阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

      It’s Saturday morning. Tony’s sitting at the kitchen table,    36    with a piece of bread. He’s not even    37   . Is he ill? No, but he does have a    38   . He has nothing to do because the Internet is down. When he    39    up this morning, Tony was feeling    40   . He jumped out of bed full of plans for the weekend    41   . It would be a weekend like any other --- a great weekend. But that was    42    he turned on his computer and    43    he was unable to go online. Having no Internet changes everything.

Every weekend, Tony    44    goes online to email friends, read the    45    to keep up with what’s happening in the world and    46    a few online chess games with his cousin Helen to finish the weekend off. The perfect weekend --- online!

Just as Tony is    47    how he can possibly have a normal weekend without the Internet, his mum walks into the    48   . “Cheer up, Tony. Don’t    49    the Internet any more, OK?” Tony makes no    50    but sighs (叹气).“Go and play chess with Helen!” Tony’s mum??  51   .

“Oh, yes! Helen lives just around the    52   . We can meet and play chess face to face for a    53   . Maybe this weekend won’t be so bad,” Tony    54   , as he walks to the phone. There is   55    without the Internet after all.

A. cutting          B. playing          C. eating                   D. thinking

A. hungry           B. angry                C. tired                        D. sleepy

A. fear                B. problem            C. business                   D. thing

A. rose               B. rang                  C. looked                         D. woke

A. great                     B. disappointed      C. unhappy                   D. worried

A. also                B. above                C. ahead                       D. ago

A. after               B. before               C. until                        D. when

A. thought          B. guessed             C. decided                    D. found

A. usually           B. nearly               C. especially                 D. already

A. letters             B. news                 C. reports                            D. contents

A. guess             B. take                  C. play                    D. make

A. proving          B. wondering         C. realizing                   D. remembering

A. living-room    B. hall                 C. kitchen               D. study

A. talk about           B. care about     C. think about         D. look about

A. answer           B. progress         C. movement                D. choice

A requests           B. replies               C. tells                         D. suggests

A. edge               B. distance             C. corner                      D. end

A. chat               B. time                  C. lesson                      D. change

A. continues        B. smiles               C. reads                        D. watches

A. change          B. task               C. weekend                D. life

________ at the photos, illustrations, title and headings and you can guess what the reading is about.

A．To look           B．Looking           C．Having looked      D．Look

Lichens (地衣) are difficult to see. They don’t move. They often mix into the living place. You might not even recognize one if you are looking right at it.

Lichens live on rocks, branches, houses, and even metal street signs. You can find these colorful organisms (微生物) almost everywhere — from deserts to rainforests, and from Antarctica to Africa. They’ve traveled in outer space, and some scientists think there might even be lichens on Mars.

What you probably don’t realize is that a lichen is more than a single thing. It includes two different types of living organisms: a fungus (菌类) and an alga (藻类). Neither of these organisms is a plant, so the lichen isn’t a plant either.

Through photosynthesis (光合作用), the alga gets the sun’s energy to make food for the fungus, which is the place for the alga to live in. However, the alga cannot leave the fungus.

Around the world, scientists have found tens of thousands of types of lichens. Many may not even have been discovered yet. As scientists continue to find new kinds of lichens, they are also working to understand how they are connected to one another. By putting together a lichen family tree, they hope to understand why so many different types of lichens have grown in so many places around the world.

Many researchers are trying to understand basic facts about the organisms and their connections. Researchers are also using lichens to examine the health of the environment.

What do we know about lichens according to the passage?

A. They will die if they leave Earth.

B. There are more lichens than plants on Earth.

C. They look similar to the environment around them.

D. They are too small to be easily seen by people.

What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?

A. The way lichens live.

B. The natural environment of lichens.

C. The way lichens work as organisms.

D. The family tree of lichens.

Which of the following statements is NOT the scientists’ purposes of studying lichens?

A. To understand basic facts about them.

B. To creat a lichen family tree.

C. To understand how lichens are related to each other.

D. To understand why lichens can live in different places.

We can know from the passage that __________.

A. lichens can be used to better understand the environment

B. lichens don’t have any differences in colors or sizes

C. lichens don’t use photosynthesis like a green plant

D. scientists have discovered every kind of lichen

Are you an optimist? Do you look at your glass and see it as half full? Do you believe that every cloud has a silver lining and that things generally turn out for the best? Do you believe that if something is meant to be, it will be? If you reply “yes” to all of these questions, then you are an optimist. You probably are enthusiastic, cheerful and outgoing. You may be successful at work and in love.

But you may be misguided because things don’t turn out for the best. You may believe that when one door closes another one opens (for example, you may fail to obtain a new job; another chance will come around soon). Wrong. When one door closes, another door slams (砰然关上) in your face. That’s bitter reality.

Now a book has been published which confirms what pessimists (悲观者) have suspected all along. It’s called The Positive Power of Defensive Pessimism. Its author argues that defensive pessimism can lead to positive results. Defensive pessimism is a strategy used to manage fear, anxiety and worry. Defensive pessimists prepare for the things by setting low outcomes for themselves. They carefully consider everything that may go wrong and plan for ways to handle these problems. And this gives them a sense of control. Lawrence Sanno, a psychology professor, says, “What’s interesting about defensive pessimists is that they tend to be very successful people, so their low opinion of the situation’s outcomes is not realistic. They use it to motivate themselves to perform better.”

So far, so good. This is not rocket science. Defensive pessimists prepare carefully and consider what might go wrong, whether at work, on date or even in a sports game. It makes sense to have a back-up plan. There are many sayings in English urging caution. For example, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” And “Don’t count your chickens until they hatch.” To have a confident and optimistic approach to life’s problems is good. But listen to what Woody Alien, the American comedian says, “Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem.”

There are pros and cons to being an optimist and a pessimist. Don’t feel bad if you see the glass half empty. You are a realist. But lighten up and hook up with someone who sees the same glass half full.

1.What’s the passage mainly about?

A. A book that has recently been published.

B. How to become successful in life.

C. The dangers of being too optimistic.

D. The benefits of defensive pessimism.

2.The underlined sentence “This is not rocket science” (Para. 4) means __________.

A. it’s not a dangerous thing to do

B. it is quite simple to understand

C. the cost is not so high   

D. there is no real proof

3.Which of the following English expressions would a defensive pessimist believe?

A. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

B. The glass is half full not half empty.

C. Whatever will be, will be.

D. Every cloud has a silver lining.

4.The writer would probably describe himself as __________.

A. an optimist            B. a   defeatist           C. a realist                  D. a scientist

Where on Earth are you? Navigators (导航员) use lines of latitude and lines of longitude to locate places. Lines of latitude run east and west around Earth. On a map or globe, these lines appear as running sideways or horizontally. Lines of longitude run north and south around Earth. These lines go up and down or vertically on a map or globe. These lines create an imaginary graph paper on the Earth. They make it possible to find an absolute, or exact, location on Earth. They even allow us to give an absolute location to a place out in the middle of the ocean.

Lines of latitude tell us how far north or south of the Equator we are. Sailors have used primitive navigation tools, like astrolabes, since ancient times. The astrolabe uses the sun and stars to find an approximate location. Using such tools, they have been able to approximate their distance from the equator. Although their instruments may not have been the high quality we have now, they were incredibly accurate (精确) for their time.

Lines of longitude tell us how far east or west of the prime meridian (本初子午线) we are. Sailors constantly looked for new ways to increase their navigation skills. Still, it wasn’t until the 18th century that they were able to measure degrees of longitude. They would have been very envious of the technology available to us today.

When we use lines of latitude and longitude together, we can get a very precise location. If we want to identify the absolute location of a point, we look where the latitude and longitude lines cross nearest to that point. We use the coordinates (坐标) for that point as its address. Many maps today include degrees of latitude and longitude.

1.______ make it possible for people to find an exact place on Earth.

A．Latitudes          B．Longitudes         C．Navigators         D．Sailors

2.The second paragraph mainly talks about _______.

A．the function of latitude                   B．the use of the equator

C．the invention of astrolabe                 D．the high quality instruments

3. Why do maps include degrees of latitude and longitude?

A．To help trade expeditions.                 B．To locate a precise place.

C．To cross the lines of the nearest point.       D．To identify how far a place is.

4.The best title for this passage is ____________.

A．The map and the globe                   B．Latitude and longitude

C．The equator and the prime meridian         D．Absolute coordinates