If you enjoyed the spring-like sunshine over the weekend and thought the weather has finally turned a corner, you’re sadly mistaken.
Chilly (寒冷的) days and grey clouds are forecast for the week—making it far too early to pack away the winter woollies.
Temperatures will struggle to rise above zero at night and fail to make double figures during the day.
People enjoy the spring sunshine in Sefton Park, Aigburth, Liverpool. Forecasters have predicted a return to chilly weather this week.
Met Office forecaster Charlie said, “It was a nice, dry, bright weekend in many parts and Monday is going to be a similar affair for many.”
“Temperatures will be between 5℃and 8℃, which is below average for the start of spring.”
The sun will disappear from the south of the country after today, with dry but cloudy conditions forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday. 
Wednesday will be warmest of the three, with temperatures peaking at 9℃. But this is still two degrees below the March average for the district.
Overnight, temperatures will drop sharply, with lows of minus 3℃for the next three nights.
“It will generally stay on the cold side of average,” said Mr. Powell.
The March misery comes at the end of the coldest winter for more than 30 years.
Temperatures in December, January and February struggled to stay above zero, with the UK’s average 1.5℃, making it the deepest freeze since 1978—79.
It claimed there was just a one-in-seven chance of a cold December to February.
The agency also sadly predicted a “barbecue summer”, saying it was “quite optimistic” that it would be warmer and drier than average.
Following the two mistakes, the Met Office has dropped its long-range seasonal forecasts and will instead publish a monthly prediction for Britain, updated once a week.
In its defense, it says that while short-term forecasts are extremely accurate, Britain’s size and geographical position makes long-term predictions much more challenging.
It also points out that it gave warning of any heavy falls of snow this winter.
60. According to the passage, the weather on Tuesday in the south might be _______.
A. dry but cloudy  B. sunny but chilly  C. sunny and warm  D. cloudy and chilly
61. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. British people can put away their winter clothes now.
B. The Met Office has shortened its forecast range.
C. The weather forecast becomes more and more accurate.
D. The agency was quite confident of long-term predictions.
62. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. The big chill isn’t over yet                    B. A warm spring finally arrives
C. A heavy snow is on the way            D. The Met Office drops forecasts
63. From the passage, we can conclude ________.
A. the weather report is more and more important
B. British people become worried about bad weather
C. Britain has just experienced a very freezing winter
D. The Met Office can always predict any heavy snow falls accurately

　　Even plant can run a fever, especially when they’re under attack by insects or disease. But unlike human, plants can have their temperature taken from 3, 000 feet away - straight up. A decade ago, adopting the infrared （红外线）scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide （杀虫剂）spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don’t have pest （害虫）problems.
　　Even better, Paley’s Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3, 000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a color - coded map showing where plants were running“ fevers”. Farmers could then spot - spray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would.
　　The bad news is that Paley’s company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long - term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. “This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States, ” says George Oerther of Texas A & M. Ray Jackson , who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only ff Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.
　56．Plants will emit an increased amount of heat when they are________.
　　A. sprayed with pesticides     B. facing an infrared scanner
　　C. in poor physical condition   D. exposed to excessive sun rays
　57．In order to apply pesticide spraying precisely, we can use infrared scanning to________.
　　A. estimate the damage to the crops    B. measure the size of the affected area
　　C. draw a color -coded map          D. locate the problem area
　58．Farmers can save a considerable amount of pesticide by________.
　　A. resorting to spot – spraying   B. consulting infrared scanning experts
　　C. transforming poisoned rain    D. detecting crop problems at an early stage
　59．The application of infrared scanning technology to agriculture met with some difficulties________.,
　　A. the lack of official support        B. its high cost
　　C. the lack of financial support      D. its failure to help increase production
　60．Infrared scanning technology may be brought back into operation because of________.
　　A. the desire of farmers to improve the quality of their produce
　　B. growing concern about the excessive use of pesticides on crops
　　C. the forceful promotion by the Department of Agriculture
　　D. full support from agricultural experts

完形填空（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从16-35各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
It was the afternoon before Christmas. As the newest doctor in our office, I had to work. The only thing that___16___ my day was the Christmas tree in our waiting room and beautiful___17___ sent to me by my lover.
When I was cleaning my office, our nurse came, saying___18___was anxious to speak with me. As I stepped out of the room,I___19__a tired-looking woman with a___20___ in her arms. ___21___, she explained that her husband--a prisoner was my next___22__. She told me she wasn’t ___23__to visit him in prison and that he had never seen his son． Her___24___ for me was to let them sit in the waiting room longer.___25__my schedule wasn’t full, I agreed. Hardly had her husband ___26___ when the woman’s tired face lit up. I kept watching them laugh, cry, and share their child outside. After almost an hour, I called__27____in. He seemed like a gentle and modest man. While working, I ___28___what he possibly could have done to be put into prison. I tried to make him as ___29___ as possible.
　　At the end of the appointment, I ___30___ him a Merry Christmas—a difficult thing to say to a man headed back to ___31___. He smiled and thanked me. He also said he felt ___32___ that he hadn’t been able to give his wife anything for Christmas. On hearing this, I was inspired with a wonderful ___33___.
I’ll never forget the look on both their faces as the prisoner gave his wife the beautiful roses. I’m not sure who experienced the most ___34___—the husband in giving, the wife in receiving, or myself in having the ___35___to share in this special moment.

There was a park near my home. But I didn’t go there very often. Many people said there was nothing special. One afternoon I went into the park and found it was really small. I walked quickly because there wasn’t much to see. I walked for some time and found myself standing in front of two paths. 71  I found that the two paths were different from each other.
The left one was wide and clean. There were lots of flowers on both sides of the path. Though the flowers weren’t very beautiful, they made me feel good. I decided to take this path. But wait! I looked at the right one. The path didn’t look nice.  72  Grass grew everywhere. For a long time I couldn’t make up my mind.
  73  It wasn’t nice , but I didn’t want to give up. At last, I came to the end of the path. Ah! There was a small garden there. It was beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful garden I had ever seen.  74  
Many people told me that there was nothing much to see in the park. Now I’d like to tell them that if they had followed the right way, they would have felt differently. But when I told them about what I had seen in the park, they just smiled at me without saying a word. I knew they didn’t believe me. They couldn’t even remember that path because it was so small.
  75  Don’t be afraid to choose a different path. You may get a big surprise!

Molly was a peasant girl. Her parents did not have much money and Molly did not have many nice clothes.
One day Molly’s father said to her, “Molly, take this pot of milk to market and sell it. You may keep the money.”
Molly was very happy. She put the pot of milk on her head and started her journey to market. While she was walking alone she began to think. “I will get quite a lot of money for this milk,” she thought. “What will I do with the money? I will buy a lot of eggs. I will take the eggs home with me. One of our hens will sit on them. Then there will be lots of little chickens. I will not sell the chickens. They will grow into hens. Then there will be more eggs. And these eggs will give me still more chickens. Soon I will have hundreds of hens. Then I will sell them all. They will bring me a lot of money. I will be rich. I will buy lots of new clothes. I will always wear nice clothes. Then a rich man will marry me. We will have a beautiful house, a big car and nice children...”
Molly was very happy. She jumped into the air. The pot of milk fell from her head onto the road. And that was the end of all her dreams.
In English there is a proverb. It says: Do not count your chickens before they are hatched(孵化).
【小题1】Molly was happy to go to market because ________.