Wednesday, October 29,2008.
The United States federal government had two young men in the state of Tennessee arrested on October 22 on unknown charges.
In court documents published on Monday, it came to light that the men had discussed attacking an African – American school and killing 14 of them.
Another crime was about planning to murder Presidential candidate Barack Obama. According to their affidavits (口供), the suspects’ “final act of violence” would be like this: when they attacked Obama they would wear white suits and top hats and drive “their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama shooting at him from the windows.”
The two suspects are Paul Schlesselman, 18, of West Helena, Arkansas and Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tennessee. According to the court papers, they met last month over the Internet through a friend. Schlesselman and Cowart are believed to share “very strong views” about White Power.
Schlesselman listed “being racist” as his occupation on his MySpace page. He further wrote: “I'm white. I'm proud. I get angry. I like guns.”
Cowart also had a MySpace page on which photos of guns were presented under a heading of “My Guns”. On his page he wrote, “Better to die quick fighting on your feet than to live forever begging on your knees.”
Some have questioned the pair's ability to carry out the charged plan, but authorities have been very concerned about Obama as the first black presidential candidate from a major party.
“We honestly don't know if they had the ability or the skill to carry out the kind of plan that they talked about.” said Malcolm Wiley, of the United Satates Secret Service in an interview with The New York Times. “But we take any threat seriously no matter how big or how small it is.”
Cowart and Schlesselman are scheduled to appear before a judge on Thursady.
【小题1】The passage is mainly about____________.

第三部分：阅读理解(共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中(A、B、c和D)00，选出最佳选项，并在答卡上将该项涂黑。
Ryan  and Lowry had been friends  since high school，  but it wasn’t until after college
that they hit on the idea of a home—care-products company．“We were shocked to learn how  toxic  cleaning  products  were，”  says  Ryan．  Why  couldn’t they  create  green products that would be just as environmentally pure as Aveda’s skin—and—hair—care lines?
When Ryan’s mom heard about the plan，she stared at him blankly: “I’ve never even seen  you  clean your room!” Not discouraged，Lowry experimented with  nontoxic ways to clean．  while  Ryan  focused on marketing．  In  February 2001，they  mixed their first four   cleaning  sprays  and  convinced the  managers  of  20  grocers to try them·  Once  they had their  approval，they tapped  friends  and  family  and pooled their  savings to  come  up  with $90，000 in seed money．
From the start，“Go big or go home’’was their mantra(口头禅)．Their first financing— that $l million—was due to be signed on September 11, 2001. By the time they got it, two months later，says Ryan, "we had$16 in the bank and personally owed$300，000·”
Seeking a national retailer(零售商)proved just as troublesome．The friends set their sights on Target，known for its trendy，affordable goods．“But Target didn’t like the product or the brand，”recalled Ryan．“We thought the deal was dead，but then a new buyer saw that even though we weren’t selling big volumes, we were  profitable, just on a smaller scale．”They won over Target．
Consumers  were  hooked  on the  natural things  and  wonderful  fragrance. Today，the partners sell 130 products in more than 8,000 stores，and taxes are over$100 million. Such  rapid  growth has  at times  stressed the  men’s  friendship． “Eric  and  I  agree on ‘what’  but  never  on‘how，’”  says Lowry．  “Although  we  are  willing to  challenge  each  other，we come up with interesting and smarter solutions．There’s little fire and ice between us·
56．The underlined word“toxic”in Paragraph 1 most probably means——·
A．poisonous    B．dirty    C．expensive   D．troublesome
57．When Ryan told his mom his plan, ___________.
A．he knew his mom was sure to support him
B．his mom asked him to clean his room
C．his mom suspected his ability
D．he was discouraged by his mom
58．We can learn：from the third paragraph that __________________．
A．Ryan and Lowry wanted to gave up and go home at first
B．their plan didn’t go smoothly at the very beginning
C．they made profit two months later after their first financing
D．$1 million was not enough as their seed money
59．The partners’cleaning products are sold very well because——．
A．the products are made of natural material and smell nice
B．their friends and family offered to use their products
C．they cooperated with a well—known national retailer
D．they convinced 20 grocer managers to try them
60．It can be inferred from the—passage that——．
A．Aveda’s skin—and—hair-care lines are not so successful as Ryan and Lowry’s
B．Target is a famous environment-friendly cleaning brand
C．The friends "cooperation with Target was very successful
D．The partners get on well with each other in their business

A businessman was deep in debt (欠债)and could see no way out. He sat on the park bench,  21 in hands, wondering if anything could     his company.

   Suddenly an old man appeared. “I can see    is troubling you,” he said. After listening to the businessman's      , the old man said, “I believe I can     you.”  He asked the businessman’s name ,and      a check (支票), saying , “Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can     me back at that time.” Then he left quickly.

    The businessman     in his hand a check for $ 500,000,signed(签字)by John D. Rockefeller, who was then one of the     men in the world! “I can get rid of my money worries now!” he realized. But instead, he    to put the check in his case, just knowing it was there to give him the strength to work out a     to save his company.

    Within a few months, he was out of debt and    money once again. Exactly one year later, he returned to the    with the check. At the agreed-on    , the old man appeared. Just    the businessman was about to hand back the cheek and     his successful story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.“I am so     I caught him!” she cried, “I hope he hasn't been bothering you. He's     escaping from the rest home and      people he’s John D. Rockefeller.” And she led him away by the arm. The businessman just stood there,       .

    Suddenly, he realized it wasn't the money, real or imagined, but his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.

1.A. money         B. hair            C. check           D. head

2.A. start           B. stop            C. save            D. sell

3.A. something      B. everything       C. nothing         D. anything

4.A. programs       B. troubles         C. wishes          D. dreams

5.A. find           B. teach           C. help            D. protect

6.A. packed up      B. picked up        C. took out        D. wrote out

7.A. bring          B. pay             C. feed           D. call

8.A. saw           B. tied             C. pulled          D. hid

9.A. tallest         B. richest           C. strongest        D. busiest

10.A. continued     B. refused          C. decided         D. forgot

11.A. record        B. result           C. problem         D. way

12.A. losing        B. making          C. lending         D. raising

13.A. park          B. room           C. company        D. hospital

14.A. time          B. corner          C. price           D. weekend

15.A. if            B. as              C. after           D. because

16.A. read          B. test             C. share          D. hear

17.A. sad           B. angry           C. tired           D. glad

18.A. seldom        B. hardly           C. never          D. always

19.A. ordering       B. warning         C. telling          D. reminding

20.A. shocked       B. bored           C. excited          D. interested

It has always been said that women are not good drivers, because they simply don't have very good driving ability. On the other hand, most car accidents happen to men; very few happen to women.
From this, we can see that women are much more careful while driving. Another very interesting fact that we should point out is that in the past, women preferred to let their husbands be the only driver in the family rather than have a driving license. Somehow they were prevented from making this step in their lives, but nowadays there are many women that want to pass their driving tests from an early age.
However, we have to admit that men are more skillful drivers than women, but this does not mean that a woman cannot become a good driver by accumulating (积累) experience. So more and more teenagers and women around the age of thirty now want to pass their driving tests. While taking their driving lessons, they also have a number of special lessons with their parents or somebody in the family that has a driving license, this is just to improve their driving abilities and help them to pass the tests more easily.
To conclude, we can say that women are not such bad drivers. They just need more experience than men in order to be able to drive well. And on the other hand, there are a number of women that show better driving skills than the men around them.
【小题1】 Compared with the past, nowadays many women___.

World top-ranked badminton player Lin Dan said last Friday that he was a better player than Taufik Hidayat in the year of 2006 despite losing the Asian Games single title to the Indonesian Olympic champion.
“I have ranked No.1 in the world for two straight years and I think people can easily come to a conclusion on who is a better player for the whole year,” said Lin Dan, also known as Super Dan in the badminton world because of his marvelous performance in the sport.
Hidayat beat Lin 21-15, 22-20 to give Indonesia its second gold medal in Doha on December 9, retaining his Asian Games singles title and avenging(报仇) two losses to the badminton world champion.
Lin, 23, led China to the men’s team title after defeating Hidayat twice in three days, in the preliminary round and in the semifinals of the Asian Games.
In their third meeting, Lin came up against a better-prepared Hidayat than he had encountered previously.
Hidayat was cheered on by the noisy support from dancing and flag-waving Indonesian fans, who had converted the badminton arena into a national celebration even before the two players stepped onto the court.
There’s been a lot of acrimony(言语的刻毒) between Hidayat and Lin, who this year won the single title in the world championships after former champion Hidayat crashed out in the quarterfinals.
In Doha, Hidayat was quoted as calling Lin “arrogant” before the event began, but the two stars played down the rift (a situation where two people dislike each other).
“It’s no problem, we’re close friends,” said Hidayat. “The media fabricated it.”
Lin said last Friday in Beijing that he and Hidayat remain friends despite all the rumors（谣言）.
“There is no problem between Taufik and me although we don’t talk to each other very much,” said Lin. “Media tends to make up things in order to make their stories juicy.”
【小题1】What does the underlined word “fabricated” mean?