They say money doesn’t grow on trees. But it certainly appears to do so on the mysterious coin-studded(嵌满) trunks dotted around the UK’s woodland. The strange phenomenon of old trees with coins fixed firmly all over their bark has been spotted on trails from the Peak District to the Scottish Highlands. The coins are usually knocked into felled (砍伐的) tree trunks using stones by passers-by, who hope it will bring them good fortune.
These fascinating spectacles often have coins from centuries ago buried deep in their bark and warped by the passage of time. The tradition of making offerings to gods at wishing trees dates back hundreds of years, but this combination of the man-made and the natural is far more rare. It used to be believed that god’s spirits lived in trees, and they were often decorated with sweets and gifts — as is still done today at Christmas. The act is like tossing money into ponds for good luck, or the trend for couples to attach “love padlocks” to bridges and fences to symbolize lasting romance. Some pubs, such as the Punch Bowl in Askham, Cumbria, have old timbers with splits in them into which coins are forced for luck. There are seven felled tree trunks with coins pushed into them in the picturesque village of Portmeirion, in Wales.
Meurig Jones, an estate manager at the tourist destination, told the BBC, “We had no idea why it was being done when we first noticed the tree trunk was being filled with coins. I did some detective work and discovered that trees were sometimes used as ‘wishing trees’. In Britain it dates back to the 1700s — there is one tree somewhere in Scotland which apparently has an old coin stuck into it. ” He said that a sick person could press a coin into a tree and their illness would go away. If someone then takes the coin out though, it’s said they then become ill. We haven’t made it known at all, it’s just happened,” he added. “It’s quite amazing really.” In Scotland, there is also a legend about a kissing tree. If a young man could drive a nail into a tree with one blow, he earned a kiss from his sweetheart.
【小题1】What was the real reason why in UK people knocked coins into the old trees?

D
The Focal Point of the “ Chinese Liquor Golden Triangle”
In China, there is a saying: a good spirit(wine) is in Sichuan, but the great one is in Yibin.
Yibin, the birthplace of Wuliangye, has a centuries-old tradition of producing great spirits. At the confluence of Jinsha and Min rivers, Yibin is praised as the first city on the source of the Yangtze River. Here, the water is clean, the soil is rich, and the climate is very favorable for brewing good liquor. The blessings of nature and centuries-old liquor brewing traditions gave rise to “ The Ten-Mile Liquor City ”, the main production facility of domestic liquor giant Wuliangye Group Co. Ltd.
Extending across 10 kilometers and dotted with gardens and sculptures, the city attracts domestic and foreign visitors with its famed liquor brewing and related culture. Another attraction is its legendary Ming Dynasty (1368-1644AD) liquor cellars (酒窖，地下储藏室).
The city has 30,000 large modern brewing tanks that provide an enormous capacity to store liquor.
The high quality of Wuliangye also owes much to its unique brewing techniques and materials. These traditional techniques are included on the list of national intangible（非物质的） cultural heritage.
Wuliangye’s sales revenues（销售额）and pre-tax profits accounted for nearly half of the respective （分别的） 59 billion yuan and 12.5 billion yuan generated by Sichuan’s provincial liquor industry in 2008. Liquor production by large enterprises in the province was about 1.1 million kiloliters, accounting for 19.6% of the production in the country.
Wuliangye is now investing 300 million yuan in a state-of-the-art quality assurance center (质保中心)that has higher standards than national requirements, which will boost the existing quality-control system when it is put into service next year.
With a goal of production value of 100 billion yuan for the year of 2020, Wuliangye is playing a leading role in the development of the liquor industry in the region. A lot of related industries are now building up in the region to create a Chinese Liquor Golden Triangle —the Chinese equivalent （相当于）of the French Bordeaux region---that continues to appear on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
67. To be exact, the domestic liquor giant Wuliangye Group Co. Ltd. Lies _________.
A. on the Jinsha River              B. in the city of Yibin
C. to the west of Sichuan            D. on the middle reaches of the Youngtze River
68. Which of the following is the most favorable for brewing the good wine?
A. The water       B. The soil         C. The climate          D. The facility     
69. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage above ?
A. Compared with the western countries, Chinese wines have a long way to go.
B. The Golden Triangle is known for its wines and related industries.
C. Wuliangye’s pre-tax profit accounted for nearly 6.25 billion in 2008.
D. The liquor production of our country in 2008 is about 5,6 million kiloliters.
70. Domestic and foreign visitors go to the city for its _______.
A. famous wine brewing and related culture
B. beautiful geographical landscape
C. historic relics of different Chinese dynasties
D. the source of the Yangtze River

Many people believe the glare from snow causes snow-blindness. Yet, dark glasses or not , they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes, and even snow-blindness, when exposed to several hours of “snow light”. The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snow-blindness in troops in a snow-covered country. Rather, a man's eyes frequently find nothing to focus on in a broad expanse of barren (少植被的) snow-covered terrain (地形). So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of something to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never stop searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature eases this irritation by producing more fluid which covers the eyeball. The fluid covers the eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs (模糊), then is obscured (遮蔽), and the result is total, even though temporary, snow-blindness.

Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape. Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight, dark colored objects ahead on which they too can focus. The men following can then see something. Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see, stop scouring the snow-blanketed landscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time, the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snow-blind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a solid white terrain is overcome.

1. To prevent headaches, watering eyes and blindness caused by the glare from snow, dark

glasses are _________.

A. indispensable and essential   B. useful                       C. ineffective      D. available

2. When the eyes are sore tears are produced to _________.

A. balance the pain                                                       B. treat snow-blindness 

C. clear the vision                                                            D. loosen the muscles 

3. Snow-blindness may be avoided by _________.

A. concentrating on the solid white terrain

B. searching for something to look at in snow-covered terrain

C. providing the eyes with something to focus on

D. covering the eyeballs with more fluid 

4. The scouts shake snow from evergreen bushes in order to _________.

A. prevent the men behind losing their way 

B. beautify the landscape of the terrain

C. warm themselves in the severe cold

D. give the men behind something to see

5. A suitable title for this passage would be _________.

A. nature's cure for snow-blindness       B. snow-blindness and how to overcome it

C. soldiers marching in the snow          D. snow vision and its effect on eyesight

“This Friday we’ll have the yearly Egg Drop Challenge,” said our science teacher, Mr. Baker. “You can work alone or with a partner. ”

My friend, Cassie, and I smiled at each other. We always worked on projets__36___.

The ___37___of the challenge was simple ---to build a protective container to keep an egg from breaking when ___38___the stadium wall.

I made my sandwich that afternoon while waiting for Cassie. ___39___the butter-cream gave me an idea.

 “I have a brilliant design for our __40__container!”I said when Cassie arrived. “We can   41    the egg with some butter-cream.”

 “Why not pit the egg in a basket with a parachute(降落伞)    42   ?” Cassie rolled her eyes.  “The parachute is better than that stupid idea.”

I couldn’t believe it, Of course we’d had our little    43    in the past, but she’d never called any of my ideas “   44   ” before.

“Then I’ll build mine and you build yours!”

   45    words had been out, our friendship was challenged.

When Friday finally arrived, I had to    46     Cassie’s Egg Force One looked pretty good.   47  _, my Egg-cellent Egg Cream didn’t look quite scientific. We kids carried our containers up three stadium steps and dropped them over the side wall. Those whose eggs broke were out; those whose eggs survived    48  three more steps and dropped them again. This would go on till the last egg broke.

After four rounds, only Cassie and I were   49  . I let go of my box. I heard someone say “ew” after seconds. Had my egg broken? I raced down the    50  . The side walk was dotted with egg shells(蛋壳) from those   51  drops. Finally I found my little Egg-cellent Egg Cream.

   “That looks like egg drop soup, Laura,” Cassie said. She was holding her Egg Force One. My _52    raced. Had she won? I looked at her basket.    53    .

“My egg bounced    54  , ”she explained, pointing to a broken shell.

“A tie(平局), ”Mr. Baker said.

Cassie looked at me, and her glare    55   . I laughed. She smiled…

36.  A. patiently      B. silently        C. together        D. alone

37.  A. function      B. goal            C. reason        D. result

38.  A. rolled down   B. pushed against    C. thrown at      D. dropped over

39.  A. Spreading     B. Boiling         C. Baking        D. Holding

40.  A. butter        B. sandwich        C. cream         D. egg

41.  A. protect       B. replace          C. carry          D. mix

42.  A. followed      B. covered         C. attached       D. supported

43.  A. ideas         B. fights           C. worries        D. challenges

44.  A. wrong        B. stupid          C. brilliant       D. scientific

45.  A. Since         B. While           C. But          D. And

46.  A. explain        B. deny            C. admit        D. prove

47.  A. Therefore      B. Anyway         C. Otherwise     D. Besides

48.  A. paced down    B. turned around     C. walked up     D. went back

49.  A. left           B. wanted          C. chosen        D. discovered

50.  A. steps          B. way            C. wall          D. sidewalk

51.  A. intended       B. unexpected       C. failed        D. desired

52.  A. eyes          B. hands            C. feet         D. heart

53.  A. Lost          B. Dirty            C. Broken       D. Empty

54.  A. around        B. out              C. in           D. down

55.  A. returned       B. remained         C. increased     D. softened

  Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow water just off the Florida coast．Mullets，crabs，rays and small fish gather by the thousands off an Alabama pier．Birds covered in oil are crawling（爬）deep into marshes（沼泽），never to be seen again．

    Marine scientists studying the effects of the BP disaster（英国石油公司漏油事件）are seeing some strange phenomena．Fish and other wildlife seem to be fleeing the oil out in the Gulf and gathering in cleaner waters along the coast in a trend that some researchers see as a potentially troubling sign．The animals.presence close to shore means their usual habitat is badly polluted，and the crowding could result in mass die-offs as fish run out of oxygen．Also，the animals could easily be captured by their enemies．

    The nearly two-month-old spill（漏油）has created an environmental disaster in US history as tens of millions of gallons have flown into the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem．Scienfists are seeing some unusual things as they try to understand the effects on thousands of species of marine life．For nearly four hours Monday，a three-person crew with Greenpeace cruised（巡航）past delicate islands and mangrove-dotted inlets in Barataria Bay off southern Louisiana．They saw dolphins by the dozen frolicking（嬉戏）in the oily sheen（光泽）and oil-tinged pelicans feeding their young．But they spotted no dead animals．

    “I think part of the reason why we’re not seeing more yet is that the impacts of this crisis are really just beginning，”Greenpeace marine biologist John Hocevar said．

    The counting of dead wildlife in the Gulf is more than an academic exercise；the deaths will help determine how much BP pays in damages．

What do the marine life react to the BP disaster？

    A．Dolphins and sharks show up in deep water．

    B．Tens of thousands of marine animals are found dead．

    C．Sea creatures flee from oil spill，gathering near seashore．

    D．Birds crawl（爬）deep into caves．

The environmental disaster was caused by        ．

    A．the lack of environmental sense of BP

    B．the nearly two-mouth-old oil spill

    C．the crowding marine life

    D．the damage of Mexico Gulf ecosystem

What is John Hocevar’s attitude towards the disaster？

    A．Disappointed     B．Depressed   C．Neutral      D．Worried 

From the passage，we can infer that          ．

    A．marine scientists have seen some strange phenomena．

    B．the disaster has little influence on dolphins．

    C．a three-person crew reached no conclusion．

    D．BP will pay much money according to the number of dead wildlife there．