Maybe ten?year?old Elizabeth put it best when she said to her father，“But，Dad，you can’t be healthy if you’re dead.”

　 Dad，in a hurry to get home before dark so he could go for a run，had forgotten to wear his safety belt—a mistake 75% of US population make every day.The big question is why.

　 There have been many myths about safety belts ever since their first appearance in cars some forty years ago.The following are three of the most common.

　 Myth Number One: It’s best to be “thrown clear” of a serious accident.

　 Truth: Sorry，but any accident serious enough to “throw you clear” is going to be serious enough to give you a very bad landing.And chances are you’ll have traveled through a windshield (挡风玻璃)or door to do it.Studies show that chances of dying after a car accident are twenty?five times in cases where people are “thrown clear”.

　 Myth Number Two: Safety?belts “trap” people in cars that are burning or sinking in water.

　 Truth: Sorry again，but studies show that people knocked unconscious (昏迷) due to not wearing safety belts have a greater chance of dying in these accidents.People wearing safety belts are usually protected to the point of having a clear head to free themselves from such dangerous situation，not to be trapped in them.

　 Myth Number Three: Safety belts aren’t needed at speeds of less than 30 miles per hour (mph).

　 Truth: When two cars traveling at 30 mph hit each other，an unbelted driver would meet the windshield with a force equal to diving head first into the ground from a height of 10 metres.

1.Why did Elizabeth say to her father，“But，Dad，you can’t be healthy if you’re dead”？

　 A.He was driving at great speed.

　 B.He was running across the street.

　 C.He didn’t have his safety belt on.

　 D.He didn’t take his medicine on time.

2.The reason father was in a hurry to get home was that he 　　　　.

　 A.wasn’t feeling very well　　　　　 B.hated to drive in the dark

　 C.wanted to take some exercise　　　　　 D.didn’t want to be caught by the police

3.According to the text，to be “thrown clear” of a serious accident is very dangerous because

　 you 　　　.

　 A.may be knocked down by other cars

　 B.may get serious hurt thrown out of the car

　 C.may find it impossible to get away from the seat

　 D.may get caught in the car door

4.Some people prefer to drive without wearing a safety belt because they believe 　　　　.

　 A.the belt prevents them from escaping in an accident

　 B.they will be unable to think clearly in an accident

　 C.they will be caught when help comes

　 D.cars catch fire easily

5.What is the advice given in the test?

　 A.Never drive faster than 30 miles an hour.

　 B.Try your best to save yourself in a car accident.

　 C.Never forget to wear the safety belt while driving.

　 D.Drive slowly while you’re not wearing a safety belt.

阅读理解

　　Read these two advertisements, and then answer the questions.

　　When you stretch out in the sun you can do one of three things.

　　You can use no sun tan oil. You can use an ordinary sun tan oil. Or you can use Bergasol.

　　If you don't use any sun tan oil at all when you're in sun that is stronger than you're used to, you will burn surprisingly quickly.

　　If you use an ordinary sun tan oil you will protect your skin to a lesser or greater degree. How much depends on the“protection factor(系数)number”on the bottle.

　　Some of these oils block out so many of the sun's rays you can stay in the sun all day without burning--but you won't go very brown, either.

　　Bergasol will protect your skin like an ordinary sun tan oil. But Bergasol oil also has a tan accelerator(加速剂) which comes from the oil of the Bergamot fruit.

　　It speeds up the rate at which the sun activates(激活) the skin cells that produce melanin.

　　And it is melanin which gives the skin its brown colour.

　　So when you use Bergasol sun tan oil you go brown faster, and as the days pass the difference will become more and more obvious.

　　Unfortunately this special formulation isn't cheap to prepare. So Bergasol is rather more expensive than ordinary sun tan oil.

　　However the price looks more attractive as you do.

　　Protection

　　Many people imagine that“cover-up”means you don't get a tan. Nothing to show for your holiday. What a shame.

　　Not so. With“cover up”, you can get brown if you want to. The point of cover-up is to protect your skin from the harmful rays of the sun--the ones which, according to the experts, make your skin look older.

　　That's what Solex Cover-up is all about--protection for your skin. It has a Sun Protection Factor of 8, which makes it suitable for anyone.

　　Find 0ut how it works for you by consulting(咨询)the Solex Sun Chart. On sale wherever Solex is.

　　With Solex Cover-up, you can tan as slowly as you like. As gently as you like. And with much less chance of peeling.

　　Your tan will look better. Your skin will stay young longer. Solex Cover-up.

　　Gentle tan…full protection.

1．The underlined word“tan”is closest in meaning to _____.

A．brown　　　　B．protection

C．light　　　　 D．health

2．Both Bergasol and Solex serve to _____.

[　　]

A．treat various kinds of skin disease

B．help people enjoy the sun

C．help people get sun tan without being burnt

D．paint the skin with a brown color

3．What's special about Bergasol?

[　　]

A．It is more expensive than ordinary sun tan oil.

B．It has a tan accelerator that makes the skin go brown faster.

C．It has a protection-factor of 8, which makes it suitable for anyone.

D．It protects the skin from the harmful rays of the sun.

4．Which of the following decides how well your skin may be protected?

[　　]

A．The price.　　　B．Melanin.

C．Cover-up.　　　D．SPF number.

阅读理解

　　A terrifying example of the sea's power saw about 200,000 people die in 12 different countries last week. The devastation (毁坏) was caused when a massive earthquake sent tsunamis (海啸) smashing into Indian Ocean coastlines.

　　Communities in Sri Lanka. Indonesia, Thailand, India, Malaysia and East Africa have been destroyed by the monster waves. Whole towns were imply swept aside by the power of the water. Cars, trains and buildings could not survive (幸免), let alone the people who stood in the way.

　　The earthquake measured 9.0 on the Richter scale (里氏震级) and occurred off the coast of Indonesia. It was recorded as the fifth strongest since 1900.

　　Scientists said the quake was as powerful as a million of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan during World War Ⅱ. “This may be the worst natural disaster in recent history because it is affecting so many heavily populated coastal areas," said Jan Egeland, a UN official.

　　Because such waves rarely happen in the Indian Ocean, there is no system in place to warn coastal communities they are about to be hit.

　　Tsunami is Japanese for “harbour wave.” They are usually caused by a sudden rise or fall of part of the Earth's crust (地壳) under the ocean. Tsunamis often happen in oceans and they are most common in the Pacific. Normally a tsunamis includes a series of waves.

　　Tsunamis can be very long-as much a, 100 kilometres-and be as far as one hour apart. They are able to cross entire oceans without losing much energy. One of the most striking facts about tsunamis is that an earthquake on one side of the Pacific Ocean can cause giant wave, and destruction on the other side.

　　When the ocean is deep, tsunamis can travel unnoticed at speeds of up to 800 kilometres per hour. They can cross the entire ocean in a day or less.

　　The wave may only be a few metres, high in the ocean but when it is near the shore and reaches shallow (浅) water, the wave builds up very quickly in height. Witnesses (目击者) in some areas of Indonesia reported seeing up to 10-metre high waves crash into the shore.

1．We can infer from the passage that fewer people would have died in the South Asian tsunami ________.

[　　]

A．if there had been warning system along the coast

B．if the earthquake had happened off the coast of Thailand

C．if the tsunami had happened in the day time

D．if the tsunami had happened in the deep ocean

2．What surprises people most about the tsunamis is that ________.

[　　]

A．it lasts a long time

B．it travels a long way

C．a tsunamis on one side of the ocean can cause destruction on the other side of the ocean

D．it builds up a high wave

3．Which of the following is NOT true of the South Asian tsunamis?

[　　]

A．It was caused by a serious earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.

B．It was caused by the strongest earthquake in the world.

C．People didn't expect such a strong tsunamis would hit them.

D．It may be the worst natural disaster in recent history.

4．Which of the following is the best title for this article?

[　　]

A．What Is the Tsunami?

B．South Asia Was Hit by the Strongest Earthquake.

C．Mother Nature Displays Anger.

D．A Terrible Disaster.

  A higher reading rate, with no loss of comprehension (理解), will help you in other subjects as well as in English, and the general principle (原则) apply to any language. Naturally, you will not read every book at the same speed. You would expect to read a newspaper, for example, much more rapidly than a physics or economics textbook—but you can raise your average reading speed over the whole range of materials you wish to cover so that the percentage (百分比) gained will be the same whatever kind of reading you are concerned (有关的) with.

  The reading passages which follow are all of an average level of difficulty for your stage of instruction. They are all about five hundred words long. They are about topics of general interest which do not require a great deal of specialized knowledge. Thus they fall between the kind of reading you might find in your textbooks and the much less demanding kind you will find in a newspaper or light novel. If you read this kind of English, with understanding at four hundred words per minute, you night skim (浏览) through a newspaper at perhaps 650-700, while with difficult textbooks you might drop to two hundred or two hundred and fifty.

  Perhaps you would like to know what reading speeds are common among native English-speaking university students and how those speeds can be improved. Tests in Minnesota, U.S.A., for example, have shown that students without special training can read English of average difficulty, for example, Tolstoy’s War and Peace in translation, at speeds of between 240 and 250 words per minute with about seventy percent comprehension. Students in Minnesota claim (自称) that after twelve half-hour lessons, once a week, the reading speed can be increased, with no loss of comprehension, to around five hundred words per minute.　　　　

1．According to the passage, the purpose of effective reading with higher speed is most likely to help you　　   .

A. only in your reading of physics textbook

B. improve your understanding of an economics textbook

C. not only in your language study but also in other subjects

D. choose the suitable material to read

2．Which of the following does not describe the types of reading materials mentioned in the second paragraph?

A. Those beyond (超越) one’s reading comprehension.

B. Those concerned with common knowledge.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 

C. Those without the demand for specialized knowledge.

D. Those with the length of about five hundred words

3．The average speed of untrained native speakers in the University of Minnesota is　　   .

A. about three hundred words per minute

B. about two hundred and forty-five words per minute

C. about sixty words per minute

D. about five hundred words per minute

4．According to the passage, how fast can you expect to read after you have attended twelve half-hour lessons in the University of Minnesota?

A. You can increase your reading speed by three times.

B. No real increase in reading speed can be achieved.

C. You can increase your reading speed by four times.

D. You can double your reading speed.

5．Where do you think the passage is taken from?

A. The introduction to a book on fast reading.

B. A local newspaper for young people.

C. A school newspaper run by students.

D. The introduction to an English textbook.