A press report stating that Microsoft has restarted talks to buy Yahoo's search business for 20 billion U. S. dollars. "It has no basis in fact," the San Francisco Chronicle said on Monday.

The Times of London reported on Sunday that the deal under discussion would put former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller and Ross Levinsohn, a former president of Fox Interactive Media, in charge of Yahoo. The report also said executives (管理人员) at both companies had agreed to the broad terms of a deal.

In fact, there are no current talks between the two companies. The Chronicle quoted an executive at one of the firms who requested his name to be kept secret as saying. Furthermore, the 20-billion-dollar price mentioned in the Times of London article for Yahoo's search business appears questionable given that the market capitalization (资本总额) for all of Yahoo is 16 billion dollars, said The Chronicle.

Yahoo and Microsoft had had on-again, off-again talks over several months earlier this year about a 47. 5-billion-dollar takeover, and later a proposal focused only on Yahoo's search business. Discussions regarding both plans collapsed without an agreement.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said repeatedly that he is no longer interested in buying all of Yahoo, but that he is open to some sort of partnership involving their respective search businesses.

Brad Williams, a Yahoo spokesman, said Sunday "We don't comment on rumors." Frank Shaw, a Microsoft spokesman, declined to comment.

Yahoo's shares have plummeted since Microsoft withdrew its 33-dollar-a-share acquisition offer earlier this year, leaving people to think that discussions would eventually be restarted. Yahoo's shares closed Friday at 11. 51 dollars, nearly one-third of the original offer.

1. From this passage, we can know that ______.

  A. Microsoft has given up buying all of Yahoo but its search business 

  B. Microsoft has already taken over the whole company of Yahoo

  C. the market capitalization for all of Yahoo is over $ 20 billion

  D. the market capitalization for all of Microsoft is only $ 6 billion

2. What is the author trying to convince readers of in the third paragraph?

  A. Yahoo and Microsoft are talking about takeover.

B. Microsoft is buying Yahoo’s search businesses for $ 20 billion.

C. Yahoo would like to sell its search businesses to another company.

D. There are no current talks between Yahoo and Microsoft.

3. What does the underlined word “plummet” in the passage most probably mean?

  A. develop rapidly      B. increase quickly      C. fall quickly     D. keep balanced

4. You can find this passage most probably in ______ .

  A. an entertainment website       B. an economical newspaper

  C. a sports magazine              D. a biological dictionary

A new plan for getting children to and from school is being started by a local government in Eastern England. This could end the worries of many parents fear ful for their children's safety on the roads.

Until now the local government have only been prepared to provide bus services for children living more than three miles from their school, or sometimes less if special reasons existed. Now it has been decided that if a group of parents ask for help in organizing transport they will be prepared to go ahead, as long as the arrangement will not lose money and children taking part will be attending their nearest school.

The new plan is to be tried out this term for children living at Milton who attend Impington School. The children live just without the three mile limit and the local government have said in the past that they will not undertake to provide free transport to the school. But now they have agreed to offer a sum of money for a bus service from Milton to Impington and back, a plan which has the support of the school's headmaster.

Between 50 and 60 parents have said they would like their children to take part. Final calculations have still to be carried out, but a government official has said the cost to parents should be less than ￡ 20 a term.

They have been able to arrange the service at a low cost because there is already an agreement with the bus company for a bus to take children who live further away to Impington. The same bus would now just make one more journey to pick up the Milton children. The official said they would get in touch with other groups of parents who in the past had asked if transport could be provided for their children, to see if they would like to take part in the new plan.

1.What is the aim of the plan?

A.To prevent the students' road accident.        

B.To relieve the traffic pressure.

C.To save time for the parents and students.        

D.To help the parents save money. 

2.How can the local government arrange the new bus service at a low cost?

A.By letting the bus run in the morning only.

B.By limiting the number of the students.

C.By obtaining the support from the headmaster.

D.By lining the new bus service with the existing one. 

3.The new bus service will be paid for by  ________ .

A. the parents             B. the local government

C. the bus company         D. the local government and the parents 

4.Which of the following is possible if the plan is carried out?

A.The bus company will make much more money.

B.The children can choose whatever school they like.

C.The parents can get rid of their worries.

D.The students in Impington School can have free bus rides. 

5.This passage is most probably ________  .

A.a personal letter         B. a headmaster's report

C.an advertisement          D. a newspaper article 

A young man rushes about a small room, hiding himself behind a chair, jumping on the desk, jabbing (刺) the air with his pencil. To an outsider there appears to be no __1__ for these strange acts. However, he is the __2__ of an experiment in hypnosis (催眠). Being hypnotized, the young man has __3__ the suggestion that there is a fierce dog in the room. So he acts as though there were.

According to the popular conception of hypnosis, a hypnotized person is in a __4__ like sleepwalking－seemingly awake yet out of touch with his or her normal __5__ awareness and self-control. There are, however, enormous __6__ between the sleepwalker and the hypnotized person. First, the sleepwalker, __7__ the hypnotized person, pays no attention to other people and doesn’t take instructions. Second, the sleepwalker doesn’t remember sleepwalking, while the hypnotized person __8__ everything that went on under hypnosis.

Obviously, sleep and hypnosis are different. But what exactly is hypnosis? Psychologists still don’t have a firm answer to this question. Although hypnosis has been already successfully __9__ to a large range of medical uses, there is little clear agreement as to how hypnosis works. Only when scientists can understand this, can the full potential (潜能) of hypnosis in medical treatment be __10__.

A. reason     B. purpose      C. doubt  D. evidence

A. species    B. target  C. subject       D. aim

A. received  B. accepted     C. admitted     D. believed

A. time B. course C. development      D. state

A. awake     B. waking       C. sleepy D. sleeping

A. influence B. relations     C. similarities D. differences

A. unlike     B. like     C. for      D. with

A. forgets    B. destroys     C. enjoys D. remembers

A. come       B. put     C. turned D. changed

A. exploited      B. saved  C. made  D. kept

A bar manager was so sure that he himself was the strongest man. Thus he made a bet and declared he would offer $1000 if    1   could beat him.

     The    2   was that the landlord would squeeze（压榨）a lemon until all the    3   ran out into a beer glass, then hand the lemon to the customer. Anyone who could squeeze even one more   __ 4   out of the lemon would win the money.

     Over the years many people had tried this, truck drivers, weightlifters, karate masters, and    __ 5   had failed. Then one day a geeky little fellow with heavy black rimmed glasses    6   the bar and asked if he could try the challenge.

     After the laughter had quieted down the landlord said that it was only fair that the man should be given a    7   at the bet, so he picked up a lemon and started squeezing. Once he had done, he handed the    8   to the little man. Immediately, the little man promptly squeezed out 4 more drops of juice onto the bar!

     Everyone looked at the little man in    9   as the landlord handed over the prize and asked

"What do you do for a living that has given you such   10  ? Are you a lumberjack, weightlifter?"

"No." the man replied, "I work for the IRS.( 美国国税局)"

A. anyone        B. someone        C. every one       D. no one

A. fact           B. trap            C. challenge       D. match

A. flesh           B. juice           C. seeds         D. peel

A. water       B. lemon           C. beer glass     D. drop

A. none          B. neither          C. either           D. all

A. rushed into     B. came into     C. put into       D. looked into

A. then        B. likely         C. fair            D. chance

A. container    B. money        C. remains        D. other

A. tears           B. amazement      C. trouble         D. time

A. strength    B. bravery         C. skill           D. bet

5月1日，高二（3）班的学生志愿者Li Yue和ZhangHua去阳光敬老院（Sunshine Nursing Home）开展志愿者活动（送水果、打扫、聊天等）。假如你是校英语报的记者，请按下列要点用英语写一则100~120词的新闻报道。

1. 时间、地点、任务、活动；  2. 老人们的反应；  3. 简短评论

【参考词汇】 1. 时间： May 1st    2. 地点：Sunshine Nursing Home  3. 活动：a) present the elderly with fruits and …    b) do some cleaning / clean …      

c) chat / talk with      d) give per formances    4. 基本时态：一般过去时

Student volunteers Brought Sunshine to the Elderly