Alice, my friend’s daughter, goes to an expensive private school where she has a friend, Jane, who is on a full scholarship at this school．Jane has   1   economic resources—her father has been dead for years and her mother works   2   a maid．Although her mother works very hard, she can   3   support the family．Jane is very bright and gifted at   4   and that’s how she has got the scholarship, which included a （n）  5  for things like lunch, school uniform and music lessons．

Alice became friends with Jane and would   6   talk to her at lunch．She did it that way in order to avoid the other kids  7   her．

       On her birthday last month, she   8   her new friend to her birthday party, but Jane said she couldn’t come．Alice wanted her to be   9  so much that she   10  on her coming．Eventually, the girl said, “I don’t have any   11   clothes that I could wear at your birthday party．” After a brief pause, the girl remembered, “I have a   12   from my piano performance,” and asked, “Could I   13   a skirt from you?”

Alice was happy that her friend would be   14   to come and hurried home to ask her Mum   15   she could lend her friend one of her skirts．To her surprise, her Mum said, “No．” The daughter was very   16  and angrily said to her Mum, “  17   I could, I would give my friend all my clothes．” The Mother didn’t understand why her daughter should have had such an outburst as she’s normally very well   18  ．

Finally, Alice explained to her Mother her friend’s   19  ．Her Mother immediately changed her mind and said, “Yes．” She also encouraged her daughter not to feel like she should secretly be friends with Jane but to feel proud of her   20   with her．

So the true friendship seeks to give, not to take; to help, not to be helped; to minister, not to be ministered unto．真正的友谊追求的是给予, 而不是索取; 是帮助别人, 而不是被人帮助; 是为人服务, 而不是被人服务。

1．A．personal              B．extra                 C．limited                 D．adequate

2．A．for                       B．with                   C．like                  D．as 

3．A．hopefully               B．obviously             C．hardly                 D．temporarily

4．A．music                  B．drawing               C．maths                 D．biology

5．A．bonus                  B．allowance           C．donation              D．pension

6．A．secretly                B．happily                C．quietly                 D．eagerly

7．A．pointing at            B．shouting at          C．laughing at           D．glaring at

8．A．took                     B．invited                 C．accompanied       D．sent

9．A．happy                   B．independent         C．confident            D．present

10．A．depended            B．insisted                C．focused               D．agreed

11．A．casual                 B．comfortable         C．nice                    D．tight

12．A．shirt                   B．jeans                   C．handbag              D．necklace

13．A．get                    B．copy                  C．order                  D．borrow

14．A．free                   B．able                     C．glad                   D．willing

15．A．how                  B．when                 C．why                   D．whether

16．A．stubborn            B．upset                 C．firm                 D．enthusiastic 

17．A．If                       B．When                C．Unless               D．Though

18．A．treated                B．controlled           C．educated            D．behaved

19．A．cleverness          B．character           C．circumstances     D．competences

20．A．study               B．friendship           C．sympathy           D．performance 

Saving the Planet with Earth-Friendly Bamboo Products

Jackie Heinricher’s love affair with bamboo started in her backyard．“As a child, I remember playing among the golden bamboo my dad had planted, and when there was a slight wind, the bamboos sounded really musical．”

A fisheries biologist, Heinricher, 47, planned to work in the salmon industry in Seattle, where she lived with her husband, Guy Thornburgh, but she found it too competitive．Then her garden gave her the idea for a business: She’d planted 20 bamboo forests on their seven-acre farm．

Heinricher started Boo-Shoot Gardens in 1998．She realized early on what is just now beginning to be known to the rest of the world．It can be used to make fishing poles, skateboards, buildings, furniture, floors, and even clothing．An added bonus: Bamboo absorbs four times as much carbon dioxide as a group of hardwood trees and releases 35 percent more oxygen．

First she had to find a way to mass-produce the plants—a tough task, since bamboo flowers create seed only once every 50 to 100 years．And dividing a bamboo plant frequently kills it．

Heinricher appealed to Randy Burr, a tissue culture expert, to help her．“People kept telling us we’d never figure it out,” says Heinricher．“Others had worked on it for 27 years! I believed in what we were doing, though, so I just kept going．”

She was right to feel a sense of urgency．Bamboo forests are being rapidly used up, and a United Nations report showed that even though bamboo is highly renewable, as many as half of the world’s species are threatened with dying out．Heinricher knew that bamboo could make a significant impact on carbon emissions （排放）and world economies, but only if huge numbers could be produced．And that’s just what she and Burr figured out after nine years of experiments—a way to grow millions of plants．By placing cuttings in test tubes with salts, vitamins, plant hormones, and seaweed gel, they got the plants to grow and then raised them in soil in greenhouses．

Not long after it, Burr’s lab hit financial difficulties．Heinricher had no experience running a tissue culture operation, but she wasn’t prepared to quit．So she bought the lab．

Today Heinricher heads up a profitable multimillion-dollar company, working on species from all over the world and selling them to wholesalers．“If you want to farm bamboo, it’s hard to do without the young plants, and that’s what we have,” she says proudly．

1．What was the main problem with planting bamboo widely?

       A．They didn’t have enough young bamboo．

       B．They were short of money and experience．

       C．They didn’t have a big enough farm to do it．

       D．They were not understood by other people．

2．What does Heinricher think of bamboo?

       A．Renewable and acceptable                    B．Productive and flexible．

       C．Useful and earth-friendly．                   D．Strong and profitable．

3．The underlined word “renewable” in Paragraph 6 probably means “________”．

       A．able to be replaced naturally              B．able to be raised difficultly

       C．able to be shaped easily                   D．able to be recycled conveniently

4．What do you learn from the passage?

       A．Heinricher’s love for bamboo led to her experiments in the lab．

       B．Heinricher’s determination helped her to succeed in her work．

       C．Heinricher struggled to prevent bamboo from disappearing．

       D．Heinricher finally succeeded in realizing her childhood dream．

If you enjoyed the spring-like sunshine over the weekend and thought the weather has finally turned a corner, you’re sadly mistaken．

Chilly  （寒冷的）days and grey clouds are forecast for the week—making it far too early to pack away the winter woollies．

Temperatures will struggle to rise above zero at night and fail to make double figures during the day．

People enjoy the spring sunshine in Sefton Park, Aigburth, Liverpool．Forecasters have predicted a return to chilly weather this week．

Met Office forecaster Charlie said, “It was a nice, dry, bright weekend in many parts and Monday is going to be a similar affair for many．”

“Temperatures will be between 5℃and 8℃, which is below average for the start of spring．”

The sun will disappear from the south of the country after today, with dry but cloudy conditions forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday．

Wednesday will be warmest of the three, with temperatures peaking at 9℃．But this is still two degrees below the March average for the district．

Overnight, temperatures will drop sharply, with lows of minus 3℃for the next three nights．

    “It will generally stay on the cold side of average,” said Mr. Powell．

The March misery comes at the end of the coldest winter for more than 30 years．

    Temperatures in December, January and February struggled to stay above zero, with the UK’s average 1．5℃, making it the deepest freeze since 1978—79．

It claimed there was just a one-in-seven chance of a cold December to February．

The agency also sadly predicted a “barbecue summer”, saying it was “quite optimistic” that it would be warmer and drier than average．

Following the two mistakes, the Met Office has dropped its long-range seasonal forecasts and will instead publish a monthly prediction for Britain, updated once a week．

In its defense, it says that while short-term forecasts are extremely accurate, Britain’s size and geographical position makes long-term predictions much more challenging．

It also points out that it gave warning of any heavy falls of snow this winter．

1．According to the passage, the weather on Tuesday in the south might be _______．

       A．dry but cloudy                                   B．sunny but chilly  

       C．sunny and warm                                D．cloudy and chilly

2．Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

     A．British people can put away their winter clothes now．

     B．The Met Office has shortened its forecast range．

     C．The weather forecast becomes more and more accurate．

     D．The agency was quite confident of long-term predictions．

3．Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

       A．The big chill isn’t over yet                   B．A warm spring finally arrives

       C．A heavy snow is on the way                 D．The Met Office drops forecasts

4．From the passage, we can conclude ________．

       A．the weather report is more and more important

       B．British people become worried about bad weather

    C．Britain has just experienced a very freezing winter

    D．The Met Office can always predict any heavy snow falls accurately

Quickly, the picture comes alive with hyperlinks（超链接）, offering the names of the buildings, towers and street features that appear in the photo．The hyperlinks lead to information about the history, services and context of all the features in the photo．You have just hyperlinked your reality．

That might be a little unbelievable, but the technology exists and is no fevered imagination．This is not a cool small machine invented for the next James Bond movie; this is a working technology just developed by European researchers．It could be coming to a phone near you, and soon．

This, as the marketing types say, is a game changer．It develops a completely new interface  （界面）that combines web-technology with the real world．It is big and fresh, but it goes much further and has much greater influence．

    The development of the system is most outstanding because image recognition technology has long been pregnant with promise, but seemed to suffer from an unending labour．

Now MOBVIS has not only developed image recognition; it has also developed more applications for the technology; and it has adapted it to the world’s most popular technology: the mobile phone．

The MOBVIS system completely rewrites the rules for exploration and interaction with your physical environment．The system begins with panoramas  （一连串景象）．These panoramas form the basis of a city database．It can match buildings, towers, banners and even logos that appear in the panoramas．

A user simply takes a picture of the street feature, MOBVIS compares the user’s photograph to the panoramas and then identifies the buildings from the picture you take and the relevant links are returned．

Then you simply click on the links, using a touch-screen phone, and the MOBVIS system will provide information on the history, art, architecture or even the menu, if it is a restaurant, of the building in question．

1．Which is introduced in the passage?

       A．A new game software．                       B．A popular mobile phone．

       C．A cool small machine．                        D．An image recognition system．

2．What can we learn about the new technology?

       A．It can only be put into use on mobile phones．

       B．It is a little unbelievable and just a fevered imagination．

       C．It has taken an unending labor to bring the technology into our lives．

       D．It will encourage the users to take more pictures of the street features．

3．What is the right order of the operation of MOBVIS?

a．A city database forms in the system．

b．MOBVIS recognizes the picture and links are returned．

c．A user touches the links on the phone screen．

d．A user takes a picture of the street feature．

e．MOBVIS provides information in question．

       A．a; e; c; d; b;          B．a; d; b; c; e      C．d; c; e; a; b          D．c; a; e; b; d

4．From the passage, we can infer that _______．

       A．MOBVIS has already been widely used all over the world

       B．the writer is trying to promote the sales of the MOBVIS system

       C．this new technology will soon be very popular in our lives

       D．the sales of mobile phones will decrease as MOBVIS comes on market

请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。

注意：每个空格只填1个单词。

Waste to Energy—JUST BURN IT!

WHY BURN WASTE?

    Waste-to-energy plants generate  （产生）enough electricity to supply 2．4 million households in the US．But, providing electricity is not the major advantage of waste-to-energy plants．In fact, it costs more to generate electricity at a waste-to-energy plant than it does at a coal, nuclear, or hydropower plant．

The major advantage of burning waste is that it considerably reduces the amount of trash going to landfills．The average American produces more than 1,600 pounds of waste a year．If all this waste were landfilled, it would take more than two cubic yards of landfill space．That’s the volume of a box three feet long, three feet wide, and six feet high．If that waste were burned, the ashes would fit into a box three feet long, three feet wide, but only nine inches high!

Some communities in the Northeast may be running out of land for new landfills．And, since most people don’t want landfills in their backyards, it has become more difficult to obtain permits to build new landfills．Taking the country as a whole, the United States has plenty of open space, of course, but it is expensive to transport garbage a long distance to put it into a landfill．

TO BURN OR NOT TO BURN?

Some people are concerned that burning garbage may harm the environment．Like coal plants, waste-to-energy plants produce air pollution when the fuel is burned to produce steam or electricity．Burning garbage releases the chemicals and substances found in the waste．Some chemicals can be a threat to people, the environment, or both, if they are not properly controlled．

Some critics of waste-to-energy plants are afraid that burning waste will hamper  （妨碍，阻碍）recycling programs．If everyone sends their trash to a waste-to-energy plant, they say, there will be little motive to recycle．Several states have considered or are considering banning waste-to-energy plants unless recycling programs are in place．Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York City have delayed new waste-to-energy plants, hoping to increase the level of recycling first．

So, what’s the real story? Can recycling and burning waste coexist? At first glance, recycling and waste-to-energy seem to be at odds  （不一致）, but they can actually complement  （弥补）each other．That’s because it makes good sense to recycle some materials, and better sense to burn others．

Let’s look at aluminum, for example．Aluminum mineral is so expensive to mine that recycling aluminum more than pays for itself．Burning it produces no energy．So clearly, aluminum is valuable to recycle and not useful to burn．  

Paper, on the other hand, can either be burned or recycled—it all depends on the price the used paper will bring．

Plastics are another matter．Because plastics are made from petroleum and natural gas, they are excellent sources of energy for waste-to-energy plants．This is especially true since plastics are not as easy to recycle as steel, aluminum, or paper．Plastics almost always have to be hand sorted and making a product from recycled plastics may cost more than making it from new materials．

To burn or not to burn is not really the question．We should use both recycling and waste-to-energy as alternatives to landfilling．

Waste to Energy—JUST BURN IT!

You are the team star! Working with _____________is really your cup of tea．

A．both                   B．either                 C．others               D．the other

No matter how low you consider yourself，there is always someone _________you wishing they were that high．

A．getting rid of                               B．getting along with

C．looking up to                             D．looking down upon

-How did you like Nick’s performance last night?

-To be honest，his singing didn’t ________to be much?

A．appeal           B．belong             C．refer                   D．occur

-Do you know if Linda is willing to take charge of the program?

- _______，does it?

A．It makes no time                              B．It counts for nothing

C．It doesn’t hurt to ask                           D．It doesn’t make sense

I haven’t seen Sara since she was a little girl，and she has changed beyond _______．

A．hearing                  B．strength                 C．recognition              D．measure