NASA’s twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been exploring the Red Planet since 2004. But a little more than a year ago, NASA lost contact with Spirit. The space agency has tried several ways to make contact with the rover, but Spirit has not sent back any signals.
Spirit landed on Mars on January 4, 2004. Three weeks later, Opportunity arrived. Soon after, the rovers went to the opposite side of Mars. Spirit’s original mission was only designed to last for three months, but Spirit has worked for more than five years doing additional missions. Both rovers have made important discoveries about ancient Mars. They have taken thousands of images and found evidence in the rocks of a water, warmer past in Mars’ history.
Spirit is solar-powered. It got stuck in a sand trap in April 2009, trapped deep into the soil and with its wheels turning around and around but not able to move forwards or backwards. Spirit had to agree that there is nothing that can be done to change the situation—it’s never going to move again. However, even if it is a not moving station, it can still study the planet’s atmosphere and deep interior.
NASA has been concentrating on trying to position its solar panels to get as much energy from the sun as possible, or to get the rover leaning in a manner that will allow the most amount of sunlight falling on its solar panels, in order to keep it alive during the coming winter months. Engineers have planned to rock the vehicle back and forth to acquire a more favorable position. However, no matter how many efforts have been made, Spirit still could not get out of the soft soil and could not lean itself toward the sun as the Martian winter approached. Without enough energy reaching its solar panels and with so little energy in its batteries, it went into hibernation, just like a polar bear, and has not communicated with Earth since March 22, 2010.
Whatever the future holds for Spirit, its mission has been an outstanding success. When it landed on the Red Planet in January 2004, no one was really sure how long it would continue working in the cold and dusty environment. As a matter of fact, three months was its original goal.
After so many fruitless efforts, NASA scientists are losing hope of ever reconnecting with Spirit, but they will give it one more try. Ground controllers are contacting Spirit over a range of frequencies and at different times during the day in case its internal clock stopped working and it lost track of time. They also are commanding the rover to turn on its backup radio transmitter in case the main one is dead.
If this final effort to connect isn’t successful, NASA will shift the focus to its twin robot, Opportunity, which is in a different part of Mars. Opportunity is still on the move and continues to travel freely to this day. It has traveled 16.6 miles so far, and is currently rolling towards another crater it has yet to explore.
NASA has spent more than $900 million on the project but shows no sign of giving up on these determined and hard-working robots. The rovers are, though, experiencing gradual wear and tear, the expected damage to something caused by using it repeatedly over a period of time. Even before Spirit got trapped, one of its wheels had failed. And NASA says it’s just a matter of time before both robots break down completely.
【小题1】According to the passage, what can we know about Spirit?

A．It had explored Mars several times.

B．Its original mission was to work for five years.

C．It landed on Mars three weeks later than Opportunity.

D． It discovered that Mars was once a warm and wetter place.

完形填空(共20小题; 每小题1.5分，满分30分)

阅读短文, 掌握大意, 然后从各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中, 选出一个最佳答案，并在答题卡将该项涂黑。

For Chinese students, the end of their senior year is filled with studying and 36 when they prepare for the college entrance exams in June. But for American high school seniors, the experience 37 be more different. It is a celebration of their time in high school and 38 parties, games and fun.

Seniorities is a commonly used 39 . It means seniors have a disease which 40 them unable to do work. This starts in April, 41 seniors find out whether they have been accepted to university.

Unwilling to do school work, seniors have plenty of 42 activities to focus on.

Many school have a “Senior Show”. Only seniors are allowed to perform in it. Some seniors sing 43 dance but many of them perform skits (滑稽短剧).They 44 their favorite teachers or their friends. For example, a group of boys may 45 and imitate a group of their friends. It is all 46 .

The “Senior Show” is just a part of Senior Week — the week 47 intended for seniors. During this week, seniors usually get academic or athletic 48 for their wonderful jobs in high school. They also vote 49 one of their male and female classmates who they believe 50 the best-looking or funniest or most involved, etc. These are then 51 in the yearbook.

The yearbook is an important part of high school for seniors. There are all their pictures and some words from them in it. Seniors will 52 to get 53 signed by their friends so they can always remember their time together.

The end of 54 is a truly special and wonderful time for American students. It’s 55 they will remember for the rest of their lives.

单词拼写:根据中文意思或首字母提示写出正确的单词。（共10小题；满分5分）

1. Please r________ me of the time when we have to hold the important meeting.

2.Without the teacher’s p_____, you cannot play with the computer in our class.

3.C_______(好奇心) is part of a child’s nature.

4.Knowledge can be of great b______ to everybody.

5.I am looking for a job in which I can c         my work with my interest.

6.He ______（发现） his old friend Jack in the crowd.

7.In many parts of China, there e______ the idea that boys are important than girls.

8.It is a t________ to play tricks on others on April 1.

9.Today’s festivals have many o_________ ,some religious , some seasonal , and some for

special people or events .

10.There was frost in the ground, c_______ that fall had arrived .

Late in April, a photo show was held in our school．

It lasted a week and was a great success! All the photos were t______                                   1.

by the students themselves ．They were ______（大多数）color photos, but              2.

some are black-and -white o_____, presenting our school life, the beauty           3.

of nature, festival activities and so on．All the _____（作品）of art were         4.

______show in the reading-room on the second floor．Every day a large            5.

______ of students went to enjoy them, and they were surprised to    　　                   6.

find the photos were so wonderful ______ some teachers also were                               7.

present．Those whose photos were chosen the best were g____ different                 8.

prizes．In short, this photo show really made our life more _____（多彩）．             9.

We hope we will h      more activities like this in our school．   　　         10.

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从11~25各题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
eBooks still some way away from students
Twelve-year-old Tang Yin is one of the earliest students to test a digital textbook in China. The boy said he was a little  11  when he received the monochromatic(单色的) flat device in April, 2010, because he thought it should be a “   12   cool” laptop. But Tan still cherishes(珍爱) his new equipment like “protecting my  13 ,” said the fifth grader. After all, not every student has the opportunity to  14  the eBook, which is worth $294 (￥2,000 yuan), he said.
The 50 eBooks,   15  by Taiwan eBook manufacturer Chuanqi Photoelectric Technology in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, enables one class at Yangzhou Sanyuanqiao Elementary School to be the   16  group of students in the Chinese mainland to replace their regular textbooks with   electronic ones. Out of 1000 students, Tang’s class was the lucky   17   .
“Our school could not   18  the project without the company’s donation,” said Yuan Shishan, vice-headmaster of the primary school.   19  the digital book is considered environmentally friendly, because it replaces paper books and saves money in the long run, the price is much higher than most Chinese   20  can afford. Also, some technical defects, the  21  of taking notes and monochromatic display, make the eBook fail to meet the expectations of students and teachers.
“There’s still a/an    22  way to go before the eBook really plays an important role in education,” said the headmaster.
According to Yuan, the annual average income of a   23   family in Yangzhou is about 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, and neither the parents nor the school can afford the 2,000 yuan  24 book.
The school doesn’t allow the students to take their eBooks to their homes. The devices are  25  after class, and are locked in the headmaster’s office.