Once Wilhelm K．Roentgen and several other scientists were experimenting with passing electric currents through certain gases in a special glass tube from which the air had been taken away. Then one day Roentgen noticed that though when the tube was covered with black paper, some strange kinds of radiation was coming through and making a screen nearby glow. Roentgen could not see anything out of the tube, but then he discovered that if he put the screen in the next room on the other side of the closed door, the rays still seemed to affect it. The glowing screen showed that the rays could pass not only through the black paper but also through wood.

　　The next thing he found out was that if he put his hands between the rays and a photographic plate（感光板）, the rays would print a shadow of the bone framework（骨架）of his hands on the plate. In fact, the rays could pass as easily through the fleshy part of his hand as through the black paper, but hardly at all through the bone. So Roentgen made the first X-ray picture of a hand showing just how the bones in the hand fitted together.

　　Roentgen called this unknown rays X-rays, but other scientists called them Roentgens rays in honor of the man who first found them.

(1) Roentgen discovered X-rays ________.

[　　]

A．by working hard

B．by chance

C．by doing experiment after experiment

D．with the help of several other scientists

(2) What was in the special glass tube?

[　　]

(3) We may conclude that the rays Roentgen found were ________.

[　　]

(4) What could X-rays hardly pass through?

[　　]

　　Albert Einstein (1879～1955) was one of the greatest and most original scientific thinkers of all time.

　　Born of Jewish parents at Ulm in Germany, he completed his education in Switzerland and got his Ph. D at the University of Zurich. He went to live in the United States in 1933 because of the rise of Nazism（纳粹）in Germany and Hitler’s persecution（迫害）of the Jews.

　　In 1905, while still at Zurich, he published his Special Theory of Relativity, which was based on things everyone may have noticed. If two trains are standing alongside each other and one train starts to move, a person sitting in the train may wonder whether his own train is moving or the other is moving, and before he finds out what is happening, he can see that one train is moving relatively to the other. From this and also from other more complicated facts, Einstein came to the conclusion that all motion is relative and that there are really no such things as absolute（绝对）motion. Some of the other conclusions he drew are that nothing can go faster than light, and that if something such as a ruler was moving faster and faster it would seem to get shorter and shorter as its speed was near the speed of light. By 1915, Einstein had made known his General Theory of Relativity. He also improved on Newton’s theory of gravity. Most of his theories have been tested and found to be true though some may sound strange. For his important work he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics.

(1) In 1933, Einstein wanted to live in the United States because ________.

A．he loved the USA．more than his own country

B．he had got some friends there with whom he could work together

C．he wanted to live quietly in the USA

D．he could no longer work in Germany when Hitler came into power

(2) Einstein published his Special Theory of Relativity when he was ________.

A．in the United States

B．in Ulm, Germany after he got his Ph．D

C．still in Switzerland at the age of twenty-six

D．still at the University of Zurich at the age of thirty-six

(3) One of the conclusions drawn by Einstein is that ________.

A．places go faster than trains and buses

B．people couldn’t run as fast as vehicles

C．light gobs the fastest of all the things

D．two trains can go in different directions

(4) Einstein added that if something such as a ruler was moving it would seem to get shorter and shorter ________.

A．because the ruler itself was short

B．when it was moving faster and faster

C．because we can’t see it clearly

D．because the ruler was broken into pieces

(5) Einstein was world-famous for his ________.

A．Special Theory of Relativity

B．General Theory of Relativity

C．improving on Newton’s theory of gravity

D．all of the above

　　John Milton was born in 1606. His father expected him to enter the church of England, but Milton wanted to be a poet（诗人）. At twenty-nine Milton set off for a travel on the continent. He travelled in France, Switzerland and Italy, winning the friendship of many artists and scientists, including Galileo, the famous Italian scientist who suffered for his discovery in prison. In 1639, he was planning to go on his journey when the news reached him of the break between the king and Parliament（国会）, Milton returned to England immediately, and put himself into the struggle against the king, for which he had long been preparing. During the Civil War, Milton worked as the spokesman of the revolution. By the beginning of 1652, Milton had become completely blind, yet he didn't stop fighting. After the Restoration（复辟）, his books were burnt, and he himself avoided（避免）being killed because of his blindness.

　　John Milton was not only a brave revolutionary but also a great poet. His famous poem Paradise Lost（《失乐园》）was an immediate success. But, for its publication (being published), Milton received only 18 pounds. He died in 1671.

(1)“... Milton set off for a travel on the continent.”here“continent”means ________.

[　　]

(2)It was ________ who was put in prison in Italy.

[　　]

(3)During the Civil War, Milton fought _________.

[　　]

(4)Milton would have been killed if ________.

[　　]

A．he had been the spokesman of the revolution

B．his books had been burnt

C．he hadn't written the poem Paradise Lost

D．he hadn't been completely blind

(5)Which of the following sentences is TRUE?

[　　]

A．John Milton was an ordinary poet, who wasn't interested in politics.

B．John Milton spent many years travelling around the world.

C．John Milton wrote the poem Paradise Lost, which was liked by the king.

D．John Milton was a fearless revolutionary and a famous poet.

　　If you know that a company is making something that destroys the rainforests, stop buying it. This is called a boycott（抵制）.

　　In 1987, RAN led a national boycott of Burger King. Burger King was importing（进口）cheap beef from South American countries where rainforests are cut to raise cattle. During the boycott, many people stopped eating at Burger King. After sales went down, Burger King said he would stop importing beef from rainforest countries. People discovered they had the power to change things through what they bought.

　　The written word is also very powerful. Write a letter to the President of the company you are boycotting! They do pay attention to your letters. So do city officials, congress（国会）people and senators（参议员）.

　　In 1989, Scott Paper Co. wanted to use the rain-forest land in Indonesia. Scott was going to cut down the rainforest and plant eucalyptus（桉树）trees, which grow fast, to make paper products. 25000 indigenous（土生的）people would have lost their homes. RAN started a letter-writing campaign（运动）asking people to write the President of Scott Paper Co.. After receiving hundreds of letters and phone calls, Scott canceled（取消）the project. Two million acres of rain-forest were saved.

(1)The passage mainly tells about ________.

[　　]

A．why RAN led a national Boycott of Burger King

B．what a boycott is

C．what we can do to help save the rainforest

D．why we should save the rainforest

(2)Burger King stopped importing beef from rainforest countries because ________.

[　　]

A．they realized that it was wrong to destroy the rainforest

B．the price of beef went up

C．the government asked them to stop

D．people refused to eat at Burger King and the sales went down

(3)People refused to eat at Burger King because ________.

[　　]

A．the beef there was not good

B．the beef was too expensive

C．they wanted to save rainforests in southern American countries from which the beef was imported

D．the beef was imported from southern African countries

(4)How many ways are mentioned in the passage to save the rainforests?

[　　]

(5)From the last paragraph, we can guess ________.

[　　]

A．ott Paper Co. destroyed the rainforest in Indonesia

B．Scott Paper Co. wanted to use the trees in the rainforest to make paper

C．many indigenous people lost their homes

D．RAN won the letter-writing campaign and at last forced the Scott Paper Co. to give up the project

　　Mary Todd Lincoln was born into a wealthy family on December 13, 1818. Her father, Robert Smith Todd, was a storeowner（商店主）and Whig（辉格党）politician（政治家）. Her mother, Eliza Parker Todd, died when she was six. Seventeen months later her father married Elizabeth Humphreys of Frankfort, Kentucky.

　　As a young child, Mary was sent to a private（私人的）school and was well educated. At twenty-one she moved to Springfield, Illinois, to live with her sister, Elizabeth Edwards. There she met and a few years later married Abraham Lincoln, the 16th US President, who was then a lawyer. She lived happily in Springfield and supported（支持）Lincoln strongly during the election（选举）of president in 1860.

　　Mary and Lincoln had four children. Their first son, Robert Todd Lincoln, who was born at the Globe Tavern on August 1st, 1843, one year after the marriage, died in 1926. Their second son, Edward Baker Lincoln, who was also born in the Lincoln home in 1846, died at the age of 3 years and 11 months. Their third son, William Wallace Lincoln, was also born in the Lincoln home and died in 1862. Their fourth son, Thomas Tad Lincoln, who was also born in the Lincoln home in 1853 died in 1871 at the age of 18.

　　In April 1865, her husband Lincoln was shot at her side. As a result, her later life was extremely unhappy. The next 17 years held nothing but sorrow（悲痛）for her. After Tad's death in 1871, she slipped into a world of illusion（幻觉）where poverty（贫穷） and murder pursued（追杀）her. In 1875, her son, Robert Todd Lincoln, sent her to a sanitarium（疗养院）where she became sane（神志正常的）after less than a year.

　　In 1882 she passed away at her sister's home in Springfield--the same house from which she had walked as the bride（新娘）of Abraham Lincoln, 40 years before.

(1)Mary's mother died in ________.

[　　]

(2)Lincoln and Mary got married in ________.

[　　]

(3)________ of their children died at very early ages.

[　　]

(4)It seems that ________.

[　　]

A．Mary was very poor in her later life

B．Mary was seriously stricken（打击）by Lincoln's death

C．Mary had a serious heart disease

D．someone wanted to murder her too

(5)The phrase“pass away”means ________.

[　　]

　　 “I would almost rather see you dead,”Robert S. Cassatt. a leading hanker（银行家）Philadelphia, shouted when his twenty-year-old oldest daughter announced that she wanted to become an artist. In the 19th century, playing at drawing or painting on dishes was all right for a young lady, but serious work in art was not. And when the young lady's family ranked among（跻身于）the best of philadelphia's social（社交界）families, such an idea could not even be considered.

　　That was how Mary Cassatt, born 1844, began her struggle as an artist. She did not tremble（发抖）before her father's anger. Instead, she opposed（抗拒）him with courage and at last made him change his mind. Mary Cassatt gave up her social position（社会地位）and all thought of a husband and a family, which in those times was unthinkable for a young lady. In the end, after long years of hard work and perseverance（坚持）,she became America's most important woman artist and the internationally recognized leading woman painter of the time.

(1) What in fact was Mr Cassatt's main reason in opposing his daughter's wish?

[　　]

A．Drawing and painting was simply unthinkable among ladies in those days.

B．He did not believe his daughter wanted to work seriously in art.

C．He believed an artist's life would be too hard for his daughter.

D．Ladies of good families simply did not become artists in those times.

(2) What do we know about Mary Cassatt's marriage（婚姻）?

[　　]

A．Her marriage failed because she never gave a thought to her husband and family.

B．She never married because she did not want to be just a wife and mother.

C．After marriage she didn't give up her husband rather than her career（事业）.

D．She did not marry because for a lady of her social position to marry below her was unthinkable.

(3) What do we know about Robert Cassatt's character from the text?

[　　]

A．He was a cruel man.

B．He was a stubborn（固执的）man.

C．He knew nothing about art.

D．He knew little about his daughter．

(4) What do we know Mary Cassatt's character?

[　　]

A．She was brave in going against old ideas．

B．She got tired of always obeying her father．

C．She hated playing at drawing and painting.

D．She did not mind being poor at all.

(5) As we can learn from the text, which of the following was generally considered the most important in the life of a woman in the U.S. in Mary Cassatt's times?

[　　]

　　How many men do housework? Recently a European Commission（委员会）tried to find out people's ideas and reactions to the women's movement. As part of their survey（调查）, they asked many men and women the question, “Who does the housework?”The men answered very differently from the women!

　　The housework they asked people about were: preparing meals, washing dishes, cleaning the house and babysitting. 48％ of British husbands said they did these things. 37％ of Danish（丹麦的）men helped in the house. But only 15 of Italian men said they did the housework, many of them said they never helped at all!

　　But there was an interesting point of view from the wives. According to British wives, only 38％ of their husbands helped in the house. And Italian wives said that their husbands hardly ever helped. The Italian and British men did not tell the truth! The Commission found that Danish men were the most trustful husbands; their answers were the same as their wives' answers.

　　Do the men you know help in the house? Do you think the survey gives a true picture in your experience.'? Write and tell us what you think.

(1) The survey was carried out in_______.

[　　]

(2) The subject for the survey is_______.

[　　]

A．how many boys do the housework

B．who does the housework at home

C．how many women do the housework

D．who are more diligent, wives or husbands

(3) From the passage we can see that_______.

[　　]

A．there were more husbands who did the housework than wives

B．husbands did half of the housework all the time

C．there were more wives who did the house work than husbands

D．wives did almost all the housework at home

(4) More ________husbands help in the house than ________husbands.

[　　]

A．British；Danish

B．Italian；Danish

C．Danish；British

D．Italian；British

(5) The survey shows that ________husbands were the most honest.

[　　]

　　In Shanxi province you may be offered brains to eat. Frightened? You shouldn't. Because the brains is only a kind of food, which is famous for its unusual name and rich nutrition（营养）.

　　Brains as food was invented more than 300 years ago by Fu Shan, an artist whose mother had been iii for a long time. To help her become well again, he studied medicine and invented a kind of soup made of meat, vegetables and a number of Chinese medicines.

　　Rice Wine（酒）was also used in the soup to help treat illnesses caused by old age. After taking the soup his mother got better little by little and lived a long life.

　　Fu's soup became the talk of the town, many people came to see him. One day a restaurant owner asked him what was in the soup. “I'll tell you,”Fu said.“but if your restaurant is going to sell the soup, you must call it brains because of its shape and colour. And your restaurant should be renamed after my mother.”

(1) The best headline（标题）for this newspaper article is________.

[　　]

A．A good son

B．A special soup

C．How to make brains

D．How to live a long life

(2) The food is called“brains”because________.

[　　]

A．it looks like brains

B．it has animal brains in it

C．Fu's mother liked the name

D．it makes one clever and live longer

(3) Before Fu told the restaurant owner what was in the food, one of the things he demanded was that________.

[　　]

A．the restaurant shouldn't offer any other food

B．the restaurant should use his mother's name

C．the shape of the food must never be changed

D．the food must be used to help sick people

(4) The food was first invented to________.

[　　]

A．help the aged in the town

B．improve people's health

C．make a restaurant famous

D．help a sick woman

(5) What has made brains a popular food in Shanxi?

[　　]

A．It is served in many restaurants there.

B．It is good for health and has a strange name.

C．It is made of Chinese medicines and wine.

D．It was invented a long time ago by an artist.

　　On the fourth Thursday of November every year, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day. The day is a national holiday which is set aside each year as a time to give thanks to God for our blessing（祝福）.

　　Story has it that the first English settlers in Massachusetts started the custom（风俗）According to the story, the Pilgrimsas they were called gave thanks for having survived（存活）the terrible winter of 1621 and for having harvested their first summer crop. They invited their Indian friends to join them in a large feast（宴会）to share in the reward of the land.

　　Since the day is set aside for giving thanks, it has also become a traditional（传统的）family day. Large dinners with many relatives are common throughout America on this special day.

(1) Thanksgiving Day is ________.

[　　]

A．a national holiday

B．a traditional family day

C．a custom

D．a national holiday between White and Indians

(2) From the passage we know Thanksgiving Day began ________.

[　　]

(3) Why did the Pilgrim invite Indians to share the feast?

[　　]

A．To show friendship.

B．To thank them.

C．To ask for their help in the coming year.

D．To show that they were kind.

(4) On Thanksgiving Day people usually ________.

[　　]

(5) Who were the Pilgrims?

[　　]

A．People who invited Indians to dinner.

B．People in the 17th century.

C．First Americans settling in Massachusetts.

D．First English settlers in Massachusetts.

　　About three hundred words in the English language come from the names of people. Many of these words are technical words. When there is a new invention or discovery, a new word may be coined（创造）after the inventor or scientist.

　　It is interesting to observe how many common words have found their way into the language from the names of people. Lord Sandwich who lived from 1718--1792 used to sit at the gambling（赌博）table eating bread with meat in between. As the Lord was the only one among his friends who ate bread in that way, his friend began to call the bread“sandwich”for fun. Later on the word became part of the English language.

　　The word“boycott” means to refuse to have anything to do with somebody or something. It comes from a man called Captain Boycott. He was a land agent in 1880 and he collected rents and taxes for an English landowner in Ireland. But the Captain was a very harsh（苛刻的）man. He treated his poor tenants（佃户）very badly. His tenants decided not to speak to him at all. Eventually word got back to the landowner and the Captain was removed. The word“boycott”became popular and was used by everyone to mean the kind of treatment that was received by Captain Boycott.

(1) A few hundred ________ come from the names of people.

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(2) Lord Sandwich died at the age of ________.

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