One warm day when I was walking in my backyard, I saw a pinecone(松球) on the ground. I picked it up, and some seeds fell out of it. Those seeds would be a tasty treat for a squirrel (松鼠).
I realized that pinecones were not always open like this one. Sometimes cones were tightly closed. I decided to find out why.
I gathered pinecones from my backyard. I watched them for over a year. Here’s what I learned.
Pinecones open and close slowly as the weather changes. When it’s cold or wet, cones are tightly closed. This protects the seeds inside from rain and snow.
When the weather becomes warm and dry, pinecones open. On a hot day, you might even hear the sound of cones popping open. The seeds inside may then fall to the ground. The wind may blow the seeds to places where they can grow into new pine trees. A seed has a better chance of taking root and growing when the weather is warm.
“Pine seeds are an important source of food for many animals,” says Monty Maldonado. He is a pinecone expert with the United States Forest Service. He says squirrels depend on pinecone seeds for most of their meals. They spend lots of time gathering and storing the cones. Maldonado says some animals eat only the seeds from a pinecone. But red squirrels and gray squirrels will eat the whole thing.
Small animals aren’t the only creatures that eat pine seeds. Maldonado says big grizzly bears (灰熊) and people eat them, too.
Seeds inside a pinecone are important for the growth of new trees and as food for animals. It is the pinecone’s job to protect them. So take note of the pinecones you see on the ground. They hold treasures inside.
45．According to the passage, when it is rainy, cones          .
A．are open   B．are usually shut       C．grow quickly    D．stop growing
46．According to Monty Maldonado,        .
A．not all squirrels eat the whole pinecone        
B．pine seeds are difficult to find for many animals
C．people in the forest are sometimes attacked by grizzly bears
D．most small animals depend on pinecone seeds for their meals
47．We can learn from the passage that on sunny days         .
A．seeds may fall out of the cones      
B．squirrels stay still in their nests      
C．it’s difficult for a seed to take root
D．the wind will put the pine trees in danger
48．In the last paragraph, the author points out that         .
A．more and more new trees need to be planted in future 
B．people should be responsible for protecting animals
C．people should be careful not to damage the pinecones  
D．squirrels now have few seeds to feed themselves
49．Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A．The author learned why pinecones are not always open in the forest.  
B．The author gathered pinecones and observed them for a month.  
C．The author is fond of gathering and storing the cones. 
D．Pine trees are precious to animals and people.

The great Alaskan explorer John Muir once wrote that to have dinner with a glacier (冰川) on a sunny day is an excellent thing. It is better to sleep beside one, on an Antarctic island,  with just a sleepifig bag for warmth and the sky as your tent.
Our camp-out was in early January of this year on Danco Island, along the Antarctic Peninsula.  Midway through a 10-day Antarctic journey, conditions were near perfect.  We started our voyage from the Akademik Ioffe in Zodiacs,  landing on the wide beach with its fist-sized rocks.  At the height of the Antarctic summer, the shore was clear of snow, with plenty of room for the 40 adventurers to spend the night.
Danco Island was charted in 1898 by the Belgian explorer Adrien de Gerlache, who was the first to prove that you could overwinter in Antarctica and survive.  De Gerlache paved the way for Lt.  Robert Scott's first expedition in 1901.  De Gerlache mapped the archipelago (群岛).  He later named the island after his team member mile Danco,  a geophysicist who died that winter.  For one year in the mid-1950s, Danco was known as Base O by the British, who kept a scientific research station there, although all that. remains of it is a foundation and a pile of coal.
Our expedition was organized by Australian tour operator Peregrine Adventures. The weather was extraordinary -- sunny with daytime temperatures of about 1't2.  The camping was easy and accessible to all ages.  Sleeping under the stars in Antarctica,  in just a sleeping bag is pretty amazing.
1. Whom did Adrien de Gerlache have a direct effect on?
A. John Muir.           B. Lt. Robert Scott.
C. The tourists.          D. The author. 
2. What was Danco Island named after?
A. A place.             B. A glacier.
C. A person.           D. An ocean.
3. It can be inferred from the passage that        .
A. old people can't go 'camping in Antarctica
B. the author went to the Antarctica in winter
C. John Muir might have visited an Antarctic island
D. Lt. Robert Scott built a station in the Antarctic
4. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Danco Island
B. An expedition to Antarctica
C. Explorers of Antarctica
D. Sleep under the stars in Antarctica

One sunny day last September, Tim heard some shouting. Looking out to the sea carefully, he saw a couple of kids in a rowboat were being pulled out to sea.

   Two 12-year-old boys, Christian and Jack, rowed out a boat to search for a football. Once they'd rowed beyond the calm waters, a beach umbrella tied to the boat caught the wind and pulled the boat into open water. The pair panicked and tried to row back to shore. But they were no match for it and the boat was out of control.

   Tim knew it would soon be swallowed by the waves. "Everything went quiet in my head," Tim recalls(回忆). "I was trying to figure out how to swim to the boys in a straight line."

   Tim took off his clothes and jumped into the water. Every 500 yards or so, he raised his head to judge his progress. "At one point, I considered turning back," he says. "I wondered if I was putting my life at risk." After 30 minutes of struggling, he was close enough to yell to the boys, "Take down the umbrella!"

    Christian made much effort to take down the umbrella. Then Tim was able to catch up and climb aboard the boat. He took over rowing, but the waves were almost too strong for him.

   "Let's aim for the pier(码头)," Jack said. Tim turned the boat toward it. Soon afterward, waves crashed over the boat, and it began to sink. "Can you guys swim?" he cried. "A little bit," the boys said.

   Once the were in the water, Tim decided it would he safer and faster for him to pull the boys toward the pier. Christian and Jack were wearing life jackets and floated on their backs. Tim swan toward land as water washed over the boys' faces.

   “Are we almost there?" they asked again and again. "Yes," Tim told them each time.

   After 30minutes, they reached the pier.

1.what does “it” in paragraph 2 refer to ?

A. The beach     B. the water        C. the wind        D. the boat

2.why did Tim raise his head regularly?

A. to take in enough fresh air

B. To consider turning back to not.

C. To check his distance from the boys

D. To ask the boys to take down the umbrella

3.How did the two boys finally reach the pier?

A. They swam to the pier all by themselves.

B. They were washed to the pier by the wave.

C. They were carried to the pier by Tim on his back.

D. They were dragged to the pier by Tim.

A little boy had the job of coming to school early each day to start the fire and warm the room before his teacher and his classmates arrived.

One  1 they arrived to find the schoolhouse was on fire. They dragged(拖) the senseless(无意识的) little boy out of the burning building more dead than alive. The doctor told his mother that her son would surely  2  .

But the brave boy didn’t want to die. He made up his  3 that he would survive somehow, and to the amazement of the doctor, he did survive. When the  4 was past, the mother was told that he would be a lifetime cripple(跛子) with no  5  of the lower part of his body at all.

Once more, the brave boy made up his mind. He would not be a  6  . He would walk. But unfortunately from the waist down, he had no motor(运动神经的) ability. His thin legs were all but lifeless.

Finally he returned from the  7  . Every day his mother would massages(按摩) his little  8 , but there was no feeling. Yet his  9  that he would walk was as strong as ever.

One sunny day his mother wheeled him out into the  10 to get some fresh air. This day, instead of sitting there, he threw himself from the chair. He pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him. He walked his way to the white   11 .With great  12 , he raised himself up on the fence(篱笆) . Then, he began dragging himself along the fence and  13  that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a smooth path all around the yard beside the fence.  14  through his daily massages and his iron determination, he did  15 the ability to stand up, then to walk by himself and then to run. This determined young man, Dr Glenn Cunningham, ran the world’s fastest mile!

1.                A．afternoon       B．evening         C．noon D．morning

2.                A．die            B．survive         C．fail  D．recover

3.                A．mind           B．heart           C．idea D．view

4.                A．disease         B．disaster         C．danger   D．failure

5.                A．effect          B．use            C．good D．work

6.                A．cripple         B．patient         C．trouble   D．winner

7.                A．school         B．home          C．factory   D．hospital

8.                A．hands          B．legs            C．arms D．feet

9.                A．decision        B．dream          C．promise  D．determination

10.               A．street          B．school         C．yard  D．shop

11.               A．fence          B．wall           C．houses    D．door

12.               A．job            B．time           C．effort D．success

13.               A．promised       B．decided        C．insisted   D．predicted

14.               A．Frankly         B．Finally          C．Actually   D．Secondly

15.               A．build          B．improve        C．choose    D．develop

此题要求改正所给短文中的错误.对标题号的每一行做出判断：如无错误，在该行右边的横线上划（√）；如有错误（每行只有一个错误），则按下列情况改正：

此行多一个词：把多余的词用斜线划掉，在该行右边横线上写出该词，并也用斜线划掉。

此行缺一个词：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（^），在该行右边横线上写出该加的词。

此行错一个词：在错的词下划一横线，在该行右边横线上写出改正后的词。

注意：原行没有错的不要改。

I still remember on the first day when I came to college.           

It was a sunny day. Everything seems fresh to me. All the                      

students were exciting. I was, too. I had long dreamed          

of becoming a college student. Years late, my dream      

had come true. This was really turning point in my life. I    

looked at the beautiful classroom buildings. I felt proud for my    

college. I knew that going to college would be a good chance       

to get a great deal of knowledges, which would be useful      

for your future career. Meanwhile I knew that studying at college        

was a great challenge to me. H had to learn what to overcome the        

difficulties in my study and life at college.