B
South Korea has offered about 10,000 tons of corn to North Korea, in what would be the first official aid to its hungry neighbor for almost two years．The South also offered 20 tons of milk powder and medicine for children, pregnant women and other vulnerable people, its unification ministry said．The proposed shipmen would be through the Red Cross．It would be the first official one since a conservative government came to power in Seoul in February 2008．The South Korean administration of President Lee Myung-bak has linked major assistance to progress on denuclearisation．
However, after months of bitter hostility, the communist North began making peace overtures（提议，提案） to the South in recent months．Persistent media reports have also said the two sides have held preliminary talks about a possible summit．
The amount of food aid on offer is tiny relative to the needs in what the United Nations recently described as the famine-hit North．A third of North Korean women and young children are malnourished（营养不良的） and the country will run short of almost 1．8 million tons of food this year, the United Nations World Food Program said in a report last month．The unification ministry admitted it was far less than needed but said the North must mend relations before shipments could be increased．
"We cannot say 10,000 tons is sufficient in view of North Korea's food shortage and other conditions," said ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-Joo．"We are providing purely humanitarian aid," she said．
"There is no change in our position that massive food aid depends on how relations between the two Koreas develop," she said．North Korea has yet to respond to the latest offer, made through the Red Cross．But Yonhap news agency said it was likely co-ordinated in advance before the announcement．
Last year the South offered 50,000 tons of corn, but the North rejected the shipment amid high tensions．
North Korea has relied on food aid from China, South Korea and aid agencies to feed millions of its people since a famine in the 1990s resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands．
50．How would North Korea be offered about 10,000 tons of corn from South Korea?
A．North Korea would buy corn from South Korea．
B．North Korea would exchange with South Korea．
C．The offer would be through the Red Sea．．
D．The offer would be through an international organization
51．About whether South Korea would go on offering assistance, we can infer from the passage that________________．
A．they would go on without any condition
B．they would go on if there was a famine in North Korea
C．it depended on how their relation would develop
D．it depended on whether North Korea needed it
52．How did North Korea survive since a famine in the 1990s?
A．They depended on the international aid from all other countries
B．They developed their agriculture to increase the production
C．They expanded the agricultural land
D．They relied on food aid from China, South Korea and aid agencies
53．What is the main idea of the passage?
A． It’s about the aid to South Korea from North Korea
B．It tells about the help between South Korea and North Korea
C．It’s about the help to the Poor
D．It tells about an action of the Red Cross

The dream of flying like Buzz Lightyear never dies. For years, space-age inventors have tested one wearable jet pack after another. And time after time, the designs have been grounded by dangerous fuels, excessive weight, or very loud noise levels. Now a Canadian inventor has sidestepped those weaknesses with an aquatic jet pack. Designed for travel over lakes or oceans, it’s driven by pressurized water, not burning rocket fuel.

When Raymond Li first told the idea for the aquatic jet pack to his friends, they said he must be nuts. How could a jet pack carry that much water? Its thrust-to-weight rate would be so low and it would never become airborne. Thrust-to-weight rate is a measure of the forward force produced compared with the weight of the vehicle. A vehicle with a low thrust-to-weight rate is relatively heavy for the amount of force it generates.
Li's genius idea was to place the jet pack’s engine and its water pump in a separate boat. The pump would draw water from the lake the boat was floating on. It would then force the water under pressure through a hose connected to the jet pack. The hose would be long enough to let the pack go up as high as 8.5 meters (28 feet) in the air.
Today, Li's invention, the Jetlev-Flyer, is ready to go into production. The pack itself, complete with jet nozzles （管嘴） and handlebars, weighs just 14 kilograms. The boat is a floating pod. To take off, the operator hits a trigger on a handlebar, which starts the pump, and then turns the throttle. Two streams of high-velocity water shoot through the hose and out the nozzles, lifting the operator into the air. The operator hovers there or pushes down on the handlebars, zooming forward at speeds of up to 64 kilometers per hour, pulling the pod behind.
【小题1】All the following factors contribute to the failure of inventing a wearable jet pack EXCEPT ______.

完形填空 （共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）

       阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑k+s-5#u 

When I passed boys who were playing basketball, I always stopped to silently watch them. I really envied them. __36__ as a girl, I once thought that I could never play basketball.

    I am __37__ playing basketball though I don’t play it well. I've had a basketball since I was a child. At first, I could play freely because no one __38__ when I was just a kid. But as I grew up it seemed harder and harder for me to enjoy basketball.

At school, __39__ was always the boys who played basketball during PE classes. The girls were only allowed to play volleyball or badminton.

My parents did not __40__ me play basketball at home. "Basketball is not fit for girls," they said. Even I went to play basketball with my friends, boys__41__ at me on the __42__ as if I were an alien.

I was feeling __43__ and had lost hope of playing basketball. __44__, something changed the first day of high school. I made some friends who also __45__ playing basketball. They encouraged me to get back on the court.

One of them told me with a smile, "Go your own __46__, let others talk." This girl would always play basketball with me. Even the boy who sat next to me in class talked about __47__   with me almost every day.

I was inspired by them. Confidence and passion __48__ to my heart. I am ready to stand up and play. I will play as well as I can, and for me, even the sky is boundless （无垠的）.

Basketball has become an important part of my __49__. I am interested in it. I watch matches and enjoy playing almost every day. Through basketball, not only __50__happy and confident, but also __51__ a lot.

I've heard the NBA star Tracy McGrady say, "Nothing is impossible." It is from an advertisement on TV. I have __52__ to realize that life is just like playing basketball. You __53__ have an aim. After that, just be confident and __54__ going. Never give up and you'll make it sooner or later.

I love the motto of the NBA．It can __55__ my strong feelings for basketball, "I love this game!"

36．A．Therefore B．So     C．But   D．And

37．A．into           B．onto           C．out of              D．for

38．A．complained          B．cared        C．enjoyed    D．explained

39．A．they          B．this            C．that                D．it k+s-5#u 

40．A．encourage             B．forbid               C．let                     D．permit     

41．A．looked        B．glared       C．glanced        D．stared             

42．A．field                       B．court               C．course                    D．campus

43．A．up                   B．down        C．excited             D．satisfied

44．A．Unexpectedly        B．Naturally            C．Unluckily               D．Clearly

45．A．disliked  B．minded      C．enjoyed             D．hated

46．A．effort         B．way         C．business         D．direction

47．A．basketball             B．sports               C．interests                    D．dreams    

48．A．stuck          B．referred      C．turned     D．returned

49．A．dream               B．life                      C．work               D．study

50．A．I feel B．I felt C．do I feel   D．did I feel

51．A．experience      B．grow        C．learn            D．play

52．A．come          B．turned              C．refused             D．happened

53．A．may           B．should         C．will                D．can  

54．A, insist                B．remain         C．keep             D．last  

55．A．inform         B．express         C．ignore       D．connect   

Investors soon will be able to own shares of Facebook stock. The world’s biggest social media network presented documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. The documents are required before the company can make its initial public offering（首次公开募股）or IPO. A date for the stock sale has yet to be announced.
Experts say Facebook could raise about five billion dollars. That would be one of the biggest IPO sales ever. And it would be much bigger than Google’s first public stock sale in 2004. At that time, the Internet search company raised almost two billion dollars.
Facebook has 800 million users around the world. It is the second most visited website after Google. Now, experts say the social media network is in a position to become one of the most valuable Internet companies.
Stock expert Anupam Palit at Greencrest Capital says that among social media sites, Facebook is in a class by itself.
“It is the biggest company in this space and we believe what makes it very unique from every other company that went public last year in this space is that it is very, very profitable.” said Anupam Palit.
Early estimates place the total value of the social network between 75 and 100 billion dollars. That includes earlier investments by other companies. David Kirkpatrick wrote the book The Facebook Effect. He says Facebook’s IPO will be historic.
The stock sale could also make Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg one of the world’s youngest billionaires. He is only 27.
Investment companies are likely to buy Facebook stock first. But investment manager Jim O’Shaugnessy says that is not so bad. He says the prices of some IPO stocks are too high and fall not long after they first go on sale.
Recently, share prices of some Internet businesses have fallen after their stocks were first offered. For example, stocks of Linkedln, Groupon and Zynga, dropped in price by as much as 25% after going public.
There were similar questions eight years ago when Google first sold stock to the public. Today, Google is one of the world’s most valuable technology companies.
【小题1】Which of the following is true about Google?

Eight-year-old Bethany and seven-year-old Eliza are having a great time jumping around in the orchard of their home in a village near Penrith. They can play any time they like because they don't go to school. Instead, they are educated at home by their parents, Paul and Veronika Robinson. But they don't have lessons, have never used a timetable and learn only what and when they want to learn.

"I want my kids to have freedom in their childhood, not spend it in an institution," says 37-year-old Veronika, "School is all about control and following the rules." Veronika and her 56-year-old husband Paul have never experienced the daily rush to get dressed and out of the door that is common in most households with school-aged children. "We get up at our leisure - usually around 8.30-ish," says Veronika. "We might visit a friend, or go to the library, and on Tuesdays we shop at the market. In summer, we spend most of our time outside and the girls entertain themselves a lot."

New research due to be published this spring reveals a very different picture of Britain's home educators. "Out of 297 families, 184 said that they never use a timetable," says Mike Fortune-Wood of Home Education UK. "Ninety per cent never or rarely use textbooks, and nearly all said that happiness, contentment and self-fulfillment were more important than academic achievement. Only 15% felt that planning what to learn was crucial."

So far, so good. But what, you might ask, are the children actually learning?

"It wasn't important to me that the girls could read by a certain age, but they both picked it up for themselves at around seven," says Robinson. "Weighing cooking ingredients uses maths, and making a shopping list teaches them to write. Observing five hens has taught the girls about survival of the fittest. "

But what about when the children grow up? Can they go to university? The home educators' answer is they can if they want to. There are a variety of routes into higher education, but probably the most common is to join a local college. This is what Gus Harris-Reid has done. "I was educated at home all my life. I'd never had a lesson or been inside a classroom until I started GCSEs," says the 18-year-old. "I'm now studying for 4 A-levels at Exeter College. I've had no problem with the work or with fitting in." When asked to reflect on his experience of home education, his considered response is, "Like a permanent holiday, really!" Not a bad start for someone who plans to take a mechanical engineering degree next year.

1. What is the topic of this article?

 A. New ways of learning to read and write   B. Problems with UK schools

C. Home education in the UK             D. Wild, undisciplined children

2. Why do the Robinsons not send their children to school?

A. They think schools control children too much.    B. They do not like the courses taught in schools.

 C. They want to teach their children farming skills.   D. They live in a remote area where there are no schools.

3. According to the article, in homes with school-going children, ______.

A. mornings are rushed and stressful.      B. the children hardly ever go outside.

 C. the family wakes up around 8.30am.    D. the children must ask permission to go to the toilet.

4. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

 A. Most home educators believe that happiness is more important than good grades.

B. Most home educators believe that planning is important.

 C. Most home educators do not follow a timetable or use textbooks.

 D. Most home educators are not worried about when their children learn to read and write.

5. What does the article say about home-educated children getting into university?

 A. They learn so many useful skills at home that universities are happy to accept them.

 B. They can get into university if they have 4 A-levels.

C. They can go to school later and get the qualifications they need in order to enter university.

 D. Home education is so relaxed that they are likely to experience problems when faced with the pressures of a degree course.