We all look forward to vacations. They can give our daily life colorful meaning. Moreover, in the busy world we live in, we all need a vacation to get the rest and relaxation our bodies desire. The most important thing in planning a vacation is where you will spend your vacation. If you want to make sure you can visit the best vacation spot（地点）, there are many factors（因素）that will influence where the best vacation spot is for you.

The first thing to consider when choosing the best vacation spot is what you would like to do. Do you want to ski? Do you want to surf? Are you looking for a spot that has great shopping and a beach as well? Are you looking for something that is a little more historic or that has religious meaning to you? These are great questions to ask.

And once you have decided on this, you may want to decide what time you are taking your vacation. It would be difficult to have a ski trip in Colorado in the middle of July. You would want to visit in the winter. Or if you have your heart set on skiing in July, you would need to go to South America, such as Chile, to do your skiing at this time of year.

The next thing to consider when finding the best vacation spot for your trip is your budget（预算）. You may want to go to Italy to see the old historic buildings, such as the Sistine Chapel. But the fact is that if you don’t have the money to back it up, you won’t be able to do this. You may find the best thing for you is to visit some old castles in America. You can find these throughout the eastern United States, such as North Carolina. And you will also find great shopping and many other attractions for your vacation. Perhaps you are someone who has always wanted to go to Cancun for spring break. If you do not have the budget for this, Miami is also a great place. There are plenty of bars there. It has plenty of attractions and even some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It also has South Beach, which is actually a fantastic beach.

There are amazing vacation destinations all over the world. The choice is really up to you. It truly depends on your taste, budget and what you want to do on your vacation. There are many websites to help you find the best price no matter what your budget is. Keep the advice in mind and you will be on your way to having a wonderful vacation that you will be talking about for the rest of your life.

All plant cells are able to take up water. Even dead ones do to a certain degree. Absorption of water by dead cell walls makes wood swell(肿胀). In common land plants, the living cells of roots take up most of the water. Land plants without roots do exist, however. Those greenish-yellow lichens(苔藓)you see on tree trunks and on rocks in the high mountains have no roots. Half a billion years ago, when water plant started to invade the land, the first primitive land plants did not have roots; they were marsh (沼泽) plants.

Even among the flowering plants, one finds rootless forms. These flowering plants are the so-called higher plants because they evolved more recently and are thus considered higher on the evolutionary scale. In the Peruvian desert, there grows one of these rootless higher plants, a bromeliad. It is a relative of the pineapple. Even if this plant had roots, they would be of no use, because where the plant grows, it never rains. The plant gets its water exclusively from the dew it collects at night, when its leaves cool off. Such rootless plants, of course, can be moved with ease, but they will only grow when they are placed out in the open. If they are placed too near a house, the radiation from the heat of the house prevents the leaves from cooling and so prevents dew from forming, and the plant dies. In the southern United States and in Puerto Rico, one sees bromeliads growing high above the streets on the insulation of electric wires. These plants get their water from rain, and the only soil they ever come in contact with is the dust that may blow on their leaves.

Wood swells because of _______.

A. the dead cell walls          B. tiny drops of water entering the dead cell

C. the growth of the cell       D. the death of the cell

From the passage we know that the evolutionary scale is arranged according to ______.

A. evolutionary cycles                  B. heights and depths

C. time                                D. kinds

The bromeliad is a plant that _______.

A. has useless roots             B. is a pineapple

C. can grow anywhere           D. takes up water through its leaves

Which of the following is NOT true?

Water plants existed before land plants.

Only living plant cells take up water.

The greenish-yellow lichens are uncommon land plants.

The living cells of roots absorb more water than the rest of the plant.

The most suitable title for this passage is ______.

A. water intake by cells  B. rootless plantsC. plant in the desert   D. higher plants

They say that soon, we will be able to receive more than 500 television networks on cable or by satellite. Some people think that it’s useless to have that many channels. Their usual criticism(批评) goes something like this: "I already get more channels on my TV than I have time to watch. No one needs to see that much TV. There’s not enough time in the day to watch all that!"They also say that most of what’s on television now isn’t worth watching in the first place.
I think they’re missing the point. If the local library wanted to add another 5,000 books, would we say, "That’s silly, we’ll never have time to read all those books"? The point is that we would have more choices.
I don’t believe that most people should watch more television. And if we had 500 or even 1,000 channels to choose from, we wouldn’t have to spend more time watching TV. We would, however, have more programs to choose from. That means that the quality of our viewing time would be improved.
I think the more channels we have, the better. Give me more choices! If they’re not worth my time, I’ll just hit the "off" button.
【小题1】The purpose of writing this passage is to ______.

A scientist turns out to be able to see the future by offering each of some four-year-olds a piece of candy and watching how he or she deals with it. Some children reach eagerly for the treat they see. Some last a few minutes before they give in. But others are determined to wait until the last moment.
By the time the children reach high school, something remarkable has happened. A survey found that those who as four-year-olds had enough self-control to hold out generally grew up to be more popular, adventurous, confident and dependable. The children who gave in to temptation early on were more likely to be lonely, easily frustrated and inflexible .
Actually, the ability to delay reward is a sign of emotional intelligence which doesn’t show up on an IQ test.
The hardware of the brain and the software of the mind have long been scientists’ concerns. But brain theory can’t explain what we wonder about most, like the question why some people remain upbeat in the face of troubles that would sink a less resistant soul.   
Here comes the theory of Daniel Goleman, writer of Emotional Intelligence: when it comes to predicting people’s success, brain ability as measured by IQ may actually matter less than the qualities of mind once thought of as “character”.
EQ is not the opposite of IQ. What researchers have been trying to understand is how they work together; how one’s ability to handle stress, for instance, affects the ability to concentrate and put intelligence to use. Among the elements for success, researchers now generally agree that IQ counts for about 20%; the rest depends on everything from social class to luck.
While many researchers in this relatively new field are glad to see emotional issues finally taken seriously, some few fear EQ invites misuse.
【小题1】Which of the following is true of EQ and IQ according to the text?

They say that soon, we will be able to receive more than 500 television networks on cable or by satellite. Some people think that it’s useless to have that many channels. Their usual criticism(批评) goes something like this: "I already get more channels on my TV than I have time to watch. No one needs to see that much TV. There’s not enough time in the day to watch all that!"They also say that most of what’s on television now isn’t worth watching in the first place.

I think they’re missing the point. If the local library wanted to add another 5,000 books, would we say, "That’s silly, we’ll never have time to read all those books"? The point is that we would have more choices.

I don’t believe that most people should watch more television. And if we had 500 or even 1,000 channels to choose from, we wouldn’t have to spend more time watching TV. We would, however, have more programs to choose from. That means that the quality of our viewing time would be improved.

I think the more channels we have, the better. Give me more choices! If they’re not worth my time, I’ll just hit the "off" button.

1.The purpose of writing this passage is to ______.

A．make a suggestion                       B．express an opinion

C．give important information                D．complain about cable television

2.From the passage we know that the author wants to ______.

A．read more books                       B．rent more TV sets

C．have more choices                      D．watch more sports

3.The number of television channels is ______.

A．increasing fast

B．decreasing fast

C．never going to be more than 1,000

D．the same as that of books in the library

4.To make his point, the author compares the development of TV networks to that of ______.

A．schoolyards        B．computers         C．libraries           D．satellites

5.What does the phrase "hit the 'off’ button" refer to?

A．Go to the library.                        B．Switch over the TV channels.

C．Turn off the TV.                         D．Have more TV networks.