阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

　　Jeremy Fox, a retired businessman in a small city in England, recently bought an old farmhouse with a yard and a small field, some five miles out of the town. There he planned to lead a simple life with his wife, Amelia.

　　It was while clearing out the old barn on the far side of the yard that he made an interesting discovery. In a corner, under some old sacks, he found some large fragments (碎片) of an antique bowl. Out of curiosity, he took them into the kitchen and much to the anger of his wife, washed the mud off them. That evening he spread newspapers over the kitchen table and carefully study the fragments together. However, two pieces were find missing.

　　Two days later, having pulled down the barn, Mr Fox was digging over the ground in preparation for the installation(安装) of a greenhouse, when he discovered the two missing pieces. When he had stuck them in position, the bowl looked so fine that Amelia agreed to its being placed on a table in the living room, in front of the window.

　　“We might have something a bit special here,”he said to his wife. A few days later, Jeremy took several photographs of the bowl, which he sent off to Sotheby's in London.

　　Unexpectedly, Sotheby's was extremely interested in the bowl and sent an expert to inspect it. It turned out that it was a Chinese Ming fish bowl, dating back to around 1500, and might be expected to get a five-figure sum at an auction.

　　A week later still more unexpectedly, two police officers called and told the Foxes the bowl was stolen property.

　　So the bowl never reached the auction room, and Mr Fox never received the five figure sum that had been mentioned. However, he framed one of the photographs he had taken and hung it on the wall.

1．At first Mrs Fox seemed to be _____.

[　　]

A．greatly annoyed at Mr Foxes enthusiasm

B．very much interested in the discovery

C．uncertain of Mr Fox's enthusiasm

D．curious about Mr Fox's findings

2．Most likely“Sotheby's”was _____.

[　　]

A．an antique shop　　　　B．a friend of Mr Fox's

C．an artist　　　　　　　D．a china store

3．According to the expert, the bowl could be sold at the price of _____.

[　　]

A．five thousand pounds

B．less than ten thousand pounds

C．one thousand, five hundred and ninety pounds

D．at least ten thousand pounds

4．Which of the following is NOT true?

[　　]

A．Most probably Sotheby's purchased the bowl in the end.

B．It turned out that Mr Fox got neither the money nor the bowl.

C．Mr Fox preferred country life to city life after his retirement.

D．Mr Fox was fond of gardening.

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

　　All over the world, people use gestures: the way they move their hands or hold their heads has a particular meaning, and these movements are used to support what they are saying, or even to make words unnecessary. People nod and shake their heads; they wave their hands in special ways; they hold their thumbs up or down. Do these signs always have the same meanings, wherever they are used? And how have they come to have these meanings?

　　In Roman times, pointing with the thumb in a special way could spell death. When a gladiator was defeated in the games arena, one of two things could happen: he might be spared or he might be killed on the spot by the victor. His fate was decided by the emperor or nobleman who was holding the games, but the crowd of spectators could influence the decision.

　　They expressed their wishes by the position of their thumbs.

　　People often think that the life-or-death thumb signs were thumbs-up for life and thumbs-down for death, but this is not entirely accurate. A re-examination of Roman writings shows that what we call the“thumbs-up”sign was really a“thumbs-cover-up”: the thumb was held inside the closed hand. And the“thumbs-down”sign?

　　The crowd was seated above the arena, so if they pointed towards the gladiator with their thumbs, they would automatically point downwards. Pointing downwards with the thumb, with the fingers closed, was probably an imitation of the killing action of thrusting the sword down into the victim, who was lying on the ground. In this way the spectators encouraged the winner to take the loser's life. To give the opposite signal--spare him, do not use the sword--they held out their hands with the thumbs hidden inside their closed fingers, like the sword in its sheath. So the life-or-death gestures were either thumbs-hide for life, or thumbs-point for death, and our modern thumbs-up sign seems to have originated in a misunderstanding of the Roman records.

　　Nowadays many people used the thumbs-up sign meaning“OK”,“fine”,“good”. But Italians, the modern descendants of the ancient Romans, seem for less likely to use it than other Europeans. When questioned, 95 percent of Englishmen and Frenchmen agreed that they used the sign in this way, but the figure for Italians was only 23 percent. Many Italians even called it the“English OK”signal, and mentioned that they had seen it in films or on television. So it looks as if the popular thumbs-up, which started out as a mistranslation from the literature of ancient Rome, is now“returning”to the city from which it never really came in the first place.

　　Other hand signs are used when we want to tell someone to“come here”, i.e. the beckoning signs. Some people beckon with one finger, or two, but the most common way to beckon is with the whole hand: all four fingers open and close together. Some people do this with the palm facing upwards, and others do it in the opposite way, with the palm facing downwards. Which of these positions you use depends on where you live. If you are an Englishman or a Frenchman you always use the palm-down position. This is because Italians employ a good-bye wave that looks almost exactly like the Anglo-French beckoning sign. If they beckoned in the Anglo-French style you can imagine the confusion it might cause.

1．Who could decide the fate of the gladiator in Roman times?

[　　]

A．The victor.

B．The spectators.

C．The emperor or nobleman who was holding the games.

D．The judge.

2．The death thumb sign was _____.

[　　]

A．thumbs-up for death

B．thumbs-down for death

C．pointing downwards with the thumb, with the fingers closed

D．holding out the hands with the thumbs hidden inside their closed fingers for death

3．What does the word“spared”mean in paragraph 2?

[　　]

A．killed　　　　　　　　B．set free

C．allowed to live　　　　　D．wounded

4．What is Italians' good-bye wave like?

[　　]

A．Almost exactly like the palm-up position.

B．The palm-down position.

C．The popular thumbs-up position.

D．The popular thumbs-down position.

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

　　People who studied plants have found out that plants carry a small electrical charge(电荷). It is possible to measure this charge with a small piece of equipment called“galvanometer”. The galvanometer is placed on a leaf of the plant, and it records any changes in the electrical field of the leaf. Humans have a similar field which can change when we are shocked or frightened.

　　A man called Backster used a galvanometer for his studies of plants and was very surprised at his results. He found that if he had two or more plants in a room and he began to destroy one of them--perhaps by pulling off its leaves or by pulling it out of its pot--then the galvanometer on the leaves of the other plants showed a change in the electrical field. It seemed as if the plants were signaling a feeling of shock. This happened not only when Backster started to destroy plants, but also when he destroyed other living things such as insects.

　　Backster said that the plants also knew if someone had destroyed a living thing some distance away, because they signaled when a man who had just cut down a tree entered the room.

　　Another scientist, named Sauvin, achieved similar results to Backster's. He kept galvanometers fixes to his plants all the time and checked regularly to see what the plants were doing. If he was out of the office, he telephoned to find about the signals the plants were sending. In this way, he found that the plants were sending out signals at the exact times when they felt strong, pleasure or pain. In fact, Sauvin could cause a change in the eletrical field of his plants over a distance of a few miles simply by thinking about them.

1．What was Backster's discovery?

[　　]

A．Plants carry galvanometer.

B．It is possible to measure a small electrical charge with a small piece of equipment called“galvanometer”.

C．The small electrical charge on the leaves of the other plant can change if he destroyed the leaves on one of two plants.

D．Humans have a similar field which can change when we are shocked or frightened as plants.

2．Backster was surprised at the results of his studies because _____.

[　　]

A．he destroyed an insect

B．he destroyed a plant by pulling off its leaves

C．he found that plants seemed to express feelings of shock

D．he found that plants could move and speak after all

3．The plants sent out signals _____.

[　　]

A．only when Backster started to destroy plants

B．only when Backster destroyed plants or other living things

C．only when he destroyed things such as insects

D．only when Backster placed the galvanometer on the leaves of the plants

4．The scientist called Sauvin _____.

[　　]

A．did not agree with Backster's ideas

B．did not get any results about the electrical charge

C．got different results from Backster's

D．found out some of the same things that Backster did

5．Which of the following is true according to the passage?

[　　]

A．The electrical charge plants carry may shock or frighten us.

B．A tree will signal when it has been cut down.

C．Sauvin could only make his plants receive nearby signals.

D．Plants have feelings because they can receive signals without moving.

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

　　Every animals is a living radiator (散热器)--heat formed in its cells and given off through its skin. Warm blooded animals keep a normal temperature by continuously replacing lost surface heat: smaller animals, which have more skin for every ounce of body weight, must produce heat faster than bigger ones. Because smaller animals burn fuels faster, scientists say they live faster. The speed at which an animal lives is determined by measuring the rate at which it uses oxygen. A chicken, for example, uses one-half cubic centimeters of oxygen every hour for each gram it weighs. The tiny shrew-mouse used four cubic centimeters of oxygen every hour for each gram it weighs. Because it uses oxygen eight times as fast, it is said that the shrew-mouse is living eight times as fast as the chicken. The smallest of the warm-blooded animals, the humming-bird, lives a hundred times as fast as an elephant. There is a limit to how small a warm-blooded animal can be. A mammal or bird that weighs only two and a half grams would starve to death. It would burn up its food too rapidly and would not he able to eat fast enough to supply itself more fuel.

1．The passage says that every animal is a living radiator because it _____.

[　　]

A．produces heat in its body cells

B．burns fuel to produce heat

C．sends out heat through its skin

D．takes in oxygen for burning fuel

2．Small animals are said to live faster than big ones because they _____.

[　　]

A．have more skin for their weight

B．replace lost heat faster

C．burn fuel faster than big ones

D．keep a higher body temperature

3．The amount of oxygen an animal uses depends on _____.

[　　]

A．the heat the body produces

B．the food it eats

C．its size and shape

D．the length of time it lives

4．According to the passage, which of the following inferences is possibly right?

[　　]

A．There is no limit as to how large a warm-blooded animal can be.

B．The humming-bird lives faster than any other warm-blooded animals.

C．Small animals have less skin for their body weight than large ones.

D．The humming-bird is the smallest of the warm-blooded animals.

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

　　There are 25,000 kinds of bees identified in the world. The most well-known are the honey bee. In the United States there are known 3,500 species. Most bees do not live in large groups, they are solitary(独居的)bees. The honey bee is not a native of the United States. The first bees were brought to the U.S. from Holland. Later other bees were brought from many other countries. South America had some honey bees, but they did not produce much honey.

　　When honey bees were brought to the United States, native American called them“white man's flies”. Soon bees became a known sight in America.

　　In Brazil, honey bees did not survive well and scientists brought African bees to Brazil. These bees were found to be aggressive(好斗的) and mistakenly escaped into the wild. These bees are very common in Brazil now.

　　Beekeepers raise bees for honey, but more often they raise them to pollinate crops. Pollination occurs when the bee lands on a flower and some of the pollen(花粉)gets stuck to the bees' hairy legs. The next time the bee lands, some of the pollen falls off her legs and onto another flower, allowing it to reproduce.

　　Beekeepers have been raising bees for their honey for thousands of years. The first beekeepers kept their bees in hollow logs or clay pots. Now they keep the bees in wooden hives. When beekeepers raise bees for honey, they must remove part of the hive to retrieve (获取) the honey. They must“calm”the bees by using a special smoker. The smoke is puffed out around the bees and the bees move slower and are not as aggressive.

1．What's the best title for the passage?

[　　]

A．An Introduction to Bees.　　　　　　B．Why Bees Are Kept.

C．The Great Use of Bees.　　　　　　D．Bees in the USA.

2．What's the meaning of the underlined word“pollinate”?

[　　]

A．Make something fertile (结果实的) with pollen.

B．Get pollen away from.

C．Plant.

D．Harm.

3．From the passage we can infer that _____.

[　　]

A．bees want their honey to he taken away in order to get more room

B．all bees are kept by raisers

C．bees don't want their honey to be taken away

D．it is easy to retrieve the honey

阅读理解

　　Right in the middle of Japan, high in the mountain, an old man lived in his little house. He found in one corner of the room an old iron kettle(水壶). He decided to use it to boil water. To his surprise, the kettle became a strange creature when it was on fire. And then it changed back into kettle again. The old man decided to sell it. So a merchant came and went away with the kettle.

　　At night, the merchant was awakened(唤醒) by a big noise. The kettle became a strange creature again and was running about in his room. But early next morning he found the kettle still quietly lying in the corner. One of his neighbors, after hearing what he had seen in the night, advised him to travel in the country to display it.

　　Now the kettle could be asked to change and perform by the merchant. The performances drew big audiences and the merchant earned a lot of money. But he was an honest man. Though he was rich now, he thought that he owed some of his wealth to the man from whom he had bought the kettle.

　　One morning, he put a hundred gold pieces into the kettle and, hanging it on his arm, he returned to the old man who had sold it to him. The old man thanked the merchant, saying that few people would have been so honest.

　　The kettle brought them both luck. Everything went well with them till they died.

1．why did the old man want to sell the kettle?

[　　]

A．The kettle couldn't be used to boil water.

B．The kettle was too old to use.

C．When the kettle was used to boil water, it changed into a strange creature.

D．The kettle had magic power.

2．Which of the following statements is NOT true about the description of the merchant?

[　　]

A．He was a mean person.

B．He was lucky.

C．He was very clever.

D．He was kind to the old man.

3．Why did the merchant get a lot of money since he bought the kettle?

[　　]

A．The kettle is made of gold.

B．The kettle has some magic power.

C．The kettle can produce gold.

D．The merchant has some magic power.

4．Which description is NOT suitable to the text?

[　　]

A．If you are honest you will get good result.

B．Good luck belongs to honest man.

C．Everyone should be kind to others.

D．Money can be got by anyway including some evil ways.

阅读理解

　　In 1901, H. G. Wells, an English writer, wrote a book describing a trip to the moon. When the explorers(探险者) 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. In 1969, human beings 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 Corporation 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(太阳能圆屋顶)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. Well's 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”again.

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．Gardens, car parks, power stations.

D．Tunnels, gardens, offices.

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

[　　]

A．Alice Cities--cities of the future

B．Space travel with H.G. Wells

C．Enjoy living underground

D．Building down, not up

阅读理解

　　Do you sometimes argue about what seems to you to be simple fact? Do you argue whether it's cold outdoors or whether the car in front of you is going faster than the speed limit?

　　If you get into such arguments，try to think about the story about the six blind men and the elephant. The first blind man who felt the elephant's trunk said it was like a snake. The second who felt the elephant's side said it was like a wall, while the third said it was like a spear as he touched the animal's tusk. The fourth, who got hold of the elephant's tail insisted that it was like a rope. The fifth man said it looked like a tree as he put his arms around one of the elephant's legs. The sixth, who was tall and got hold of the elephant's ears, said it was like a huge fan.

　　Each man's idea of the animal came from his own experience. So if someone disagrees with you about a“simple fact”, it's often because his experience in the matter is different from yours.

　　To see how hard it is for even one person to make up his mind about a“simple fact”, try this simple experiment. Get three large bowls. Put ice water in one. Put hot water in the second. Put lukewarm water in the third．Now put your left hand in the ice water. Put your right hand in the hot water. After thirty seconds, put both hands in the lukewarm water. Your right hand will tell you the water is cold. Your left hand will tell you it's hot!

1．What makes people think about simple facts differently?

[　　]

A．The fact that simple facts differ from one another.

B．The fact that people have different experience in the same simple fact.

C．The fact that people often disagree with one another.

D．The fact that it's hard to make up one's mind about simple facts.

2．Which of the following temperatures can the word“luke warm”be applied to?

[　　]

A．Around 1℃.　　　　B．Above 60℃.

C．Around 25℃.　　　 D．Below 0℃.

3．The writer's advice is _____.

[　　]

A．we should never think about simple facts

B．we should never judge something with a one-sided view

C．we should not agree about simple facts

D．we must learn from the six blind men

4．After reading the last paragraph, we may think of _____.

[　　]

A．Newton's law

B．Gallileo's theory of falling objects

C．Einstein's theory of relativity

D．Marx's On Capital

5．The main idea of this passage is _____.

[　　]

A．people often judge something according to his own experience

B．people often agree about simple facts

C．it's hard for a person to make up his mind about a simple fact

D．don't care too much about simple facts

阅读理解

　　Be careful about those who use the truth to deceive. When someone tells you something that is true，but leaves out important information that should be included，he can create a false impression.

　　For example, someone might say, “I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery(彩票). It was great. I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for one hundred dollars!”

　　This guy's a winner, right? Maybe, maybe not. We then discover that he bought two hundred tickets, and only one was a winner. He's really a big loser!

　　He didn't say anything that was false, but he left out important information on purpose. That's called a half-truth. Half-truths are not technically lies, but they are just as dishonest.

　　Untrustworthy candidates(竞选者) in political campaigns often use this tactic(策略). Let's say that during Governor Smith's last term, her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs. Then she seeks another term. One of her opponents(对手) runs an ad saying, “During Governor Smith's term, the state lost one million jobs!”That's true. However an honest statement would have been,“During Governor Smith's term, the state had a net gain of two million jobs.”Advertisers will sometimes use half-truths. It's against the law to make false claims so they try to mislead you with the truth. An ad might say,“Nine out of ten doctors recommend(推荐) Yucky Pills to cure nose pimples.”It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky Corporation.

　　This kind of deception happens too often. It's a sad fact of life: lies are lies，and sometimes the truth can lie as well.

1．Which statement is true according to the article?

[　　]

A．There is no 100-percent truth.

B．A truth is as dishonest as a lie.

C．Lies are lies, and truths are lies, too.

D．The truth can be used in dishonest ways.

2．The underlined word“deceive”is close in meaning to “_____”.

[　　]

A．pretend　　　B．hide

C．fool　　　　 D．sell

3．The best title for this passage should be _____.

[　　]

A．A Special Lie

B．How to Discover a Lie

C．Half-truths

D．White Lies

阅读理解

　　Why are so many people so afraid of failure? Quite simply because no one tells us how to fail SO that failure becomes an experience that will lead to growth. We forget that failure is part of the human condition and that every person has the right to fail.

　　Most parents work hard at either preventing failure or protecting their children from the knowledge that they have failed. One way is to lower standards. A mother describes her child's hurriedly-made table as“perfect”! Even though it couldn't stand on uneven(not same in height) legs. Another way is to shift blame. If John fails in science, his teacher is unfair or stupid.

　　The trouble with failure-prevention methods is that they leave a child unequipped for life in the real world. The young need to learn that no one can be best at everything, no one can win all the time--and that it's possible to enjoy a game even when you don't win. A child who's not invited to a birthday party. who doesn't make the honor roll or the baseball team feet terrible, of course. But parents should not offer a quick comfort prize or say“It doesn't matter”, because it does. The young should be allowed to experience disappointment and be helped to master it.

　　Failure is never pleasurable. It hurts grown-ups and children exactly alike. But it can make a positive contribution to your life once you learn to use it. Step one is to ask“Why did I fail?”. Control the natural impulse(冲动) to blame someone else. Ask yourself what you did wrong，how you can improve. If someone else can help, don't be shy about asking them.

1．This passage mainly tells us about _____.

[　　]

A．the reasons why people fail

B．how to fail

C．the ways to prevent failures

D．the importance of facing failures

2．When the writer says“everyone has the right to fail”, he means to say _____.

[　　]

A．the world is full of failures

B．no one is perfect

C．failures are quite common in our lives

D．no one can grow up mentally without failures

3．By“protecting their children from the knowledge that they have failed”, the writer means that most parents try their best _____.

[　　]

A．to let their children know that they won't fail

B．not to teach their children about knowledge of failure

C．to provide their children for the knowledge against failure

D．to keep their children from realizing that they failed

4．According to the writer, _____.

[　　]

A．parents should tell their children to think nothing of not being chosen into a football team

B．children should be encouraged to get rid of disappointment all by themselves

C．parents should judge what their children have done as it is

D．children should learn to enjoy a game that they won't win