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 newly trained teacher named Mary went to teach at a Navajo Indian reservation. Every day, she would ask five of the young Navajo students to __1__ the chalkboard and complete a simple math problem from   2   homework.

    They would stand there, silently,  3   to complete the task. Mary couldn’t figure it out.   4   she had studied in her educational curriculum helped, and she   5   hadn’t seen anything like it in her student-teaching days back in Phoenix.

     What am I doing wrong? Could I have chosen five students who can’t do the  6  ? Mary would wonder. No,  7  couldn’t be that. Finally she   8   the students what was wrong. And in their answers, she learned a   9   lesson from her young   10   pupils about self-image and a(n)   11   of self-worth.

     It seemed that the students  12  each other’s individuality and knew that  13  of them were capable of doing the problems.   14  at their early age, they understood the senselessness of the win-lose approach in the classroom. They believed no one would  15  if any students were shown up or embarrassed at the  16  . So they   17   to compete with each other in public.

     Once she understood, Mary changed the system   18   she could check each child’s math problem individually, but not at any child’s expense  19  his classmates. They all wanted to learn,  20  not at someone else’s expense.

1．  A．go to B．come to    C．get close to      D．bring

2．  A．his    B．their  C．his own    D．her

3．  A．happy       B．willingly   C．readily      D．unwilling

4．  A．Anything  B．Nothing    C．Everything       D．Neither

5．  A．almost      B．certainly   C．hardly      D．never

6．  A．question   B．chalkboard       C．problem    D．homework

7．  A．they  B．it      C．everything       D．each

8．  A．asked       B．questioned       C．told   D．understood

9．  A．outstanding      B．surprising C．annoying  D．frightening

10．A．sunburned B．tender       C．Indian      D．naughty

11．A．sense B．image       C．way   D．aspect

12．A．had   B．ignored     C．respected  D．cared

13．A．none        B．no one      C．each  D．not all

14．A．Especially B．Even though    C．Even so    D．Even

15．A．lose   B．win   C．achieve     D．answer

16．A．time  B．situation   C．chalkboard       D．condition

17．A．refused     B．rejected    C．tried  D．promised

18．A．if      B．so that      C．unless       D．in case

19．A．in favour of    B．of     C．by means of     D．in front of

20．A．and   B．but    C．so     D．or

A newly trained teacher named Mary went to teach at a Navajo Indian reservation. Every day, she would ask five of the young Navajo students to __1__ the chalkboard and complete a simple math problem from   2   homework.

They would stand there, silently,  3   to complete the task. Mary couldn’t figure it out.   4   she had studied in her educational curriculum helped, and she   5   hadn’t seen anything like it in her student-teaching days back in Phoenix.

What am I doing wrong? Could I have chosen five students who can’t do the  6  ? Mary would wonder. No,  7  couldn’t be that. Finally she   8   the students what was wrong. And in their answers, she learned a   9   lesson from her young   10   pupils about self-image and a(n)   11   of self-worth.

It seemed that the students  12  each other’s individuality and knew that  13  of them were capable of doing the problems.   14  at their early age, they understood the senselessness of the win-lose approach in the classroom. They believed no one would  15  if any students were shown up or embarrassed at the  16  . So they   17   to compete with each other in public.

Once she understood, Mary changed the system   18   she could check each child’s math problem individually, but not at any child’s expense  19  his classmates. They all wanted to learn,  20  not at someone else’s expense.

1．  A．go to        B．come to         C．get close to    D．bring

2．  A．his           B．their           C．his own         D．her

3．  A．happy          B．willingly         C．readily        D．unwilling

4．  A．Anything      B．Nothing         C．Everything     D．Neither

5．  A．almost         B．certainly        C．hardly           D．never

6．  A．question       B．chalkboard     C．problem         D．homework

7．  A．they         B．it             C．everything     D．each

8．  A．asked              B．questioned     C．told            D．understood

9．  A．outstanding  B．surprising       C．annoying       D．frightening

10．A．sunburned    B．tender         C．Indian        D．naughty

11．A．sense        B．image         C．way           D．aspect

12．A．had          B．ignored          C．respected       D．cared

13．A．none           B．no one        C．each           D．not all

14．A．Especially    B．Even though       C．Even so       D．Even

15．A．lose          B．win            C．achieve          D．answer

16．A．time         B．situation         C．chalkboard     D．condition

17．A．refused        B．rejected         C．tried           D．promised

18．A．if             B．so that        C．unless        D．in case

19．A．in favour of  B．of            C．by means of   D．in front of

20．A．and          B．but             C．so              D．or

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

A Plan For Exploring Mars

NASA is moving ahead with plans to put a long－armed lander on Mars' icy north pole to search for clues (线索) for water and possible signs of life.

The MYM386 million Phoenix Mars is planned to touch down in the Martian arctic in 2008.The stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy land and pick up soil samples (标本，样品) to analyze. In 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter spotted evidence of ice－rich soil near the arctic surface.

Scientists hope the Phoenix mission will find clues to the geologic history of water on the Red Planet and determine whether microbes(微生物)existed in the ice.

Phoenix will be the first mission of the Mars Scout program, a renewed, low－cost effort to study the Red Planet. “The Phoenix mission explores new territory in the northern plains of Mars analogous to the permafrost regions on Earth，” Peter Smith said.

True to its name, Phoenix rose from the ashes of previous(先前的) missions. The lander for Phoenix was built to fly as part of the 2001 Mars Surveyor program. But the program broke down after the well－known disappearance of the Mars Polar Lander in 1999.The Polar Lander lost contact during a landing attempt near the planet's south pole after its rocket engine shut off prematurely,_causing the spacecraft to fall about 130 feet to almost certain destruction.

The Phoenix probe had been in storage at a Lockheed Martin clean room in Denver before it was reused for its present mission. It will carry science instruments that were designed for the Mars Surveyor program including an improved panoramic camera and a trench－digging robotic arm. Phoenix will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in August 2007 and land on the planet nine months later.

1．The passage mainly tells readers that ________.

 A．clues of water will be found in Phoenix

 B．Phoenix will be sent to find clues of water on Mars

 C．August 2007 will see Phoenix lift off

 D．the Mars Scout program will be carried out

2．The underlined word “prematurely” (Paragraph 5) means “________”．

A．on time            B．behind the time

C．out of work          D．ahead of time

3．According to the passage, we know Phoenix will land on Mars ________.

A．in May 2008        B．in August 2007   

C．in August 2008      D．in September 2008

4．According to the passage, the name “Phoenix” is after the meaning of ________.

 A．rebirth  B．death  C．energy  D．hope

5．After Phoenix lands on Mars, we can infer it will firstly ________.

A．find soil samples and send them to the earth

B．look for the icy land to dig for the soil samples

C．take photos and send them to the earth

D．find the remains of the Mars Polar Lander