Recently, a study was carried out to determine who was the greatest American president．Sixty-five presidential historians took part in it, and they judged the past forty-two American leaders based on ten leadership qualities, including public persuasiveness(信服), crisis leadership, management of the economy, moral leadership, and conduct of international relations．The historians also looked at administrative ability (管理能力), relations with Congress, ability to set goals, and the pursuit of equal justice for all．Finally, the experts took into consideration the historical period in which the president lived．

The historians chose Abraham Lincoln as American’s greatest president．He had also been named best president in a similar study in 2000．Abraham Lincoln was the president who led the nation through the Civil War in the 1860s, and was able to unite it in the end．He also took the first steps to abolish slavery in America．

Edna Medford, a professor of history at Howard University in Washington, D.C., was an adviser on this study and the earlier one．She says Abraham Lincoln is seen to represent the values the nation most honors, such as truthfulness, moderation, and respect for human rights．

The historians put American’s first president, George Washington, second on the list, while Franklin D．Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harry Truman follow in that order．John   F．Kennedy, the country’s first Roman Catholic president, is sixth on the list．Like Lincoln, Kennedy was murdered while in office．

Among recent presidents, Ronald Reagan was named the tenth best and Bill Clinton rated fifteenth, while the historians put former president George W．Bush at number thirty-six．His father, George H.W．Bush, did much better, being placed at number eighteen．

1.We learn from the text that ___________．

    A．this is the second time that Abraham Lincoln has been chosen as America’s greatest president

    B．Edna Medford didn’t take part in the study conducted in 2000．

    C．George H.W．Bush was thought to have done worse in office than George W．Bush

    D．Harry Truman was rated the fourth-best president by the study

2.Which of the following belong to the ten leadership qualities considered?

    a．Being able to persuade the public

    b．Taking effective measures during a financial crisis．

    c．Balancing home life and career．

    d．Pursuing equal justice for all．

   A．a,b,c           B．b,c,d          C．a,b,d          D．a,c,d

3.Who is rated worst among the following four presidents?

   A．John F．Kennedy                  B．George Washington

   C．Bill Clinton                     D．George W．Bush

4.The text is mainly about ________．

   A．the ten qualities a great president needs

   B．a study of American presidents

   C．the values the American nation honors most

   D．how Abraham Lincoln improved the country

----In fact, you _____ to write up the report within three days.
----Sorry for not finishing it. I’ve been too busy recently.

Recently a Beijing father sent in a question at an Interact forum(论坛)asking what “PK” meant．

   “My family has been watching the ‘Super Girl’ singing competition TV program．My little daughter asked me what ’PK’ meant，but I had no idea，”explained the puzzled father．

   To a lot of Chinese young people who have been playing games online，it is impossible not to know this term．In such Internet games，“PK” is short for “Player Kill”，in which two players fight until one ends the life of the other．

   In the case of the “Super Girl” singing competition．“PK” was used to refer to the stage where two singers have to compete with each other for only one chance to go up in competition ranking．

   Like this father，Chinese teachers at high schools have also been finding their students’ compositions using Internet jargons which are difficult to understand．A high school teacher from Tianjin asked her students to write compositions with simple language，but they came up with a lot of Internet jargons that she didn’t understand．

   “My ‘GG’ came back this summer from college．He told me I’ve grown up to be a ‘PLMM’．I loved to ‘FB’ with him together；he always took me to the ‘KPM’，”went one composition．

   “GG” means Ge Ge(Chinese pinyin for brother)．“PLMM” refers to Piao Liang Mei Mei (beautiful girl)．“FB” means Fu Bai (corruption)．“KPM” is short for KFC．Pizza Hut and McDonald’s．

   Some specialists welcome Internet jargons as a new development in language．

   If you do not even know what a Kong Long(dinosaur，referring to an ugly looking female) ora Qing wa (frog，referring to an ugly looking male)is，you will possibly be regarded as a CaiNiao!

1.By writing the article，the writer tries to         ．

A．explain some Internet language

B．suggest common Internet language

C．laugh at the Beijing father

D．draw our attention to Internet language

2.What does the writer think about the term “PK”?                       

A．Fathers can’t possibly know it．

B．The daughter should understand it．

C．Online game players may know it．

D．“Super Girl” shouldn’t have used it．

3.The examples of the Beijing father and the Tianjin teacher are used to show that Internet jargons          ．

A．are used not only online

B．can be understood very well

C．are welcomed by all the people

D．cause trouble to our mother tongue

4.The underlined word “jargons” means“        ”in Chinese．

A．行话         B．粗口       C．歌词       D．趋势

The Iceberg Was Only Part ofIt

What doomed the Titanic is well known, at least in outline. On a moonless night of April 15, 1912, the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic ,with 1,500 lives lost.

A century later many people presented new theories to explain the real reason for the disaster. Now two new studies argue that rare states of nature played major roles in the disaster.

The first says Earth’s nearness to the Moon and the Sun — a proximity not matched in more than 1,000 years — resulted in record tides that help explain why the Titanic met with so much ice, including the fatal iceberg.

Recently, a team of researchers found an apparent explanation in the heavens. They discovered that Earth had come unusually close to the Sun and Moon that winter, enhancing their gravitational pulls on the ocean and producing record tides. The rare orbits took place between December 1911 and February 1912 — about two months before the disaster came about. The researchers suggest that the high tides refloated masses of icebergs traditionally stuck along the coastlines of Labrador and Newfoundland and sent them adrift into the North Atlantic shipping lanes.

And a second, put forward by a Titanic historian from Britain, contends that the icy waters created ideal conditions for an unusual type of mirage(海市蜃楼) that hid icebergs from lookouts whose duty was to watch carefully for danger ahead and confused a nearby ship as to the liner’s identity, delaying rescue efforts for hours.

Most people know mirages as natural phenomena caused when hot air near the Earth’s surface bends light rays upward. In a desert, the effect prompts lost travelers to mistake patches of blue sky for pools of water. But another kind of mirage occurs when cold air bends light rays downward. In that case, observers can see objects and settings far over the horizon. The images often undergo quick distortions — not unlike the wavy reflections in a funhouse mirror.

Now, scholars of the Titanic are debating these new theories. Some have different opinions on it. Over all, though, many experts are applauding the fresh perspectives. 

1.The underlined word "It" in the title probably refers to _______.

2.According to Theory First, what was the right chain of causes leading to the Titanic’s disaster?

① record tides’ forming and icebergs’ being refloated

② icebergs’ being drifted into the North Atlantic shipping lanes

③ the Earth’s strange closing to the Sun and the Moon

④ increasing of the gravitational force on the ocean

3.According to Theory Second, the disaster happened to the Titanic mainly because______.

4.What is the chief function of the sixth paragraph?

5.This passage is organized generally in the pattern of________.

Academy Awards  The Academy Awards are the most prominent film award in the United States. The Awards are granted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Academy Awards are nicknamed “Oscars” , which is also the nickname of the statuette. The name is said to have been born in 1931 when Margaret Herrick saw the statuette on a table and said. “It looks just like my uncle Oscar!”

Berlin Film Festival  One of the “A” festivals in Europe. The Berlin International Film Festival, also called the “Berlinale”, is held annually in February and started in 1951 after an initiative of the American, who occupied part of the city after World War II. The jury always placed special emphasis on representing films from all over the world, from the former Eastern Bloc Countries (东方阵营) as well as from Western countries.The awards are called Golden and Silver Bears ( as the bear is the symbol of Berlin).

Venice Film Festival   The Venice Film Festival takes place every year in late August/early September on the Lido in the historic Palazzo del Cinema, in Venice, Italy since 1932; its main award is the “Leond'Oro” (Golden Lion).  Recently, a new award has been added, the San Marco Award for the best film

Cannes Film Festival  The Cannes Film Festival is. a famous international film festival. It has been held annually in Cannes, in the south of France, since 1946 with a few exceptions. Given massive media exposure, the Festival is attended by many movie stars and is a popular venue for movie producers to launch their new films and attempt to sell their works to the distributors who come from all over the globe.

The most famous award given out at Carmes is the “Palme d'Or” (Golden Palm) for the best film; this is sometimes shared by multiple films in one year.

1.Which award can be shared by multiple films in one year?

2. Which of the following statements about “Oscars” is NOT true?

3. Which award has the shortest history?

4. Which of the following best states the main idea of the passage?