One of the world’s richest men has taken a close interest in one of man’s most basic functions：visiting the toilet.Bill Gates’s charitable organization，the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation，is looking for inventors to design the loo of the future，which，they hope，would improve sanitation for millions of people around the world.

So，what’s wrong with the traditional flush toilet？Firstly，it wastes a huge amount of potential drinking water.Secondly，they are more likely to cause pollution.This is a real problem in many areas of the developing world，where，according to United Nations estimates，unsafe sanitation causes half of all hospitalizations.Younger people are particularly at risk.Illnesses which cause diarrhea are responsible for the deaths of about 1.5 million children a year.Finally，standard lavatories simply aren’t practical in remote areas.

The challenge set by Bill Gates was to come up with a latrine which works without running water，electricity or aseptic tank.It also needed to operate for less than 5 cents.28 designs were displayed at the recent Reinvent the Toilet Fair，in Seattle，USA.Among them was one which turned human waste into electricity using microwaves，another which converted human waste into charcoal，and yet another which used urine for flushing.

But the winner was a solar?powered design which generated hydrogen gas and electricity. The team from the California Institute of Technology(CIT) picked up a prize of $100,000.

But clearly Bill Gates doesn’t feel he’s flushing money down the toilet.After the Seattle event he said，“We couldn’t be happier with the response we’ve gotten.” Gates has even pledged $370 million more to the future toilet project.They hope to field test more prototypes over the next three years.

1.Why is Bill Gates paying people to invent new toilets?

A．Because he wants to test people’s sense of creativity.

B．Because he wants to improve sanitation for many people.

C．Because he thinks the traditional ones are out of fashion.

D．Because he can’t design this kind of things himself.

2.Which of the following is NOT a problem with the traditional flush toilet?

A．They waste too much water.

B．They might cause diseases.

C．They are not always practical.

D．They are too complicated to use.

3.The underlined word “latrine” in the third paragraph might have similar meanings to the word “________” in the text.

A．loo? B．sanitation

C．diarrhea? D．prototype

4.The team from CIT won the prize because their design ________.

A．can change human waste into electricity

B．can turn human waste into charcoal

C．can produce power with solar energy

D．can use urine for flushing

A young man went to a town and worked there. He did not have a wife and a servant did the work in his house.

The young man liked laughing a lot. He nailed the servant’s shoes to the floor on Monday, and then laughed, because he put his feet in them and fell down. The servant was not angry, but smiled.

Then the young man put brushes in his bed on Tuesday. The servant got into bed and hit the brushes with his feet. He was afraid. The young man laughed loudly again. Again the servant was not angry, but smiled.

Then on Wednesday the young man said to his servant, “You’re a nice, kind man. I am not going to be unkind to you again.”

The servant smiled and said, “And I’m not going to put any more mud from the street in your coffee.”

1. He played a joke on the servant because    .

2.When the young man played a joke on him, the servant was not angry but smiled because _____.

3.What did the servant do in return to the young man?

4. Why did the young man stop playing jokes on the servant? Because ___.

Mr Ling lives in China. He worked in a factory and last year he retired. His wife died five years ago and his son works in Japan. He always has sports and he is in good health.

One day his son called him and asked him to have a journey to Tokyo. He was very happy. He was afraid to travel by plane and took the ship.

On the first morning on the ship Mr Ling met an Englishman at table. The man said to him, “Good morning!” He thought the Englishman told his name to him. So he stood up and said, “Ling Bing!” And it was repeated a few mornings and Mr Ling told a teacher about it. Hearing him, the teacher began to laugh and said, “He says hello to you in the morning.”

The next morning, when Mr Ling met the Englishman, he said, “Good morning!” And the Englishman stood up and said, “Ling Bing, sir.”

1. Mr Ling stays at home ______________.

  A. with his wife   B. with his son   C. with his daughter  D. by himself

2.Mr Ling went to Japan by ship because ______________.

  A. he thought it was safer 

  B. he wanted to have sports on the ship

  C. he had little money to take a plane

  D. he had enough time to do so

3.The old man told his name to the Englishman because ________.

  A. he hoped to make friends with him.

  B. he wanted to say hello to him, too.

  C. he wanted him to teach him English

  D. he thought “Good morning” was his name

4.Which of the following is right?   

  A. Mr Ling began to study English on the ship.

  B. The Englishman thought “Ling Bing” meant “Good morning” in Chinese

  C. The Englishman learned much Chinese on the ship.

  D. The old woman began to teach Mr Ling English.

Rumour（ 谣言 ）is the most primitive way of spreading stories— by passing them on from mouth to mouth．but civilized countries in                                              normal times have better sources  of news than     rumour．They have radio, television, and newspapers．In times of confusion （ 混乱 ）,  however ,rumour appears and becomes widespread．At such times the different kinds of news are in competition: the press, television, and radio against the grapevine．

Especially do rumours spread when war requires control on many important matters．The normal news sources no longer give out enough information．Since the people can not learn through legal channels all that they are anxious to learn, they pick up "news" wherever they can and when this happens, rumour grows．

Rumours are often repeated even by those who do not believe the tales．There is an interest about them．The reason is that the cleverly designed rumour gives expression to something  deep in the hearts of the victims — the fears, doubts, forbidden hopes, or daydreams which they hesitate to voice directly．Pessimistic （ 悲观的 ） rumours about defeat and disasters show that the people who repeat them are worried and anxious ．Optimistic rumours  about record production or peace soon coming point to self- satisfaction or confidence—and often to over- confidence．

1．The author suggests that, in times of confusion, man often __________．

       A．stops regular news services                  B．turns to primitive ways for support

    C．distrusts his fellow man                        D．loses complete control of himself

2．The underlined word "grapevine" in Paragraph 1 probably means "__________”．

       A．rumour              B．newspaper         C．information        D．time

3．The author states that during wartime the regular sources of news provide only __________ ．

    A．false information                                 B．optimistic reports

    C．limited information                             D．pessimistic reports

4．Which of the following statements is mentioned as a reason for people to repeat a rumour?

       A．They are too willing to believe．      

       B．They take an interest in rumour．

       C．They have a strong desire to make a fool of other people．

       D．They find some rumours reflect their own unexpressed beliefs．

Michael J. “Crocodile Dundee” (also called Mick), played by Paul Hogan, is the main character in the fictional Crocodile Dundee film series consisting of Crocodile Dundee, Crocodile Dundee II, and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles. The character is a crocodile hunter, hence the nickname.

In the first film, Crocodile Dundee, Mick is visited by a New York reporter, Sue Charlton, who travels to Australia to investigate a report she heard of a crocodile hunter, who had his leg bitten off by a crocodile in the outback. The hunter supposedly walked more than a hundred miles back to civilization and miraculously survived his injuries. However, by the time she meets him, the story turns out to be a somewhat exaggerated legend where the “bitten-off leg” turns out to be just being some bad scarring on his leg; a “love bite” as Mick calls it. Still intrigued by the idea of “Crocodile Dundee”, Sue continues with the story. They travel together out to where the incident occurred, and follow his route through the bush to the nearest hospital. Despite his old-fashioned views, the pair eventually become close, especially after Mick saves Sue from a crocodile attack.

Feeling there is still more to the story, Sue invites Mick back to New York with her, as his first trip to a city (or “first trip anywhere,” as Dundee says). The rest of the film depicts Dundee as a “fish out of water,” showing how, despite his expert knowledge of living outdoors, he knows little of city life. Mick meets Sue’s boyfriend, Richard, but they do not get along. By the end of the film, Mick is on his way home, lovesick, when Sue realizes she loves Mick, too, and not Richard. She runs to the subway station to stop Mick from leaving and, by passing on messages through the packed-to-the-gills crowd, she tells him she won’t marry Richard, and she loves him instead. With the help of the other people in the subway, Mick and Sue have a loving reunion as the film ends.

1. Which of the following statements is true about Mick?

A. He is a crocodile hunter living in Los Angeles.

B. He is based on a real person in Australia.

C. He got his nickname because of his job.

D. He wrote a film series about himself.

2. In the film Crocodile Dundee, Mick ________.

A. pretends he was bitten by a crocodile

B. urges Sue Charlton to write his life story

C. hasn’t been abroad before his trip to America

D. shows Sue Charlton around the town he lives in

3. The underlined word “intrigued” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ________.

A. annoyed                 B. interested              C. troubled                 D. surprised

4. When in New York, Mick ________.

A. makes friends with Richard

B. makes full use of his bush skills

C. feels excited about living in a big city

D. doesn’t know how to fit into city life

5. The film Crocodile Dundee can be best described as ________.

A. a romantic story                                                  B. an action movie

C. a science fiction                                                  D. a frightening story