Read “Flags” and answer questions 1 to 5.

　　Flags have existed for over 3000 years. The earliest flags were wooden or metal poles topped with a carving.

　　About 2000 years ago pieces of fabric were added to some poles for decoration. Over the next 500 years the free-flying part of the flag became more important.

　　Every country today has its own flag. Many groups and organisations also have a flag which stands for, or symbolises, the aims of the group.

　　The United Nations

　　The flag depicts a world map, centred on the north pole. The map is surrounded by an olive wreath, symbolising peace and co-operation. The flag is blue and white.

　　Nepal

　　This is the only national flag that is not a rectangle. The white shapes represent the sun and moon.

　　Singapore

　　The five stars stand for five ideals：democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.

　　Japan

　　The central red disc of the sun represents sincerity and passion. The white background represents purity and honesty.

　　Cambodia

　　Three towers of the famous temple of Angkor Wat feature on this flag.

　　Bhutan

　　The wingless dragon is the national symbol. Bhutan means “Land of the Thunder Dragon”.

1．Flags have been in existence for ________.

[　　]

A．500 years

B．over 3000 years

C．a(chǎn)bout 2000 years

D．between 500 and 2000 years

2．A very old flag is likely to ________.

[　　]

A．be made of fabric

B．have a map on it

C．have white shapes on it

D．be made of carved wood

3．The flag which features a temple belongs to _______.

[　　]

4．An olive wreath is used to represent ________.

[　　]

5．Two flags that include the sun in their design belong to ________.

[　　]

A．Nepal and Japan

B．Singapore and Japan

C．the United Nations and Nepal

D．the United Nations and Singapore

For questions 1 to 5 choose the best words to complete the passage.

PLATYPUS

　　The platypus is found in streams and rivers in eastern Australia. It has a bill like a duck, thick fur and a large flat tail. It lives in burrows which it digs with its sharp, webbed claws. The male platypus can grow to about sixty centimerres 1 length. The female is slightly smaller and 2 brown in colour. She lays two or three eggs at a time.

　　To keep the eggs warm, the female platypus folds her body into a half-sitting position. She holds the eggs between her belly and her broad tail, curling her nose over the eggs. She then breathes warm, humid air over the eggs to help 3 incubate. She stays in 4 position for about ten days until the eggs hatch. The mother platypus suckles her young for three months until they are ready 5 leave the burrow.

1．

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2．

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3．

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4．

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5．

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Read “African Animals” and answer questions 1 to 6.

　　The waterbuck is a type of antelope. All male waterbucks have horns, which may be big or small, straight or curved. Waterbucks use their horns when fighting and defending themselves.

　　Zebras have sturdy bodies and long, straight legs that are good for running. Zebras help one another to look and listen for danger. If one zebra sees a lion, it makes a loud noise to warn the others. A zebra can run faster than a lion unless it is caught by surprise. No two zebra have exactly the same stripes.

　　Cheetahs can run as fast as seventy-five miles an hour. Strong claws on the cheetah's feet help it to grip the ground when it is running fast. Powerful back legs help it spring forward.

　　A meerkat is a type of mongoose, and it makes its home in an underground burrow. When a group of meerkats goes out hunting for food, one of them acts as a sentry and looks out for larger predators that might be hunting them. If it spots danger, it calls out a warning, and all the meerkats race back to the burrow.

1．Which of these animals has horns?

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2．According to the information, a zebra's long, straight legs help it to ________.

[　　]

3．The two animals which help to warn others of danger are the ________.

[　　]

4．According to the information, what is unusual about zebras?

[　　]

A．Male zebras can run at seventy-five miles an hour.

B．Zebras hide from predators in a burrow.

C．No zebra has the same pattern of stripes as any other zebra.

D．Zebras have powerful back legs to help them spring forward.

5．According to the information, which of the following statements is TRUE?

[　　]

A．A lion can run faster than a zebra.

B．Strong claws help the cheetah to run fast.

C．The waterbuck is a type of mongoose.

D．Meerkats like to be on their own when hunting for food.

6．The best word to replace “defending”, as it is used in the information, is________.

[　　]

Read “Hannah” and answer questions 1 to 6.

　　Hannah is sixteen and lives on an island. She is on holiday from school and is working for Mr Duval on his glassbottomed boat. They take people to look at the beautiful fish and the coral reef under the sea. Mr Duval can only pay Hannah a little money, but she likes working for the old man. Mr Duval's boat is the only glass-bottomed boat on the island, But one day…

　　“Look, Mr Duval!” says Hannah. “There's a new glass-bottomed boat!” Hannah is right. The new boat is taking people out to look at the coral reef and there are people waiting for it to come back.

1．Which of the following statements is TRUE?

[　　]

A．Hannah is seventeen.

B．Mr Duval is a young man.

C．Hannah lives on an island.

D．Mr Duval is Hannah's school teacher.

2．Hannah likes to spend time

[　　]

A．catching fish

B．working for Mr Duval

C．swimming near the coral reef

D．watching the people on the other boats

3．Mr Duval's boat is useful for looking at underwater life because it

[　　]

A．has a glass bottom

B．is the only boat on the island

C．is safe in all kinds of weather

D．can take more passengers than other boats

4．The reader can tell from the story that

[　　]

A．Mr Duval always has someone to help him

B．Mr Duval's boat is bigger than the new boat

C．Hannah would prefer to work on the new boat

D．Hannah does not earn a lot of money working for Mr Duval

5．The best word to replace “right”, as it is used in the passage, is

[　　]

6．When Hannah sees another boat taking passengers to the reef, she is likely to feel

[　　]

A．sad, because the other boat will make too much noise

B．excited, because there will be more people coming to see the fish

C．happy, because she and Mr Duval will be able to make friends with the boat owner

D．concerned, because she and Mr Duval won't have so many passengers

Read“My Problem” and answer questions 1 to 5.

　　Hi, my name is Effie!

　　I woke up on Monday morning at 7 o'clock. It took me 10 minutes to get dressed, 15 minutes to eat my break fast, 1 minute to brush my teeth and 9 minutes to walk to the bus stop. I had a feeling it was going to be a good day. At school, Mrs Finchley helped us make a graph of the birthdays of everyone in the class.

　　After that, we had to make a list of all the children in the class who were born in September.

　　The whole morning was going well until just bef ore lunch time. Mrs Finchley told us that it was Rebecca's birthday and her mum had made 24 cupcakes for the class. But there were 25 kids in my class!

　　Oh no! Who was going to work out how to share the cakes?

　　Suddenly, my head was filled with numbers whizzing around. Then, Casey raised his hand and said, “I don't like cupcakes.”

　　PROBLEM SOLVED!

1．On what day of the week did this story take place?

[　　]

2．What took Effie the longest time to do before she started school?

[　　]

A．getting dressed

B．eating breakfast

C．brushing her teeth

D．walking to the bus stop

3．How many children in the class were born in July?

[　　]

4．Who were the oldest children born in September?

[　　]

A．Sacha, Muhammed and Basma

B．Billy and Kim

C．Sacha, Billy and Basma

D．Muhammned and Kim

5．What was Effie's “problem”?

[　　]

A．She wanted it to be her birthday instead of Rebecca's.

B．She didn't like making a chart of the children's birthdays.

C．She wanted to have cupcakes for lunch.

D．She was worried about how to share the cupcakes.

閱讀理解(Reading comprehension)

　　Many moons of fupiter travel around the planet in different directions(方向).

　　Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Over the years, scientists have found that Jupiter has its own small solar system. Earth has one moon. Jupiter has at least sixteen and probably more.

　　Since there are so many moons, scientists began to number them. The numerals(numbers) tell the sequence, or order, in which the moons were found. They were slower to name the moons. All of Jupiter's moons now have a name as well as a number.

　　The first five moons to be discovered are known as the “inner moons”. But they are not the closest to the planet. The closest is only 127, 600 kilometers away from Jupiter. All the inner moons circle the planet in counter-clockwise direction, that is, opposite of the hands of a clock.

　　Jupiter's middle group of moons are at least 11, 100, 000 kilometers from the planet. They also move in a counter-clockwise motion(moving). The four farthest moons are at least 20,700,000 kilometers away. These are called “outer moons”. They circle in a clockwise motion.

　　How many more moons do you think will be discovered?

1．What does “solar system” in this article mean?

[　　]

2．Things that travel in the same direction as the hands of a clock are said to be traveling in a________.

[　　]

A．clockwise direction

B．counter-clockwise direction

C．same direction

D．different direction

3．Jupiter's ________ group of moons travel in a clockwise direction.

[　　]

4．The numbers given to Jupiter's moons tell________.

[　　]

A．the order in which they were discovered

B．the order in which they travel

C．the order of their distance from Jupiter

D．the order of names

5．According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

[　　]

A．None of Jupiter's moons have names.

B．Most of Jupiter's moons circle clockwise.

C．Jupiter's inner moons were discovered first.

D．Jupiter is the nearest planet to the earth.

6．How far away are the middle group of moons from Jupiter?

[　　]

A．It's not mentioned.

B．11,100,000 kilometers away.

C．127,600 kilometers away.

D．20,700,000 kilometers away.

閱讀理解(Reading comprehension)

1．How many cards do you use?________.

[　　]

2．When you are holding your cards, ________.

[　　]

A．you can't see them

B．you can hold them face up

C．you choose the name of an animal

D．you need any number of people

3．________is where the fun begins.

[　　]

A．Nobody can see the cards

B．Putting the cards on the table

C．The first person who makes the noise

D．Taking away the same two cards

4．What noise does the person who is the horse make? “________”.

[　　]

Look at the telephone message. Whose number is 3940527? It' s________.

TELEPHONE MESSAGE

From：Sally　　　　　　To：Sam

Date：November 10　　　Time：4:30

Message：Please ring her. Her phone number is 3940527.

Lucy

[　　]

Reading Comprehension

　　Cloning technology made its first leap from science fiction to science fact in 1997. That year, Scottish researcher lan Wilmut created the world's first animal clone：a sheep named Dolly. In making Dolly, Wilmut defied(對(duì)…挑戰(zhàn)) nature because Dolly was produced without the union of male and female sex cells.

The method that Wilmut used to create Dolly is neither a top-secret nor hard to understand. First, he removed an egg cell from an adult female sheep. Then, he used a fine needle to suck out(吸出) the egg' s nucleus(細(xì)胞核), the structure that houses a cell' s DNA(deoxyribonucleic acid(脫氧核糖核酸). DNA contains the biological material that determines what an organism looks like and how it functions.

　　Next, Wilmut removed a skin cell from another sheep－the sheep he wished to copy. Placing the empty egg cell and the skin cell side by side, he forced the two cells to fuse by zapping(用輻射線照射) them with a charge(電荷) of electricity. By doing that, Wilmut created an egg from one animal that contained the DNA of another.

　　The new egg cell divided and developed into an embryo(胚胎). Wilmut then implanted(移植) the embryo in he womb(子宮). In time, the embryo developed into a lamb sheep－Dolly.

　　For years later, a whole barnyard of animal clone, including sheep, mice, cows, pigs, and goats, has, come to life in labs around the globe. Now, the race is on how to produce the first human clone although many people are strongly against it.

1．What does the first sentence in the passage mean?

[　　]

A．Cloning technology made its first appearance in science fiction in 1997.

B．Cloning technology made it possible to turn something in the story into reality in 1997.

C．Clothing technology was a science fact that was accepted for the first time in 1997.

D．Cloning technology was the first technology used in creating a real life in 1997.

2．The technique Wilmut used to clone Dolly

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A．is rarely understood by other scientists

B．was used by scientists before

C．is a secret to the world

D．is none of the above

3．How important is one' s DNA?

[　　]

A．One's appearance and behavior depend on his DNA.

B．The length of one's life depends on his DNA.

C．One's characteristic depends on his DNA.

D．What one looks like is determined by his DNA.

4．Which of the following statements is true?

[　　]

A．Dolly was cloned from a skin cell.

B．Dolly was produced from two cells.

C．Dolly was made from a sheep's DNA.

D．Dolly was created from an organism.

5．What does the last paragraph of the passage tell?

[　　]

A．Now different animals have been cloned in the world.

B．The animals in the barnyard have been cloned, and there is a challenge in the world to clone other animals.

C．Humans have produced many cloned animals, and now they have started a race in developing cloning technology.

D．Besides cloning many kinds of animals, there is a competition in the world to clone the first man.

Reading Comprehension

　　People are wiser and can do more things than other animals because of their wonderful brains. We can talk, read, write, build houses, and invent things. Your brain has three main parts：the front brain, the hind brain, and the middle brain.

　　The front brain is the largest. It is gray outside and white inside. This is the part of the brain where you remember, think, and plan. With this part of your brain you make your arms and legs do what you want them to do. Here is where the messages from the eyes, ears, and nose let you see, hear, and smell. The hind brain is smaller than the front brain and is more like that of other animals. This part of the brain gives you balance and control of your muscles. You walk without tripping and skip without falling because the hind brain is doing its job. If it were not, you would lose your balance and fall over.

　　The middle brain is the smallest of all, but very important. It controls the beating of your heart, swallowing food, breathing, and other things you do without thinking. The middle brain is a small swelling where the brain joins the spinal cord－a large bundle of nerves in your backbone. The spinal cord is the main road to and from the brain. It comes into the middle brain bringing messages from all parts of your body. It also takes charge when some part of your body is in danger. If you touch a hot iron, the message to the spinal cord makes you pull your finger away even before you feel the pain of the burn. This is called a reflex. Nerves conned most parts of your body to the spinal cord.

1．What is the main idea of the passage?

[　　]

A．How brains make people intelligent.

B．How your brain is connected with most parts of your body.

C．How the spinal cord in your body works.

D．How each part of your brain functions.

2．Which part takes charge when one is designing his research project?

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3．The spinal card leads to your

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4．What does the underlined word “that” in the second paragraph refer to?

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5．If you cut your finger, how can your brain know it?

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A．Your heart feels it and lets your brain know.

B．When you see the blood, your eyes will send the message to your brain.

C．Your backbone collects the message and sends it to the brain.

D．Your spinal cord collects the massage and sends it to the brain.