阅读理解

　　The first newspapers were handwritten sheets which were posted in public places. The earliest recorded newspaper was started in Rome in 59 B. C. In the 700s, the world's first printed newspaper was developed in China. The paper was printed from carved wooden blocks and sent out among the citizens. Europe didn't have a regularly published newspaper until 1609, when one was started in Germany.

　　The first regularly published newspaper in the English language was printed in Amsterdam in 1620. In 1621, an English newspaper was started in London and was published weekly. The first daily English newspaper was the DAILY COURANT, which did not appear until 1702.

　　In 1690, Benjamin Harris printed the first American newspaper in Boston. But the local government soon stopped its publication. In 1704, John Campbell started THE BOSTON NEWS letter, the first newspaper to be published daily in America. By 1760, the whole America had more than thirty daily newspapers. There are now about 1 800 daily papers in the USA.

　　Today, as a group, English language newspapers have the largest circulation(循环；流通；发行) in the world. The largest circulation for a newspaper, however, is that of the Japanese newspaper ASAHI SHIMBUN, which sells over eleven million copies every day.

1．In Europe, the newspaper was first regularly published in ________.

[　　]

2．The first English newspaper printed and sold every day appeared ________.

[　　]

A．in 1620

B．at the end of the 17th century

C．in 1609

D．at the beginning of the 18th century

3．How many years earlier was the newspaper printed in China than in America?

[　　]

4．As suggested by the passage, which of the following newspapers have the largest number of readers in the world?

[　　]

A．Italian language newspaper.

B．Chinese language newspaper.

C．English language newspaper.

D．Japanese language newspaper.

5．Which title best gives the main idea of the passage?

[　　]

A．The World's First Newspaper

B．History of Newspaper

C．The First Daily Newspaper in America

D．A Remarkable Man-Benjamin Harris

阅读理解

　　New York, 10 November－5:27 p. m., yesterday. Biggest power failure in the city's history.

　　Thousands of people got stuck in lifts. Martin Saltzman spent three hours between the 21st and 22nd floors of the Empire State Building. “There were twelve of us. But no one panicked(恐慌). We passed the time telling stories and playing word games. One man wanted to smoke but we didn't let him. Firemen finally got us out.”

　　“It was the best night we've ever had.” said Angela Carraro, who runs an Italian restaurant on 42nd Street. “We had lots of candles on the tables and the waiters were carrying candles on their trays. The place was full and all night, in fact, for after we had closed, we let the people stay on and spend the night here.”

　　The zoos had their problems like everyone else. Keepers worked through the night. They used blankets to keep flying squirrels and small monkeys warm, While zoos had problems keeping warm, supermarkets had problems keeping cool. “All of our ice cream and frozen foods melted.” Said the manager of a store in downtown Manhattan. “They were worth $ 50000.”

　　The big electric clock in the lobby(大厅) of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in downtown Manhattan started ticking(滴答) again at 5:25 this morning. It was almost on time.

1．Throughout the period of darkness, Martin Saltzman and the eleven others were ________.

[　　]

2．In what way was the night of November 9 the best night for Angela Carraro?

[　　]

A．She had a taste of adventure.

B．Burning candles brightened the place.

C．Business was better than usual.

D．Many people stayed the night in her restaurant.

3．How long did the power failure last?

[　　]

阅读理解

　　Fair Way

　　The West borough High School golf team had taken the official photos with the state prize. The other teams, is appointed, were on the bus heading home. And then Westborough instructor Greg Rota noticed something wrong on one of the score cards. A 9 had been recorded as a 7. They were not the state prize winner: Wobum High had won. “No one would have known.” said Wobum's insructor, Bob Doran. For Rota, it wasn't a diffcult decision: “The prize wasn't ours to take.”

　　“College students are lazy, but they also want to help.” says University of Pennsylvania graduate Dana Hork. So she made it easy, placing cups in rooms where students could leave their 0spare coins, and handing out cups to first－year students to keep in their rooms. Her “Change for Change” effort has collected $ 40,000 for charities(慈善结构), which were decided upon by students.

Never Forgotten

　　A school in Massachusetts received a $ 9.5 million check from Jacques LeBermuth. But it took officials several days of digging to discover his connection to the school. Records showed the LeBermuth came from Belgium and studied in the school in the 1920s. When his family fell on hard times, he was offered free room and board. LeBermuth became a trader, owned shares of AT and T and lived of the earnings until he died at the age 89.

1．What did Greg Rota probably do in the end?

[　　]

A．Took photos of Doran.

B．Had a meeting with Doran.

C．Returned the prize to the organizer.

D．Apologized to Wobum High School.

2．Greg Rota's decision shows that he was ________.

[　　]

3．The underlined word “Change” in the second paragraph means ________.

[　　]

4．What did the school officials do after receiving the check from Mr. LeBermuth?

[　　]

A．They tried to find out why he gave them the money.

B．They went to Belgium to pay their respects to him.

C．They dug out the records that were buried underground.

D．They decided to offer their students free room and board.

5．Jacques LeBermuth gave the money to the school because ________.

[　　]

A．the school asked for it

B．he had no need for that much money

C．the school had helped him in the past

D．he wanted to be remembered by the students

阅读理解

　　What makes a person a scientist? Does he have ways－or tools －of learning that are different from those of others? The answer is “no”. It is not the tools a scientist uses but how he uses these tools which makes him a scientist. You will probably agree that knowing how to use a power is important to a carpenter. You will probably agree too that knowing how to investigate(调查), how to discover information, is important to everyone. The scinetist, however, goes one step further: he must be sure that he has a reasonable answer to his question and that his answer can be confirmed by other persons. He also works to fit the answers he gets into a large set of ideas about how the world works.

　　The scientist' knowledge must be exact. There is no room for half right or right just half the time. He must be as nearly right as the conditions permit. What works under one set of conditions at one time must work under the same conditions at other times. If the conditions are different, any changes the scientist observes in a demonstration must be explained by the changes in the conditions. This is one reason why investigations are important in science. Albert Einstein, who developed the theory of relativity, arrived at this theory through mathematics. The accuracy(正确性) of his mathematics was later tested through investigations. Einstein's ideas were shown to be correct. A scientist uses many tools for measurements. Then the measurements are used to make mathematical calculations that may test his investigations.

1．What, according to the passage, makes a scientist?

[　　]

A．The tools he uses.

B．His ways of learning.

C．The way he uses his tools.

D．The various tools he uses.

2．“…knowing how to investigate, how to discover information, is important to everyone.” The author says this show ________.

[　　]

A．the importance of information

B．the importance of thinking

C．the difference between scientists and ordinary people

D．the difference between carpenters and ordinary people

3．A sound scientific theory should be one that ________.

[　　]

A．works under one set of conditions at one time and also works under the same conditions at other times

B．leaves no room for improvement

C．does not allow any change even under different conditions

D．can be used for many purposes

4．What is the main idea of the passage?

[　　]

A．Scientists are different from ordinary people.

B．The theory of relativity.

C．Exactness is the core(核心)of science.

D．Exactness and way of using tools are the key to the making of a scientist.

阅读理解

　　We believe Earth is only about nine degrees warmer than it was at the coldest time of the last Ice Age about 18000 years ago. But a warming up of just a few degrees more would cause more melting of the glaciers(冰川) of the world. That would put more water into the oceans and raise the sea level. Some cities on our sea coasts could end up under water. And there likely would be big changes in our climate. You can see why we want all the information we can get about our temperature.

　　Some scientists think they might be able to tell us more by taking the Pacific Ocean's temperature. Unfortunately, you can't discover the ocean's average temperature just by dipping a thermometer in it. There are too many temperature changes, currents, and storms in the oceans. So these scientists have found a clever way to discover the average temperature of a whole ocean. That's the idea of the big experiment. Sound travels in water much better than in air. And in water the speed of sound changes depending on the temperature. So if we can get a sound to travel across an ocean and measure its speed we can take the average temperature of the whole ocean.

　　Of course, one measurement won't tell much. What we want to know is whether the ocean is getting warmer. If it is, the speed of the sounds will increase and the time to travel through the ocean will get shorter. By making that same measurement, day after day and year after year, we will find out. Ten years from now we should get a better answer to the question of how fast Earth is warming up.

1．About 18 000 years ago, the earth was ________ than now.

[　　]

2．According to the first paragraph, which of the following is true?

[　　]

A．If more and more water poured into the oceans and the sea level was raised higher and higher, more and more land would go down under the water.

B．If more glaciers melted, man could get more fresh water.

C．Why the scientists are anxious to get the information about the temperature changes is unknown to us.

D．If more glaciers melted the continents would go to the bottom of the oceans.

3．The scientists do their best to discover the Pacific Ocean's average temperature changes ________.

[　　]

A．so that they can estimate the speed of air temperature change

B．because there are too many temperature changes in the Pacific

C．because they want to build the Pacific into a huge lab

D．so that they can prevent the glaciers from melting

4．________ the water temperature is, ________ sound travels in it.

[　　]

A．The higher; the more slowly

B．The warmer; the faster

C．The lower; the more slowly

D．The colder; the faster

5．The scientists give us a better answer to the question of how fast the earth is warming up by measuring the sound speed in the Pacific ________.

[　　]

A．day after day for one year

B．only once

C．day after day for ten years

D．once a year for ten years

阅读理解

　　Some of the world's most famous persons have suffered from a similar disability, such as Albert Einstein, the mathematician; Thomas Edison, the inventor; Auguste Rodin, the artist. What disabled these three highly-intelligent men? Strange as it may seem, they all suffered from learning disabilities, the name given to a number of related learning disorders.

　　Persons with learning disabilities are of normal or higher intelligence(聪明). Yet they have great difficulty learning to read, write or use numbers.

　　Almost always, there is a problem with one of the mental processes(过程) needed to understand or use written signs or spoken language. A learning-disabled child sees and hears perfectly well. Yet he or she is unable to recognize differences in sizes, shapes or sounds that are easy for others to recognize.

　　Learning disabilities are very common. They affect perhaps 10 percent of all children. Four times as many boys as girls have learning disabilities.

　　Since about 1970, new research has helped brain scientists understand these problems better. Scientists now know there are many different kinds of learning disabilities and that they are caused by many different things. There is no longer any question that all learning disabilities result from differences in the way the brain is organized.

　　You cannot look at a child and tell if he or she has a learning disability. There is no outward sign of the disorder. So some researchers began looking at the brain itself to learn what might be wrong.

　　In one study, researchers examined the brain of a learning-disabled person who had died in an accident. They found two unusual things. One involved cells(细胞) in the left side of the brain, which control language. These cells normally are white. In the learning-disabled person, however, these cells were gray. The researchers also found that many of the nerve(神经) cells were not in a line the way they should have been. The nerve cells were mixed together.

1．How can we learn if a person has suffered from learning disabilities or not?

[　　]

A．By judging whether she or he sees or hears perfectly well.

B．By checking if he or she is of normal or higher intelligence.

C．By judging if he or she is the world's most famous person or not.

D．By judging whether he or she has any difficulty in recognizing the differences in sizes, shapes or sounds.

2．Which of the following statements is true?

[　　]

A．Among the children suffering from learning disabilities, girls are fewer than boys.

B．It is reported that many more girls have learning disabilities than boys.

C．All the world's most famous persons have the chance to get the similar disorders.

D．The majority of the world's famous persons have suffered from the disabilities.

3．Why did researchers examine the brain of a learning disabled person who died in an accident?

[　　]

A．To try to find out the cause of the learning disability.

B．To see if the person had any outward sign of the disorder.

C．To check if the person is of normal or higher intelligence.

D．To find out if the person suffered from a learning disability.

4．If somebody has learning disability, ________.

[　　]

A．his or her nerve cells are in a line the way they shouldn't be

B．he or she is able to recognize differences in sizes, shapes or sounds

C．he or she has no difficulty in learning to read, write or use numbers

D．the cells in the left side of the brain are gray and the nerve cells were not in a line

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

　　The Great Fire of London started in the very early hours of September 2 th, 1666. In four days it destroyed more than three quarters of the old city, where most of the houses were wooden and close together. One hundred thousand people became homeless, but only a few lost their lives.

　　The fire started on Sunday morning in the house of the King's baker(面包师) in Pudding Lane. The baker, with his wife and family, was able to get out through a window in the roof. A strong wind blew the fire from the bakery(面包房) into a small hotel next door. Then it spread quickly into Thames Street. That was the beginning.

　　By eight o'clock three hundred houses were on fire. On Monday nearly a kilometer of the city was burning along the River Thames. Tuesday was the worst day. The fire destroyed many well－known buildings, old St Paul's and the Guildhall among them.

　　Samuel Pepys, the famous writer, wrote about the fire. People threw their things into the river. Many poor people stayed in their houses until the last moment. Birds fell out of the air because of the heat.

　　The fire stopped only when the King finally ordered people to destroy hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire. With nothing left to burn, the fire became weak and finally died out.

　　After the fire, Christopher Wren, the architect(建筑师), wanted a city with wider streets and fine new houses of stone. In fact, the streets are still narrow; but he did build more than fifty churches, among them new St Paul's.

　　The fire caused great pain and loss, but after it London was a better place: a city for the future and not just of the past.

1．The fire began in ________.

[　　]

2．The underlined word “family” in the second paragraph means ________.

[　　]

3．It seems that the writer of the text was most sorry for the fact that ________.

[　　]

A．some people lost their lives

B．the birds in the sky were killed by the fire

C．many famous buildings were destroyed

D．the King's bakery was burned down

4．How was the fire put out according to the text?

[　　]

A．The king and his soldiers came to help.

B．All the wooden houses in the city were destroyed.

C．People managed to get enough water from the river.

D．Houses standing in the direction of the fire were pulled down.

5．Which of the following were reasons for the rapid spread of the big fire?

(a)There was a strong wind.

(b)The streets were very narrow.

(c)Many houses were made of wood.

(d)There was not enough water in the city.

(e)People did not discover the fire earlier.

[　　]

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

　　Ask three people to look out of the same window at a busy street corner and tell you what they are. Chances are that you will receive three different answers. Each person sees the same scene, but each perceives(察觉；感知) something different about it.

　　Perceiving goes on in our minds. Of the three people who look out of the window, one may say. that he sees a policeman giving a motorist a ticket. Another may say that he sees a rush hour traffic jam at the intersection(十字路口). The third may tell you that he sees a woman trying to cross the street with four children. For perception is the mind's interpretation of what the senses－in this case our eyes－tell us.

　　Many psychologists(心理学家) today are working to try to determine just how a person experiences or perceives the world around him. Using a scientific approach(方法), these psychologists set up experiments in which they can control all of the factors. By measuring and charting the results of many experiments, they are trying to find out what makes different people perceive totally different things about the same scene.

1．Seeing and perceiving are ________.

[　　]

A．the same action

B．two actions carried on entirely by the eyes

C．two separate actions

D．actions that take place at different times

2．Perceiving is an action that takes place ________.

[　　]

A．in our eyes

B．only when we think very hard about something

C．under the directions of a psychologist

D．in every person's mind

3．Perception involves what ________.

[　　]

A．our senses tell us

B．our minds thinks

C．we see with our eyes only

D．Both A and B

4．Psychologists study perception by ________.

[　　]

A．setting up many experiments

B．looking out of the windows

C．asking each other what they see

D．studying people's eyes

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

　　Friends of contemporaries(同龄人) are a great influence on the actions, thoughts, and words of young people. This influence, known as peer(同等之人) pressure, is quite common among children. Why are children so easily affected by what their peers do, think, or say?

　　Most of us, children included, feel a strong need to be liked by others. We seek acceptance and friendship. In order to gain them, we act like our friends and listen to their advice, whether or not it is helpful. Some of us even begin to think like our friends, sometimes at the expense of our own beliefs and values. An example that comes to mind is the young person who gets involved with drugs because his peer group is experimenting with them. Parents may try to put pressure to keep him away from drugs, but often peer pressure is too great. This conflict(冲突) between being your own person and, at the same time, responding to(作出反应) the pressures of a group remains a problem for young people.

1．The passage mainly talks about ________.

[　　]

A．friendship

B．peer pressure

C．conflicts between people and their parents

D．problems for young people

2．The underlined phrase “being your own person” in the last sentence most probably means ________.

[　　]

A．acting according to your own beliefs and values

B．trying not to tell any lie

C．keeping yourself away from drugs

D．having enough self－confidence

3．The second paragraph focuses(聚焦) on ________.

[　　]

A．what peer pressure is

B．how young people start to take drugs

C．what parents should do for their children

D．why young people are easily influenced by their peers

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

Because of the energy crisis(危机), scientists in the oil－consuming nations(石油消费国) have become increasingly interested in the potential(潜能) of solar energy. Some experts think that the present supply of fuel(燃料) will not last until the middle of the next century. The problem that solar energy researchers face is how to make use of the sun's energy effectively and inexpensively. One of the most popular methods being tested at present uses roof－top solar collectors and underground storage tanks(罐). An advantage of properly working system of this type is that it will not create any environmental pollution. Another advantage of using solar energy is that the cost of the fuel, the sun's rays, is zero.

1．The main topic of this passage is ________.

[　　]

A．the shortage of fossil(化石) fuel

B．the problems that energy researchers face

C．an environmental pollution problem

D．an inexpensive energy source

2．Which of the following describes an advantage of using solar energy?

[　　]

A．There is little or no environmental pollution.

B．Solar energy can easily be stored.

C．Fossil fuels will become more plentiful(丰富的).

D．The oil－consuming nations will not have to import oil.

3．The cost of using the sun's rays for heating is ________.

[　　]

A．about the same as the cost of fossil fuels

B．several hundred dollars per year

C．negligible(可以忽略的) compared with other energy sources.

D．more than the lost of fossil fuels