Recently, a solar powered (太阳能动力的) plane took to the sky for the first time. It had passed an
important test on the way to travel around the world.
     The plane took off from an airport in Switzerland (瑞士) at 45km an hour. It slowly rose above the
fields and into the sky.
     "There has never been an airplane of that kind that could fly - never an airplane so big, so light, using
so little energy," said Bertrand Piccard, a leader of the project.
     During the 90-minute flight, the plane did several turns. It climbed nearly 1.6km above the countryside.
     Engineers plan to test a night flight before July. Then they will use the results of the tests to build a
second plane. They plan to travel around the world in that plane in 2012.
     The plane flies at 70 km an hour. That is faster than a bike and slower than a car. Piccard and pilot Andre
Borschberg will take the plane around the world. The pilots will keep the plane in the air for up to five days
at a time.
     "We want to fly it day and night with no fuel (燃料)," Piccard said.

1. How long did the first flight of the solar powered plane last?

A. 45 minutes
B. 60 minutes
C. 70 minutes
D. 90 minutes

2. What's the most special about the plane?

A. It uses no fuel
B. It's the fastest plane
C. It can fly highest
D. It's the heaviest plane

3. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A. The plane goes much faster than a car
B. The plane took off at a speed of 45km an hour
C. Engineers plan to test a night flight before July
D. The plane will fly in the air or up to five days at a time

4. Which column (栏目) of a newspaper may the passage come from?

A. Food and Health
B. Scientist and Technology
C. Culture and Communication
D. Sports and Entertainment

     Cell phones (移动电话) are all around us. We use cell phones to call our friends, send text messages,
play games, and even take photographs. Now imagine using your cell phone to call your air conditioner
(空调器). If this were possible you could tell your air conditioner to rum on before you got home. Does
this sound impossible to you? Well, it could become possible sooner than you think. In the near future, we
might use cell phones as remote controls (遥控器) for the electrical devices (电器) in our homes. People
are already working to develop different ways to communicate wirelessly (无线的) with devices we use
every day. For example, it is already possible for cell phones to communicate with laptop computers.
Business people using laptops during meetings Call use their cell phones as remote controls. They can use
their cell phones to send instructions to computers to turn on, change pictures, and turn off. With the same
technology (技术), people can use their cell phones to control other devices. You Can call your stereo (立体
声音响设备) to play music automatically (自动地). You Can call your lights to turn on when you enter a room. Maybe even by next summer you will be able to call your air conditioner!

1. What is the main idea of this passage? 　　

A. In the future we will all need air conditioners. 　　
B. Business people need to use computers. 　　
C. Some people like to make phone calls to machines. 　　
D. We will use cell phones as remote controls in the future.

2. Cell phones can be used to rum on and off __________in the future. 　　

A. a special computer 　　　　　　
B. different kinds of devices 　　
C. cell phone companies　　　　　
D. remote controls

3. Which probably could NOT be controlled by a cell phone? 　　

A. An air conditioner or heater.
B. A computer or printer. 　　
C. A table or a basket.　　　　　　　
D. A CD player or MP3 player.

4. The underlined words "laptop computers" mean _____? 　　

A. 台式计算机　　
B. 大型计算机　　
C. 便携式计算机　　
D. 计算机控制中心

5. Which instructions can be sent to a laptop according to the passage? 　　

A. Play sound and music.　　　　
B. Start and shut down. 　　
C. Call again and hang up.　　　
D. Go faster and go slower.

      Chinese are very generous when it comes to educating their children. Not caring about the money,
parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad to England, the United States or Australia.
They also want their children to take extra- course (额外课程) activities where they will either leam music or
dance,or other classes that will give them a head start in life. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an
education is, the better it is. So parents will spend an unreasonable amount of money on education. Even poor
couples will buy a computer for their son or daughter.
      However, what most parents fail to see is that the best early education they can give their children is usually
very cheap. Parents can see that their children's skills are different, maybe skilled in some areas while poor in
others. What most parents fail to realize though, is that today's children are in need of self-respect and
self-confidence. The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to take tests and how to
study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills they need to be confident, happy and
clever.
      Parents can achieve this by teaching practical skills like cooking, sewing and doing other housework.
      Teaching a child to cook will improve many of the skills that he will need later in life. Cooking requires
patience and time. It is an enjoyable but difficult experience. A good cook always tries to improve his cooking,
so he will leam to work hard and gradually finish his job successfully. His result, a well-cooked dinner, will give
him much satisfaction and a lot of self-confidence.
      Some old machines, such as a broken radio or TV set that you give your child to play with will make him
curious (好奇的) and have interest. He will spend hours looking at them, trying to fix them; your child might
become an engineer when he grows up. These activities are not only teaching a child to read a book, but rather
to think, to use his mind. And that is more important.

1. Most Chinese parents don't realize ____.

A. how much the best education is worth
B. when children should be educated
C. what children really need in later life
D. why school tests don't satisfy children

2. What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A. Leaming to think is very important.
B. Interest is necessary for everything.
C. Broken things are useful for children.
D. Using hands helps improve thinking ability.

3. The writer's attitude to children's education is that ____.

A. the cheaper an education is, the better it is
B. children today should leam different skills
C. practical skills are helpful to children's growth
D. school education can't meet parents' expectations

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

         A Nobel Prize is considered by most people one of the highest international honours a person can receive．As you know，the prizes were started by a Swedish called Alfred Nobel．He was born in Stockholm，the capital of Sweden．Alfred Nobel was a great scientist．He made two important inventions，and so he became very rich．Although he was rich，Nobel was not a happy man．He never married or had children．Also，he was a sick man during his large part of life．When he died at the age of 63, he left a fund of$9,000,000．The money was to be used in giving prizes to those who made great achievements in physics，chemistry(化学)，medicine and literature, and for world peace．    
         The first Nobel Prizes were given on December 10, 1901，five years after Nobel's death．Since then many famous people from all over the world have been given Nobel Prizes for their achievements．          Each prize has three parts．The first part is a gold medal．Second，a winner of a Nobel Prize is given a diploma, saying that he has been given the prize．The third part of the prize is a large amount of money---about$40,000．     
         Often a prize is given to just one person，but not always．Sometimes a prize is shared．Itmay be given to two or more people who have worked together．It is also sometimes true that a prize is not given at all if there is no great achievement．In 1972，for example，no Nobel Peace Prize was given．        

1．What kind of person would you say Alfred Nobel was?  

A．He was a rich happy and lucky man．    
B．He was a poor, unhappy and unlucky man．    
C．He was a rich, but unhappy and unlucky man．    
D．He was a poor, but happy and lucky man．

2．When he died，Nobel left a large amount of money____________．

A．to his wife                        
B．to his children        
C．for helping the poor people in Sweden  
D．for setting five prizes 

3．The underlined word “diploma” in the passage most probably means__________．

A．certificate          
B．letter          
C．ticket        
D．card 

4．How many persons is a Noble Prize given to? 

A．Not always one person．              
B．Two persons．    
C．Only one person．                  
D．Three persons

When you are reading something in English, you may often meet with a new word. What’s the best way to know it?
You may look it up in the English-Chinese dictionary. It will tell you a lot about the word: the pronunciation, the Chinese meaning and how to use the word. But how can you know where the word is thousands of English words? How to find it in the dictionary both quickly and correctly?First, all the English words are arranged(安排) in the letter order. In the dictionary you can first see the words beginning with letter A, then B, C, D…. That means, if there are two words “desert” and “pull”, “desert” will be certainly before “
pull”. Then if there are two words both beginning with the same letter, you may look at the second letter.
Then the third, the fourth…For example, “pardon” is before “plough”, “judge” before “just”, etc.
For example, “pardon” is before “plough”, “judge” before “just”, etc.Do you understand how to look up in the dictionary?The dictionary will be your good friend. I hope you’ll use it as often as possible in your
English study.Do you understand how to look up in the dictionary?
For example, “pardon” is before “plough”, “judge” before “just”, etc.Do you understand how to look up in the dictionary?The dictionary will be your good friend. I hope you’ll use it as often as possible in your
English study.The dictionary will be your good friend. I hope you’ll use it as often as possible in your
English study.

1. This passage is about______.

A. new words in writing
B. different dictionaries
C. the best way of reading
D. using an English-Chinese dictionary

2. In the dictionary you may not find_______.

A. how to pronounce the word
B. the spelling of the word
C. who used the word first
D. how to use the word

3. In an English-Chinese dictionary, the last word______.

A. begins with Z
B. begins with A
C. is a short one
D. is not often used

4. Which group of words is in the right order in an English-Chinese dictionary?

A. perhaps, produce, plenty
B. straight, subject, surprise
C. century, center, business
D. foreign, entrance, headache

5. In the passage the writer tries to tell us that_______.

A. we have to use a dictionary when we read something in English
B. an English-Chinese dictionary can tell us everything about a word
C. an English-Chinese dictionary can help us a lot in our English study
D. all English-Chinese dictionary are the same

    Doing experiments can be interesting, and you may try the following experiments at home.
    Make sure that you’ll do them with an adult.

1. How many experiments are there in the pictures?

A. Six.
B. Five.
C. Three.
D. Two.

2. The following are the instructions on how to do “Step 2” in these experiments. Which one is the right order?

a. Pour 3/4 of the water away.  b. Put a balloon on the bottle.
c. Put the bottle in a bucket of hot water. The air rises into the balloon.
A. a, b, c
B. a, c, b
C. b, a, c
D. c, a, b

3. What can you see in the bottle at last in Experiment A?

A. Some ice.
B. Some water.
C. Some ice and water.
D. A cloud and some water.

4. What will happen to the balloon in “Step 3” in Experiment C?

A. It will be bigger.
B. It will be broken.
C. It won’t change.
D. It will be in the bottle.

                        
       On June 26, 2000, two scientists, called Francis Collins and Craig Venter, told the world that they
could now read the whole "map" of the human body: DNA. DNA is something that everybody has, and
it tells the body what to do. DNA is the reason that we look like our mother and father, because we get
some of their DNA to make our own.    
       People have been trying to understand the human body for a long time. In 1860, Gregor Mendel
discovered a special reason why we look the same as other people in our family. It is because of small
things named "genes" in our body. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick made another discovery
and found out that those small parts are real messages written in the DNA with a special language.
       In 1961, Marshall Nirenberg and Johann Matthaei found a message in DNA showing how DNA
tells the cell (细胞) to build its parts. Scientists have now found all the words in the DNA map, but we
still do not understand what they all do. By understanding what just one "word" means, we can help
save more people from several illnesses.
       Most people hope that this will help make better medicine and help sick people. Other people worry
that when people begin to know more words and find out lots of other information, we might use it in a
wrong way, just to make people more attractive, or stop sick people from getting jobs. Man would have
to meet a lot of trouble if DNA technic wasn’t limited in use.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案。

1. When did we first know why we look like other people in our family?  

A. In 1860.          
B. In 1953.            
C. In 1961.            
D. In 2000.

2. What does the underlined word "gene" mean?

A. The "map" of DNA.                      
B. A special language.
C. Small parts of DNA.                      
D. DNA.

3. What did the two scientists first discover in 1961?

A. The "map" of DNA.                    
B. A new illness.  
C. The language of DNA.                    
D. A message of DNA.

4. What can we do if we understand some "words" of the language inside the body?

A. Make people get new jobs.              
B. Make medicine for illnesses.
C. Make maps of human.                
D. Make people less attractive.

5. What do people think about this work?

A. It can cause good or bad resutls.            
B. It can cause only good results.  
C. It can cause good results but won’t work.      
D. It can cause only bad results.

     Have you ever heard someone use the phrase"once in a blue moon"? People use this expression to
describe something that they do not do very often. For example, someone might say that he tries to
avoid eating sweets because they are unhealthy, but will eat chocolate"once in a blue moon". Or
someone who does not usually like to go to the beach might say " I visit the shore once in a moon."
While many people use this phrase, not everyone knows the meaning behind it.
     The first thing to know is that the moon itself  is never really blue. This is just an expression fact, the
phrase "blue moon" has to do with the shape of  the moon, not the color.
     As the moon travels around the earth , it appears to change shape. We associate names with certain
shapes of the moon. For example, when we can see a small part of the moon is called a crescent moon.
A crescent is a shape that looks like the tip of a fingernail When we cannot see the moon at all, it is called
a new moon.
     When we can see the whole moon is called a full moon. Usually, there is only one full moon every
month. Sometimes , however will be two full moons in one month. When this happens, the second full
moon is called a moon".
     Over the next 20 years, there will only be 15 blue moons. As you can see, a blue moon every rare
event. This fact has led people to use the expression "once in a blue moon" to other very rare events in
their lives.

1. Which of the following would be a good example of using the phrase"once in a blue moon".
A. Simon often tells jokes. Simon tells jokes once in a blue moon.
B. Tom rarely remembers to do exercise. Tom does exercise once in a blue moon.
C. Mary likes to go shopping every weekend. Mary goes shopping once in a blue moon.
D. Cindy nates to stay up, but she stays up every day. Cindy stays up once in a blue moon.
2. When does a blue moon happen in nature?
A. When the moon has a blue moon.
B. When we cannot see the moon at all.
C. When there are two full moons in one month.
D. When we can only see a small part of the moon.
3. Which of the following is another example of something that has a shape?
A. The letter "O"
B. The letter "M"
C. The letter "H"
D. The letter "C"
4. How often will a blue moon happen over the next twenty years?
A. Once a year.            
B. Less than once a year.
C. More than once a year.  
D. At least twice a year.
5. What does the underlined part "This fact" in the last paragraph refer to (所指)?
A. A blue moon is a very rare event.
B. The moon appears to change shape.
C. The moon itself is never really blue.
D. A blue moon has to do with the shape of the moon.