The long, lonely voyage of the Japanese ghost ship is over.

A US Coast Guard cutter poured cannon fire into an abandoned Japanese ghost ship that had been drifting since last year’s tsunami (海啸), sinking the vessel into waters more than 305 meters deep in the Gulf of Alaska and removing the danger it posed to shipping and the coastline on Thursday.

The cutter’s guns tore holes in the 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru, and then it began to take on water and lean to one side. In about four hours, the ship disappeared into the sea, said Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow.

The ship had no lights or communications system, and its tank was able to carry more than 7,570 liters of diesel fuel. Officials, however, didn’t know exactly how much fuel was aboard.

“It’s less risky than it would be running into shore or running into other ships,” coast guard spokesman Paul Webb said.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency studied the problem and decided it is safer to sink the ship than let the fuel evaporate and pollute the sea environment.

Ryou-Un Maru was probably among the first wave of the 1.5 million tons of garbage of refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, roofs and fishing nets heading toward North America since last March when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck Japan.

As the coast guard was ready to fire on the vessel, a Canadian fishing vessel, the 19-meter Bernice C, claimed the rights to save the ghost ship in international waters.

Plans to sink it were paused so the Canadian crew could have a chance to take the stricken ship. A Canadian official with knowledge of the situation told the Associated Press that the Bernice C was unable to drag it.

Then the Canadian boat left, and once it was about 10 kilometers from the Japanese vessel, the Coast Guard began to fire, first with 25 mm shells, then a few hours later with ammunition (弹药)twice that size.

State officials have been working to test the danger of garbage including materials affected by a damaged nuclear power plant, to see if Alaska residents, seafood or wild animals could be affected.

1.The plan to fire on the Japanese ghost ship was paused because ____________.

A．the ghost ship was beyond the reach of the Coast Guard’s guns

B．state officials worried the ghost ship might give out radiation

C．the shells were not powerful enough to sink the ghost ship

D．a Canadian fishing boat wanted to save the ghost ship

2.What’s the right order of the events related to the ship of Ryou-Un Maru?

a. Its long, lonely voyage came to an end.

b. The US Coast Guard sank it into the sea.

c. The ship began to float across the Pacific Ocean.

d. A big tsunami was caused by great earthquakes.

e. Bernice C claimed rights to save the ghost ship.

A．d, c, e, b, a         B．a, b, d, c, e         C．c, e, d, a, b         D．b, a, d, c, e

3.Which of the following could be the best title for the passage?

A．Japanese ghost ship arriving at US

B．Tsunami garbage heading to US

C．Japanese ghost ship polluting the Pacific

D．Cannon fire sinking Japanese ghost ship

 

About 12,000 years ago- long before the famous UFO crash make headlines in America—an alien spaceship crashed in China. And their descendants are still living in a faraway Chinese village today! That is the mind-bending claim made in the new book Out of Time and Place, a collection of reports from the files of Fate, a magazine edited by Terry O’Neil.
The story first came to light in 1937 when an expedition led by Chi Pu-Tei came across a group of caves deep in the Bayan-Kara-Ula Mountains. In the caves were found strange-looking skeletons with big heads and small, slender bodies—closely matching typical descriptions of space aliens. The explorers also uncovered 716 mysterious stone discs with strange hieroglyphics(象形文字) on them.
In Qinghai Province, where the mountains lie, ancient stories tell of small, skinny beings with oversize heads who came from the sky long long ago. And to this day, locals live in fear of attack from strange-looking creatures from above.
And there is more. In 1947, British scientist Karyl Robin-Evans led an expedition into the mountains and discovered a group of dwarfs(侏儒) who called themselves the Droza. “They told him that their ancestors came from a planet in the Sirius（天狼星）system and crashed in this mountain area a long time ago,” writes Hausdorf, “Many of them were killed, but survivors adapted to living on this rough planet far from home.”
For decades, Robin-Evans’ claims were dismissed as nonsense. But in 1995, the Associated Press reported that in the region a village named Huilong had been discovered—populated by 120 dwarfs ranging from 3-foot-10 to 2-foot-1tall.Hausdorf asks, “Could these people be the last living descendants of the survivors of the legendary UGO crash—the Chinese Roswell?”
【小题1】Which of the following are the findings of Chi Pu-Tei?
a. strange-looking skeletons           b. UFO crash
c. stone discs                       d. dwarfs
e. strange hieroglyphics               f. skinny beings

A．a, c, d

B．c, e, f

C．a, c, e

D．a, b, e

【小题2】Paragraph 3 and 4 mainly _____.

A．introduce ancient stories in Qinghai Province

B．show evidence of the existence of aliens in Qinghai Province

C．express fears of attack from aliens

D．describe the spaceship crash in China

【小题3】What can be safely concluded from the passage?

A．This passage is a piece of science news recently issued.

B．Chinese are descendants to the survivors of the alien spaceship crash

C．The UFO crash in the Byan-Kara-Ula Mountains has recently been seen

D．Many people are curious about aliens from outer space

【小题4】What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?

A．Recent research about the Chinese Roswell.

B．News stories about Roswell UFO Crash.

C．Chi Pu-Tei’s discovery in China.

D．Robin-Evans’ claims.

Sam, a dog, was left behind in Colorado while his owners, Mr. And Mrs. Green moved to Southern California. They did not give the dog up. They found him a very nice home before they moved. They would have let Sam accompany them, but they were afraid the dog’s presence would make it difficult for them to rent a house when they reached their destination.
The Green family lived in Colorado for less than a year. Before that, they had lived in the same neighborhood in California to which they returned. So Sam had been there before, but only for a short time when he was young.
Several months after the Greens left Colorado, after they were comfortably settled back in California, they heard a scratch at the door. They couldn’t imagine who might be there. It never occurred to them that it might be Sam, because they were sure he was happily set up with his new family back in Colorado. When they opened the door, the Greens saw a dirty, tired dog with very hurting feet. The animal looked a little bit like Sam, but no one could believe that Sam could have walked 840 miles on his own. The tired dog spent the night under the family car. The next day, when he was more rested, he performed some of his old tricks. The Greens knew they had their own dog back.
【小题1】The story suggests that _______ .

A．dog owners have trouble renting	B．many people treat their pets badly
C．keeping a dog is easy	D．dogs are too much trouble

【小题2】Which is the right order of the following events according to the passage?
a. Sam walked to California.            b. The Greens moved to Colorado.
c. The Greens left Sam.                d. The Greens returned to California.
e. Sam spent the night under the family car.

A．b, d, c, e, a

B．b, c, d, a, e

C．a, c, b, e, d

D．c, e, d, a, b

【小题3】The underlined word “destination” in the first paragraph means _________.

A．the cost of living	B．the country of one’s birth
C．the damage to oneself	D．the place to which one is going

【小题4】The Greens knew the dog was Sam ________.

A．because of his hurting feet	B．from the color and the markings
C．by the way he walked	D．after he did some tricks

阅读理解

　　Captain James Cook was a great explorer(探测者). Before he started exploring(探测), maps of the Pacific Ocean were almost empty. He visited hundreds of islands and put them in the correct places on the map. He made maps of the coastlines of Australia and New Zealand. James Cook was born in England In 1728. His parents were poor farm workers. When James was 18, he found a job on a coastal ship. He worked on ships until he was 27 years old, and then he joined the navy(海军). He fought in Canada in a war against France, and he mapped some of the eastern coasts of Canada. In 1768 King George Ⅲ made him captain of a ship and sent him to the Pacific. He was gone for nearly three years. When he returned, he was a national hero.

　　He started his third voyage(航海)in 1776. On this trip he was the first European to visit Hawaii. Then he mapped the eastern coast of North America. After that, he returned to Hawaii. There was some trouble between the Hawaiians and the white men and they started fighting. Captain Cook was killed. The Hawaiians were very sorry for the wrong fighting.

1．In which order did James Cook do the following things?

a. Fought against France

b. Made maps of some of the eastern coast of Canada

c. Mapped the coastlines of Australia and New Zealand

d. Mapped the west coast of North America

e. Was made the captain of a ship

f. Worked on a coastal ship

[　　]

2．He started exploring when ________.

[　　]

A．he worked on a coastal ship

B．he was 27 years old

C．he was sent to the Pacific

D．he served in the navy

3．Which of the following is not true?

[　　]

A．He made maps of the Pacific Ocean

B．He went on three long and important voyages in his life.

C．He was the first Englishman to reach Hawaii.

D．He was respected by his people.

4．He was considered a national hero because of ________.

[　　]

A．his experience in Canada

B．his being the first European to visit Hawaii

C．his heroic death

D．his devotion to his exploring