as much as 30 kilograms of bamboo a day.

Behavior

Pandas like to live on their own. They need to eat a lot to stay healthy, so they spend more than 12 hours a day eating. Although they are big and heavy, it is not difficult for them to climb trees. They are strong enough to protect themselves.

Life

Pandas live for about 20 years in the wild, but in zoos they can live for up to 35 years.

The future

People are cutting down forests, so the pandas are losing their homes. Some people are killing them for their fur. It is cruel of them to do so. There are not many pandas in the world now. It is important for us to protect them.

根据短文内容，判断下列句子正 (T)、误 (F)。

8 . Have you ever been ill When you are ill, you must be unhappy because your body becomes hot, and there are pains all over your body. You don’t want to work, feeling very sad.

What makes us ill? It is germs (细菌). Germs are everywhere. They are very small and you can’t find them with your eyes, but you can see them with a microscope. They are very very small and there could be hundreds of them on a very small thing.

Germs are always found in dirty water. When we look at dirty water under the microscope, we shall see them in it. So your father and mother will not let you drink dirty water.

Germs aren’t found only in water. They are found in air and dust. If you cut your finger, if some of the dust from the floor goes into the cut (割开处), some of the germs would go into your finger. Your finger would become big and red, and you would have pain everywhere.

China is the hometown of kites. Making and flying kites is one of the Chinese ancient folk skills. Kites are also an important part of the Chinese culture.

Kites were invented by the Chinese during the Spring and Autumn Period, having a history of over 2,000 years. It is said that Modi, made a wood bird after the work of three years. This might be the earliest kite in human history. Then Lu Ban made changes to the kite of Modi by using bamboos. Some folk custom experts told that ancestors invented kites mainly to memorize their family members and friends who have died. So on the Qingming Festival people would make and fly kites, hoping that their sadness could be passed to the dead through the kites. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, paper has been used to make kites because of the paper-making. In Song Dynasty, flying kites became a favorite outdoor sport of the people. According to researchers, and they were not spread to Europe until the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

Flying kites needs skills. The controlling string (绳) and the pulling force are decided by the size and the shape of the kites, the environment and the wind. Right wind often blows in spring, flying kites should avoid cloudy days and rainy days. Safety is also an important consideration. Flying kites should be done on an open ground and it is not wise to fly kites in dangerous places such as water side and tops of buildings.

10 .     1     The ear is an important organ (器官). To make people know the importance of our ears, the government set up National Ear Care Day. It falls on March 3rd every year. How much do you know about the ear?

    2     There are three parts in our ears — the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. We can see the outer ear clearly. It can collect sound around us. Then the sound goes through the middle ear to the inner ear and finally to our brain.

    3     Our ears keep working all the time even when we are sleeping, but our brain just pays no attention to it. Sometimes we may wake up suddenly at midnight. That’s because our brain hears something, although we don’t know what it is.

    4     There are some organs that are full of liquid (液体) with small hairs around them in the inner ear. The liquid and hairs send messages to our brain to make us keep a balance.

    5     Our ears even have something to do with tasting food. We may have problems telling tastes if there is something wrong with our ears.

You see, ears can do more than we think, so take good care of our ears from now on.