Crossing Texas and Mexico, the Big Bend region is high in biodiversity(生物的多样性). It’s a place so untamed that if something doesn’t bite, stick, or sting, it’s probably a rock.
You know you have arrived in the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert when it feels as if you have fallen off the edge of the earth and into the rabbit hole. Nothing is as it appears. Moths (蛀虫) are the size of birds. Are those twin pillars (柱) of black rock (a landmark known as Mule Ear Peaks) ten miles (16 kilometers) away or fifty (80 kilometers)? Visibility (能见度) reaches more than a hundred miles on a clear day, and since there are few roads or buildings to use as milestones, distance is difficult to judge.
This is a place where water runs uphill, where rainbows have to wait for rain. The line between myth (虚构的故事) and reality is unclear. Stare long enough at the Chisos Mountains or the Sierra del Carmen, the two mountain ranges, known as sky islands, which lie on the land, and they rise and float above the plain.
The vast Chihuahuan Desert is a land of no people. There is always the chance you’ll die of thirst. The “You Can Die”possibilities are endless, and keep some visitors — 350,000 a year to Big Bend National Park, built in 1944 — from coming back. Those who do return are left to think of the remarkable courage of the brave few who have managed to survive in this terrible environment.
【小题1】The underlined word“untamed”in Paragraph 1 means“________”.

A．untouched

B．wild

C．unchanged

D．fresh

【小题2】Why do the twin pillars of black rock seem ten or fifty miles away?

A．They were put so far away.

B．They lie across the Chihuahuan Desert.

C．It is difficult to judge the distance, with few milestones.

D．One lies in the Chisos Mountains, the other in the Sierra del Carmen.

【小题3】How many years are there since the Big Bend National Park was built?

A．350,000 years.

B．350 years.

C．66 years.

D．44 years.

【小题4】What is the passage mainly about?

A．The natural wonders of the Chihuahuan Desert.

B．Everything you see is not what it seems in the Chihuahuan Desert.

C．The terrible environment of deserts in Texas and Mexico.

D．A special place where none who go can return.

【小题5】What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．There are all kinds of living things in the Chihuahuan Desert.

B．No people live in the Big Bend region.

C．Nothing is as it appears in the Big Bend region.

D．Traveling in the Big Bend region is dangerous.

 

No Mobile Means You’re Not in Touch

My household now has four mobile phones: one for me; one each for my eldest children, the twin boys; and one for my 15-year-old daughter. Only my 12-year-old son does not (yet) have his own mobile. In other words, we’re now in line with national figures, which show that Australia has 19 million mobile phones for a population of just over 20 million people. Among 15-to 17-year-olds, nearly nine out of 10.

The reality is that a mobile phone is the coolest thing of all for a teenager to own. It’s even more important than a television, a DVD player or access to the internet. If you don’t have a mobile you are, quite literally, out of touch.

Of course, there are good and bad sides to mobiles. In my global media world, I’ve lived with a mobile switched on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the past ten years. At the same time, here in Perth, I started a movement on talkback radio called CAMPIR (Campaign Against Mobile Phones in Restaurants). Nothing annoys me more than people who feel that an incoming mobile call is more important than the company they are with at a restaurant or even at their dining table at home, but I believe that in the long term, we will have a revolt against the intrusion of mobiles into our personal lives.

There was a study in New Zealand last year among young teenagers that showed a quarter have used text messaging to end a relationship. Here in Australia, I’ve read of people being fired by text. That’s cold. On the other hand, lots of parents---myself included---feel their children are safer if they have their mobile with them when they are away from home.

I’ve even read that the use of mobiles among kids may mean that they smoke less. Phones are a stronger status symbol than cigarettes among children and also give them something to do with their hands.

Psychologists, though, argue that mobiles are actually a way for kids to bypass their parents. They can communicate constantly with their friends without their parents knowing anything of the conversations. No matter what the future brings, I don’t expect ever to have fewer mobiles in the house. On the contrary, the next challenge is to see if I can get through the rest of this year without having to buy a mobile phone for my youngest child.

1.According to the passage, a mobile phone is the coolest thing for a teenager to possess because _________.

A.In their opinion, the mobile phone is the most fashionable possession

B.A mobile phone is the most useful tool in the life.

C.The teenager keeps in contact with others exactly by using a mobile phone.

D.The Internet is less important than the mobile phone.

2.,Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A.In New Zealand most young teenagers have used text messaging to end a relationship.

B.The writer doesn’t think his children can avoid danger if they have their mobile with them .

C.The use of mobiles among kids may contribute to their less smoking.

D.Cigarettes are the strongest status symbol among children.

3.The underlined word “bypass” in the fifth paragraph probably means __________.

A. contact       B. avoid        C. inform        D. oppose

4.  It can be inferred from the passage that __________.

   A. The children in the family each have a mobile phone.

   B. About 60% of the children aged 15-17 have phones in Australia.

   C. The writer is likely to buy a mobile phone for his youngest child this year.

   D. The writer doesn’t agree that children should own a mobile phone.

 

We may look at the world around us, but somehow we manage not to see it until whatever we've become used to suddenly disappears.  36 , for example, the neatly-dressed woman I 37  to see -- or look at -- on my way to work each morning.

     For three years, no matter  38 the weather was like, she was always waiting at the bus stop around 8:00 am. On   39   days, she wore heavy clothes and a pair of woolen gloves. Summertime  40   out neat, belted cotton dresses and a hat pulled low over her sunglasses.  41   , she was an ordinary working woman. Of course, I  42   all this only after she was seen no more. It was then that I realized how  43  I expected to see her each morning. You might say I   44   her.

“Did she have an accident? Something  45 ?” I thought to myself about her  46  .  Now that she was gone, I felt I had  47  her. I began to realize that part of our  48   life probably includes such chance meetings with familiar 49 : the milkman you see at dawn, the woman who  50   walks her dog along the street every morning, the twin brothers you see at the library. Such people are   51   markers in our lives. They add weight to our  52   of place and belonging.

Think about it.   53   , while walking to work, we mark where we are by  54  a certain building, why should we not mark where we are when we pass a familiar, though  55  , person?

36. A. Make                B. Take            C. Give                 D. Have

37. A. happened           B. wanted          C. used                   D. tried

38. A. what                 B. how                   C. which                  D. when

39. A. sunny                B. rainy            C. cloudy             D. snowy

40. A. took                B. brought          C. carried             D. turned

41. A. Clearly               B. Particularly       C. Luckily               D. Especially

42. A. believed              B. expressed         C. remembered          D. wondered

43. A. long                B. often             C. soon                D. much

44. A. respected             B. missed              C. praised             D. admired

45. A. better                B. worse                C. more               D. less

46. A. disappearance         B. appearance            C. misfortune          D. fortune

47. A. forgotten             B. lost                  C. known              D. hurt

48. A. happy                B. enjoyable             C. frequent            D. daily

49. A. friends              B. strangers             C. tourists             D. guests

50. A. regularly             B. actually              C. hardly              D. probably

51. A. common              B. pleasant            C. important           D. faithful

52. A. choice               B. knowledge            C. decision             D. sense

53. A. Because              B. If                 C. Although            D. However

54. A. keeping              B. changing          C. passing              D. mentioning

55. A. unnamed              B.unforgettable          C. unbelievable         D. unreal

Scientists are uncovering the secrets of two port cities lost under the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, a researcher said yesterday.

Herakleion and Menouthis were rich and proud cities until something reduced them to rubble (碎石) and buried them in the mud beneath 30 feet of sea water, French underwater explorer Franck Goddio said at the American Geophysical Union conference.

“This is a mystery that is ongoing,” said Goddio, a founder of the European Institute of Marine Archeology, a Paris-based underwater research organization backed by the wealthy Hilti Foundation of Liechtenstein(列支敦士登基金会).

The destruction of the twin port cities has haunted Goddio ever since he happened upon the site about 15 miles from Alexandria while exploring sunken ships from Napoleon’s fleet.

Goddio and his group of expert divers, marine archeologists(海洋考古学家) and others, are using high powered vacuums, satellite navigation systems and sophisticated sonar(声纳) to excavate(挖掘) the sunken cities from underneath a carpet of silt about one meter (three feet) high.

Walls of shops, remains of streets and gold artifacts have been found and recovered.

Some experts believe that the port cities were destroyed by a series of massive earthquakes, much like the quakes scientists believe felled Troy(特洛伊城), Jericho and other ancient cities. The uniform direction of the collapsed columns and walls suggest an earthquake, Goddio said, but no fault lines have been found nearby.

Other researchers believe a massive wave, caused by either an offshore earthquake or a distant underwater landslide, could explain the catastrophe. Still others think rising seas and a shift in the Nile River outlet doomed the cities.

“The argument, as you can see, continues,” Goddio said.

The reason why the two port cities disappeared under the waters of Mediterranean Sea is that ______.

A. the two port cities were destroyed by huge earthquakes

B. the disappearance of the two port cities was caused by underwater landslide

C. rising seas and a shift in the Nile River outlet doomed the cities

D. the story didn’t tell us at all

From the story we can draw a conclusion that _______.

A. the two port cities were famous for their wealth and the mystery

B. the two cities belonged to France

C. some mysterious creatures from other planets destroyed the two cities

D. the American Geophysical Union conference was once held in one of the two cities

This article is probably from _______.

A. a scientific magazine

B. a report to the government

C. a school text book

D. a scientific report in a newspaper

The twin brothers stand under the tree, ______ and say nothing.

         A．puzzled      B．puzzling     C．being puzzling   D．being puzzled