Dr. Wiseman started the “laugh lab” project in September 2001. It is the largest study of humor. Participants are invited to log on the laugh lab website, give a few personal details, tell their favorite jokes and judge the jokes told by other people.

     Their project will last for a year, and the organizers hope to finally discover the world’s funniest joke. But there is also a serious purpose. The researchers want to know what people from different nations and cultures find funny. And they want to find out the differences between male’s and female’s sense of humor. The idea is that if we want to understand each other, we have to find out what makes us laugh.

     This is a subject that has long interested psychologists (心理学家) and philosophers (哲学家). Most of the time, people are not completely honest. We do things that society expects us to and say things that help us get what we want. But laughing cannot be controlled. When we laugh, we tell the truth about ourselves.

By December 2001 over 10,000 jokes had been submitted (公认的). This gave the scientists enough evidence to make early conclusions. It seems that men and women do have different senses of humor, for example.

     “Our findings show the major differences in the ways in which males and females use humor,” said Dr Wiseman. “Males use humor to appear superior (高傲的，有优越感的) to others, while women are more skilled in languages and prefer word play.”

Researchers also found that there really is such a thing as a national sense of humor. The British enjoy what is usually called “toilet humor”. But the French like their jokes short and sharp, “You’re a high priced lawyer. Will you answer two questions for $ 500?” “Yes. What’s the second question?”

The Germans are famous for not having a sense of humor. But the survey found that German participants were more likely to find submitted jokes funny than any other nationality. Perhaps that proves the point. Is this joke funny? I don’t know, but let’s say yes, just to be safe.

     Dr Wiseman and his workmates also submitted jokes created by computer. But none of those who took part in the survey found any of them amusing. Perhaps this is relief (安慰). Computers already seem like they can do everything. But at least they should leave the funny things to us.

1.The scientist started the “laugh lab” project ________.

A. to find the funniest joke in European countries

B. to know what funny people are from different nations and cultures

C. to find out the differences between the male’s and female’s sense of humor

D. to get more personal details about participants

2.The writer gave the examples of the British, the French and the Germans_____.

A. to show that the French people have a better sense of humor

B. to prove the British people have a sense of “toilet humor”

C. to show people from different nations have different senses of humor

D. to prove that the Germans have no sense of humor

3.Which statement is true according to the passage?

A. The jokes by computer are less funny than those by humans.

B. The Germans cannot find the submitted jokes amusing.

C. Males are better at word play compared with women.

D. Females like to use humor to show that they are superior.

Fifty years from now the world’s population will be declining, with no end in sight. Unless people’s values change greatly, several centuries from now there could be fewer people living in the entire world than live in the United States today. The big surprise of the past twenty years is that in not one country did fertility (生育能力) stop falling when it reached the replacement rate（出生率）—2.1 children per woman. In Italy, for example, the rate has fallen to 1.2. In Western Europe as a whole and in Japan it is down to 1.5. The evidence now indicates that within fifty years or so world population will peak at about eight billion before starting a fairly rapid decline.
Because in the past two centuries world population has increased from one billion to nearly six billion, many people still fear that it will keep “exploding” until there are too many people for the earth to support. But that is like fearing that your baby will grow to 1,000 pounds because its weight doubles three times in its first seven years. World population was growing by two percent a year in the 1960s; the rate is now down to one percent a year, and if the patterns of the past century don’t change completely, it will head into negative numbers. This view is coming to be widely accepted among population experts, even as the public continues to focus on the threat of uncontrolled population growth.
As long ago as September of 1974 Scientific American published a special issue on population that described what demographers (人口统计学家) had begun calling the “demographic transition” from traditional high rates of birth and death to the low ones of modern society. The experts believed that birth and death rates would be more or less equal in the future, as they had been in the past, keeping total population stable after a level of 10-12 billion people was reached during the transition.
56. Which of the following statement is NOT true according to the passage?
A. The world’s population in the future will be reducing endlessly.
B. When the earth population reaches 8 billion, it will see a rapid decrease.
C. In modern society the birth and death rates will be more or less equal in the future.
D. The public now pay little attention to the threat of uncontrolled population growth.
57. What’s reason for the sharp increase of world population in the past two centuries?
A. Because people fear that the world will explode.
B. Because the world’s replacement rate keeps falling.
C. Because people’s values has greatly changed.
D. The passage doesn't mention it.
58. The expression “demographic transition” (Paragraph 3) probably means _______.
A. high death rate to the low one
B. high birth rate to the low one
C. high rates of birth and death to the low ones
D. low rates of birth and death to the high ones
59. We can learn from the passage that _______.
A. in the near future there will be a rapid decline of the world population
B. the birth and death rates of modern society will be unequal in the future
C. there would be the same population living in the world than it in the US today
D. in Western Europe the replacement rate has declined to a negative number

Like a growing number of young women in Vietnam’s northern part city of Haiphong, Pham Thi Hue was infected with HIV by her husband, one of the town’s many drug users．But instead of being shamed into silence, as Vietnamese with HIV and AIDS are, the 25-year-old tailor and mother of one went public, appearing on television and at conferences．Her business suffered and her neighbors insulted （辱骂）her, but Hue has now become the public face of Mothers and Wives, an HIV/ AIDS support group established in Haiphong by a Norwegian nongovernmental organization and her neighborhood’s People’s Committee．Last year, she founded a smaller group named after a local flower．People who need advice on treatment or help preparing bodies for burial can dial a hot line and get assistance from able and sympathetic（同情的）HIV victims．“We gather to support each other,” Hue says．“When we are sick, what we need most is encouragement and comfort from people who understand our situation and are willing to share our happiness, as well as our sadness．”

On a hot and damp night last month, Hue welcomed into her small home a very thin woman, also a tailor, who was HIV positive．The woman tearfully told Hue that she had not told anyone about her condition, fearing that she would lose customers and that her daughter would be insulted at school．Hue became the wise elder, offering medical and personal advice．

40．What did Pham Thi Hue do after she was infected with HIV?

         A．She kept silent

         B．She worked as usual

         C．She stayed at home and cried every day．

         D．She went public and gave help to others．

41．It can be inferred from the passage that the group Pham Thi Hue founded is made up of____．

     A．drug users                                                  B．HIV victims

         C．all kinds of patients                                   D．poor people

42．From the passage we can learn that Pham Thi Hue is a woman who is_______．

         A．weak and kind   B．foolish and idle

         C．brave and helpful                                          D．cautious and energetic

Angry survivors demanded answers on Sunday after a terrible stampede（踩踏）at “Love Parade 2010”, a music festival in Germany, killed 19 people and left hundreds hurt.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her shock over Saturday’s tragedy in the western city of Duisburg. “This was a very sad day,” Merkel said. “We must do everything we can to ensure that something like this never happens again.”
Witnesses said that people pushed into the narrow tunnel, the only entrance to the Love Parade festival, from both sides until it was dangerously overcrowded. The panic began as festival-goers began to lose consciousness as they were crushed against the walls and each other. The dead included eight foreigners, from Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, China, Bosnia and Spain. More than 340 people were injured.
After the panic, a lot of emergency vehicles, including helicopters, could be seen parked on the highway leading to helicopters, could be seen parked on the highway leading to the festival site, carrying away the injured people. The festival itself, however, went on. Police were afraid that ending the music altogether could cause further unrest among the crowd.
“The event was a real mess,” Patrick Guenter, a 22-year-old baker, said.  “Although the festival was full, they kept letting people in.” he added. “It seems the organizers didn’t plan the route. The road was very narrow, and no one knew what was going on.” Said Taggart Bowen-Gaddy,20,an American from Philadelphia.
Officials said 4,000 police officers and 1,000 security guards provided security for the event, which attracted up to 1.4 million people. The authorities had only given organizers permission for 250,000 people to attend.
“I warned one year ago that Duisburg was not a suitable place for the Love Parade. The city is too small and narrow for such events. It is a pity that…” German police union chief Rainer Wendt told the Bild.
The chief organizer, Rainer Schaller, said the popular event would never be held again, “out of respect for the victims and their families”.
First held in Berlin in 1989 just months before the fall of the Wall, the Love Parade is one of the biggest music festivals in Europe. It left Berlin from 2007 onwards after disagreements with the city authorities over security and has been held in several other German cities in recent years.
【小题1】How did the German Chancellor Angela Merkel feel about the tragedy?

Plastic is one of the most important technological discoveries of the 20th century.However，it may soon be replaced.The new development—liquid wood—can replace plastics in all branches of modern industries.

Plastic as a material enjoys the biggest demand in the modern world，but it does have a number of drawbacks.First and foremost，plastic isn’t recyclable.Secondly，it contains toxins (毒物) helping develop cancerous diseases.Finally，it’s made of oil and oil reserves aren’t endless.

The? liquid wood technology is likely to replace plastic and provide mankind with new materials for many years ahead.Norbert Eisenfreich，a senior researcher at? the Faunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) in Germany，said that arboform，the new material，is made of lignin (木质素)，which can be obtained from soft tissues of wood.Once mixed with several other materials，it turns into solid and non?toxic alternative for plastics.

ICT team leader Emilia Regina Inone?Kauffmann said the wood?working industry separates wood into three basic components，including lignin.Lignin isn’t used for the production of paper.Specialists of ICT mixed lignin with several natural materials and thus invented the material which could be melted and molded (铸型)．

When solid，arboform looks like plastic and possesses the qualities of polished wood.It can be used for the production of any items.Arboform is already used for the production of car parts which require extra strength.In addition，liquid wood can be recycled repeatedly.The material preserved all of its qualities even if it’s reprocessed ten times.

However，the new invention doesn’t enjoy an extensive use due to the high content of sulphur (硫) in it.German researchers are sure to reduce the amount of sulphur by 90 percent very soon to make arboform usable for home needs.

1.According to the passage，plastic________.

A．plays a big role in the modern world

B．helps to protect our environment in some way

C．has been replaced by the newly discovered material

D．helps us to reduce the use of petrol

2.What’s the advantage of arboform over plastics?

A．It is easily made from natural oil.

B．It is more widely used in household.

C．It is recyclable and friendly to the environment.

D．It contains no poisonous materials.

3.It can be concluded that German researchers will focus their future work firstly on________.

A．the material’s extensive use

B．the content of sulphur in arboform

C．the production cost of arboform

D．the qualities of liquid wood

4.The main purpose of the passage is to________.

A．advertise the new material—arboform

B．introduce liquid wood which will replace plastic

C．advertise new products made of arboform

D．show readers how to produce arboform