When you are curious about something, and want to know more about it, you can use the way of asking questions. Asking questions is the first step to make discoveries and find interesting answers. The steps below can guide you during the research.
Step 1
On a note card or piece of paper，write down the subject that you are interested in. Just get the main idea down. For example, you might write: Discover more about dinosaurs.
Step 2
Next, stop and think for a moment about what you already know about your subject. List what you already know like the sentences below：
（1）Dinosaurs lived long before human beings appeared.
（2）Dinosaurs lived on the earth for more than 150 million years.
（3）Some dinosaurs fed on plants, some on meat.
Step 3
What can you do with what you want to learn? By asking questions. On your paper，start writing down questions about the dinosaurs as you think of them：
（1）What’s the best weather for dinosaurs to live in？
（2）How many kinds of dinosaurs are there？
（3）Have dinosaurs really disappeared？
Step 4
Armed with your list of questions, you can now go to the nearest library or computer to begin your research. As you learn more about your subject, you’ll probably discover some new questions. For example，you might discover that dinosaurs disappeared about 65 million years ago. Why？What happened？Asking new questions can help you research your subject more widely.
The next time you find something interesting to research，take time to
organize your thinking by asking good questions. And remember—learning more always bring more questions.
【小题1】When you do some research，you should take the following steps： _____.
①list what you want to know
②choose a research subject
③list what you already know
④discover new problems

Most visitors come to the UK expecting the rain and weather for which the country is famous. However, when summer finally arrives, British people like nothing more than heading for the coast. Here are some of more famous places of interest that you could expect to visit on a trip to Britain. Black pool, in the northwest of England, is the most visited place in the UK. Each year around 6.5 to 7 million people come to enjoy the miles of sandy beaches, the 158m Black pool Tower and the 11km-long Golden Mile, where there are entertainments, pubs, ice rinks (溜冰场) and even a zoo. On the south coast of the country you can find Brighton. Until 1786, Brighton was a sleepy village. Then the future king, George IV, decided to build a house there, and now it has become a large, international centre. Apart from the beaches, Brighton is famous for its pier (码头). There are theatres, entertainments and restaurants there. Brighton is also fantastic for shopping. If you want to travel a little further, why not go to Corn-wall in the far southwest of the UK? South Cornwall offers miles of sandy beaches and beautiful scenery. The climate there is warmer than the rest of Britain, and you can even find palm trees. For a bit more excitement, go to North Cornwall. The scenery there is nicer, and the beaches are famous for their powerful waves. As a result, North Cornwall has become the home of British surfing. One word of warning though, if you are using the roads in the UK during holidays, you can expect long traffic jams on the motorways. It might be better to take the train.
【小题1】Which is the best title for this passage?

We all hope that the sunny weather _____ for Saturday's tennis match.

  A. keeps up    B. stays up    C. puts up    D. picks up

Now satellites are helping to forecast（预报）the weather. They are in space, and they can reach any part of the world. The satellites take pictures of the atmosphere（大气）, because this is where the weather forms（形成）. They send these pictures to the weather stations. So meteorologists（气象学家）can see the weather of any part of the world. From the pictures, the scientists can often say how the weather will change.

 Today, nearly five hundred weather stations in sixty countries receive satellite pictures. When they receive new pictures, the meteorologists compare（比较）them with earlier ones. Perhaps they may find that the clouds have changed during the last few hours. This may mean that the weather on the ground may soon change, too. In their next weather forecast, the meteorologists can say this.

 So the weather satellites are a great help to the meteorologists. Before satellites were invented, the scientists could forecast the weather for about 24 or 48 hours. Now they can make good forecasts for three or five days. Soon, perhaps, they may be able to forecast the weather for a week or more ahead（提前）.

Satellites travel _____________.

A. in space               B. in the atmosphere

C. above the ground       D. above space

Why do we use the weather satellites to take pictures of the atmosphere? Because __________.

A. the weather satellites can do it easily

B. clouds form there

C. the weather forms there

D. the pictures can forecast the weather

Meteorologists forecast the weather __________.

A. when they have received satellite pictures

B. after they have compared new satellite pictures with earlier ones

C. before they received satellite pictures

D. during they study satellite pictures

The main（主要的）idea of this passage is that satellites are now used in _________.

A. taking pictures of the atmosphere

B. receiving pictures of the atmosphere

C. doing other work in many ways

D. weather forecasting

A young woman was driving through the lonely countryside. It was dark and raining. Suddenly she saw an old woman by the side of the road, holding her hand out as if she wanted a lift.
“I can’t leave her out in this weather,” the woman said to herself, so she stopped the car and opened the door.
“Do you want a lift?” she asked. The old woman nodded and climbed into the car. After a while, she said to the old woman, “Have you been waiting for a long time?” The old woman shook her head. “Strange,” thought the young woman. She tried again. “Bad weather for the time of year,” she said. The old woman nodded. No matter what she said, the hitchhiker (搭便车的人) gave no answer except for a nod of the head or a shrug.
Then the young woman noticed the hitchhiker’s hands which were large and hairy.
Suddenly she realized that the hitchhiker was actually a man! She stopped the car. “I can’t see out of the rear screen,” she said. “Would you mind clearing it for me?”
The hitchhiker nodded and opened the door. As soon as the hitchhiker was out of the car, the terrified young woman raced off.
When she got to the next village she pulled up. She noticed that the hitchhiker had left his handbag behind. She picked it up and opened it. She gave a gasp — inside the bag was a gun.
【小题1】The young woman stopped the car because ______.