第十组（共3篇）： (a )an artist (画家) went to a beautiful part of the country for a holiday and stayed with a farmer. every day he went out with his paints and brushes(颜料和画笔)and painted till evening. when it got dark he went back to the farm and had a good dinner before he went to bed. at the end of his holiday he wanted to pay the farmer, but the farmer said," no, i don`t want money. but give me one of your pictures. what`s money? in a week it will all be finished ,but your picture will still be here." the artists was very pleased and thanked the farmer for saying such kind things about his pictures. the farmer smiled and answered ,"it`s not that. i have a son in london. he wants to become an artist. when he comes home next month, i`ll show him your picture, and he will not want to be an artist any more, i think." （ ）1.the artist went to the countryside to ________. a. visit his old friend b. spend his holiday c. visit the farmer d. thank the farmer （ ）2. every day ,the artist _______. a. went out to help the farmer to do some farming b. went out to visit his friends c. painted pictures d. enjoyed the beautiful scenery （ ）3. the artist wanted to pay the farmer, but the farmer ____. a. wanted much more money b. wanted nothing c. didn’t want any money at all d. wanted one of his pictures instead of money （ ）4. the artist thought the farmer wanted a picture of his because _______. a. the farmer was an artist too b. the farmer liked his pictures very much c. the farmer wanted to give it to his son as a present d. the farmer was rich （ ）5. after hearing the farmer’s words ,perhaps the artist would be ______. a. very worried b. very happy c. very thankful d. very disappointed ( b ) long, long ago there was no zero. to write the number sixty-three people wrote 63.to write six hundred and three, people wrote 63.the space between six and three was there to mean." not any "tens. sometimes people did not remember the space. it was hard to see and read. later people used a dot to hold the space. six hundred and three looked like this 6.3.but the dot was hard to see. so people put a circle around it like this 6⊙3.then people could see the dot. they remembered the space. at last ,only the circle around the dot was used. it was like a zero. this is one story of how the zero came to be used.
