It’s a sure sign that summer is over and winter is on the way — leaves that were once deep green turn red, yellow and bright orange. It happens every autumn. But did you ever wonder why?
The leaves start changing color when the nights start getting longer and the temperature starts getting cooler. Some scientists think that as the number of daylight hours shrinks, the leaves stop making chlorophyll which makes plants green. The reason is that the process of making chlorophyll requires sunlight. But according to horticulture (园艺) educator Susan Rose from Colorado State University, it turns out leaves don’t really change color at all. “The fall colors are actually there all along,” she said. “But they are covered by the green chlorophyll. As the chlorophyll stops being produced, the other colors can shine through.”
The kind of color that the leaves are going to change to is determined by the plant’s genetic (基因的) background. In some places, the leaves start changing color in September — before autumn even officially begins. In other places, they don’t change until late October or even November. Some scientists say the leaves have been changing color later than usual in recent years. And they think global warming has something to do with that.
In one study, researchers found that the growing season in the Northern Hemisphere was nearly a week longer, on average, in 2008 than it was in 1982. And a professor from Harvard University found that the leaves, west of Boston, Massachusetts, are changing color about three days later than they used to. However, other scientists disagree with the global warming theory. Susan Rose said the leaves in her part of Colorado are changing “right on schedule.” But the leaves in other parts of that state are running a little late. “The lateness in the mountains may have something to do with the really warm late summer and early fall,” she said. “But I’m afraid that’s just a guess.”
【小题1】According to Susan Rose, _____.

As kids, my friends and I spent a lot of time out in the woods. “The woods” was our part-time address, destination, purpose, and excuse. If I went to a friends house and found him not at home, his mother might say, “Oh, he’s out in the woods, ” with a tone(语气) of airy acceptance. It is similar to the tone people sometimes use nowadays to tell me that someone I’m looking for is on the golf course or at the gym, or even “away from his desk.” For us ten-year-olds, “being out in the woods” was just an excuse to do whatever we feel like for a while.
We sometimes told ourselves that what we were doing in the woods was exploring(探索). Exploring was a more popular idea back then than it is today. History seemed to be mostly about explorers. Our explorations, though, seemed to have less system than the historic kind: something usually came up along the way. Say we stayed in the woods, throwing rocks, shooting frogs, picking blackberries, digging in what we were briefly persuaded was an Indian burial mound.
Often we got “lost” and had to climb a tree to find out where we were. If you read a story in which someone does that successfully, be skeptical: the topmost branches are usually too skinny to hold weight, and we could never climb high enough to see anything except other trees. There were four or five trees that we visited regularly—tall beeches, easy to climb and comfortable to sit in.
It was in a tree, too, that our days of fooling around in the woods came to an end. By then some of us had reached seventh grade and had begun the rough ride of adolescence(青春期). In March, the month when we usually took to the woods again after winter, two friends and I set out to go exploring. We climbed a tree, and all of a sudden it occurred to all three of us at the same time that we really were rather big to be up in a tree. Soon there would be the spring dances on Friday evenings in the high school cafeteria.
【小题1】The author and his friends were often out in the woods to _______.

As kids, my friends and I spent a lot of time out in the woods. “The woods” was our part-time address, destination, purpose, and excuse. If I went to a friend’s house and found him not at home, his mother might say, “Oh, he’s out in the woods, ” with a tone(语气) of airy acceptance. It’s similar to the tone people sometimes use nowadays to tell me that someone I’m looking for is on the golf course or at the gym, or even “away from his desk.” For us ten-year-olds, “being out in the woods” was just an excuse to do whatever we feel like for a while.

We sometimes told ourselves that what we were doing in the woods was exploring(探索). Exploring was a more popular idea back then than it is today. History seemed to be mostly about explorers. Our explorations, though, seemed to have less system than the historic kind: something usually came up along the way. Say we stayed in the woods, throwing rocks, shooting frogs, picking blackberries, digging in what we were briefly persuaded was an Italian burial mound.

Often we got “lost” and had to climb a tree to find out where we were. If you read a story in which someone does that successfully, be skeptical: the topmost branches are usually too skinny to hold weight, and we could never climb high enough to see anything except other trees. There were four or five trees that we visited regularly----tall beeches, easy to climb and comfortable to sit in.

It was in a tree, too, that our days of fooling around in the woods came to an end. By then some of us has reached seventh grade and had begun the rough ride of adolescence（青春期）. In March, the month when we usually took to the woods again after winter, two friends and I set out to go exploring. We climbed a tree, and all of a sudden it occurred to all three of us at the same time that were really were rather big to be up in a tree. Soon there would be the spring dances on Friday evenings in the high school cafeteria.

52. The author and his fiends were often out in the woods to _______.

   A. spend their free time

   B. play gold and other sports

   C. avoid doing their schoolwork

   D. keep away from their parents

53. What can we infer from Paragraph 2?

   A. The activities in the woods were well planned.

   B. Human history is not the result of exploration.

   C. Exploration should be a systematic activity.

   D. The author explored in the woods aimlessly.

54. The underlined word “skeptical” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.

   A. calm

   B. doubtful

   C. serious

   D. optimistic

55. How does the author feel about his childhood?

   A. Happy but short.

   B. Lonely but memorable.

   C. Boring and meaningless.

   D. Long and unforgettable.

It’s a sure sign that summer is over and winter is on the way — leaves that were once deep green turn red, yellow and bright orange. It happens every autumn. But did you ever wonder why?

The leaves start changing color when the nights start getting longer and the temperature starts getting cooler. Some scientists think that as the number of daylight hours shrinks, the leaves stop making chlorophyll which makes plants green. The reason is that the process of making chlorophyll requires sunlight. But according to horticulture (园艺) educator Susan Rose from Colorado State University, it turns out leaves don’t really change color at all. “The fall colors are actually there all along,” she said. “But they are covered by the green chlorophyll. As the chlorophyll stops being produced, the other colors can shine through.”

The kind of color that the leaves are going to change to is determined by the plant’s genetic (基因的) background. In some places, the leaves start changing color in September — before autumn even officially begins. In other places, they don’t change until late October or even November. Some scientists say the leaves have been changing color later than usual in recent years. And they think global warming has something to do with that.

In one study, researchers found that the growing season in the Northern Hemisphere was nearly a week longer, on average, in 2008 than it was in 1982. And a professor from Harvard University found that the leaves, west of Boston, Massachusetts, are changing color about three days later than they used to. However, other scientists disagree with the global warming theory. Susan Rose said the leaves in her part of Colorado are changing “right on schedule.” But the leaves in other parts of that state are running a little late. “The lateness in the mountains may have something to do with the really warm late summer and early fall,” she said. “But I’m afraid that’s just a guess.”

1.According to Susan Rose, _____.

A．the fall colors are always in leaves

B．leaves make chlorophyll all the seasons

C．leaves’ changing color have nothing to with the weather

D．leaves begin changing color because they start making chlorophyll

2.The underlined word “shrinks” in Paragraph 2 could best be replaced by _____.

A．reduces          B．increases          C．lasts              D．appears

3.Scientists guess leaves change color later than usual probably as a result of _____.

A．genetic background                     B．dry weather

C．global warming                         D．low temperature

4.The purpose of the last paragraph is to tell readers _____.

A．why leaves change color at fall

B．leaves change color at different time

C．the effects of the global warming on plants

D．different opinions on the lateness of leaves’ changing color

It happened to me recently. I was telling someone how much I had enjoyed reading Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father and how it had changed my views of our President. A friend I was talking to agreed with me that it was ,in his words, “a brilliantly（精彩地）written book”. However, he then went on to talk about Mr Obama in a way which suggested he had no idea of his background at all. I sensed that I was talking to a book liar.
And it seems that my friend is not the only one. Approximately two thirds of people have lied about reading a book which they haven’t. In the World Book Day’s “Report on Guilty Secrets”, Dreams From My Father is at number 9. The report lists ten books, and various authors, which people have lied about reading, and as I’m not one to lie too often (I’d hate to be caught out ),I’ll admit here and now that I haven’t read the entire top ten . But I am pleased to say that, unlike 42 percent of people, I have read the book at number one, George Orwell’s 1984. I think it’s really brilliant.
The World Book Day report also has some other interesting information in it. It says that many people lie about having read Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky(I haven’t read him, but haven’t lied about it either )and Herman Melville.
Asked why they lied, the most common reason was to “impress” someone they were speaking to. This could be tricky if the conversation became more in –depth!
But when asked which authors they actually enjoy, people named J. k. Rowling, John Grisham, Sophie Kinsella (ah, the big sellers, in other words). Forty-two percent of people asked admitted they turned to the back of the book to read the end before finishing the story(I’ll come clean: I do this and am astonished that 58 percent said they had never done so).
【小题1】How did the author find his friend a book liar?