Spain is a country that lies in southwestern Europe. It’s surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the south and the east, while to the north of Spain lie France, Andorra and the Bay of Biscay. The west and northwest of Spain are surrounded by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean.

The official name of the state is the Kingdom of Spain. Madrid is the capital city, which is also one of the famous places in Spain. Spain, which covers 506,000 square kilometers, is one of the largest countries in Europe.

The weather in Spain differs from one area to another. Most of the rain that happens in Spain is in the mountainous areas. The plains hardly receive any rainfall.

Soccer in Spain is an important part of life of the people in Spain. It’s said that Spanish children learn to walk and play soccer at exactly the same time. Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are two Spanish soccer teams, which are respected by soccer fans not only in Spain, but all over the world. The popularity of the sport can be judged from the fact that three major soccer teams, which are Real Madrid, Atletico de Madrid , and Rayo Vallecano, were born in Madrid.

If you are a tourist, then you would want to know about the driving rules in Spain. If you’re not from the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein, then for you to drive you’ll have to carry your international driver’s license. Bad news if you haven’t celebrated your 18th birthday. If you want to rent a car, then you must have completed 21 years of age. If you’re driving, make sure you carry all the documents on you at all times during your stay in Spain.

1.Paragraph 1 is mainly about .

A.the history of Spain B.the location of Spain

C.The famous cities in Spain D.the neighboring countries of Spain.

2.Who is allowed to rent a car in Spain?

A. Tom who is 17 years old B. Jenny who is 19 years old

C. Mike who is 20 years old D. Brown who is 22 years old

3.Which of the following about Spain is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A.Weather B.Transport

C.Sports D.Driving rules

4.The purpose of the passage is to .

A.explain how to enjoy life in Spain

B.prove Spain in a beautiful country

C.make readers know more about Spain

D.attract more people to pay a visit to Spain

It is reported that conservation groups in North America have been arguing about the benefits and dangers of wolves. Some groups believe wolves should be killed. Other people believe wolves must be protected so that they will not disappear from the wilderness(荒野).

For Killing Wolves

In Alaska,the wolf almost disappeared a few years ago,because hunters were killing hundreds of them for sport. However, 1aws were established to protect the wolves from sportsmen and people who catch the animals for their fur.So the wolf population has greatly increased. Now there are so many wolves that they are destroying their own food supply.

A wolf naturally eats animals in the deer family. People in the wilderness also hunt deer for food. Many of the animals have been destroyed by the very cold winters recently and by changes in the wilderness plant life.When the deer can’t find enough food,they die.

If the wolves continue to kill large numbers of deer, their prey(猎物) will disappear some day. And the wolves will, too. So we must change the cycle of life in the wilderness to balance the ecology. If we killed more wolves, we would save them and their prey from dying out. We’d also save some farm animals.

In another northern state, wolves attack cows and chickens for food. Farmers want the government to send biologists to study the problem. They believe it necessary to kill wolves in some areas and to protect them in places where there is a small wolf population.

Against Killing Wolves

If you had lived long ago,you would have heard many different stories about the dangerous wolf.According to most stories,hungry wolves often kill people for food.Even today,the stories of the “big bad wolf” will not disappear.

But the fact is wolves are afraid of people, and they seldom travel in areas where there is a human smell.When wolves eat other animals,they usually kill the very young, or the sick and injured. The strongest survive. No kind of animal would have survived through the centuries if the weak members had lived. And has always been a law of nature.

Although some people say it is good sense to kill wolves,we say it is nonsense! Researchers have found wolves and their prey living in balance.The wolves keep the deer population from becoming too large, and that keeps a balance in the wilderness plant life.

The real problem is that the areas where wolves can live are being used by people. Even if wilderness land is not used directly for human needs, the wolves can’t always find enough food. So they travel to the nearest source, which is often a farm. Then there is danger. The “big bad wolf” has arrived! And everyone knows what happens next.

1.According to the passage, some people in North America favor killing wolves for all the following reasons EXCET that ________.

A.there are too many wolves

B.they kill large numbers deer

C.they attack cows and chickens for food

D.they destroy the wilderness plant life

2.According to those against killing wolves, when wolves eat other animals, ________.

A.they never eat strong and healthy ones

B.they always go against the law of nature

C.they might help this kind of animals survive in nature

D.they disturb the ecological balance in the wilderness

3.The last sentence “And everyone knows what happens next” implies that in such cases ________.

A.farm animals will be in danger and have to be shipped away

B.wolves will kill people and people will in turn kill them

C.wolves wilI find enough food sources on famls

D.people will leave the areas where wolves can live

When I was eight or nine years old, I wrote my first poem.

My mother read the little poem and began to cry. “Buddy, you didn’t really write this beautiful, beautiful poem!” Shyly, I said that I had. My mother poured out her welcome praise. Why, this poem was nothing short of genius!

What time will Father be home?” I asked. I could hardly wait to show him what I had accomplished. My mother said she hoped he would be home around 7. I spent the best part of that afternoon preparing for his arrival. First, I wrote the poem out in my finest handwriting. Then I used colored pens to draw a border around it. Then I confidently placed it right on my father’s plate on the dining table. But my father did not return at 7, Seven-fifteen, Seven-thirty. My father had begun his motion-picture career as a writer. He would be able to appreciate my poem even more than my mother.

It was almost 8 o’clock when my father burst in. He was an hour late, but he could not sit down. I can see him now, a big Havana cigar in one hand, the rapidly disappearing drink in the other, calling down bitter words on his employees.

Suddenly, he paused and glared at his plate. There was a silence. He was reaching for my poem. I lowered my head and stared down into my plate.

“What is this?” I heard him say.

“Ben, a wonderful thing has happened,” my mother said. “Buddy has written his first poem. And it’s beautiful, absolutely amazing”.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to decide that for myself,” Father said.

I kept my face lowered to my plate. It was only 10 lines long. But it seemed to take hours. I remember wondering why it was taking so long. I could hear him dropping the poem back on the table again. Now was the moment of decision.

“I think it’s bad,” my father said.

I couldn’t look up. My eyes were getting wet.

“Ben, sometimes I don’t understand you,” my mother was saying. “This is just a little boy. You’re not in your studio now. These are the first lines of poetry he’s ever written. He need encouragement.”

“I don’t know why,” my father held his ground. “Isn’t there enough bad poetry in the world already? No law says Buddy has to become a poet.”

I couldn’t stand it another second. I ran from the dining room, threw myself on the bed and cried.

That may have been the end of the anecdote(轶事) — but not of its significance for me.

A few years later I took a second look at that first poem, and unwillingly I had to agree with my father’s tough judgment. It was a pretty bad poem. After a while, I worked up the courage to show him something new, a short story. My father thought it was overwritten but not hopeless. I was learning to rewrite. And my mother was learning that she could disapprove of me without ruining me. You might say we were all learning. I was going on 12.

As I worked my way into other books and plays and films, it became clearer and clearer to me how fortunate I had been to have had a mother who said, “Buddy, it’s wonderful!” and a father who shook his head no and drove me to tears with his, “I think it’s bad.” In fact all of us in life need that mother force, the loving force from which all creation flows; and yet the mother force alone is incomplete, even misleading, finally damaging, without the father force to caution, “Watch. Listen. Review. Improve.” Between the two poles of affirmation (肯定) and doubt, both in the name of love, I try to follow my true course.

1.What did the mother think of the Buddy’s poem?

A. She was so moved that she cried.

B. She believed Buddy needed advice from his father.

C. She considered Buddy had no talent for poetry.

D. She thought the poem was well written.

2.Which underlined word in the following sentences best reflects Buddy’s eagerness to show his father the poem?

A. Then I confidently placed it right on my father’s place on the dining table.

B. He would be able to appreciate my poem even more than my mother.

C. I wrote the poem out in my finest handwriting.

D. I could hardly wait to show him what I had accomplished.

3.The underlined sentence “My father held his ground” could best be replaced by ________.

A. My father began to explain his reasons

B. My father thought his comment is unreasonable

C. My father refused to change his opinion

D. My father got so angry that he rose to his feet

4.From the passage, we can infer that the father can be best described as ________.

A. cruel and stubbornB. loving and matter-of-fact

C. bad-tempered and rudeD. cautious and strict

5.Which of the following statements do you think the author might agree with?

A. The incident helped the writer work his work further as a writer.

B. The author only realized the significance of the incident after becoming a writer.

C. After the incident, the author stopped writing but tried his luck in plays and films.

D. The incident completely changed the author’s course of life.

More than a decade ago, cognitive scientists John Bransfgord and Daniel Schwartz, both then at Vanderbilt University, found that knowledge was not the ability to retain facts or apply previous knowledge to a new situation but a quality they called "preparation for future learning." The researches asked fifth graders and college students to create a recovery plan to protect bald eagles from extinction. Shockingly, the two groups came up with plans of similar quality (though the college students had better spelling skills). From the standpoint of a traditional educator, this outcome indicated that schooling had failed to help students think about ecosystems and extinction, major scientific ideas.

The researches decided to go deeper, however. They asked both groups to generate questions about important issues needed to create recovery plans. On this task, they found large differences. College students focused on critical issues. The college students had cultivated the ability to ask questions, the foundation of critical thinking. They had learned how to learn.

Museums and other institutions of informal learning may be more suitable to teach this skill than elementary and secondly schools. At the Exploratorium in San Francisco, we recently studied how learning to ask good questions can affect the quality of people's scientific inquiry. We found that when we taught participants to ask "What if?" and "How can?" questions that nobody present would know the answer to and that would spark exploration, they engaged in better inquiry at the next exhibit—asking more questions, performing more experiments and making better interpretations of their results. Specially, their questions became more comprehensive at the new exhibit.

This type of learning is not limited to museums of institutional settings. Informal learning environment tolerate failure better than schools. Perhaps many teachers have too little time to allow students to form and pursue their own questions and too much ground to cover in the curriculum. But people must acquire this skill somewhere. Our society depend on them being able to make critical decisions about their own medical treatment, says, or what we must do about global energy needs and demands. For that, we have a robust informal system that gives no grades, takes all comers, and is available even on holidays and weekends.

1.What is traditional educators' understanding of the search outcome mentioned in the first paragraph?

A.Students are not able to apply prior knowledge to new problems.

B.College students are no better than fifth graders in memorizing issues.

C.Education has not paid enough attention to major environmental issues.

D.Education has failed to lead students to think about major scientific ideas.

2.In what way are college students different from children?

A.They have learned to think critically.

B.They are concerned about social issues.

C.They are curious about specific features.

D.They have learned to work independently.

3.What is benefit of asking questions with no ready answers?

A.It arouse students' interest in things around them.

B.It cultivates students' ability to make scientific inquiries.

C.It trains students' ability to design scientific experiments.

D.It helps students realize not every question has an answer.

4.What does the author seem to encourage educators to do at the end of the passage?

A.Train students to think about global issues.

B.Design more interactive classroom activities.

C.Make full use of informal learning resources.

D.Include collaborative inquiry in the curriculum.

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