More than 1.5 billion people around the world live without electricity. Finding better ways to bring light to the poor is the goal of researchers like Professor Irvine. In the late 1990s, he was working in Nepal when his return flight was canceled. A delay gave him time to take a fourteen-day hiking trip in the Himalayas.

One day he looked in the window of a school and noticed how dark it was. This is a common problem for millions of children around the world. Many families use kerosene oil (煤油) lamps. There are many problems with these lamps. They produce only a small amount of light. They are dangerous to breathe. And they are a big fire danger, causing many injuries and deaths each year. Kerosene costs less than other forms of lighting, but it is still costly in poor countries. Professor Irvine says many people spend over 100 dollars a year on the fuel.

When he returned to Canada, he began researching ways to provide safe and clean lighting. He began experimenting with light-emitting diodes (发光二极管), LEDs, at his lab. As a professor of renewable energy, he already knew about the technology. Light-emitting diodes are small glass lamps that use much less electricity than traditional bulbs (灯泡) and last much longer. He used a one-watt bright white LED made in Japan. He found it on the Internet and connected it to a bicycle-powered generator (发电机). He remembers thinking it was so bright that a child could read by the light of a single diode.

In 2000, after much research and many experiments, he returned to Nepal to put the systems into homes. Now the homes of 25,000 people in 51 countries have been equipped with it. “The one-time cost of our system which basically lives forever, as well as the solar panel — is less than one hundred dollars. So, one year of kerosene would pay for a solid-state lighting system,” he said. Now his aim is to develop a lower-cost lighting system. In January, Irvine is leaving the University of Calgary. He has also decided to start his own company in India.

1.We can learn from the second paragraph that kerosene oil lamps ______.

A. cost more than other forms of lighting

B. have damaged children’s eyesight

C. have wasted only a little fuel

D. have a lot of disadvantages

2.Irvine connected a white LED to a bicycle-powered generator to prove ______.

A. whether it can work without electricity

B. whether it can work well with less electricity

C. whether it can last longer than a generator

D. whether it is brighter than a traditional bulb

3.We can learn from the text that Irvine ______.

A. likes India rather than Nepal

B. is good at making new kinds of bulbs

C. is giving up his job in the university

D. is to earn much money from his company

SECTION B

Directions: Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage and the required words limit. Write your answers on your answer sheet.

The unsteady housing market is showing a rare sign of strength: waiting home sales were up significantly in February, a report released Monday said, suggesting that Americans took advantage of a tax credit for home buyers.

Sales rose 8.2 percent in February, the National Association of Realtors(房地产经纪人) said. Analysts had expected sales to stay flat.

Economists said Monday’s data suggested buyers were re-entering the market as the April 30 deadline approached for a government tax credit of up to $8,000. The tax credit drove up sales rapidly in the fall, when it was originally set to end, but it has been slow to push the market this spring.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the association, said Monday’s report “may signal the early stages of a second wave of home sales.”

A separate report on Monday showed the service division in the United States was improving, driven in part by gains in employment.

The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing barometer(晴雨表) rose to 55.4 in March, up from 53 in February, going beyond expectations. Much of the energy came from a rush in new orders and business activity.

It was the highest reading(测量或调查的读数) for the survey since May 2006. While employment rose, it was short of the break-even point, signaling the service division was still losing jobs. Exports also rose significantly.

“This is a very encouraging report, which indicates acceleration in demand growth from both domestic and foreign customers,” Barclays Capital researchers wrote in a note on Monday.

The jump in waiting home sales was a rare bit of good news for the housing market, which remains in a deep rut(车辙). Home prices have shown little change.

Analysts expect the housing market to gradually improve as unemployment becomes less and the broader recovery gains steam. But so far, relief has been slow to come.

Monday’s report showed sales rose even in areas hit hard by poor weather in February. Sales climbed 9 percent in the Northeast and South, which were blanketed by snow in February.

The Realtors association bases its data on signed contracts, which usually take one or two months to translate into final sales.

81. What is the effect of the government tax credit? (No more than 5 words)

__________________________________________________________________

82. Who is chief economist for the National Association of Realtors? (No more than 2 words)

_______________________________________________________________________________

83. What could be a surprise according to Monday’s report? (No more than 10 words)

_______________________________________________________________________________

84. If you are asked to describe the rise in home sales in February, which word do you think is the most appropriate? (No more than 1 word)

______________________________________________________________________________

The website “FarmersOnly.com” calls itself an online dating and friendship finder. The idea started in the mind of a man, Jerry Miller in Ohio. He wondered how farmers could meet new people who understand the life of a farmer. Jerry Miller is not a farmer but he represents a lot of farmers.
As he tells it, the idea for the site was planted when a farmer told him one day that she was recently divorced and would like to date. But someone would invite her to meet for coffee at nine o’clock at night, when she had to start her day at five the next morning.
So, in 2005, Jerry Miller launched his website. “You don’t have to be a farmer to be on FarmersOnly.com, but you do have to have the good old-fashioned traditional values of America’s Heartland.” 
You also have to live in the United States or Canada to be a member of the site. Some services are free, but a full membership costs fifty dollars for a year. As of last week the site listed more than 58,000 members. Many of them are farmers in the United States. Others are students or workers involved in some way with agriculture. Jerry Miller tells us about thirty marriages in the last year have resulted from his website.
Some farmers have also found love through a group, Singles in Agriculture, which was formed as a nonprofit organization in 1986. It organizes gatherings that usually end with a dance, but is not a dating service. The purpose is to support educational and social activities that offer people a chance for friendship. Its website, singlesinag.org, says there are more than 1,000 members across the nation and as far away as France.
【小题1】Jerry Miller started singlesinag.org in order to     .

We can’t live without food. Today our knowledge of food and what it does for our bodies is far more advanced than____1_____of the old times. Now we know____2___vitamins and how each kind of vitamins__3_____in the growth of a special part of our body._____4____ on the market all kinds of vitamins which we can take to______5____our lack of certain important things which are needed for good health.____6____ if we eat well and properly, the food that we eat will ___7____ our bodies and so there is no____8_____to take any kind of vitamins ____9____ our doctors tell us that our bodies are_____10____of something which can be supplied by it. Generally speaking, everything we eat ____11____ some good to our bodies, but if we eat ____12____ of one kind of food and pay______13____attention to others, we may have too much of one kind and not____14____ of others. Then we may be ____15___ trouble. We are often told___16_____ we must eat some meat every day in order to get the necessary proteins. That is only____17____true, for proteins are not found only in meat. We can also get them___18____some vegetables. The best advice about ____19___ to eat is that we should eat all kinds of food____20__ never too much of one kind.

1.                A．it             B．those          C．that  D．this

2.                A．of             B．about          C．/    D．for

3.                A．does           B．makes          C．helps D．works

4.                A．There have      B．There are       C．They are  D．They have

5.                A．have for        B．make for        C．get for   D．make up for

6.                A．Of course       B．Then           C．But  D．And

7.                A．attend         B．take care of      C．look for   D．pay attention to

8.                A．worry          B．possibility       C．need D．chance

9.                A．when          B．if              C．unless    D．until

10.               A．short          B．lost            C．part  D．full

11.               A．has            B．is             C．makes D．does

12.               A．too much       B．too little        C．too few   D．too many

13.               A．too little        B．too much       C．a little too  D．much too

14.               A．a little          B．little           C．many D．enough

15.               A．into           B．at             C．in    D．out of

16.               A．when          B．that           C．how  D．where

17.               A．likely          B．partly          C．hardly D．really

18.               A．from           B．for            C．of    D．into

19.               A．what           B．whether        C．why  D．which

20.               A．even          B．or             C．and  D．but

　　If you do not use your arms or your legs for some time, they become weak. When you 1 using them again, they 2 become strong again. Everybody knows this and nobody would think of 3 this fact. 4 there are many people who do not 5 to know that memory works in the 6 way.

　　7 someone says that he has a good memory; he 8 means that he 9 his memory by practising exercising it. When someone 10 says that his memory is poor, he actually means that he 11 give it enough chances to become 12 .Have you ever 13 that people who cannot read or write usually have 14 memories than those who can? This is 15 those who 16 read or write 17 remember things. They have to remember dates, places, names, songs and stories. So their memory is the whole time 18 .So 19 you want to have a good memory, you should learn from those people, 20 by remembering what you see, hear, feel and write. If so, you must have a good memory.

　　1. A. begin       B. go on     C. stop        D. continue

　　2. A. quickly     B. slowly     C. soon       D. at once

　　3. A. doing      B. agreeing    C. questioning  D. answering

　　4. A. Yet        B. Still       C. So         D. Certainly

　　5. A. want       B. seem      C. get         D. hope

　　6. A. other       B. usual      C. same        D. opposite

　　7. A. As         B. What      C. While       D. When

　　8. A. real        B. actually    C. true         D. then

　　9. A. wants      B. builds up    C. makes      D. keeps

　　10.A.again      B. else         C. more       D. once

　　11.A.do not     B. is not        C. never       D. does not

　　12.A.poor       B. weak        C. strong      D. healthy

　　13.A.seen       B. heard of      C. noticed     D. thought of

　　14.A.worse      B. better       C. more        D. less

　　15.A.why        B. how       C. because      D. the reason

　　16.A.used to     B. cannot      C. try to        D. have to

　　17.A.will not     B. have to      C. refuse      D. cannot

　　18.A.ready       B. being used   C. busy       D. training

　　19.A.if          B. that        C. though      D. thus

    20.A.please      B. try          C. train       D. enjoy