Britons stranded（搁浅）at sea or in flooded homes could find a real-life prince riding to their rescue. Prince William announced on Monday that he is to train to be a full-time pilot with the Royal Air Force's Search and Rescue Force (SARF).
William, who is currently a Lieutenant（中尉）in the Army's Household Cavalry Regiment（皇家骑兵团）, will transfer to the RAF and begin an 18-month training course in January 2009.
If successful, he will become a fully operational Search and Rescue pilot in 2010, flying Sea King helicopters at one of the six SARF units based in Britain.
"The time I spent with the RAF earlier this year made me realize how much I love flying," the prince, who spent two weeks with a SARF team while on work experience in 2005, said in a statement.
"Joining Search and Rescue is a perfect opportunity for me to serve in the Forces operationally, while contributing to a vital part of the country's Emergency Services."
It means he will follow a similar career to that of his uncle, Prince Andrew, who was a Sea King helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands war.
The Search and Rescue teams' main duty is to recover RAF personnel but in peacetime they mainly respond to civilian emergencies, dealing with more than 1,000 calls a year.
The units deal with incidents ranging from helping those trapped by sudden major floods to rescuing people lost while out walking on hills.
William, who has spent the last year on secondment（借调）to the various branches of the military to prepare for his future role as head of the armed forces, received his RAF wings （飞行勋章）following a four-month stint（持续的工作）with the service earlier this year.
However, his time with the RAF was clouded when the Defense Ministry was forced to fend off criticism for allowing the prince to fly military helicopters to a bachelor party for his cousin and to the family home of his girlfriend Kate Middleton.

1. 1.

   Prince William wanted to be a full-time pilot because _____.

   1. A.
      he liked flying
   2. B.
      he would like to do something in the country’s Emergency Services
   3. C.
      many Britons were in danger at sea waiting for rescue
   4. D.
      he had much experience in flying
2. 2.

   According to the passage, _____.

   1. A.
      the Falklands war broke out in 2005
   2. B.
      Prince William served in the Army’s Household Cavalry Regiment in 1982
   3. C.
      Prince Andrew is serving in SARF now
   4. D.
      William would finish his training course in June 2010
3. 3.

   It can be inferred from the passage that______.

   1. A.
      the RAF is an army that rescues its soldiers during wartime
   2. B.
      either Andrew or William is interested in flying
   3. C.
      there are many floods happening in Britain
   4. D.
      the prince saving the people in danger is no longer fairy tale
4. 4.

   The author’s opinion on William’s joining RAF is ______.

   1. A.
      enthusiastic
   2. B.
      doubtful
   3. C.
      negative
   4. D.
      pessimistic
5. 5.

   What is the purpose of the author by mentioning what the prince had done before in the last paragraph?

   1. A.
      The author wants to say that Prince William pays much attention to his family and friends
   2. B.
      The author suggests that the Defense Ministry was criticized when William flew for his private business
   3. C.
      William had a hard time when he went against his leaders
   4. D.
      The author has the worry that Prince William is likely to get the Defense Ministry into trouble again.

Scientists warn today that the Atlantic bluefin tuna（金枪鱼）faces disappearance unless certain action is taken. They used electronic ways to track the movement of the powerful fish from the Gulf of Mexico to the Mediterranean, and report today in the journal Nature that meals of sushi and sandwiches with tuna worldwide are more dangerous than anyone has imagined.

The bluefin tuna can live for 30 years, grow to three metres in length and weigh as much as 700kg. A good one can fetch as much as £ 52,000 in the Tokyo fish markets. “In my lifetime, we’ve brought this big fish to the doorstep of death in the western Atlantic Ocean,” said Barbara Block of Stanford University in California. “The electronic way of tracks provides the best scientific information we’ve ever had to manage these tuna and we must, as an international community, start to act actively to make sure of the future of this fish. ”

Scientists have repeatedly said that the harvest of the seas cannot be as good as before. There are fewer and fewer fish in around Newfoundland, North Sea and Iceland, so fishermen have pushed further offshore in search of deep ocean fish. Tuna—in the Mediterranean and Japan—have been under increasing pressure for years. The International Commission on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna has tried to manage the fish since 1969．There are two populations: a western one that has dropped by 80% in the past 30 years, and a larger, eastern population. Although catches are controlled by 3,000 tons a year in the western fishery, and 32,000 in the east, no one knew whether the limits worked.

So Professor Block and her team placed tracks on hundreds of the fish and tracked them to depths of more than 900 metres and on journeys of thousands of miles, measuring the movement, body and water temperatures. “There are two ways to save the Atlantic bluefin tuna—protect them in their production grounds and in their feeding grounds,” Prof. Block said. “This will need immediate action in both the central Atlantic, to reduce the loss of the big fish while hunting, and in the Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean, where tuna produce as separate populations. ”

1. The bluefin tuna in this passage mainly refers to the one _______.

2.Which of the following is NOT true according to this passage?

3.According to Professor Block, tuna can be saved by ______.

4.The purpose of the passage is to ______.

He was the baby with no name. Found and taken from the north Atlantic 6 days after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, his tiny body so moved the salvage (救援) workers that they called him “our baby.” In their home port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, people collected money for a headstone in front of the baby's grave (墓), carved with the words: “To the memory of an unknown child.” He has rested there ever since.

But history has a way of uncovering its secrets. On Nov. 5, this year, three members of a family from Finland arrived at Halifax and laid fresh flowers at the grave. “This is our baby,” says Magda Schleifer, 68, a banker. She grew up hearing stories about a great-aunt named Maria Panula, 42, who had sailed on the Titanic for America to be reunited with her husband. According to the information Mrs. Schleifer had gathered, Panula gave up her seat on a lifeboat to search for her five children -- including a 13-month-old boy named Eino from whom she had become separated during the final minutes of the crossing. "We thought they were all lost in the sea," says Schleifer.

    Now, using teeth and bone pieces taken from the baby's grave, scientists have compared the DNA from the Unknown Child with those collected from members of five families who lost relatives on the Titanic and never recovered the bodies. The result of the test points only to one possible person: young Eino. Now, the family sees no need for a new grave. "He belongs to the people of Halifax," says Schleifer, "They've taken care of him for 90 years."

                                Adapted from People, November 25, 2002

What is probably the boy's last name?

       A. Schleiferi.       B. Eino.            C. Magda.       D. Panula.

Some members of the family went to Halifax and put flowers at the child's grave on Nov. 5, __________.

       A. 1912 B.1954             C. 2002            D. 2004

This text is mainly about how _________.

       A. the unknown baby’s body was taken from the north Atlantic

       B. the unknown baby was buried in Halifax, Nova Sotia

       C. people found out who the unknown baby was

       D. people took care of the unknown baby for 90 years

There was once, in a little market-town not far from Upsala (瑞典一城市), a peasant who lived there with his family, digging the earth during the week and singing in the choir on Sundays. This peasant had a little daughter to whom he taught the musical alphabet before she knew how to read. Daae was a great musician, perhaps without knowing it. Not a violinist in Scandinavia played as he did. His reputation was widespread and he was always invited to set the couples dancing at weddings and other festivals. His wife died when Christine was entering upon her sixth year. Then the father, who cared only for his daughter and his music, sold his land and went to Upsala in search of fame and fortune. He found nothing but poverty.

       He returned to the country, wandering from fair to fair, playing his Scandinavian music pieces, while his child, who never left his side, listened to him in delight or sang to his playing. One day, at Ljimby Fair, Professor Valerius heard them and took them to Gothenburg. He insisted that the father was the first violinist in the world and that the daughter had the making of a great artist. Her education and instruction were provided for. She made rapid progress and charmed everybody with her prettiness, her grace of manner and her real eagerness to please.

       When Valerius and his wife went to settle in France, they took Daae and Christine with them. "Mamma" Valerius treated Christine as her daughter. As for Daae, he became ill with homesickness. He never went out of doors in Paris, but lived in a sort of dream which he kept up with his violin. For hours at a time, he remained locked up in his bedroom with his daughter, playing and singing, very, very softly.

       Daae seemed not to recover his strength until the summer, when the whole family went to stay at Perros-Guirec, in a far-away corner of Brittany, where the sea was of the same color as in his own country. Often he would play his saddest tunes on the beach and pretend that the sea stopped its roaring to listen to them. And then he persuaded Mamma Valerius to allow him to leave for a while. At the time of the "pardons," the village festivals and dances, he went off with his violin, as in the old days, and was allowed to take his daughter with him for a week. They gave the smallest villages music to last them for a year and slept at night in a barn, refusing a bed at the inn, lying close together on the straw, as when they were so poor in Sweden. At the same time, they were very neatly dressed, refused the halfpence offered to them; and the people around could not understand the behaviour of this country violinist, who walked heavily on the roads with that pretty child who sang like an angel from Heaven. They followed them from village to village.

When he was in the countryside, Daae did NOT __________.

A. work on his land                                  B. sing in the choir on Sundays

C. make a fortune at weddings and festivals D. teach his daughter how to sing

The 3rd sentence “He insisted …” in the 2nd paragraph showed Professor Valerius’ ______.

A. hope for Daae and Christine                  B. appreciation of Daae and Christine

C. sympathy for Daae and Christine            D. love for Daae and Christine

While Daae was in Paris, he never went out of doors because he was ________.

A. always sleepy                                       B. so homesick that he fell ill

C. too busy teaching his daughter                D. willing to be locked up with his daughter

What made people curious about the father and daughter was that _______.

A. the father made very good music

B. the daughter sang like an angel from Heaven

C. the father walked strangely with his daughter

D. they appeared to be badly off but refused money offered 

Everyone makes mistakes in life, but for whales and dolphins, the “mistake” of landing on the shore costs the highest price---their lives.
People living along the coast of Australia and New Zealand have been shocked and saddened by the number of whales and dolphins that they have found on their beaches recently. Since November 28^th, 96 whales and dolphins have died in Australia and 53 whales died in New Zealand. Although 20 whales were saved, some of these were not expected to live, as they were too weak to swim with the others back to sea.
Bob Brown, leader of Australia’s Green party, said the mass beaching was caused by the recent “sound bombing” of the ocean floor between the two countries. This is a method of testing for oil and gas reserves (储藏量).
But mass beaching of whales has long puzzled scientists. Typically most members of the stranded (搁浅) group will appear to be perfectly healthy. “Some researchers believe that close relationship within the group causes the problem, if one gets into trouble, the others will not leave” said Shery Gibney, a leading biologist in New Zealand. “Some will come in and try and assist it; if they get trapped on the beach, then more will come.”
Another common theory is that the whales’ navigation (导航) system are thought to break down in some way. It has been said that whales follow electromagnetic (电磁的) patterns in the sea-bed. The whales can get confused because these patterns sometimes change. That would be a bit like a new roundabout (环状交叉路) being built on a road you were used to driving on. You might be confused for a minute when you come to it for the first time, and you might even take a wrong turning before getting back on your route.
A different idea is that when whales chase fish for food they end up in shallow waters because they are not paying attention to where they are going.
And yet, from time to time a group will swim on purpose into shallow waters and end up on the beach, where they die. If returned to the sea, some whales often show great determination in restraining themselves.
【小题1】________ whales and dolphins would probably die in this mass beaching along the coast of Australia and New Zealand.