B
　　Although man has known asbestos for many hundreds of years, it was not until 160 years ago that it was mined for the first time on the North American continent. H. W. Johns, owner of a New York City Supply Shop for roofers, was responsible for he opening of that first mine.
　　Mr. Johns was given a piece of asbestos which had been found in Italy. He experimented with the material and then showed its surprising powers to his customers. After putting on a pair of asbestos gloves, which looked much like ordinary work gloves, he took red-hot coals from the fireplace and played with them in his hands. How astonished the customers were to discover that he was not burned at all. You can well imagine that he had increasing business in asbestos roofing materials. However, because it was very expensive to transport them from Italy to the United States, Mr. Johns sent out a young scientist to seek a source nearer home. This young man found great vein in the province of Quebec in Canada.
　　Ever since 1881 Quebec has led the world in the production of this unusual mineral, which is made up of magnesium, silicon, iron, and oxygen. When it is mined, the asbestos is heavy, just as you would expect a mineral to be. When it is separated, a strange thing happens; the rock breaks down into fine, soft, soapy fibers .
　　Scientists do not know why the rock can be separated easily into threads,but they have found thousands of uses of this fireproof material, of the so-called “cloth of stone”.
　60. Which title best expresses the main idea of this passage?
　   A. Asbestos mined in Canada                  B. Fireproof matter
C. A “wonder” mineral                           D. A new roofing material
　61. Johns proved his ability as a salesman by_______.
　   A. going into roofing business              
B. carrying asbestos from Italy
　   C. sending a trained scientist                 
D. showing the use of asbestos gloves
　62. Which is the most important character of asbestos that the author wants to show us?
　   A. It is like thread.                               B. It feels soapy.
C. It burns easily.                                 D. It is unusually heavy.
　63. The author’s main purpose in writing this passage was to _______.
　   A. show the need for more scientists
　   B. compare asbestos with other minerals
　   C. increase the sales of asbestos
　   D. present facts about asbestos

The monument was built in honor of the explorer who was believed _____ the river.

A. to have discovered 　　    B. to have been discovered

C. to discover        　　       D. having been discovered

阅读下列短文，并做每篇后面的题目，从四个选项中，选出能回答所提问题或完成所给句子的最佳答案。

Early in the 18th century, Captain Cook, a famous explorer of England, unexpectedly caught sight of an unusual animal during his first visit to Australia. The animal had a large mouse like head and jumped along on its large legs. To his great surprise, the unusual animal carried its young in a special pocket of flesh. Captain Cook pointed to the animal which was eating grass in the distance and asked his native guide what the animal was referred to. The guide seemed not to know what he was pointing at and finally said “Kangaroo”, but their requests were met with puzzled looks of the native people. Before long they got to discover that the native guide who made the answer to Cook's question really meant, “I don't know what you are pointing at. ” Funny enough, the name “Kangaroo”, stuck and it is still in use today.

1．Which of the following sentences best expresses the main idea ?

[　　]

A．Captain Cook's guide made a joke.

B．Native Australians could not speak English in Cook's time.

C．Some words have rather funny origings (起源).

D．Captain Cook was a lover of wild animals.

2．When the native guide said “Kang-a-roo”, he really meant “________”

[　　]

A．Ah, it is a special kind of animal.

B．I wonder what you have said

C．What do you mean by pointing at that animal ?

D．I have no idea of what you are referring to.

3．We can infer from this passage _________.

[　　]

A．we should learn many different languages

B．Captain Cook made a mistake in understanding

C．Captain Cook was a foolish explorer

D．the importance of a language in common

A team of researchers in California has developed a way to predict what kinds of objects people are looking at by scanning what’s happening in their brains.
When you look at something, your eyes send a signal about that object to your brain. Different regions of the brain process the information your eyes send. Cells in your brain called neurons(神经元) are responsible for this processing.
　　The fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging功能性磁共振造影) brain scans could generally match electrical activity in the brain to the basic shape of a picture that someone was looking at.
　　Like cells anywhere else in your body, active neurons use oxygen. Blood brings oxygen to the neurons, and the more active a neuron is, the more oxygen it will consume. The more active a region of the brain, the more active its neurons, and in turn, the more blood will travel to that region. And by using fMRI, scientists can visualize which parts of the brain receive more oxygen- rich blood--and therefore, which parts are working to process information.
　　An fMRI machine is a device that scans the brain and measures changes in blood flow to the brain. The technology shows researchers how brain activity changes when a person thinks, looks at something, or carries out an activity like speaking or reading. By highlighting the areas of the brain at work when a person looks at different images, fMRI may help scientists determine specific patterns of brain activity associated with different kinds of images.
　　The California researchers tested brain activity by having two volunteers view hundreds of pictures of everyday objects, like people, animals, and fruits. The scientists used an fMRI machine to record the volunteers' brain activity with each photograph they looked at. Different objects caused different regions of the volunteers' brains to light up on the scan, indicating activity. The scientists used this information to build a model to predict how the brain might respond to any image the eyes see.
In a second test, the scientists asked the volunteers to look at 120 new pictures. Like before, their brains were scanned every time they looked at a new image. This time, the scientists used their model to match the fMRI scans to the image. For example, if a scan in the second test showed the same pattern of brain activity that was strongly, related to pictures of apples in the first test, their model would have predicted the volunteers were looking at apples.
　　 51. What is responsible for processing the information sent by your eyes?
　　A A small region of the brain.
　　B The central part of the brain.
　　C Neurons in the brain.
　　D Oxygen-rich blood.
　　52. Which of the following statements is NOT meant by the writer?
　　A Cells in your brain are called neurons.
　　B The more oxygen a neuron consumes, the more blood it needs.
　　C fMRI helps scientists to discover which parts of the brain process information.
　　D fMRI helps scientists to discover how the brain develops intelligently.
53. "Highlighting the areas of the brain at work" means
　　A "marking the parts of the brain that are processing information"
　　B "giving light to the parts of the brain that are processing information"
　　C "putting the parts of the brain to work"
　　D "stopping the parts of the brain from working"
　　54. What did the researchers experiment on?
　　A Animals, objects, and fruits.
　　B Two volunteers.
　　C fMRI machines.
　　D Thousands of pictures.
55.What is the best title for the passage?
A Mind-reading Machine
B A Technological Dream
C Device that can Help You Calculate
D The Recent Development in Science and Technology

　　Some time ago, a friend of mine who worked in a part of the city I didn't know very well invited me to call on him. It took me hours to get there and I took great trouble to find a proper spot to park my car. As I was already three quarters of an hour late, I parked my car quickly.

　　At noon, just as I was leaving my friend's office it suddenly struck me that I had no idea where I had parked my car. I could hardly go up to a policeman and tell him that I had lost a small green car somewhere! Walking down street after street, I examined each car closely and was very happy to see a small green car just behind an old car. But how disappointed I was to discover that though the car was exactly like my own, it belonged to someone else! Feeling quite tired now, I went off for lunch. Some time later, I left the restaurant and walked down the street. Turning the corner, I nearly jumped for joy: my car was right in front of me, and there was no problem this time.

　　To tell the truth, driving in a crowded city is far from being a pleasure and it is much easier to walk than to drive.

(1)What did the writer do the other day?

[　　]

A．He went to telephone his old friend.

B．He paid a visit to his friend.

C．He called on a friend, who he didn't know well.

D．He visited a friend and had lunch with him.

(2)“It suddenly struck me”in the second paragraph probably means“________”.

[　　]

A．a stick suddenly hit me

B．a stone suddenly hit me

C．I suddenly found out

D．I suddenly thought

(3)Which of the following statements is true according to this story?

[　　]

A．The writer had not much difficulty in finding a parking-place.

B．It took him forty-five minutes to find a place to park his car.

C．It was very difficult for the writer to find a parking-place.

D．He got a parking-place right away and parked his car in a hurry.

(4)How did he look for his car?

[　　]

A．He asked a policeman for help.

B．His friend called a policeman.

C．He examined every car in the street.

D．A waiter helped him to do this.