Jia Sixie
     Jia Sixie,an outstanding agronomist and the author of China's first agricultural encyclopedia (百科全书),
was one of the leading agronomists in Chinese history. In the late years of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534), he wrote Qimin Yaoshu(Important Arts for the People's Welfare). It is the earliest and most complete
agricultural encyclopedia still in existence in China. Jia Sixie was born in Yidu County (today's Shouguang
County)in China's Shandong Province.He completed the book amid (在……之中) chaos (混乱) caused by
wars during the years of 533 to 544. He saw the sufferings of the poor farmers in his hometown and other
places while traveling through North China's Hebei and Shanxi provinces and Central China's Henan Province.
With his profound knowledge on agriculture, he believed that the development of agriculture could help those
farmers out.
     The book, which has 92 chapters in 10 volumes and nearly 120 000 characters, covers a wide range of
topics and records on production experiences and methods. It includes advice on farming, forestry (林业),
animal husbandry (农牧业), fishery and sideline occupations.
     Qimin Yaoshu was first distributed mainly among common people. In the Northern Song Dynasty
(960-1127),it became an official guiding book on agriculture. In the late Tang Dynasty (618-907),the book was
introduced to Japan who now still has the earliest incomplete (不完全的) version of the Northern Song
Dynasty. Now, the book has been translated into several languages. Qimin Yaoshu is considered as an important summary of farming knowledge. At present, it is still studied by Chinese farmers and students majoring in
agriculture.

 【个性思考】
What do you think of Jia Sixie? 　　
In my view _____________________________________________________________________________.

                                                  Yuan Longping, China's Most Famous"Farmer"
     It says every scientist cherishes a childhood dream indicating his or her future success, but for Yuan
Longping, dubbed (授予称号) as "father of hybrid rice", the dream is that he cultivates rice as plump as peanuts, and farmers can relax in the cool shadow of big rice plants.
     Yuan,71,won a 5 million yuan State Supreme Science and Technology Award today, known as the Nobel
Prize in China, for his outstanding achievements in breeding high yield-Hybrid rice, which has substantially
increased China's grain output.
     Yuan came up with the idea of hybridizing rice for the first time in the world in 1960s.Since then,50
percent of China's total rice cultivation fields have grown such rice, which added some 300 billion kilograms to
the country's grain output.
      Furrows (皱纹) grown on his sunburnt face, a slim figure and coiled-up trousers legs would confuse
foreign reporters who came to interview the most famous scientist in China, who would rather be called "a
farmer". Indeed, like many Chinese farmers, Yuan in his 70s and has devoted most of his life growing rice in
paddy fields, but unlike those farmers, he reaps the seed from experimental fields only for hybridizing rice.
     The urbanite-turned-farmer graduated from Southwest Agriculture College in 1953 has his name related to
the world's most advanced agricultural technology. Four minor planets, a listed seed company's and a science
college in China were named after him, which were the first time that a Chinese scientist's name is valued for its intellectual assets.
     By lending his name to the Longping High-tech, a seed company, Yuan obtained a 5 per cent stake, or 2.5
million shares worth 2 million yuan, in the firm. However, Yuan said his research requires the lifestyle of a
farmer, or rather a migrating farmer, as he has conducted extensive research related to the cultivation of new
strains of hybrid rice"Super Hybrid Rice" in some 10 provinces.
     In the year 1999,more than 300 billion kilograms of grain were increased from about 240 million hectares
(公顷) of hybrid rice, which signified the success of his research. And this made Yuan firmly believe that
China can surely feed her 1.2 billion population with her limited cultivated land.
     The "Super Rice" yields are 30 percent higher than those of common rice. The record yield of 17 055
kilograms per hectare was registered in Yongsheng County in Yunnan in 1999.But even after that achievement
Yuan won't take a break. He has a dream, more realistic than that of his young age, that popularizing new
strains of grain with higher yields around the world, can eliminate starvation on earth.
      The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has vowed to get involved in the work of spreading the
coverage of Yuan's high-yield hybrid rice, which it considers the best way to increase the world's grain output.
     The FAO's 1991 statistics show that 20 percent of the world's rice output was yielded from 10 percent of
the world's rice fields, which grow hybrid rice."If the new strain was sown in the rest of the rice acreage, the
present grain output around the world can be more than doubled. This can be a solution to the grain shortage,"
the unselfish scientist.
     In 1980,Yuan went to the United States at the invitation of the International Rice Research Institute to share
his knowledge about the cultivation technology of hybrid rice. He was also employed in 1991 as the chief
consultant of FAO to bring his research methods to other countries. With the help of Chinese scientists, the
acreage (面积) of hybrid rice in Viet Nam and India increased to 200 000 hectares and 150 000 hectares in
1999, respectively.
     The rice research costs time to prove its value. At the age of 43,Yuan cultivated the world's first hybrid
rice. At that time the country's grain yield was about 4500 kilogram per hectare."The natural disaster and policy miscarriage further deteriorated starvation in China by then," Yuan recalled tearfully.
     This is his motivation to stimulate his research. Largely due to his scientific progress, China's total rice
output rose from 5.69 billion tons in 1950 to 19.47 billion tons last year. The growth rate of rice output far
exceeded the population growth speed.
     Some people estimate Yuan's actual fortune might amount to more than 100 million ?yuan? (12 million
U.S.dollars),making him one of the richest people in China. But he doesn't know for sure himself, for he seems
not to care about his own assets than the rice harvest. Some people asked him to move the focus of his
research from improving amounts of hybrid rice to the quality and taste, which would be easier to do. But, the
stubborn academician (学者) insisted that the amount of hybrid rice's per unit yield still outweighs the quality,
for his foremost task is to improve the grain reserve in developing countries.

YUAN LONGPING

【个性思考】 Why do you think Yuan Longping can achieve so much? 　　
  In my view___________________________________________________________________________ .

                                                         The influential Charlie Chaplin 
     Charlie Chaplin is irresistible (无法抵御) because he is one of the first and most enduring (持久的) movie
stars, because he quickly gained creative and financial control (创作权和财政权) of his movies, because he
invented such a fascinating (引人入胜的) series of comic (喜剧的) films, because he experienced such a
stormy personal life, and because his 40-year filmmaking career in the United States was such a rollercoaster
ride of boom and bust.
                                                                    
     Every few weeks outside the movie theater in virtually any American town in the late 1910s,stood the life-
size card board figure of small tramp-outfitted in tattered (破旧的), baggy (肥大的) pants, a cutaway coat
and vest(背心), impossibly large, worn-out shoes, and a battered derby (扁顶) hat-bearing the inscription (印
象) "I am here today." An advertisement for a Charlie Chaplin film was a promise of happiness, of that precious,
almost shocking moment when art delivers what life cannot.
     In a 1995 worldwide survey (调查) of film critics, Chaplin was voted the greatest actor in movie history.
He was the first, and to date the last, person to control every aspect of the filmmaking process-founding his
own studio, United Artists, with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D.W. Griffith, and producing, casting
(演员挑选人), directing, writing, and editing the movies he starred in.
     In the first decade of the twentieth century, when weekly movie going was a national habit, Chaplin more
or less invented global recognizability (世人的赞扬) and helped turn an industry into an art. In 1916, his third
year in films, his salary of $10 000 a week made him the highest paid actor-possibly the highest paid person-in
the world.
     By 1920, "Chaplinitis" accompanied (伴随) by a flood of Chaplin dances, songs, dolls, comic books and
cocktails, was rampant. Filmmakers Mack Sennett thought him "just the greatest artist who ever lived". Other
early admirers included George Bernard Shaw, Marcel Proust, and Sigmund Freud. In 1923 Hart Crane, who
wrote a poem about Chaplin, said his pantomime"represents the futile gesture (无用的) of the poet today".
     Later in the 1950s, Chaplin was one of the icons of the Beat Generation. From 1981 to 1987, IBM used the
Tramp as the logo to advertise its venture (冒险精神) into personal computers.
     He has been called the single most influential artist in the history of motion pictures; certainly no other
movie star enjoyed the international, iconographic (象征性的) status (地位) he attained early in the silent era
and maintained (保持) well past the coming of sound. And certainly no other creative talent did as much as he
to elevate (提高) screen comedy to a high art.

【个性思考】 Do you know why Charlie Chaplin can be called the single most influential artist in the history
of motion pictures?
     In my view ____________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

     Catherine Destivelle is a rock star. She loves rock, but she can't sing or play the guitar! She is a rock
climber and a big star in France and Italy. She is the most famous woman climber in the world because she
climbs without ropes. She climbs in many countries but most often in the French Alps near Chamonix, where
she lives. She started climbing near her home in Paris when she was five. Then, at fourteen, she joined the
French Alpine Club to learn more, but immediately she climbed better and more quickly than the older members
of the club. She won her first competition in Italy in 1995.
     Three years ago she found a new route up the Dru Mountain near Chamonix The climb took eleven days
and for four days the snow was so heavy that she could not move. Last year other climbers tried to follow the
new Destivelle Route, but they failed. They are going to try again this year.
     People always ask her about her climbing. She says, "I climb because I'm in love with mountains. I like
touching the rock and reading the face of the rock. I like it a lot. I felt at home on the side of a mountain. I
prepare well before I go, so I'm never worried."
     Catherine chooses new mountains from books-like buying from a shopping catalogue (目录)! "I see a nice
mountain and I go to climb it!" Her next mountain is in Pakistan. She is going there next month:"It's much
bigger than the Dru, so it's going to take longer to climb. An American climber, Jeff Lowe, is coming with me
to help."

1. Catherine Destivelle is called "a star" because _____.

A. she won a competition in 1995
B. she has a talent for rock music
C. she is a famous woman climber
D. she found a new route up to the Dru Mountain

2. She had great trouble finding a new route up the Dru Mountain because _____.

A. she lost her way
B. the climb took 11 days
C. she needed help from an American climber
D. there was a heavy snow

3. On the side of a mountain she feels _____.

A. worried
B. easy and happy
C. like going home
D. well

4. We can infer from the passage people often ask her "_____".

A. Why do you like climbing?
B. Are you in love with an American climber?
C. Do you enjoy reading books on mountains?
D. What do you do before you go climbing?

     In Mount Berry, Georgia, people find a group of schools built specially for mountain children. The schools,
as well as the mountain itself, are named after Martha Berry herself, a daughter of a Georgian mountaineer.
     Martha Berry was born in 1866. Luckier than most Georgian mountain children, she received an education
But she never forgot other children of the mountains whose parents couldn't afford to send them to school. In
1902 Martha Berry started a school for these children It was housed in a single small log cabin and was attended
by only five pupils. Now, eighty years later, there are a score of Berry schools in the area, with a total of over
one thousand students and waiting list of about five thousand.
     Martha Berry in her later years received many medals and honors for what she had done for the poor
mountain children of Georgia, and in 1931 she was named one of the twelve most important women in the
United States. She never stopped working for the mountain children till her death in 1942.

1. The first Berry School was founded ____.

A. to honor Martha Berry
B. in memory of Martha Berry
C. by the efforts of Martha Berry
D. in Martha Berry's own house

2. In Mount Berry there are now ____.

A. enough schools for all the local children
B. still not enough schools for all the local children
C. more than enough schools for all the local children
D. schools for local children as well as those from other parts

3. Martha Berry was named one of the twelve most important women in the US because ____.

A. she had helped develop one of the most backward areas
B. she had never stopped working till her death
C. she had received many medals and honors
D. she had helped set up some of the most advanced schools

4. The passage mainly tells us ____.

A. the history of the Berry School
B. about a poor area in the United States
C. Mount Berry's development in education
D. Martha Berry's work and achievement

     Of all the folk artists in the United States the best known of the twentieth century is certainly Grandma
Moses--Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860-1961). She was also the most successful within her lifetime
and her work was reproduced on greeting cards and in prints. As with many folk artists, her career as a
painter started late in life, at the age of 67, but she continued painting until her death at the age of 10l, so
her active painting life still lasted over 34 years.
     Her subjects are based on the New England countryside. Many of her early paintings are copies of, or
use sections from, prints by Currier and Ives that she then recreated in her own way. In her paintings the
figures became more stylized and the landscapes less naturalistic. Her painting was preceded (优先) by the
production of landscapes in needlework. The images, however, continued the same, and she remade some
of her needlework landscapes in paint at a later date.
     From these early sources she began to compose original paintings such as Housick Falls, New York in
Winter (1944) that relied on her surroundings and her memories of country life and activities; these paintings
show her increasing technical ability. By the 1940's her work had become a marketable commodity and
collectors created a demand for her paintings.
     Like many painters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Grandma Moses made use of photographs
for information, for figures, for landscapes, and for buildings, but her work, especially that of her later years,
was not a simple copying of these but compositions using them as source material. Her output was amazing,
and consequently her work is of varying quality. Her paintings place her among the top folk painters of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

1. What is the main topic of the passage?

A. The painting materials used by Grandma Moses.
B. The major artistic influences on Grandma Moses.
C. The folk art of Grandma Moses.
D. The life of Grandma Moses.

2. According to the passage, Grandma Moses started her painting career ____.

A. without much success
B. in her sixties
C. after much study
D. by producing greeting cards

3. Why does the author mention Currier and Ives in the second paragraph?

A. They are folk artists.
B. They collected many of Grandma Moses' paintings.
C. They made calendars from Grandma Moses' landscapes.
D. Grandma Moses based some paintings on their work.

4. According to the passage, Grandma Moses switched (转变) from needlework to painting because of ____.

A. her desire to create landscapes
B. the public's interest in painting
C. her need to make money
D. a physical condition that affected her

     Jeanne Calment, a French woman, became a record breaker on 17 October of 1995, when at the age of
120 years and 238 days, she became the longest-lived human being on record. A Japanese man died in 1986
at the age of 120 years and 237 days.
     Jeanne Calment lives in a small old people's home in the south of France; her husband, her only child and
her grandson have all died. She is nearly blind and deaf and is always in a wheelchair, but her doctor describe
s her as being more like a 90-year-old in good health than someone of 120. She still has a lively sense of humor. When asked on her 120th birthday what she expected of the future, she replied: A very short one. She also
remarked that she thought the good Lord had forgotten all about her.
     So what is the key to a long life? According to some doctors, diet, exercise and no smoking are the three
important factors. Jeanne Calment has followed two of the tips. She has always eaten a healthy diet, and she
used to do exercises every day until she broke her leg at the age of 115. However, until recently she drank two
glasses of strong red wine a day, and she does smoke(now only a little). Besides, Jeanne Calment might have
got very good genes (基因) from her parents. Her father lived to the age of 94 and her mother to 86.
      A local lawyer bought her house when she was 80 under an agreement that he would pay her some money
every year until her death. It must have seemed a good move at the time, but so far the lawyer has paid her at
least three times the value of the house. Every year on her birthday Jeanne Calment sends him a card saying:
Sorry, I'm still alive!

1. How does Jeanne Calment feel about her old age?

A. She is miserable and unhappy.
B. She is cheerful and humorous.
C. She would like to live much longer.
D. She feels she is going to die very soon.

2. Jeanne Calment owes her good health and long life to ______.

A. smoking only a little every day
B. her giving up smoking and drinking
C. drinking two glasses of strong red wine every day
D. the good genes from her parents, a healthy diet and some exercises

3. Which of the following could best replace the word "move" in the fourth paragraph?

A. deal
B. trick
C. march
D. sport

4. Why does Jeanne Calment say" Sorry, I'm still alive" to the local lawyer every year on her birthday?

A. Because she had an agreement at 80 with the lawyer which was to her advantage.
B. Because she has asked the lawyer to pay her more rent than they first agreed.
C. Because the lawyer has paid her much more money than the value of the house.
D. Because the house she sold to the lawyer isn't worth the money he has already paid.

     About the year 1900, a poor boy named Charlie Chaplin was often seen waiting outside the back entrances
of London theatres. He looked thin and hungry. He was hoping to get work in show business. He could sing
and dance, and above all, he knew how to make people laugh. But he couldn't get work and therefore wandered
about the city streets. Sometimes he was sent away to a home for children who had no parents.
     But twenty years later, this same Chaplin became the greatest, best-known, and best-loved comedian (喜剧
演员) in the world. Any regular visitor to the cinema, must have seen some of Chaplin's films. People
everywhere have sat and laughed at them until the tears ran down their faces. Even people who don't understand
English can enjoy his films, because they are mostly silent. It isn't what he says that makes us laugh. His comedy
doesn't depend upon (依靠) words or language. It depends upon funny actions which mean the thing to people
all over the world. Acting out without words, of common human situations plays an important part in the dances
and plays in many countries. It's a kind of the world language.
     Chaplin lived most of his life in America and died in Switzerland on Christmas Day in 1977, at the age of
eighty-eight. There was sadness all over the world at the news of his death.

1. Chaplin was born _____.

A. in 1990
B. in Switzerland
C. in 1889
D. in America

2. Why was Chaplin often seen waiting outside London theatres?

A. Because he needed a job in show business.
B. Because he needed food to eat.
C. Because he hoped to sing and dance.
D. Because he hoped to have a home.

3. Twenty years later, Chaplin became the best _____.

A. singer
B. dancer
C. actor
D. comedian

4. What does Chaplin's comedy depend on?

A. Words and language.
B. Music and dance.
C. Story and background.
D. Action, a kind of the world language.

5. Which is true?

A. Chaplin was an American.
B. Chaplin's comedy was boring.
C. Chaplin was a dumb (哑巴).
D. People in the world were very sad at the news of Chaplin's death.

     When he took office, George W. Bush, son of former president George Herbert Walker Bush, became the
first son to follow his father into the White House since John Quiney Adams followed John Adams in the early
19th century.
     Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, the first child of George Herbert Walker Bush
and Barbara Pierce Bush. Although George Herbert Walker Bush began his career in the oil industry, he finally
served as a congressman (国会议员), and vice president and president of the United States.
     At the age of two, Bush moved with his parents from Connecticut to Odessa, Texas, where his father took
up the oil business. After a year in Texas, the family moved to California for business reasons. A year later, the
family returned to Texas and settled in Midland, where Bush lived from 1950 to 1959.
     In 1959, again for business reasons, the family moved to Houston, Texas. In 1961 Bush left Texas and
went to Andover, Massachusetts, to attend Phillips Academy, a boarding school (寄宿学校) that his father had
also attended.
     At Phillips, Bush played basketball, baseball, and football. He was best known for being head cheerleader.
In 1964 he enrolled at Yale University in Connecticut; his father and grandfather had also attended Yale. At
Yale, Bush was considered an average student, but he was popular with his classmates.
     Bush graduated from Yale with a bachelor's degree in history in 1968. Then he joined the Air National
Guard and remained in the Guard until 1973. After earning his MBA from Harvard in 1975, Bush returned to
Midland. Like his father, he first entered the oil industry as a"landsman (新手)". However, Bush's oil companies never enjoyed great success. He took more interest in politics. He helped his father to become president and in
1994 he himself was elected governor of Texas.
     In the summer of 1999, Bush began to run for the president of the USA and on January 20, 2001, George
W. Bush, hand raised, took the oath(宣誓)of office to become the 43rd president of the US.

1. What does the writer intend to tell us in the first paragraph?

A. George W. Bush is the first son in American history to follow his father into the White House.
B. George W. Bush is the first son of former president George Herbert Walker Bush.
C. John Quincy Adams and his father were both former American presidents.
D. George W. Bush is the second one in American history to follow his father into White House.

2. We may learn from the text that young Bush __________.

A. got on very well at the universities
B. was very good at basketball, baseball and football
C. did everything as his father had done
D. was a very successful politician like his father

3. Which of the following is NOT true about George W. Bush?

A. Young Bush lived with his family in Texas from 1948 to 1961.
B. He once studied at a university that his father and grandfather had also attended.
C. He once ruled over an American state before he entered the White House.
D. He once served at the Air National Guard for about five years.