I never wanted a dog, but now I'm so glad I have one. About two years ago, my wife, Cathy, got a little dog with a face only a mother could love. We named her Gertie.
Gertie is the kind of dog that has to grow on you. So I dicided that the dog would be trained. This didn't quite go as planned. At 15 weeks old, she was nearly made to leave the Petsmart Training School. She spent every night lying in our bed-snoring (打鼾)so loudly that I hardly got a good night's sleep.
Then, about six months after she arrived, I felt that something in my heart was taking place, and I was unable to stop it. My behaviour(行為方式)began to change. I began to smile at people when passing them in a street. I returned(招手)from neighbours. I started calling my kids, and to my surprise, they started calling me. I even tried to speak to my grandchildren over the phone once. I even was glad to listen to laughter from a 10-month-old granddaughter. The point is that I was changing.
My wife and I both agree that it is Gertie who has changed my behaviour. Gertie is now nearly two years old and almost fully grown.I have come to like the pet little by little, though she is my wife's dog.
【小題1】What did the man think of the dog at the beginning?

Benjamin Franklin was a great scientist .He was the youngest of the  46   boys in his family . He was a clever boy,   47  cleverer than his nine brothers . He studied in school for only three years . He    48  to learn new things .He  49  worked on new ideas even when he was a child . There are a lot of stories about him and here’s one of them.
One day in winter Benjamin Franklin learned from one of his   50    that something black in colour holds heat    51   than something white in colour “ Is that true ?” he asked himself . He wanted to know the answer.
It happened to be a   52  day and there was snow on the ground. He put two large pieces of cloth over the snow . One piece was black in colour and the other was white . The sun shone (照耀)  53  the two pieces of cloth .Two hours later ,Franklin took off the cloth and found that the snow under the black cloth melted (融化) more  54  than the snow under the white cloth.
He was happy that he had learned  55   from his friend.

Henry found a job in a bookstore after he finished middle school. He wouldn't do anything but wanted to get rich. It was a cold morning. It _______ （snow） and there was thin ice on the streets. Few people went to buy the books and the young man had nothing  ______ （do）. He hated to read, so he watched the traffic. Suddenly he  ______ （see） a bag fall off a truck and it landed by the other side of the street. “It _____  （be） full of expensive things.” Henry said to himself. “I have to get it right now, or others  ______  （take） it away.” He went out of the shop and ran across the street. A driver saw him and began to whistle （鳴笛）， but he didn't hear it and went on  ______ （run）. The man drove to the side, hit a big tree and  ______ （hurt） in the accident. Two weeks later Henry was taken to court. A judge asked if he heard the whistle when he was running across the street. He said that something was wrong with his ears and he could hear nothing. “But you  ______  （hear） me this time,” said the judge. “Oh, I'm sorry. Now I can hear with one ear.” “ ______ （cover） the ear with your hand and listen to me with your deaf one. Well, can you hear me?” “No, I can't, sir.” “You  ______   （tell） lies. There is nothing wrong with either of your ears.” The judge said.

Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost mention recycling, which is the process (過程) of treating used things, such as paper or steel so that they can be used again. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more things than we need. We are now dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the possible greenest way, but it would be far better if we did not bring so many things home in the first place.
Here is an example. In the UK, the total of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a household’s waste. In many supermarkets, foods are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging causes serious environmental problems. The UK is running out of different kinds of ways for dealing with this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect (效果). Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The best way of avoiding this problem is to stop producing such unnecessary things in the first place. Food waste is another serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers (消費(fèi)者) to buy more than they need. They seldom encourage customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to connect packaging with quality (質(zhì)量). We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. Is it true for all the products? In fact, more and more companies realized the importance of protecting the environment. They try to package what really should be packaged, including products in good quality.
As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize how many unnecessary things are being collected. We need to face the waste of our daily life. Although many people have taken action to recycle, we have a high mountain to climb.
【小題1】What does the underlined word “over-consumption” mean?

Many people are interested in UFOs and there are a lot of reports about them. One report of UFOs came from a British plane on its way from New York to London in 1954.The British plane was flying over an island at 19,000 feet when the captain(機(jī)長(zhǎng)) noticed that something was on their left and a little lower(更低) than their plane. It was about five miles away.
“It was not one object but several ones.” the captain said, “We saw one large and six smaller objects. I sent out a radio report about them and I got some information that the other planes were coming out to meet us. Before the planes arrived, the smaller objects went into the big object. The big object then became smaller and moved away fast.”
【小題1】A British plane flew to _______ in 1954.