Do you know why different animals or insects have their special colors? Colors are used mainly to protect themselves.

Why can’t some birds easily catch locusts（蝗虫）? It is because locusts change their colors together with the change of the colors of crops. When crops are green, locusts look green. But as autumn comes, locusts change to the same brown color as crops have. Some other insects with different colors from plants are easily found and eaten by others. So they have to hide themselves for lives in the day and appear only at night.

If you study the animal life, you’ll find the main use of coloring is to protect themselves. Bears, lions and other animals can’t be easily seen by hunters. This is because they have the colors much like the trees.

Have you ever noticed an even more strange thing? A kind of fish in the sea can send out black liquid when it faces danger. While the liquid spreads over, its enemies can’t find it. And it quickly swims away. So it has lived up to now though it is not strong at all.

1. From the article we learn that locusts 　　　　　　　　　.

A. are dangerous to their enemies           B. are easily found by birds

C. change their colors to protect themselves   D. are small animals

2.How can insects with different colors from plants keep out of danger?

A. They have to move quietly.

B. They hide themselves in the day and appear at night.

C. They have the colors much like their enemies.

D. They run away quickly.

3. Bears and lions can keep safe because 　　　　　　　　　.

A. they live in forests                  B. they like brown and grey colors

C. they move quietly　                   D. they have the colors similar to the trees

4.What does the word “liquid” mean in the last paragraph?

A. 气体          B. 固体　       C. 液体　       D. 水蒸气

5. Which is the best title for this passage?

A. The Main Use of Colors for Animals and Insects

B. Colors of Different Animals and Insects

C. The Change of Colors for Animals and Insects

D. The Change of Different Animals and Plants

When we can see well, we do not think about our eyes often: It is only when we cannot see perfectly that we come to see how important our eyes are.
People who are nearsighted（近视的） can only see things that are very close to their eyes. Many people who do a lot of close work, such as writing and reading, become nearsighted. Then they have to wear glasses in order to see distant things clearly.
People who are farsighted face just the opposite problem. They can see things that are far away, but they have difficulty reading a book if they don't hold it at arm's length. If they want to do much reading, they must get glasses too.
Other people do not see clearly because their eyes are not exactly the right shape. This, too, can be corrected by glasses. Some people's eyes become cloudy because of cataracts (白内障). Long ago these people often became blind. Now, however, it is possible to operate on the cataracts and remove them.
When night falls, colors become fainter（更模糊） to the eyes and finally disappear. After your eyes have grown used to the dark, you can see better if you use the side of your eyes rather than the centers. Sometimes, after dark, you see a small thing to one side of you. It seems to disappear if you turn your head in its direction. This is because when you turn your head, you are looking at the thing too directly. Men on guard duty sometimes think they see something moving to one side of them. When they turn to look straight at it, they cannot see it anymore, and they believe they were mistaken. However, this mistake happens because the center of the eye, which is very sensitive (敏感的) in daylight, is not as sensitive as the sides of the eye after dark,
【小题1】According to the passage, a _______ is more likely to be nearsighted.

Microblog is used by more and more people in China. Do you know what it is?

Micorblog makes the people around the world know each other better. It helps people to find the information that they need more easily, also to get some information about the world they did not know before.

Many famous people are using microblog now, including singers, TV hosts and artists. The first day of Chinese New Year in 2013, people on Sina Microblog sent 9,873 microblogs to wish somebody a Happy New Year. Yao Chen, a movie star, became the queen of microblog because her microblog had over 1.3 million followers; Li Yuchun sent a microblog and got 11,760 comments (评论) within 24 hours; Cai Kangyong, who is a famous TV host and famous writer in Taiwan, had 15,143 followers within 24 hours.

Why is microblog so popular? The most important reason is that it is easy. People need not use too much time to write the articles to express their feelings. They can write at most 140 words, and then send them through computers or mobile phones onto the microblog. As soon as they send it out, their fans will know. They can send it out anytime, anywhere.

Many of my friends use microblogs to share things with others. They can talk about what they see, hear and think in a sentence or a photo. Also, they can follow their friends’ or their favorite stars’. They can even join in any discussion of anything. Microblog is a hit now! Have you microblogged today?  264

1.According to the passage, ______.

A. microblog can make people know each other better

B. you can write as many words as you like in microblog

C. microblog is not very popular in China

D. microblog is only used by people under 18

2.Microblog is very popular. The most important reason is that _____.

A. many famous people are using it now

B. it is easy, quick and very useful

C. people can share their photos with others   

D. people can join in any discussion

3.The word “hit” in the 5^th paragraph means _____.

A. important information and comments

B. somebody interesting and helpful

C. something popular and successful

D. famous people and movie stars

In the 13^th century, the famous Indian traveller, Marco Polo, travelled a long way to China. He saw many wonderful things. One of the things he discovered was that Chinese used paper money. In western countries, people did not use paper money until the 15^th century. However, people in China began to use paper money in the 7^th century.

    A Chinese man called Cai Lun invented paper almost 2,000 years ago. He made it from wood. He took the wood from trees and made it into paper. He then put these pieces of paper together and made them into a book.

    Now paper still comes from trees. We use a lot of paper every day. If we keep on wasting so much paper, there will not be any trees left on the earth. If there are no trees, there will be no paper. Every day, people throw away about 2,800 tons of paper in our city. It takes 17 trees to make one ton of paper. This means that we are cutting nearly 48,000 trees every day. Since it takes more than 10 years for a tree to grow, we must start using less paper now. If we don’t, we will not have enough time to grow more trees to take the place of those we use for paper.

    So how can we save paper? We can use both sides of every piece of paper, especially when we are making notes. We can also use cotton handkerchiefs（手帕） and paper ones. When we go shopping, we can use fewer paper bags. If the shop assistant does give us a paper bag, we can save it and refuse（拒绝）it later.

    Everyone can help to save paper. If we all think carefully, we can help protect trees. But we should do it now, before it is too late.

1.When he was in China, Marco Polo __________ .

   A. discovered Cai Lun invented paper         B. learned to make paper

   C. saw many wonderful things             D. read a lot of books

2. People in western countries first used paper money in the _________ century.

   A. 17^th               B. 15^th          C. 13^th              D. 7^th

3. About ________ tons of paper are thrown away every day in our city.

   A. 1,700         B. 2,000            C. 2,800            D. 48,000

4. Which of the following is the way of saving paper?

A. To use both sides of every piece of paper.  

B. To use the paper bags from shops more than once.

C. To use cotton handkerchiefs and paper ones.  D. All of the above.

5.Which is the best title（题目） of the passage?

A. Saving paper.                      B. The history of paper.

C. Cotton handkerchiefs back again.      D. Cai Lun, the great inventor.