People in Shanghai can quench their thirst with high quality water if the Shanghai Water Authority (SWA) is able to make good on its word. It has vowed to make the city’s water match its status as a world class city.

   “The current tap water quality meets national standards, but, compared with that of the European Union and the United States, it still needs to be improved.” said the SWA’s director general, Hang Jiayi.

    In other developed countries, water fountains can be found almost everywhere—people do not bother with bottled drinking water.

    By 2020, the water of the Huangpu River will be treated to reduce the amount of organic waste in it. Major water works that draw water from the Huangpu will need more treatment facilities to improve the colour, texture, ammonia(氨)and nitrogen content before 2010.

    These treatment facilities are expected to cost 4 billion yuan, something that could affect the price of water, according to Chen Yin, SWA’s deputy director general.

    Chen said that replacing water pipes was also a key project. The city’s aged pipes are mostly to blame for the bad water quality.

    The SWA has started the water facilities renovation(更新)work, including the more than 14,000 kilometres of indoor piping, 107,000 tanks on top of the buildings, and more than 6,000 underground facilities.

    World Water Day came on March 22, and this year’s theme is “Water for the future”. Beijing is also drawing up plans during China’s Water Week, which runs until March 28.

    By 2010, the water for the Shanghai EXPO is to be above World Health Organization standards. And, the people of Beijing will be able to drink their tap water as well.

People in Shanghai can drink their tap water_____.

   A. by 2020       B. in the first half of this year     C. by 2010      D. by 2008

What step need not be taken in order to improve the tap water?

A. The water of the Huangpu River will be treated.    B. Aged water pipes will be treated.

C. Water facilities must be renovated.                   D. Water fountains must be found.

Which is the correct statement according to the passage?

A. The tap water quality in Shanghai hasn’t met national standards.

B. World Water Day fell on March 22 this year.

C. The people of Beijing cannot drink their tap water now.

D. The treatment of the water of Huangpu River has been finished.

What is the main idea of the passage?

A. The cost of treating the tap water.

B. How to reach the water standards of developed countries.

C. The project for making tap water drinkable in Shanghai and Beijing.

D. The progress of treating the water of Huangpu River.

    I entered high school having read hundreds of books. But I was not a good reader. Merely bookish, I lacked a point of view when I read. Rather, I read in order to get a point of view. I searched books for good expressions and sayings，pieces of information，ideas，themes—anything to enrich my thought and make me feel educated. When one of my teachers suggested to his sleepy tenth-grade English class that a person could not have a “complicated（復雜的）idea” until he had read at least two thought books，I heard the words without recognizing either its irenic(嘲諷)or its very complicated truth. I merely determined to make a list of all the looks I had ever read. Strict with myself，I in chided only once a title I might have read several times.(How，after all. could one read a book more than once?) And I included only those books over a hundred pages in length. (Could anything shorter be a book ?)

    There was yet another high school list I made. One day I came across a newspaper article about an English professor at a nearby state college. The article had a list of the “hundred most important books of Western Civilization.” “More than anything else in my life,” the professor told the reporter with finality, “these books have made me all that I am.” That was the kind of words I couldn’t ignore(忽視).I kept the list for the several months it took me to read all of the titles. Most books, of course , I hardly understood. While reading Plato’s The Republic, for example, I needed to keep booking at the introduction of the book to remind myself what the text was about. However, with the special patience and superstition(迷信) of a schoolboy ,I looked at every word of the text. And by the time I reached the last word. pleased. I persuaded myself that I had read The Republic, and seriously crossed Plato off my list.

71.On hearing the teacher’s suggestion of reading, the writer thought___________.

A. one must read as many books as possible

B. a student should not have a complicated idea

C. it was impossible for one to read two thousand books

D. students ought to make a list of the books they had read

72. While at high school, the writer ______________.

A. had plans for reading                                           B. learned to educate himself

C. only read book over 100 pages                             D. read only one book several times

73.The underlined please “with finality ”probably means “__________”.

A. firmly                     B. clearly                           C. proudly               D. pleasantly

74.The writer’s purpose in mentioning The Republic is to _____________.

A. explain why it was included in the list            B. describe why he seriously crossed it off the list

C. show that he read the books blindly though they were hard to understand

D. prove that he understand most of it because he had looked at every word

75. The writer provides two book lists to _______________.

A. show how be developed his point of view      B. tell his reading experience at high school

C. introduce the two persons’ reading methods    D. explain that he read many books at high school

She told me she wanted to ________ her two o’clock appointment in order to take care of her sick.?

A.have broken down             B.have broken out?

C.have broken in                  D.have broken up?

單詞拼寫：（每小題1分，共10小題）

In less than two days 100,000 pieces were put inside twenty-seven_____(木制的) boxes.                                               

Li Yan, a___ ( 志愿者 ) for the 2008 Olympic Games, is interviewed by Pausanias.                                               

Tom is ___(有信心的) to succeed.                                            

Seeing this, many a ___(路人) came to help the old woman.                       

What do you think of the play ___(表演) by the little children?                   

__(如今), many young people spend at least 3 hours on the Internet.

He explained __(簡要地) what we were to do next.                             

Theses ___(昆蟲) can fly .                                                                             

They were so popular that their fans formed clubs in order to get more ___(熟悉的) with them.                                            

Only athletes who have reached the agreed standard for their event will be ___(接納) as competitors.

O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank. When some money went missing from the bank, O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the readers’ surprise.

   In which order did O. Henry do the following things?

a. Lived in New York.

b. Worked in a bank.

c. Traveled to Texas.

d. Was put in prison.

e. Had a newspaper job.

f. Learned to write stories.

A. e, c, f, b, d, a                         B. c, b, e, d, a, f

C. e, b, d, c, a, f                         D. c, e, b, d, f, a

People enjoyed reading O. Henry’s stories because _____.

A. they had surprise endings                B. they were easy to understand

C. they showed his love for the poor            D. they were about New York City

What do we know about O. Henry before he began writing?

He was well-educated.

He was very good at learning.

He was devoted to the poor.

He was not serious about his work.

   Where did O. Henry get most material for his short stories?

A. His life inside the prison.              B. The newspaper articles he wrote.

C. The city and people of New York.     D. His exciting early life as a boy.