Hello. I’m Jan from Mrs. Lake’s class. My class wants to work together to help the public. We think we have found a great way to do this. Last month we did a class project on the highways near our town. We learned about the Adopt-a-Highway Program. This program brings people together to pick up litter along the roads. We think it would be a great idea for all students in our school to join the program and adopt a highway.

Adopting a highway is not like adopting a pet. When a highway is adopted, only part of the highway is cared for by a group of people. The group agrees to work every week to keep its part of the highway clean. Each group gets its own sign that has the name of the group printed on it. The sign is put up at the side of the road. This sign lets drivers know who is keeping that area of the road clean.

The Adopt-a-Highway Program is a great way for people to help their environment look nicer. Also, the government does not have to send out as many road workers. This saves money. Finally, people may try harder to keep roads clean if they see people, especially teenagers like us, cleaning them up.

We will need helpers to care for our adopted highway. If you want to feel great and keep our roads clean,please come with your parents to the meeting next week. We will meet in Mrs. Lake’ room on Wednesday at 6:00 P. M. At the meeting, we will talk about which roads are the dirtiest as a result of people's unkind acts. Then we''ll try to pick an area to adopt and clean.

I look forward to seeing you at the meeting. Remember to keep our roads clean!

1.What is the Adopt-a-Highway Program about?

A. Giving names to the highways.

B. Drawing pictures of highways.

C. Picking up litter along the roads.

D. Putting up signs near the roads.

2.What should the students do first if they want to join the program?

A. Pick a spot to care for.

B. Call Mrs. Lake next week.

C. Write a letter to their parents.

D. Go to a meeting on Wednesday.

3.What is the purpose of this speech?

A. To encourage students to join the program.

B. To introduce the traffic system.

C. To show drivers how to drive safely.

D. To tell a story about adopting a pet.

4.Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A. Adopt-a-Pet

B. Adopt-a-Highway

C. Ways to Protect the Environment

D. Volunteers on Roads

In a mango orchard (芒果林) outside a village there lived a mischievous (淘气的) monkey. He kept on eating the ripe mangoes. The orchard keeper tried to trap the monkey. But every time, the monkey escaped from the trap.

One day, the monkey walked about and went into the nearby town. “The town people are so busy. It is so crowded here,” the monkey thought. Soon, the monkey was sneaking into houses and running away with food. By evening, he had made life quite different for the town people. “The town is more fun than the orchard. I will stay here,” he thought. Days went by, and the monkey was considered by the town people as something very frightening. “Here he comes again!” they screamed when they saw the monkey.

One day, a juggler (玩杂耍的人) came to the town. The people of the town went to him. “We want you to help us get rid of the monkey,” they said to the juggler. The juggler said in return, “Do not worry. Get me some jars (罐子) with narrow necks.” When the jars were brought to him, he put some peanuts into them and placed them out of a field. The monkey became curious when he saw the peanuts. “Yummy! Let me quickly get the peanuts and run,” he thought. He put his hand inside a jar and grabbed a big handful of peanuts. But he could not pull out of his clenched fist (紧握的拳头), as the neck of the jar was so narrow. If the monkey had dropped some of the peanuts back into the jar, he could have pulled his hand out. But he was greedy. So he didn’t drop any of the peanuts. The town people trapped the monkey with his hand inside the jar. They got hold of a rope and tied him to a post. Then the monkey was sold to a zoo. That was the end of the greedy monkey.

1.What part does the first paragraph play in the passage?

A. It summarizes the whole story.

B. It explains the background.

C. It attracts the readers.

D. It states the main idea.

2.What is the meaning of the underlined phrase, “sneaking into houses”?

A. Going into houses secretly without permission.

B. Going into houses peacefully.

C. Going into houses in a group.

D. Going into houses with delight.

3.Why did the town people regard the monkey as something frightening?

A. He was smart and always escaped from the people’s traps.

B. The orchard keeper told the town people to get rid of him.

C. He did something that upset the people’s lives.

D. He disturbed the town people while they were sleeping.

4.What did the juggler do to catch the monkey?

A. He put some mangoes in a field.

B. He used a rope to tie the monkey.

C. He called the zookeeper to catch the monkey.

D. He put some peanuts into jars with narrow necks.

It took 100 years, but finally, scientists, from CalTech, MIT and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, proved Albert Einstein's theory that gravitational(引力的) waves exist. The waves were predicted as part of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity nearly 100 years ago. It was the theory of the physics behind the workings of our world and the universe. The idea was that the waves are like ripples in space, caused by some of the violent and energetic processes in the Universe. For example, two black holes crashing into each other.

What are these gravitational waves? Well, imagine throwing a rock into a pond. When the rock hits the flat surface of the water, it creates ripples or waves. Space time is like the surface of the water. So that means gravitational waves are like the ripples moving out from where the rock hits the water. It might be hard to understand, but those gravitational waves expand and contract space and time as they move through space. And when they get to the Earth, the waves pass through, and contract and expand the planet as the wave goes by.

It was Einstein who said these gravitational waves should be observable. But these are not huge waves. They are very, very small, which is why it took so long to find them. You cannot see them with your eyes. They are smaller than the size of an atom.

How did the scientists find them? For years, scientists have been watching two black holes in another galaxy faraway with the help of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. The two were spinning around each other, moving closer and closer together. When they finally crashed into each other, it was with such power and force, that gravitational waves rang throughout the universe, like a giant bell. Those waves, traveling at the speed of light, finally reached the Earth, some 1.3 billion years later. They are the same waves that the scientists announced this past week.

The National Science Foundation tweeted that each of the black holes was thought to be 29 to 36 times the mass of our sun. So, what does this discovery mean? Abhay Ashtekar, a Penn State physicist, who was not on the discovery team, said: "Our understanding of the heavens changed dramatically."

1.According to the 1st paragraph, we can learn that_______.

A. gravitational waves were part of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity

B. scientists proved that gravitational waves existed 100 years ago

C. gravitational waves were the theory of the physics behind the universe

D. gravitational waves result from two black holes crashing into each other

2.From the passage we can know that the gravitational waves______.

A. are not supposed to be observed.

B. are very huge.

C. are easy to be found.

D. can’t be seen with our eyes.

3.Why did scientists spend years watching two black holes?

A. Because they wanted to see how the two black holes crashed into each other.

B. Because they wanted to find the gravitational waves.

C. Because they wanted to see the gravitational waves reach the Earth.

D. Because they wanted to know how black holes formed.

4.What can we infer from the passage?

A. The discovery has no relation to Albert Einstein's theory

B. Throwing a rock into a pond can generate gravitational waves

C. The discovery will considerably affect people’s understanding of universe

D. gravitational waves can’t contract and expand the Earth

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