The World Trade Organization (WTO) founded on January 1, 1994, aims to encourage international trade to flow as freely as possible, making sure that trade agreements are respected and that any disputes (争端) can be settled.
In the five years since its founding, the WTO has become well-known as one of the world’s most powerful economic organizations, taking its place alongside the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The system of global rules for international trade, however, dates back half a century to 1948 when the General Agreement on Tariffs (关税) and Trade (GATT) was formed after World War II.
As time went by it became clear that the GATT had two major drawbacks—the limited areas of trade it covered, and the lack of an effective system to settle disputes.
After seven years of trade talks ending in 1994. the so-called Uruguay Round finally gave birth to the WTO, complete with an effective system to settle disputes and new rules covering trade in services and intellectual property (知识产权).
Even after seven years of talks and 22500 pages of agreements there were still problems, especially the difficult-to-deal-with areas of agriculture and services.
The WTO. with its head office in Geneva, has 135 members with 30 more waiting to join.
【小题1】Compared with the GATT, the WTO _____.

A．can do better to settle disputes in more areas of international trade

B．got its members to sign the agreements more easily

C．has got too many areas of international trade to deal with to work effectively

D．didn’t pay enough attention to services and intellectual property

【小题2】In the new century the WTO will _____.

A．take the place of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund

B．have new rules covering trade in services and intellectual property

C．make complete new rules in every area of international trade

D．have more members and do much more to settle more problems

【小题3】The underlined word “drawbacks” probably means _____.

A．weak points

B．changes

C．strong points

D．improvements

【小题4】The best title for the passage is _____.

A．WTO—Another Name for GATT

B．WTO—an International Service Organization

C．WTO—One of the World’s Strongest Economic Organizations

D．WTO—the World’s Most Powerful Economic Organization

Toyoda said those changes were being made nearly around the clock，but during three hours of often tense questions and answers he repeated that there was no link to the vehicle’s electronic systems．
Many drivers making complaints against Toyota and the government say their acceleration problems had nothing to do with floor mat interference(油门踏板故障)or sticky gas pedals(刹车)．Outside experts have suggested electronic problems.
House lawmakers expressed serious criticism on Toyoda，the grandson of the company’s founder．
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA)is seeking records on Toyota’s recalls and is conducting its own review on whether electronics were behind the car faults．NHTSA also continues to look into steering complaints from drivers of the popular Corolla model．
Toyota has recalled 8.5 million cars，more than 6 million of them in the United States．
It may be a while before car buyers believe that Toyota really makes safe cars．
Toyota’s January sales already fell 16 percent even as most other automakers jumped back from last year’s bad results．Analyst Koji Endo of Advanced Research Japan in Tokyo said he expects February sales，due out next week，to be down 30 percent to 40. Toyota’s sales problem could continue beyond that． 
It will take some time to feel the full effect of this，he said．
【小题1】The best title for this passage is           ．

A．Toyota is in trouble	B．Toyota is under hearing
C．Toyota is finished	D．Toyota is still running

【小题2】What is the purpose of the hearing?

A．America hopes that Toyota apologizes to the US customers．

B．America wants to get Toyota out of the US market．

C．America wants to help Toyota out of difficulty．

D．America hopes that Toyota admits their cars have electronic system problem．

【小题3】What can we infer from the passage?

A．Toyota provides very good post sale service．

B．Toyota’s biggest market is in the United States．

C．Toyota will be closed soon．

D．Toyota’s dealership in the US will all be closed．

【小题4】The last sentence of this passage indicates            .

A．Analyst Koji Endo is fully confident about Toyota

B．Toyota could meet a worse situation

C．Toyota would get out of trouble sooner or later

D．Toyota would build up a better reputation among its customers

LONDON (Reuters)—New faces given to a Chinese man after a bear tore off part of his face and a French­Caribbean man disfigured by a rare tumor show that such transplants can work and are not medical oddities (怪异)，researchers said．
The findings give hope to some people with severe facial disfigurement and suggest the transplants could prove long­lasting without major problems．Despite the tissue rejection in the first year after their transplants，neither men had psychological problems accepting their new faces and have been able to rejoin society，they reported．
Only three people have received face transplants．The world’s first was carried out on French woman Isabelle Dinoire in November 2005 after she was disfigured in an attack by her dog．In 2007，her doctors reported that she had recovered slowly and steadily，overcoming two periods of rejection．
In 2006，Chinese doctors performed a face transplant on a 30­year­old hit by a bear．While there were some complications with tissue rejection following the operation，two years later the man was doing well，his doctors said．“This case suggests that facial transplantation might be an option for restoring a severely disfigured face，and could enable patients to bring themselves back into society，” Shuzhong Guo and colleagues at Xijing Hospital in China wrote．
A French team described their work on a 29­year­old man who suffered from Von Recklinghausen disease，an illness that changes the shape of his face．“The man，who was not named，was given a new nose，mouth and chin in a 2007 operation．He began to work 13 months after the transplant has more function in his face and has not rejected the new tissue，” his doctors said．
“Our case confirms that face transplantation is practical and effective for the correction of specific disfigurement，” Dr．Laurent Lantieri and colleagues at the Henri­Mondor hospital outside Paris wrote．
【小题1】What’s the main idea of this passage?

A．Face transplants help regain confidence．	B．Face transplants can work．
C．Three people have received face transplants．	D．Disfigured people need face transplants．

【小题2】The underlined word “restoring” in Paragraph 4 means “________”．

A．removing

B．recovering

C．repairing

D．rejecting

【小题3】What problem resulted from the facial operations?

A．The patients usually suffered from tissue rejection．

B．It was hard for the patients to get along with others．

C．It took some time for the patients to recover from the operation．

D．The patients wouldn’t accept the facial change．

Five-time world overall short-track speed skating champion Yang Yang(A)won China’s first-ever Winter Olympic gold medal with a runaway victory in the 500m final on Saturday.
Yang Yang, putting behind her a dismal fourth place finish in the 1,500 meters three days ago, got off to a sparking lead and never looked back to cross the line in 44.187 seconds.
World-record holder and four-time European champion Evgenia Radanova followed home 0.065 seconds behind.
Another Chinese, Wang Chunju, the world champion in the shortest distance came in third, two-hundredths of a second further behind.
Yang, 25, whose name is tagged with the letter A to distinguish her from her younger teammate and namesake, Yang Yang(S), is the overall World Cup winner this season, with the top points in the 1,000m and 1,500m.
In the 1,500m, the younger Yang, 24, who won two silver medals in Nagano four years ago, crashed out while chasing herd after two South Korean teenagers, KoGi-Hyun and Choi Eun-Kyungm who eventually finished first and second. Yang Yang(A) ended up fourth.
Yang Yang(S) did not compete in the 500 meters.
【小题1】How long did Evgenia Radanova take to finish the 500m final?

A．44.252 seconds.	B．44.187 seconds.
C．44.122 seconds.	D．None of the above.

【小题2】Why did not Yang Yang(S) compete in the 500 meters?

A．She did want to.	B．She was wounded.
C．She was not qualified.	D．It was not mentioned.

Britain has laws to make sure that women have the same chances as men in education, jobs and training. But it’s still unusual to find women doing dirty or heavy jobs.
Nikki Henriques is a car maintenance engineer in London. She used to be a secretary. Barty Philips, a journalist with “The Observer”, a Sunday newspaper, asked her why she wanted to work with cars.
“My first reason was independence(独立),” she said. “I also wanted to use my hands, and I like learning about how things work. Many people prefer to have a woman repair their cars, too.”
Nikki didn’t find it easy to become a car maintenance engineer. She went to a Government Skill Centre—a special sort of college where people can learn a new job for twenty weeks. “For ten weeks I was the only woman among four hundred men, and some of them were rude to me. It was also very tiring—from 8 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon, with only 30 minutes for lunch.”
Now Nikki works free-lance, that is, she’s self-employed, working for herself and not for a garage or a company.
Barty Phillips also spoke to Rose, who works as a general builder in Sheffield, an industrial town in the north of England. Like Nikki, Rose used to be a secretary. “I didn’t enjoy it at all.” she said. “I wanted to do more practical work, and I wanted to be self-employed.”
Rose joined a women’s building co-operative, and she learnt her job from other people and from experience. However, many of the women in her group have been specially trained. Most of the jobs they do are improvements to buildings and general repairs.
“People often say, ‘Oh, women aren’t strong enough,’ but I don’t think strength is important.” said Rose, “The important thing is to get used to doing a different sort of work.”
Rose would like more women to come into the building industry. “Everything built at the moment is a product of man’s world. If women become builders, they will be able to understand the production of their house and their towns.”
【小题1】There are laws in Britain to help women _____.

A．get higher pay than men

B．enjoy more freedom than men

C．do whatever they like to do

D．have equal chances with men in education and work

【小题2】The job of a car maintenance engineer is to _____.

A．make cars	B．sell cars
C．repair cars	D．keep cars for others

【小题3】According to Rose, a woman wishing to be a general builder _____.

A．must be specially trained

B．should be strong enough

C．can learn her job either from others or by experience

D．must get used to doing a different sort of work

【小题4】The best title for this passage might be _____.

A．Nikki Henriques, a car maintenance engineer

B．Rose, a General Builder in Shefield

C．Women at Work

D．British Women

Baby girls make their way directly for dolls as soon as they can crawl（爬）, while boys will head for the toy cars, a study has shown． The findings, the first to show differences in very young babies, suggest there is a biological basis to their preferences．
Psychologists Dr． Brenda Todd from City University London carried out an experiment involving 90 infants aged nine months to 36 months． The babies were allowed to choose from seven toys． Some were typically boys' toys: a car, a digger, a ball and a blue teddy． The rest were girls’ toys: a pink teddy, a doll and a cooking set． They were placed a meter away from the toys, and could pick whichever toy they liked． Their choice and the amount of time they spent playing with each toy were recorded．
Of the youngest children （nine to 14 months）, girls spent significantly longer playing with the doll than boys, and boys spent much more time with the car and ball than the girls did． Among the two-and three-year-olds, girls spent 50 percent of the time playing with the doll while only two boys briefly touched it． The boys spent almost 90 percent of their time playing with cars, which the girls barely touched． There was no link between the parents’ view on which toys were more suitable for boys or girls, and the children’s choice．
Dr． Brenda Todd said: “Children of this age are already exposed to much socialization． Boys may be given ‘toys that go’ while girls get toys they can care for, which may help shape their preference． But these findings agree with the former idea that children show natural interests in particular kinds of toys． There could be a biological basis for their choices． Males through evolution have been adapted to prefer moving objects, probably through hunting instincts（本能）, while girls prefer warmer colors such as pink, the color of a newborn baby．”
【小题1】Baby boys and girls have different toy preferences probably because         ．

A．baby boys are much more active

B．baby girls like bright colors more

C．there is a natural difference between them

D．their parents treat them differently

【小题2】What can we infer from Paragraph 3 ?

A．Nine-month-old baby boys don’t play with dolls at all．

B．Two-year-old baby girls sometimes play with cars and balls．

C．Parents should teach their babies to share each other’s toys．

D．The older the babies are, the more obvious their preference is．

【小题3】Both baby boys and baby girls like to play with _________ according to the study．

A．a teddy

B．a car

C．a doll

D．a ball

【小题4】We may read this article in a        section of a newspaper．

A．health

B．science

C．culture

D．entertainment

"It's this time of year when the weather starts warming up and frogs start breeding - but they haven't been breeding," says John Wilkinson, research and monitoring officer at the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust (ARC).
Amphibians (两栖动物) are just one of the groups of animals that nature observers fear may have problems reproducing this year, as groundwater levels are even lower now than in the infamously dry summer of 1976, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). According to the UK's Centre for Hydrology and Ecology the average rainfall so far this winter has been the lowest since 1972.
"If ponds dry up totally," says Mr. Wilkinson, "you could have lots of dead tadpoles." Drier and windier conditions could also make it more difficult for juvenile amphibians to survive their journeys between wet habitats.
But Peter Brotherton, the biodiversity manager for Natural England, says that "drought is part of nature's cycle", and, at present, a lot of animals, plants and insects are still in hibernation. This means that the population picture is unclear. "However, when we get extreme events, we get animals dying," he says. "And what is worrying is that normally at this time of year we expect soil to be near saturation（湿润）after winter."
Charlie Kitchin, the RSPB's site manager of the Nene Washes in Cambridgeshire, says the 2,000-acre wetland and grassland area is now struggling following two winters with relatively little winter rain and no flooding. One species that could suffer, he says, is the black-tailed godwit（黑尾豫）. "There are only 50 breeding pairs in the country, and we have 40 of them, and everything is bone-dry," Mr Kitchin says.
But one bad nesting season, he says, is "not the end of the world". "One of the features of flood plains is that they're volatile anyway," he adds. "But if they fail to breed another year, the population is likely to dip again."
【小题1】According to the passage animals may have problems reproducing this year mainly due to _____.

A．drought

B．hibernation

C．windier conditions

D．extreme events

【小题2】What really worries Peter Brotherton is that ________.

A．drought is part of nature’s cycle	B．animals are still in hibernation
C．soil at this time is far from saturation	D．the population of animals is still unclear

【小题3】Which of the following is NOT true of Charlie Kitchin’s words?

A．Drought has so far continued for two winters.

B．Animals could survive one bad nesting season.

C．The black-tailed godwit is in danger of extinction.

D．40 black-tailed godwits live in the Nene Washes.

【小题4】The underlined word volatile in the last paragraph can be replaced by ________.

A．losing water	B．undergoing changes
C．breeding animals	D．suffering flood

【小题5】It can be learnt from the text that ______________.

A．groundwater levels this summer are lower than those of 1976

B．the average rainfall this year has been the lowest since 1972

C．windier conditions could also cause some amphibians’ death

D．flooding plays no useful role in wetlands and grasslands

Brenda Bongos was a happy, artistic girl. She had one big ambition—to play the drums in a band. But one big obstacle lay in her way. To be good enough to play in a band, Brenda had to practice a lot, but she lived next-door to a lot of old people. Many of them are sick. She knew that the sound of beating drums would really get on their nerves. So, she had tried playing in the strangest places: a basement, a kitchen, and even in a shower. But there was always someone it would annoy.
One day, while watching a science documentary on TV, she heard that sound cannot travel in space, because there's no air. At that moment, Brenda Bongos decided to become a sort of musical astronaut.
With the help of a lot of time, books and work, Brenda built a space bubble. This was a big glass ball connected to a machine which sucked out all the air inside. All that would be left inside was a drum kit（成套设备） and a chair. Brenda got into the space suit she had made, entered the bubble, turned on the machine, and played those drums like a wild child.
It wasn't long before Brenda Bongos came very famous. Many people came to see her play in her space bubble. Shortly afterwards she came out of the bubble and started giving concerts. Her fame spread so much that the government suggested that she be part of a unique space journey. Finally, Brenda was a real musical astronaut, and had gone far beyond her first ambition of playing drums in a band.
Years later, when asked how she had achieved all this, she thought for a moment, and said: ''If those old people next – door hadn't mattered so much to me, I wouldn't have found a solution, and none of this would have ever happened.''
【小题1】Why did Brenda try to play in the strangest places?

A．Because she didn't want others to hear her play.

B．Because she didn't mean to disturb others.

C．Because she didn't have her own room.

D．Because she didn’t like her neighbors.

【小题2】Brenda started to give concerts _______.

A．after she practiced in her space bubble

B．when she became part of the unique space journey

C．after she became a real musicalastronaut

D．when people came to see her in the space bubble

【小题3】Brenda became famous because _______.

A．she was good at music and science	B．she became a real musical astronaut
C．she invented a special way of practice	D．she played well and had a talent

【小题4】Which of the following can be used to describe Brenda?

A．Kind, hardworking and clever.	B．Brave, kind and hardworking.
C．Lovely, brave and kind.	D．Nervous, kind and clever.

【小题5】It can be inferred from the text that: " _______".

A．He laughs best who laughs last	B．It's never too old to learn
C．Two heads are better than one	D．One good turn deserves another

The website FarmersOnly.com calls itself an online dating and friendship finder. The idea started in the mind of a man, Jerry Miller in Ohio. He wondered how farmers could meet new people who understand the life of a farmer. Jerry Miller is not a farmer but he represents a lot of farmers.
As he tells it, the idea for the site was planted when a farmer told him one day that she was recently divorced and would like to date. But someone would invite her to meet for coffee at nine o’clock at night, when she had to start her day at five the next morning.
So, in 2005, Jerry Miller launched his website. “You don’t have to be a farmer to be on FarmersOnly.com, but you do have to have the good old-fashioned traditional values of America’s Heartland.” 
You also have to live in the United States or Canada to be a member of the site. Some services are free, but a full membership costs fifty dollars for a year. As of last week the site listed more than 58,000 members. Many of them are farmers in the United States. Others are students or workers involved in some way with agriculture. Jerry Miller tells us about thirty marriages in the last year have resulted from his website.
Some farmers have also found love through a group, Singles in Agriculture, which was formed as a nonprofit organization in 1986. It organizes gatherings that usually end with a dance, but is not a dating service. The purpose is to support educational and social activities that offer people a chance for friendship. Its website, singlesinag.org, says there are more than 1,000 members across the nation and as far away as France.
【小题1】Jerry Miller started singlesinag.org in order to     .

A．help farmers	B．support traditions
C．understand farmers	D．represent farmers

【小题2】What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 indicate?

A．She dislikes city lifestyle.

B．She prefers late night coffee.

C．Country life isn’t well understood.

D．It’s tiring to get up early.

【小题3】Which of the following is true of singlesinag.org?

A．Its services are free.

B．It provides dating services.

C．Only farmers can become its members.

D．Farmers in France can’t benefit from it.

【小题4】The author of the text intends to     .

A．advertise for the two websites

B．introduce two websites

C．encourage social activities

D．urge readers to help farmers

【小题5】It can be inferred from the text that     .

A．all farmers desire marriage

B．farmers are easy to meet new people

C．more farmers get divorced in the USA

D．the Internet helps improve farmers’ social life