Catch a wind and you're moving - up, down and across the surf. "It's always exciting. You'd jump 5 feet or 35 feet. You never know if you're going to go up in the air, and your heart is just going boom, boom, boom."

　　Coasteering

　　It is by far the best activity and the event that everyone is still talking about. This is exploring the coastline without worrying about a coastal path or finding a rocky bay blocking your route. You climb, dive and swim from one place to another. With Coasteering, you don't have to be able to swim as the wet suit and buoyancy (浮力) aid will keep you floating when you are in the water.

　　Sky Diving

　　Traditional parachuting (跳伞) doesn't sound risky enough. So now sky diving is the name for jumping from a plane and listening to your heart beating heavily as you move fast towards earth before you open your parachute at the last moment.

　　Mountain Biking

　　It's been around so long that bikers are no longer satisfied with just going up and down a mountain. Mountain biking is a sport which consists of riding bicycles off­road, often over rough land, using specially adapted mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but include features designed to improve strength and performance in rough areas.

　　1．All the four extreme sports are intended to test one's ________.

　　A．potential strength　　　　B．physical health

　　C．sports skills D．courage

　　2．The underlined word "it" refers to ________.

　　 A．kite flying B．kite surfing

　　C．a kite D．the art of kites

　　3．Which of the following sports can be the most risky?

　　A．Kite surfing. B．Coasteering.

　　C．Mountain biking. D．Sky diving.

　　4．We can infer from the passage that ________.

　　A．kites were the main means of transport in China

　　B．swimming skills play a key role in Coasteering

　　C．mountain biking requires more than riding common bikes

　　D．parachuting is the least popular sports at present

　　B

　　There is one language that is used in every country in the world. The people who use it are young and old, short and tall, thin and fat. It is everybody's second language. It is easy to understand, although you can't hear it. It is sign language.

　　When you wave to a friend who is across the street, you are using sign language. When you smile at someone, you are saying, "I want to be friendly"， but you are not using speech. You are using sign language. When you raise your hand in class, you are saying, "Please ask me. I think I know the correct answer."

　　Babies who can't talk can point at things. They are using sign language. A policeman who wants to stop traffic holds up his hands. He is using sign language.

　　Many years ago, a French priest, Charles Michel de Epee, became interested in education for deaf people. He invented a finger alphabet (字母表)．It is still in use. People can make the sign for letters and spell words with their hands, and deaf people can read and understand them. Soon there were schools for the deaf in many countries. The only university for the deaf is Gallaudet College in Washington, D．C.

　　Today, in the United States, there are special TV news programs for deaf people. The newsreader tells the news in sign language. At the same time, the words appear on the TV screen.

The actors in the Theatre of Deaf don't spell every word. Sometimes they use hand signs.