How men first learnt to invent words is unknown; in other words, the origin of language is a mystery. All we have really known is that men, unlike animals, somehow invented certain sounds to express thoughts and feelings, actions, and things, so that they could communicate with each other; and that later they agreed upon certain signs, called letters, which could be combined to represent those sounds, and which could be written down. These sounds, whether spoken or written in letters, are called words. The power of words, then, lies in their associations—the things they bring up before our minds. Words become filled with meaning for us by experience; and the longer we live, the more certain words recall to us the glad and sad events of our past; and the more we read and learn, the more the number of words that mean something to us increases. Great writers are those who not only have great thoughts but also express these thoughts in words which appeal（具有感染力）powerfully to our minds and emotions（情感）.This charming and telling use of words is what we call literary（文学的）style. Above all, the real poet is a master of words. He can convey（转达）his meaning in words which sing like music, and which by their position and association can move men to tears. We should therefore learn to choose our words carefully and use them accurately, or they will make our speech silly and vulgar（粗俗的）.

1.According to the author of the passage, _____________.

A. men, as well as animals, invented certain sounds to express thoughts

B. the origin language is a difficult question

C. words did not have written form at first

D. words came from sounds

2.The power of words lies in the fact that _____________.

A.it can associate the things in the world with the ideas in our minds

B.one word is connected with another

C.it can associate one person with another

D.it can recall to us the events of our past

3.In order not to make our speech silly and vulgar, we should _____________.

A. use words that can move men to tears

B.choose words with care and accuracy

C.become a master of words

D.use words which sing like music

4.The best title for this passage would be _____________.

A.The meaning of words　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  B.The nature of words

C.The invention of words　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  D.The power of words

1.Where can you spend the night in a tour?

A. Cook’s Cottage.　　　　　　   　　　　   B.Westfield Centrepoint.　　　　　　　　 C.Sydney Tower.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D.Sovereign Hill.

2.What is the time that Cook’s Cottage is open on Saturday in the summer?

A.11:00 a.m.~2:00 p.m.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B.5:00 p.m.~10:30 p.m.　　　　　　　　　　  C.9:00 a.m.~5:30 p.m.   　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　   D.9:00 a.m.~5:00 p.m.　　　　 

3.The Anchorage Restaurant is_____________.

A.in Williamstown　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　    B.in the centre of the city

C.in Anchorage　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　    D.in a Cantonese fishing port

4.If you want to buy the best products in Australia,you may call_____________.

A.9397 6270　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　     B.9231 9300

C.5331 1944　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　     D.9419 4677

Deserts are found where there is little rainfall or where rain for a whole year falls in only a few weeks’ time. Ten inches of rain may be enough for many plants to survive(存活) if the rain is spread throughout the year. If it falls, within one or two months and the rest of the year is dry, those plants may die and a desert may form.

Sand begins as tiny pieces of rock that get smaller and smaller as wind and weather wear them down. Sand dunes(沙丘) are formed as winds move the sand across the desert. Bit by bit, the dunes grow over the years, always moving with the winds and changing the shape. Most of them are only a few feet tall, but they can grow to be several hundred feet high.

 There is, however, much more to a desert than sand. In the deserts of the Southwestern United States, cliffs (悬崖) and deep valleys were formed from thick mud that once lay beneath a sea more than millions of years ago. Over the centuries, the water dried up. Wind, sand, rain, heat and cold all wore away at the remaining rocks. The faces of the desert mountains are always changing—very, very slowly…as these forces of nature continue to work on the rock.

Most deserts have a surprising variety of life. There are plants, animals and insects that have adapted（适合的）to life in the desert. During the heat of the day, a visitor may see very few signs of living things, but as the air begins to cool in the evening, the desert comes to life. As the sun begins to rise again in the sky, the desert once again becomes quiet and lonely.

1.Many plants may survive in deserts when_____________.

A. the rain is spread out in a year

B.the rain falls only in a few weeks

C.there is little rain in a year

A.　　  it is dry all the year round

2.Sand dunes are formed when_____________.

A. sand piles up gradually

B.there is plenty of rain in a year

C.the sea has dried up over the years

D.pieces of rock get smaller

3.The underlined sentence in the third paragraph probably means that in a desert there is_____________.

A. too much sand　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  B.more sand than before

C.nothing except sand　　　　　　　　　　　　　　    D.something else besides sand

4.It can be learned from the text that in a desert_____________.

A. there is no rainfall throughout the year

B.life exists in rough conditions

C.all sand dunes are a few feet high

D.rocks are worn away only by wind and heat

Be Healthy！Be Slim! Be Beautiful!

Discover the secret for a Healthy, Slim, Beautiful You!

Discover how to be Healthy, Slim, Beautiful!? I love this healthy diet program because it helps you lose weight, lose inches, feel healthy and look beautiful. This healthy diet is an 8-week program which is unlike other diet regimens（食物疗法）.It focuses on proper nutrition（营养）first and weight loss second. Your body must have proper levels of minerals, vitamins, and protein（蛋白质）in order to work well. It provides a simple lifestyle change to give you more energy and improve your health most greatly. It offers control over stomach and continuing hunger with a calorie dense diet allowing 1 700 to 2 000 calories a day. If a person has a weight problem, his body probably is not working at proper levels of basic nutrients. We invite you to follow this program so you can be the slim person who lives inside you. You too, can love dieting, especially if you are losing weight and losing inches! Do you want to feel better?

 Look!

To get started being slim just Click Here.

1.What is the aim of this diet program?

A.To keep healthy first and to lose weight second.

B.To lose weight as much as possible.

C.To lose weight at the cost of the health.

D.To lose weight first and to keep healthy second.

2.Which of the following is NOT true？

A.This program makes a change in your lifestyle.

B.This program can stop you from feeling hungry all the time.

C.This program allows you 1 700 to 2 000 calories for each meal.

D.The pictures above show what great progress people have made in losing weight.

3.If you “Click Here”,what will you read on the Internet?

A.Some other programs.

B.The contents of this program.

C.Some interesting foods.

D.Some products you can buy.

Many of us like cooking but never have much time for it. Helen Fry’s new book Quick Cooking has been specially written for busy people. It has over 1 000 recipes, from the famous Spanish gazpacho to Swedish smorgasbord. The book is well written and the photographs and drawings are clear.(They are like those in the excellent little Quick Dressmaking and Quick Gardening.)The book has a strong plastic cover. It is easy to find your way around it too. And busy people, notice this! Mrs. Fry tells you how much time you need in order to get each dish ready.

Quick Cooking has 4 parts, one for each season. This helps you to use fresh fruit and vegetables when they are cheaper—and, of course, better. There are a lot of exciting ideas from foreign countries, and most of the recipes are easy to follow. You take something simple like a chicken or some cheese, and make an unusual dish out of it. For example, there are no fewer than 40 recipes for eggs! Mrs. Fry does not plan complete meals for the “quick book”. The beginners will have to find out a lot of things for himself—or herself. But this ought not to be difficult with such a good book. I wanted to try many of the recipes as soon as I read them. For people with little spare time, Helen Fry’s Quick Cooking is excellent value.

1.Helen Fry’s book is called Quick Cooking because__________.

A. you can cook all the dishes in it quickly

B. there is over 1 000 recipes in it

C. it is written for people who don’t have much time

D. it tells you how to cook all kinds of food quickly

2.Busy people should notice that__________.

A. all the recipes in the book are easy to follow

B. there are clear photographs and drawings in the book

C. the book has a strong cover

D. they are told how long each dish takes to cook

3.This passage is most probably__________.

A. a book review

B. a notice

C. a letter to an editor

D. an introduction on cooking

4.We can infer from the passage that__________.

A. Helen Fry is good at writing books quickly

B. complete meals are planned only for beginners

C. there are quite a few “quick books” for busy people

D. beginners are advised to start making meals out of the cheapest materials

I fell in love with England because it was quaint (古雅)—all those little houses, looking terribly old-fashioned but nice, like dolls’ houses. I loved the countryside and the pubs, and I loved London. I’ve slightly changed my mind after seventeen years because I think it’s an ugly town now.

Things have changed. For everybody, England meant gentlemen, fair play, and good manners. The fair play is going, unfortunately, and so are the gentlemanly attitudes and good manners—people shut doors heavily in your face and politeness is disappearing.

I regret that there are so few comfortable meeting places. You’re forced to live indoors. In Paris I go out much more, to restaurants and nightclubs. To meet friends here it usually has to be in a pub, and it can be difficult to go there alone as a woman. The cafes are not terribly nice.

As a woman, I feel unsafe here. I spend a bomb on taxis because I will not take public transport after 10 p.m. I used to use it, but now I’m afraid.

The idea of family seems to be more or less non-existent in England. My family is well united and that’s typically French. In Middlesex I had a neighbor who is 82 now. His family only lived two miles away, but I took him to France for Christmas once because he was always alone.

1.The writer doesn’t like London because she__________.

A. is not used to the life there now

B. has lived there for seventeen years

C. prefers to live in an old-fashioned house

D. has to be polite to everyone she meets there

2.Where do people usually meet their friends in England?

A. In a cafe.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. In a restaurant.

C. In a nightclub.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  D. In a pub.

3.The underlined part “it” (in Para.4) refers to__________.

A. a taxi　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　   B. the money

C. a bomb　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　    D. public transport

4.The writer took her neighbor to France for Christmas because he__________.

A. felt lonely in England

B. had never been to France

C. was from a typical French family

D. didn’t like the British idea of family

Since many of you are planning to study at a college or university in this country, you may be curious to know what you usually do in a typical week, how you can get along with your fellow students, and so on. These are the questions I want to discuss with you today.

First, let’s talk about what your weekly schedule will look like. No matter what your major may be, you can expect to spend between four and six hours a week for each class attending lectures. Lectures are usually in very large rooms because some courses such as introduction to sociology or economics often have as many as two or three hundred students, especially at large universities. In lectures, it’s very important for you to take notes on what the professor says because the information in a lecture is often different from the information in your textbooks. Also, you can expect to have exam questions based on the lectures. So it isn’t enough to just read your textbooks; you have to attend lectures as well. In a typical week you will also have a couple of hours of discussion for every class you take. The discussion section is a small group meeting usually with fewer than thirty students where you can ask questions about the lectures, the reading, and the homework. In large universities, graduate students, called teaching assistants, usually direct discussion sections.

If your major is chemistry, or physics, or another science, you’ll also have to spend several hours a week in the labor laboratory, doing experiments. This means that science majors spend more time in the classroom than non-science majors do. On the other hand, people who major in subjects like literature or history usually have to read and write more than science majors do.

1.The main purpose of this text is__________.

A.to help the students to learn about university life

B.to persuade the students to attend lectures

C.to encourage the students to take part in discussions

D.to advise the students to choose proper majors

2.We can learn from the passage that university professors__________.

A.spend about 5 hours on lectures each week

B.must join the students in the discussion sections

C.prefer to use textbooks in their lectures

D.require the students to read beyond the textbooks

3.A discussion section does NOT include__________.

A.working under the guidance of university professors

B.talking over what the students have read about the courses

C.discussing the problems related to the students’ homework

D.raising questions about what a professor has said in a lecture

4.According to the author, science majors__________.

A.have to work harder than non-science majors

B.spend less time on their studies than non science majors

C.consider experiments more important than discussions

D.read and write less than non-science majors

A letter to Edward, a columnist(报刊专栏作家）

Dear Mr. Expert,

I grew up in an unhappy and abusive home. I always promised myself that I’d get out as soon as possible. Now, at age 20,I have a good job and a nice house, and I’m really proud of the independence（独立，自主）I’ve achieved.

Here’s the problem: several of my friends who still live with their parents wish they had places like mine—so that they make mine theirs.

It started out with a couple of them spending the weekends with me. But now they seem to take it for granted that they can show up any time they like. They bring boyfriends over, talk on the phone and stay out forever.

I enjoy having my friends here sometimes—it makes the place feel comfortable and warm—but this is my home, not a party house. I was old enough to move out on my own, so why can’t I seem to ask my friends to respect my privacy(隐私)?

Joan

Edward’s reply to Joan

Dear Joan,

If your family didn’t pay attention to your needs when you were a child, you probably have trouble letting others know your needs now.

And if you’ve gathered your friends around you to rebuild a happy family atmosphere(气氛),you may fear that saying no will bring back the kind of conflict you grew up with—or destroy the nice atmosphere you now enjoy. You need to understand that in true friendship it’s okay to put your own needs first from time to time.

Be clear about the message you want to send. For example,“I really love your company but I also need some privacy. So please call before you come over.”

1.We can learn from the first letter that Joan__________.

A. lives away from her parents　　　　　　　　   B.takes pride in her friends

C.knows Mr. Expert quite well　　　　　　　　    D.hates her parents very much

2.We can infer from the first letter that__________.

A. Joan considers her friends more important than her privacy

B.Joan’s friends visit her more often than she can accept

C.Joan doesn’t like the parties at all

D.Joan dislikes the boyfriends her friends bring over

3.According to Mr. Expert, why can’t Joan tell her friends her feelings?

A.She is afraid of hurting her friends.

B.She does not understand true friendship.

C.Her family experience stops her from doing so.

D.She does not put her needs first.

4.The underlined word “conflict” in the second letter means__________.

A. dependent life　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　   B.fierce fight

C.bad manners　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D.painful feeling

5.The second letter suggests that Mr. Expert __________.

A. is worried about Joan’s problem

B.warns Joan not to quarrel with her friends

C.advises Joan on how to refuse people

D.encourages Joan to be brave enough

There are some very good things about open education. This way of teaching allows the students to grow as people, and to develop their own interests in many subjects. Open education allows students to be responsible for their own education, as they are responsible for what they do in life. Some students do badly in a traditional classroom. The open classroom may allow them to enjoy learning. Some students will be happier in an open education school. They will not have to worry about grades or rules. For students who worry about these things a lot, it is a good idea to be in an open classroom.

But many students will not do well in an open classroom. For some students, there are too few rules. These students will do little in school. They will not make good use of open education. Because open education is so different from traditional education, these students may have a problem getting used to making so many choices. For many students it is important to have some rules in the classroom. They worry about the rules even when there are no rules. Even a few rules will help this kind of students. The last point about open education is that some traditional teachers do not like it. Many teachers do not believe in open education. Teachers who want to have an open classroom may have many problems at their schools.

You now know what open education is. Some of its good points and bad points have been explained. You may have your own opinion about open education. The writer thinks that open education is a good idea, but only in theory. In fact, it may not work very well in a real class or school. The writer believes that most students, but of course not all students, want some structure in their classes. They want and need to have rules. In some cases, they must be made to study some subjects. Many students are pleased to find subjects they have to study interesting. They would not study those subjects if they did not have to.

1.Open education allows the students to__________.

A. grow as the educated

B.be responsible for their future

C.develop their own interests

D.discover subjects outside class

2.Open education may be a good idea for the students who__________.

A.enjoy learning

B.worry about grades

C.do well in a traditional classroom

D.are responsible for what they do in life.

3.Some students will do little in an open classroom because__________.

A.there are too few rules

B.they hate activities

C.open education is similar to the traditional education

D.they worry about the rules

4.Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A.Some traditional teachers do not like it.

B.Many teachers do not believe in open education.

C.Teachers may have problems in open classrooms.

D.The teacher’s feelings and attitudes are important to the students.

5.Which of the following best summarizes the passage?

A.Open education is a really complex idea.

B.Open education is better than traditional education.

C.Teachers dislike open education.

D.The writer thinks that open education is a good idea in practice.

That cold January night, I was growing sick of my life in San Francisco. There I was, walking home alone in the morning after a tiring practice at the theatre. With opening night only a week ago, I was still learning my lines. I was having trouble dealing with my part-time job at the bank and my acting at night at the same time. As I walked, I thought seriously about giving up both acting and San Francisco. City life had become too much for me.

As I walked down empty streets under tall buildings, I felt very small and cold. I began running, both to keep warm and to keep away from any possible robbers(抢劫犯).Very few people were still out except a few sad-looking homeless people under blankets.

About a block from my apartment(公寓房间),I heard a sound behind me. I turned quickly, half expecting to see someone with a knife or a gun. The street was empty. All I saw was a shining streetlight. Still, the noise had made me nervous, so I started to run faster. Not until I reached my apartment building and unlocked the door did I realize what the noise had been. It had been my wallet falling to the sidewalk.

Suddenly I wasn’t cold or tired any more. I ran out of the door and back to where I’d heard the noise. Although I searched the sidewalk anxiously for fifteen minutes, my wallet was nowhere to be found.

Just as I was about to give up the search, I heard the garbage truck(垃圾车) pull up to the sidewalk next to me. When a voice called from the inside, “Alisa Camacho?” I thought I was dreaming. How could this man know my name? The door opened, and out jumped a small red-haired man with an amused look in his eye. “Is this what you’re looking for?” he asked, holding up a small square shape.

It was nearly 3 a.m. by the time I got into bed. I wouldn’t get much sleep that night, but I had gotten my wallet back. I also had gotten back some enjoyment of city life. I realized that the city couldn’t be a bad place as long as people were willing to help each other.

1.How did the writer feel when she was walking home after work?

A. Cold and sick.

B.Fortunate and helpful.

C.Satisfied and cheerful.

D.Disappointed and helpless.

2.From the first paragraph, we learn that the writer was busy__________.

A.solving her problem at the bank

B.taking part in various city activities

C.learning acting in an evening school

D.preparing for the first night show

3.On her way home the writer __________.

A.lost her wallet unknowingly

B.was stopped by a garbage truck driver

C.was robbed of her wallet by an armed man

D.found some homeless people following her

4.In the fifth paragraph, why did the writer say she was dreaming?

A.Someone offered to take her back home.

B.A red-haired man came to see her.

C.She heard someone call her name.

D.Her wallet was found in a garbage truck.

5.From the text, we can infer that the writer __________.

A. would stop working at night

B.would stay on in San Francisco

C.would make friends with cleaners

D.would give up her job at the bank