Dorothea Shaw is 71 years old and nearly blind, and she chose to live alone far away from people. She lives in Belize — a county the size of Wales with a population only that of Swansea. Her home is at Gales Point, a tiny village which can be reached only by sea or air; after a 10-mile walk into the hills one finally reaches a piece of land and two small houses so hidden in the thick over-grown forest that only a handful of people know Dorothea is there.

She lives happily and totally alone – growing her vegetables, looking after her trees and dogs, cats and chickens. Once a month or so an old friend passes by with her food supplies and letters-usually including a letter from her sister in Scunthorpe and some bits of clothing from friends in Canada. Sometimes a local man will come and cut wood for her and a group of British soldiers will come across her and be greeted with the offer of a cup of coffee.

At night she lies in her tiny sleeping room with the dogs on the floor, the cats on the table near the typewriter and one of the hens settled down in a corner of the bookshelf, and listens for hours to any Spanish, English, German or French broadcasts she can find on her radio. Sometimes she gets lonely but most of the time the animals and the radio are company enough.

But recently the very things that she had tried to get free from so well have begun to catch up with her. The peace of the forest has been destroyed by the noise of earth-moving machines not many miles away. What she once only heard of distantly on the radio is now on her doorstep. Things began to change three years ago. The new main north-south road in Belize was cut through the forest only four or five miles away. “Now more people know I’m here.” She says. “I feel more and more uneasy each day.”

Dorothea’s small houses ________.   

A. are entirely surrounded by trees   

B. have always been her home

C. were built for just a few people   

D. are in a county with the same population as Wales

Dorothea lives in the tiny village because ________.

A. she doesn’t like living near people    B. she is too old to move

C. machines destroyed her home        D. there’s nowhere else for her to live

Dorothea doesn’t get lonely since she has _______ with her.

A. her sister   B. some animals     C. friends from Canada    D. a postman

Dorothea spends a lot of time __________.

A. growing all the food she needs         B. cutting down trees

C. listening to the radio                 D. studying languages

TOKYO -- The number of domestic infections cases of influenza A/H1N1 in Japan hits 42 on Sunday after a total of 34 people in Osaka and Hyogo counties were confirmed to have been infected, local media reported.

The total number of the infection in the country now stands at 46, including the first four cases contracted abroad.

The country is now facing the risk of grass-root outbreak which could lead the WHO to raise its new flu pandemic alert（传染病预警）to the highest level of 6 from the current 5, experts has warned.

The 34 newly confirmed domestic cases, 11 in Osaka and 23 in Hyogo, included high school students, college students and teachers, the health ministry and local governments said Sunday.

Japan on Saturday confirmed the first eight cases of domestic infection on students of a Kobe high school. The later confirmed cases in Osaka are said to have contacted the Kobe students in a volleyball match. Osaka and Hyogo are neighboring in the Kansai region.

All of the 42 people had no record of overseas travel.

Meanwhile, a total of 143 students at the Kansai Okura Senior High School where many infections in Osaka were found, have shown symptoms of influenza since around Monday, according to local media reports.

The privately run school said it will be closed from Monday through Saturday.

More than 1,000 educational facilities -- kindergartens, and elementary, junior and senior high schools -- in Osaka and Hyogo counties have decided to suspend classes for certain periods following the confirmation of new flu infections in the counties, Kyodo News reported.

The two counties have requested private schools to follow suit.

Osaka Governor Toru Hashimoto held a meeting of a new flu task force on Sunday and decided to ask facilities such as movie theaters to suspend operations to prevent the spread of the flu.

TV clips showed people in Kansai region started to wear masks in public spaces and rushed to drug stores for buying medicines.

The Japanese government on Saturday shifted the stage of its new-flu action program from “a period of overseas outbreak” to “a period of domestic outbreak” and called for companies and schools in the areas concerned to allow individuals to avoid commuting（出行） during rush hours.

The Kyodo News quoted Masato Tashiro, a member of the World Health Organization's emergency committee, as saying that several hundred people in Japan already may have been infected with the new flu.

According to the passage, the total number of the A/H1N1 infection in Japan now is __________.

A. 42                   B. 34                     C. 46                         D. 143

The reasons for the happening of the later confirmed cases in Osaka are the following Except __________.

A. 143 students at the Kansai Okura Senior High School have shown symptoms of influenza.

B. Some students in a Kobe High school got infected.

C. Osaka and Hyogo are next to each other in the Kansai region.

D. The later infected people contacted the Kobe students in a volleyball match.

What is the implied meaning of what Masato Tashiro said in the last paragraph?

A. The real situation about the new flu in Japan may be worse than it has been reported.

B. Several hundred people have been infected but they don’t know it.

C. The WHO has to raise its new flu pandemic alert to the highest level.

D. The WHO’s emergency committee are trying to confirm the number of infection in Japan.

Which of the following is one of the measures already taken by the Japanese government?

A. Raising the new flu pandemic alert to the highest level.

B. Holding a meeting to ask some facilities in the country to stop their operations.

C. Calling for individuals in the whole country to avoid commuting during rush hours.

D. Changing its stage of its new-flu action program to a more serious level.

The purpose of the passage is __________.

A. to introduce the domestic infection cases in Japan.

B. to draw people’s attention to the worsening situation.

C. to give some advice on preventing the spread of the flu.

D. to call for educational facilities in Japan to suspend classes for some time. 

   Most of us think that when we step under a shower we’re getting clean．We are, but we’re also giving a home to lots of tiny little creatures we didn’t even know about．

   A showerhead carries thousands of bacteria (细菌) called Mycobacterium．These can cause problems like coughs and tiredness, and a general feeling of poorliness (身体不舒服)．When you turn on the water, the bacteria go from the showerhead onto and into your body．

   This is a finding of Norman R．Pace and his team at the University of Colorado, in the US．The scientists investigated bacteria in all kinds of human environment, including showers．

   Pace's team looked at 45 showerheads in nine American cities．They discovered that 30 percent of them had large amounts of flying Mycobacterium．

   But Pace said that they pose few threats to the health．Only those with a frail (脆弱的) immune (免疫的) system might need to worry．

   He told the New York Times that the bactertia are not as unpleasant as might be thought．He said that having a shower is no more dangerous than anything else we do in the morning．

   But for those who feel sick about the idea of all those microorganisms (微生物), he had some advice．

   Let the water run for 30 seconds before getting into the shower．Why? The number of bacteria is smaller than when the water is just turned on．If that seems like a waste of water, he added that you could also change your showerhead every few months．

   But Pace had good news too．He has also been testing the air in US subways．Apart from iron particles (粒子), which are ground off the track by the wheels of trains, subway air is fresh．The reason is that a train’s movement pumps fresh outdoor air into the tunnels(隧道)．

   Pace explained that he wanted to understand the natural microbial(微生物的) environments of public places．This kind of knowledge might help detect the microbes to be used in a bioterrorist (生物恐怖分子) attack．

49．According to the finding of Norman R．Pace, after taking a shower, we might ______．

       A．get much dirtier                 B．be covered by bacteria

       C．get a frail immune system      D．catch a cough or feel tired

50．Pace’s research into showers shows that ______．

       A．there is no reason to fear microorganism

       B．shower water contains much less bacteria after being left to run for 30 second

       C．having a shower in the morning is more dangerous than at other time

       D．of 45 showerheads surveyed in nine cities, 30 carried large amounts of Mycobacterium

51．According to the research of Pace’s team, which of the following contributes to fresh air in US subways?

       A．Train wheels．                B．Iron particles．

       C．The movement of the trains． D．Air conditioners on the trains．

52．The word “detect” in the last paragraph probably means “______”．

       A．to discover      B．to protect        C．to make   D．to prevent

One day in l965, when I worked at View Ridge School in Seattle, a fourth-grade teacher approached me. She had a student who finished his work before all the others and needed a challenge. "Could he help in the library?" She asked. I said, "Send him along."

　　Soon a slight, sandy-haired boy in jeans and a T-shift appeared. "Do you have a job for me?" he asked.

　　I told him about the Dewey Decimal System for shelving books. He picked up the idea immediately. Then I showed him a stack of cards for long-overdue books that I was beginning to think had actually been returned but were misshelved with the wrong cards in them. He said, "Is it kind of a detective job?" I answered yes, and he became working.

　　He had found three books with wrong cards by the time his teacher opened the door and announced, "Time for break!" He argued for finishing the finding job; She made the case for fresh air. She won.

　　The next morning, he arrived early. "I want to finish these books," he said. At the end of the day, when he asked to be a librarian on a regular basis, it was easy to say yes. He worked untiringly.

　　After a few weeks I found a note on my desk, inviting me to dinner at the boy's home. At the end of a pleasant evening, his mother announced that the family would be moving to neighbouring school district. Her son's first concern, she said, was leaving the View Ridge library. "Who will find the lost books?" he asked.

　　When the time came, I said a reluctant good-bye. I missed him, but not for long. A few days later he came back and joyfully announced: "The librarian over there doesn't let boys work in the library. My mother got me transferred back to View Ridge. My dad will drop me off on his way to work. And if he can’t, I'll walk!"

I should have had an inkling(感觉) such focused determination would take that young man wherever he wanted to go. What I could not have guessed, however, was that he would become a wizard of the Information Age: Bill Gates, tycoon of Microsoft and America's richest man.

What was the author when the story happened?

       A. A teacher.                 B. A librarian.               C. A detective.              D. A professor.

What was the boy told to do on his first day in the library?

A. To rearrange the books according to the new system.

B. To put those overdue books back to the shelves.

C. To find out the books with wrong cards in them.

D. To put the cards back in the long-overdue books.

The boy got transferred back to View Ridge because _______.

A. he did not like his life in the new school                            

B. the transportation there was not convenient

C. he missed his old schoolmates and teachers

D. he was not allowed to work in the school library

What impressed the author most was that the boy _______.

A. had a thirst for learning                               B. had a strong will

C. was extremely quick at learning                            D. had a kind heart

The vitamins necessary for a healthy body are normally supplied by a good mixed diet, including a variety of fruits and green vegetables. It is only when people try to live on a very restricted diet, say that when trying to lose weight, that it is necessary to make special provisions to supply the missing vitamins.

　　An example of the dangers of a restricted diet may be seen in the disease known as “beri-beri”, which used to make large numbers of Eastern people who lived mainly on rice suffer. In the early years of last century, a Dutch scientist named Eijkman was trying to discover the cause of beri-beri. At first he thought it was transmitted（传播）by a germ（病菌）. He was working in a Japanese hospital, where the patients were fed on polished rice which had had the outer coverings removed from the grain. It was thought this would be easier for weak and sick people to digest.

　　Eijkman thought his germ theory was proved when he noticed the chickens in the hospital yard, which were fed on remains from the patients’ plates, were also showing signs of the disease. He then tried to separate the germ, which he thought was causing the disease, but his experiments were interrupted by a hospital official, who ordered that the rice without coverings, even though left over by the patients, was too good for chickens. It should be recooked for the patients, and the chickens should be fed on cheap, rough rice with the outer coverings still on the grain.

　　Eijkman noticed that the chickens began to recover on the new diet. He began to consider the possibility that eating unmilled rice（糙米）somehow prevented or cured beri-beri — even that a lack of some ingredient（成分）in the coverings may be the cause of the disease. Indeed this was the case. The element needed to prevent beri-beri was shortly afterwards separated from rice coverings and is now known as vitamin B. The milled rice, though more expensive, was in fact causing the disease the hospital was trying to cure. Nowadays, this terrible disease is much less common thanks to our knowledge of vitamins.

According to the passage, a good mixed diet ________.

A. is suitable for losing weight           B. should be only fruits and vegetables

C. normally contains enough vitamins     D. is often difficult to arrange

What do we know about the disease beri-beri?

A. It killed large numbers of people.       B. It resulted from lack of vitamins.

C. It was transmitted by milled rice.       D. It was caused by diseased chickens.

What can be the best title of the passage?

A. A Good Mixed Diet　　　　　　     B. New Discovery

C. The Dangers of Beri-beri　　　　     D. The Importance of Vitamins