Passage 4

From the world’s heaviest apple, the oldest lady to the world’s smallest dog, these are all parts of a group of the world’s strangest people and things. And they are all in the Guinness Book of Records(《吉尼斯记录》).

The book is going to celebrate its birthday this August. It began exactly half a century ago. And it’s always one of the best selling books in the world.

People now can break over 1000 records every week! Why do so many people want to break the records? Do they want their names in the book or meet more people around the world? “It gives people a chance to show they’re the best in the world.” said one of the record keepers Stewart Newport.

The book was started by Hugh Beaver from Britain. In 1951, he went shooting birds and talked with his friends about the fastest bird in Europe. Three years later, they were still talking about it. So Beaver believed that people must have different ideas. So, he decided to start a book to record the world’s truly greatest people and things in it!

The newest book came out last Tuesday. This book has a lot of interesting records. Here are two:

☆ A British dog, Whitney, is the world’s smallest dog. It’s only 76mm tall.

☆ An American woman Lee Redmond has the longest fingernails(指甲).They grew as long as 600 mm! She made the record in 1971.

小题1:We can see everything in the Guinness Book of Records except         .

A．the heaviest fruits and vegetables

B．the smallest people and animals

C．the strangest people and things

D．very ordinary people and things小题2:The Guinness Book of Records has been one of the best selling books for           .

A．50 years

B．76 years

C．600 years

D．1000 years小题3:Newport thought many people tried to break Guinness records because       .

A．their names be kept in the world records.

B．their names could be seen by the whole world.

C．they could meet more people all over the world.

D．they could be known as the greatest by the world.小题4:Which of the following is right according to the passage?

A．Newport started the Guinness Book of Records in Britain.

B．More than four thousand records are broken each month.

C．The Guinness Book of Records started in the year 1954.

D．The newest book of Guinness comes out every Tuesday.小题5:The writer of this passage wants to         .

A．tell us the strangest records in the world

B．show us the beginning of the Guinness Book of Records

C．give us an introduction to the Guinness Book of Records

D．let us know the most interesting things in the world