They asked me to have a dinner in an excellent restaurant with the, I said that it was at least five years since I _______ a good meal.

A. had enjoyed  B. was enjoying  C. enjoyed  D. had been enjoying

The iPhone, the iPad: each of Apple’s products sounds cool and has become a fad (一度时髦的风尚). Apple has cleverly taken advantage of the power of the letter “i” — and many other brands are following suit. The BBC’s iPlayer — which allows Web users to watch TV programs on the Internet — adopted the title in 2008. A lovely bear — popular in the US and the UK — that plays music and video is called “iTeddy”. A slimmed-down version of The Independent newspaper was launched last week under the name “i”.

In general, single-letter prefixes have been popular since the 1990s, when terms such as e-mail and e-commerce first came into use.

Most “i” products are aimed at young people and considering the major readers of The Independent’s “i”, it’s no surprise that they’ve selected this fashionable name.

But it’s hard to see what’s so special about the letter “i”. Why not use “a”, “b”, or “c” instead? According to Tony Thorne, former head of the Language Center at King’s College London, “i” works because its meaning has become ambiguous. When Apple uses “i”, no one knows whether it means Internet, information, individual or interactive, Thorne told BBCMagazines. “Even when Apple created the iPod, it seems it didn’t have one clear definition,” he says.

“However, thanks to Apple, the term is now associated with portability (轻便).” Adds Thorne.

Clearly the letter “i” also agrees with the idea that the Western world is centered on the individual. Each person believes they have their own needs, and we love personalized products for this reason.

Along with “Google” and “blog”, readers of BBCMagazines voted “i” as one of the top 20 words that have come to define the last decade.

But as history shows, people grow tired of fads. From the 1900s to 1990s, products with “2000” in their names became fashionable as the year was associated with all things advanced and modern. However, as we entered the new century, the trend unavoidably disappeared.

1.People use iPlayer to _________.

A．listen to music                          B．make a call

C．watch TV programs online                 D．read newspapers

2.We can infer that The Independent’s “i” is aimed at _________.

A．young readers                         B．old readers

C．fashionable women                      D．engineers

3.Nowadays, the “i” term often reminds people of the products which are _________.

A．portable                              B．environmentally friendly

C．advanced                             D．recyclable

4.The writer suggests that _________.

A．“i” products are often of high quality

B．iTeddy is a living bear

C．the letter “b” replaces the letter “i” to name the products

D．the popularity of “i” products may not last long

 The other day I decided to come home early because it was such a beautiful day. The      were outside playing in my apartment complex (公寓大楼) and the ice cream truck was whistling its tune. As I       slowly to avoid an accident, I noticed a little boy       at the ice cream truck. He didn’t get anything and he walked away with a       look on his face. I asked the ice cream seller what happened and he said the little boy had no      . I had no cash on me so I drove to my building and went upstairs to       some cash. When I found it, the ice cream seller was       waiting but the little boy had      .

I went in the      I thought he might have gone and I saw a       getting out of her vehicle. I asked her if she had a little boy and she said yes. She then told me that she and her son had gone to the grocery store the day before and had       ice cream but she did not have enough money to buy        .

She quickly went into the        to get her son, and when she        several minutes later, I realized that he was not the         little boy I had seen. This boy was a bit older and his sister came out with him. I took them both to the truck and let them         out what they wanted.

I        told the mom it was not the same boy I was talking about. I        myself to the mother properly and         my baby-sitting services free of charge if she ever needed them. 1 couldn't find the original boy        but 1 hope he gets some ice cream soon.

1.A. cats                 B. kids                      C. dogs                     D. students

2.A. walked                          B. ran                      C. climbed           D. drove

3.A knocking                  B. shooting                   C. lying                   D. looking

4.A. puzzled                         B. curious          C. disappointed          D. delighted

5.A. excuse                          B. money                     C. parents          D. friends

6.A put away                        B. look for                   C. borrow          D.  lend

7.A. still                           B. anxiously                  C. doubtfully               D. nervously

8.A. left                           B. appeared                 C. cried                        D. escaped

9.A. station                     B. line                            C. sight                   D. direction

10.A. woman                  B. girl              C. granny                      D. conductor

11.A. chosen                  B. ordered          C. wanted     D. eaten

12.A. it                             B. ones                          C. them                  D. those

13.A. house                    B. shop                    C. truck                         D. market

14.A. disappeared              B. returned                 C. waited                     D. stayed

15.A. lost                     B. strange          C. short                        D. same

16.A. look                   B. pick                    C. speak                        D. make

17.A. never                          B. seldom           C. often                  D. ever

18.A. explained                   B. admitted                 C. devoted                  D. introduced

19.A. denied                  B. resigned                   C. offered          D. operated

20.A. somewhere               B. everywhere           C. anywhere          D. nowhere

The _____, I think, he drew from his simple experiment is not scientific.

A. conclusion          B. charge         C. promise          D. relation

When an ant dies, other ants take it out of the nest, often within an hour after its death. This behavior interests scientists and they wonder how ants know for sure—and so soon—that another ant is dead.

One scientist recently came up with a way to explain this ant behavior. Dong-Hwan Choe is a biologist, a scientist who studies animals and plants. He found that ants have a chemical on the outside of their bodies that signals to other ants, “I'm dead—take me away” when it is dead.

But there's a question to answer: As we know, if an ant is dead, it stops moving. But when an ant is sleeping or knocked unconscious, it is also not moving. However, other ants don't move the living ant out of the nest. How do they know this ant is not dead? Choe found that ants have another chemical on their bodies, which tells nearby ants something like, “Wait—I'm not dead yet” when it is not dead. Choe suspects that when an ant dies, the chemical that says, “Wait— I'm not dead yet” quickly goes away. When other ants detect the “dead” chemical without the “not dead yet” chemical, they move away the body.

To test his theory, Choe and his team put different chemicals on ants. When the scientists used the “I'm dead” chemical, other ants quickly moved the treated ant away. When the scientists used the “Wait—I'm not dead yet” chemical, other ants left the treated ant alone. Choe believes this behavior shows that the “not dead yet” chemical overrides the “dead” chemical when picked up by other ants. And that when an ant dies, the “not dead yet” chemical dies away. Other nearby ants then notice the remaining “dead” chemical and remove the body from the nest.

Understanding this behavior can help scientists figure out how to stop ants from invading new places and causing problems.

1.What is the function of the first paragraph?

A. Leading the following paragraphs.

B. Showing the main idea of the passage.

C. Introducing the background of the passage.

D. Giving a summary of the passage.

2.Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word “overrides” in the fourth paragraph?

A. is weaker than          B. is stronger than    C. is better than                     D. is worse than

3.What can we learn from the passage?

A. Living ants can also be taken away when they are not moving.

B. When an ant dies, it can tell others using a certain chemical.

C. A living ant can pretend to be dead using a special chemical.

D. Ants often use chemicals to communicate with each other.