TAIWAN’S“parliament”（议会）passed a law last week that could let people there vote（投票）for independence（独立）. The law gives the island the right to hold an independence referendum（全民投票）if it comes under“external attack”（外来攻击）. “The law tries to give strength to the idea of Taiwan independence.”said Liu Guoshen, an expert on Taiwan at Xiamen University. “The mainland is strongly against this.”The law that was passed was a weak one. Chen Shuibian, Taiwan’s “president”, did want to pass a law that would allow Taiwan to have a referendum at any time. Even if the island was not attacked. He also wanted Taiwan to have referendums on changing the island’s name and its flag. This law was not passed. Only 14 of the 190 members of Taiwan’s “parliament”said they wanted that law. What is a referendum? If there is a problem in a country, a referendum can happen. This means everyone in the country votes to decide what must be done. In Europe, for example, several countries had referendum this year to decide whether they would join the European Union（欧盟）. According to international law, Taiwan can’t have an independence referendum. A part of China can’t suddenly become its own country. Taiwan’s leaders say Taiwan is not a part of China. Some experts think that if Taiwan was independent the island would be in great trouble.

    阅读短文，判断正误，正确的写A，错误的写B

1. The law that was passed last week didn’t let people there vote for independence.（    ）

2 . Chen Shuibian, Taiwan’s “president”, was strongly against this.（    ）

3 . A referendum means everyone in the country votes to decide what must be done.（    ）

4 . According to international law, Taiwan has no right to have an independence referendum.（    ）

5. Some experts think that Taiwan’s independence will be harmful to the interests of public in Taiwan.（    ）

阅读短文，根据要求完成下面各小题。

The world is divided into two main parts．The difference is that one part is rich and the other is poor．In the poor part, a lot of people never get enough to eat．In the rich part, a lot of people eat too much．In one part, children starve（挨饿）and in the other, （3）a lot of people get fatter and have to go on diets（节食）, or do special exercise in order to lose weight．

The poorer countries have special problems．Sometimes the land is too poor to plant anything．The land can be improved, but a lot of things must be done first．The people must be educated and water must be found．

But rich countries have problems, too．Three are not always pleasant places to live in．Sometimes the air is too dirty to breathe, and the rivers are too dirty to swim in．The roads are too crowed to drive along．（4）Large numbers of people do not have decent（体面的）houses to live in．Something will have to be done about these problems．The air and the river will have to be cleaned, and more houses will have to be built．

（一）根据短文内容简要回答问题。

1．Do the rich countries have many problems? What are they? （At least two items．）

2．What must be done to the poor part?

（二）将短文中划线的句子译成汉语。

3．                                                                                                                  ．

4．                                                                                                                  ．

（三）请给短文拟一个适当的题目。

5．                                                                                                                  ．

The rich and the poor

The world is divided into two main parts．The difference is that one part is rich and the other is poor．In the poor part，a lot of people never get enough to eat．In the rich part，a lot of people eat too much．In one part，children starve（饿死）and in the other，a lot of people get fatter and fatter and have to go on diets（节食），or do special exercises in order to lost weight．

The poor countries have special problems．Sometimes the land is too poor to grow anything on．The land can be improved，but a lot of things must be done first．The people must be educated and the water must be found．

And the rich countries have problems，too．There are not always pleasant places to live in．Sometimes the air is too dirty to breathe，and the rivers are too dirty to swim in or to take water from．The roads are too crowded to drive along．Large numbers of people do not have decent（像样的）houses to live in．Some things will have to be done to solve these problems．The air and the river will have to be cleaned，and more houses will have to be built．

1．What's the difference between the two parts of the world?

2．What must be done first in the poor countries to solve the problems?

3．What are the problems in the rich countries?（Give two examples）

4．Can people solve all these things easily?

Future and Today

It is well known that everyone has his own dream as well as his own future. But do you know what future really is? I have to say that future is now. That is to say we must treasure every minute now. If we want to have a bright future, we should know how important time is and use it well.

There is an old English saying:“Gain time , gain life.”Then

 what’stime ? Time is something that we can’t see or touch, but we can feel it passing by. Time is always with us.When we are at table, time passes;when we play,time goes by unnoticeable . We always say“Time is money”,but time is even more precious than money, because when money is spent, we can earn it back. But if time is gone away, it will never come back. So, some of us even say time is priceless.

We should always remember :future is now. For us students ,

we should try our best to work hard in order to create a great future of our own . We should make the best use of every hour and be the master of today. We should do everything before us as well as possible. And never put off what can be done today till tomorrow.

As we all know , “Time and tide wait for no man. ”If you

 waste today,you will regret tomorrow. So from now on, work hard. Tomorrow will be better, and your future will be brighter . Remember :“No pains, no gains .”Today’s hard work is the cause of tomorrow’s harvest.