For those of you who were born in the year of the pig, good luck and much success! This is your year.
When talking to a Westerner, however, you’ve got to be a little careful when you talk about pigs. Chinese people view the pig as a smart and prosperous (rich, lucky) animal. Western ideas tend to be a little more negative（否定的）.
A pig in the West is seen as a dirty, lazy, and fat animal. If anyone ever called you a pig, you wouldn’t be smiling. When a person doesn’t like someone, sometimes he will call that person a pig.
If you ever meet a Westerner who was born in the year of the pig, don’t say, “ Oh, you’re a pig!” Most Westerners will be understanding. They will be sure that you made some kind of mistake. However, don’t take any chances. You might just offend (触怒)someone who does not share your positive ideas about pigs.
【小题1】
According to the passage we can see that Chinese people think of the pig as a ________ animal.

Everyone needs recognition(赏识) for his achievements,but few people make the need known quite as clearly as the little boy who said to his father,“Let’s play darts(飞镖).I’ll throw and you should say ‘Wonderful!’”

Fran Tarkenton,former Minnesota Vikings quarterback,once called a play that required him to block onrushing tacklers.

FEL quarterbacks almost never block.They’re usually vastly outweighed by defenders,so blocking exposes them to the risk of severe injury.

But the team was behind,and a surprising play was needed.Tarkenton went into block,and the runner scored a touchdown.The Vikings won the game.

Watching the game films with the team the next day,Tarkenton expected a big pat on the back for what he’d done.    It never came.

After the meeting,Tarkenton approached coach Bud Grant and asked,“You saw my block,didn’t you,Coach?How come you didn’t say anything about it?”

Grant replied,“Sure,I saw the block.It was great,but you’re always working hard out there,Fran.I figured I didn’t have to tell you.”

“Well,”Tarkenton replied,“if you ever want me to block again,you do!”

1.What does the author intend to tell us in the passage?

2.The author gave the little boy as an example in order to            .

3.Which of the following can describe the Fran Tarkenton’s action of blocking onrushing tacklers?

4.What did Fran Tarkenton expect while watching the game films?

5.It can be inferred from the passage that    .

If you ever have the _____ to go abroad to work, you should take it.

　　A. possibility    B. offer    C. luck   D. chance

How far would you be willing to go to satisfy your need to know？Far enough to find out your possibility of dying from a terrible disease？These days that’s more than an academic question，as Tracy Smith reports in our Cover Story.

There are now more than a thousand genetic(基因的) tests，for everything from baldness to breast cancer，and the list is growing.Question is，do you really want to know what might eventually kill you？For instance，Nobel Prize?winning scientist James Watson，one of the first people to map their entire genetic makeup，is said to have asked not to be told if he were at a higher risk for Alzheimer’s(老年痴呆症)．

“If I tell you that you have an increased risk of getting a terrible disease，that could weigh on your mind and make you anxious，through which you see the rest of your life as you wait for that disease to hit you.It could really mess you up.” said Dr.Robert Green，a Harvard geneticist.

“Every ache and pain，” Smith suggested，could be understood as “the beginning of the end.”“That’s right.If you ever worried you were at risk for Alzheimer’s disease，then every time you can’t find your car in the parking lot，you think the disease has started.”

Dr.Green has been thinking about this issue for years.He led a study of people who wanted to know if they were at a higher genetic risk for Alzheimer’s.It was thought that people who got bad news would，for lack of a better medical term，freak_out.But Green and his team found that there was “no significant difference” between how people handled good news and possibly the worst news of their lives.In fact，most people think they can handle it.People who ask for the information usually can handle the information，good or bad，said Green.

1.The first paragraph is meant to________.

A．ask some questions

B．introduce the topic

C．satisfy readers’ curiosity

D．describe an academic fact

2.Which of the following is TRUE of James Watson?

A．He is strongly in favor of the present genetic tests.

B．He is more likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.

C．He believes genetic mapping can help cure any disease.

D．He doesn’t want to know his chance of getting a disease.

3.According to Paragraphs 3 and 4，if a person is at a higher genetic risk，it is________.

A．advisable not to let him know

B．impossible to hide his disease

C．better to inform him immediately

D．necessary to remove his anxiety

4.The underlined part “freak out” in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to “________”．

A．break down? B．drop out

C．leave off? D．turn away

1685 was a very good year for German composers. Within the space of a month, two of the greatest were born: Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.
Handel’s father was a barber and surgeon, which sounds like a strange combination today, but back then those occupations went hand in hand. Even though Handel was very interested in music, his father didn’t think that was a good way to earn a living, so he wanted his son to be a lawyer. The story goes that Handel smuggled a quiet piano into the house so that he could practice in secret.
One day, Handel went along when his father went to shave a duke. While his father was working, Handel sat down and played the duke’s organ. The duke was so impressed that he convinced Handel’s father to let his son study music, and Handel finally got to learn how to compose.
Handel soon discovered that what he liked most was opera. In fact, he was so passionate about opera that he even fought a duel (决斗) over it with one of his friends. Since Italy was the place to learn about opera composing, Handel went off to Italy to study. When he got home, he got a job as court composer for a German prince.
Having landed such a wonderful job, Handel immediately asked his boss for time off. He wanted to go to England, where he’d heard that there weren’t nearly enough composers to satisfy the British taste for Italian opera.
After great success writing opera in London, Handel came back to Germany. Then fate played a funny trick on Handel and his boss. The Queen of England died, and it just so happened that the prince Handel worked for was next in line to the British throne ( 王位 ). When he arrived in London as King George, followed Handel, his court composer in Germany.
In addition to serving the King, Handel became one of the most successful opera composers of his time. And he also produced them and traveled all over Europe to hire the best singers. There are stories of battles with rival ( 对手 )opera producers and of fights between rival singers. Handel apparently had quite a temper.
If you ever go to London, look for Handel’s grave in Westminster Abbey, where there’s a wonderful monument to him.
66. How did Handel begin to learn to compose?
A. His father was sure of his future success.
B. His performance impressed a duke.
C. He begged his father to send him to Italy.
D. He practiced hard and taught himself music.
67. What does the underlined word “smuggled” mean in the passage?
A. bought secretly               B. took secretly  
C. carried in advance          D. possessed personally
68. Why did Handel later settle down in Britain instead of Germany?
A. Because he could find better jobs in London.
B. Because he enjoyed greater fame in London.
C. Because his boss became King of Britain and brought him along.
D. Because London was a wonderful place to learn about opera.
69. Which of the following words can NOT be used to describe Handel, as 
shown in the passage?
A. bad-tempered   B. talented     C. enthusiastic  D. optimistic
70. Which of the following statements is WRONG according to the passage?
A. Handel was born in the same year with Bach.
B. Many people worked both as a barber and surgeon.
C. Handel quit his job to learn about opera in Italy.
D. Handel was buried in London and was built a monument.