A story from the Bible tells of old Babylon, where the men decided to build a tower that would touch the sky．But God was unhappy, and he made them speak different languages．They couldn’t understand each other, so their dream never came true．

Yet the dream remains alive: if all men speak the same language, they can do anything．L．L．Zamenhof from Poland was among the men who pursue this dream．He developed Esperanto（世界语）between 1877 and 1885．

As the most successful man-made world language, it is spoken by over two million people around the world．Last month, the World Esperanto Congress（大会）, dealing with language rights, ended in Sweden．The 2004 conference will be held in Beijing．Most Esperanto speakers are in Central and Eastern Europe and in East Asia, particularly Chinese mainland．

Esperanto has two advantages．First, it’s easy．Each letter has exactly one sound and there are just 16 basic grammar rules．The second advantage is that it belongs to no one country．But Esperanto has only reached a small number of people compared with natural languages widely used around the world-such as English or Chinese．While these languages are deeply connected with their nations and cultures, Esperanto doesn’t have this background．

Will Esperanto really become a global language? It remains a question．

The writer tells us a story at the beginning to          ．

           A．explain why men have been making the effort to create a language shared by all

              B．explain why men now speak different languages

              C．show the relationship between man and God

              D．prove that language is very important

What does the underlined word “pursue” in the second paragraph mean?

              A．“Realize”．     B．“Work for”．   C．“Be against”． D．“Follow”．

What is the basic difference between Esperanto and English?

              A．More people speak English than Esperanto．

              B．Esperanto words are easier to spell．

              C．Esperanto has fewer grammar rules．

              D．Esperanto is not supported by any country or culture．

What does the story mainly talk about?

              A．Advantages and disadvantages of Esperanto．

              B．Men’s dream of sharing the same language．

              C．The most successful planned language-Esperanto．

              D．Comparison of Esperanto and other languages like English and Chinese．

A recent report on online education, made by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a serious academic (学术的) title, but a most interesting conclusion: “ Students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”

The report examined the research on online and traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Some of it was in K-12 settings, but most of the studies were in colleges and adult continuing education programs.

Over the 12 years, the report found 99 studies in which there were comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The result of the Department of Education’ s research showed that usually, students doing some or all of the course online would rank a little higher than the classroom students with little but meaningful difference.

“The importance of the study lies in showing that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than traditional instruction.” said Barbara Means, the study’ s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.

This hardly means that we’ll be saying goodbye to classrooms. But the report does suggest that online education could be set to develop sharply over the next few years.

Until fairly recently, online education totaled to little. That has really changed with the arrival of webbased video, instant (即时的) messaging and teamwork tools.

The real promise of online education, experts say, is providing learning experiences that are more suitable for individual (个体的) students than is possible in classrooms. That allows more “learning by doing,” which many students find more attractive and useful.

“We are at a turning point in online education,” said Philip R. Regier, the leader of Arizona State University’ s Online and Extended Campus program.

The biggest near-term growth, Mr. Regier predicts, will be in continuing education programs.

What do we know from the passage?

Most of the studies were done in high schools.

The report was based on more than 100 studies.

The studies were carried out for more than 20 years.

The difference between online and traditional teaching is not big.

We can learn from the passage that __________.

traditional education will come to an end

traditional education is not popular any longer

online education didn’ t develop rapidly until recently

middle schools are facing the choice between online and traditional teaching

Which is NOT the reason why many students prefer online learning?

Online teaching is more suitable for individuals.

Classroom teaching is not practical and useful.

Students can learn by doing in online courses.

Online teaching is more interesting.

Which do you think is the best title for the passage?

Study finds that online education beats the classroom

Why is online education on the rise?

A report on online education

Classroom teaching is out

   A recent study shows that gossip（流言蜚语）is more powerful than truth．It suggests people believe what they hear through the grapevine(小道消息)__36__they have evidence to the contrary．

   Researchers, __37__students using a computer game, also found gossip played an important role when people __38__ decisions．"We show that gossip has a strong __39__, even when people have __40__ to the original information as well as gossip about the same information．Thus, it is __41__ that gossip has a strong controlling potential," said Ralf Sommerfeld, who led the study．

   In the study, the researchers __42__ the students money and allowed them to give it to others in a series of rounds．The students also wrote __43__ about how others played the game that everyone could review．Students tended to give __44__ money to people described as “scrooges (吝啬鬼)” and more to those described as “__45__ players”．“People only believed the gossip, not the past decisions," Sommerfeld said in a telephone interview．

   The researchers then took the game a step_46_and showed the students the actual decisions people had made．But they also supplied false gossip that contradicted that __47_．In these cases, the students_48_ their decisions to award money on the gossip, __49__ the hard evidence．

   “If you know what the people did, you should care, but they still __50__ what others said,” Sommerfeld said．Researchers have __51__ used similar games to study how people cooperate and the __52__ of gossip in groups．Scientists define gossip __53__ social information spread about a person who is not __54__．In evolutionary terms, gossip can be an important tool for people to __55__ information about others' reputations or find the way through social networks at work and in their everyday lives．

36．A．in case     B．for fear that     C．as if  D．even if    

37．A．testing     B．checking C．examining       D．experimenting

38．A．draw       B．make       C．reach       D．conclude

39．A．impression      B．difference       C．influence D．function

40．A．access      B．entrance   C．charge     D．communication

41．A．curious    B．serious     C．obvious    D．worth

42．A．impressed       B．asked       C．showed    D．gave

43．A．articles    B．notes       C．dairies     D．letters

44．A．less B．more       C．fewer       D．much

45．A．general    B．mean       C．generous D．outgoing

46．A．away       B．forward   C．ahead       D．further

47．A．existence B．evidence C．confidence      D．dependence

48．A．based       B．put   C．focused    D．passed

49．A．more than       B．less than   C．rather than      D．other than

50．A．referred to      B．listened to       C．turned to D．stuck to

51．A．soon        B．presently C．far    D．long

52．A．strength   B．energy     C．effect      D．force

53．A．as     B．for   C．to     D．by

54．A．absent      B．present     C．gone  D．missing

55．A．achieve    B．earn C．acquire    D．win

A town in Oxfordshire has become the first in the UK to have biomethane（生物甲烷）gas from human waste piped to their homes for gas central heating and cooking.

Up to 200 families in Didcot now receive the gas via the national gas power system. Head of energy and technology at British Gas, Martin Orrill, said customers wouldn’t notice any difference as the gas is purified（提炼）to the highest standard and has no smell. The gas is produced at a sewage（污物）treatment works plant in Didcot.

The entire process takes only less than three weeks, with the sewage being collected and sent first to settlement tanks. The solid waste material is then fed into digesters, where anaerobic bacteria（厌氧菌）digest the sewage, with the aid of enzymes（酶）to speed up the process. The digestion process produces methane, which can be burned to drive machines to produce electricity, or can be purified and fed into the gas network and piped to homes and businesses. British Gas says supplying the gas rather than electricity is far more efficient since around two-thirds of the energy is lost in producing electricity.

Partners in the Didcot project, British Gas, Scotia Gas Networks, and Thames Water, all hope to expand the process to other towns, and other companies such as Ecotricity and United Utilities have also announced biomethane projects being planned. One of these projects, in Manchester, could be supplying 500 homes with biomethane by mid next year. Another British Gas project in Suffolk will provide gas from digestion of brewery wastes to around 235 families.

The Didcot project cost ￡2.5m and was influenced by promises of government aids aimed at encouraging companies to develop renewable technologies. An EU directive means the UK must ensure at least 15 percent of its energy is from renewable sources by 2020.

    The UK produces about 1.73 million tons of sewage annually. If all sewage treatment works in the UK were fitted with the technology, they could supply gas for up to 350,000 families.

Which of the following is true of the biomethane gas?

   A. It’s mainly made from rotting plants.

   B. It’s an environmentally friendly gas.

   C. Its production process is too long.

   D. It’s easily recognized by the customers.

What is the function of the enzymes?

   A. To digest the solid waste material.

   B. To help get rid of anaerobic bacteria.

   C. To help purify the biomethane.

   D. To speed up the digestion process.

According to British Gas, the biomethane gas had better be used _____.

   A. as the power for the vehicles                          

   B. for the heating and cooking

   C. to produce the electricity                               

   D. to drive a variety of machines

The last three paragraphs mainly show that _____.

   A. UK government supports the biome thane projects

   B. the biome thane projects are very costly

   C. the biome thane projects still face many barriers

   D. the biome thane projects are promising

What should the text belong to?

   A. Computer science.             B. Engineering.      C. Energy.             D. Business.

A young Scottish lady, like a lot of teens today, got tired of home. The daughter objected to her family’s 　【小题1】　lifestyle and said, “I don’t want your God. I am leaving!” She left home. Before long, she was disappointed and unable to find a job, so she took to the streets to do everything she could to 　【小题2】　. Many years passed by, her father died, her mother grew 　【小题3】　, and the daughter became more and more stubborn in her way of life.
No  【小题4】 was made between mother and daughter during these years. The mother, having 　 heard of her daughter’s whereabouts, went to the poor part of the city in 　【小题5】　of her daughter. She stopped at 　【小题6】　of the rescue missions(收容所) with a simple speech. “Would you allow me to 　【小题7】　this picture?” It was a picture of the smiling, gray-haired mother with a handwritten 　【小题8】　at the bottom: “I love you still … come home!”
One day the daughter wandered into a rescue mission for a hot meal. She sat 　【小题9】　listening to the service, all the while letting her 　【小题10】　wander over to the bulletin board. There she saw the picture and thought, could that be my mother?
She couldn’t 　【小题11】　until the service was over. She stood and went to look. It was her mother, and there were those words, “I love you still … come home!”　【小题12】　she stood in front of the picture, she wept. It was too 　【小题13】　to be true.
It was night, but she was so 　【小题14】　by the message that she started walking home.　【小题15】　the time she arrived it was early in the morning. She was afraid and 　【小题16】　her way timidly. As she knocked, the door 　【小题17】　open on its own. She thought someone must broken into the house. Concerned for her mother’s 　【小题18】　, the young girl ran to the bedroom and shook her mother awake and said, “It’s me! It’s me! I’m home!”
The mother couldn’t believe her eyes. They fell into each other’s 　【小题19】　. The daughter said, “I was so worried and thought someone had broken in.” The mother replied gently, “No, dear. From the day you left, that door has never been 　【小题20】　.”