It was just a windy January day here in the North East of Scotland. When I left home for the office where I worked in the next town, the weather forecasters said, “Windy and cold, but no rain.” However, by the time I was about to leave work in the early evening, it was pouring!
My office was close to the bus stop so that there was no problem; I just shot out the door and onto the bus. Unfortunately, once I got home to Montrose, I had about a mile to walk from the bus stop to my home.
As I stepped off the bus that night to walk home, I struggled to get my tiny umbrella to go up in the strong wind. It was obviously designed for a very light shower. Then, suddenly and to my amazement, I heard my mum’s voice.
“Quickly! Come under here, before you get soaked! ”
I nipped（跑） under my bigger umbrella and stared at mum in surprise. “What on earth are you doing here in this weather?” I asked her. My mum was eighty-three that year, and although fit and healthy, she did not usually like going out in strong wind and heavy rain. “You said to come round for tea tonight, but I came early before the rain got too heavy. Eric told me that your car was in for a service and I saw your big umbrella lying on the chair. Eric was on the phone, so I just picked it up and came out so that I could meet you and you would not get soaked!’’
My mum passed away the following year. This simple act remains in my mind, and reminds me how completely my mum loved me. She would not have gone out in the wind and rain for herself, but, at eighty-three, she never gave a second thought about the bad weather so I would not get wet.
【小题1】We can learn from the text that   

WILD WEATHERMAN
Name: Sam Champion
Hot job: TV Weatherman
Where: WABC-TV, New York City
When you were a child, did you plan to forecast wind, rain, and snow on TV?
I wanted to be a foreign journalist．I took courses in weather science at Eastern Kentucky University, but I majored in broadcasting news．
How did you finally become a weatherman?
My first job in the early 80’s was at the local TV station in Paducah, Kentucky．I did everything from turning on the lights in the morning to writing and delivering morning news．I put together weather forecasts, and became interested in them．
Back then, how did you forecast weather?
Independent companies collected computer information that showed, for example, how a single weather system might split into snow or snow mixed with rain．The information was often opposite and the job of a weatherman was to study the information and make the best educated guess about the storm．
Has weather forecasting changed much with new technology?
Advanced computers, satellites, and Doppler radar （sound waves used to track storms） have made forecasting more exact．But we still know very little about how weather is shaped．So far, we just have theories．
Any advice for children who’d like to become weather scientists?
To me, weather is the most exciting field in the world．There are still so many more questions about weather than answers．After all, if we can’t foresee floods or hurricanes, how safe a society are we? Weather forecasting is wide open for scientists who love to solve puzzling problems．The next generation of meteorologists （weather scientists） will unlock many of Earth’s weather secrets．So get a general knowledge of Earth science, and study meteorology （weather science） in college．
Thanks, Sam．                                
1．Judging from the writing style, the text is ________．
A．a diary   B．an interview     C．a news story     D．an announcement
2．As a child, ABC-TV’s Sam Champion wanted to be a ________．
A．space scientist  B．weatherman     C．news reporter   D．meteorologist
3．Present weather forecasting technology ________．
A．has made weather report more exact than ever            
B．is still not perfect
C．hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years                           
D．both A and B
4．The study of weather science is called ________．
A． meteorology   B． forecasting    C ．geography      D． earth science

One dark stormy night an elderly couple hurried into a hotel and asked whether they could be  36 for the night." I’m very sorry,” the clerk on night shift said politely, "we are all  37  tonight．  38 ,you
could stay in my room if you don't mind．I’m  39 , so I'll be here．“ The young man gave the sincere advice．
The elderly couple accepted his  40 with gratitude．They apologized for the  41 they had caused him．The next day, the rain stopped and it  42 ．When the old gentleman went to pay his bill, the same clerk said．" The room you and your wife stayed in is not a proper  43  room in this hotel, so you don't need to pay．”
The old gentleman nodded in   44  :  “You are an employee that every boss in the hotel business would dream of．Perhaps someday I’ll build a hotel for you．”The clerk was__45 but, deciding that the
guest must have been  46 , he gave the remark  47 thought．
Two years later, the young man received a registered letter from the old gentleman, in which he 48 the experience of that dark stormy night．The letter also  49 a formal invitation, asking that young man to pay a visit．
At a street comer in Manhattan, the young man met his  50 guest．The old gentleman, pointing
to a magnificent new building__51 over the crossroads, said, "Look, that is the hotel I  52 to build for you．I hope you will  53 it for me．Remember what I said then? Well, I was  54  about it．”
The young man stammered, "But…will there be any  55 ,sir?  Why do you choose me? And who are you?"
“My name is William Aster．”This building was none other than the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, a symbol of supreme status and honor in New York．

The winds had finally died down,and the rains stopped.Paige and her parents were inside their house,sitting in the living room,which was dark except for a single candlelight.
“Let’s find out what’s going on outside,”Paige’s mom suggested as she turned on the small radio.
“…has moved out of the area,”an announcer’s voice boomed. “Winds reaching nearly 100 miles an hour passed through our town this morning. But,the worst is over,and it is safe to go outside.In fact,the sun is now peeking out from behind the…”
Suddenly,the radio went dead.The house was quiet again.
“Well,”Paige’s dad said, “at least we heard some good news,even if it was cut short.Let’s look out of the window and survey the damage.”
Paige ran to the window and looked outside.She saw tree branches lie on the lawn.The mailbox was broken,and some of the address letters and numbers on the mailbox were missing.
“The wind must have ripped(擦)them off,” Paige’s father noted.As he read the remaining letters he began to laugh.
The mailbox dispalyed “_ _RAIN.”
“It says “rain”,”Paige said. “That’s appropriate for a day like today!”
【小题1】The weather event that took place that day in the story was        .

The price of coffee beans hits a 12 – year high today. I thought there might
be some kind of coffee – market story, like we saw with cocoa earlier this summer.
But the main driver of coffee prices right now is simpler: Colombia has had
a few years of weak coffee harvests because of too much rain, which has reduced
the global supply. And coffee drinkers keep buying coffee, even as prices rise, in
other words, demand is unchanged.
The higher price of beans – up about 40 percent since March – means higher prices for the coffee you buy by the pound. But it probably won’t affect the coffee you buy by the cup.
Smuckers, which sells Folgers and Millstone coffees, recently said it was raising its prices because of the higher cost of beans. Starbucks, however, said it would absorb the higher cost of beans without raising prices.
“You see it much more in the grocery store because the raw materials are a big factor of cost,” Jose Sette of the International Coffee Organization told me. “In a coffee shop, your big expenses are rent and labor.”
While real – world supply and demand is the big driver of the price of beans, there may be some speculative action in coffee business in the future.
But futures (期货) of the high – grade Arabica beans are traded in the US, where regulations prevent speculators (投机商) from controlling the market, hoping such things won’t happen just as in London summer market. That suggests that prices should fall when supply improves – which may happen next year.
Some experts say that farmers in third world countries won’t actually benefit from higher prices in this case. When the price difference is due to supply and demand, the profit of the seller usually doesn’t go up.
【小题1】Which of the following is the best title for the passage?