Having left the town, the girl stopped the car at the landing near the entrance of the bay(海湾). She stepped into the ___16___ and rowed out silently. The tide was rushing to the entrance and ___17___ to the wild open sea. She had to row across the bay to reach ___18___side. The waves struck against the side of the boat, ___19___and uneven; it became ___20___ difficult to row. If she ___21___ for a moment, the tide would push the boat back towards the ___22___.

She wasn’t even halfway, ___23___ she was already tired and her hands ___24___ from pulling on the rough wooden oars (船桨). “I’m never going to ___25___ it”, she thought. She rested the oars on her knees and ___26___ her head helplessly, then looked up as she ___27___ the boat shift(晃动) against the tide.

The east wind, which had swung(旋转) around from the south-west, ___28___ her help and pushed the boat towards the mountains. It was going to be ___ 29___. Her hands weren’t so painful. Her chest didn’t feel as if it was about to burst ___ 30___.

The lights of the town became ___31___. One of the oars banged against the side of the boat and she ___32___ it with a start. Had she been asleep, or just ___33___? She looked over her shoulder. She was almost on the beach. The girl gave one last ___34___ on the oars to ground the boat, and then lay back against the seat. She listened to the waves ___35___ and knew she had come home. Far across the moonlit bay the lights were no more than a sparkling chain.

16. A. car       B. boat    C. ship    D. mail

17. A. beside  B. before C. behind       D. beyond

18.A. another  B. other   C. either  D. the other

19. A. deep     B. calm   C. gentle D. rough

20. A. more    B. less     C. as       D. least

21. A. slept     B. continued   C. rested  D. rowed

22. A. home   B. mountains  C. south-west  D. entrance

23. A. if  B. so       C. but,    D. since

24. A. hurt     B. ruined C. troubled     D. broke

25. A. get       B. make  C. keep   D. take

26. A. mined  B. dropped     C. cocked       D. raised

27. A. saw      B. made  C. heard  D. felt

28. A. got to   B. came to      C. sent for      D. reached for

29. A. difficult       B. serious       C. all right      D. certain enough

30. A. any more     B. still more   C. no more     D. once more

31. A. brighter       B. bigger C. closer   D. smaller

32. A. destroyed     B. threw  C. repaired  D. seized

33. A. dreaming     B. guessing     C. inventing    D. expecting

34. A. blow    B. hit      C. pull    D. strike

35. A. anxiously     B. happily      C. sadly   D. carefully

Young people should travel not only to find out about the present 31           to find out about the future. A grand tour today should be the opposite of 32          it was in the past. It should not include museums, castles and ruins. It should go       33           human life is, to places that throw you images of the future. It should not be an escape of 34            (real) but a challenge with 35           .

Young people of today should go to the wildest, farthest, poor place they can think of. They should go to the wild places of Asia, Africa, and South America. Young people should go to 36         many such places as they can, 37           these places are closing up and in time they’ll become impossible.

The other area young people should travel 38  ____________  is the same sort of area within their own country, places that are a kind of 39  ____________  (know) land, 40   _______  as the Congo Basin.

“Who is that?” When watching the movie, Silver Linings Playbook, at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September, the woman sitting next asked me.
It seemed to be a strange question. I wanted to ask if she ever saw a little movie called The Hunger Games, or the Oscar-nominated movie Winter’s Bone. Instead, I just answered, “Jennifer Lawrence.” But I wondered how a moviegoer does not recognize Lawrence! As Silver Linings Playbook continued to unfold and Lawrence revealed herself as a wonderful comic actress, it hit me: this woman probably has never seen Jennifer Lawrence smile before. That is the thing throwing her.
Audiences will have the opportunity to watch Lawrence’s performance in Silver Linings Playbook when the film opens in limited release before a Thanksgiving weekend blowout expansion. The 22-year-old actress heads this year’s lead actress Oscar race by a country mile. Here’s an early main list of some competitors in this category.
1. Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
2. Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild
3. Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone
3. Helen Mirren in Hitchcock
5. Emmanuelle Riva in Amour
6. Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty
Chastain, playing a CIA agent in Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, is the wild card here and, quite possibly, the only candidate capable of replacing Lawrence from the top spot. The cruelty in Rust and Bone will put off sensitive academy members, making Cotillard lose chances for a second Oscar. Wallis makes for a wonderful story, but it is too early for her to be awarded a lead actress. Riva will need a push to win the nomination of lead actress.
Mirren, as the Alfred Hitchcock’s wife and unsung partner, Alma Reville, might pose the biggest threat to Lawrence. Older academy members will love the historical Hollywood seen in Hitchcock, and Mirren’s role as the unsung wind beneath Hitch’s wings should find appreciation within creative circles. It’s not “The Queen”. but this year, it might be enough.
【小题1】 What’s the purpose of the first paragraph?

Britain’s seed bank, the only one in the world aiming to collect all of the planet’s wild plant species, has reached its goal of banking 10 percent by 2010.
The Millennium Seed Bank Project, run by Kew Gardens—one of the oldest botanical gardens—will officially deposit the 24,200th species on Thursday, a pink, wild banana from China.
More than 50 countries are now on board with Kew's giant task but vast places of the globe, including India and Brazil, still need to join in and donate seeds, director Paul Smith said.                                                                                                                                                            
The seed bank is one of the largest and most diverse in the world with more than 1.5 billion seeds. Its goal is to help protect the planet’s bio-diversity during a time of climate change.
The wild banana seed is under threat of extinction(灭绝) in southwest China from agricultural development. It is a vital food source for Asian elephants and important for growing bananas for human consumption.
Stored at minus-20 degrees centigrade, so they can last for thousands of years, the seeds await the day that scientists hope never comes—when the species no longer exist in the wild.
It is a race against time, Smith said, because in the last decade alone, 20 plants held in the bank have already been wiped out in the wild. He estimates that between a third and a quarter will become extinct this century.
"It is urgent and it is happening now. An area, the size of England, is cleared of primary vegetation（植被）every year." Smith said.
Because most of the world's food and medicines come from nature, protecting wild plant species is quite important, scientists say. There are already many other seed banks safeguarding food crops, which only account for 0.6 percent of plant diversity.
For Kew's next goal—to collect a quarter of wild varieties by 2020—the botanists need 10 million pounds a year, or a further 100 million pounds on top of the 40 million they have already been granted.
【小题1】What’s the final purpose of the Britain’s seed bank?

Botany, the study of plants, occupies a special position in the history of human knowledge. For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest (含糊的) of insight. It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of pre-industrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of plants and their properties must extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things, even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of peoples, not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, eyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognized accurately hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them, botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of knowledge at all.

    Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer productions the next season, the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the wonder of agriculture; cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild and the built up knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and close relationship with plants in the wild would begin fade away.

Which of the following statements about early humans is expressed in the passage?

A. They probably had extensive knowledge of plants.

B. They thought there was no need to cultivate crops.

C. They did not enjoy the study of botany.

D. They placed great importance on the ownership of property.

What does the comment “This is logical.” In the first paragraph mean?

A. There is no clear way to determine the extent of our ancestor’s knowledge of plants.

B. It is not surprising that early humans had a detailed knowledge of plants.

C. It is reasonable to assume that our ancestors behaved very much like people in pre-industrial societies.

D. Human knowledge of plants is well organized and very detailed.

According to the passage, why has general knowledge of botany begun to fade?

A. People no longer value plants as a useful resource.

B. Botany is not recognized as a special branch of science.

C. Research is unable to keep up with the increasing numbers of plants.

D. Direct contact with a variety of plants has decreased.

In the second paragraph, what is the author’s purpose in mentioning “ a rose, an apple, or an orchid”?

 A. To make the passage more poetic.

 B. To give an example of plant that are attractive.

 C. To give botanical examples that all readers will recognize.

 D. To explain the variety of botanical life.

According to the passage, what was the first great step toward the practice of agriculture?

A. The invention of agricultural tools and machinery.       

B. The development of a system of names for plants.

C. The discovery of grasses that could be harvested and replanted.

D. The changing diets of early humans.