According to some talk, the younger generation in Smithville is the most antisocial in history. This seems far from the truth. Young people today as a whole are better, more informed, more ambitious, healthier, and more smart than ever before. Why then, it may be asked, do we see such restlessness and such antisocial behavior among our young people?
For the answer the citizens of this community must look at themselves. What have they done to the grounds that have been built in the last fifteen years? How many swimming pools are there? How many vocational training projects have been started? How many community – organized youth parties and picnics have been held?
The average citizen will answer that the responsibility for these activities belongs to the schools. But the schools cannot be held responsible for all the free – time activities of all the young people of this community. The job of the schools is formal education, not free – time recreation（娱乐）.
This community needs a youth center suitable for such activities as picnics, camping, sports, music, art and so on. There should be social and recreational activities to meet the needs and interests of every member of our school age youth.
Mayor Elmo D. Greely has proposed the formation of a Youth Club as the first step in the direction of a Youth Center. Mayor Greely has called a meeting at the City Hall on Friday, August 15, at noon.
Giving up a lunch hour is a very little sacrifice for a project that can be of great importance to this community.
This newspaper urges every adult and young person of Smithville to attend this important meeting. We believe our industrial, business, and professional leaders have an especially strong duty to be present.
This newspaper will be present and intends to support this project with vigor.
【小题1】The underlined word “antisocial” probably means “           ”.

A．to give us lots of questions to show that problem is serious.

B．that school should hold the responsibility for education rather than free – time recreation.

C．to analyze the reasons why the youth are antisocial.

D．that we should take more activities or start many vocational projects.

My wife and I used to feel that it was impossible to be a true friend to someone whose name we didn’t know. How wrong we were! Years of Sunday-morning bus trips through the city with the same group of “nameless” people have changed our thinking.

Before the bus takes off, we all join in a conversation: where’s the silent woman who sits up front and never responds to our cheery greetings? Here she comes. Her worn clothing suggests she doesn’t have much money to spare, but she always takes an extra cup of coffee for the driver.

We get smiles from a Mexican couple as they get on the bus hand in hand. When they get off, they’re still holding hands. The woman was pregnant late last year, and one day her change of shape confirmed that she’d delivered the child. We even felt a little pride at the thought of our extended family.

For many months, our only sadness lay in our inability无能无力 to establish the same friendship with the silent woman at the front of the bus. Then, one evening, we went to a fish restaurant. We were shown to a table alongside someone sitting alone. It was the woman from the bus.

We greeted her with friendly familiarity we’d shown all year, but this time her face softened, then a shy smile. When she spoke, the words escaped awkwardly( 笨拙地) from her lips. All at once we realized why she hadn’t spoken to us before. Talking was hard for her.

Over dinner; we learned the situation of a single mother with a disabled son who was receiving special care away from home. She missed him desperately不顾一切地, she explained.

“I love him… and he loves me, even though he doesn’t express it very well,” she murmured. “Lots of us have that problem, don’t we? We don’t say what we want to say, what we should be saying. And that’s not good enough.”

The candles flared on our tables. Our fish had never tasted better. But the atmosphere grew pleasant, and when we parted as friends—we shared names.

1.Which of the following might be the best title of this passage?

2.All the following statements can describe the woman except ______.

3.The underlined word “establish” in the fourth passage probably has the same meaning as _____.

4.The woman had the same problem with her son in the way that ______.

“The price of books for our students is just getting higher and higher and，combined with the rising cost of tuition，it’s killing these students，”said Peter Jason，a college professor．“Remember，students are one of the poorest groups of people in America．Almost half of them have at least one part-time job．In fact，one of my students has three jobs．And she still manages to have high scores and go to school full-time.”

Textbook prices are traditionally high．Adding to that problem，many college teachers change textbooks year after year；they either upgrade to a new edition or switch to an entirely different textbook．This further hurts students because if an instructor no longer uses a particular textbook，that book has no resale value．

Dr．Jason decided to make lire a little easier and a lot cheaper for his students by writing his own book on public speaking．“Many books have an increased price because of CD-ROMs，lots of color photographs and pictures．I talked to my students，and many of them，like me，prefer to keep things simple! So，a few years ago，I wrote my own textbook．Compared to most other public speaking books，mine is half the number of pages，and one-third the price．That is，$30 instead of $90．When I wrote a second edition last year，students only had to buy the 35 new pages, For only $7．00，they had almost a new book. Now my loose-leaf textbook enjoys great popularity among the students．Maybe in the future more writers and publishers will try it．”   

1.What did Dr. Jason say about students at college?

A．They are short of money．                B．They need better textbooks

C．They should do part-time jobs．            D．They are trying to get high scores．

2.What did Dr．Jason decide to do to help the students?

A．To choose cheaper textbooks．            B．To write a textbook himself．

C．To speak to his students.                  D．To use old textbooks．

3.How much does a public speaking textbook usually cost?

A．About 7 dollars.                        B．About 30 dollars.

C．About 37 dollars．                      D．About 90 dollars．

4.Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A．Dr Jason's textbook has CD-ROMs and nice pictures.

B．More writers and publishers will write simpler textbooks．

C．Dr．Jason teaches public speaking at a college．

D．Dr-Jason’s textbook is not well received．

“The price of books for our students is just getting higher and higher and，combined with the rising cost of tuition，it’s killing these students，”said Peter Jason，a college professor．“Remember，students are one of the poorest groups of people in America．Almost half of them have at least one part-time job．In fact，one of my students has three jobs．And she still manages to have high scores and go to school full-time.”
Textbook prices are traditionally high．Adding to that problem，many college teachers change textbooks year after year；they either upgrade to a new edition or switch to an entirely different textbook．This further hurts students because if an instructor no longer uses a particular textbook，that book has no resale value．
Dr．Jason decided to make lire a little easier and a lot cheaper for his students by writing his own book on public speaking．“Many books have an increased price because of CD-ROMs，lots of color photographs and pictures．I talked to my students，and many of them，like me，prefer to keep things simple! So，a few years ago，I wrote my own textbook．Compared to most other public speaking books，mine is half the number of pages，and one-third the price．That is，$30 instead of $90．When I wrote a second edition last year，students only had to buy the 35 new pages, For only $7．00，they had almost a new book. Now my loose-leaf textbook enjoys great popularity among the students．Maybe in the future more writers and publishers will try it．”   
【小题1】What did Dr. Jason say about students at college?

Batteries can power anything from small sensors to large systems. While scientists are finding ways to make them smaller but even more powerful, problems can arise when these batteries are much larger and heavier than the devices themselves. University of Missouri (MU) researchers are developing a nuclear energy source that is smaller, lighter and more efficient.

“To provide enough power, we need certain methods with energy density (密度),” said Jae kwon, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at MU. “The radioisotope (放射性同位素) battery can provide power density that is much higher than chemical batteries.”

Kwon and his research team have been working on building a small nuclear battery, recently the size and thickness of a penny, intended to power various micro/nano-electromechanical systems (M/NEWS). Although nuclear batteries can cause concerns, Kwon said they are safe.

“People hear the word ‘nuclear’ and think of something very dangerous,” he said. “However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pace-makers, space satellites and underwater systems.”

His new idea is not only in the battery’s size, but also in its semiconductor (半导体). Kwon’s battery uses a liquid semiconductor rather than a solid semiconductor.

“The key part of using a radioactive battery is that when you harvest the energy, part of the radiation energy can damage the lattice structure (晶格结构) of the solid semiconductor, ” Kwon said. “By using a liquid semiconductor, we believe we can minimize that problem.”

Together with J. David Robertson, chemistry professor and associate director of the MU Research Reactor, Kwon is working to build and test the battery. In the future, they hope to increase the battery’s power, shrink its size and try with various other materials. Kwon said that the battery could be thinner than the thickness of human hair.

1.Which of the following is true of Jae Kwon?

A. He teaches chemistry at MU.                 

B. He developed a chemical battery.

C. He is working on a nuclear energy source.     

D. He made a breakthrough in computer engineering.

2. Jae Kwon gave examples in Paragraph 4 ________.

A. to show chemical batteries are widely applied

B. to indicate nuclear batteries can be safely used

C. to describe a nuclear-powered system            

D. to introduce various energy sources.

3. Liquid semiconductor is used to ________ .

A. get rid of the radioactive waste             

B. test the power of nuclear batteries

C. decrease the size of nuclear batteries      

D. reduce the damage to lattice structure

4. According to Jae Kwon, his nuclear battery ________.

A. uses a solid semiconductor                        B. will soon replace the present ones

C. could be extremely thin                                D. has passed the final test

5.The text is most probably a ________.

A. science news report                                     B. book review

C. newspaper ad                                              D. science fiction story