For years and years people have been saying that the railways are dead．“We can do without railways” people say，as if motorcars and planes made the railways unnecessary．We all keep hearing that trains are slow，that they lose money，that they’re dying．But this is far from the truth．In these days of expensive oil，the railways have become highly competitive with motorcars and planes．If you want to carry people or goods from place to place，they’re cheaper than planes．And they have much in common with planes．A plane goes in a strange line and so does a railway．What is more，it takes you from the heart of a city into the heart of another．It doesn’t 1eave you as a plane does，miles and miles from the city center．It doesn’t hold you up as a car does，in endless traffic jams．And a single train can carry goods which no plane or motorcar could ever do．Far from being dead，the railways are very much alive．Modern railway lines give you a smooth，untroubled journey．Where else can you eat well，sleep in comfort，feel safe and enjoy the scene while you are traveling at speed at the same time? And we are only at the beginning．For we have just entered the age of super-fast trains, traveling at 1 50 miles an hour and more．Soon we will be wondering why we spent so much on motorways we can't use because we have not enough money to buy the oil and planes we can't fly in for the same reason.

Some people think the railways are dead for many reasons except that ______   ．

  A．planes and motorcars will take the place of trains  B．oil is expensive today

  C．trains are slow                              D．railways lose money

The writer’s idea seems to be that ______   ．

  A. we can do without railways    B．trains have much in common with motorcars and planes

  C．motorcars and planes are not as good as trains D．trains are as good as motorcars and planes

According to the writer，which of the following is NOT true?

  A．It is cheaper to travel by train than by plane．

  B．The railway station is usually at the center of a city．

  C．When you get off the plane you will find yourself right in the city center．

  D．No motorcar or plane can carry as many goods as a train does．

From the underlined sentence at the end of the passage，we can infer that    ．

  A．1ess and less people will take planes and motorways in the future

  B．the people have known that the train is better than planes and motorways

  C．trains will be more popular in the future

  D．nobody likes spending much money on motorways

A university graduate described as a “respectable and intelligent” woman is seeking professional help after being convicted of （证明有……罪）shoplifting for the second time in six months．

       Ana Luz, recently studying for her PhD, has been told she could end up behind bars unless she can control the desire to steal from shops．

       Luz ,who lives with her partner in Fitzwilliam Road ,Cambridge ,admitted stealing clothes worth ￡9．95 from John Lewis in Oxford Street ,London ,on March 9．

       Phillip Lemoyne ,prosecuting（起诉）,said Luz selected some clothes from a display and took them to the ladies’ toilet in the store．When she came out again she was wearing one of the skirts she had selected ,having taken off the anti-theft security alarms（防盗警报装置）．

       She was stopped and caught after leaving the store without paying ,Mr Lemoyne said．

       He added that she was upset on her arrest and apologized for her actions．

       Luz,28, was said to have been convicted of shoplifting by Cambridge judges last October ,but Morag Duff, defending ,said she had never been in trouble with the police before that．

       “She is ashamed and embarrassed but doesn’t really have any explanation why she did this ,” Miss Duff said．“She didn’t intend to steal when she went into the store．She is at a loss to explain it．She is otherwise a very respectable and intelligent young lady．She went to her doctor and asked for advice because she wants to know if there is anything in particular that caused her to do this．”

       Judge David Azan fined Luz ￡ 50,  and warned : “You’ve got a criminal record．If you carry on like this ,you will end up in prison ,which will ruin your bright future you may have．”

       Luz achieved a degree in design at university in her native Spain ,went on to a famous university in Berlin , Germany for her master’s degree and is now studying for a PhD at Cambridge University ,UK．

What is Ana Luz’s nationality?

       A．American．     B．British．  C．Spanish． D．German．

What does the underlined sentence “She is at a loss to explain it” mean?

       A．In her opinion it was a loss to the clothes shops where she stole things．

       B．She doesn’t have any idea why she has the desire to steal from shops．

       C．She thinks it is a loss for her to explain why she stole things from shops．

       D．Personally she feels ashamed and embarrassed for her shoplifting actions．

Which of the following best explains the meaning of the word “shoplifting” used in the passage?

       A．Carrying goods in a lift for a shop．    

       B．Taking goods to the ladies’ toilet．

       C．Selecting some goods from a display． 

       D．Taking goods from a shop without paying．

From the passage we can learn that          ．

       A．Ana Luz is already got her PhD at Cambridge University ,UK

       B．Ana Luz is ashamed and embarrassed and knows why she often did so

       C．the university graduate will be put in prison if she steals in shops once more

       D．Phillip Lemoyne is the “respectable and intelligent” woman’s defense lawyer

A press report stating that Microsoft has restarted talks to buy Yahoo's search business for 20 billion U. S. dollars. "It has no basis in fact," the San Francisco Chronicle said on Monday.

The Times of London reported on Sunday that the deal under discussion would put former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller and Ross Levinsohn, a former president of Fox Interactive Media, in charge of Yahoo. The report also said executives (管理人员) at both companies had agreed to the broad terms of a deal.

In fact, there are no current talks between the two companies. The Chronicle quoted an executive at one of the firms who requested his name to be kept secret as saying. Furthermore, the 20-billion-dollar price mentioned in the Times of London article for Yahoo's search business appears questionable given that the market capitalization (资本总额) for all of Yahoo is 16 billion dollars, said The Chronicle.

Yahoo and Microsoft had had on-again, off-again talks over several months earlier this year about a 47. 5-billion-dollar takeover, and later a proposal focused only on Yahoo's search business. Discussions regarding both plans collapsed without an agreement.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said repeatedly that he is no longer interested in buying all of Yahoo, but that he is open to some sort of partnership involving their respective search businesses.

Brad Williams, a Yahoo spokesman, said Sunday "We don't comment on rumors." Frank Shaw, a Microsoft spokesman, declined to comment.

Yahoo's shares have plummeted since Microsoft withdrew its 33-dollar-a-share acquisition offer earlier this year, leaving people to think that discussions would eventually be restarted. Yahoo's shares closed Friday at 11. 51 dollars, nearly one-third of the original offer.

1. From this passage, we can know that ______.

  A. Microsoft has given up buying all of Yahoo but its search business 

  B. Microsoft has already taken over the whole company of Yahoo

  C. the market capitalization for all of Yahoo is over $ 20 billion

  D. the market capitalization for all of Microsoft is only $ 6 billion

2. What is the author trying to convince readers of in the third paragraph?

  A. Yahoo and Microsoft are talking about takeover.

B. Microsoft is buying Yahoo’s search businesses for $ 20 billion.

C. Yahoo would like to sell its search businesses to another company.

D. There are no current talks between Yahoo and Microsoft.

3. What does the underlined word “plummet” in the passage most probably mean?

  A. develop rapidly      B. increase quickly      C. fall quickly     D. keep balanced

4. You can find this passage most probably in ______ .

  A. an entertainment website       B. an economical newspaper

  C. a sports magazine              D. a biological dictionary

A strong wind can be a dangerous thing — sometimes it is powerful enough to knock you off your feet. But to plants, the wind is a source of new life, carrying them or their spores (孢子) thousands of miles.

A NASA satellite called QuikSCAT has discovered highways of wind over the Earth's oceans. Scientists believe these invisible roads may explain why many nonflowering plants, such as mosses (苔) and lichens (地衣), grow where they do.

The satellite is able to send microwaves (微波) from space to the surface of the ocean. The pattern of signals that come back shows which way the winds are blowing.

Using this data, the scientists studied a group of islands in the southern hemisphere (半球), near Antarctica．Winds tend to blow anticlockwise (逆时针) in this region, but there are lots of local differences.

When the researchers compared these local patterns to botanical (植物学) data, they found that the wind had an important effect on where species of mosses, lichens, and other nonflowering plants grow.

For example, Bouvet Island and Heard Island, share 30 per cent of their moss species, 29 per cent of liverworts (叶苔), and 32 per cent of lichens — even though they are 4,430 kilometers apart. In contrast, Gough Island and Bouvet Island, separated by just 1,860 kilometers of sea, share only 16 per cent of mosses and 17 per cent of liverworts. They have no lichens in common.

Ferns (蕨类植物) and flowering plants don't travel as well in the wind, so they don't show the same kinds of distribution (分布) patterns.

This story is about _____.

       A．the discovery of wind highways    B．how wind travels

       C．how wind affects different plants        D． one function of the wind

The underlined word "data" in the fourth paragraph means _____.

       A．signal     B．pattern      C．information      D． research

Which of the following is wrong?

       A．Bouvet Island, Heard Island and Gough Island are all in the southern hemisphere.

       B．Winds in the researched area blow anti-clockwise.

       C．The scientists shouldn't base this research on how winds affect where ferns grow.

       D． Without the discovery of QuikSCAT, the research wouldn't have made sense.

Which of the following diagrams shows the correct position of the islands?

         

            

A recent study conducted by the Pine Street Foundation showed that a dog’s nose may have the ability to detect cancer. A dog’s nose, which was the “medical device” used as part of the research, is believed to be among the world’s most powerful olfactory(嗅觉的) sensors. The study was conducted with 169 subjects 55 of which had been diagnosed as having lung cancer, 31 have breast cancer and 83 control subjects——people without cancer. During the study, five professionally trained scent dogs were used to distinguish between the breath samples of cancer patients and those who were healthy. With an average of 90% accuracy, the research was deemed a success.

The Pine Street Foundation conducted its research on the belief that cancer cells give off a different type of metabolic(新陈代谢) waste product than normal cells. According to the study, the difference is so great that it can be detected by a dog’s sense of smell, including both early and late stages of the disease.

In the conclusion of the study the Pine Street Foundation said that even ordinary dogs may be trained to identify the presence of cancer with only a breath sample. The organization also said that dogs can recognize the disease with astonishing amount accuracy and, finally, that the dog’s detection was not hindered(妨碍) by the presence of age, smoking or stage of cancer.

The Pine Street Foundation plans to continue their research and is currently seeking funding to launch new studies.

If we want to add several different detecting examples to the passage, we should write them

        __________.

       A．between paragraph 1 and paragraph 2    B．between paragraph 2 and paragraph 3

       C．between paragraph 3 and paragraph 4    D．before paragraph 1 or after paragraph 4

The best title for this passage might be ______.

       A．Dogs may smell cancer   B．Why dogs can smell cancer

       C．A Study on dogs’ special ability     D．A study on breast cancer

Dogs can smell cancer because ____________.

       A．they can detect faster than man      B．their sense of smell is very sensitive

       C．dogs metabolize the food slowly     D．patients give off bad smell

People can know from the passage _________.

       A．all dogs can be used to smell cancer

       B．it’s not easy to find out cancer in the early stage

       C．most of the research experiments are successful

       D．dogs detect cancer by breathing and feeling