A black hole is created when a large star burns out. Like our sun, stars are unbelievably hot furnaces (熔炉) that burn their own matter as fuel. When most of the fuel is used up, the star begins to die.

The death of a star is not a quiet event. First there is a huge explosion. As its outer layer is blasted off into space, the dying star shines as brightly as a billion suns.

After the explosion gravity pulls in what’s left of the star. As the outside of the star sinks toward the center, the star gets smaller and smaller. The material the star is made of becomes tightly packed together. A star is so dense that a teaspoon of matter from it weighs billion of pounds.

The more the star shrinks, the stronger the gravity inside it becomes. Soon the star is very tiny, and the gravity pulling it in is unbelievably strong. In fact, the gravity is so strong that it even pulls light into the star! Since all the light is pulled in, none can go out. The star becomes black when there is no light. Then a black hole is born!

That’s what we know about black holes. What we don’t know is this: What happens inside a black hole after the star has been squeezed into a tiny ball? Does it keep getting smaller and smaller forever? Such a possibility is hard to imagine.

But if the black hole doesn’t keep shrinking, what happens to it? Some scientists think black holes are like doorways to another world. They say that as the star disappears from our universe, it goes into another universe. In other words a black hole in our universe could turn into a “white hole” in a different universe. As the black hole swallows light, the white hole shines brightly—somewhere else. But where? A different place, perhaps, or a different time — many years in the past or future.

Could you travel through a black hole? Right now, no. Nothing we know of could go into a black hole without being crushed. So far the time being, black hole must remain a mystery.

Black holes are a mystery—but that hasn’t stopped scientists from dreaming about them. One scientist suggested that in the future we might make use of the power of black holes. They would supply all of Earth’s energy needs, with plenty to spare. Another scientist wondered if a black hole could some day be used to swallow earthly waste—a sort of huge waste disposal(处理) in the sky!

When the star begins to die ______.

A. there is no fuel left in it                                B. its outer layer goes into space first

C. a huge explosion will happen                         D. it doesn’t give off light any longer

Which of the following doesn’t help produce a black hole?

A. The gravity inside the star is very strong.        B. The light can’t go out of the star.

C. The star becomes smaller and smaller             D. The dying star shines very brightly.

The black hole ______.

A. continues becoming smaller and smaller all the time

B. goes into another universe and becomes a white hole

C. can pull in everything we know of in the world

D. will appear at another place at a different time

What’s the best title for this passage?

A. A New Scientific Discovery: Black Holes

B. How Do Black Holes Come Into Being?

C. What Are Black Holes?

D. Travel Through A Black Hole

As a boy，Tim was much influenced by books about the sea, but in fact by the age of fifteen he had decided to become a doctor rather than a sailor. His father was a dentist and as a result Tim had the opportunity of meeting many doctors either at home or elsewhere. When he was fourteen he was already hanging around the clinic of a local doctor where he was supposed to be helping to wrap up medicine bottles，but was actually trying to listen to the conversations taking place between the doctor and his patients in the next room.

       During the war Tim served in the Navy as a surgeon（外科医生）.“That was the happiest time of my life. I was dealing with very real suffering and on the whole making a success of it .”In California he taught the country people simple facts about medicine. He saw himself as a life-saver. He had proved his skills to himself and his ability to take decisions. Thus，while he was able to tell them what to do, he could feel he was serving them. After the war, he got married and chose to be a doctor in the countryside，working under an old doctor who was popular in the area，but who hated the sight of blood and believed that the secret of medicine was faith. This gave the younger man many opportunities to go on working as a life –saver.

Tim decided to become a doctor at fifteen mainly because      

A. hisfather wanted him to be so         

B．his father was a surgeon himself

C. e had read many books about medicine 

D. e had chances to meet many doctors through his father

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

       A. Tim got married to the old doctor’s daughter. 

B.Tim continued working as a surgeon after the war.

       C．Before the war，Tim worked as a doctor at a local clinic．

       D．While working in California，Tim taught life-saving to the patients.

From the passage we can infer that Tim        .

       A．was sent to Europe during the war              B．worked as a surgeon during the war

       C．was satisfied with his career as a surgeon.         D．decided to give up medicine for faith

The passage is mainly about        .

A．Tim’s life story       B．Tim’s dream     C．Tim’s marriage      D．Tim’ s patients

As the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation. Once you are in the habit of rushing through life, being on the go from morning till night, it is hard to slow down. But relaxation is essential for a healthy mind and body.

    Stress is a natural part of everyday life and there is no way to avoid it. In fact, it is not the bad thing it is often supposed to be. A certain amount of stress is vital to provide motivation and give purpose to life. It is only when the stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and ill health.

The amount of stress a person can withstand depends very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities, others lose heart at the first sign of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make choice between "flight or fight" and in more primitive days the choices made the difference between life or death. The crises we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme, but however little the stress, it involves the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes endangered. Since we can't remove stress from our lives (it would be unwise to do so even if we could), we need to find ways to deal with it.

46. People are finding less and less time for relaxing themselves because _____.

A. they regard working as their greatest enjoyment

B. they believe that work is superior to relaxation

C. they are traveling fast all the time

D. they are becoming busier with their work than ever before

47. According to the author, the most important character for a good manager is his _____.

A. strong will to hold out stress

B. knowing the art of relaxation

C. high sense of responsibility

D. having control over performance

48. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?

A. We can find quite a few ways to avoid stress.

B. Stress is always harmful to people's health

C. It's easy to change the habit of keeping oneself busy with work.

D. Different people can bear different amount of stress.

49. In the last sentence of the passage, "do so" refers to _____.

A. "expose ourselves to stress"

B. "find ways to deal with stress"

C. "remove stress from our lives"

D. "establish links between diseases and stress"

50. According to the author, the right attitude toward stress is _____.

A. to avoid it                         B. to try to cope with it

C. to regard it as a vital motivation        D. to find some relaxation   

D

This brief book is aimed at high school students , but speaks to anyone learning at any stage of life.

   Its formal ,serious style closely matches its content ,a school-masterly book on schooling .The author , W .H . Armstrong ,starts with the basics : reading and writing . In his opinion , reading doesn’t just mean recognizing each word on the page ; it means taking in the information, digesting it and incorporating it into oneself just as one digests a sandwich and makes it a part of himself .The goal is to bring the information back to life , not just to treat it as dead facts on paper from dead trees . Reading and writing cannot be completely separated from each other ; in fact ,the aim of reading is to express the information you have got from the text .I’ve seen it again and again ：someone who can’t express an idea after reading a text is just as ineffective as someone who hasn’t read it at all.

Only a third of the book remains after that discussion, which Armstrong devotes to specific tips for studying languages, math, science and history. He generally handles these topics thoroughly and equally, except for some weakness in the science and math sections and a bit too much passion regarding history. Well, he was a history teacher---if conveyed only a tenth of his passion to his students, that was a hundred times more than my history teachers ever got across .To my disappointment, in this part of the book he ignores the arts. As a matter of fact, they demand all the concentration and study that math and science do, though the study differs slightly in kind. Although it’s commonly believed that the arts can only be naturally acquired ,actually ,learning the arts is no more natural than learning French or mathematics.

My other comment is that the text aged. The first edition apparently dates to the 1960s—none of the references(参考文献)seem newer than the late 1950s. As a result, the discussion misses the entire computer age.

These are small points, though, and don’t affect the main discussion. I recommend it to any student and any teacher, including the self-taught student.

According to Armstrong, the goal of reading is to________.

A. gain knowledge and expand one’s view

B. understand the meaning between the lines

C. express ideas based on what one has read

D. get information and keep it alive in memory

The author of the passage insists that learning the arts_________.

A. requires great efforts

B. demands real passion

C. is less natural than learning math

D. is as natural as learning a language

What is a shortcoming of Armstrong’s work according to the author?

A. Some ideas are slightly contradictory.

B. There is too much discussion on studying science.

C. The style is too serious.

D. It lacks new information.

This passage can be classified as________.

A. an advertisement

B. a book review

C. a feature story

D. A news report

As any homemaker who has tried to keep order at the dinner table knows, there is far more to a family meal than food. Sociologist Michael Lewis has been studying 50 families to find out just how much more.

Lewis and his co-workers carried out their study by videotaping (录像) the families while they ate ordinary meals in their own homes. They found that parents with small families talk actively with each other and their children. But as the number of children gets larger, conversation gives way to the parents’ efforts to control the loud noise they make. That can have an important effect on the children. “In general the more question-asking the parents do, the higher the children’s IQ scores,” Lewis says. “And the more children there are, the less question-asking there is.”

The study also provides an explanation for why middle children often seem to have a harder time in life than their siblings (兄弟姐妹). Lewis found that in families with three or four children, dinner conversation is likely to center on the oldest child, who has the most to talk about, and the youngest, who needs the most attention. “Middle children are invisible,” says Lewis. “When you see someone get up from the table and walk around during dinner, chances are it’s the middle child.” There is, however, one thing that stops all conversation and prevents anyone from having attention: “When the TV is on,” Lewis says, “dinner is a non-event.”

66．The writer’s purpose in writing the text is to _________.

       A．show the relationship between parents and children

       B．teach parents ways to keep order at the dinner table

       C．report on the findings of a study

       D．give information about family problems

67．Parents with large families ask fewer questions at dinner because ____________.

       A．they are busy serving food to their children

       B．they are busy keeping order at the dinner table

       C．they have to pay more attention to younger children

       D．they are tired out having prepared food for the whole family

68．By saying “Middle children are invisible” in Paragraph 3, Lewis means that middle children _________.

       A．have to help their parents to serve dinner

       B．get the least attention from the family

       C．are often kept away from the dinner table

       D．find it hard to keep up with other children

69．Lewis’ research provides an answer to the question _________.

       A．why TV is important in family life

       B．why parents should keep good order

       C．why children in small families seem to be quieter

       D．why middle children seem to have more difficulties in life

70．Which of the following statements would the writer agree to?

       A．It is important to have the right food for children.

       B．It is a good idea to have the TV on during dinner.

       C．Parents should talk to each of their children frequently.

       D．Elder children should help the younger ones at dinner