Paracutin was born in Mexico in February, 1943. At the end of one week Paracutin was 500 feet high, and it is now over 9,000 feet high. Today Paracutin is asleep.
What is Paracutin? It was the first volcano(火山) in the world which was seen from its birth right up to the present day. On February 20, 1943, a peasant and his wife set out to work in their corn fields from the Mexican village of Paracutin. They were surprised to find the earth warm under their feet. Suddenly they heard noises deep in the earth and a small hole appeared in their field. In the afternoon there was a sudden loud noise and stones were thrown high in the air. The peasants ran from the field and turned to watch. They saw the birth of a volcano.
Large quantities of stone and lava(岩浆)broke out and a little hill began to form. By evening this hill was 100 feet high and hot ashes(灰烬)were falling on the village. At night the strong light of the hot lava lit up the countryside. The trees near the village were killed and the villagers had to leave their houses. When the village was destroyed, its name was given to the volcano. The news quickly reached Mexico City, far to the east. Many people came to watch the scene. The volcano grew and grew for ten years and hundreds of square miles of forest were destroyed. Then Paracutin went to sleep

  1. 1.

    Paracutin was once the name of______.

    1. A.
      a peasant
    2. B.
      a village
    3. C.
      an old mountain
    4. D.
      a Mexican
  2. 2.

    Which of the following statements is NOT true?

    1. A.
      Paracutin is not active now
    2. B.
      Paracutin is the first volcano in the world
    3. C.
      Paracutin did not exist until the early 1940s
    4. D.
      It took Paracutin 10 years to grow to its present size
  3. 3.

    What was destroyed in the growing up of the volcano?

    1. A.
      The little hill of stone
    2. B.
      The villagers living close by
    3. C.
      The forest and fields round Paracutin
    4. D.
      The Mexican peasant and his wife
  4. 4.

    In this passage the writer is trying to______.

    1. A.
      tell us an interesting happening
    2. B.
      explain a scientific theory
    3. C.
      make us believe something
    4. D.
      make up an interesting story
  5. 5.

    What can we learn about volcanoes from this passage?

    1. A.
      New volcanoes may appear in places where people do not expect them to be
    2. B.
      Volcanoes are always growing
    3. C.
      Volcanoes are active from time to time
    4. D.
      New volcanoes are active for only ten years

Some plants get so hungry they eat flies, spiders, and even small frogs. What’s more amazing is that these plants occur naturally (in special environment) in every state. In fact, they’re found on every continent except Antarctica.
You’ve probably seen a Venus’ flytrap. It’s often sold in museum gift stores, department stores, and even supermarkets. A small plant, it grows 6 to 8 inches tall in a container. At the end of its stalks(茎)are specially modified leaves that act like traps. Inside each trap is a lining of tiny trigger(触发) hairs. When an insect lands on them, the trap suddenly shut. Over the course of a week or so, the plant feeds on its catch.
The Venus’ flytrap is just one of more than 500 species of meat-eating plants, says Barry Meyers-Rice, the editor of the International Carnivorous Plant Society’s Newsletter. Note: Despite any science –fiction stories you might have read, no meat-eating plant does any danger to humans.
Dr. Meyers-Rice says a plant is meat-eating, only if it does all four of the following: “attract, kill, digest, and absorb” some forms of insects, including flies, butterflies, and moths. Meat-eating plants look and act like other green plants ---well, most of the time.
All green plants make sugar through a process called photosynthesis(光合作用). Plants use the sugar to make food. What makes “meat-eating” plants different is their bug-catching leaves. They need insects for one reason: nitrogen(氮). Nitrogen is a nutrient that they can’t obtain any other way. Why almost all green plants on our planet get nitrogen from the soil “Meat-eating” plants can’t. They live in places where nutrients are hard or almost impossible to get from the soil because of its acidity(酸度). So they’ve come to rely on getting nitrogen from insects and small animals. In fact, nutrient-rich soil is poisonous to “meat-eating” plants. Never fertilize(施肥)them! But don’t worry, either, if they never seem to catch any insects. They can survive, but they’ll grow very slowly.

  1. 1.

    According to the passage, carnivorous plants       .

    1. A.
      only grow in wild field
    2. B.
      are rare to see
    3. C.
      are as common as flies
    4. D.
      cannot grow on Antarctica
  2. 2.

    Venus’ flytrap preys on insects by          .

    1. A.
      its numerous long stalks
    2. B.
      a container where it grows
    3. C.
      its insect-catching leaves
    4. D.
      the lining of tiny trigger hairs
  3. 3.

    We can conclude from the third paragraph that_____.

    1. A.
      carnivorous plants are dangerous
    2. B.
      carnivorous plants are fictional
    3. C.
      carnivorous plants occasionally eat books
    4. D.
      carnivorous plants are harmless to humans
  4. 4.

    In the eyes of the author, which of the following statements is TRUE?

    1. A.
      Carnivorous plants cannot grow in acid soil.
    2. B.
      Carnivorous plants can grow in nutrient-poor soil.
    3. C.
      Carnivorous plants will die if they cannot catch any insects
    4. D.
      Carnivorous plants can get nitrogen from nutrient-rich soil.

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