The story of Diego Maradona(马拉多纳)

The story of Diego Maradona, the Argentinean(阿根廷)football player, is the story of rise and fall of a poor man who became a world star, but paid the price of fame(名誉). He is now at the end of a career(职业生涯)which saw him as the bright star of World Cup Football. In the 1990s, this career has come into the poor performance on the field, drug-taking, speaking ill of football officials, being forbidden and finally facing court(法庭)action in which he has had the defend charges(指控)of shooting at several reporters.

Maradona was born in the poor area of Furito in Buenos Aires. Early in his life, he was able to realize a dream of most poor boys, the dream that is the way out of poverty-trap is through success in sport. Sport in the world around is an activity open to all people, no matter what their background(背景)is.

Diego Maradona is one of eight children. The games of football played in the dirty street outside his small white storeyed home in Furito were to provide(提供)him with a passport(护照)out of the small home. Today, poorly dressed boys still run and kick balls around the street from which a hero traveled to become one of the world’s great football artists.

Football expert(专家)Francis Corneo found Diego’s gift. He says that the young played “a natural” and there was nothing he could teach him. He had never seen anyone played like him in his thirty years’ life.

1. In the second paragraph of this passage, what does the underlined word “poverty-trap” mean?

A. The position in society.

B. Extremely poor condition in one’s life.

C. Poor living conditions which are hard to escape from.

D. Becoming wealthy in the future.

2. Which of the following is NOT true?

A. Maradona’s performance is not as good as before on the field.

B. He will be brought in an action against his bad deed.

C. He showed no respect for some football officials.

D. Francis Corneo found a gift and gave it to Maradona.

3. Sport is an activity open to all people, no matter what their background is. The sentence tells us______.

A. everybody enjoys sport and could turn a dream into reality

B. through sport everybody may be successful and become a famous star in the world no matter how poor he used to be

C. if one wants to be a famous sport star, he must have special background

D. people from working-class families will never get international success

4. We can infer from the passage that______.

A. Maradona will face a possible term if found guilty (有罪的) on the shooting charges

B. background is very important for sport

C. Maradona is as famous as a football star before

D. Maradona is doing so well in playing football that he can’t be knocked out

5. Where does Diego Maradona come from?

A. Europe.　　　　　　  　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  　　B. Africa.

C. North America.　　　　　　  　　　　　　　　　　　　   D. South America.

About Sports

All over the world people enjoy sports. Sports help to keep people healthy, happy and help them to live longer.

Sports change with the season. People play different games in winter and summer. Games and sports often grow out of people’s work and everyday activities. The Arabs use horses or camels in much of their everyday life; they use them in their sports, too.

Some sports are so interesting that people everywhere go in for them. Football, for example, has spread around the world. Swimming is popular in all countries near the sea or in those with many rivers.

Some sports or games go back to thousands of years, like running or jumping. Chinese boxing, for example, has a very long history. But basketball and volleyball are rather new. Neither one is a hundred years old yet. People are inventing new sports or games all the time.

People from different countries may not be able to understand each other, but after a game they often become good friends. Sports help to train a person's character(性格). One learns to fight hard but fight fair, to win without pride and to lose with grace(体面).

1. According to this passage we know that______.

A. people began to play about one hundred years ago

B. about 100 years ago people ran or jumped when they played

C. basketball has a longer history than volleyball

D. not all the games have a long history

2. According to this passage, which of the following isn’t true?

A. Sports help to train a person’s character.

B. People swim only because there are a lot of rivers in their country.

C. People from different countries may not be able to understand each other before a game.

D. Sports and games can develop the friendship between people all over the world.

3. The writer didn’t tell us in this passage that______.

A. basketball was invented in America

B. sports change with the season

C. games and sports often grow out of people’s work and everyday activities

D. football is played all over the world

4. People all over the world enjoy sports because______.

A. sports are interesting

B. sports help to keep people healthy, happy and to live longer

C. sports help to train one’s character

D. all of the above

5. From this passage we can see that______.

A. sports and games are unimportant things that people do

B. sports and games should be treated (对待) only as amusement (娱乐活动)

C. sports and games are only useful to the old

D. none of the above is true

    Olaf Stapledon wrote a book called First and Last Men, in which he looked millions of years ahead．He told of different men and of strange civilizations (文明)，broken up by long“ dark ages” in between. In his view, what is called the present time is no more than a moment in human history and we just the First Men. In 2,000 million years from now there will be the Eighteenth or Last Men.

    However, most of our ideas about the future are really very short–sighted．Perhaps we can see some possibilities for the next fifty years. But the next hundred? The next thousand? The next million? That’s much more difficult.

    When men and women lived by hunting 50,000 years ago, how could they even begin to picture modem life? Yet to men of 50,000 years from now, we may seem as primitive (原始的) in our ideas as the Stone - Age hunters do to us. Perhaps they will spend their days making new spundels, or struggling with their ballalators through the tribe. These words, which I have just made up, have to stand for things and ideas that we simply can’t think of.

　　 So why bother even to try imagining life far in the future? Here are two reasons. First, unless we remember how short our own lives are compared with the whole human history, we are likely to think our own interests are much more important than they really are. If we make the earth a poor place to live on because we are careless or greedy (贪婪) or quarrelsome, our grandchildren will not bother to think of excuses for us.

　　 Second, by trying to escape from present interests and imagine life far in the future, we may arrive at quite fresh ideas that we can use ourselves. For example, if we imagine that in the future men may give up farming, we can think of trying it now. So set your imagination free when you think about the future.

1. A particular mention made of Stapledon’s book in the opening paragraph ________

A．serves as a description of human history

B．serves as an introduction to the discussion

C．shows a disagreement of views

D．shows the popularity of the book

2. The text discusses men and women 50,000 years ago and 50,000 years from now in order to show that ________.

A．human history is extremely long

B．life has changed a great deal

C．it is useless to plan for the next 50 years

D．it is difficult to tell what will happen in the future

3. Spundels and ballalators are used in the text to refer to ________.

A．tools used in farming

B．ideas about modern life

C．unknown things in the future

D．hunting skills in the Stone Age

4. According to the writer of the text, imagining the future will ________.

A．serve the interests of the present and future generations

B．enable us to better understand human history

C．help us to improve farming

D．make life worth living

Can a person make it rain? Many people believed that Charles Hatfiled could. In the early 1900s, Mr. Hatfield traveled through the United States, Canada, and Mexico bringing rain to farms and cities that suffered from drought. For 30 years, people considered him the greatest rainmaker in North America. In order to make it rain, he used a secret mixture of chemicals that can おbe placed high on wooden towers in special trays. As the chemicals evaporated, they attracted rain clouds to the area. Over his career, Mr. Hatfield even offered to help clear the fog from London and to water the Sahara Desert.

　　 One of Mr. Hatfiled's most amazing rainmaking accomplishments happened in southern California in 1916. Because he knew that the city of San Diego did not have enough water, Mr. Hatfield offered to give the city a hand with its water problem. He planned to create enough rain to fill the lake behind Morena Dam near the city. Since the time the dam was built, the lake had never been more than half full, but the lake could hold 57 billion liters (15 billion gallons) of water if it were full. Filling the lake would help the city of San Diego with its constant water problems. Mr. Hatfield suggested that if he succeeded in filling the lake with rain water, the city would pay him $10,000. If no rain fell, the city would pay nothing. The city agreed because they had nothing to lose from the business deal, and only paying $10,000 for that much water seemed to be a steal.

On January 1, 1916, Mr. Hatfield began his rainmaking procedure. It began to rain four days later. The rain continued for the next five days. On January 10, it began to rain more heavily, and the rain continued for the next 10 days! The city of San Diego was flooded. Fifty people died. More than 200 bridges were washed away, and many miles of train tracks were destroyed. However, Mr. Hatfield did succeed in filling the lake. The water was within 12 centimeters of the top of the dam. Mr. Hatfield thought that he had completed his job, so he went to collect his money from the city. However, the city of San Diego backed out of the deal. They said that the rain was an "act of God" and not the work of the rainmaker. Mr. Hatfield tried to sue the city, but he never collected any money for his work.

Please answer the questions below.

Olaf Stapledon wrote a book called First and last Men, in which he looked millions of years aheaD．He told of different men and of strange civilisations (文明), broken up by long ‘dark ages’ in between. In his view, what is called the present time is no more than a moment in human history and we are just the First Men. In 2 000 million years from now there will be the Eighteenth or Last Men.

    However, most of our ideas about the future are really very short-sighteD．Perhaps we can see some possibilities for the next filly years. But the next hundred? The next thousand? The next million? That’s much more difficnlt.

    When men and women lived by hunting 50 000 years ago, how could they even begin to picture modern life? Yet to men of 50 000 years from now, we may seem as primitive(原始的) in our ideas as the Stone-Age hunters do to us. Perhaps they will spend their days gollocking to make new spundels, or struggling with their ballalators through the cribe. These words, which I have just made up, have to stand for things and ideas that we simply can’t think of.

    So why bother even to try imagining life far in the future? Here are two reasons. First, unless we remember how short our own lives are compared with the whole human history, we are likely to think our own interests are much more important than they really are. If we make the earth a poor place to live on because we are careless or greedy (贪婪) or quarrelsome,  our grand-children will not bother to think of excuses for us.

    Second, by trying to escape from present interests and imagine life far in the future, we may arrive at quite fresh ideas that we can use ourselves. For example, if we imagine that in the future men may give up farming, we can think of trying it now.  So set your imagination free when you think about the future.

1.A particular mention made of Stapledon’s book in the opening paragraph ________.

A．serves as a description of human history

B．serves as an introduction to the discussion

C．shows a disagreement of views

D．shows the popularity of the book

2.Spundels and ballalators are used in the text to refer to ______.

A．tools used in farming

B．ideas about modern life

C．unknown things in the future

D．hunting skills in the Stone Age

Holidaymakers who are bored with baking beaches and overheated hotel rooms head for a big igloo. Swedish businessman Nile Bergqvist is delighted with his new hotel, the world’s first igloo hotel.  Built in a small town in Lapland, it has been attracting lots of visitors, but soon the fun will be over.

    In two weeks’ time Bergqvist’s ice creation (作品) will be nothing more than a pool of water. “We don’t see it as a big problem,” he says, “We just look forward to replacing it.”

    Bergqvist built his first igloo in 1991 for an art exhibition. It was so successful that he designed the present one, which measures roughly 200 square meters. Six workmen spent more than eight weeks piling 1 000 tons of snow onto a wooden base；when the snow froze, the base was removed.“The only wooden thing we have left in the igloo is the front door,” he says.

    After their stay, all visitors receive a survival certificate recording their success.  With no windows, nowhere to hang clothes and temperatures below 0℃, it may seem more like a survival test than a relaxing (轻松的) hotel break. “It’s great fun,” Bergqvist explains, “as well as a good start in survival training.”

    The popularity of the igloo is beyond doubt: it is now attracting tourists from all over the worlD．At least 800 people have stayed at the igloo this season even though there are only 10 rooms. “You can get a lot of people in,” explains Bergqvist. “The beds are three meters wide by two meters long, and can fit at least four at one time.”

1.Bergqvist designed and built the world’s first igloo hotel because _____.

A．he believed people would enjoyed trying something new

B．he wanted to make a name for small town

C．an art exhibition was about to open

D．more hotel rooms were needed

2.When the writer says “the fun will be over,” he refers to the fact that _____.

A．hotel guests will be frightened at the thought of the hard test

B．Bergqvist’s hotel will soon become a pool of water

C．holidaymakers will soon get tired of the big igloo

D．a bigger igloo will replace the present one

3. According to the text, the first thing to do in building an igloo is _____.

A．to gather a pool of water

B．to prepare a wooden base

C．to cover the ground with ice

D．to pile a large amount of snow

4.When guests leave the igloo hotel they will receive a paper stating that _______.

A．they have visited Lapland

B．they have had an ice-snow holiday

C．they have had great fun sleeping on ice

D．they have had a taste of adventure

In 1901, H.G. Wells, an English writer, wrote a book describing a trip to the moon. When the explorers (探脸者) landed on the moon, they discovered that the moon was full of underground cities. They expressed their surprise to the “moon people” they met. In turn, the “moon people” expressed their surprise. “Why,” they asked, “are you traveling to outer space when you don’t even use your inner space?”

    H.G. Wells could only imagine travel to the moon. In1969, human being really did land on the moon. People today know that there are no underground cities on the moon. However, the question that the “moon people” asked is still an interesting one. A growing number of scientists are seriously thinking about it.

    Underground systems are already in place.  Many cities have underground car parks. In some cities, such as Tokyo, Seoul and Montreal, there are large underground shopping areas. The “Chunnel”, a tunnel (隧道) connecting England and France, is now complete.

    But what about underground cities? Japan’s Taisei Corpotation is designing a network of underground systems, called “Alice Cities”. The designers imagine using surface space for public parks and using underground space for flats, offices, shopping, and so on. A solar dome (太阳能穹顶) would cover the whole city.

    Supporters of underground development say that building down rather than building up is a good way to use the earth’s space. The surface, they say, can be used for farms, parks, gardens, and wilderness. H.G. Wells’“moon people” would agree. Would you?

1.The explorers in H. G. Wells’ story were surprised to find that the “moon people”

A．knew so much about the earth

B．understood their language

C．lived in so many underground cities

D．were ahead of them in space technology

2.What does the underlined word “it” (Paragraph 2) refer to?

A．Discovering the moon’s inner space.

B．Using the earth’s inner space.

C．Meeting the “moon people”.

D．Traveling to outer space.

3.What sort of underground systems are already here with us?

A．Offices, shopping areas, power stations.

B．Tunnels, car parks, shopping areas.

C．Gardeners, car parks, power stations.

D．Tunnels, gardens, offices.

4.What would be the best title for the text?

A．Alice—Cities of the Future.

B．Space Travel with H. G. Wells.

C．Enjoy Living Underground.

D．Building Down, Not Up.

At one time, computers were expected largely to remove the need for paper copies of documents (文件) because they could be stored electronically. But for all the texts that are written, stored and sent electronically, a lot of them are still ending up on paper.

    It is difficult to measure the quantity of paper used as a result of use of Internet-connected computers, although just about anyone who works in an office can tell you that when email is introduced, printers start working overtime. “I feel in my bones this revolution is causing more trees to be cut down,” says Ted Smith of the Earth Village Organisation.

    Perhaps the best sign of how computer and Internet use pushes up demand for paper comes from the high-tech industry itself, which sees printing as one of its most promising new markets. Several Internet companies have been set up to help small businesses print quality documents from a computer. Earlier this week Hewlett-Packard Co. announced a plan to develop new technologies that will enable people to print even more so they can get a hard copy of a business document, a medical record or just a one-line e-mail, even if they are nowhere near a computer.  As the company sees it, the more use of the Interact the greater demand for printers.

    Does all this mean environmental concerns ( 环境问题) have been forgotten? Some activists suggest people have been led to believe that a lot of dangers to the environment have gone away. “I guess people believe that the problem is taken care of, because of recycling (回收利用 ),” said Kelly Quirke, director of the Rainforest Action Network in San Francisco. Yet Quirke is hopeful that high-tech may also prove helpful. He says printers that print on both sides are growing in popularity. The action group has also found acceptable paper made from materials other than wood, such as agricultural waste.

1.The growing demand for paper in recent years is largely due to _________.

A．the rapid development of small businesses

B．the opening up of new markets

C．the printing of high quality copies

D．the increased use of the Internet

2.Environmentalists believe one possible way of dealing with the paper situation is __________.

A．to encourage, printing more quality documents

B．to develop new printers using recycled paper

C．to find new materials for making paper

D．to plant more fast-growing trees

3.Hewlett-Packard Co. has decided to de velop new technologies because ______.

A．people are concerned about the environment

B．printers in many offices are working overtime

C．small companies need more hard copies

D．they see a growing market for printers

4.What would be the best title for the text?

A．Computers and Printers

B．E-mail and the Business World

C．Internet Revolution and Environment

D．Modern Technology and New Markets

There is one foreign product the Japanese are buying fas ter than others, and its popularity has caused an uneasy feeling among many Japanese.

    That product is foreign words.

    Gairaigo-words that come from outside-having been part of the Japanese language for centuries. Mostly borrowed from English and Chinese, these terms are often changed into forms no longer understood by native speakers.

    But in the last few years the trickle (涓涓细流) of foreign words has become a flood, and people fear the increasing use of foreign words is making it hard for the Japanese to understand each other and could lead to many people forgetting the good qualities of traditional (传统的) Japanese.

    “The popularity of foreign words is part of the Japanese interest in anything new,” says university lecturer and writer Takashi Saito. “By using a foreign word you can make a subject seem new, which makes it easier for the media (媒体) to pick up. ”

    “Experts (专家) often study abroad and use English terms when they speak with people in their own fields. Those terms are then included in government white papers,” said Muturo Kai, president of the National Language Research Institute. “Foreign words find their way easily into announcemeats made to the general public, when they should really be explained in Japanese.”

    Against the flow of new words, many Japanese are turning back to the study of their own language. Saito’s Japanese to Be Read Aloud is one of many language books that are now flying off booksellers’ shelves.

    “We were expecting to sell the books to young people,” said the writer, “but it turns out they are more popular with the older generation, who seem uneasy about the future of Japanese. ”

1.What advantage do foreign words have over traditional Japanese terms?

A．The ideas expressed in foreign words sound new.

B．Foreign words are best suited for announcements.

C．Foreign words make new subjects easier to understand.

D．The use of foreign words makes the media more popular.

2.In the opinion of Takashi Saito, Japanese people ______.

A．are good at learning foreign languages

B．are willing to learn about new things

C．trust the media

D．respect experts

3.Which of the following plays an important part in the spread of foreign words?

A．The media and government papers.

B．Best-selling Japanese textbooks.

C．The interest of young Japanese.

D．Foreign products and experts.

4.The book Japanese to Be Read Aloud _____.

A．sells very well in Japan

B．is supposed by the government

C．is questioned by the old generation

D．causes misunderstanding among the readers

Reading to dogs is an unusual way to help children im prove their literacy skills (读写能力). With their shining brown eyes, wagging tails, and unconditional love, dogs can provide the nonjudgmental listeners needed for a beginning reader to gain confidence (自信心), according to Intermoun tain Therapy Animals (ITA) in Salt Lake City. The group says it is the first program in the country to use dogs to help develop literacy in children, with the introduction of Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ).

    The Salt Lake City Public Library is sold on the idea.“Literacy specialists admit that children who read below the level of their fellow pupils are often afraid of reading aloud in a group, often have lower self-respect, and regard reading as a headache,” said Lisa Myron, manager of the children’s department.

    Last November the two groups started “Dog Day Afternoon” in the children’s department of the main library. About25 children attended each of the four Saturday-afternoon classes, reading for half an hour. Those who attended three of the four classes received a “pawgraphed” book at the last class.

    The program was so successful that the library plans to repeat it in April, according to Dana Thumpowsky, public relations manager.

1.What is mainly discussed in the text?

A．Children’s reading difficulties.

B．Advantages of raising dogs.

C．Service in a public library.

D．A special reading program.

2.Specialists use dogs to listen to children reading because they think _____.

A．dogs are young children’s best friends

B．children can play with dogs while reading

C．dogs can provide encouragement for shy children

D．children and dogs understand each other

3.By saying “The Salt Lake City Public Li brary is sold on the idea”, the writer means the library ______.

A．uses dogs to attract children

B．accepts the idea put forward by ITA

C．has opened a children’s department

D．has decided to train some dogs

4.A “pawgraphed” book is most probably ______.

A．a book used in Saturday classes

B．a book written by the children

C．a prize for the children

D．a gift from parents