It is only a shiny, yellow metal, but it is one of the most valuable things on earth. Since the beginning of time, men have looked for this extremely valuable item, gold.

　　Gold is soft and easy to form into different objects. If it gets wet, it does not rust like iron or other metals. Acids（酸）don't change it. One important reason why gold is so valuable is that it is scarce. Because of its softness, gold must be combined with other metals and so make it harden and give it strength. By hardening gold, people can then make coins and jewelry with it. Metals commonly mixed with gold are nickel（镍）, platinum（铂）and copper. Gold jewelry bears（刻有）a number and the letter K. The K means karat (carat), which is a measure of the amount of pure gold in the jewelry. Pure gold is 24K. Therefore, a necklace which is 14K is fourteen parts of gold and ten parts of other metals.

　　Many countries make use of gold for certain coins, but this practice is not as common now as it once was. The United States, for instance, stopped making gold coins in1933.

(1) Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

[　　]

A．Valuable Metal.

B．Looking for Gold.

C．Jewelry and Coins.

D．What is Karat?

(2) Which is not the reason why gold is highly valuable?

[　　]

A．It can be made into jewelry.

B．It is not easily found.

C．It is soft and shiny.

D．It doesn't rust（生锈）when wet.

(3) In order to make it stronger, gold is often mixed with ______.

[　　]

A．hard gold

B．coins and jewelry

C．acids（酸）

D．other metals

(4) If a ring is marked 12K, then the percentage of gold is _____.

[　　]

　　A businessman, who always tried to pay as little as possible for what he needed, fell ill one day.

　　He decided to go to a doctor and asked a friend to recommend（推荐）one.

　　“Dr Smith is an excellent one, and he has rich experience in treating various illnesses,” the friend told him. “Is he expensive?” the businessman asked. “Yes and no. He charges five hundred dollars for the first visit, but only twenty-five dollars for each visit after that.”

　　“That seems reasonable,” the businessman said, and went to visit Dr Smith. As he walked into the consulting room, he said, “Well, here I am again, doctor,” and put twenty-five dollars on the table. The doctor looked at him carefully for a moment, then smiled and put the money into his pocket. “Thank you,” he said, “and what can I do for you today?”

　　“Examine me, of course,” the businessman said, “and tell me what's wrong with me.”

　　“Oh, there's no need for me to examine you again, ”the doctor said. “Just continue taking the medicine I prescribed for you when you came to see me last time.”

(1) What kind of person was the businessman?

[　　]

A．He was a person easy to get on with.

B．He was a very rich and successful person.

C．He was a person who always tried to pay as little as possible for what he needed.

D．He was a person who enjoyed cheating others.

(2) Which of the following questions can best take the place of the question “Is he expensive?”

[　　]

A．Does he charge his patient a lot of money?

B．Does he cost a lot of money?

C．Is he a valuable person?

D．Is he able to pay all the expenses?

(3) Why did the businessman say to the doctor “Well, here I am again”?

[　　]

A．He had visited the doctor many times before.

B．It was his second visit to the doctor.

C．He had already paid 500 for his first visit.

D．He wanted the doctor to think he had visited him before.

(4) What did the doctor do for the businessman?

[　　]

A．He gave him a prescription.

B．He examined him.

C．He gave him a careful treatment.

D．He did nothing for the businessman.

　　It looks like a mobile phone, but the service is much cheaper. It acts like a mobile phone, but only in your own city. Beyond the city walls, it's useless.

　　If you are enjoying such a service, you are one of a growing number users of “Little Smart” in China.“Little Smart”, also called “Xiaolingtong”, has always been compared to mobile phones. But actually, it is more like one of those cordless phones（无线电话）used around the home. The only difference is that this one reaches much further than from the bathroom to the living room. It can travel across an entire city.

　　Cheap costs are the main reason for the success of Little Smart. It costs 25 yuan a month for the line and about 0.1 yuan per minute to use. A mobile phone, on the other hand, can cost four or five times as much. What's more, unlike mobile phone, there is no fee for incoming calls.

　　These low changes have attracted many users. Since it was first established in Zhejiang in 1998, Little Smart had spread to 300 cities with 12 million users in China by the end of last year.

　　But, Little Smart is not really that smart. Users often complain about its bad voice quality. The system uses the fixed phone lines and has a great number of base stations placed close to each other to send the signals. And there are not as many stations to pick up its signals as there are for mobiles. “I couldn't receive a phone call if I was on a bus,” said Li Ping, a user in Hangzhou. “It worked fine when I stood still, but there were breaks in the signal when I was moving. People calling me would get angry because they kept thinking I have hung up on them.”

　　Scientists are trying to make Little Smart more user-friendly. Messaging and Internet access has been added to the service. And the latest Little Smart hand-set even have a color screen

(1) Paragraph 1 mainly tells us ______.

[　　]

A．the characteristics（特点）of Little Smart

B．the reason why Little Smart is so popular

C．Little Smart is being used more widely in the city than in the countryside

D．Little Smart has more advantages than mobile phones

(2) Little Smart _____ cordless phones.

[　　]

A．has some similarities to

B．is more convenient at home than

C．costs less than

D．is quite different from

(3) Which of the following is the disadvantage of Little Smart?

[　　]

A．No fee for incoming calls.

B．Messaging and Internet access.

C．Bad voice quality.

D．About 0.1 yuan per minute to use.

(4) The last but one paragraph tells us _________.

[　　]

A．the signals of Little Smart are poor

B．Little Smart can shorten the distance between friends

C．Little Smart will not develop quickly in China

D．why people living in Hangzhou refuse to use Little Smart

　　Foresters are people who work with trees and know a lot about them. Occasionally, foresters have problems, and the foresters in southern Indiana have had many problems.

　　The foresters were doing an experiment. They wanted to grow walnut （胡桃）trees by planting walnuts in the ground. If they succeeded, the foresters would be able to control the location of the trees. Also, this method would be much cheaper than transplanting or moving nut trees that were grown in plant nurseries（苗圃）. So the foresters planted their walnuts, and that's when the squirrels （松鼠）started causing trouble. Shortly after the nuts were planted, the squirrels dug them up for tasty snacks（快餐）.

　　The foresters tried to keep the squirrels away from the walnuts. Mothballs（卫生球）were used as a warning, but they didn't work. Then, the foresters tried dipping the walnuts in kerosene（煤油）, but that didn't stop the squirrels either. The foresters continue to search for a method that will really work. But until they find one, the squirrels can continue to have their walnut snacks and the foresters will have to transplant trees!

(1) Foresters are people who _____.

[　　]

A．look after the forest and work with trees

B．feed squirrels in the forest

C．catch squirrels that steal walnuts

D．transplant trees

(2) What were the foresters trying to do with the walnuts?

[　　]

A．Plant food for squirrels.

B．Control the location of the trees.

C．Move the trees closer to the squirrels.

D．Get squirrels to eat them.

(3) The underlined word “transplanting” probably means“______”.

[　　]

(4) What did the squirrels do to the walnuts that were dipped in kerosene?

[　　]

A．Left them alone.

B．Continued to eat them.

C．Hid them in trees.

D．Put them into the earth.

(5) According to the story, which of the following is not true?

[　　]

A．Mothballs didn't prove to be a good method of stopping the squirrels from eating the walnuts.

B．The squirrels found the walnuts tasty.

C．The squirrels started eating mothballs instead of walnuts.

D．The foresters haven't found a good way to pre vent the squirrels from eating the walnuts.

　　A man walked into a restaurant that advertised having the longest menu in the world. The manager was very proud of being able to provide any dish, no matter how unusual.

　　At the bottom of the menu, there was a notice that said, “If you do not see the dish you require on this menu, please tell us and we will add it to the menu immediately.”

　　The man looked at the menu and decided to make life really difficult for the manager and his chef. He would order something that was very unusual.

　　When the waiter came up to take his order, he said,“You say you can serve any dish, anything at all, even if it's not on your menu, which is the longest menu in the world.”

　　“That is correct, sir. We have never yet been unable to meet our customers' requirements.”

　　“Very well,” the man said.“In that case, bring me two elephant ears on toast. Indian, not African.”

　　The waiter wrote down on his pad：Two Indian elephant ears on toast.

　　“Very good, sir,”he said.“That shouldn't take long.”

　　He walked away quickly.

　　The man was very surprised and rather disappointed.

　　Then he smiled as the waiter returned with a very unhappy look on his face. “Ah!” the man said. “You can't bring me elephant ears on toast, can you?”

　　The waiter was very apologetic.

　　“I'm very sorry, sir, and this is most embarrassing,” he said, “but I'm afraid we can't. Unfortunately, we've run out of bread.”

(1) What did the man want to do?

[　　]

A．Embarrass the manager.

B．Have some toast.

C．Buy an elephant.

D．Read the longest menu in the world.

(2) What did the notice at the bottom of the menu mean?

[　　]

A．Please order elephant ears.

B．We will serve any dish you want.

C．We have the newest menu in the world.

D．If you think a certain dish isn't to your taste, you can leave it out.

(3) Why did the customer order elephant ears?

[　　]

A．He was hungry.

B．He had never eaten them.

C．He thought they would be tasty.

D．He didn't think the restaurant had any.

(4) The customer was disappointed because _______.

[　　]

A．the waiter was not worded by his order

B．the waiter was too slow

C．he wanted to eat Indian elephant ears

D．there were too many people

(5) The waiter was unhappy because _____.

[　　]

A．the man didn't order elephant ears

B．they had no elephant to cook

C．they didn't want to serve the customer

D．the chef didn't know how to cook the elephant ears

　　Your body is made up of little cells（细胞）.Each one of these is alive. The big difference between your body and a man-made machine is that every part of your body is alive. Each cell has a job to do and needs energy to do it. If you count correctly, you will find the total is around 60,000,000 cells.

　　Nerve（神经）cells have long thread like shapes. Bone cells may have branching parts to link with other cells, while red blood cells are round and almost flat.

　　The cells are alive, but they do not live nearly as long as you do. Each cell lives for a while--from a few weeks to a year or more--and then it dies and a new cell is made to do the same. Only one kind of cell is not made after birth, the brain cells. So a new born baby is the brainiest person in the world, he has a full set of brain cells in thinking.

　　All our lives, we are storing more and more information in the brain. The fastest rate is at the time when we are young.

(1) Which one of the following is right?

[　　]

A．Everything in the world is made up of little cells.

B．Nothing has cells but people.

C．The man-made machine's cells are dead.

D．Your legs are made up of little ceils.

(2) The amount of cells in a human body is ______.

[　　]

A．about sixty billion

B．about sixty million

C．less than sixty million

D．more than sixty billion

(3) The shapes of cells in the human body are ______.

[　　]

A．about the same

B．almost round or flat

C．changed at any time

D．quite different

(4) _______ after birth.

[　　]

A．Each kind of cell can be made

B．Not all cells can be made

C．The brain cells are changeless

D．The new cells are made unlimitedly

　　The first newspapers were written by hand and put up on walls in public places. The earliest daily newspaper was started in Rome in 59 B.C. In the 700's the world's first printed newspaper was published. Europe didn't have a regularly（定期的）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 once a week. The first daily English newspaper was the Daily Courant（每日新闻）.It came out in March 1702.

　　In 1690, Benjamin Harris printed the first American newspaper in Boston. But not long after it was first published, the government stopped the paper. In 1704, John Campbell started the Boston Newsletter（波士顿新闻通讯）, the first newspaper published daily in the American colonies（殖民地）. By 1760, the colonies had more than thirty daily newspapers. There are now about 1,800 daily papers in the United States.

　　Today, as a group, English language newspapers have the largest circulation（发行额）in the world. But the largest circulation for a newspaper is that of the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shim bun（朝日新闻）. It sells more than eleven million copies every day.

(1) The first daily newspaper came out in ____.

[　　]

(2) The first regularly published newspaper in Europe was printed in_____.

[　　]

(3) The first English daily newspaper was started in______.

[　　]

(4) The fast printed newspaper in America came out in _____.

[　　]

　　Men sometimes say, “We are better and cleverer than women. Women never invent things, we do.” It is true that men have invented a lot of useful things. But scientists and archaeologists（考古学家）now agree that women invented one very important thing. It has changed history. They invented agriculture. Before the invention of agriculture, men were hunters. They went out every day. Sometimes they killed animals, sometimes animals killed them. Life was difficult and dangerous. Women had to go out every day, too. They collected roots, fruit and grasses. Then, one day more than 10,000 years ago, a woman dropped some grass seeds. They grew--and the first wheat was born. The idea grew, too. Women planted roots and fruit trees. Then they could stay at home and look after the children and the animals they kept. Women like baby animals. Archaeologists think that women kept the first domestic（驯养的）animals：dogs, cows, sheep and goats. That idea grew, too. Then their husbands didn't have to go hunting for meat. They stayed at home. They built villages and cities. Civilization（文明）began.

(1) Men sometimes thought women ______.

[　　]

A．invented nothing

B．were better than men

C．were cleverer than men

D．invented a lot of things

(2) Scientists and archaeologists agree women ______ in the history.

[　　]

A．never invented anything

B．played an important part

C．invented many important things

D．were useless

(3) Which of the following is not true when men went out hunting?

[　　]

A．They could kill animals.

B．Animals could kill men.

C．It was very dangerous.

D．It was not very dangerous.

(4) Why could the people stay at home? Because _______.

[　　]

A．they had to look after their children

B．they were afraid of the animals outside

C．agriculture and raising began

D．they had baby animals

　　Smoking, which may be a pleasure for some people, is a serious reason of discomfort for their fellows. Medical scientists have expressed their concern about the effect of smoking on the health not only of those who smoke but also of those who don't. In fact non-smokers who take in the air polluted by tobacco smoke suffer more than the smokers themselves. A great number of students have joined in an effort to persuade the university to forbid smoking in classrooms. I believe they are entirely right in their air. However, I think it more important to achieve this by calling on the smokers to use good judgment and to show concern for others.

　　Smoking is not allowed in theatres, cinemas and in other public places. Therefore, smoking must be forbidden in our classrooms.

(1) Smoking is good for ____.

[　　]

(2) Which of the following is true?

[　　]

A．Non-smokers suffer more than the smokers from the polluted air.

B．Smokers suffer more than non-smokers from the polluted air.

C．Non-smokers don't suffer from the polluted air.

D．Nobody can suffer from the polluted air.

(3) Many students ask the university ____.

[　　]

A．to be allowed smoking

B．to smoke outside the classroom

C．to understand smokers

D．to forbid smoking in the classroom

(4) The writer thinks ____.

[　　]

A．the students are not right to persuade others to give up smoking

B．it important to make smokers realize the result of smoking

C．it right to forbid smoking in classrooms

D．it impossible to stop smoking

　　Have you ever been afraid to talk back when you were treated unfairly? Have you ever bought something just because the salesman talked you into it? Many people are afraid to support themselves. Dr Robert Albert, author of Stand Up, Speak Out, and Talk Back thinks it's because their self-respect is low. “There's always a'superior' around--a parent, a teacher, a boss--who knows better.”

　　But Albert and other scientists are doing something to help people help themselves. They offer“assertiveness（维护）training” courses--A. T. for short. In the A.T. Course people learn that they have a right to be themselves. They learn to speak out and feel good about doing so. They learn to be aggressive（进攻的）without hurting other people.

　　In one way, learning to speak out is to get rid of fear. A group taking an A.T. Course will help the timid（懦弱的）person to lose his fear. But A. T. uses an even stronger motive（动机）--the need to share. The timid person speaks out in the group because he wants to tell how he feels. Whether or not you speak up for yourself depends on your self-respect, If someone you face is more“important”than you, you may feel less of a person. You start to doubt your answers to problems. You can get to feel good about your self. And once you do you can learn to speak out.

(1) The problem the writer talks about is that ______.

[　　]

A．some people buy things they don't want

B．some people are afraid to speak out for their rights

C．there are too many superiors

D．some people don' t think enough of themselves

(2) The cause of the problem talked about in this passage is that ______.

[　　]

A．some people have a low sell-respect

B．there is always someone around who“knows better”

C．salesmen talk people into buying things they don't want

D．people don't share enough

(3) The A.T. Course often _______.

[　　]

A．make people distrust their own answers

B．make things mere favorable for “superiors”

C．help people know as much as their “superiors”

D．help people become more important

(4) One thing the A.T. Course don't do is to _______.

[　　]

A．share the need of people

B．show they have a right to be themselves

C．help people overcome fear

D．help people to help themselves even if others suffer

(5) A good title for this passage could be“______”.

[　　]

A．The Need to Share

B．Talk Back When Necessary

C．One Way to Build Self-Respect

D．One Way to Train Speaking Ability