The inventor of the world wide web，Tim Berners?Lee，has won an important award which comes with a prize bag of one million euros (￡671,000)．The “Father of the Web” was named as the first winner of the Millennium Technology Prize by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation.He said he had just been “in the right place at the right time” and did not want his photo taken.

In 1991，he came up with a system to organize，link and browse(浏览) Net pages which revolutionized the Internet.The British scientist was knighted(封爵) for his pioneering work in 2003.

Sir Tim created his program while he was at the particle physics institute，Cern，in Geneva.The computer code he came up with let scientists easily share research findings across a computer network.In the early 1990s，it was called the “world wide web，” and is still the basis of the web as we know it.

The famous man never went on to commercialize his work.Instead he worked on expanding the use of the Net as a channel for free expression and cooperation.

“The web is encouraging new types of social networks and opening up new ways for information management and business development.The web has significantly improved many people’s ability to obtain information central to their lives，”said Pekka Tarjanne，chairman of the Millennium Technology Prize award committee.

Just under 80 people from 22 countries were nominated(提名) for the prize for their work in the areas of health，communication，new materials and the environment.

The Millennium Technology Prize was set up by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation，an independent body backed by the public and private money which aims to recognize outstanding creations.

Sir Tim currently heads up the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston，where he is now based as an academic.

1.It can be learned from the first two paragraphs that ________.

A．it is Tim Berners?Lee that invented the Internet

B．no one was able to surf the Net before the world wide web was invented

C．the Internet can’t be used so widely without Tim Berners?Lee’s invention

D．the Millennium Technology Prize was set up for Tim Berners?Lee

2.After inventing the world wide web，Tim Berners?Lee ________.

A．became the first person to receive the Millennium Technology Prize

B．became the first person to be knighted by the Queen of England

C．began to cooperate with many scientists in other areas

D．was given over one million pounds for his great contribution

3.Which of the following best describes Tim Berners?Lee?

A．Optimistic. B．Modest.

C．Ambitious.? D．Careful.

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

A．The Millennium Technology Prize

B．Tim Berners?Lee

C．The World Wide Web

D．New Honor for the Web’s Inventor

As people slowly learn to cure diseases, control floods, prevent hunger, and stop wars, fewer people die every year. As a result, the population of the world is becoming larger. In 1925 there were about 2 billion people in the world; today there are over 6 billion.

When the number rises, extra mouths must be fed. New lands must be brought under development, or land already farmed must be made to produce more crops. In some areas the land is so over-developed that it will be difficult to make it provide more crops. In some areas the population is so large that the land is divided into too tiny units to make improvement possible with farming methods. If a large part of this farming population went into industrial work, the land might be farmed much more productively (多产地) with modern methods.

There is now a race for science, technology, and industry to keep the output of food rising faster than the number of people to be fed. New types of crops, which will grow well in bad weather, are being developed, so there are now farms beyond the Arctic Circle in Siberia and North America. Irrigation (灌溉) and dry-farming methods bring poor lands under the plough. Dams hold back the waters of great rivers, which can provide water for the fields in all seasons and provide electric power for new industries. Industrial chemistry provides fertilizer to suit different soils. Every year, some new methods are made to increase or to protect the food of the world.

1. The author says that the world population is increasing because _____.

A. there are many rich valleys and large fields

B. farmers are producing more crops than before

C. people are living longer due to better living conditions

D. new lands are being made into farmlands

2. The author says that in areas with large populations, land might be more productively farmed if _____.

A. the land was divided into smaller pieces

B. people moved into the countryside

C. industrial methods were used in farming

D. the units of land were much larger

3. We are told that there are now farms beyond the Arctic Circle. This has been made possible by _____.

A. growing new types of crops

B. irrigation and dry-farming means

C. providing fertilizers 

D. destroying pests and diseases

4. Why is the land divided into tiny units in some areas?

A. There are too many people living there.

B. It saves more natural resources there. 

C. It prevents crops from serious diseases there.

D. Farmers can grow various kinds of crops there.

5. Why do some people use dams to hold back waters from great rivers?

A. To develop a new kind of dry-farming methods.       

B. To prevent crops from floods.

C. To provide water and electricity in all seasons.          

D. To water poor lands in bad weather. 

A new system that scans customers’ fingerprints and subtracts（减去）the grocery bill from their bank accounts has taken supermarkets in Germany to use the new system. “Almost a quarter of our customers pay with their fingers,” said an employee at the headquarters. Edeka has tried the system at 70 of its supermarkets. It says it will introduce it at 200 others because customers like it.
“At first we thought that only the young who really keep up with the latest technology would be interested, but we were wrong,” said Stefan Sewoester from IT Werke. “Almost two-thirds of the people who use the system are 40 and older,” he said.
IT Werke, a computer company, is one of the pioneers of fingerprint payment software in Germany. It has helped about 150 shops, canteens and bars to put in the fingerprint scanning machines. Each costs about 2,000 euros.
To sign up for the service, customers must have their fingerprints taken and leave their addresses and banking details with the shop. The shop then takes the cost of goods directly out of the customer’s bank account.
“It is especially a good thing for elderly people. Now they do not have to remember their pin to pay with their bank cards, or to scratch around for their glasses or cash.” Sewoester said.
The stores benefit from the system too. It saves more than time in the check-out line. It also cuts out the hidden costs of accepting electronic card payments.
【小题1】According to the passage, the fingerprint system______.

It saves time in the kitchen to have things you use a lot _______ easy reach.

1. A.
   near
2. B.
   upon
3. C.
   within
4. D.
   around

EI've been writing for most of my life. The book Writing Without Teachers introduced me to one difference and one practice that have greatly helped my writing processes. The difference is between the creative mind and the critical mind. While you need to use both of the creative mind and the critical (批判) mind to reach a finished result，they cannot work in parallel (平行，并行) no matter how much we might like to think so.
　Trying to criticize writing on the fly is possibly the single greatest trouble with writing that most of us meet. If you are listening to a 5th grade English teacher correcting your grammar while you are trying to capture a fleeting（稍纵即逝的）thought, the thought will die. If you catch the fleeting thought and simply share it with the world in raw form, no one is likely to understand. You must learn to create first and then criticize if you want to make writing the tool for thinking as it is.
　The practice that can help you overcome your learned bad habits of trying to edit as you write is what Elbow calls“free writing”. In free writing, the goal is to get words down on paper non-stop，usually for 15-20 minutes. No stopping, no going back, no criticizing. The aim is to get the words flowing. As the words begin to flow，the ideas will come from the shadows and let themselves be captured on your notepad or your screen.
　Now you have raw materials that you can begin to work with using the critical mind that you’ve persuaded to sit on the side and watch quietly. Most likely，you will believe that this will take more time than you actually have and you will end up staring blankly at the pages as the deadline draws near.
　Instead of staring at a blank start and filling it with words no matter how bad they could be，stop halfway through your available time and rework your raw writing into something closer to the finished product. Move back and forth until you run out of time and the final result will most likely be far better than your current practices.
1. When the author says the creative mind and the critical mind“cannot work in parallel”in the writing process，he means _______.
A. no one can be both creative and critical              
B. they can’t be regarded as equally important
C. they are in constant conflict with each other 
D. one cannot use them at the same time
2. What usually prevents people from writing on is _______.
A. putting their ideas in raw form            B. attempting to edit as they’re writing
C. ignoring grammatical problems           D. trying to capture their fleeting thoughts
3. What is the chief purpose of the first stage of writing？
A. To organize one’s thoughts logically.    B. To choose an appropriate topic.
C. To get one’s ideas down quickly.          D. To collect many more raw materials.
4. In what way does the critical mind help the writer in the writing process？
A. It refines(improves) his writing into a better shape. 
B. It helps him to come up with new ideas.
C. It saves the writing time available to him.
D. It allows him to sit on the side and observe.