One hot night last July, when our new baby wouldn’t or couldn’t sleep, I tried everything I could think of : a warm bottle, songs gentle rocking. Nothing would settle him down. Guessing that I would have a long night ahead of me, I brought a portable (便携式)TV into his room, figuring that watching the late movie was as good a way as any to kill off the hours till dawn. To my surprise, as soon as the TV lit up, the baby quieted right now, his little eyes focused brightly on the tube. Not to waste an opportunity for sleep, I then walked out of the room, leaving him to watch the actors celebrate John Bellushi's forty-fifth birthday.

My wife and I heard no more of the baby that night, and the next morning when I went into his room, I found him still watching TV himself. I found in my baby's a metaphor（启示）for the new generation. My wife and I had given him some books to examine, but he merely spit upon them. When we read to him, he did not feel comfortable. And so it is in the schools. We find that our students don't read , that they look down upon reading and scold those of us who teach it. All they want to do is watching TV.

After this experience with the baby, however, I have reached a conclusion: “Let them watch it!” If television is that much more attractive to children than books, why should we fight it? Let them watch it all they want!

1.

Father brought a TV set into his son's room____.     

2.

To the couple’s surprise the boy ___after they brought a TV set into his room.

3.

Form the last paragraph we know that the writer thinks it____.

     Along the river banks of the Amazon and the Orinoco there lives a bird that swims before it can fly, flies like a fat chicken, eats green leaves, has the stomach of a cow and has claws (爪) on its wings when young. They build their homes about 4.6m above the river, an important feature (特征) for the safety of the young. It is called the hoatzin.

      In appearance, the birds of both sexes look very much alike with brown on the back and cream and red on the underside. The head is small, with a large set of feathers on the top, bright red eyes, and blue skin. Its nearest relatives are the common birds, cuckoos. Its most striking feature, though, is only found in the young.

      Baby hoatzins have a claw on the leading edge of each wing and another at the end of each wing tip. Using these four claws, together with the beak (喙), they can climb about in the bushes, looking very much like primitive birds must have done. When the young hoatzins have learned to fly, they lose their claws.

      During the drier months between December and March hoatzins fly about the forest in groups of 20 to 30 birds, but in April, when the rainy season begins, they collect together in smaller living units of two to seven birds for producing purposes.

1．What is the text mainly about?

    A．Hoatzins in dry and rainy seasons.

    B．The relatives and enemies of hoatzins.

    C．Primitive birds and hoatzins of the Amazon.

    D．The appearance and living habits of hoatzins.

2．Young hoatzins are different from their parents in that        ．

    A．they look like young cuckoos

    B．they have claws on the wings

    C．they eat a lot like a cow

    D．they live on river banks

3．What can we infer about primitive birds from the text?

    A．They had claws to help them climb.

    B．They could fly long distances.

    C．They had four wings like hoatzins.

    D．They had a head with long feathers on the top.

4．Why do hoatzins collect together in smaller groups when the rainy season comes?

    A．To find more food.

    B．To protect themselves better.

    C．To keep themselves warm.

    D．To produce their young.

A. self-confidence    B. refers         C. frequently      D. despite        E. consider

F. normally          G. bored        H. alter          I. reshapes       J. qualified

Many people today are obsessed with their appearance. Although they are perfectly healthy, they constantly worry that their nose is a bit too big, or that their ears stick too far out. Cosmetic surgery (整容）is a possible solution to this problem. Cosmetic surgery means a surgeon ___1.___ a part of your body that works ___2.___, but which makes you unhappy. It is different from plastic surgery, which ___3.___ to the work surgeons do to repair body parts damaged by disease or accidents. Different kinds of people get cosmetic surgery. Some may have low ___4.___. They may be depressed, or struggling to find a satisfactory job. People with such problems believe cosmetic surgery will not just make them look better, but also make them feel better inside. Other people may be insecure about one part of their body, or just ___5.___ with how they look.

There is no proof that cosmetic surgery can really make people happier, but ___6.___ this, many people still have very high expectations for it. They think that it will solve all their problems. It is important to remember that cosmetic surgery might ___7.___ a part of your body, but it can’t change your whole life.

Cosmetic surgery can also be risky. If you have existing health problems, like a weak heart or breathing problems, this kind of operation can sometimes make them worse. In addition, cosmetic surgery is a big industry, and not everyone involved in it is honest. Therefore, you need to choose the clinic for your surgery very carefully. You must be certain that the surgeon you choose is ___8.___ to give you cosmetic surgery.

The biggest question for someone thinking of having cosmetic surgery is the cost. The price can vary from a few hundred dollars to $10,000 or above. It depends on which part of your body you want to change. Rich stars may not __9.___ the cost very high, but most people cannot afford to pay. Perhaps it is cheaper—and better for your health—to learn to live with how you look.

By 2050

Futurologists predict that life will probably be very different in 2050.

TV channels will have disappeared. Instead, people will choose a program from a “menu” and a computer will send the program directly to the television. Today, we can use the World Wide Web to read newspaper stories and see pictures on a computer thousands of kilometers away. By 2050, music, films, programs, newspapers, and books will come to us by computer.

Cars will run on new, clean fuels and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed and there won’t be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to your destination. Space planes will take people halfway around the world in 2 hours. Today, the United States Space Shuttle can go into space and land on Earth again. By 2050, space planes will fly all over the world and people will fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just 2 hours.

Robots will have replaced people in factories. Many factories already use robots. Big companies prefer robots—they don’t ask for pay rises or go on strike, and they work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere—in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.

Medical technology will have conquered many diseases. Today, there is equipment that connects directly to the brain to help people hear. By 2050, we will be able to help blind and deaf people to see and hear again.

Scientist will have discovered how to control genes（基因）. Scientists have already produced clones(克隆) of animals. By 2050, scientists will be able to produce clones of people, and decide how they look, how they behave and how clever they are. Scientists will be able to do these things, but should they?

1.

According to the passage, the following can be realized today EXCEPT __________.

A. reading newspapers on a computer 

B. making a space shuttle go into space and land on Earth again

C. creating cloned animals

D. choosing TV programs freely from a “menu”

2.

We can learn from the passage that some big companies prefer robots to human workers, because human workers __________.

   A. can work 24 hours a day               B. often ask for more pay

   C. are not clever enough                 D. are often late for work

3.

From Paragraph 5 we can infer that __________.

   A. there will be no blind and deaf people by 2050

   B. few diseases will attack people by 2050

   C. equipment is connected directly to the brain to help people hear today

   D. medical technology will be more effective by 2050

4.

What is the author’s attitude towards the cloning technology?

   A. The author does not support the use of cloning technology.

   B. The author thinks human cloning is impossible.

   C. The author does not really support the idea of human cloning.

   D. The author is quite excited about human cloning.

If women are mercilessly exploited(剥削) year after year,they have only themselves to blame.Because they tremble at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion,they are always taken advantage of by the designers and the big stores.Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be put aside because of the change of fashion.When you come to think of it,only a woman is capable of standing in front of a wardrobe(衣柜) packed full of clothes and announcing sadly that she has nothing to wear.

Changing fashions are nothing more than the intentional creation of waste.Many women spend vast sums of money each year to replace clothes that have hardly been worn.Women who cannot afford to throw away clothing in this way,waste hours of their time altering the dresses they have.Skirts are lengthened or shortened;neck-lines are lowered or raised,and so on.No one can claim that the fashion industry contributes anything really important to society.Fashion designers are rarely concerned with vital things like warmth,comfort and durability(耐用).They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact that women will put up with any amount of discomfort,as long as they look right.There can hardly be a man who hasn’t at some time in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shaking in a thin dress on a winter day,or delicately picking her way through deep snow in high-heeled shoes.

When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion,the conclusions to be drawn are obvious.Do the constantly changing fashions of women’s clothes,one wonders,reflect basic qualities of inconstancy and instability?Men are too clever to let themselves be cheated by fashion designers.Do their unchanging styles of dress reflect basic qualities of stability and reliability?That is for you to decide.

1.Designers and big stores always make money        .

2.To the writer,the fact that women change their old-fashioned dresses is seen as        .

3.The writer would be less critical if fashion designers placed more stress on the     of clothing.

4.According to the passage,which of the following statements is TRUE?