In 1993, New York State ordered stores to charge money on beverage (饮料) containers. Within a year, consumers had returned millions of aluminum cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw material for new products, but because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it wound end up buried in landfills (垃圾填埋场). The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic.

Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded (被丢弃的) plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence post, paint brushes, etc.

As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish. A discard remains a discard until somebody figures out how to give it a second life — and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value. Without enough markets to take in materials collected for recycling, throwaways actually reduce prices for used materials.

Fewer landfill space and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste-management choice. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal (清除，处理), which, in parts of New York, amounts to savings of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and reduces the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a better raw material.

What regulation was issued by New York State concerning beverage containers?

A. A fee should be charged on used containers for recycling.

B. Throwaways should be collected by the state for recycling.

C. Consumers had to pay for beverage containers and could get their money back on returning them.

D. Beverage companies should be responsible for collecting and reusing discarded plastic soda bottles.

The returned plastic bottles in New York used to         .

A.    be turned into raw materials

B.    be separated from other rubbish

C.    have a second-life value

D.    end up somewhere underground

The key problem in dealing with returned plastic beverage containers is         .

A.    how to reduce their recycling costs

B.    to sell them at a profitable price

C.    how to turn them into useful things

D.    to lower the prices for used materials

Recycling has become the first choice for the disposal of rubbish because         .

A.    recycling causes little pollution

B.    other methods are more expensive

C.    recycling has great appeal for the jobless

D.    local governments find it easy to manage

It can be concluded from the passage that         .

A.    recycling is to be suggested both economically and environmentally

B.    local governments in the U. S. can expect big profits from recycling

C.    rubbish is a potential remedy for the shortage of raw materials

D.    landfills will still be widely used for waste disposal

“如何真正处理好孩子与父母间的关系”一直是我们非常关注和想了解的话题。沟通是必要的方式之一，可如何能够进行真正心灵上的沟通？我们，作为父母的，作为孩子的，都得需要思索。这篇文章会给你一定的启示. . . .

I was 13 years old. My family had moved to Southern California from North Florida a year before. I hit adolescence with a vengeance. I was angry and rebellious, with little regard for anything my parents had to say, particularly if it had to do with me. Like so many teenagers, I struggled to escape from anything that didn't agree with my picture of the world. A "brilliant without need of guidance" kid, I rejected any overt offering of love. In fact, I got angry at the mention of the word love.

One night, after a particularly difficult day, I _____________, shut the door and got into bed. As I lay down in the privacy of my bed, my hands slipped under my pillow. There was an envelope. I pulled it out and on the envelope it said, "To read when you're alone. "

Since I was alone, no one would know whether I read it or not, so I opened it. It said "Mike, I know life is hard right now, I know you are frustrated and I know we don't do everything right. I also know that I love you completely and nothing you do or say will ever change that. I am here for you if you ever need to talk, and if you don't, that's okay. Just know that no matter where you go or what you do in your life, I will always love you and be proud that you are my son. I'm here for you and I love you—hat will never change. Love, Mom.

That was the first of several "To read when you're alone" letters. They were never mentioned until I was an adult.

Today I travel the world helping people. I was in Sarasota, Florida, teaching a seminar when, at the end of the day, a lady came up to me and shared the difficulty she was having with her son. We walked out to the beach, and I told her of my mom's undying love and about the "To read when you're alone" letters. Several weeks later, I got a card that said she had written her first letter and left it for her son.

That night as I went to bed, I put my hands under my pillow and remembered the relief I felt every time I got a letter. In the midst of my turbulent teen years, the letters were the calm assurance that I could be loved in spite of me, not because of me. Just before I fell asleep I thanked God that my mom knew what I, an angry teenager, needed. Today when the seas of life get stormy, I know that just under my pillow there is that calm assurance that love - consistent, abiding, unconditional love - changes lives.

1. What’s the best title of the passage?

                                                                          

2. Which sentence in the passage is the closest in meaning to the following one?

I reached out my hands for the letter under the pillow that night when I went to bed, and I always felt relief with the letter under my pillow.

                                                                           

3. Please fill in the blank in the passage with proper words or phrases to complete the sentence.（within ten words）

                                                                          

4. What do you learn after reading the passage? （within 30 words）

                                                                          

5. Translate the underlined sentence into Chinese.

Read the passage carefully and then translate the underlined sentences into English or Chinese. Write your answer on your answer sheet.

Howard Carter is one of the most famous explorers the world has ever known. He was brave and loved to visit and explore new places. During his life, he discovered many amazing things.1.他天资聪颖，对家乡之外的世界充满了好奇心when he was very young.

Howard Carter never went to school, but learnt to draw from his father. 2.By the 1920s, he had become an explorer, searching for the tombs of the Egyptian kings. He discovered a great fortune in jewels and gold, along with the preserved bodies of dead kings. 3.这些经过处理的遗体就是为人所知的木乃伊. In 1922, Howard Carter made his most amazing discovery of all, in the Valley of the Kings, in Egypt, where he found the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

However, not long after the tomb had been opened, people in Carter’s team began to fall ill and die strangely.4.Within seven years, 21 people who had something to do with the opening of the tomb died.

Some people say the deaths were just coincidence. 5.Others believe that they were in connection with a mummy’s curse. However, still others believe that there is a scientific explanation, because inside the tombs there are many viruses.

 

In 1993, New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit (押金) on beverage (饮料) containers. Within a year, consumers had returned millions of aluminum (铝) cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw materials for new products, but because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it would be buried in landfills (垃圾填埋场). The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic.

Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence posts, paintbrushes, etc.

As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish. A discard remains a discard until somebody figures out how to give it a second life--and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value. Without adequate markets to absorb materials collected for recycling, throwaways actually depress prices for used materials.

    Shrinking landfill space, and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal (处理), which, in parts of New York, amounts to saving of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and trims (减少) the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.

1. What regulation was issued by New York State concerning beverage containers?

A. Beverage companies should be responsible for collecting and reusing discarded plastic soda bottles.

  B. Throwaways should be collected by the state for recycling.

  C. A fee should be charged on used containers for recycling.

D. Consumers had to pay for beverage containers and could get their money back on  returning them.

2. The returned plastic bottles in New York used to________.

   A. end up somewhere underground                      B. be turned into raw materials

   C. have a second-life value                               D. be separated from other rubbish

3. Recycling has become the first choice for the disposal of rubbish because________.

   A. local governments find it easy to manage

   B. recycling has great appeal for the jobless

   C. recycling causes little pollution

   D. other methods are more expensive

4. It can be concluded from the passage that________.

   A. rubbish is a potential remedy (补救) for the shortage of raw materials

   B. local governments in the U.S. can expect big profits from recycling

   C. recycling is to be recommended both economically and environmentally

   D. landfills will still be widely used for waste disposal

阅读理解：

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C、D)中，选出最佳选项。

　　There are different ways in which people try to deal with (处理) the problem of energy. One way is the greater production of common energy sources (能源), such as coal, oil and gas. The trouble with these sources, however, is that they are not renewable (可更新的，可再生的).

　　Another way is energy conservation (节能), which means using energy more efficiently (有效地). In some very cold countries people build special houses to save energy. They place materials (原料，材料) between the inside and the outside of the walls of the house to keep the cold out and the warmth in. The house is heated by the lights, the body heat of the people and the other equipment in it.

　　Finally, renewable energy sources are used even though they are often expensive to develop. One form of these is geothermal energy. In certain parts of the world the temperature of the earth increases thirty degrees centigrade (摄氏) with each kilometer down. At a result, at six kilometers, it rises to nearly two hundred degrees. To get the heat, water is pumped (压；抽) down into the rocks and back up to the surface (表面). Heat from the earth is already used in certain countries.

1．How many ways of dealing with the energy problem are discussed in the text?

[　　]

2．From the text we learn that coal ________.

[　　]

A．is quite easy to produce

B．is not used most

C．is the most common source of energy

D．could be renewed only by new technology (技术)

3．The underlined words geothermal energy in the third paragraph mean ________.

[　　]

4．Which of the following drawings shows the right way to get geothermal energy?

[　　]

5．At a place where the surface temperature is 15℃, how deep do you have to dig so as to get a temperature of 75℃?

[　　]