Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. Death Valley can be dangerously cold      during the winter months. Storms in the mountains can produce sudden flooding on the floor of the Valley.

The air temperature during the summer has been as high as fifty- seven degrees Celsius. The sun can heat the ground so that the temperature of the rocks and soil can be as high as seventy -four degrees Celsius.                                                                     

Death Valley contains evidence of several ancient volcanoes that caused huge explosions. Evidence of one of these explosions is called Ubehebe Crater. The explosion left a huge hole in the ground almost a kilometer and a half wide. In many areas of Death Valley it is easy to see where the ground has been pushed up violently by movement deep in the Earth. This movement has created unusual and beautiful rock formations. Some are red. Others are dark brown, gray, yellow or black.

The area was named by a woman in 1849. Thousands of people from other parts of the ountry traveled Lo the gold mining areas in California. They were in a hurry to get there before other people did. One group trying to reach California decided to take a path called the Old Spanish Trail. By December they had reached Death Valley. They did not have to survive the terrible heat of summer, hut there was still an extreme lack of water. There were few plants for their work animals to eat.

The people could not find a pass through the call mountains to the west of the Valley. Slowly, they began co suffer from a lack of food. To survive, they killed their work animals for food and began to walk out of the Valley. As they left, one woman looked back and said, “Good -bye, death valley.”  The name has never been changed.

Almost everyone who visits Death Valley visits a huge house called Scotty' s Castle. The building design is Spanish, with high thick walls to provide protection from the fierce heat.

The castle is named for Walter Scott , called Scotty by his friends. He was a gold miner. He told everyone that he built the house with money he made from his gold mine. Many people believed him. But it was not really the truth.

1.The first two paragraphs discuss Death Valley' s               ．

A．geography         B．climate           C．location           D．size

2.The volcanoes mentioned in the third paragraph proved          ．

A．a valley that is formed by explosions

B．a place where volcanoes are still active

C．a good example of the violence of nature

D．a symbol of rock formations in history

3.The woman who named Death Valley intended to             ．

A．explore the mystery of the valley

B．find an area with plants for animals

C．experience the terrible heat of summer

D．look for gold in California

4.If the passage continues, it will be about             . 

A．the truth about Scotty's Castle

B．why Spanish built the castle

C．when the castle was built

D．where the castle lies in

5.The main idea of the passage is about          ．

A．the interesting place in Death Valley

B．the facts about Death Valley

C．the origin of Death Valley

D．the route to visit Death Valley

用Book6 Modules5-6和Book 7 Modules1-2所学单词的适当形式填空

1.My parents are _____________ (厌恶 ) at the violence in the film.

2._____________（陪伴）by Hammond’s two grandchildren, they are sent on a tour through Jurassic Park in computer-controlled cars.

3.Many questions have a__________ from the recent changes in law.

4.“For the Fallen” can be seen on war m_______________ in many parts of the world.

5.All ______________(全体职员) of the company are eligible (有资格)for being promoted.

6.They have ______________ (犯罪)many horrible crimes against the Chinese people.

7.As a child, Chamberlain had _____________(各种各样的) health problems.

8.I have to say, the h ______________ of the year was the senior prom.

9.Afterwards , we went and had an _____________(巨大的)breakfast in a nearby hotel.

10.During the Easter vacation, I went on a short school ________(滑雪) trip to the Rocky Mountains.

What Is a Boy?

Between the innocence of babyhood and the seriousness of manhood we find a delightful creature called a “boy”. Boys come in different sizes, weights, and colors, but all boys have the same belief: to enjoy every second of every minute of every hour of every day and to fill the air with noise until the adult males send them off to bed at night.

Boys are found everywhere – on top of, under, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around, or jumping to. Mothers spoil them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers love them, and God protects them. A boy is TRUTH with dirt on its face, BEAUTY with a cut on its finger, WISDOM with chocolate in its hair, and the HOPE of the future with a snake in its pocket.

When you are busy, a boy is a trouble – maker and a noise. When you want him to make a good impression, his brain turns to jelly or else he becomes a wild creature destroying the world and himself with it.

A boy is a mixture – he has the stomach of a horse, the digestion (消化) of stones and sand, the energy of an atomic bomb, the curiosity of a cat, the imagination of a superman, the shyness of a sweet girl, the brave nature of a bull, the violence of a firecracker(鞭炮), but when you ask him to make something, he has five thumbs on each hand.

He likes ice cream, knives, saws, Christmas, comic books, woods, water (in its natural habitat), large animals, Dad, trains, Saturday mornings, and fire engines. He is not much for Sunday schools, company, schools, books without pictures, music lessons, neckties, barbers, girls, overcoats, adults, or bedtime.

Nobody else is so early to rise, or so late to supper. Nobody else gets so much fun out of trees, dogs, and breezes. Nobody else can put into one pocket a rusty knife, a half eaten apple, a three-feet rope, six cents and some unknown things.

A boy is a magical creature – he is your headache but when you come home at night with only destroyed pieces of your hopes and dreams, he can mend them like new with two magic words, “Hi, Dad!”

1.The whole passage is in a tone (语气) of _________.

A. humor and love                B. anger and disappointment

C. hope and expectation    D. confidence and imagination

2.What’s the meaning of the underlined sentence?

A. He has altogether five fingers.

B. He is slow, foolish and clumsy.

C. He becomes clever and smart.

D. He cuts his hand with a knife.

3.According to the writer, boys appreciate everything in the following except _________.

A. ice cream                       B. comic books   

C. Saturday mornings                  D. Sunday schools

4.What does the writer feel about boys?

A. He feels curious about their noise.

B. He is tired of these creatures.

C. He is amazed by their naughtiness.

D. He feels unsafe staying with them.

His first successful fight was for the equal rights of black people in South Africa. Then, as the first black president, he fought to unite the country and organize the government. Now Nelson Mandela has set his sights on a new enemy, AIDS.

On March 19 the 82-year-old, former president, hosted his second AIDS-awareness concert. He warned that 25 million people in Africa were already infected with the fatal disease.

Mandela was born in a small village in South Africa in 1918. He was adopted by the chief of his tribe and could have been a chief himself and lived a happy country life.

But he refused to be a chief when his people lived under racial discrimination(歧视). He decided to fight for equal rights for all the people in South Africa. Before 1990, under the country’s Racial Segregation Law, colored and white people lived separately. Black people were treated unfairly even when taking a bus. Blacks had to stand at the back of the bus to make room for white people even when there were only a few of them on board.

For his opposition to the system, Mandela was arrested and spent 27 years in prison. He was freed in 1990 and became the president of the country after the first election were held in which everyone could vote.

Mandela was not only a political fighter who attacked with speeches. He was also a trained boxer and fought in the ring when he was young.

“Although I did not enjoy the violence of boxing, I was interested in how one moved one’s body to protect oneself, how one used a strategy both to attack and retreat”, he wrote in his autobiography.

As a skillful fighter, he chose music as his weapon against AIDS. He hopes to win another victory against AIDS.

1.When was Mandela arrested?

2.Nelson Mandela succeeded in doing the following except _______.

3.If Nelson Mandela hadn’t fought against racial discrimination, he_______.

4.Which of the following statements can best describe the life of Nelson Mandela?

Who do you think breaks the law in our society? If you believe that only tough guys commit crimes, you may have to think again. Unlike in the movies, we can’t divide the world into bad guys and model citizens. Real life is much more complex. In the same way that diseases range from the common cold to fatal forms of cancer, crimes vary in degree. For example, smoking in an elevator will inconvenience people, but much less than threatening them with a gun.

In addition to breaking the law themselves, people tolerate various levels of crime. Why can we tolerate some crimes? It may be that, by seeing others do something, we accept it more easily. For instance, most people will find it easier to speed on a highway when everybody else is driving over the speed limit. When people celebrate a sports championship, if they see someone breaking store windows, they might start breaking windows themselves or even steal from the store. So the people around us influence how much law-breaking we can tolerate.

We must also wonder whether seeing violence on television or reading about it in the newspapers every day makes us tolerate crime more than we should. We become used to seeing blood on the news on television, or in full color in newspapers and magazines. Because we see thousands of dead people on TV, maybe we just try to ignore the situation behind the violence.

If so many citizens tolerate violence and crime, or even commit crimes themselves, it may simply be because of the human mind. Our minds may not care about specific laws. Instead, our minds may have a system of values that usually prevents us from hurting other people to improve our own lives. Yet, when it comes to respecting the rights of a mass of anonymous (不知名的) individuals, we might not be so responsible. While most people would not steal a wallet containing $50, they may not mind cheating on taxes, because cheating on taxes does not hurt any one person. It hurts society, but “society” remains an abstract idea that is not as real as a neighbor or a friend’s friend.

When we realize that so many people have misunderstandings of law-breaking, it is not surprising that so many people tolerate crimes, or even break laws, including me. But how could we improve the level of honesty in our society? Would strict laws help make our society better? Probably not. Honesty will have to come from social pressure: in the family, at school, on the job, each and every one of us can encourage honesty by showing which behavior is unacceptable. And teaching respect should become everyone’s responsibility.

1.According to the author, “Real life is much more complex.” probably means       .

A. there is a wide range of people and crimes in the real life

B. smoking in an elevator goes against laws in the real life

C. there are much more crimes than diseases in the real life

D. some model citizens sometimes break laws in the real life

2.What does the author think of the people who cheat on taxes?

A. They take no notice of the human mind.

B. They break the laws unaccepted in their minds.

C. They aren’t concerned about some particular laws.

D. They hurt other people to improve their own lives.

3.People tolerate violence and crime because       .

A. their behavior is the same as that of most other people

B. they pay no attention to the truth behind the crimes

C. most unlawful acts are not harmful to the individual

D. they hold mistaken beliefs about law-breaking

4.What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage?

A. To discuss whether laws are strict enough.

B. To remind people to behave with honesty.

C. To show people the importance of education.

D. To explain why many people have criminal records.