A few years ago I was on a bicycle trip when I got off my bike for a rest. I sat down on the grass. A few seconds later, I was covered in ants. They were swarming all over me so I got up and brushed them off. It was a strange experience but I soon forgot about it.

A couple of years later, I was living in Jordan. I had just moved into a modern flat and was unpacking plates when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at the kitchen drawer and there was a cockroach (蟑螂) crawling out of it. I screamed. Then I grabbed a can of insecticide and sprayed it on the cockroach. He ran under the nearby bathroom door. It took me three days before I found the courage to open the bathroom door to see if he was still alive. He wasn’t.

Why did I react so violently to one lone insect when a closer encounter with hundreds of ants hardly affected me? The answer is easy: because cockroaches are creepy (令人毛骨悚然的) crawlies and ants aren’t. Creepy crawlies are those little bugs which cause feelings such as anxiety - they make your skin crawl.

Did you know that some people feel such a fear of bugs that it becomes a phobia (恐惧症)? Psychologists have offered many explanations. Some say we associate them with dirt and disease. Or that these are life forms that are so alien to us, that we find them disgusting for their dissimilarity.

Insects, however, don’t follow our rules - they just do what they want and invade our space. Unfortunately, although insects and bugs have been a successful animal species up to now, many of them, like many other species nowadays, are under threat of dying out. Entomologists warn that this could upset entire ecosystems and lead to all kinds of disastrous consequences.

So my advice to you is: the next time you feel the urge to stamp on, splatter or spray a creepy crawly, give a thought to the planet and stop.

1... Why did the author mention the ants in the beginning?

A. Because the experience with the ants presents a sharp contrast to that with the cockroach later.

B. Because the author wants to show her preference to the ants and her dislike for the cockroaches.

C. Because both ants and cockroaches are creepy crawlies that the author dislikes.

D. Because meeting the ants is an unusual experience that the author can hardly forget.

2.. The underlined word “insecticide” in Paragraph 2 probably means         .

A. a kind of fruit juice                     B. a kitchen knife

C. liquid for killing insects                D. cleanser (洗涤剂)for the bathroom

3.. How does the author feel about bugs like cockroaches?

A. The author doesn’t mind the contact with those harmless small creatures.

B. The author prefers cockroaches to ants and feels guilty for killing one.

C. They invade our space and become a threat to humans.

D. They still deserve a place for keeping the balance of the nature.

4.. Which of the following statements about bugs is NOT true according to the passage?

A. Some people may be frightened so much by bugs that it leads to a psychological barrier to some degree.

B. The earth will have a better and cleaner environment if more creepy crawlies are killed.

C. Many bugs are in danger of dying out so we should not kill them due to fear or disgust.

D. Some bugs are extremely unpleasant that some people have a strong wish to destroy them.

Mr. Read made up his mind to devote all his life to _____ some schools for poor children.

Section B

Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box.  Each word can be used only once.  Note that there is one word more than you need.

F. publicly     G. combined    H. produced   I. rebel       J. especially

Ludwig Van Beethoven was one of the greatest musicians in the 19th century.  Living in a period of change, he expressed the ___41___ of his time in his music. 

At that time, people were trying to break out of the feudalism(封建主义)， and they were trying to pursue ___42___, equality and universal love.  Such social change, ___43___ the French revolution, greatly inspired Beethoven.  He, together with many contemporary artists, ___44___ many vigorous works, which praised heroism and ___45___ the love for nature.  To some extent, Beethoven was a social ___46___.  He refused to bow to social traditions and power.  When Napoleon was in power, who ___47___ to be a believer of the republic, Beethoven admired him so much that he devoted his Symphony No.5(第五交响曲) to him.  But then Napoleon put crown on his own head and became an emperor.  Beethoven got very angry and he ___48___ criticized Napoleon, regardless of possible life threat. 

Except for all his social and political wishes, he also led to great progress in the history of music.  It was he who clearly defined the form of symphony and ___49___ developed it.  And his achievements, according to some, marked the end of the classical period and the beginning of the romantic period in the music history.

In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child’s acquisition of each new skill-the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing．It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child: This might happen at any stage．A baby might be forced to use a toilet too early, a young child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads．On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself．

Patents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children．Some may be especially strict in money matters．Others are severe over times of coming home at night or punctuality for meals．In general, the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child’s own happiness．

As regards the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching．To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality．Also, parents should realize that “example is better than precept”．If they are not sincere and do not practice what they teach, their children may grow confused, and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled．

A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents’ principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment．

1.Eagerly watching the child’s acquisition of new skills _________．

2.In the process of children’s learning new skills, parents ______．

3.The second paragraph mainly tells us that __________．

4.In moral matters, parents should __________．

Of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, linguists (语言学家) say, nearly half are likely to disappear this century. In fact, one falls out of use about every two weeks.

    Some languages die out in an instant, at the death of the only surviving speaker. Others are lost gradually in bilingual (双语的) cultures, as local tongues are edged out by the dominant (占主导地位的) language at school, in the marketplace and on television.

    New research, supported by the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, has found the five regions where languages are disappearing most rapidly. They are northern Australia, central South America, North America's upper Pacific coastal zone, eastern Siberia, and Oklahoma and the southwestern United States.

K. David Harrison, an associate professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, US, said that more than half the languages had no written form and were vulnerable to loss and being forgotten." Their loss leaves no dictionary, no text, or no record of the accumulated knowledge and history of a disappeared culture.

    Harrison and other researchers started their rescue project last year. They have been trying to identify and record endangered languages. They interviewed and made recordings of the few remaining speakers of a language and collected basic word lists. The individual projects, some lasting three to four years, involve hundreds of hours of recording speech, developing grammar and preparing children's readers in the obscure (逐渐没落的) language. The research has concentrated on preserving entire language families.

    "These are probably languages that cannot be brought back, but at least we made records of them," said Gregory Anderson, director of the Living Tongues Institute, in Oregon, US.

1.What does the passage mainly tell us?          

A. Many languages are quickly disappearing.

B. Some languages are disappearing because they are hard to remember.

C. Chinese is one of the languages that are disappearing.

D. Thanks to some researchers, many endangered languages have been rescued.

2.What does the word vulnerable in the fourth paragraph mean?  

A. easy to remember.                         B. easy to forget.

C. likely to be damaged.                     D. likely to be protected.

3.Which of the following is true according to the fifth paragraph?  

A. Harrison and other researchers are trying to find out why some languages died out.

B. Harrison and other researchers tried to start a rescue project.

C. Harrison and other researchers have concentrated on preserving all the languages.

D. Harrison and other researchers have done some rescue work on the obscure languages.

4.One of the things that Harrison and other researchers did was         .   

A. to have more people speak the disappearing language

B. to make records of the disappearing language

C. to limit dominant languages

D. to publish a dictionary of the disappearing language

5.What do you think is the suggested reason for some languages disappearing?     

A. Local tongues are gradually edged out by the dominant language at school, in the marketplace and on television.

B. The number of people who speak the languages are small.

C. There are no dictionaries for the languages.

D. No one make records of the languages, so they gradually disappear.