On Saturday, millions of people around the world will celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day, which honors Patron Saint (or main religious figure) of Ireland. Communities across the United States will host parades, parties, and other festivities to mark the occasion.

This year, cities like Boston, New York, and Chicago have organized massive events celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day. In New York City, hundreds of thousands of people will gather to watch the Saint Patrick’s Day parade—the nation’s largest. It is one of the most watched parades in the world. Last year, almost 2 million spectators（观众） and more than 150,000 participants （参与者）filled the streets. The parade, first held in 1776, is also one of the oldest.

Chicago also throws a big celebration. Every year, the Chicago River, which crosses the city, glows green as event organizers dump about 40 pounds of fluorescence, a powerful dye(染料), into the water.

Boston keeps its parade rolling for three hours or more. It is the nation’s second-largest parade. The city will also salute one of its most famous former residents, President John F. Kennedy, by opening the exhibit “A Journey Home: John F. Kennedy and Ireland,” at his official library.

Patron Saint lived in Britain in the early fifth century, when it was still part of the Roman Empire. He was captured （抓捕）and sold into slavery（卖为奴隶） in Ireland when he was only 16．He eventually escaped slavery and turned to a life of religious devotion. He trained to become a minister（牧师） and set out to spread Christianity throughout Ireland. After 30 years as a religious leader, Patrick died on March 17, 1461．Saint Patrick’s Day is always celebrated on March 17．In Ireland, it is an official holiday.

1．What’s the best title of the passage?

        A．History of Saint Patrick’s Day                            B．An Official Holiday in US

        C．The Largest Parade in the World                       D．Celebrations across the Country

2．What do you think is the official color of St. Patrick’s Day?

        A．Green                         B．Red.                            C．Black.                         D．Yellow.

3．The last paragraph is mainly about _____.

        A．the cruel slave trade.                              B．Saint Patrick’s contribution.

        C．activities during Saint Patrick’s Day           D．Ireland’s Patron Saint

4．Which of the following is not correct according to the passage?

        A．Parade is a most important event to observe Saint Patrick’s Day.

        B．Saint Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday.

        C．Saluting the former president has become a main event on the occasion.

        D．The Saint Patrick’s Day parade has a history of over two centuries.

An annoying problem for humans, who like to boast (夸耀) about all the distant planets and moons we have explored, is that we've never taken a good look right under our noses. The inside of the earth is relatively close, but how can we get there?

The deepest oil well enters a mere six miles into the crust (地壳) (the center of the earth is about 4,000 miles deeper). Russian scientists dug the deepest hole in Siberia, but bottomed out at about 7.5 miles below the surface. The Mohole project, a U.S. plan in the 1950s, called for drilling a hole 25 miles down to the boundary between the hard rocks of the crust and the soft mantle (地幔). Sadly the project involved government supporting.

It gets harder and harder to drill deep into the earth because rocks get softer and softer. Hard but easily broken at the surface, rocks become plastic at depth, and the pressure caused by the weight of the overlaying crust ---  about 52,800 pounds per square inch at a depth of ten miles, makes further drilling impossible.

What little we know about the inside of the earth (like the fact that there's a crust, a mantle, and a core) comes from indirect evidence, such as the analysis of earthquakes.

So maybe it's time for a thorough new method to explore the earth's inside. Scientist David Stevenson says we should forget about drilling holes. Instead, we should open a crack (裂缝).

Stevenson suggests digging a crack about a half mile long, a yard wide, and a half mile deep (not with a shovel) but with an explosion on the scale of a nuclear bomb. Next, he'd pour a few hundred thousand tons of molten (熔化的) iron into the crack, along with a robot. The iron, thicker than the surrounding crust, would move downward at about 16 feet per second, carrying the robot with it and opening the crack deeper and deeper. The iron mass would drop for about a week and 2,000 miles to the outer edge of the earth core, the robot sending out data to the surface.

Stevenson compares his idea to space exploration. "We're going somewhere we haven't been before,"he says. "In all possibility, there will be surprises.”

This idea can probably be put in the drawer marked with Isn't Going To Happen. The robot would have to survive temperatures that would melt pretty much anything. But Stevenson's idea may inspire a new look at an old problem. Great things can come from what seems like impossible ideas.

Going inside the earth is _____ than going into space.

A. more interesting B. more possible C. easier  D. more challenging

How deep have we gone into the earth until now?

A. 6 miles.  B. 4,000 miles. C. 7.5 miles.  D. 25 miles.

Which of the following is TRUE about David Stevenson's idea?

A. It is an inspiring but not practical idea now.

B. It is a practical proposal that has come into use now.

C. It is a good proposal that will soon be put into practice.

D. It is a false theory that cannot be carried out at all.

What might be the most suitable title for the text?

A. An Annoying Problem for Humans

B. To the Center of the Earth

C. The Mohole Project

D. David Stevenson's Proposal

第四部分：任务型阅读(共10小题；每小题l分，满分l0分)

    请认真阅读下列短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。注意：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。

Reflecting (深思) is a special kind of thinking. In the first-place, it’s both active and controlled. When ideas pass aimlessly through your head, that is not reflecting. When someone tells you a story and suddenly makes you remember something that happened to you, that is not reflecting either. Reflecting means focusing your attention. It means weighing, considering, and choosing. Suppose you’re going home, and when you get there, you turn the knob (门的球形把手), the door opens and you step in. Getting into your home does not require reflection. But now suppose that when you turn the knob, the door does not open. To get into the house, some reflecting is in order. You have to think about what you are going to do. You have to imagine possibilities and consider choices.

     The second way that reflecting is different from some other kinds of thinking is that it’s persistent（连续的）. It requires continuous effort. Suppose you’re still trying to get through your front door. You check your pocket for the key. You walk around the house looking for an open window. You go to a phone to call a family member who has a key. Such behaviour is proof of persistent reflective thinking. And if someone asks you what you are doing, you may say that you are trying to figure out how to get into your house. But suppose, instead, you go to a nearby record store and look through the new records. If someone asks you what you are doing and you say that you are trying to figure out how to get into your house, that will not make sense. You are only reflecting as long as you stick to the problem or task.

     The third way that reflecting is different from some other kinds of thinking is that it’s careful. It aims at making sense. That doesn’t mean that reflecting cannot be imaginative. A great deal of reflection could go into writing a science-fiction story about people who can move through solid objects. The ability to walk through walls could make sense in a science-fiction story. But it wouldn’t make much sense in trying to get through your locked front door. Such imagining would be a kind of thinking, but it would not be reflection.

Title: 71._____________

--- Do you mind my opening the window? It’s a bit hot.

   ---- ________, as a matter of fact.

A. Go ahead             B. Yes, my pleasure     C. Yes, I do    D. Come on

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of   44  students in the classroom on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the   45  thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It   46  the class some time to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one   47  the papers. That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the  48 of each student on a separate sheet of paper and 49  what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the whole class was   50  . “Really?” she heard whispered. “I never knew that I   51  anything to anyone!” and, “I didn’t know others liked me so much” were most of the comments. No one ever   52   those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn’t   53 . The exercise had completed its   54  . The students were   55  with themselves and one another.
That group of students moved on. Several years later, one of the students was   56  in Vietnam War and his teacher   57  the funeral of that special student. After the funeral, most of Mark’s former classmates left. Mark’s mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak to his teacher.
“We want to   58  you something,” his father said, taking a   59  out of his pocket.
“They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might   60  it.”
Opening the wallet, he   61  removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded, and refolded many times. The teacher knew without   62  that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates had said about him.
“Thank you so much for doing that,” Mark’s mother said. “As you can see, Mark   63  it.”