.Everybody likes a winner, and there are always people ready to cheer for a good winner. But who has ever heard a song for the man who comes in second？ So this is in praise of the almost winner, the nearly champion（冠军）, the next to the biggest, the second best. This is the song of Mister Two.

You hear unflattering（不讨好人的）names for Mister Two. “Alsoran”, they call him, and “runner­up”, names that make you think of a fellow who couldn’t quite make it. Don’t let that fool you. Ask the winner of any race how good a man Mister Two is. He will tell you it’s Mister Two who made him run so fast, Mister Two is always threatening to overtake and pass him.

Ask the salesman who won the contest and what kept him looking for extra order. Ask the directors of the big company why they keep changing their product, seeking the new equipment, the added advantage. What drives them？ What keeps them going？ It’s the salesman with nearly as many orders. It is the company with the product almost as good. It’s Mister Two.

In this country, we’re proud of the quality of our champions. Our big men come very big. Our fast men run very fast. Our wise men are the wisest and our greatest men are the greatest that a country could hope to be blessed with. And why is that？ It is Mister Two that makes the race always open and everybody can run. So this is for you, Mister Two. This is your song. This is for all the days you tried for first, and came in second. It’s for the nights when you wonder if you ought to go on trying, since nobody seems to notice.

We notice, Mister Two. We know the score. Winner or not, you’re a natural champion. There couldn’t be a race without you, Mister Two.

1.People usually call Mister Two unflattering names to　　　　him.

A. praise  B. encourage      C. laugh at      D. respect

2.According to the author, Mister Two is mentioned in connection with the following except　　　　.

A. business   B. sports       C. greatness    D. failure

3.It is implied in this story that　　　　.

A. Mister Two is as important as the winner

B. every leader needs someone to help him

C. the second today must be the first tomorrow

D. second place is always praised

4.The person who wins needs to understand that　　　　.

A. winning is everything

B. being Mister Two is wonderful

C. without Mister Two he would do better

D. without strong competition he wouldn’t have worked so hard

 Each of the students in our class　　　　great interest in English and we each　　　　a copy of A New English­Chinese Dictionary. 

A.  shows; have B. show; has          C. are; has D. is; have

  Even plant can run a fever, especially when they’re under attack by insects or diseases. But unlike humans, plants can have their temperature taken from 3, 000 feet away - straight up. A decade ago, adopting the infrared（红外线）scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide（杀虫剂）spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don’t have pest（害虫）problems.

　　Even better, Paley’s Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3, 000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a color-coded map showing where plants were running “fevers”. Farmers could then spot-spray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would.

　　The bad news is that Paley’s company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long-term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt that technology works. “This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States, ” says George Oerther of Texas A & M. Ray Jackson , who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.

1.Plants will emit an increased amount of heat when they are________.

　 A. sprayed with pesticides              B. facing an infrared scanner

　 C. in poor physical condition            D. exposed to excessive sun rays

2.In order to apply pesticide spraying precisely, we can use infrared scanning to____.

　 A. estimate the damage to the crops       B. measure the size of the affected area

　 C. draw a color -coded map                D. locate the problem area

3.Farmers can save a considerable amount of pesticide by________.

　 A. resorting to spot – spraying           B. consulting infrared scanning experts

　 C. transforming poisoned rain           D. detecting crop problems at an early stage

4.The application of infrared scanning technology to agriculture met with some difficulties due to ________.,

　 A. the lack of official support               B. its high cost

　 C. the lack of financial support              D. its failure to help increase production

 Professor Li has ___ interest in history, especially in ___ history of Ming Dynasty.

A. an; x 　　　       B. an; the 　　        C. x; the 　　　      D. x; an

 --When can you get my car repaired? I need it tomorrow morning.

--It ______ be ready by 8:00.

　　  A. can     B. need                 C. might             D. should