Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. Death Valley can be dangerously cold      during the winter months. Storms in the mountains can produce sudden flooding on the floor of the Valley.

The air temperature during the summer has been as high as fifty- seven degrees Celsius. The sun can heat the ground so that the temperature of the rocks and soil can be as high as seventy -four degrees Celsius.                                                                     

Death Valley contains evidence of several ancient volcanoes that caused huge explosions. Evidence of one of these explosions is called Ubehebe Crater. The explosion left a huge hole in the ground almost a kilometer and a half wide. In many areas of Death Valley it is easy to see where the ground has been pushed up violently by movement deep in the Earth. This movement has created unusual and beautiful rock formations. Some are red. Others are dark brown, gray, yellow or black.

The area was named by a woman in 1849. Thousands of people from other parts of the ountry traveled Lo the gold mining areas in California. They were in a hurry to get there before other people did. One group trying to reach California decided to take a path called the Old Spanish Trail. By December they had reached Death Valley. They did not have to survive the terrible heat of summer, hut there was still an extreme lack of water. There were few plants for their work animals to eat.

The people could not find a pass through the call mountains to the west of the Valley. Slowly, they began co suffer from a lack of food. To survive, they killed their work animals for food and began to walk out of the Valley. As they left, one woman looked back and said, “Good -bye, death valley.”  The name has never been changed.

Almost everyone who visits Death Valley visits a huge house called Scotty' s Castle. The building design is Spanish, with high thick walls to provide protection from the fierce heat.

The castle is named for Walter Scott , called Scotty by his friends. He was a gold miner. He told everyone that he built the house with money he made from his gold mine. Many people believed him. But it was not really the truth.

1.The first two paragraphs discuss Death Valley' s               ．

A．geography         B．climate           C．location           D．size

2.The volcanoes mentioned in the third paragraph proved          ．

A．a valley that is formed by explosions

B．a place where volcanoes are still active

C．a good example of the violence of nature

D．a symbol of rock formations in history

3.The woman who named Death Valley intended to             ．

A．explore the mystery of the valley

B．find an area with plants for animals

C．experience the terrible heat of summer

D．look for gold in California

4.If the passage continues, it will be about             . 

A．the truth about Scotty's Castle

B．why Spanish built the castle

C．when the castle was built

D．where the castle lies in

5.The main idea of the passage is about          ．

A．the interesting place in Death Valley

B．the facts about Death Valley

C．the origin of Death Valley

D．the route to visit Death Valley

Beauty has always been regarded as something admirable. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and have more respectable jobs. Personal consultants (顾问) give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive persons. But in the executive circle (政界), beauty can become a liability.
While attractiveness is a positive thing for a man’s rise, it is harmful to a woman. Handsome male executives were considered as having more honesty than plainer men; effort and ability were thought to be the reasons for their success. Attractive female executives were considered to have less honesty than unattractive ones; their success was attributed not to ability but to factors such as luck. All unattractive women executives were thought to have more honesty and to be more capable than the attractive female executives.
Why are attractive woman not thought to be able? An attractive woman is thought to be more feminine (女性的) and an attractive man more masculine (男性的) than the less attractive ones. Thus, an attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs, but an attractive woman in a traditionally masculine position appears to lack the "masculine" qualities required.
This is true even in politics. Anne Bowman recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates (候选人). She asked 125 undergraduate students to rank two groups of photographs, one of men and one of women in order of attractiveness. The students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked lo rank them again, in the order they would vote for them.
The results showed that attractive males completely defeated unattractive men, but the woman who had been ranked most attractive always received the fewest votes.
【小题1】In traditionally female jobs, attractiveness _____.

阅读短文，并按照题目要求用英语回答问题。

Big storms, high waves, technical failures, loneliness, After battling hard times and danger for over nine months. British teenager Mike Perham made history last month as the youngest person to sail solo (单独) around the world.

     The 17-year-old made the record after he cleared the Panama Canal ( 巴拿马运河) and then sailed through the Caribbean and home across the Atlantic.

     Mike is only three months younger than Zac Sunderland. the 17-year-old American boy who had taken the crown as the youngest solo around-the-world sailor in July.

     The two youngsters met in Cape Town in South Africa as they crossed the globe in different directions. Mike insisted they were not rival (竞争对手). "No. It's two teenagers going out there, living their dream and having the adventure of a lifetime." he said.

     Mike may be young, but he is no stranger to sailing adventures. He picked up the hobby at age 6 when his father took him out in a small boat on a local lake. Father and son sailed separate boats across the Atlantic when Mike was 14, making him the youngest person to cross that ocean solo. That record gave him the taste for this even greater challenge.

     On the recent journey. the scariest moment for Mike came when his sailboat was hit by storms in the southem Indian Ocean.

     "We were picked up by what felt like a 60-foot wave and threw down on our side at 90 degrees," he said.

     "It felt like I was going right over. Stuff was flying around and I just thought 'Oh no'".

     At other times, he had to dive into the Pacific and fix problems. He tied himself to the boat, jumped into the water and went to work with a knife in 30-second dives undemeath (在......之下) the boat to cut a rope away.

     Mike said he felt proud that he made his dream come true. "You've got to have confidence in yourself that you will make it." he said.

1.What's the main idea of the passage?  (No more than 15 words)

2.Which canal did Mike Perham cross? (No more than 3 words)

3.What does the underlined word "taste" in the fifth paragraph mean? (1 word)

4.What did Mike believe in? (No more than lO words)

5.What do you think of Mike Perham? (No more than 10 words)

Anyone for rocket salad?        The Chinese are now growing huge vegetables from seeds they sent into space.

If you’re the type who worries about the air miles traveled by fruits and vegetables,  these beauties aren’t for you. It’s because they have traveled a little further than most.

The seeds from which they grew were fired into space, where they orbited the earth for two weeks. Once they returned they were grown in hothouses, producing the monster kinds seen here.

China, which is behind these space fruits and vegetables, says they could be the answer to the world’s food crisis.

The 21-pound tomatoes, nine-inch chilies, 15-stone pumpkins and large watermelons growing at the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ hothouses can feed many more than their smaller cousins, and may have more nutrients, the scientists say.

Researcher Lo Zhigang said, “Traditional agricultural development has taken us as far as we can go and demand for food from a growing population is endless. Space seeds offer the opportunity to grow fruits and vegetables bigger and faster.”

He admitted he and his colleagues could not explain why time in orbit caused the seeds to change genetic structure. But they guessed exposure to the cosmic(宇宙的) radiation that attacked the spacecraft in orbit, as well as the near zero gravity conditions, microgravity, could play a part.

“We don’t think there’s any threat to human health because the genes themselves do not change; just their order changes,” he said. “With genetically-modified(GM) crops you have seen environmental problems because they have added genes that can damage other organisms. But with space seeds they don’t gain genes; they can only lose them.”

He also claimed the Vitamin C content in some space vegetables was nearly three times higher than in common vegetables, while levels of zinc are also increased.

Western scientists are doubtful. NASA researchers who have experimented with seeds in space say there is not enough benefit to show the cost is reasonable.

72. What do the underlined words “these beauties” in paragraph 2 probably refer to?

         A. Beautiful views along the air routes.           B. Traveling experiences in space.

         C. Seeds fired into space.                                     D. Giant vegetables.

73. We can infer from Lo’s words in paragraph 6 that       .

         A. our conventional agriculture has developed too slowly

         B. we are asking too much from nature

         C. space seeds may help meet our demand for food

         D. we’ll grow crops in space in the future

74. Why the seeds changed their genetic structure      .

         A. remains to be proved                                      

    B. is discovered by Lo Zhigang

         C. has something to do with die conditions in hothouses

         D. is due to the radiation that attacked them directly

75. Comparing Gm crops and space crops, we can see that      .

         A. space crops grow faster                                 

    B. space crops are more environmentally friendly

         C. GM crops are less a threat to human health  

    D. GM crops have fewer nutrients

D
Anyone for rocket salad? The Chinese are now growing huge vegetables from seeds they sent into space.
If you are the type who worries about the air miles travelled by fruits and vegetables, these beauties aren’t for you. It's because they have travelled a little further than most.
The seeds from which they grew were fired into space, where they orbited the earth for two weeks. Once they returned they were grown in hothouses, producing the monster kinds seen here.
China, which is behind these space fruits and vegetables, says they could be the answer to the world's food crisis.
The 21-pound tomatoes, nine-inch chillies, 15-stone pumpkins and large watermelons growing at the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ hothouses can feed many more than their smaller cousins, and may have more nutrients, the scientists say.
Researcher Lo Zhigang said, "Traditional agricultural development has taken us as far as we can go and demand for food from a growing population is endless. Space seeds offer the opportunity to grow fruits and vegetables bigger and faster. "
He admitted he and his colleagues could not explain why time in orbit caused the seeds to change genetic structure. But they guessed exposure to the cosmic（宇宙的）radiation that attacked the spacecraft in orbit, as well as the near zero gravity conditions, microgravity, could play a part.
"We don't think there's any threat to human health because the genes themselves do not change; just their order changes," he said. "With genetically-modified（GM）crops you have seen environmental problems because they have added genes that can damage other organisms. But with space seeds they don't gain genes; they can only lose them. "
He also claimed the Vitamin C content in some space vegetables was nearly three times higher than in common vegetables, while levels of zinc are also increased.
Western scientists are doubtful. NASA researchers who have experimented with seeds in space say there is not enough benefit to show the cost is reasonable.
63. What do the underlined words "these beauties" in Paragraph 2 probably refer to ______?
A. Beautiful views along the air routes.          B. Travelling experiences in space.
C. Seeds fired into space.                     D. Giant vegetables.
64. We can infer from Lo’s words in Paragraph 6 that _______.
A. our conventional agriculture has developed too slowly.
B. we are asking too much from nature
C. space seeds may help meet our demand for food
D. we'll grow crops in space in the future
65. Why the seeds changed their genetic structure _______.
A. remains to be proved
B. is discovered by Lo Zhigang
C. has something to do with the conditions in hothouses
D. is due to the radiation that attacked them directly
66. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A. Western scientists’ doubt is unreasonable.
B. Western scientists don’t believe that Chinese scientists have succeeded in the experiment.
C. Western scientists have proved space seeds to be of no benefit.
D. Western scientists think the cost of space seeds outweighs the benefits