Everybody hates rats. But in the earthquake places of the world – Japan, Los Angeles, Turkey – rats will soon be man’s new best friends.
What happens after an earthquake? We send in rescue(救援) dogs. Why? Because they can smell people. Dogs save lives. They help rescuers to find living people. But dogs are big and they can’t get into small spaces. So now a new research project is using a smaller animal to save lives: the rat.
How does it work? First, the rat is trained to smell people. When this happens, the rat’s brain gives a signal. This is sent to a small radio on its back, and then the rescuers follow the radio signals. When the rat’s brain activity jumps, the rescuers know that someone is alive. The rat has smelled that person.
Although there are already robots which can do this job, rats are better. Christian Linster at Cornell University, New York, says, “ ‘Robot’ noses don’t work well when there are other smells around. Rats are good at that.” Rats can also see in the dark. They are cheaper and quicker to train than dogs, and unlike robots, they don’t need electricity.
The “ rat project” is not finished, but Julie Ryan of International Rescue Corps in Scotland says, “ It would be fantastic. A rat would get into spaces we couldn’t get to and a rat would get out if it wasn’t safe.” Perhaps for the first time in history, people will be happy to see a rat in a building ( but only after an earthquake, of course.)
【小题1】In the earthquake places, rats will become man’s best friends because they can __________.

A．take the place of man in rescue jobs

B．find the positions of people alive who are trapped in buildings

C．serve as food for people alive who are trapped in buildings

D．send signals for the coming earthquake

【小题2】The underlined word “that” in Paragraph 4 refers to(所指)  _________  

A．treating wounded people.

B．helping rescuers.

C．smelling people among different smells.

D．carry the wounded people to safety.

【小题3】From the third paragraph we know the rescuers can judge a person is alive by ___________.

A．the nose made by the rat

B．the rat’s unusual behavior

C．the signal sent by the radio on the rat’s back

D．the smell given off by the person

【小题4】In doing rescue jobs, __________________________.

A．rats have better sense of smell than dogs.

B．dogs don’t need to be trained to smell people.

C．robots’ sense of smell can be affected by other smells around.

D．rats can see in the dark and are smaller than robots.

【小题5】After reading the passage we can know ______________________________.

A．rats have taken the place of dogs in search for people.

B．the “ rat project” has been completed

C．people are now happy to see a rat in a building

D．now people still use dogs and robots in performing rescue

“You know, these cups brings to my mind a story I heard,” Mary said to her students.
She poured some tea. There were four of them and there were four completely different cups on the tables.
“I heard there was a teacher who took all his students for tea. His students were surprised that all the cups on the table were different. They all took a cup and started drinking their tea, each looking at the cups of others. The teacher said, “Did you notice your behavior? You are all looking at each other’s tea cup and some of you even envy(羡慕)the finer cups of others.”
“I put the different cups here on purpose. I want to say life is like this tea. You all have the same thing in your cups——tea. And yet you cannot truly enjoy it in your envy of another’s cup. You forget to enjoy your own life when you envy someone else’s life. We all have the same thing——life. We should care more about the tastes of your own life. So now, taste your own tea. Does it matter from which cup it came from?” Mary finished telling her story and her students all sat in silence for a while, enjoying their tea. And it really did not matter a bit from which teacup they drank.
【小题1】 Which of the following statement is TRUE?

A．All of the students had the same kind of cups.

B．One of the cups is different from others.

C．All of the cups were filled with the same tea.

D．There was different tea in different cups.

【小题2】What should we learn from the story?

A．Envy others and make progress.	B．All the lives are the same.
C．Work hard and catch up with others.	D．Try to enjoy your own life.

【小题3】 Which is the best title for the story?

A．More than tea in a cup	B．The same cups, the same tea
C．The taste of the tea	D．Different cups, different tea

 

1.How much does it cost children under 4 to travel Hawaii?

 

2.What kind of hotel will be provided?

 

3.When is County Animal Hospital open?

 

4.Where is County Animal Hospital?

 

5.Do you need any pay to visit County Animal Hospital?

 

"Earworms", some people call them. Songs that get stuck in your head go round and round, sometimes for days, sometimes for months. For no clear reason you cannot help yourself from humming or singing a tune by Lady Gaga.
To a psychologist, the most interesting thing about earworms is that they show a part of our mind that is clearly outside of our control. Earworms arrive without permission and refuse to leave when we tell them to. They are parasites (寄生虫) living in a part of our minds.
If you have got an earworm you can suffer an attack of it simply by someone mentioning the tune, without having to hear it. This proves that earworms are a part of long-term memory. Humans have an "inner ear", for remembering phone numbers, for instance. When it gets infected with earworms, rather than review our plans for the day, or lists of things to remember, the inner ear gets stuck on a few short bars of music or a couple of phrases from a song. A part of us that we normally do not have to think about, that should just do what we ask, has been turned against us, upsetting us with a request that we never asked for. The mind is an inner world which we do not have complete knowledge of, or have control over.
Fortunately psychology can provide some advice on how to deal with an uncontrollable mind. Consider the famous "don’t think of a white bear" problem, which tells you to try not to think about white bears, or to do something else, to avoid both thinking of the white bear and not thinking of the white bear. For earworms, the solution may be the same. Our inner ear has become infected with an earworm. This is a part not under our control, so just sending in instructions to "shut up" is unlikely to be of much help (and has been shown to make it worse). Much better is to employ the inner ear in another task. If your mind is poisoned by Brittany Spears’ Toxic, for instance, then try singing Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You out Of My Head. Let me know if it works!
【小题1】According to the passage, earworms are ______.

A．songs that keep going round in our mind

B．worms that live in a part of our brain

C．tunes by pop singers like Lady Gaga

D．parasites clearly under our control

【小题2】Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Singing songs may get earworms out of your head.

B．Earworms are used for keeping long-term memory.

C．Humans do not have complete control over their mind.

D．You won’t suffer from earworms unless you hear the song.

【小题3】What does “it” in the last paragraph refer to?

A．The instruction to shut up your mind.

B．“Don’t think of the white bear” problem.

C．Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You out Of My Head.

D．Using the earworm-infected inner ear in another task.

【小题4】What is the passage mainly about?

A．The causes and influences of earworms.

B．What earworms are and how to deal with them.

C．How to clear earworms out of your head.

D．The relation between earworms and popular songs.

情景对话（每小题2分，共10分）

A: Do you work in No. 1 Middle School?

B: Yes, I do. 1.       

A: 2.     

B: Yes. It is about fifteen kilometers.

A: How do you usually go to school？

B: 3.       

A: How long does it take you to get to school?

B: 4.       

A: Do you like your job? Why?

B: 5.      

A: Well, you are a good teacher.

B: Thank you.

A.About fifteen minutes.

B.Yes, because I like my students.

C.I am a teacher in the school.

D.I usually drive my car.

E.Is it far from your home to the school?