Do you know about a series of books that say they are “for dummies”？ These American self?help books have been translated into more than thirty nine languages including Chinese，Arabic，Russian，French，German，Greek and Spanish.

“Dummy” is a word for a stupid person.The dummies books are not really for stupid people.They are designed to show people how to do something they may never have tried before，like painting a house or learning a language.The books all say in a funny way that they are for dummies，such as World History for Dummies，Rabbits for Dummies，Chinese Cooking for Dummies，and Wedding Planning for Dummies.The first such book，DOS for Dummies，was published in 1991.It helped people learn how to use the DOS operating system for computers.Since then，more than one hundred fifty million dummies books have been sold.

The dummies.com website explains the idea behind the books.It says that they show people can be taught to do anything.First they can make fun of ideas that are difficult to understand.Then they show how the information can be interesting and easy.The publishers say that the books do not provide more information than necessary.They give readers just enough information to do what they want.They say that the dummies books give the best and easiest way to do something.And the books use simple and easy language.

There are more than one thousand different dummies books.A report in New York Times says that the top-selling dummies books are those that explain technology and personal finance.

The publishers say that the best-selling dummies books are those providing information many people need－like information about diseases，education and cooking.People interested in opera，car repair and wine can also find dummies books to help them.And there are even more dummies books to come.The publishers say that they publish about two hundred new dummies books every year.

1.Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

2.The dummies books have been popular because ________.

3.According to New York Times，we know that books on ________ sell best.

4.What can we learn from the passage?

(C)                                  
The Romans built great "aqueducts" to carry fresh water from the mountains to the cities. Many of these aqueducts are still standing today. The Romans also built great pipes under the ground to carry away the sewage. In Rome, one of these sewage pipes (sewers) is still used today; it is 2,000 years old. The Roman Emperors even set up a government health service. They built the first great public hospitals in Europe, and they paid doctors to look after poor people.                    
Then the Roman Empire fell to pieces, these civilized methods of treatment disappeared from most of Europe, for more than a thousand years. People went back to the old ways. They lived in dirty conditions which helped to cause diseases（疾病）; and they asked God to cure the disease. They shut mentally sick people in prisons. Or they  burnt them alive because they were supposed to have magic powers.                
But the work of the Greek and Roman doctors was not lost. Over a thousand years
ago, they Arabs moved into many of the Mediterranean countries. They took big parts of the old Roman lands. They translated the Greek and Roman medical books into Arabic. Arab doctors themselves make many new discoveries.
When civilization(文明) at last came back to Europe, men once again translated the Greek and Roman works on medicine into Latin. Slowly－very slowly －European doctors discovered again the things that the Greeks and Romans had known so long ago. Slowly, they began to make new discoveries. They found out more about the way the body works--the way our blood goes round our bodies, the way our nerves（神经） send messages from our brains to our muscles, the way these muscles move our bodies.
1.     The word "aqueduct" probably means _______.                                 A. something which was built long ago  
B. something invented by a Roman Emperor
C. a big pipe under the ground        
D. something built to supply clean water for the citizens
2. Which of the following is true?
A. The sewage pipes built by the Roman are no longer in use now.                  B. Sewage pipes in Arabia were built by the Romans.                           C. A sewage pipe still being used today in Rome was built 2,000 .years ago.          D. The ancient Romans got their drinking water from underground pipes.
3. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. A government health service was set up in ancient Rome.
B. The first public hospital in Europe was built in Rome.
C. m ancient Rome doctors were paid by the government.
D. Those who were mentally sick were all burnt alive in the Roman Empire.
4. In this article, "civilized methods of treatment" refers to _______.
A. advanced forms of health care
B. the way they burnt the bodies of the dead
C. imprisonment of the mentally sick
D. what was called magic power's

If the world were a village of 1,000 people it would include:

?? 584 Asians

?? 124 Africans

?? 95 Eastern and Western Europeans

?? 84 Latin Americans

?? 55 former Soviets （including Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, and other national groups）

?? 52 North Americans

?? 6 Australians and New Zealanders

The people of the village would speak:

?? 165 Mandarin

?? 86 English

?? 83 Hindu/Urdu

?? 64 Spanish

?? 58 Russian

?? 37 Arabic

The above list covers the mother tongues of only half the village．

One-third of the people in the village are children, and only 60 are over the age of 65．Just under half of the married women in the village have access to modem equipments．

This year 28 babies will be born．Ten people will die, 3 of them for lack of food, 1 from can??cer．Two of the deaths will be of babies born within the year．With the 28 births and 10 deaths, the population of the village next year will be 1,018．

In this village of 1,000 persons, 200 people receive 75 percent of the income; another 200 re??ceive only 2 percent of the income．

About one-third have access to clean, safe drinking water．

Of the 670 adults in the village, half can not read nor write．

The village has a total yearly budget, public and private, of over $3 million—$ 3 ,000 per person if it is distributed evenly．Of the total $3 million:

$ 181,000 goes to weapons and warfare

$ 159,000 to education

$ 132,000 to health care

These weapons are under the control of just 100 of the people．The other 900 are watching them with deep anxiety, wondering whether they can learn to get along together．

Which of the following is true about Mandarin according to the text?

       A．Nearly one-third of Asian people speak Mandarin in the village．

       B．About 8．25 per cent of the people speak Mandarin in the village．

       C．About 16．5 per cent of the people speak Mandarin in the village．

       D．Nearly all the Mandarin-speaking people are from Asia in the village．

Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the text?

       A．Poverty．      B．Education．  C．Environment．      D．Marriage．

The underlined part “have access to” （in Para. 4） means_____．

       A．use                        B．buy                       C．produce                 D．try

The last sentence in the text implies that most of the people long for _____．

       A．a peaceful world                                 B．good education

       C．better health care                                D．a life without anxiety

Malaysia is a country of exciting beauty, with a tropical（热带的） climate. Malaysia’s weather is hotter in the lowlands and cooler in the mountains and highlands. Temperatures vary between 20 and 30 centigrade. Rainfall can be expected at any time, with an average of between 200 and 260 centimeters.

The Malaysian population consists of Malays, Chinese, Indians and Eurasians. Its main religions are Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Christianity. Its national language is Malay. English is widely spoken and is used all over the country. Other languages spoken in Malaysia are some Chinese dialects, Tamil, Portuguese and Arabic.

Malaysia is an exciting and fascinating place for tourists, with something special planned throughout the year. The natural attractions are plentiful, with magnificent mountains lying in green, large stretches of sandy beaches and hospitable and friendly people.

Malaysia’s economy is the most advanced in this part of the world. The annual income is M$1, 680, one of the highest in the whole of Asia. Malaysia is the world’s leading exporter of rubber, tin, tropical hardwood, palm oil, pepper, tea, coffee and cocoa and has vast resources of oil.

Malaysia’s capital is Kuala Lumpur in the southwest of the Malay Peninsula. Kuala Lumpur arose in the 1860s when tin was discovered, grew and spread very quickly. It became the state’s capital within forty years of its founding. Now it is home to over one million inhabitants, about 56% of whom are Chinese, 28% Malays and the rest are from anywhere and everywhere.

1.If you visit Malaysia, you will see ________.

2.Though Malay is Malaysia’s national language, ______.

3.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American football in the United States, becoming a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather than the year in which it is held, with Super Bowl I being the 1966 season championship game, when the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs. Super Bowl XLVI (46) was played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, on February 5, 2012, to determine the champion of the 2011 season; the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots.
The game was created as part of a merger agreement between the NFL and its rival league, the American Football League (AFL). It was agreed that the two leagues’ champion teams would play in an AFL--NFL World Championship Game until the merger was to officially begin in 1970. After the merger, each league was appointed as a “conference”, and the game was then played between the conference champions. Currently, the National Football Conference (NFC) leads the series with 25 wins to 21 wins for the American Football Conference (AFC).
The day on which the Super Bowl is played, now considered to be an existing American national holiday, is called “Super Bowl Sunday”, though it is not determined by the government. It is the second—largest day for U.S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day. In addition, the Super Bowl has frequently been the most watched American television broadcast of the year.
Because of its high viewership, commercial airtime during the Super Bowl broadcast is the most expensive of the year. Due to the high cost of investing in advertising on the Super Bowl, companies regularly develop their most expensive advertisements for this broadcast. As a result, watching and discussing the broadcast’s commercials has become a significant aspect of the event. In addition, many popular singers and musicians have performed during the event’s pre-game and halftime ceremonies because of the exposure’s attracting more fans.
【小题1】What does the Super Bowl use to show each game?