I have been using the Internet since I was five years old, when my dad first sat me down in front of a computer and connected me the World Wide Web.

I’ve always felt like a master of the Internet world. AOL Instant Messaging, MSN, Gmail, Facebook. Myspace---I’ve got it all under control. I thought there was nothing more to it besides checking my e-mail and wasting my time, until I was introduced to electronic commerce(e-commerce): business on the Internet.

Some online business are run from one- room home offices. Others have hundreds of employee(雇员)spread across five different continent. Have you ever heard of Amazon. com, Yahoo. com?

My friends often said they got cheap textbooks off Amazon.com, or had a good deal(交易)on Steve Madden boots that were on sale at SteveMaden.com. Unfortunately for me, I continued my “e-commerceless” Web-surfing, unaware(不知道)of all the deals I was missing out on.

That is, of course, until my sister finally sold the idea to me.

“Why are all these packages arriving in the mail for you, Katy?” I asked her one day. Strange envelopes had been put on our doorstep for weeks now, each one always addressed to my sister; and we all know little sisters should never be getting more mail than their elders!

“Oh, it’s the things I ordered online!” she answered. I watched speechlessly as she opened them. There was no way our parents were letting her spend that much money- online or off!

“How much did all of this coat?”

“Oh, only about $15in all!” She said excitedly. “Everything on eBay is on sale! It’s way better than going to the mall.”

I felt as if my entire life, there had been a store right in my backyard that I had never walked into! That week, I ordered a used Spanish textbook for my summer course online for 10 percent of the publishing price. A few days later, I bought an iPod protector and a book or two via the wonderful eBay.com.

1.From the first two paragraph we can conclude that the author        

2.The writer didn’t find out about e-commerce until       

3.We can infer from the last paragraph that the author       .

4.What’s the purpose of the article?

5.What would be the best title of the article?

Venice is an attractive city in Italy. Tourists throughout the world love traveling to Venice. But sometimes you’ll have such strange experiences. One moment you walk across the Rialto Bridge, and there’s nothing special. Unfortunately, when you come back to the bridge an hour later, it’s underwater and everyone’s wearing rain boots.

That’s just the way it has always been, which may be considered seriously by Italian government. Before the sea comes to Venice, the government has decided to build the MOSE gates. Actually(实际上), there were many kinds of gates that were built to stop the floods, but all the gates were just built on the ground. Besides, the flooding was becoming worse. Industrial(工业的)factories built nearby on the mainland also made the condition get worse, causing the city to sink about 0.75 feet in the 20th century.

So the Italian government asked some of Italy’s biggest construction and engineering companies to build the MOST project, which was planned to be built under the sea water to stop floods. Now the government are using 3 000 people and expect to spend nearly five billion euros(欧元) on it. The MOSE gates are being built at the inlets(海湾).Each MOST gate is 197 feet long ,28.5 to 37 feel tall, and weight up to 22 tons. It’s nearly the size of a 20-story building. Before the gates are in use, under the sea full of water. When the flood comes, the water in the gates will be poured out, and then the gates will be filled with air. So the gates can go up with the sea water. Once they’re in the right place, they will stop the sea water pouring into Venice. These gates will be able to deal with floods up to 10feet,and as long as the sea level(平面)rises no more than two feet in the next 100 years, the MOSE will work as expected.

The MOSE project is now two-thirds done. The head engineer, Giovanni Cecconi, said, “This is a war. During the war, it’s not important that you win. It’s important that you’re alive. We’ve alive.” Anyway, this project is saving Venice from falling.

根据短文内容选择最佳答案。

1.The underlined word “construction” in the passage means “_______”in Chinese.

A.建筑  B. 农业  C. 交通

2.Before building the MOSE gates, the Italian government _______ to stop the floods.

A. never built gates on the ground

B. built many kinds of gates on the ground

C. built some gates which were under the ground

3.When the flood comes, _______ can describe the working steps of the MOSE gates.

4.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. The Italian government ate using 3000 people and expect to spend nearly five billion dollars on the MOSE.

B. The MOSE project is half done now.

C. Each MOSE gate is 197 feet long, 28.5 to 37 feet tall, and weighs up to 22 tons.

5.The best title for this passage should be _______.

A. The Journey to Venice

B. The MOSE Project in Venice

C. Several Kinds of Floods in Venice

Many cultures have different ideas about why people catch colds. For example in the United States, some people think that you can catch a cold if your feet get cold. So, mothers tell small children to wear warm boots in the winter. In other places, including parts of the Middle East, some people believe that strong winds cause colds. So, on trains and buses, people usually don’t like to sit next to open windows. In parts of Europe, some people think that wearing wet clothes will give you a cold. They say that after you go swimming, you should quickly put on dry clothes. Today, scientists know that colds are caused by a virus（病毒）. But the old ideas are still very strong, and many people still follow them to avoid（避免）getting ill.
【小题1】What is the main idea of this reading?

Paper is one of the most important products ever invented by man. The invention of paper meant that more people could be educated because more books could be printed. Paper provided an important way to communicate with knowledge.

Paper was first made in China about 2,000 years ago. In Egypt and the West, paper was not very commonly used before the year 1400. Paper was not made in southern Europe until about the year 1100. After that, the foresty countries of Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the United States because the most important in paper-making. Today Finland makes the best paper in the world. And it has the biggest paper industry in the world.

When we think of paper, we think of newspapers, books, letters, envelopes, and writing paper. So paper plays an important role in our lives.

Paper is very good for keeping you warm. Houses are often insulated(隔热)with paper. You perhaps seen homeless men sleep on a large number of newspapers. They are insulating themselves from the cold. In Finland, in winter it is sometimes 40 degrees below zero. The farmers wear paper boots in the snow. Nothing could be warmer.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案。（共5小题，每小题2分，满分10分）

1. What did the invention of paper mean? It meant _________.

2.When was paper made in southern Europe?

3.Which country makes the best paper?

4. What’s the meaning of the sentence “Nothing could be warmer.”?

5.What’s the main idea of the passage?