As you climb into the hill country, the roads get dustier and rougher, and fewer cars can be seen．Phonxay is one of the poorest districts of Laos, and many of its villages are only accessible by footpath．Our destination this hot morning is a concrete water tank that can be found just off the road．A UK organization helped to build it six years ago, and in the nearby village of Thapho, where clean drinking water is scarce, it has made a big difference．The tank feeds six taps which in turn give water to over 800 people---it has improved things for almost every family, from schoolchildren to grannies．
But lately, we were told, the clean water supply has come under pressure from new arrivals, people who have come down from the hill areas, and there are concerns that there will not be enough clean water to go round．
There are also serious worries about resources in Laos．The Chinese are building a 400km railway link, which could transform the landlocked country．About 150,000 Chinese workers will be involved．What will this do to local clean water supplies? How will the workers be fed?
The vast majority of Laotians live on farms．But with foreign investors wanting to buy up land, local people will have to be moved to make room for them．Heavily dependent on both foreign aid and foreign investment, Laos still falls well behind its neighbours, although its economy has grown at about 6％ a year in the last decade．Its biggest economic problem is the lack of locally trained skilled workforce．
But there are reasons to be hopeful for the future．Laos is beautiful, and foreign tourism continues to grow：fortunately so far the fast-food chains and coffee bars common elsewhere are nowhere to be seen．Although all local media are government-run, the Internet is not controlled and the BBC and CNN are available to those with satellite dishes．
The government has also achieved impressive results in rural development, with communities benefiting not just from cleaner water but the construction of new schools and regular visits from medical teams．Poverty will not be history in Laos within the next decade, but with small steps forward and a bit of outside help, the country could find itself out of the UN’s least-developed category by 2020．
(1)
The underlined word “scarce” in paragraph 1 most probably means ________．
[ ]
A．
valuable
B．
rare
C．
infrequent
D．
missing
(2)
What is putting pressure on the local supply of clean water?
[ ]
A．
Dust from the road is making the water dirtier．
B．
There are too many taps accessing the water．
C．
The population of the area is growing fast．
D．
The coming summer will dry up rivers and lakes．
(3)
What is the most serious limitation on Laos’ economic growth?
[ ]
A．
The lack of local skilled workers．
B．
A poor transportation system．
C．
Too much foreign aid．
D．
Too many foreign workers．
(4)
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT a reason for Laos to be hopeful?
[ ]
A．
There are no fast-food restaurants in the country．
For more than two days in September 1974, the People of Honduras shut their windows，locked their doors and covered in their homes．Fifi was outside．and they were frightened．
By the time Fifi had left，8000 people were dead．Fifi wasn’t a pet dog as the name suggests．It was a hurricane(飓风)，one of the most destructive⒂ natural phenomena(现象)in the world．
Why did we give human names to storms and hurricanes?
We didn’t always．Two hundred years ago，many hurricanes in the Caribbean were named after the saint’s(基督教徒的)day on which the storm occurred．Later，storms were known by the name of the city where they came ashore．
Meteorologists(气象学家)then tried naming storms after the latitude(纬度)and longitude(经度)where they occurred．
Finally，in 1953，hurricanes started getting people’s names－specifically，female names．Male names were added in 1979．
There are six sets of names for what the experts call “Atlantic tropical cyclones”(热带风暴)．
Each list is used every six years and consists of 2l names，starting with every letter but Q, U, X, Y and Z．The names alternate between male and female．
A storm won’t get a name until its winds reach 39 mph or about 62.4 kph，at which point it becomes a tropical storm．At 74 mph or 118.4 kph it’s declared a hurricane．
The 126 names on the list are used only for storms that form off the Atlantic coast of the US．There are separate lists for the Pacific．
So what happens if a hurricane should cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific?It’s happened before．The storm just gets a new name and sometimes a new sex．
Max Mayfield is the director of the National Hurricane Centre，headquartered in Miami，Florida．He’s in charge of(负责)picking new names for storms off the Atlantic coast．
He doesn’t do it alone, though．His counterparts in two dozen other countries in Caribbean， Central America and North America vote on what names will replace retired names．
(1)
From the first paragraph we can find that ________．
[ ]
A．
Honduras is a country which was destroyed by Fifi
B．
Honduras is a country which has no mountains
C．
Honduras is a country which faces the ocean
D．
Honduras is a country which lies at high latitudes
(2)
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
[ ]
A．
There were no hurricanes two centuries ago．
B．
The Caribbean is a state of the United stales．
C．
The Caribbean is a place where hurricanes occur often．
D．
Fifi was formed off the Pacific．
(3)
The names for storms and hurricanes off the Atlantic coast, as this passage shows, ________．
[ ]
A．
are set for use
B．
are all from American English
C．
are difficult to spell
D．
are easy to fix
(4)
The underlined word “counterparts” in the last paragraph means ________．
[ ]
A．
citizens holding the same opinion
B．
people with a similar position or function
C．
passengers traveling by sea
D．
assistants working abroad
(5)
Which list could be used to name the five storms from the Atlantic in a year?
[ ]
A．
David, Helen, Jack, Mike, Lucy．
B．
Lucy, Mary, Owen, Tina, Peter．
C．
Sam, Tina, Victor, Victoria, Jean．
D．
Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor．
阅读理解
I needed to buy a digital camera, one that was simply good at taking good snaps(快照), maybe occasionally for magazines．Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand．So I went on the net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store．There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list．And it was on special offer．Oh joy．I pointed at it and asked an assistant,“Can I have one of those?”He looked perturbed(不安)．“Do you want to try it first?" he said．It didn't quite sound like a question．"Do I need to?" I replied．"There's nothing wrong with it?" This made him look a bit insulted and I started to feel bad．"No, no．But you should try it," he said encouragingly．" Compare it with the others．"
I looked across at the others：shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box．With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time．But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with：first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model．
But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice．In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen．The assistant seemed a sincere man．So I let him take out my chosen camera from the cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers…and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well．
Why do we think that new options(选择)still offer us anything new?Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine．
(1)
The shop assistant insisted that the writer should ________．
[ ]
A．
try the camera to see if there was anything wrong with it
B．
compare the camera he had chosen with the others
C．
get more information about different companies
D．
trust him and stop asking questions
(2)
What does the writer mean by "it would be worth half what I paid for it"(Paragraph 2)?
[ ]
A．
He should get a 50％ discount．
B．
The price of the camera was unreasonably high．
C．
The quality of the camera was not good．
D．
The camera would soon fall in value．
(3)
The writer decided to try the model he had chosen because he ________．
[ ]
A．
knew very little about it
B．
didn't trust the shop assistant
C．
wanted to make sure the one he chose would be the best
D．
had a special interest in taking pictures of his fellow shoppers
(4)
It can be inferred from the passage that in the writer's opinion, ________
[ ]
A．
people waste too much money on cameras
B．
cameras have become an important part of our daily life
C．
we don't actually need so many choices when buying a product
D．
famous companies care more about profit than quality
阅读理解
Scores of farms across the country are opening up to overnight guests．The best have all the appeal of a first-rate inn(小旅馆)－plus here a moo, there a moo．
Sure, you and your kids have a plan for the theme parks．In the meanwhile, why not make a little hay(干草)? Farm stays are fast becoming the great American alternative to the pre-packaged vacation．
LIBERTY HALL FARM
Rochester, Vt．; 802/767-3926; www．libertyhillfarm．com．Adults ＄75, teens ＄50, kids 12 and under ＄35, including breakfast and dinner; shared baths．
Beth and Bob Kennett run a farm straight out of a storybook．You'll find Beth in the kitchen, rolling out dough(生面团)for a pie．Bob's busy with other work．Guests sleep in seven sunny bedrooms right in the farmhouse and can participate in any of the farm jobs．Maybe you and your kids won't be up at 6 am to meet the milk truck, but you can help with the milking twice a day, collect eggs, and pick sweet corn and wild blackberries in season．
HULL-O FARM
Durham, N．Y．; 518/239-6950; www．hull-o．com; Adults ＄110, kids 10-14 ＄60, 5-9 ＄50, 2-4 ＄35, under 2 free, including breakfast and dinner; private baths．
It started in 1993 as a way to bring in some extra money at a time of falling milk prices．But soon after Frank and Sherry Hull opened their Catskill Mountains dairy farm to overnight visitors, they discovered they loved it．As you drive up, Sherry greets you on the porch(入口处)of the 1825 farmhouse with a cow-shaped cookie jar．Before long your kids are playing around with the cows, sheep, ducks, goats and getting ready for a hayride．
MERAMEC FARM CABINS
Bourbon, Mo．; 573/732-4765; http：//www．wine-mo．com; Doubles with private bath ＄75, ＄10 per additional person．Trail and riding fees extra．
Climb on the back of the Ford pick up and catch up with the herd．One gentle cow named Cricket will even let the kids sit on her back．At the barn(牲口棚)Carol will introduce you to the horses－15 Missouri Fox Trotters－and lead you on a ride over the hills and down along the spring-fed Meramec River, where everyone swims．Grab a fishing pole and head back to the river．When you have your fill of the wild, try Carol and Dave's favorite restaurants, within 20 miles of the farm．
(1)
The underlined sentence in the first paragraph implies that ________．
[ ]
A．
you can enjoy the best cuisine at the first rate restaurant
B．
some farms provide country experiences as well as good accommodations
C．
farm work is hard, but you can enjoy it a lot, playing with the animals
D．
if you want to hear a cow's cry, please stay on a best farm
(2)
We can learn from the three ads that ________．
[ ]
A．
Hull-O Farm was not built for overnight visitors
B．
Frank and Sherry Hull run a farm out of a storybook
C．
kids can sit on a gentle cow's back on Hull-O Farm
D．
you can't milk a cow if you get up late on Liberty Hill Farm
(3)
The Browns have a 13-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter．If they stay on Liberty Hill Farm for one night, how much will they pay?
[ ]
A．
＄175．
B．
＄220．
C．
＄235．
D．
＄250．
(4)
Who will be most likely interested in the webpage?
[ ]
A．
Kids who want to find pleasure in the theme parks．
B．
People who expect to be employed on the farm．
C．
Those who plan to have family vacations on working farms．
D．
Researchers who are interested in raising cows on farms．
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