Although Thomas Edison created the technologies behind three major 21st century industries  electrical power，recorded music and movies—his greatest invention may have been the modern method of inventing．He basically came up with the modern system of research and development．Edison was not the only scientist doing research in his garage but someone who gathered around him a team of creative scientific minds．Edison’s 1aboratories were the forerunners（先驱）of Apple，Google and Microsoft．
Yet for a11 his scientific gifts，he was no Steve Jobs or Bill Gates．He once said，“Anything that won’ t sell，I don’ t want to invent．” But Edison，unlike Jobs or Gates，had no real sense of what the public wanted or how to change his discoveries into products that might sell．It took him years to understand that the phonograph（留声机）was not a business tool but an entertainment invention．He helped create movies but resisted the idea that people might want to go into a theater to watch one．
We chose Edison this year because we need his example now more than ever．Though we live in a time of great reformation，the U．S．is in danger of losing its advantage in science and technology．American investment（投资）in research and development has not increased as a percentage of GDP since the mid一1980s，while the government’ s share has been dropping．And this is at a time when China is rapidly increasing its money on research and development．The U．S．was once among the 1eading nations．Now it ranks near the bottom of the 23 nations that collect such data．We hope that Edison’ s story might not only encourage reformation but also inspire more
young Americans to study science and engineering．
【小题1】The first paragraph is mainly about        .

A．the number of Edison’ s great inventions

B．Edison’ s special personal characters

C．Edi son’ s modern system of research

D．Apple．Google and Microsoft and their forerunners

【小题2】Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．A11 the things Edison invented sold well．

B．Edison wanted to invent things that sold well．

C．Edison’ s inventions were not valuable for being unpopular．

D．Edison had a gift for changing his discoveries into best sellers.

【小题3】The author’ s main purpose is to   ．

A．inform US of the danger the USA is in

B．get young Americans to study science

C．be in honor of Edison for his contributions

D．tell US how important Edison’ s inventions are

【小题4】We can infer from the text that   ．

A．the USA is no 10nger advanced in science and technology

B．the USA falls behind China in research and inventions

C．more and more young Americans will be interested in science

D．China is spending more and more money on research and development

 

 

Five Olympic mascots were announced exactly 1000 days before the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony. The long--anticipated mascots represent four of China's most popular animals — the fish, the panda, the Tibetan antelope and the swallow .The fifth mascot is the brightly burning Olympic flame.

Each of the mascots has a repeated two-syllable name. This type of name is a traditional way of showing affection for children in China. BeiBei is the fish, JingJing is the panda, HuanHuan is the Olympic flame, YingYing is the Tibetan antelope and NiNi is the swallow. The first characters of their two-syllable names read “Beijing Huanying Ni,” or, in English, “Welcome to Beijing.” 

The five elements of nature, including the sea, forest, fire, earth and sky are found in the mascot's origins and headpieces. These special headpieces also display the folk and culture of China. Each mascot also symbolizes a different blessing ---prosperity, happiness, passion, health and good luck.

It is the first time more than three mascots will share the important duty of representing their host country. Han Meilin, chief of the mascot design team explained that, “China has such a rich culture that no single mascot could possibly represent it! That is why we chose to produce five mascots instead of one.”

Called the “Five Friendlies,” the figures embody（体现） the Chinese people’s hope for peace and friendship in the world and the spirit of the Olympics, representing not only multi-ethnic(多民族的) cultures of China, but also the traditional Chinese philosophy of harmony between humans and nature.

In order to help Beijing 2008 spread its theme of One World, One Dream to every continent, the Five Friendlies reflect the deep desire of the Chinese people to reach out to the world in friendship through the Games — and to invite every man, woman and child to take part in the great celebration of human union in 2008. 

1. What’s the theme of Beijing 2008 Olympics?

A.Welcome to Beijing.

B.Prosperity, Happiness, Passion, Health and Good luck.

C.New Beijing, New Olympics.

D.One World, One Dream.

2. What did Han Meilin, chief of the mascot design team, think of the five mascots?

A.He thought highly of the five mascots.

B.No single mascot could represent China.

C.The five mascots represented the culture of China.

D.They would reflect the desire of Chinese people.

3. Which of the following statements is not true?

A.It’s for the first time that five mascots are chosen to represent their host country in the Olympic history.

B.One of the five mascots YingYing stands for the Olympic flame.

C.Beijing announced its five 2008 Olympic mascots just 1000 days before the big event.

D.The five mascots express affection for Chinese children by two-syllable names.

4. Which of the following best reflects the main idea of the passage?

A.The 29th Olympic Games will be held in Beijing in 2008.

B.The theme of 2008 Beijing Olympics — One World, One Dream.

C.The significance of five 2008 Olympic mascots — the Five Friendlies.

D.How the Five Fantastic Mascots came into being.

5. What do the five mascots — the Five Friendlies represent?

A.“Beijing Huanying Ni,” or, in English, “Welcome to Beijing.” 

B.Chinese multi-ethnic cultures, philosophy of harmony between humans and nature and five elements of nature.

C.Chinese people’s hope for peace and friendship in the world and the spirit of the Olympics.

D.The deep desire of the Chinese people to reach out to the world in friendship through the Olympics.

 

Last week, I bought an alarm system for about $ 450. It consisted of a control unit with three small units. I put the control unit in the sitting-room and fastened the other units by the front door, back door and living-room windows. The instructions told us to choose three numbers, so we chose 4, 9 and 1, the last three numbers of our telephone number.

Now I must explain how the alarm works:

l There is a power siren(警报器) in the control unit. It makes a very loud noise.

2 Each of the small units sends out beams or rays in different directions. If anything moves, it breaks a beam. This sends a signal to the control unit. The siren makes a noise which you can hear 50 meters away.

3. When we go to bed, I press the three buttons numbered 4, 9 and 1. Then we have 30 seconds to get out of the room before the alarm starts to work.

That night I slept soundly because I was sure that no burglar(夜贼) could get into our house. However, at about 2:10 a. m., I woke up and heard the siren. “There must be a burglar in the house,” Mary said. “What shall we do?”“I’ll go and see who’s there,” I said. “Stay here. Don’t make a noise.”I went downstairs quietly. When I reached the living-room, I switched on my torch and looked round the room. Then I turned the light on. I switched the siren off and searched the rooms downstairs. There was nothing wrong except that the back door was unlocked. I locked it, reset the alarm and went back to bed. About an hour later, the alarm started again. I jumped out of bed, fell over a chair in the dark and bumped into the bedroom door. Mary woke up and started hitting me with a torch. “Hey! Wait a minute!” I whispered. “It’s only me. I’m going downstairs to see what’s wrong.”I went down into the living-room and listened for a moment. The only sound I could hear was the siren. I turned on the light and then switched the siren off. As I did so, I glanced across at the curtains in front of the windows. I saw a house lizard (a kind of small animal) disappear behind the curtains.“Oh!” I said to myself. “That’s our burglar. ”When the lizard moved, it started the siren. I guessed that the alarm had been made in Europe, where there are no house lizards. Well. I won’t finish this story but if you want an alarm system free of charge, let me know. I’ll send you ours. We bought a dog this morning. It knows the difference between a lizard and a burglar.

1.The writer bought an alarm system to ________.

A．make sure that he got up early every day

B．warn him when there were lizards in his house

C．frighten burglars and tell him that somebody had got into the house

D．make Mary feel safe to live in the large room

2.The purpose of the three units was to________.

A．send a message to the control unit and start the siren

B．sound their own sirens when the control unit told them so

C．check that the control unit worked properly all the time

D．give them enough light

3.If the writer set the alarm and remained in the room for more than half a minute, _______.

A．nothing would happen

B．the control unit would not work

C．the siren would make a noise

D．the dog would bark

4.The purpose of the writer in writing the passage is to ________.

A．tell us that the alarm system doesn’t work

B．tell us an interesting experience

C．show us how the alarm system works

D．make it clear that he wants to give away his alarm system

 

 

My husband, a simple man, has a favorite saying: “A bargain is really a bargain when you don’t buy it”. ___21___ he sets aside his simple ways when we dine out. Unlike his relatives who enter a restaurant armed with calculators to make sure they never ___22___, my husband___23___ 5 percent each time the accepted tip standard increases. He hasn’t analyzed why he tips so generously, but I think the habit ___24___ from his high school years, when he worked as a busboy(饭店打杂工) and got tips from people he served.

Over the years, out growing boys would suggest that Dad let them ___25___ dessert rather than tip so much. He stood firm ___26___ their strong demands. Our sons and I have __27___ to accept his habit. We recently ___28___ our son’s girlfriend to seafood. We chose a restaurant near Cocoa Beach. Our server, a grandmotherly woman ___29___ at the artof service, flew around the restaurant serving dishes and drinks ___30___ treating customers enthusiastically. She remembered their special ___31___, likes and dislikes. She didn’t serve us ___32___ food. She served us the best food. She made sure the kitchen gave her fresh produce. At the end of the meal, our waitress ___33___ the bill, then went to ___34___ to the growing crowd of other diners. My husband paid with a credit card and added her tip. When we left, “Mr. Goldsmith!”she called waving a receipt(发票)at him, “Thank you.” “What did you give her?”I asked, wondering if he had done something ___35___ or made acalculation error. “She gave us great service. I just thought she deserved a big ___36___ in tips.It wasn’t until later when I overheard our son retelling the story of the grateful waitress that I realized she had given my family something ___37___ a thank you. She showed our son the __38___ of recognizing hard work. Her show of gratitudehelped a dad earn a bit more ___39___ from a loving son. And it reminded me just why I married this ___40___, caring man.

1.A. Therefore              B. Yet           C. Instead              D. Besides

2.A. overtip           B. overspend   C. overcharge          D. overwaste

3.A. adds                      B. supplies             C. refuses                     D. provides

4.A. developed              B. resulted             C. appeared                  D. changed

5.A. order                    B. choose              C. book                        D. ask

6.A. for                 B. to                     C. against                     D. upon

7.A. decided          B. agreed               C. come                D. happened

8.A. helped            B. requested           C. treated                     D. cooked

9.A. quick                    B. familiar             C. weak                 D. skilled

10.A. so that          B. after                 C. with                         D. while

11.A. characters            B. features             C. tastes                D. favorites

12. A. cheap          B. special              C. average                    D. delicious

13.A. presented             B. took                  C. delivered                  D. settled

14. A. turn                    B. talk                   C. wait                         D. attend

15.A. demanding    B. ashamed            C. unreasonable             D. puzzling

16.A. rise                     B. reward              C. pay                          D. prize

17.A. little more than B. more than      C. rather than     D. other than

18.A. importance   B. situation            C. meaning                   D. effort

19. A. attention             B. care                  C. praise                D. respect

20.A. easy-going    B. thoughtful       C. tough                     D. serious

 

Although Thomas Edison created the technologies behind three major 21st century industries  electrical power，recorded music and movies—his greatest invention may have been the modern method of inventing．He basically came up with the modern system of research and development．Edison was not the only scientist doing research in his garage but someone who gathered around him a team of creative scientific minds．Edison’s 1aboratories were the forerunners（ 先驱）of Apple，Google and Microsoft．

Yet for a11 his scientific gifts，he was no Steve Jobs or Bill Gates．He once said，“Anything that won’ t sell，I don’ t want to invent．” But Edison，unlike Jobs or Gates，had no real sense of what the public wanted or how to change his discoveries into products that might sell．It took him years to understand that the phonograph（ 留声机）was not a business tool but an entertainment invention．He helped create movies but resisted the idea that people might want to go into a theater to watch one．

We chose Edison this year because we need his example now more than ever．Though we live in a time of great reformation，the U．S．is in danger of losing its advantage in science and technology．American investment（ 投资）in research and development has not increased as a percentage of GDP since the mid一1980s，while the government’ s share has been dropping．And this is at a time when China is rapidly increasing its money on research and development．The U．S．was once among the 1eading nations．Now it ranks near the bottom of the 23 nations that collect such data．We hope that Edison’ s story might not only encourage reformation but also inspire more

young Americans to study science and engineering．

The first paragraph is mainly about         .

    A．the number of Edison’ s great inventions

    B．Edison’ s special personal characters

    C．Edi son’ s modern system of research

    D．Apple．Google and Microsoft and their forerunners

Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

    A．A11 the things Edison invented sold well．

    B．Edison wanted to invent things that sold well．

    C．Edison’ s inventions were not valuable for being unpopular．

    D．Edison had a gift for changing his discoveries into best sellers.

The author’ s main purpose is to    ．

      A．inform US of the danger the USA is in

      B．get young Americans to study science

      C．be in honor of Edison for his contributions

      D．tell US how important Edison’ s inventions are

We can infer from the text that    ．

    A．the USA is no 10nger advanced in science and technology

    B．the USA falls behind China in research and inventions

    C．more and more young Americans will be interested in science

D．China is spending more and more money on research and development