Forests have always been useful and important to man who makes use of them in many ways. Every day trees are serving man everywhere. Trees supply man with fruits and building materials in the form of wood. Without trees it would be impossible to build houses, boats, bridges and so on. Furniture such as desks, chairs and beds is made of wood. Trees can stop man from terrible heat. They're also useful in preventing good and rich top soil from being washed away during heavy rains.

　　If there were no trees, heavy rains would wash away the rich top soil that is so important to plants. The result is that the land will become a desert. There are plenty of desert areas in the world. A long time ago these desert areas used to be very rich areas, but man in the past had no enough knowledge about science of nature, they cut down too many trees in the area where they lived and never planted new ones. By and by the rich top soil was blown and washed away by strong winds and heavy rains. In the end the rich land changed into useless deserts where nothing could grow.

According to the passage, ______.

　　　　A. a long time ago, man didn't know how to make use of wood

　　　　B. trees are not as useful as they were in the past

　　　　C. trees were more found in the past than they are today

　　　　D. people have always found trees useful

　　If there were no trees, ______.

　　　　A. the land would become better　　　　B. heavy rains would be very clean

　　　　C. the rich soil couldn't be kept　　　　 D. there wouldn't be any plants

　From the passage, we know that man must ______.

　　　　A. do nothing to keep the balance（平衡）of nature

　　　　B. take his best to keep the balance of nature

　　　　C. try his best to keep the balance of nature

　　　　D. do his best to stop the balance of nature

If there were no rain, we should have＿＿＿ on the beach.

A  the happiest time                        B  a more happier time

C  much happiest time                    D  a much happier time

 

　　In 1961, scientist set up gigantic, sensitive instruments to collect radio waves from the far reaches of space, hoping to discover in them some mathematical pattern indicating that the waves were sent out by other intelligent beings. The first attempt failed, but someday the experiment may succeed.

　　What reason is there to think that we may actually detect intelligent life in outer space？To begin with, modern theories of the development of stars suggest that almost every star has some sort of family of planets. So any star like our own sun （and there are billions of such stars in the universe） is likely to have a planet situated at such a distance that it would receive about the same amount of radiation as the earth.

　　Furthermore, such a planet would probably have the same general composition as our planet; so, allowing a billion years or two or three, there would be a very good chance for life to develop, if current theories of the origin of life are correct.

　　But intelligent life？Life that has reached the stage of being able to send radio waves out into space in a deliberate pattern？Our own planet may have been in existence for five billion years and may have had life on it for two billion, but it is only in the last fifty years that intelligent life capable of sending radio waves into space has lived on earth. From this it might seem that even if there were no technical problems involved, the chance of receiving signals from any particular earth-type planet would be extremely small.

　　This does not mean that intelligent life at our level does not exist somewhere. There are such an unimaginable number of stars that, even at such miserable possibility, it seems certain that there are millions of intelligent life forms scattered through space. The only trouble is, none may be within easy distance of us. Perhaps none ever will be; perhaps the distances that separate us from our fellow “creatures” of this universe will forever remain too great to be conquered. And yet it is conceivable that someday we may come across one of them or, frighteningly, one of them may come across us. What would they be like, these outside-the-earth creatures？

1.What point is the author making by stating that almost every star has some sort of family of planets？

　　A. Sooner or later intelligent beings will be found on one of the stars.

　　B. There must be one or two of the planets on which there are no intelligent beings.

　　C. There are sufficient planets for there to be one that enjoys the same conditions as the earth does.

　　D. One or two billion years later intelligent beings will generate on those planets.

2.What is the main topic of the passage？

　　A. Some probable intelligent life forms on other planets.

　　B. Various stages undergone by the intelligent life on other planets.

　　C. Grounds for probable existence of intelligent life on other planets.

　　D. The possibility of intelligent life existing on our planet.

3.Which of the following can be inferred from the passage？

A. An encounter is probable between people from the earth and intelligent beings from another planet.

B. Though the first attempt failed, scientists did discover the radio waves sent out by other intelligent beings.

C. Other intelligent beings were able to send our radio waves into space well before the last fifty years.

D. It is certain that there are millions of intelligent beings scattered in space but only too far away.

4.According to the author, what is the difference between “we may come across one of them” and “one of them may come across us”？

A. The earth would be dangerously disadvantaged if it is sought after by possibly much more developed creatures.

B. It would prove that there are too many outside-the-earth creatures if “one of them comes across us”.

C. The history of the development of the earth would be proved to be shorter than that of “them” if “they” come across us.

D. it would prove that the distance in between is not so great as we think if “we come across one of them” someday.

 

A green house is a building made of glass which is used for keeping warm when the outside temperature is low. In a similar way there are several gases in the atmosphere (mixture of gases that surround the earth) which trap the heat produced by the sun and prevent it from escaping. These gases are known as “greenhouse gases”. and the way in which they trap heat in the atmosphere is called the “greenhouse effect”. This is not simply air pollution. Most of the main greenhouse gases exist naturally in small amounts in our atmosphere, and without them the earth would be 30 degrees colder and human life would not exist. In other words, the greenhouse effect is a natural course which is to some degree helpful to us.

The problem is that in the last century and a half, we have been putting too many of these gases into the earth’s atmosphere by burning large quantities of coal and oil and by cutting down forest. The rapid increase in greenhouse gases is making the world warmer. The world’s temperature has already gone up by half a degree this century, and the sea level has risen by 10 centimetres. If the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doubles, there will probably be a rise in the earth’s temperature of between I and 4℃;. This may seem a small increase, but it would be enough to cause major changes in geography and agriculture. Large areas of the world would be flooded, and some areas would become dry and unable to produce crops. It is important, too, to consider that there may be a delay of about 30 years in the greenhouse effect. This means that we are probably experiencing only now the effect of the gases put into the atmosphere before the 1960s. Since then, our use of these gases has greatly increased.

1. According to the passage, we can know “greenhouse effect” means_______.  

A．the way in which gases are used for keeping plants warm

B．a natural course that is to a certain degree useful to us

C．the way “greenhouse gases” trap heat on the earth

D．the whole course in which greenhouse gases prevent heat

2. If there were no greenhouse effect,_______.

A．all plants would not grow on our planet

B．soil would reduce the temperature by 30 degrees

C．man would breathe the cleaner air

D．people couldn’t live in the earth

3. Which of the following is not true?

A．Burning too much coal and oil produces lots of greenhouse gases.

B．It has become warm on the earth now than in the past.

C．Gases put into the atmosphere now will affect the earth years later.

D．The temperature in a greenhouse is as high as that in the atmosphere.

4. Suppose the earth’s temperature rose by 3 degrees, _______. 

A．great harm will be done to mankind

B．the sea level would go up by 10 centimeters

C．all the land in the world would be flooded

D．crops would be unable to grow on the earth

5. This passage mainly deals with ________.

A．the concept (概念) and the harm of the greenhouse

B．the relation between greenhouse gases and man

C．the concept and change of greenhouse effect

D．the effect of the rise of the earth’s temperature

 

Poverty exists because our society is an unequal one, and there are plenty of political pressures to keep it that way. Any attempt to redistribute wealth and income in the United States will be opposed by powerful middle and upper class interests. People can be relatively rich only if others are relatively poor, and since power is concentrated in the hands of the rich, public policies will continue to reflect their interests rather than those of the poor.
　　As Herbert Gans has pointed out, poverty is actually functional form from the point of view of the non-poor. Poverty ensures that ‘dirty’ work gets done. If there were no poor people to clean floors and empty dustbins, these jobs would have to be rewarded with high incomes before anyone would touch them. Poverty creates jobs for many of the non-poor, such as police officers, welfare workers, and government officials. Poverty makes life easier for the rich by providing them with cooks, gardeners and other workers to perform basic work while their employers enjoy more pleasurable activities. Poverty provides a market for low-level goods and services, such as day-old bread, rundown automobiles. Poverty legitimizes (make legal) middle-class values. To the middle class, the fate of the poor---who are supposed to lack honesty, and a taste of hard work---only confirms the desirability of qualities the poor are thought to lack. Poverty also provides a group that can be made to absorb the costs of change. For example, the poor bear the pressure of unemployment and it’s their homes, not those of the wealthy, that are destroyed when a route has to be found for a new highway. It cannot be said that the wealthy keep the poor in poverty. It is just that poverty is an outcome of the American economic system, which the poor are politically powerless to influence or change.
【小题1】 The best title is ________________________.

A．Functions of Poverty	B．Political Power in Poverty
C．The Fate of the Poor	D．An Unequal Society

【小题2】 Poverty exists in American society because ____________.

A．the wealthy work hard and are glad to keep it

B．the majority of the non-poor are totally indifferent (not paying much attention) to it

C．the rich are politically powerful while the poor are politically powerless

D．the poor like the jobs that they’re supplied by the wealthy.

【小题3】The poor take on ‘dirty work’ ___________________.   

A．under political pressure	B．for the high pay offered
C．as they are reasonably paid	D．though ill-paid

【小题4】 The author thinks that _____________________.

A．the poor lack such desirable qualities as honesty
B．the poor are not supposed to work hard
C．the poor are willing to bear the costs of change	D．none of the above