It is hard to track the blue whale, the ocean's largest creature, which has almost been killed off by
commercial whaling and is now listed as an endangered species. Attaching radio devices to it is difficult,
and visual sightings are too unreliable to give real insight into its behavior.
     So biologists were delighted early this year when, with the help of the Navy, they were able to track a
particular blue whale for 43 days, monitoring its sounds. This was possible because of the Navy's formerly top-secret system of underwater listening devices spanning the oceans.
     Tracking whales is but one example of an exciting new world just opening to civilian scientists after the cold war as the Navy starts to share and partly uncover its global network of underwater listening system
built over the decades to track the ships of potential enemies.
     Earth scientists announced at a news conference recently that they had used the system for closely
monitoring a deep-sea volcanic eruption (爆发) for the first time and that they plan similar studies.
     Other scientists have proposed to use the network for tracking ocean currents and measuring changes
in ocean and global temperatures.
     The speed of sound in water is roughly one mile a second-slower than through land but faster than
through air. What is most important, different layers of ocean water can act as channels for sounds,
focusing them in the same way a stethoscope (听诊器) does when it carries faint noises from a patient's
chest to a doctor's ear. This focusing is the main reason that even relatively weak sounds in the ocean,
especially low-frequency ones, can often travel thousands of miles.

1. The passage is chiefly about ____ .

A. an effort to protect an endangered marine species
B. the civilian use of a military detection system
C. the exposure of a U.S. Navy top-secret weapon
D. a new way to look into the behavior of blue whales

2. The underwater listening system was originally designed ____ .

A. to trace and locate enemy vessels
B. to monitor deep-sea volcanic eruptions
C. to study the movement of ocean currents
D. to replace the global radio communications network

3. The deep-sea listening system makes use of ____.

A. the sophisticated technology of focusing sounds under water
B. the capability of sound to travel at high speed
C. the unique property of layers of ocean water in transmitting sound
D. low-frequency sounds traveling across different layers of water____

4. It can be inferred from the passage that____.

A. new radio devices should be developed for tracking the endangered blue whales
B. blue whales are no longer endangered with the use of the new listening system
C. opinions differ as to whether civilian scientists should be allowed to use military technology
D. military technology has great potential in civilian use

5. Which of the following is true about the U.S. Navy underwater listening network?

A. It is now partly accessible to civilian scientists.
B. It has been replaced by a more advanced system.
C. It became useless to the military after the cold war.
D. It is indispensable in protecting endangered species.

     Believe it or not, in the near future people won't just wear a chicken feather suit at Halloween or for
fancy dress. Chickens, which have long provided food for dinner, will also be used to make our clothes
as well. Last Monday, a report by the University of Nebraska in the US said in the future it should be
possible to use chicken feathers and rice straw to make clothes.
     "All those wasted agriculture products don't have to be wasted anymore," researcher Yiqi Yang said.
New technology will change these by-products into something similar to wool, linen, or cotton. Because
producing synthetic fabrics (合成纤维) causes pollution, scientists wanted to find a cheaper and
environmentally friendly replacement. They turned their eyes to the millions of tons of rice straw and
chicken feathers that are widely and cheaply available worldwide. Moreover they don't cause pollution
like petroleum-based fibers (石油合成纤维).
     Chicken feathers are mostly made up of the same kind of protein found in wool. A sweater made
from chicken feathers would feel just like a wool sweater. It would be lighter in weight and warmer, too.
      According to Yang and his team, rice straw, on the other hand, can produce a fabric that looks and
feels similar to cotton or linen. The process is also environmentally friendly. The total production cost of
rice fiber is about 50 cents per pound, while cotton now sells for about 60 cents a pound.
     Maybe some day in the future you will wear fabulous clothes like these.

1. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. In the past, chicken feathers and rice straw were not very cheaply available.
B. At present, chicken feathers and rice straw are useless for producing synthetic fabrics.
C.The environmentally friendly products will take the place of the non-environmentally friendly ones.
D. Scientists have not made any progress in the environmentally friendly products.

2. What are the main advantage of the new clothes made of chicken feathers and rice straw?

A. They are mostly made up of the same kind of protein found in wool.
B. The clothes will be widely used in every field in our daily life.
C. The process of producing the clothes does not cheap at all.
D. A sweater made of the new clothes would be lighter in weight and warmer.

3. The underlined part "fabulous" in the last Paragraph probably means "        ".

A. heavy      
B. incredible      
C. awful      
D. ridiculous  

     Cheating can happen in a lot of different ways. When people cheat, it's not fair to other people, like
the kids who studied for the test or who were the true winners of a game.
     Many people like the action of cheating. It makes difficult things seem easy, like getting all the right
answers on the test. But it doesn't solve the problem of not knowing the material and it won't help on the
next test -unless the person cheats again.
     Some people lose respect for cheaters and think less of them. The cheaters themselves may feel bad
because they know they are not really earning that good grade. And, if they get caught cheating, they will
be in trouble at school, and maybe at home, too.
     Some kids cheat because they're busy or lazy and they want to get good grades without spending the
time studying. Other kids might feel like they can't pass the test without cheating. Even when there seems
to be a "good reason" for cheating, cheating isn't a good idea.
     If you were sick or upset about something the night before and couldn't study, it would be better to
talk with the teacher about this. And if you don't have enough time to study for a test because of swim
practice, you need to talk with your parents about how to balance swimming and school.
     A kid who thinks cheating is the only way to pass a test needs to talk with the teacher and his or her
parents so they can find some solutions(解决办法) together. Talking about these problems and working
them out will feel better than cheating.

1.The author thinks that when kids cheat in class,______.

A. it is unfair to other people                 
B. it does harm to their heath
C. teachers should punish them                
D. teachers shouldn't stop them at once

2. Some students like cheating mainly because_______.

A. the material in the test is very difficult        
B. they want to do better than the others
C. cheating can make hard things seem very easy  
D. they have little time to study their lessons

3.The fourth paragraph mainly tells us______.

A. cheating isn't a good idea                  
B. why kids cheat in the test
C. some kids can't pass the test without cheating  
D. some kids don't spend the time studying

4. In the passage those cheaters are advised to_______.

A. spend more time on school than on sports    
B. find good solutions instead of cheating
C. try hard to be intelligent rather than lazy      
D. ask their classmates for good methods of study

     For more than twenty years scientists have been searching for signs of life on other planets. Most of
these searches have been done over the radio. The hope is that someone in outer space may be trying to
get in touch with us. Scientists also have sent radio and television messages on spaceships traveling
through space, on the chance that someone may be receptive (善于接受的) to such messages.
     Scientists are using powerful radio telescope to listen to signals from about 1,000 stars, all within 100
light years of earth. In addition, they will scan (扫视) the entire sky to "listen" for radio messages from
more distant stars. Using a computer, they will be able to monitor more than eight channels at one time.
Scientists are looking for any signal that stands out from the background noise.
     Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy (银河星系), scientists find that five percent are like
our sun. Perhaps half of them have a planet like earth. Such a planet would be a reasonable distance from
the star for temperatures to be right for the evolution of life. Based on the inhabitable (that can be lived in) planets in our galaxy, most scientists agree that chances are likely that one or more of these planets
support some life.
     However, many scientists wonder whether intelligent (有智力的) life exists on other planets. Some
believe that twenty years of searching without any intelligible (可理解的) messages shows that no one is
out there. They say that the evolution of intelligence comparable to ours is unlikely.
     Other scientists believe that our search hasn't been long enough to rule out the possibility that intelligent
life exists in our galaxy. Although our sun family in only about five billion years old, our galaxy is about 20
billions years old. In that time, some scientists think it is likely that civilizations are much more advanced
than ours. Perhaps these civilizations (文明) send us no signals; perhaps we have not recognized the
signals they have sent us. If we hope to find intelligent life, these scientists believe that we have to keep
looking.

1. According to the passage, how many planets in our galaxy might be inhabitable?

A. 5 billion
B. 10 billion
C. 15 billion
D. 200 billion

2. The first paragraph in this passage is mainly about ______.

A. how scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets
B. why scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets
C. where scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets
D. when scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets

3. The underlined word "monitor" in the passage means "______".

A. find
B. follow
C. check
D. form

4. Which of the statements is TRUE based on the information in the passage?

A. The earth is one of the oldest planets in our galaxy.
B. Most scientists believe that there is intelligent life on other planet.
C. Scientists are trying different ways to find signs of life on other planet.
D. Scientists don't believe that there might be life on other planets.

     There are some things humans can go without. We can lose a kidney or a lung, an arm or two and still
live perfectly well. But some fish put us to shame. They can get by without stomachs.
     One such fish is the stout longtom. The group it belongs to carries a more appropriate name: the
needlefish. All needlefish lack stomachs. Their ancestors had them, but later they were lost.
     The stout longtom can reach 1.3 meters in length, and lives near the sea surface. Like all needlefish, it
can jump out of the water to escape its enemies. Tropical fishermen are sometimes injured by needlefish.
In 1977, a 10-year-old Hawaiian boy was killed when a needlefish jumped through his brain. The
longtom eats smaller fish. It teeth are not good at cutting fish into pieces, so it swallows fish whole.
     Ryan Day from Australia and his colleagues wanted to know how the longtom digests its meaty meals without a stomach, so they ran some chemical tests about the fish.
     Day's results show that the longtom can consume food without the help of a stomach. It uses a special material called trypsin that can break down proteins without acid - although the approach is less efficient
than using a stomach.
     Because it's a meat-eating animal, the longtom gets a lot of protein in its food, so it can afford this
slightly less efficient system for absorbing it. Two plant-eating fish that Day studies actually had higher
levels of trypsin in their body, as their food was low in protein.
     Day thinks that the longtom and its stomachless relatives might actually have arrived at an
energy-saving solution. He says that although the stomach is critical to many kinds of animal, the organ is
"a fairly expensive organ to run". This perhaps explains why some animals have got rid of theirs.

1. What does the underlined phrase "get by" mean?

A. Recover.
B. Fight.
C. Hunt.
D. Live.

2. Ryan Day ran the chemical tests in order to find out how the longtom ______.

A. catches smaller fish in the water
B. digests the smaller fish in its body
C. can jump so high to escape its enemies
D. uses acid to break down the protein

3. What plays a key role in the longtom's digestion process?

A. Trypsin.
B. Acid
C. The stomach.
D. Protein in its body.

4. Ryan Day's results show that ______.

A. the longtom can make acid easily
B. the longtom often waste energy
C. the longtom's high-protein food helps its unique way of consuming food.
D. meat -eating fish have higher levels of trypsin in their bodies than plant-eating fish

Dear MSN,
     I live in San Diego. I'm single and would like to meet people near me. Can I do this on the Internet? 
                                                                                                                  Searching in San Diego
Dear Searching,
    On the Internet, you could easily go looking for love in all the wrong places, but here are lots of great
ways to meet singles near you. 
    The Web is a good place to start. MSN also has international sites for Europe, Australia and South
America. 
    There are several California-based MSN web communities where you can meet like-minded people near
you as well as city-specific chat rooms for real-time interaction (互动). Hope for some clever friends.
What about a little more excitement in your online interactions? Try the "Gaming Zone!"
     I also tried MSN Search, looked under the "Personal" heading and found"Relationships". Clicked on that,
then found "Ads & Personals", by "Region" and found San Diego specific personal from there. Try it!
     Also, give "IRC" (Internet Relay Chat) and "Usenet Newsgroups" a shot. Many a net romance has started
and then developed in these off-the-Web communities. If you'd rather make friends F2F (face to face), the
Web has some helpful dating and redating tips.

1. Searching has written this letter with the purpose of _____.

A. getting help from MSN with his computer
B. winning the heart of a love from the web
C. meeting single people online
D. looking for love in all the wrong places

2. The underlined word "shot" in the passage probably means _____.

A. gunfire
B. shock
C. try
D. medical treatment

3. According to the second letter, MSN has several advantages such as _____.

A. shooting IRC and Usenet Newsgroups
B. giving you time and places to chat with others
C. satisfying you with whatever kind of help you want
D. supplying you with many methods to make friends

4. From the second letter we can infer that MSN treats an ordinary reader so kindly and warmly because ____.

A. it is its duty to help those who have trouble with their computers
B. it needs to attract readers so as to make greater money from it
C. it likes to see more net romances to share their happiness
D. all people need it and it needs all people

     Fish have ears. Really. They' re quite small and have no opening to the outside world carrying sound
through the body. For the past seven years, Simon Thorrold, a university professor, has been examining
fish ears, small round ear bones called otoliths.

What can we learn about fish ears from the text?

A. They are small soft rings.
B. They are not seen from the outside.
C. They are openings only on food fish.
D. They are not used to receive sound.

                                                                What is a dream?
     For centuries, people have wondered about the strange places that they seem to visit in their sleep.
51._____ However, they have been valued as necessary to a person's health and happiness. Historically
people thought dreams contained messages from God. It was only in the twentieth century that people
started to study dreams scientifically believing that they tell about a person's character. 2._____ He
believed that dreams allow a person to express fantasies or fears,which would be socially unacceptable
in real life.
     The second theory to become popular was Carl Jung's compensation theory. Jung, a former student
of Freud, said that the purpose of a dream is not to hide something, but rather to communicate it to the
dreamer. 3. _____ Thus, people who think too highly of themselves may dream about falling; those who
think too little of themselves dream of being heroes.
     Using more recent research, William Domhoff from the University of California found that dreaming
is a mental skill that needs time to develop in humans. 4._____ Until they reach age five, they can not
express very well what their dreams are about. Once people become adults, there is little or no change in
their dreams. The dreams of men and women differ. For instance, the characters that appear in the dreams
of men are often other men, and often involve physical aggression.
     The meaning of dreams continues to be difficult to understand. 5._____ If you dream that a loved one
is going to die, do not panic. The dream may have meaning, but it does not mean that your loved one is
going to die.

A. Dreams make up for what is lacking in waking life.
B. However, people should not take their dreams as reality.
C. They have been considered as meaningless nighttime journeys.
D. It gives scientists chances to understand human mind better.
E. Children do not dream as much as adults.
F. They think their mind is trying to tell them something.
G. First, there was Sigmund Freud's theory.

     Robots are being used for the first time in hospitals. "Robot-nurses" perform a variety of tasks such as
delivering medicine, food and laboratory samples to sickrooms and taking away waste. Patients aren't
treated by robots, as this is still done by medical staff. The idea is to employ robots to transport supplies
between departments.
     "Nurses often have to break off from what they are doing to gather supplies," says Peter Seiff, who
makes the robots called TUGs. Research shows any interruption in medical work can lead to errors-a
nurse may forget whether she has given medicine and may give a patient double the dose (剂量) or none
at all.
     The robots vary in size according to what job they perform, but normally take the shape of a metal
box on wheels, with a box on the side containing their software.
     After being programmed, the robots are able to find their way around a hospital unassisted. They also
contain scanning technology to create electronic pictures or a "memory" of routes on their hard drives to
help them go through passages, doors and other obstacles. Each robot is also monitored at the producer's headquarters (总部) in case it runs into any difficulties.
     Trials show TUGs reduce the time it takes for a patient to receive medicine, and stop drugs from going missing. A study at the University of Maryland Medical Centre in the U.S. found that when three TUGs
were used over the course of a year, the average length of time from the drugstore receiving a prescription to the patient receiving it dropped from 74 minutes to 30 minutes and saved nurses 6,123 hours finding medicines. It also cut the number of medicines that went missing to zero.
     "The biggest complaints we receive from patients is that the nurses don't spend enough time with them. Anything that frees nurses is a boon," says Katherine Mulligan, director of nursing at the hospital, "The
TUGs allow nurses to spend more time focusing on patient care. Nurse satisfaction has improved."

1. Which of the following activities are robot-nurses NOT programmed to deal with?

A. Transporting supplies.      
B. Taking away waste.
C. Taking care of patients.  
D. Creating electronic pictures.

2. The underline word "boon" in the last paragraph probably means           .

A. benefit  
B. dream    
C. habit  
D. complaint

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Robots can help nurses save a lot of time.  
B. All robots have the same size.  
C. Robots are unable to find their way by themselves.  
D. Robots cannot get help if they run into difficulties.

4. What is the attitude of the author towards robot-nurses?

A. Neutral.
B. Positive.  
C. Negative.
D. Unknown.