Although Thomas Edison created the technologies behind three major 21st century industries  electrical power，recorded music and movies—his greatest invention may have been the modern method of inventing．He basically came up with the modern system of research and development．Edison was not the only scientist doing research in his garage but someone who gathered around him a team of creative scientific minds．Edison’s 1aboratories were the forerunners（ 先驱）of Apple，Google and Microsoft．

Yet for a11 his scientific gifts，he was no Steve Jobs or Bill Gates．He once said，“Anything that won’ t sell，I don’ t want to invent．” But Edison，unlike Jobs or Gates，had no real sense of what the public wanted or how to change his discoveries into products that might sell．It took him years to understand that the phonograph（ 留声机）was not a business tool but an entertainment invention．He helped create movies but resisted the idea that people might want to go into a theater to watch one．

We chose Edison this year because we need his example now more than ever．Though we live in a time of great reformation，the U．S．is in danger of losing its advantage in science and technology．American investment（ 投资）in research and development has not increased as a percentage of GDP since the mid一1980s，while the government’ s share has been dropping．And this is at a time when China is rapidly increasing its money on research and development．The U．S．was once among the 1eading nations．Now it ranks near the bottom of the 23 nations that collect such data．We hope that Edison’ s story might not only encourage reformation but also inspire more

young Americans to study science and engineering．

The first paragraph is mainly about         .

    A．the number of Edison’ s great inventions

    B．Edison’ s special personal characters

    C．Edi son’ s modern system of research

    D．Apple．Google and Microsoft and their forerunners

Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

    A．A11 the things Edison invented sold well．

    B．Edison wanted to invent things that sold well．

    C．Edison’ s inventions were not valuable for being unpopular．

    D．Edison had a gift for changing his discoveries into best sellers.

The author’ s main purpose is to    ．

      A．inform US of the danger the USA is in

      B．get young Americans to study science

      C．be in honor of Edison for his contributions

      D．tell US how important Edison’ s inventions are

We can infer from the text that    ．

    A．the USA is no 10nger advanced in science and technology

    B．the USA falls behind China in research and inventions

    C．more and more young Americans will be interested in science

D．China is spending more and more money on research and development

阅读下面的短文，并根据短文后的要求答题。（请注意问题后的词数要求）

[1]The government employs many people to take care of our city. However, these professionals can not help out everyone by themselves. They need our help!

[2]Volunteering is something that really helps as individuals. Volunteering is when we regularly go and do nice things for other people. Volunteers may help out in local retirement homes, or in hospitals. Some volunteers work with poor people and other volunteers help teach orphaned children to read.

[3]Volunteering teaches mature thinking. Volunteering gives us a chance to stop complaining about our lives and realize exactly how lucky we are. We are able to see the people who really need the help. Volunteering also teaches more about the quality of being responsible for others and ourselves, the character of giving understanding and showing pity to others in trouble.

[4]Volunteering gives us a chance to our share of the work of making this society the best it possibly can be. It helps us feel good about ourselves when we can help those who rally need our help. When we can make somebody else feel special, it helps us remember what life is really about.

[5]There are many places that you can go to try volunteering. Here are a few places for you

◆Hospitals—You can go and visit people who are really sick. Sometimes all they need is someone who will talk with them, or someone

◆Orphanage—The children living here really need someone to play with them.

◆Food shelter—Many food shelters can really use more people willing to just organize the shelters and help distribute the food to those who need it.

◆Community center—Although a lot of community centers are well run, some of them can really           , especially with cleaning and with repairs.

◆Retirement home—Many of the elderly people living here have lived very fascinating lives. Lister to them.

Whatever you decide to do, just do the best you can. Remember that giving can be its own reward!

What’s the main idea of Paragraph 2?(no more than 10 words)

                                                      .

According to the underlined part of Paragraph 3, list three words that can summarize what volunteering can also teach us about.

    ①             ②             ③      

Which sentence in the passage is the closest in meaning to the following one?

We will understand the real meaning of life if we let others feel they are different.

Fill in the blank with proper words(no more than 5 words)

Please translate the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4.

If China’s space technology has achieved        breakthrough in this field, it really is       

amazing wonder.

       A．the; an      B．a; an  C．不填; the  D．a; 不填

 The hotel wasn’t particularly good, but I _____ in many worse hotels.

    A. was staying              B. stayed        C. would stay     D. had stayed  

All the Chinese people are expecting the government’s four-thousand-billion financial plan ____ around the country, _____ to improve the current economic situation．

       A．carried out, intending                B．being carried out, intended

       C．to be carried out, intending          D．to be carried out, intended

You can't expect them to______the job open for much longer— you’ll have to decide whether you want it or not．

A．take    B．hold    C．let   D．have

 Despite the warm personal relations with Hu, Bush admitted that ___ differences remain between the two countries, which makes ____ dialogue imperative.

A. the; a   B. the; /     C. /; a    D. /;/

第二节 完形填空（共20小题：每小题1.5分，共30分）

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

One day on the way home from work, I stopped at a little store by the market. As I entered the store, I   36      something unexpectedly: the   37    made with a special cheese that my wife and I both liked very much!  38   , I decided to buy a large one. When I got home and   39   my discovery, my wife was less   40    in it than I was: I didn’t know why. Perhaps she thought it was too   41    for the fridge,   42    maybe she thought it was too expensive. Whatever the   43   , we didn’t eat the cake that night and without any argument we put it in the   44  .

A few days later, I opened the fridge. It was   45    ! I thought she had returned it to the store. In spite of my strong willingness to start a (n)  46    , I convinced myself that maybe there was another   47   , so I didn’t mention it. One month later, we were going to visit some friends. As we were getting into the car, I saw the cake box in her hand ! I couldn’t describe how  48   I was . When I told her what I had   49    , she smiled and said that   50    she bought a lot of frozen things, she had taken the cake to her mom to   51    it for us in her fridge. That night I had the   52    cake ever.

We told the story to our friends and we talked about how   53    in our family life it might be to make wrong   54   and how joyous it is when you fight against your ___ 55_   to start an argument.

In the atmosphere , carbon dioxide acts rather like a one-way mirror or the glass in the roof of a greenhouse which allows the sun’s rays to enter but prevents the heat from escaping.

   According to a weather expert’s prediction, the atmosphere will be 3 ℃ warmer in the year 2050 than it is today, if man continues to burn fuels at the present rate. If this warming up took place, the ice caps in the poles would begin to melt, thus raising sea level several meters and severely flooding coastal cities. Also, the increase in atmospheric temperature would lead to great changes in the climate of the northern hemisphere(半球), possibly resulting in an alteration of the earth’s chief food growing zones.

   In the past, concern about a man-made warming of the earth has concentrated on the Arctic because the Antarctic is much colder and has a much thicker ice sheet. But the weather experts are now paying more attention to West Antarctic, which may be affected by only a few degrees of warming, in other words, by a warming on the scale that will possibly take place in the next fifty years from the burning of fuels.

   Satellite pictures show that large areas of Antarctic ice are already disappearing. The evidence available suggests that a warming has taken place. This fits the theory that carbon dioxide warms the earth

   However, most of the fuel is burnt in the northern hemisphere, where temperatures seem to be falling. Scientists conclude, therefore, that up to now natural influences on the weather have gone beyond those caused by man. The question is: Which natural cause has most effect on the weather?

   One possibility is the variable behavior of the sun. Astronomers at one research station have studied the hot sports and ‘cold” spots( that is, the relatively less hot spots) on the sun. As the sun rotates(使旋转), every 27.5 days, it presents hotter or colder faces to the earth, and different aspects to different parts of the earth. This seems to have a considerable effect on the distribution of the earth’s atmospheric pressure, and consequently on wind circulation. The sun is also changeable over a long term: its heat output goes up and down in cycles, the latest trend being downward.

   Scientists are now finding shared relations between models of solar weather interactions and the actual climate over many thousands of years, including the last Ice Age. The problem is that the models are predicting that the world should be entering a new Ice Age and it is hot. One way of solving this theoretical difficulty is to assume a delay of thousands of years while the solar effects overcome the inertia(惯性) of the earth’s climate. If this is right, the warming effect of carbon dioxide might thus be serving as a useful opposed balance to the sun’s fading heat.

63. It can be concluded that concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would ____.

A. mean a warming-up in the Arctic.              

B. raise the temperature of the earth’s surface.

C. prevent the sun’s rays from reaching the earth’ s surface.

D. explain the cause of great changes in the climate in the northern hemisphere.

64. The article was written to explain____.

A. the greenhouse effect.          B. the solar effects on the earth.

C. the causes affecting weather.     D. the models of solar weather of solar weather interactions.

65. Although the fuel consumption is greater in the northern hemisphere, temperature there seems to be falling. This is ____.

A. mainly because the levels of carbon dioxide are rising

B. partly due to changes in the output of solar energy

C. possibly because the ice caps in the poles are melting

D. only due to the effect of the inertia of the earth’s climate

66. On the basis of their models, scientists are of the opinion that     .

A. the climate of the world should be becoming cooler

B. the new Ice Age will be delayed by the greenhouse effect

C. the man-made warning effect helps to increase the solar effects

D. it will take thousands of years for the interia of the earth’s climate to take effect.

67. If the assumption about the delay of a new Ice Age is correct, ___.

A. ice would soon cover the northern hemisphere.

B. the greenhouse effect could work in favor of the earth.

C. the best way to overcome the cooling effect would be to burn more fuels.

D. the increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could warm up the earth even more quickly.

第II 卷   ( 非选择题   共35分 )

第四部分  写作(共两节, 满分35分)                                   

第一节：短文改错 (共10小题，每小题1分, 满分10分)

英语课上，老师要求同桌同学相互修改作文。假设以下短文为你同桌所写，请你对其进行修改。文中共有10处错误，每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。

增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（/\），并在此符号下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

It is important to know that a parent should do to help reduce children’s stress. If you notice that your child is becoming nerve, he may have problems at the school. He may has trouble sleep. He may be depressing but begin to suffer from headaches. In this case, you should talk him to try to discover the causes of her stress. You should spend extra time helping him. In short, you need to be complete supportive and encouraging all the time.