Save water, save lives
A BOTTLE of water may not seem like much to you, but it can save the day for people who live in drought-hit (遭受旱灾) areas in China.
In the past few months, some places in southwest China experienced a serious drought. In Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou and Chongqing, there has been very little rain since last autumn. Crops died, the land cracked, and wells (井) and rivers dried up. More than 20 million people are having difficulty finding safe drinking water.
After learning about the drought, many people around the country helped by giving water, money and other resources.
Last week, China asked every member of the Communist Youth League (团员) and Young Pioneers (少先队员) to give one bottle of water to the drought-hit area. Students in primary schools and middle schools quickly joined the activity.
“A bottle of water isn’t much, but thousands of bottles will be of great use,” said Zhang Zihao, a middle school student at Tongling No 1 Middle School in Anhui.
In Yuhua Primary School in Xi’an, 900 students bought over 100 bottles of water with their pocket money. They also wrote their wishes on the bottles.
The serious drought has also made students realize the importance of saving water.
Students from Nanshan Middle School in Huizhou in Guangdong went on the street to tell people to take part in water-saving activities.
“I heard that some children in drought-hit areas don’t have enough drinking water. They have to drink muddy (泥泞的) water. I feel really sad about that,” said one student. “I decided to take a shower twice a week instead of every day to save water.” he said.

1. 1.

   Why did a serious drought happen in Southwest China?
                                                                          

2. 2.

   What does the underlined（划线的）word “cracked” probably mean in Chinese?
                                                                          

3. 3.

   What did people do after learning about the drought?
                                                                          

4. 4.

   Is a bottle of water helpful for the people in drought-hit areas?
                                                                          

5. 5.

   What can you learn from the passage?
                                                                          

Have you ever thrown away a bottle of water? Maybe a bottle of water does not seem like much to you, but it can save the day for people who live in drought-hit* areas in China.

In the past few months, some places in southeast China has experienced a serious drought. In Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou and Chongqing, there has been very little rain since last autumn. Crops have died. The land has cracked* and wells and rivers have dried up. More than 20 million people are having difficulty finding safe drinking water.

After learning about the drought, many people across the country have helped by giving water, money and other resources*.

Last week, China asked every member of the Communist Youth League and Young Pioneers to give one bottle of water to the drought-hit areas. Students in primary schools and middle schools quickly joined in the activity. “A bottle of water isn’t much, but thousands of bottles will be of great use.” One student said. Some students offer their pocket money to the people there.  Other students also wrote their best wishes on the bottles.

The serious drought has also made students realize that saving water is very important. Some students decided to take a shower twice a week instead of every day, so that they can save a little water. Some students said they would never forget to turn off the water taps after using. Some students even went on the street to tell people to take part in water-saving activities.

Actually, learning how to save water is not difficult, and it can begin with teaching good habits to others around you. All you have to do is to think a little about how easy it is to waste water in everyday activities.

(   )48.What does a bottle of water mean to the drought-hit areas?

       A. It can change the whole situation.

       B. Even one bottle is important for them.

       C. It won’t help the drinking problem at all.

       D. It means nothing because it is not enough.

(   )49. There is a drought in those provinces because____________.

       A. the river has no water all the time.

       B. the sunshine is not strong enough there

       C. it has not rained for a long time

       D. people there don’t save water

(   )50.People are doing the following to help the drought-hit areas EXCEPT___________.

       A. giving best wishes to the people there

       B. encouraging more people to save water

       C. visiting drought-hit areas by themselves

       D. raising money for the drought-hit areas

(   )51.What have the students learned from the drought?

       A. The importance of water

       B. How to get on with others.

       C. Never waste food.

       D. How to find safe drinking water.

    Louis Pasteur was born in 1822 in a little town in France. As he grew up, he loved to paint. He loved to look at the world around him. When he went to college in Paris, he showed interest in looking through a microscope. A microscope makes things look a lot bigger; it lets you see things you can’t see just with your eyes. Looking through a microscope, Pasteur found a living world in a drop of water. He saw and drew pictures of the small living things －he called them “microbes” or “germs”－that crowded in a drop of water.

    One day a winemaker came into the lab, hoping that someone could help him with his problem. “Sometimes my wine tastes delicious, but sometimes it turns sour（酸的）,” he said to Pasteur. “Can you help me find out why?”

    Pasteur put some drops of the wine under the microscope. He noticed that the sour wine had some unusual germs. If he killed these germs, maybe he could keep the wine from turning sour. He experimented （试验）with different ways to kill the germs. In the end he found heating （加热）the wine seemed to work best. The winemaker tried it, and every bottle of wine tasted good.

    Pasteur’s idea worked for other people, too. When farmers heated milk, it didn’t sour so quickly. When breweries （啤酒师）heated beer, it tasted better. People called the process （过程）“pasteurization” － heating a liquid to kill bad germs. Aren’t you glad that the milk you drink has been pasteurized?

  1. What does the passage mainly tell us?

    A. What life Louis Pasteur lived.

    B. How to make milk clean.

    C. How pasteurization was invented.

    D. What to do with wine.

  2. The underlined （划线）words in the passage mean _______.

    A. small parts water is made up of

    B. dirty things around us

    C. bodies of small living things

    D. living things that can’t be seen

  3. What do you think Louis Pasteur was like from the passage?

    A. Clever, helpful and hard-working.

    B. Quiet, helpful, and kind-hearted.

    C. Brave, careful and hard-working.

    D. Clever, serious and kind-hearted.

  4. Which of the following sentences is true?

    A. Where something is wrong, there are germs.

    B. Louis Pasteur is the inventor of microscopes.

    C. Everybody knows what the word PASTEURIZED means.

    D. Pasteurization is a good way to keep food from going bad.

阅读理解：

　　Before her operation, Anna's eyesight was so bad that she could not see that alarm clock by her bedside.“I need glasses to find my glasses,”said Anna. Her glasses were as thick as a Coke bottle, and she said she was ready for anything that offers a better view of the world. So when she learned about the surgical(外科)way to correct near-sightedness, she needed no persuasion to accept the treatment.

　　It has been about four years since she had the operation on both of her eyes. She remains pleased with the results.“I had perfect vision only a day after the operation. It was as if I had never been short-sighted,”said Anna.

　　Being seriously shortsighted, Anna experienced some side-effects at first. The first was a tendency for the eye to water, especially when sleeping. It was a part of the healing process and lasted only a week. The second side-effect was a discomfort when looking at bright lights in the dark. It lasted six months and it did not harm her ability to drive at night.

　　Now the operation can be done with a laser guided by a computer instead of a diamond knife. With the operation, most patients will notice the improvement within 24 hours.“You can experience the operation today and throw away your glasses tomorrow,”said Dr. Karas, who has been operating on thousands of patients for over five years.

　　This operation has been around for more than twenty years and has been performed on millions of patients around the world. It has been studied by eight American universities for years, and the results are quite satisfactory. However, it is not yet known whether glasses will be out of use in the near future.

1．The word“eyesight”in the first paragraph means ________.

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2．In the passage the side-effects ________.

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A．mean great harm to one's health

B．cause other diseases

C．are the signs of getting well

D．make the patient uncomfortable

3．This operation has been around for more than twenty years. The word“around”means ________ in this sentence.

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