At one time or another most farmers have problems with mice. This is especially true for grain farmers. Mice eat a lot of grain. They also carry diseases(疾病), which people can get from eating or touching grain the mice have made dirty. Farmers can use special grain storage building or they can kill the mice. However, both methods can be costly. Farmers must buy materials to build the special grain storage buildings or chemical poisons to kill the mice.
Here is a way to kill mice without spending a lot of money. It is a simple but effective king of mouse trap. The method is first used by some farmers in the west African country of Mali. An agricultural expert in Mali reported about the Mali mouse trap in a magazine. The expert reported that his gardener caught 150 mice in just one night. The gardener used four traps. The trap is easy to make. First, remove the top from a 20 liter metal or plastic container(容器). Put it n a hole in the ground. The top edge of the container should be the level with the surface of the ground. Fill the container with water to within eight centimeters of the top. Add tiny pieces of grain wastes. They should float on the water. Also put some wastes on the ground near the trap. During the night, mice will come out to eat the grain wastes. They will fall into the container and drown. Replace the food in the trap every night.
56. According to the passage,       used the mouse trap first.
A. an agricultural expert in the west Africa      B. farmers in the United States
C. an American gardener                    D. farmers in Mali
57. What does the passage mainly tell us?
A. A simple and effective method used by farmers to kill mice.
B. Methods used by farmers to kill mice.
C. Farmers have problems with mice.
D. How to kill mice.
58.      is not needed in making the mouse trap.
A. Water                            B. A container
C. chemical poison                    D. Food
59. Which of the following can’t protect grain from being eaten by mice?
A. A special grain storage building.          B. Chemical poisons.
C. A mouse trap.                        D. A hole in the ground.

President Bush may talk about a plan to Mars, but Bruce Jones thinks there is still a healthy thirst for exploration into underwater worlds on our own planet. After growing up with a grandfather in the marine construction① business, Jones quickly got a feel for the water. He started diving at age 9 and, by the 1980s, began offering advice for those interested in the submarine② business. By 1993, he was running his own company, U.S. Submarines, which designs and builds submarines for others.

Jones has $40 million spent in building a hotel where the most expensive rooms will be 50 feet under the sea off Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. Unlike the Jules Undersea Lodge — the only undersea hotel now, just off the coast of Key Largo, Fla. — guests at the Poseidon won’t need to put on a wet suit to their rooms. They also won’t need to worry about changing pressure levels since the rooms will be kept at above-surface pressure. Instead, they can move easily to their $1,500-a-night underwater rooms by escalator③.

“I think there are a large number of people who would be interested,” said Jones, “including anyone who is looking for a different experience.”

Each room will feature strong walls that look out onto coral④ gardens. There will be controls in each room that guests can use to change the lighting of the underwater worlds outside their windows and to provide food to fish swimming just outside. It sounds exciting— but will it happen? It’s hard to say.

“By now I envisioned⑤ we’d have whole underwater cities,” Cooper said. “It’s about time some of these visions became reality.”

Notes:

① marine construction  海洋建筑

② submarine  adj. 海下的

③ escalator  n.  自动梯

④ coral  n.  珊瑚

⑤ envision  v.  展望

1. The first paragraph takes President Bush for example in order to ______.

  A. praise President Bush’s plan to Mars

B. humorously introduce the main subject to readers

  C. support President Bush’s plan to Mars

D. show Bruce Jones is against President Bush’s plan

2. According to the text, who had a great effect on Bruce Jones?

  A. His father.     B. His friends.       C. His grandfather      D. His grandmother

3. According to Bruce Jones’s undersea hotel, we know that ______.

  A. fish outside can be seen through the hotel’s walls

  B. the hotel has been built and came into use

  C. it will be easy to swim into the underwater rooms

  D. visitors will have to wear wet suits against water

4. According to Cooper’s words, his attitudes towards the underwater hotels are ______.

  A. disappointed       B. critical       C. objective      D. hopeful

NASA is moving ahead with plans to put a long-armed lander on Mars’ icy north pole to search for clues^①for water and possible signs of life.
The $386 million Phoenix Mars is planned to touch down in the Martian arctic in 2008. The stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy land and pick up soil samples^②to analyze. In 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter spotted evidence of ice-rich soil near the arctic surface.
Scientists hope the Phoenix mission will find clues to the geologic history of water on the Red Planet and determine whether microbes^③existed in the ice.
Phoenix will be the first mission of the Mars Scout program, a renewed, low-cost effort to study the Red Planet. “The Phoenix mission explores new territory in the northern plains of Mars analogous to the permafrost regions on Earth,” Peter Smith said.
True to its name, Phoenix rose from the ashes of previous^④missions. The lander for Phoenix was built to fly as part of the 2001 Mars Surveyor program. But the program broke down after the well-known disappearance of the Mars Polar Lander in 1999. The Polar Lander lost contact during a landing attempt near the planet’s south pole after its rocket engine shut off prematurely, causing the spacecraft to fall about 130 feet to almost certain destruction.
The Phoenix probe had been in storage at a Lockheed Martin clean room in Denver before it was reused for its present mission. It will carry science instruments that were designed for the Mars Surveyor program including an improved panoramic camera and a trench-digging robotic arm. Phoenix will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in August 2007 and land on the planet nine months later.
Notes:
①    clue  n. 线索
②    sample  n. 标本，样品
③    microbe  n. 微生物
④    previous  adj. 先前的

1. 1.

   The passage mainly tells readers that _________.

   1. A.
      clues of water will be found in Phoenix
   2. B.
      Phoenix will be sent to find clues of water on Mars
   3. C.
      August 2007 will see Phoenix lift off
   4. D.
      the Mars Scout program will be carried out
2. 2.

   The underlined word “prematurely” (paragraph 5) means _________.

   1. A.
      on time
   2. B.
      behind the time
   3. C.
      out of work
   4. D.
      ahead of time
3. 3.

   According to the passage, we know Phoenix will land on Mars _________.

   1. A.
      in May 2008
   2. B.
      in August 2007
   3. C.
      in August 2008
   4. D.
      in September 2008
4. 4.

   According to the passage, the name “Phoenix” is after the meaning of _________.

   1. A.
      rebirth
   2. B.
      death
   3. C.
      energy
   4. D.
      hope
5. 5.

   After Phoenix lands on Mars, we can infer it will firstly _________.

   1. A.
      find soil samples and send them to the earth
   2. B.
      look for the icy land to dig for the soil samples
   3. C.
      take photos and send them to the earth
   4. D.
      find the remains of the Mars Polar Lander

This is the story of two lovers, who finally got married. Both of them were romantic at first,     on the walk of life, problems, quarrels, profession came into their life.

One day, she finally decided “I want to break up”. “Why?” he asked.

“I am     .” She answered.

He kept silent the whole night, seemingly in deep     . Finally he asked, “What can I do to     your mind?”

Looking into his eyes she said, “Answer my question. If you can      my heart, I will change my mind. Let’s say, I want a flower      on the face of a mountain cliff (悬崖), we are both sure that picking the flower will cause your     . Will you do it for me?”

He said, “I will give you my      tomorrow.”

She woke up the next morning, found him gone, and saw a piece of paper on her bed, which     , “My dear, I would not pick that flower for you. The      are …”

“When you use the computer you always       the software, and you cry in front of the screen. I have to save my fingers so that I can help to      the programs. You always leave the house keys behind, so I have to save my      to rush home to open the door for you. You love traveling but always lose your way in a (n)      city. I have to save my eyes to show you the way. You always      at the computer, and that will do nothing good for your eyes. I have to save my eyes      when we grow old, I can help to clip your nails and help to remove those      white hairs.”

“Thus, my dear,       I am sure that there is someone who loves you more than I do … I can not pick that flower yet, and die …”

That’s life, and    . Flowers, and romantic moments are only used and appear on the      of the relationship. Under all this, the pillar of true love stands.

1.A. while B. and        C. but        D. so

2.A. lonely         B. dead     C. worn out       D. awesome

3.A. sorrow       B. thought          C. shade    D. anger

4.A. speak          B. change C. blow      D. keep

5.A. represent  B. expand C. warm    D. convince

6.A. grown         B. planted C. living     D. growing

7.A. injury          B. hurt       C. wound  D. death

8.A. decision     B. answer C. opinion D. choice

9.A. wrote         B. informed       C. printed D. went

10.A. answers   B. messages       C. reasons          D. purposes

11.A. run out    B. put up   C. use up  D. mess up

12.A. repair       B. restore C. fix D. mend

13.A. legs B. life         C. energy  D. strength

14.A. big   B. new       C. modern         D. strange

15.A. glance      B. look       C. glare     D. stare

16.A. as if B. now that        C. so that  D. in case

17.A. annoying B. emerging       C. rough    D. refreshing

18.A. although  B. even if  C. unless   D. if

19.A. friction     B. love       C. couple  D. power

20.A. surface    B. way       C. course  D. nature

Among the dead in South Asia’s tsunami^① were many tourists at Sri Lanka’s national wildlife park at Yala. But very few of the park’s animals — elephants, buffaloes, monkeys and wild cats — appear to have died. There are theories that animals can sense natural disasters and flee to safety.

First, it’s possible that the animals may have heard the quake before the tsunami hit. The underwater rupture likely produced sound waves known as infrasound^② or infrasonic sound. Humans can’t hear infrasound, but many animals including dogs, elephants, tigers and pigeons can.

A second early warning sign the animals might have sensed is ground vibration^③. The massive quake would have produced vibrational waves known as Rayleigh waves. These vibrations move through the ground like waves move on the surface of the ocean but faster. They travel at ten times the speed of sound. The Rayleigh waves would have reached SriLanka hours before the water hit. Mammals, birds, insects and spiders can sense Rayleigh waves. So the animals at Yale might have felt the Rayleigh waves and then run to higher ground.

But what about humans? While we can’t hear infrasound, we can feel it, although we don’t necessarily know we’re feeling it. We also experience Rayleigh waves by special sensors in our joints, which exist just for that purpose. Sadly, it seems we don’t pay attention to the information when we get it. Maybe we screen it out because there’s so much going on before our eyes and in our ears. Humans have a lot of things on our minds and usually that works out OK.

Notes:

tsunami  n. 海啸

infrasound  n. 次声

vibration  n. 振动，颤动

Choose the best answers according to the above:

Why did few animals at Yala die when the tsunamis that caused a huge number of human deaths hit?

A. Because the animals were staying at a higher place in the park.

B. Because the animals were able to run much faster than human beings.

C. Because human beings cannot hear the infrasonic sound.

D. Because the animals might have picked up the danger signals and ran away.

Which of the statements about “Ravleigh waves” is true?

A. Rayleigh waves are massive vibrational waves that usually cause quakes or tsunamis.

B. Rayleigh waves move on the ocean surface at a speed ten times that of sound waves.

C. Rayleigh waves can be felt both by animals and human beings.

D. Rayleigh waves, just like infrasonic sound, can only be felt by animals.

When a tsunami hits, it is possible that ＿＿＿＿.

A. we can’t feel the infrasound so we can’t be informed of the danger

B. we can feel Rayleigh waves as well as infrasound so we are able to escape the danger like animals

C. we were so busy with things on our minds that we feel neither infrasound nor Rayleigh waves

      D. we think nothing of the information of its coming even though we can also get it

What does the underlined word “that” in the last sentence refer to?

A. Screening out the information.

B. There being so much going on before our eyes and in our ears.

C. Having a lot of things on our minds.

D. Paying attention to the information.