Bill Javis took over our village’s news-agency at a time of life when most of us only wanted to relax. He just thought he would like something but not too much to do, and the news-a??gency was ready-made. The business produced little enough for him, but Bill was a man who only wanted the simplicity and order and regularity of the job. He had been a long-serving sailor, and all his life had done everything by the clock.

Every day he opened his shop at 6:00 a. m. to catch the early trade; the papers arrived on his doorstep before that. Many of Bill’s customers were city workers, and the shop was convenient for the station. Business was tailing off by 10 o’clock, so at eleven sharp Bill closed for lunch. It was hard luck on anybody who wanted a paper or magazine in the after??noon, for most likely Bill would be down on the river bank, fishing, and his neatest competitor was five kilometers away. Sometimes in the afternoon-, the evening paper landed on the doorway, and at 4 o’ clock Bill reopened his shop. The evening rush lasted till seven, and it was worthwhile.

He lived in a flat above the ship, alone. Except in the very bad weather, you always knew where to find him in the af??ternoon, as I have said. Once, on a sunny afternoon, I walked home along the river bank from a shopping trip to the village. By my watch it was three minutes past four, so I was aston??ished to see Bill sitting there on his little chair with a line in the, water. He had no luck, I could, see, but he was making no effort to move. “What’s wrong, Bill?” I called out from the path.

For answer, he put a hand in his jacket and took out a big, golden object. For a moment I had no idea what it could be, and then it suddenly went off with a noise like a fire en??gine. Stopping the bell, Bill held the thing up and called back, "Ten to four, you see, and this is dead right. "

I had never known anyone carrying a brass alarm clock round with him before.

5. Bill Javis became a news-agent when ________.

A. he need the money.                         B. he decided to take things easy

C. he was quite an old man                 D. he gave up clock-repairing

6. Bill opened the shop so early in the day because ________.

A. he liked to do as much as possible before he went to work

B. the shop had to be open when the morning papers came

C. he was never sure of time

D. it was then that he did a lot of business

7. On that sunny afternoon, the writer was surprised when he saw Bill because ________.

A. he thought it was late for Bill to be still fishing

B. he thought Bill was ill, since he was not moving at all

C. Bill had not caught anything, and that seemed strange

D. Bill stayed in his flat

8. From the information given in the passage, who or what do you think was wrong?

A. The bell was; it must have gone off at the wrong time.

B. Bill was; he had dropped off to sleep.

C. The writer’s watch was fast.

D. Bill’s clock was wrong; it was old.

The first breath-taking pictures of the Earth taken from space showed it as a solid ball covered by brown land masses and blue-green oceans. We had never seen the Earth from that distance before. To us, it appeared as though the Earth had always looked that way and always would.   Scientists now know, however, that the surface of the Earth is not as permanent as we had thought.

Scientists explain that the surface of our planet is always moving. Continents moves about the Earth like huge ships at sea. They float on pieces of the Earth’s outer skin. New outer skin is created as melted rock pushed up from below the ocean floor. Old outer skin is destroyed as it rolls down into the hot area and melts again.

Only since the 1960s have scientists really began to understand that the planet Earth is a great living machine. Some experts have said this new understanding is one of the most important revolutions in scientific thought. The revolution is based on the work of scientists who study the movement of the continents—a science called plate tectonics.

The modern story of plate tectonics begins with the German scientist Alfred Wegener. Before World War One, Wegener argued that the continents had moved and were still moving. He said the idea first occurred to him when he observed that the coastlines of South America and Africa could fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. He proposed that the two continents might have been one and then split apart.  

Wegener was not the first person to wonder about the shape of the continents. About 500 years ago, explorers thought about it when they made the first maps of Americas. The explorers noted the east coast of North America and South America would fit almost exactly into the west coast of Europe and South Africa. What the explorers did not do, but Wegener did, was to investigate the idea that the continents move.

4. What does the writer mainly tell us in the passage?

A. The first breath-taking pictures of the Earth taken from space.

B. Human’s recognition of the earth’s surface.

C. The German scientist Alfred Wegener.

D. The early explorers’ discovery.

5. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. We didn’t see the Earth from far away until we saw the picture taken in the space.

B. Our ancient thought that the surface of the earth is still.

C. Alfred Wegener was not the first person to investigate the idea that the continents move.

D. The coastline of India and Africa fit together.

6. The last word of the third paragraph “tectonics” mean “________”.

A. study of construction                             B. study of architecture        

C. earth surface                                         D. structural geology

7. What did the explorers find?

A. The coastlines of South America and Africa could fit together.

B. The coastlines of North America and Africa could fit together.

C. The east coastlines of North America and the west coast of Europe could fit together.

D. The coastlines of North America and India could fit together.

Even with little exposure to cultural standards of beauty, “infants treat attractive faces as  distinctive regardless of the sex, age a nd race of the stimulus(刺激物) faces,”  write psychologist Judith H.Langlois and her colleagues in the January DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY.

In their experiment, 5 healthy 6-month-old infants from middle-class families viewed slides showing eight pairs of white male faces and eight pairs of white female faces. Each pair, displayed for 10 seconds, consisted of one attractive and one unattractive face, as previously judged by a group of male and female college students. An experimenter viewed the young participants on a video monitor and recorded the direction and duration of each infant’s gaze.

The 35 boys and 25 girls looked longer at both male and female faces judged as attractive, the researchers found.

Their second study of 6-month-old involved 15 boys and 25 girls, mostly white, who saw eight pairs of slides showing an attractive and an unattractive black female, as previously judged by both white and black college students.  Again, the babies looked much longer at attractive faces.  

Finally, 19 boys and 20 girls, all 6 months old and almost all of them white, viewed eight pairs of slides showing the faces of 3-month-old boys and girls previously rated as attractive or unattractive by college students. Attractive baby faces drew signficantly longer looks, the psychologists report.

Further studies must explore whether infants take attractive faces as “best examples” of a face, the investigators claim Langlois and a coworker recently reported that attractive faces may possess features that approximate the mathematical average of all faces in particular population.

1.What was found in the first study?

A.Male infants looked longer only at female ones.

B.Females looked more attractive than males.

C.Sixty 6?month?old babies looked longer at the attractive faces, male or female.

D.White female faces drew more attention  than those of black ones.

2.In the last paragraph, the writer implies that .      

A.Langlois and her partners will stop their experiments they accomplished a lot

B.Langlois and her partners will focus on the other fields of infants

C.Langlois and her partners have achieved success in studying the infants’ mind

D.Langlois and her partners have found a more interesting field

3.What can be inferred from the passage?

A.All babies, white or black, tend to share with the college students the preference for attractive faces.

B.White babies prefer white faces to black ones.       

C.Babies tend to get interested in the attractive faces of the opposite sex.

D.Beauty has something to do with a person’s age, race and sex

4.The title that best expresses the main idea is .     

A.Psychology of Infants   B.Beauty in Variety   C.Beauty and Race   D.Beauty in Infants

Most people, when they travel to space, would like to stay in orbit for a few days of more. And this stands to reason, if you’re paying $20,000 for your trip to orbit! Strain order for tourism to reach its full potential there’s going to be a need for orbital accommodation---or space hotels. What would a space hotel actually be like to visit? Hotels in orbit will offer the services you expect from a hotel------private rooms, meals, bars. But they’ll also offer two unique experiences: impressive views----of Earth and space---and the endless entertainment of living in zero gravity---including sports and other activities that make use of this.

The hotels themselves will vary greatly----from being quite simple in the early days to huge luxury structure at a later date. It’s actually surprising that as later as 1997, very few designs for space hotels were published. This is mainly because those who might be expected to design them haven’t expected launch costs to come down far enough to make them possible.

    Lots of people who’ve been to space have described vividly what it’s like to live in zero gravity. There are obviously all sort of possibilities for dancing, gymnastics, and zero-G sports. Luckily, you don’t need to sleep much living in zero gravity, so you’ll have plenty of time for relaxing by hanging out in a bar with a window looking down at the turning Earth below.

    Of course all good things have come to an end. Unfortunately, And so after a few days you’ll find yourself heading back enough you’ll be much more expert at exercising in zero gravity than you were when you arrived. You’ll be thinking how soon you can save up enough to get back up again---or maybe you should change jobs to get to work in an orbiting hotel.

When traveling in space, most people would like to stay in orbit for a few days because _______.

A. It is expensive to travel in space 

B. they would find the possible life in other star systems

C. they could enjoy the luxury of space hotels

D. they want to realise the full potential of tourism

Which of the following is a unique experience that space hotels will offer?

A. The gravitational pull                   B. The special views.

C. The relaxation in a bar                  D. The space walk.

Which of the following is not discussed in the passage?

A. When was the space traveling made possible?

B. What are the unique experiences that space hotels will offer?

C. Why were there not many published designs for space hotels?

D. How can the travelers enjoy themselves in space hotels?

This passage is mainly about ________.

A. traveling in space                     B. the ways of living in space hotels

C. zero gravity and space hotels            D. the description of space hotels

He left home early only______he was late as he went a wrong way.

A. found         B. to find         C. finding         D. being found

How the iron of tomorrow (the first Self Clean Iron)can change your lifestyle today?

General Electric introduces the iron of tomorrow. The iron can clean itself. Inside where irons get dirty. Because it cleans itself each and every time you empty it.How? With a push of a magic blue button.

The magic blue button.The first thing you’ll notice that’s different about this iron is the blue button on the side. It’s marked “Self Clean”. Push this blue button, and you can wash out loose mineral deposits  that remain and block up inside. Push this button, and you’ve made life a lot easier.

Less chance of brown spotsSure, Self Cleaning Iron is going to cut down on brown spots. (Those ugly spots that happen on nice, cleanly pressed clothes.) Because a Self Cleaning Iron becomes clean each time you press that magic blue button.Steams much longerCommon sense tells you that if you’ve an iron that blocks less often it has to stay younger for a long period of time. In other words, it steams much longer. That’s another joy of owning General Electric’s Self Cleaning Iron.What does it mean to youToday you are doing so much more than just running a house and running after the kids. You’re working. You’re going to school. It’s all part of your lifestyle. The iron can change that lifestyle. By giving you less trouble before you iron. If we can make it easier for you to be a better wife, a better mother, a better housemaker, we want to. The new Self Cleaning Iron is another one of Home-Makers from General Electric.

Lifestlye.We’re with yours. GENERAL ELECTRIC

9.This passage is ______.

A.an introduction to General Electric     B.an operating instruction of Self Cleaning Iron

C.an advertisement of Self Cleaning Iron  D.a description of the change of lifestyle

10.This iron can clean itself by ______.

A.empting itself                       B.washing out mineral deposits 

C.blocking up mineral deposits          D.giving off more steam

11.According to the passage, what is most likely to attract the customers?

A.It is made by General Electric.            

B.The iron will not produce mineral deposits.

C.There will be fewer brown spots on pressed clothes.

D.Their clothes will be cleaned at the same time.

12.Self Cleaning Iron can help change your lifestyle because ______.

A.you can run your house better         B.you don’t have to run after the kids

C.you can use it while you are working    D.we want you to be a better housemaker

Last July, my 12-year-old car died on California’s Santa Ana Freeway. It was an hour before sunset, and I was 25 miles from home. I couldn’t reach anyone to pick me up, so I decided to take a bus. Not knowing the routes, I figured I’d just head east.

A bus pulled up, and I asked the driver how far she was going. “Four more lights,” she said. There was another bus I could take from there. This clearly was going to be a long night.

She dropped me off at the end of her route and told me which bus to look for. After waiting 30 minutes, I began to think about a very expensive taxi ride home. Then a bus pulled up. There was no lighted number above its windshield(擋風(fēng)玻璃). It was out of service. But the door opened, and I was surprised to find that it was the same driver.

“I just can’t leave you here,” she said. “This isn’t the nicest place. I’ll give you a ride home.”

“You’ll drive me home in the bus?” I asked, perplexed(困惑).

“No, I’ll take you in my car,” she said.

“It’s a long way,” I protested.

“Come on, ” she said. “I have nothing else to do.”

As we drove from the station in her car, she began telling me a story. A few days earlier, her brother had run out of gas. A good Samaritan picked him up, took him to a service station and then back to his car. “I’m just passing the favor along, ” she said.

When I offered her money as a thank-you, she wouldn’t hear of it. “That wouldn’t make it a favor, ” she said. “Just do something nice for somebody. Pass it along.”

1. Why did the writer say that he would have a long night?

A. He wondered how long he had to wait for the next bus.   B. No driver would give him a ride.

C. He didn’t know the routes.                            D. He perhaps would have to take a taxi.

2. Judging from its context, the place where the writer waited for the second bus was _______.

A. very quiet and peaceful                 B. dark without street lights

C. neither clean nor beautiful              D. a little unsafe

3. Why did the writer change his mind after waiting for 30 minutes at the end of the route?

A. No bus would come at the time.          B. A taxi ride would be more comfortable.

C. He became impatient and a bit worried.   D. He knew the driver would never return.

4. The bus driver drove the writer home later because ________.

A. she happened to go in the same direction  B. she wanted to do something good for other people

C. her brother told her to do so              D. she wanted to earn more money

5. The bus driver hoped that the writer ________

A. would do as she did                     B. would keep her in memory

C. would give the money to others          D. would do her a favor

Long ago, in days of the Roman Empire, people used to believe a god of farmings called “Saturn”. They believed that Saturn could make the weather good or bad, and that he had the power to control how much rain would fall.

Before a Roman farmer would plant his fields, he would try to get Saturn to give him good weather. He believed that if he killed an animal for Saturn, that would make Saturn happy. Then Saturn would make sure that the weather was good.

Not only did the people name a planet after Saturn but they also name a day of the week after him. They called this day “Saturni dies”, Latin words which mean “day of Saturn”. In English those words became Saturday.

6. What was Saturn believed to be in charge of?

  A. Rainfall.    B. The power of nature.   C. Farming.    D. Days in a week.

7. Why did a Roman farmer kill an animal before planting his fields?

Because      .

  A. killing an animal would bring him good luck

  B. Saturn enjoyed eating animals

  C. Saturn was happy to see animals being killed

  D. he wanted to please Saturn so that Saturn would make the weather good for his planting

8. Which of the following is NOT TRUE?

  A. Saturn is also the name of planet.

  B. The Roman people used to believe Saturn to be their god.

  C. Saturn was named for the last day of the week.

  D. Saturn had three meanings.

9. What’s the aim of the author in writing this passage?

  A. How the Romans worshipped (崇拜) Saturn.

  B. Why the Romans believed in Saturn.

  C. The different meanings of the word Saturn.

  D. How Saturday got its name.

After inventing dynamites(炸藥), Swedish-born Alfred Nobel became a very rich man. However, he foresaw its universally destructive powers too late. Nobel preferred not to be remembered as the inventor of dynamite, so in 1895, just two weeks before his death, he created a fund to be used for awarding prizes to people who had made worthwhile contributions to mankind. Originally there were five awards: literature, physics, chemistry, medicine, and peace. Economics was added in 1968, just sixty-seven years after the first awards ceremony.

Nobel’s original legacy of nine million dollars was invested, and the interest on this sum is used for the awards which vary from $ 30,000 to $125,000.

Every year on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death, the awards (gold medal, illuminated diploma, and money) are presented to the winners. Sometimes politics plays an important role in the judges’ decision. Americans have won numerous science awards, but relatively few literature prizes.

No awards were presented from 1940 to 1942 at the beginning of World War II. Some people have won two prizes, but this is rare; others have shared their prizes.

1. What did the first award ceremony take place?

A. 1895.           B. 1901.             C. 1962.                 D. 1968.

2. The Nobel prize was established to ________.

A. honor the inventor of dynamite       B. recognize worthwhile contributions to humanity

C. resolve political differences         D. spend money

3. In which area have Americans received the most awards?

A. Literature.         B. Economics.          C. Peace.             D. Science.

4. Which of the following statement is NOT true?

A. Awards vary in money value.

B. Ceremonies are held on December 10 to commemorate Nobel’s invention.

C. Politics can be of importance in selecting the winners.

D. A few individuals have won two awards.

—— What were you up to when your parents came in?

—— I＿＿＿＿＿for a while and＿＿＿＿＿some reading.

A.was playing； was going to do     B.played； did

C.had played； was going to do     D.had played； did