BEIJING—Seven prestigious universities in China announced Sunday that they would begin using the same independent exam —besides the national one —to test students hoping to gain entrance to them in 2011.
The seven are Peking University, Beihang University, Beijing Normal University, Nankai University, Fudan University, Xiamen University and Hong Kong University.
Students who want to gain entrance to any of the seven universities will only have to sit one independent exam, according to the joint announcement.
“This will help lighten the students’ load, otherwise they must take several exams for different universities ,”said the announcement.
Passing the exam could result in more than one interview chance, giving the students more opportunities to choose their favorite universities.
China’ s college entrance exam system is undergoing reform as universities aim to select students based on independent criteria rather than just using the results of the national exam.
In 2003, Peking University and another 21 universities were allowed to pilot (试用) the reform by using their own criteria to independently select five percent of their students.
Now nearly 80 universities across the country have the right to select talented students based on their own exams.
Education experts regard universities selecting students according to independent examinations as conducive (有助的) to better understanding where the students’ talents lie.
Although this may be the case, it has also created problems as students may sit many different exams as they often apply for a number of universities.
To relieve students from such pressures, the national education outline (2010—2020) released in July this year encourages high-level universities to group together to use the same exams.
【小题1】If students want to be admitted to the seven prestigious universities, they can______.

A．only pass the interview.

B．only take the national exam.

C．only take the independent exam.

D．either take the national exam or take the independent exam.

【小题2】What’s the purpose of students sitting one independent exam to gain entrance to the seven universities?

A．It can reduce students’ load to take several exams.

B．The universities will have the same standard to test students.

C．There will be less trouble marking students’ test papers.

D．It can avoid fierce competition among these universities.

【小题3】If students pass the independent exam, they will ______.

A．take the national exam.

B．have one or more interview chances.

C．be admitted to one of the universities.

D．he trained to be adapted to universities life and studies.

【小题4】What is the advantage of universities selecting students according to independent examinations?

A．Students needn’t take the national exam.

B．Students ’education cost can be lowered.

C．Students’ abilities and talents can be better found.

D．It can encourage middle schools to recommend more qualified students.

When we think about giving help to developing countries, we often think about giving money so that these countries can build schools and hospitals, buy food and medicine, or find clean water supplies. These seem to be the most important basic needs of the people we are trying to help. However, it's far from enough. Ladies and gentlemen, we've got to come up with some better ideas to help them.
I was very surprised, then, when I read about a plan to make cheap laptop computers for children in developing countries. A man called Nicholas Negroponte invented a cheap laptop computer and he planed to produce a lot and sell them to the children in developing countries at a low price after he visited a school in Cambodia. The laptop will be covered in rubber so that it is very strong and won't be damaged easily. The idea is that these computers will help the children's education as they will be able to surf the Internet. By improving children's education they should help people to find their own solutions to their problems in the long term.
Another idea to help children in developing countries is to recycle old mobile phones so that they can be used again. In the UK, and probably in many other countries too, millions of mobile phones are thrown away every year. The waste created by throwing away these old phones is very bad for the environment, so it seems to be an excellent idea to recycle them. In this way we will be able to achieve two important goals at the same time. We will reduce the waste we produce and help others. In other words, we will be able to 'kill two birds with one  stone’, and that is always a good thing.
【小题1】It's an excellent idea to recycle old mobile phones because         .

A．it reduces waste and can help others

B．it prevents waste and can earn lots of money

C．it can send the waste produced by developed countries to other countries

D．it is good for the environment and very educative for phone users

【小题2】The author gives the example of Mr. Negroponte’s cheap computers

A．to show what high technology can bring us

B．to show the kindness of people in the developed countries

C．to show how to find business opportunities in developing countries

D．to give an example of how to help developing countries

【小题3】Where does this passage probably come from?         .

A．A newspaper.	B．A magazine.
C．A lecture.	D．An advertisement.

South Asia heatwave kills nearly 100.
DHAKA - A heat wave sweeping India, Bangladesh(孟加拉国) and Nepal has killed nearly 100 people over the past two weeks, officials said on June 3, 2005.
A third of the people died in northern Bangladesh, mostly women and children from dehydration(脱水), heat stroke and diarrhoea(腹泻).
"We are getting reports of several deaths due to heat wave and related diseases almost every day," an official said, as temperatures touched 43degC .
The weather office in Dhaka said the hot weather will persist for another week until the monsoon(季风) rains which are normally due by the middle of June.
Severe heat conditions in the southern Indian have killed at least 55 people, officials in the two states said.
While temperatures have fallen from a high of 45degC in Andhra Pradesh to around 40degC, giving a respite to people, they are still on the rise in Orissa with Talcher town registering 48.5deg C, a weather official said.
At least five people have died in Nepal from extreme heat, the government said.
【小题1】We can infer that the heatwave can cause ______.

A．heat stoke

B．dehydration

C．diarrhoea

D．all above

【小题2】When the monsoon rains come, the temperature will _______.

A．remain the same

B．go on to rise sharply

C．begin to drop obviously

D．rise a little

【小题3】Which place is the hottest in the early June, 2005?

A．Dhaka

B．Talcher

C．Andhra Pradesh

D．Nepal

The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place. Now it is an ecological disaster area. Nauru’s heartbreaking story could have one good consequence — other countries might learn from its mistakes.
For thousands of years, Polynesian people lived on the remote island of Nauru, far from western civilization. The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798. He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship. He called the island Pleasant Island.
However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first. The whaling ships and other traders began to visit, bringing guns and alcohol. These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island. A ten-year civil war started, which reduced the population from 1,400 to 900.
Nauru’s real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate (磷酸盐)on the island. In fact, it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate, which is a very important fertilizer for farming. The company began mining the phosphate.
A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground; it is a strip mine. When a company strip-mines, it removes the top layer of soil. Then it takes away the material it wants. Strip mining totally destroys the land. Gradually, the lovely island of Nauru started to look like the moon.
In 1968, Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world. Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.
Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars. In addition, they used millions more dollars for personal expenses. Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem — their phosphate was running out. Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing. By 2000, Nauru was financially ruined. Experts say that it would take approximately $433,600,000 and more than 20 years to repair the island. This will probably never happen.
【小题1】What might be the author’s purpose in writing the text?________.

A．To seek help for Nauru’s problems.

B．To give a warning to other countries

C．To show the importance of money.

D．To tell a heartbreaking story of a war.

【小题2】What was Nauru like before the Europeans came? ________.

A．Rich and powerful	B．Modern and open
C．Peaceful and attractive	D．Greedy and aggressive

【小题3】The ecological disaster in Nauru resulted from _______.

A．soil pollution	B．phosphate overmining
C．farming activity	D．whale hunting

【小题4】Which of the following was a cause of Nauru’s financial problem? ________.

A．Its leaders misused the money

B．It spent too much repairing the island

C．Its phosphate mining cost much money

D．It lost millions of dollars in the civil war.

【小题5】What can we learn about Nauru from the last paragraph?_ _______.

A．The phosphate mines were destroyed

B．The ecological damage is difficult to repair.

C．The island was abandoned by the Nauruans

D．The leaders will take the experts’ words seriously.

Everyone knows about straight-A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge(报复)of the Nerds. They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull laborers, their noses always stuck in a book. They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports.
How, then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?
Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School. She also sings in the choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has maintained A’s in every subject. Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair, and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station. Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony, he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes, plus bonus points for A’s in two college-level courses.
How do super-achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer. “Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students, ” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super-achieving students.“Knowing how to make the most of your innate(天生的)abilities counts for more. Much more.”
In fact, Walberg says, students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ. For them, learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down.
Hard work isn’t the whole story, either.“It’s not how long you sit there with the books open, ” said one of the many-A students we interviewed.“It’s what you do while you’re sitting.”Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates.
The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.
【小题1】The underlined word “nerds” can probably be________ .

A．dull bookworms lacking sports and social skills

B．successful top students popular with their peers

C．students with certain learning difficulties

D．born leaders crazy about social activities

【小题2】What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

A．Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students.

B．People have unfavorable impression on straight-A students.

C．Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films.

D．Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society.

【小题3】Some students become super-achievers mainly because_________ .

A．they are born cleverer than others

B．they work longer hours at study

C．they make full use of their abilities

D．they know the shortcut to success

【小题4】What will be talked about after the last paragraph?

A．The interviews with more students.

B．The role IQ plays in learning well.

C．The techniques to be better learners.

D．The achievements top students make.

【小题5】What can we infer from the passage?

A．IQ is more important than hard work in study.

B．The brightest students can never get low grades.

C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments.

D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers.

There exist cruel wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, so it’s not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us go through difficult times in our lives. Putting a smile on someone’s face when you know they are feeling depressed, as the saying goes, makes me feel good and warms my heart.
How would you feel if you could not joke around with your wife, husband, child, co-worker neighbor, close friend, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your corner store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don’t know the person I’m joking around with. My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine. This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is a common manner to speak to others that are around you.
I know of a few people that don’t have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say. Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their face. They don’t get the joke that makes others laugh. I am busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space. How can people not get a really funny joke?
Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control. Without humor we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy. There is too much sadness in this present world. It drives people crazy. We all need to find a way to avoid the sadness and bring a little light into our lives. Therefore, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together.
【小题1】According to the author, humor is useful in the aspect that ____________.

A．it can pick up people’s spirits

B．it can help people get on well with others

C．it can help get rid of the cruelty in the world

D．it makes people more confident

【小题2】The author answers the question in the second paragraph with ___________.

A．facts and descriptions	B．evidence and argument
C．examples and conclusion	D．stories and persuasion

【小题3】The underlined phrase “busting a gut” in the 3rd paragraph can be replaced  by        .

A．keeping silent	B．speaking loud
C．laughing hard	D．explaining carefully

【小题4】In writing the passage, the author mainly intends to __________.

A．talk about his own understanding of humor

B．encourage people to be humorous in daily life

C．introduce a practical way to get through daily life

D．convince people of the power of being optimistic about life

【小题5】What is the author’s attitude towards the present world?

A．Indifferent

B．Positive

C．Satisfied

D．Critical

Everyone knows about straight—A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge of the Nerds(《菜鸟大反攻》)，a comedy film satirizing(讽刺)social life in college. They get high grades，all right，but only by becoming dull laborers，their noses always stuck in a book. They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports.
How，then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?
Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School. She also sings in the school singing group, serves on the students’ union and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has kept up A’s in every subject. Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico，was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair，and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station. Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony，he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes，plus rewarding points for A’s in two college-level course.
How do super—achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer “Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students,” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super—achieving students “Knowing how to make the most of your innate(天生的)abilities counts far more. Much more.”
In fact，Walberg says，students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ. For them，learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down.
Hard work isn’t the whole story, either．“it’s not how long you sit there with the books open．”said one of the many—A students we interviewed. “It’s what you do while you’re sitting.” Indeed，some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates. The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.
【小题1】What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

A．Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students

B．People have unfavorable impression on straight—A students

C．Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films

D．Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society

【小题2】What will be talked about after the last paragraph?

A．The interviews with more students

B．The role IQ plays in learning well

C．The techniques to be better learners

D．The achievements top students make

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

A．IQ is more important than hard work in study

B．The brightest students can never get low glades

C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments

D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers

The law has a great many rules, showing when and how far a man is to be punished, or if he should be made to hand over money or property to his neighbors, and so on. These rules are contained in books. A lawyer learns them mainly by reading books.
He begins by doing little else than reading, and after he has prepared himself by three years’ study, still, he has to, almost every day, read more about some new questions which he has to answer.
The power to use books, then, is a special skill which a would-be lawyer ought to possess. He ought to have enough flexibility（灵活性）to make it easy for him to collect ideas from printed words. He ought to have some readiness to find what a book contains, and something of an instinct（直觉）for where to look for what he wants.
But although this is the power which he will first feel in need of, it is not the most important. A lawyer does not study law to recite it; he studies it to use it and act upon the rules which he has learned in real life. His business is to try cases in court and to advise people what to do in order to keep out or get out of trouble.
【小题1】The first thing a law student has to do is to _______.

A．read books	B．hand over money
C．practice law	D．answer questions

【小题2】The major business of a lawyer is ________.

A．to discuss the material he has read

B．to advise people who have law problems

C．to learn about real life

D．to study the law

【小题3】What is the most important to a lawyer?

A．To possess a lot of books.

B．To have enough flexibility when collecting ideas from printed words.

C．To be able to quickly find out what a book contains.

D．To be able to use his book knowledge in the right way in his future business.

【小题4】According to the passage, a good lawyer should know how to ________.

A．understand and use what he reads

B．be effective in everything

C．collect ideas from different sources

D．be effective in court

Love, success, happiness, family and freedom——how important are these values to you? Here is one interview which explores the fundamental questions in life.
Question: Could you introduce yourself first?
Answer: My name is Misbah, 27 years old. I was born in a war-torn area. Right now I’m a web designer.
Q: What are your great memories?
A: My parents used to take us to hunt birds, climb trees, and play in the fields. For me it was like a holiday because we were going to have fun all day long. Those are my great memories.
Q: Does your childhood mean a lot to you?
A: Yes. As life was very hard, I used to work to help bring money in for the family. I spent my childhood working, with responsibilities beyond my age. However, it taught me to deal with problems all alone. I learnt to be independent.
Q: What changes would you like to make in your life?
A: If I could change something in my life, I’d change it so that my childhood could have taken place in another area. I would have loved to live with my family in freedom. Who cares whether we have much money, or whether we have a beautiful house? It doesn’t matter as long as I can live with my family and we are safe.
Q: How do you get along with your parents?
A: My parents supported me until I came of age. I want to give back what I’ve got. That’s our way. But I am working in another city. My only contact with my parents now is through the phone, but I hate using it. It filters(过滤)out your emotion and leaves your voice only. My deepest feelings should be passed through sight, hearing and touch.
【小题1】In Misbah’s childhood,         .

A．he was free from worry

B．he liked living in the countryside

C．he was fond of getting close to nature

D．he often spent holidays with his family

【小题2】What did Misbah desire most in his childhood?

A．A colorful life.	B．A beautiful house.
C．Peace and freedom.	D．Money for his family.

【小题3】How would Misbah prefer to communicate with his parents?

A．By chatting on the Internet.	B．By calling them sometimes.
C．By paying weekly visits.	D．By writing them letters.

【小题4】If there were only one question left, what would it most probably be?

A．What was your childhood dream?

B．What is your biggest achievement?

C．What is your parents’ view of you?

D．What was your hardest experience in the war?

Zoo elephants don’t live as long as those in the wild, according to a study sure to cause debate about keeping the giant animals on display. Researchers compared the life spans of elephants in European zoos with those living in Amboseli National Park in Kenya and others working on a timber enterprise in Buma. Animals in the wild or in natural working conditions had life expectancies twice than or more of their relatives in zoos.
Animal care activists have urged in recent years to discourage keeping elephants in zoos, largely because of the lack of space and small numbers of animals that can be kept in a group.
The researchers found that the median life span for African elephants in European zoos was 16.9 years, compared with 56 years for elephants who died of natural causes in Kenya’s Amboseli Park. Adding in those elephants killed by people in Africa lowered the median life expectancy there to 35.9 years. For the more endangered Asian elephants, the median life span in European zoos was 18.9 years, compared with 41.7 years for those working in the Burma Timber Enterprise. Median means half died younger than that age and half lived longer.
There is some good news, though. The life expectancies of zoo elephants have improved in recent years, suggesting an improvement in their care and raising, but “Protecting elephants in Africa and Asia is far more successful than protecting them in Western zoos.”
There are about 1,200 elephants in zoos, half in Europe, researchers concentrated on female elephants, which make up 80 percent of the zoo population. One amazing thing was that Asian elephants born in zoos had shorter life spans that those brought to the zoos from the wild.
Zoos usually lack large areas that elephants are used to in the wild, and that zoo animals often are alone or with one or two other unrelated animals, while in the wild they tend to live in related groups of 8 to 12 animals. In Asian elephants, baby death rates are two to three times higher in zoos than in the Burmese logging camps, and then, in adulthood, zoo-born animals die young. People are not sure why.
【小题1】What is argued about in this passage?

A．Zoo elephants don’t live as long as those in the wild.

B．Elephants should not be on display.

C．Asian elephants are in danger.

D．Asia is far more successful in protecting elephants in zoos.

【小题2】What does the underlined word “median” mean according to the passage?

A．Average

B．Longest.

C．Shortest.

D．Ordinary.

【小题3】Which of the following is Not the disadvantage of keeping elephants in zoos?

A．Limited number of relatives.	B．Lack of space.
C．Shorter life expectancy.	D．Less attention.

【小题4】Who are expected to pay more attention to the issue addressed?

A．Zoologists.	B．Animal care activists.
C．Zoo visitors.	D．The public.