One day in l965, when I worked at View Ridge School in Seattle, a fourth-grade teacher approached me. She had a student who finished his work before all the others and needed a challenge. "Could he help in the library?" She asked. I said, "Send him along."

　　Soon a slight, sandy-haired boy in jeans and a T-shift appeared. "Do you have a job for me?" he asked.

　　I told him about the Dewey Decimal System for shelving books. He picked up the idea immediately. Then I showed him a stack of cards for long-overdue books that I was beginning to think had actually been returned but were misshelved with the wrong cards in them. He said, "Is it kind of a detective job?" I answered yes, and he became working.

　　He had found three books with wrong cards by the time his teacher opened the door and announced, "Time for break!" He argued for finishing the finding job; She made the case for fresh air. She won.

　　The next morning, he arrived early. "I want to finish these books," he said. At the end of the day, when he asked to be a librarian on a regular basis, it was easy to say yes. He worked untiringly.

　　After a few weeks I found a note on my desk, inviting me to dinner at the boy's home. At the end of a pleasant evening, his mother announced that the family would be moving to neighbouring school district. Her son's first concern, she said, was leaving the View Ridge library. "Who will find the lost books?" he asked.

　　When the time came, I said a reluctant good-bye. I missed him, but not for long. A few days later he came back and joyfully announced: "The librarian over there doesn't let boys work in the library. My mother got me transferred back to View Ridge. My dad will drop me off on his way to work. And if he can’t, I'll walk!"

I should have had an inkling(感觉) such focused determination would take that young man wherever he wanted to go. What I could not have guessed, however, was that he would become a wizard of the Information Age: Bill Gates, tycoon of Microsoft and America's richest man.

What was the author when the story happened?

       A. A teacher.                 B. A librarian.               C. A detective.              D. A professor.

What was the boy told to do on his first day in the library?

A. To rearrange the books according to the new system.

B. To put those overdue books back to the shelves.

C. To find out the books with wrong cards in them.

D. To put the cards back in the long-overdue books.

The boy got transferred back to View Ridge because _______.

A. he did not like his life in the new school                            

B. the transportation there was not convenient

C. he missed his old schoolmates and teachers

D. he was not allowed to work in the school library

What impressed the author most was that the boy _______.

A. had a thirst for learning                               B. had a strong will

C. was extremely quick at learning                            D. had a kind heart

The Atlantic Ocean is one of the oceans that separate the Old World from the New. For centuries it kept the Americans from being discovered by the people of Europe.

Many wrong ideas about the Atlantic made early sailors unwilling to sail far out into it. One idea was that it reached out to “the edge of the world.” Sailors were afraid that they might sail right off the earth. Another idea was that at the equator the ocean would be boiling hot.

The Atlantic Ocean is only half as big as the Pacific, but it is still very large. It is more than 4,000 miles (6,000km) wide where Columbus crossed it. Even at its narrowest it is about 2,000 miles (3,200km) wide.

Two things make the Atlantic Ocean rather unusual. For so large an ocean it has very few islands. Also, it is the world’s saltiest ocean.

There is so much water in the Atlantic that it is hard to imagine how much there is. But suppose no more rain fell into it and no more water was brought to it by rivers. It would take the ocean about 4,000 years to dry up. On the average the water is a little more than two miles (3.2km) deep, but in places it is much deeper. The deepest spot is near Puerto Rico. This “deep” measures 30,246 feet-almost six miles (9.6km).

One of the longest mountain ranges of the world rises from the floor of the Atlantic. This mountain range runs north and south down the middle of the ocean. The tops of a few of the mountains reach up above the sea and make islands.

Several hundred miles eastward from Florida there is a part of the ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Here the water is quiet, for there is little wind. In the days of sailing vessels(船) the crew were afraid they would be becalmed(停滞不前) here. Sometimes they were.

Today the Atlantic is a great highway. It is not, however, always a smooth and safe one. Storms sweep across it and pile up great waves. Icebergs float down from the Far North across the paths of ships.

We now have such fast ways of traveling that this big ocean seems to have grown smaller. Columbus sailed for more than two months to cross it. A fast modern steamship can make the trip in less than four days. Airplanes fly from New York to London in only eight hours and from South America to Africa in four!

Which world is the Old World?

A. Africa               B. Europe                     C. Asia                  D. All of above

What caused people to be unwilling to explore the Atlantic?

A. There are no ships big enough to get across the Ocean.

B. Sailors were afraid of being lost in the Ocean.

C. The Atlantic Ocean was very unusual because it has few islands and the saltiest water.

D. Many incorrect ideas such as “the edge of the world”, “the equator with boiling hot water”, made people think the Ocean was full of danger.

What is the topic of the fifth paragraph?

A. How deep the water is

B. How to measure the water in the Atlantic Ocean

C. How much water the Ocean holds.

D. How rain affects the Ocean water.

We can learn from the text that ______.

A. the Atlantic is the largest ocean on earth

B. one of the longest mountain ranges lies in the Atlantic

C. the Atlantic has a lot of islands in it

D. sailing on the Atlantic Ocean is always quiet, smooth and safe

Danielle Steel,America’s sweetheart,is one of the hardest working women in the book business.Unlike other productive authors who write one book at a time,she can work on up to five.Her research alone before writing takes at least three years.Once she has fully studied her subjects,ready to dive into a book,she can spend twenty hours nonstop at her desk.

Danielle Steel comes from New York and was sent to France for her education.After graduation,she worked in the public relations and advertising industries.Later she started a job as a writer which she was best fit for.Her achievements are unbelievable:390 million copies of books in print,nearly fifty New York Times best-selling novels,and a series of “Max and Martha” picture books for children to help them deal with the real-life problems of death,new babies and new schools.Her 1998 book about the death of her son shot to the top of the New York Times best-selling list as soon as it came out.Twenty-eight of her books have been made into films.She is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for one of her books being the Times best-seller for 381 weeks straight.

Not content with a big house,a loving family,and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge,Danielle Steel considers her readers to be the most important resource(资源) and has kept in touch with them by e-mail.While she is often compared to the heroines(女主人公) of her own invention,her life is undoubtedly much quieter.But,if she does have anything in common with them,it is her strength of will and her inimitable(独特的) style.There is only one Danielle Steel.

Danielle Steel is different from other writers in that _______.

A.she can write several books at the same time

B.she often does some reasearch before writing a book

C.she is one of the most popular American women writers

D.she can keep writing for quite a long time without a break

Children who have read “Max and Martha” picture books may know _______.

A.how to deal with affairs at school

B.what to do if Max and Martha die

C.what to do when new babies are born into their families

D.how to solve the difficult problems in their writing classes

One of Danielle Steel’s achievements is that _______.

A.some TV plays were based on her books

B.her picture books attracted a lot of young men

C.one of her books became a best-seller in 1998

D.she wrote the Guinness Book of World Records

We can learn from the passage that Danielle Steel _______.

A.lives an exciting life                                      B.values her readers a lot

C.writes about quiet women                              D.is pleased with her achievements

C

Wikipedia was founded as a branch of Nupedia, a now-abandoned project to produce a free encyclopedia (百科全书). Nupedia required highly qualified contributors, but the writing of articles was slow. During 2000, Jimmy Wales, founder of Nupedia, and Larry Sanger, whom Wales had employed to work on the project, discussed ways of supplementing (补充) Nupedia with a more open project. Multiple sources are suggested for the idea that a wiki might allow members of the public to contribute material, and Nupedia’s first wiki went online on January 10.

There was considerable resistance on the part of Nupedia’s editors and reviewers to the idea of associating Nupedia with a Web site in the wiki format (格式), so the new project was given the name “Wikipedia” and launched on its own domain (域名), wikipedia.com, on January 15. The domain was eventually changed to the present wikipedia.org when the not-for-profit Wikimedia Foundation was launched as its new parent organization. In March 2007, the word wiki became a newly-recognized English word.

In May 2001, a wave of non-English Wikipedias was launched — in Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. These were soon joined by Arabic and Hungarian. In September, Polish was added. At the end of the year, Afrikaans, Norwegian, and Serbocroatian versions were announced.

Anyone with Web access can edit Wikipedia, and this openness encourages inclusion of a great amount of content. About 75,000 editors — from expert scholars to casual readers — regularly edit Wikipedia, and these experienced editors often help to create a consistent style throughout the encyclopedia.

Editors are able to watch pages and techies (科技人员) can write editing programs to keep track of or correct bad edits. Where there’re disagreements on how to present facts, editors work together to arrive at an article that fairly represents current expert opinion on the subject. Although the Wikimedia Foundation owns the site, it’s largely uninvolved in writing and daily operations.

66. Jimmy Wales wanted a more open project because ______.

   A. he wanted to found Wikipedia

   B. Nupedia had its own disadvantages

   C. he earned less money from Nupedia

   D. Nupedia had been abandoned

67. The idea of connecting Nupedia with a Web site in the wiki format ______.

   A. gained a wide support

   B. came into being on January 15, 2000

   C. made Nupedia better and better known to the public

   D. weren’t welcomed by all Nupedia’s editors

68. Which of the following versions joined the Wikipedia in or after October 2001?

   A. English version.                       B. Norwegian version.

   C. Hebrew version.                       D. Arabic version.

69. Who are responsible to create the main style for the Wikipedia?

   A. Any readers of the Wikipedia     B. The techies.

   C. The Wikimedia Foundation.              D. The experienced editors.

70. Which of the following facts about Wikipedia most probably surprises readers?

   A. Its owner contributes less to its writing.

   B. It appeals to a wider audience.

   C. Its owner was founded only recently.

   D. It was evolved from Nupedia.

I never expected that I would be so busy. Why can’t there be 25 hours a day?” complained Lou Ran in Hong Kong as final exams were going on.

The 18-year-old girl was Fujian Province’s ___48__ scorer in last year’s college entrance examination. After leaving school, she chose the Chinese University of Hong Kong __49__ both Peking University and Tsinghus University promised her a place.

“I want to experience a more international school and social life in Hong Kong. I’m __50__ in journalism, so Hong Kong will surely help widen my horizons,” Liu said.

It is about four months since Liu Ran set __51_ on Hong Kong. She missed home a lot at the beginning, because of the food and __52__problems.

“The canteen offers mostly Western or Guangdong food, but it’s convenient to cook for ourselves in our dorm if we like. People speak Cantonese and almost all classes are in English,” Liu explained.

Her English and Cantonese are now improving, but she still needs more __53_ to adapt to the new environment.

“I’m happy that I made the right __54__ to study here. With a mix of the Eastern and Western__55__, there is so much to discover and learn,” she said.