American’s genius with high technology may have put men on the moon, but there is growing doubt about its ability to solve human problems closer to home.

In fact, a slight but significant change from purely technological solutions is already under way as scientists insist that answers to the world’s problems will not come from an attractive exhibition of electronics and machines. Instead, as they see it, solutions must develop from a better understanding of the humans that drive the system and from a fuller appreciation of the limits and potential(潜能) of the earth’s resources.

What this means is an increased emphasis on the life and earth sciences, on sociology, psychology, economics and even philosophy.

More and more of the best minds in science, particularly young researchers, are being drawn into these developing fields.

All this is not to say that technological creativity will not play a critical role in solving energy and food shortages, or that answers to environmental difficulties will not come from further advances in the same technologies that may have helped cause the problems.

Where the real challenge lies, in the view of the new generation of scientists, is in finding ways to produce goods and meet the world’s needs, using less of the raw materials that are becoming short.

Which of the following would the author probably agree with?

       A. The environment crisis will not be solved unless we stop using virgin（原始）materials.

       B. In scientific research, a higher priority（优先）should be given to understanding all living systems.

       C. Exploration of outer space will finally lead to an improvement on human living conditions.

       D. U. S. high-technology companies are welcoming this new change in scientific research.

Which of the following best expresses the main idea?

       A. a growing number of Americans are doubtful about what high technology can do in solving the world’s problems.

       B. Many scientists are beginning to believe that the better understanding of human beings will play a more decisive role in solving the world’s problems.

       C. More and more young scientists are trying their best to find new ways to solve the world’s problems.

       D. Technological creativity will still play a very important part in solving the world’s problems.

Young scientists demand that in order to satisfy human needs ________.

       A. existing products be improved.

       B. more complex machines and electronic equipment be designed.

       C. ways be found to produce better goods using fewer raw materials.

       D. any new invention and innovation be encouraged in technology

In the passage “Human problems” or “world problems” refers mainly to ______.

       A. global food shortage                                     B. resources depletion（耗尽）

       C. environmental pollution                                D. all of the above

The author states all the following CXCEPT that _______.

       A. the development of present techniques cannot provide any answers to today’s problems.

       B. an increasing number of young scientists are taking a great interest in biological and social sciences.

       C. many scientists have come to understand the limits of natural resources.

       D. many scientists argue that high technology is something but not everything.

A 26-year-old Montreal man appears to have succeeded in his quest to barter a single， red paper clip(夹子) all the way up to a house. It took almost a year and 14 trades， but Kyle MacDonald has been offered a two-storey farmhouse in Kipling， Sask.， for a paid role in a movie.

MacDonald began his quest last summer when he decided he wanted to live in a house. He didn’t have a job， so instead of posting a resumé， he looked at a red paper clip on his desk and decided to trade it on an Internet website. The response was immediate —a fish pen was offered for exchange. MacDonald then bartered the fish pen for a handmade doorknob from a potter in Seattle.

In Massachusetts， MacDonald traded the doorknob for a camp stove. He traded the stove to a U.S. soldier in California for a generator. Then he exchanged the generator for an “instant party kit” — an empty keg(小桶) and an illuminated Budweiser beer sign. MacDonald then traded the keg and sign for a snowmobile. He bartered all the way up to an afternoon with rock star Alice Cooper， a KISS snow globe and finally a paid role in a Corbin Bernsen movie.

“Now， I’m sure the first question on your mind is， ‘Why would Corbin Bernsen trade a role in a film for a snow globe？ A KISS snow globe，’ MacDonald said on his website.”Well， Corbin happens to be arguably one of the biggest snow globe collectors on the planet.

Now， the town of Kipling， Sask.， Canada， with a population of 1,100， has offered MacDonald a farmhouse in exchange for the role in the movie. The town is going to hold a competition for the movie role.

MacDonald said： “There’re people all over the world that are saying that they have paper clips clipped to the top of their computer， or on their desk or on their shirt， and it proves that anything is possible and I think to a certain degree it’s true.”

MacDonald， who has attracted international media attention in his quest， said the journey has turned out to be more exciting than the goal. “This is not the end. This may be the end of this part of the story， but this story will go on.”

The best title for this passage is “　　　　”.

A.A lucky paper clip    B. From poor to rich

C.A lucky young man   D. From paper clip to house

The underlined word in line 1 means 　　　　.

A. to get something for free    B. to sell something at a price

C. to sell goods on the Internet  D. to exchange goods for other goods

Which shows the correct order of the trades？

A. Paper clip?snow globe?snowmobile?house

B. Paper clip?keg of beer?doorknob?snowmobile

C. Paper clip?camp stove?snowmobile?movie role

D. Paper clip?keg of beer?camp stove?snowmobile

Which statement about MacDonald’s trades is TRUE？

A. All of his trades were done in his country.

B.A film role was offered due to Bernsen’s hobby.

C. They took over a year and some of them were really unbelievable.

D. The house in Kipling has been offered to MacDonald to attract media.

What can we learn about MacDonald？

A. He wanted to gain fame through his quest.

B .His success largely depended on the Internet.

C. He never expected his aim could be achieved.

D. He intends to begin another quest on the Web.

Does a drink a day keep heart attacks away? Over the past 20 years, numerous studies have found that moderate alcohol consumption, s ay, one or two beers, glasses of wine or cocktails daily helps to prevent coronary heart disease. Last week a report in the New England Journal of Medicine added strong new evidence in suport of that theory. More important, the work provided the first solid indiction of how alcohol works to protect the heart.In the study, researchers from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School compared the drinking habits of 340 men and women who had suffered recent heart attack with those of healthy people of the same age and sex. The scientists found that people who sip one to three drinks a day are about half as likely to suffer heart attacks as nondrinkers are. The apparent source of the protection: those who drank alcohol had higher blood levels of high?density lipoproteins, the so?called good cholesterol, which is known to prevent heart disease.

As evidence has mounted, some doctors have begun recommending a daily drink for patients of heart diseases. But most physicians are not ready to reommend a regular happy hour for everyone. The risks of teetotalling(绝对戒酒) are nothing compared with the dangers of too much alcohol, including high blood pressure, strokes and liver troubles—not to mention violent behaviour and traffic accidents. Moreover, some studies suggest that even  moderate drinking may increase the incidence of breast and colon cancer. Until there is evidence that the benefits of a daily dose of alcohol outweigh the risks, most people won’t be able to take a doctor’s prescription to the neighbourhood bar or liquor store.

1.The medical article quoted in the first paragraph indicates            .

the way in which alcohol can help the heart      

how a couple of cocktails daily can stop heart problems

why alcoholic drinks are dangerous to one’s health 

that reports on the advantages of alcohol were misled

2.Experiments showed that nondrinkers had .

A.larger amounts of good cholesterol    

B.smaller amounts of good cholesterol

C.higher blood pressure                 

D.lower blood pressure

3.According to the passage, moderate drinking            .

is recommended by most doctors for heart patients    

should be allowed on prescription

is still not medically advisable                     

is not related to liver problems

4.The main theme of this passage is .

the change in recent drinking habits                

the connection between cancer and alcohol

whether moderate drinkers outlive nondrinkers       

whether alcohol may be good for one’s health

As kids, my friends and I spent a lot of time out in the woods. “The woods” was our part-time address, destination, purpose, and excuse. If I went to a friend’s house and found him not at home, his mother might say, “Oh, he’s out in the woods, ” with a tone(语气) of airy acceptance. It’s similar to the tone people sometimes use nowadays to tell me that someone I’m looking for is on the golf course or at the gym, or even “away from his desk.” For us ten-year-olds, “being out in the woods” was just an excuse to do whatever we feel like for a while.

We sometimes told ourselves that what we were doing in the woods was exploring(探索). Exploring was a more popular idea back then than it is today. History seemed to be mostly about explorers. Our explorations, though, seemed to have less system than the historic kind: something usually came up along the way. Say we stayed in the woods, throwing rocks, shooting frogs, picking blackberries, digging in what we were briefly persuaded was an Italian burial mound.

Often we got “lost” and had to climb a tree to find out where we were. If you read a story in which someone does that successfully, be skeptical: the topmost branches are usually too skinny to hold weight, and we could never climb high enough to see anything except other trees. There were four or five trees that we visited regularly----tall beeches, easy to climb and comfortable to sit in.

It was in a tree, too, that our days of fooling around in the woods came to an end. By then some of us has reached seventh grade and had begun the rough ride of adolescence（青春期）. In March, the month when we usually took to the woods again after winter, two friends and I set out to go exploring. We climbed a tree, and all of a sudden it occurred to all three of us at the same time that were really were rather big to be up in a tree. Soon there would be the spring dances on Friday evenings in the high school cafeteria.

The author and his fiends were often out in the woods to _______.

   A. spend their free time                 B. play gold and other sports

   C. avoid doing their schoolwork         D. keep away from their parents

What can we infer from Paragraph 2?

   A. The activities in the woods were well planned.

   B. Human history is not the result of exploration.

   C. Exploration should be a systematic activity.

   D. The author explored in the woods aimlessly.

The underlined word “skeptical” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.

   A. calm      B. doubtful      C. serious        D. optimistic

How does the author feel about his childhood?

   A. Happy but short.                B. Lonely but memorable.

   C. Boring and meaningless.         D. Long and unforgettable.

Honestly, since my son was born, I have thought a lot about how to raise a child. I once heard a story that told about when a baby was born. The story said that when a baby was born, a new master was born. The parents of that baby would become the servants. The question is: Why? Based on my observation, this phenomenon is true. Most parents who don't pay much attention to their kids have difficulties with their kids' attitude.

I'll make a comparison of how two families raise their children. The first one is a family with three children. Both mother and father never say "No" to their children's demands. As a result, all of their children became stubborn and won't listen to their parents’ words, "We can't."

The second family educated their children strictly from one year old to high school. The parents never approved or agreed directly to give their children what they wanted. They always postponed one or two days, even if they could afford it. Due to the way their parents educated them, these children understood that if they wanted something, they had to wait or they had to make an effort first. As a result, all the kids from the second family successfully graduated from university on time.

In my opinion, if we want to be successful parents and raise our children well, we have to start disciplining them when they are toddlers but not wait until they become teenagers.

Why did the writer give two different stories in this passage?

  A. To help prove his opinion about raising a child.

  B. To list different ways that parents may take.

  C. To criticize some parents’ foolish action.

  D. To prove that his way of education is right.

What does the underlined word “postponed” in the third paragraph mean?

  A. Carried out at once.                 B. Gave up.

  C. Put off.                         D. Made a decision.

In the writer’s opinion, which of the following about raising a child is TRUE?

  A. Children should be respected once they were born.

  B. Parents should educate their children as early as possible.

  C. It is right time to educate their children when they are teenagers.

  D. Children should be helped whenever they make mistakes.

What do you think is the best title of this passage?

  A. Make a comparison of how two families raise their children

  B. To be successful parents

  C. How to raise children well

  D. Educate children strictly from one year old to high school