There was a man who had a little boy that he loved very much. Every day after work the man would come home and 26   with the little boy. He would always 27 all of his extra time with the little boy.

      One night, while the man was at work, he 28 that he had extra work to do for the evening, and that he wouldn't be able to play with his little boy. 29 he wanted to be able to give the boy something to keep him 30 . So, looking around his office, he saw a magazine with a large 31 of the world on the cover. He got a(n) 32 . He removed the map, and then patiently tore it up into small pieces. Then he put all the 33 in his coat pocket.

     When he got home, the little boy came 34 to him and was ready to play. The man 35 that he had extra work to do and couldn't play just now. He 36 the little boy into the dining room, and 37 all the pieces of the map. He spread them on the table. He explained that it was a map of the world, and that by the time he could 38 together, his extra work would be 39_, and they could both play. Surely this would keep the child busy for hours, he thought.

     About half an hour later the boy came to the man and said, "Okay, it's finished. Can we play now?"

     The man was 40 , saying, "That's impossible. Let's have a look." And 41 enough, there was the picture of the world, all put together every piece in its 42 .

The man said ,”That’s amazing ! How did you do that” the boy said,' It's 43. On the 44 of the page is a(n) 45 of a man. When I put the man together the whole world fell into place."

Prolonging human life has increased the size of the human population. Many people alive today would have died of childhood diseases if they had been born 100 years ago. Because more people live longer, there are more people around at any given time. In fact, it is a decrease in death rates, not an increase in birthrates, that has led to the population explosion.

Prolonging human life has also increased the dependency load. In all societies, people who are disabled or too young or too old to work are dependent on the rest of society to provide for them. In hunting and gathering cultures, old people who could not keep up might be left behind to die. In times of famine, infants might be allowed to die because they could not survive if their parents starved, where as if the parents survived they could have another child. In most contemporary(当代的) societies, people feel a moral obligation to keep people alive whether they can work or not. We have a great many people today who live past the age at which they want to work or are able to work; we also have rules which require people to retire at a certain age. Unless these people were able to save money for their retirement, somebody else must support them. In the United States many retired people live on social security checks which are so little that they must live in near poverty. Older people have more illnesses than young or middle-aged people; unless they have wealth or private or government insurance, they must often “go on welfare” if they have a serious illness.

When older people become senile (衰老的) or too weak and ill to care for themselves, they create grave problems for their families. In the past and in some traditional cultures, they would be cared for at home until they died. Today, with most members of a household working or in school, there is often no one at home who can care for a sick or weak person. To meet this need, a great many nursing homes and convalescent (疗养的) hospitals have been built. These are often profit making organizations, although some are sponsored by religious and other nonprofit groups. While a few of these institutions are good, most of them are simply “dumping (倒垃圾的) grounds” for the dying in which “care” is given by poorly paid, overworked, and under skilled personnel.

It can be inferred from the passage that in hunting and gathering cultures _______.

A. it was a moral responsibility for the families to keep alive the aged people who could    not work

B. the survival of infants was less important than that of their parents in times of starvation

C. old people were given the task of imparting the cultural wisdom of the tribe to new generations

D. death was celebrated as a time of rejoicing for an individual freed of the hardships of life

According to the passage, which of the following statements about the old people in the United States is true?

A. Many of them live on social security money which is hardly enough.

B. Minority of them remain in a state of near poverty after their retirement.

C. When they reach a certain age, compulsory retirement is necessary and beneficial.

D. With the growing inflation, they must suffer more from unbearable burdens than ever.

The phrase “this need” in paragraph 3 refers to ________.

A. prolonging the dying old people’s lives

B. reducing the problems caused by the retired people

C. making profits through caring for the sick or weak people

D. taking care of the sick or weak people

Which of the following best describes the author’s attitude toward most of the nursing homes and convalescent hospitals?

A. Sympathetic.        B. Approving.         C. Optimistic.        D. Critical.

There is a          need to get food and blankets to the earthquake victims.

       A. desperate                  B. depressed                 C. badly                       D. very

The money collected should be made good use ________ the people in Taiwan who suffered a lot in the earthquake.

              A. of helping  B. to help       C. to helping   D. of to help

The year is 2094. It has been announced that a comet (彗星) is heading towards the Earth . Most of it will miss our planet, but two pieces will probably hit the southern half of the Earth.

  On 17 July , a piece four kilometers wide enters the Earth’s atmosphere (大气层) with a massive explosion . About half of the piece is destroyed, but the remaining part hits the South Atlantic at 200 times the speed of sound. The sea boils and a huge hole is made in the sea bed. Huge waves are created and spread outwards from the hole. The wall of water, a kilometer high, rushes towards southern Africa at 800 kilometers an hour. Cities on the African coast are totally destroyed and millions of people are drowned.

Before the waves reach South America, the second piece of the comet lands in Argentina. Earthquakes and volcanoes are set off in the Andes Mountains. The shock waves move north into California and all around the Pacific Ocean. The cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tokyo are completely destroyed by earthquakes. Millions of people in the southern half of the earth are already dead, but the north won’t escape for long. Because of the explosions, the sun is hidden by clouds of dust, temperatures around the world fall to almost zero .Crops are ruined. The sun won’t be seen again for many years. Wars break out as countries fight for food. A year later, no more than 10 million people remain alive.

Could it really happen? In fact, it has already happened more than once in the history of the Earth. The dinosaurs were on the Earth for over 160 million years. Then 65 million years ago they suddenly disappeared. Many scientists believe that the Earth was hit by a piece of object in space. The dinosaurs couldn’t live through the cold climate that followed and they died out. Will we meet the same and?

What is mainly described in the passage?

 A．A historic discovery.     B．An event of imagination

 C．A research on space.     D．A scientific adventure.

When the first piece hits the South Atlantic, it causes  ________  .

 A．an earthquake           B．damages to cities

 C．an Earth explosion       D．huge waves

Why can’t the northern half of the earth escape for long?

 A．Because the land is covered with water

 B．Because the light and heat from the sun can not reach the earth.

 C．Because people there can not live at the temperature of zero.

 D．Because wars break out among countries.

By giving the example of dinosaurs, the author tries to prove ________ .

 A．animals could not live in the cold climate

 B．what happened 65 million years ago was an invented story

 C．the human beings will die out in 2094

 D．the Earth could be hit by other objects in space

---- Someone might see us.

 -----___________?  We are not doing anything illegal.

      A. What’s up             B. What if                  C. How come             D. So what   

If their oxygen      , the two British men      a chance of surviving.

       A．ran out, had          B．didn’t run out, would have

       C．had run out, didn’t have     D．hadn’t run out, would have had

单词拼写（每小题1分，共10分）

That lovely cottage by the seaside has been in the         （拥有）of their family for  more than eighty years.                 

July 13,2001 saw a very bright night in Beijing that will never．              （交谈）from memory.

He give us an       （描述）of what happened.  

He is leading an        （独立的）life. He lives on his own.     

There office is on the            （第九）floor.

         （相比较）with the service industry, foreign trade is more important.

Have you h ad any           （冒险的）experience? 

Your advice at present is       （有价值的）to me.    

On       （平均）,people who don’t smoke are healthier than people who do.

Young people usually have more    （能量）than older people.

After the long journey, we felt fine     being a little tired.

       A．but for     B．except      C．apart from       D．besides

As is often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used ________ for good or evil.

A．similarly                 B．widely                    C．equally                   D．properly