Watercolor is the oldest paints known. It dates back to the early cave men who discovered they could add lifelike qualities to drawings of animals and other figures on the walls of caves by mixing the natural colors found in the earth with water.

Fresco (壁画), one of the greatest of all art forms, is done with watercolor. It is created by mixing paints and water and applying these to wet plaster （灰泥）. Of the thousands of people who stand under Michelangelo’s heroic ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, very few know that they are looking at perhaps the greatest watercolor painting in the world.

The invention of oil painting by the Flemish masters in the fifteenth century made fresco painting go downhill, and for the next several centuries watercolor was used mainly for doing sketches（草图）or as a tool for study. It was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that English painters put back watercolor as a serious art form. The English have a widely-known love for outdoors and also small private pictures. The softness of watercolor had a remarkably strong attraction for them.

The popularity of watercolor continued to grow until the twentieth century. The United States passed England as the center for watercolor, producing such well-known watercolor artists as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth.

The purpose of the passage is to introduce ________.

A. the gradual weakness of fresco painting

B. oil’s power or influence over watercolor

C. the discovery of watercolor in England

D. the start and development of watercolor

In the 16^th and 17^th centuries the artists thought ________.

A. watercolor was softer, and thus better.

B. Oil painting lasted longer, and was better.

C. Watercolor wasn’t fit for finished works

D. Watercolor was too hard to use in any works.

According to the passage, watercolor painting was put back in England because ______.

A. it was easy to use outdoors     B. it was a strong medium（媒介）

C. it was extremely bright in color.  D. it was suited for popular tastes

What would the next paragraph most probably talk about?

   A. The works of famous US watercolor artists.

   B. Modern American oil painters.

   C. The weaknesses of oil as popular paints

   D. Techniques of producing watercolor

Celebrity（名人）has become one of the most important representatives of popular culture. Fans used to be crazy about a specific film, but now the public tends to base its consumption（消费）on the interest of celebrity attached to any given product. Besides, fashion magazines have almost abandoned the practice of putting models on the cover because they don’t sell nearly as well as famous faces. As a result, celebrities have realized their unbelievably powerful marker potential, moving from advertising for others’ products to developing their own

Celebrity clothing lines aren’t a completely new phenomenon, but in the past they were typically aimed at the ordinary consumers, and limited to a few TV actresses. Today they’re started by first-class stars whose products enjoy equal fame with some world top brands. The most successful start-ups have been those by celebrities with specific personal style. As celebrities become more and more experienced at the market, they expand their production scale rapidly, covering almost all the products of daily life.

However, for every success story, there’s a related warning tale of a celebrity who overvalued his consumer appeal. No matter how famous the product’s origin is, if it fails to impress consumers with its own qualities it begins to resemble an exercise in self-promotional marketing. And once the initial（最初的）attention dies down, consumer interest might fade, loyalty（忠城）returning to tried-and-true labels.

Today, celebrities face even more severe embarrassment. The pop-cultural circle might be bigger than ever, but its rate of turnover has speeded up as well. Each misstep threatens to reduce a celebrity’s shelf life, and the same newspaper or magazine that once brought him fame has no problem picking him to pieces when the opportunity appears. Still, the ego’s（自我的）potential for expansion is limitless. Having already achieved great wealth and public recognition, many celebrities see fashion as the next frontier to be conquered. As the saying goes, success and failure always go hand in hand. Their success as designers might last only a short time, but fashion－like celebrity－has always been temporary.

Fashion magazines today        .

   A. seldom put models on the cover

   B. no longer put models on the cover

   C. need not worry about celebrities’ market potential

   D. judge the market potential of every celebrity correctly

A change in the consumer market can be found today that        .

A. price rather than brand name is more concerned

   B. producers prefer models to celebrities for advertisements

   C. producers prefer TV actresses to film stars for advertisements

D. quality rather than the outside of products is more concerned

The underlined sentence in paragraph 4 indicates that any wrong step will possibly        .

   A. decrease the popularity of a celebrity and the sales of his products

   B. damage the image of a celebrity in the eyes of the general public

   C. cut short the artistic career of a celebrity in show business

   D. influence the price of a celebrity’s products

The passage is mainly about         .

   A. celebrity and personal style

   B. celebrity and markets potential

   C. celebrity and fashion design

   D. celebrity and clothing industry

King Midas used to love gold. One day he met a fairy who allowed him to make a wish for something. The king replied at once , ‘‘I love gold . I want everything I touch to change into gold”. ‘‘Very well , tomorrow morning, everything you touch will turn into gold .”Saying this, the fairy disappeared.

    The king waited excitedly till the next morning. To his joy ,everything he touched changed immediately into gold. ‘‘I’m the richest man in the world now.” He shouted.

    Soon Midas became hungry. He sat down at his table. All the foods and drinks turned into gold in his hand . ‘‘I’m dying of hunger.” He cried.

    Just then his daughter came running in . ‘‘Why are you so sad , dad ?” she asked, putting her arms around him. There and then she became a golden statue. The king loved his daughter very much .Seeing this ,he began to cry. He looked up and suddenly saw the fairy before him.  ‘‘Don’t you like the golden touch?” asked the fairy. ‘‘ Please take it away,” begged the king, ‘‘ give me back my daughter.”  ‘‘Well, you have learned your lesson. Go and wash in the river. Then the golden touch will be gone.” The king ran quickly to the nearby river.

The fairy allowed the king to make a wish because_____

she hoped to make the king the richest in the world.    B. She loved gold too.

She wanted to teach the king a lesson. 

D. She wanted to turn the king’s daughter into gold gold.

When the foods and drinks turned into gold the king was _____

   A. excited  B. hungry  C. worried   D  happy

Which of the following might have happened afterwards?

A. The king died in the river.

B. The king’s daughter changed back from gold to a lovely girl.

C. All the things the king had touched changed back into real ones.

D. Both B and C

What do you think the story tries to tell us?

A. Gold makes people unhappy.   

B. More gold , more happiness.

C. Gold is not the thing that makes life happy.

D. People feel happy if they have not gold.

When I was fifteen, I announced to my English class that I was going to write my own books. Half the students smiled unkindly,  36  nearly fell out of their chairs laughing. “Don’t be  37 , only geniuses can become writers,” the English teacher said, “And you are getting a D this term.” I was so ashamed I burst into  38 . That night I wrote a short sad poem about broken dreams and mailed it to the newspaper. To my  39 , they published it and sent me two dollars. I was a published and paid writer. I showed my teacher and fellow students. They laughed, “Just plain dumb luck,” the teacher said. I  40  success. I’d sold the first thing I’d  41  written. That was more than any of them had done and if it was just dumb luck that was fine with me.

     During the next two years I sold dozens of poems and letters. By the time I graduated from high school, I had scrapbooks (剪贴簿)  42  my published works. I never  43  my writing to my teachers, friends or my family  44  because they were dream killers.

I had four children at the time.  45  the children slept, I typed on my ancient typewriter. I wrote what I felt. It took nine months. I chose a  46  and mailed it. A month later I received a contract, an advance on payments, and a request to start  47  another book. Crying Wind, became a best seller, was translated into fifteen languages and sold worldwide. My first book also became  48  reading in native American schools in Canada.

     The  49  year I ever had as a writer I earned two dollars. In my best year I earned 36,000 dollars. People ask what college I  50 , what degrees I had and what qualifications I have to be a writer. The answer is: “None.” I just write. I’m not a genius. I use an electric typewriter that I paid a hundred and twenty nine dollars  51  six years ago. I do all the housework and  52  my writing in a few minutes here and there. I’ve written eight books. To all those who dream of writing, I’m shouting at you: “Yes, you can. Don’t listen to them.” I don’t write right  53  I’ve succeeded. Writing is  54 , it’s fun and anyone can do it.  55 , a little dumb luck doesn’t hurt.

AIDS’ Threat to Asia Grows

NEW DELHI----Just a few years ago, Mala was a typical middle-class Indian housewife. She cooked, cleaned and looked after her two small children.

Last year, her life took a tragic turn. Her husband died of AIDS; she was found out HIV-positive and her mother-in-law took her children away from her, saying they would get the disease. “When friends dropped for a visit, she would introduce me, saying, ‘She is my son’s widow. She has AIDS,’” said Mala. AIDS is now described as “explosive(炸药)” around the world. A study of a hospital in the port city of Durban in South Africa, where the world’s biggest and Africa’s second AIDS conference opened last Sunday, found that almost half the beds in medical wards (病房) were occupied by AIDS patients.

South Africa has one of the world’s fastest growing HIV infections, with 1,700 people infected daily, adding to the 4.3 million, or 10 percent of its population, living with HIV. Until now, Asia has been more successful in holding the AIDS virus than Africa, where the disease has killed about 12 million people.

AIDS is now threatening to surround many of Asia’s poverty-stricken countries. Countries in Asia, such as Cambodia, and Thailand, have HIV infection speeds over 1 percent. But the low speeds hide huge numbers of infected people, because of the population base.

In India, for example, 3.7 million are infected, more than in any other country except South Africa. In China, an estimated 860,000 people (the actual number may be a little larger), mainly drug users, live with HIV/AIDS. Gordon Alexander, a senior advisor for UN AIDS in India, estimates that the number hit by AIDS in Asia will climb about eight million over the next five years from about six million.

In many Asian countries, the battle against HIV is a social and cultural one against public discussion of sexual health put a nationwide media campaign into action to limit the speed of HIV through unsafe sex. Brenton Wong, an official for Singapore’s Action for AIDS, says the actual HIV incidence in the city state of 3.9 million people is at least eight times higher than official data. “Shame and deny is still very, very common so people are afraid to get tested and many times won’t even tell their families if they test positive,” said Wong.

We can conclude from the underlined sentence in the last paragraph that ______.

       A. The official data always tell lies and cheat people to hide the truth.       

       B. 3.9 million people in Singapore suffered from AIDS.        

       C. Singapore has a population of 3.9 million    

       D. The number of people infected with HIV is at least eight times larger than that of the AIDS patients in Singapore.

It is judged that there are ______ people hit by AIDS in Asia or so.

       A. 4.3 million      B. 6 million         C. 8 million         D. 3.7 million

According to the passage, the main reasons that AIDS spread in Asia is through_______. 

       A. blood       B. unsafe sex       C. love         D. drugs

Which of the following statements is not right?     

       A. The battle against Aids in many Asian countries is against their culture and

social customs. 

       B. Though the HIV infection in Asia develops with low speed, the infected number

is still quite large compared to other continents.      

       C. India has the second largest number of HIV infected people.  

       D. Aids might affect the poverty-stricken countries more severely.