The United States is a sports-loving nation. Sports in America take various forms: organized competitive struggles, athletic games, hunting and fishing. Most sports are seasonal, so that what is happening in sports depends upon the time of year.

Baseball is the most popular sport in the US. It is played throughout the spring and summer, and professional baseball teams play well into the fall.

Football is the most popular sport in the fall. The game originated as a college sport more than 75 years ago. It’s not the same as European football or soccer. In American football there are 11 players as well on each team, and they are dressed in padded uniforms and helmets because the game is rough and injuries are likely to occur. It is still played by almost every college and university in the country.

Basketball is the winner sport in American schools and colleges. Like football, basketball originated in the US, many Americans prefer it to football because it is played indoors throughout the winter and because it is a faster game. And the famous NBA games are considered the best of this game.

Other sports attracting a great many people include wrestling, boxing and horse racing. Although horse-racing fans call themselves sportsmen, the exactness of the term is questionable, as only the jockeys who ride the horses in the races can be considered athletes. The so-called sportsmen are the spectators, who do not come primarily to see the horses race, but to bet upon the outcome of each race. Gambling is the attraction of horse racing.

Baseball is so popular in America that some professional teams play it until ___________.

A. spring            B. summer                 C. fall                D. winter

When playing football, American players are dressed in a special uniforms ___________.

A. to avoid unexpected injuries

B. to play it like European football

C. to make the game rough enough

D. to look like professional players

Many Americans prefer basketball to football because______.

A. NBA games are very popular           

B. it is originated in the US

C. it is much faster than football                

D. it is played indoors throughout winter

Horse-racing fans can’t be exactly considered as sportsmen because they ________.

A. mainly stand and watch the races

B. don’t ride horse in the races

C. are only interested in the results

D. don’t care who wins in the races

The underlined word “jockeys” in the last paragraph refers to _______.

A. the person who bets upon the the race

B. the person who cares about horse-racing

C. the rider who enjoys watching the race

D. the rider who competes in horse-racing

Did you ever wonder how some of your favorite foods, products or toys came about? Believe it or not, they may have been an accident, or a failure of some other intention. Below, we found three mistakes we’re thankful for turned out to be what they are.

1. Most historians hold that the Chinese invented fireworks in the 9th century when they

discovered how to make gunpowder. Story has it that a Chinese cook accidentally mixed together what were then considered common kitchen items and noticed they burnt. When put tightly in a bamboo tube and lit, it blew up.

2. In May of 1886, a law led John Pemberton, a pharmacist（药剂师）, to rewrite the formula(配方) for "Pemberton’s French Wine Coca,” his popular headache treatment. Containing sugar instead of wine as a sweetener, the outcome became something for Coke, which was later mixed with carbonated water. His bookkeeper suggested the name Coca-Cola because he thought the two C’s would look good together, which is how what we call Coca-Cola, a world –wide drink came into being.

3. During World War II, scientists at the University of Birmingham invented the magnetron—an important heat-producing part of the microwave oven(微波炉). While working for Raytheon Corporation after the war, the American engineer Percy Spencer was testing the magnetron when a chocolate bar in his pocket melted. He went on to test other foods including popcorn kernels, and found it to be a much more efficient way to cook. In 1947 Raytheon came out with the first restaurant microwave oven, which was six feet tall and weighed 750 lbs.   

1.The right time order of the three inventions, according to the passage, should be_________.

A. fireworks, the microwave and Coca-Cola

B. fireworks ,Coca-Cola and the microwave

C. Coca-Cola , fireworks and the microwave

D. the microwave, Coca-Cola and fireworks

2.Percy Spencer found the microwave efficient in cooking when he was _______.

A. looking for a way to melt his chocolate

B. trying to know how a magnetron could cook

C. working to know how the magnetron works

D. asked to invent a restaurant microwave oven

3.What can we learn from the above invention stories? 

A. Experiments make great inventors of our time.     

B. Nothing is impossible if one tries each day.

C. Inventors come out of hard work at any time.

D. A small incident may lead to a great invention.

4.What’s the best title for the passage?

A. What great inventions they are!               B. Inventions from Three Countries.

C. Stories of Accidental Inventions.          D. The Human Inventions of time.

Most students hate their endless homework. The students from Class 2, Senior 2 of the High School Affiliated to Peking University certainly did before they published their own collection of English novels at home.

Their small book contains stories about a holy (神圣的) war, the happy life of a self-taught artist and the story of a laid-off worker who devoted his last breath to playing his beloved accordion (手风琴). The book becomes an instant hit on campus. About 3,000 copies have been sold and the class is already working on the second volume.

"We're up to our ears in homework. Exercises and exams make us out of breath. But to do something creative and full of imagination is such a great achievement," said Yu Xiaoxiao, 16.

"I took the writing as an ordinary homework at the beginning, but after I finished the first part of my story, I could not help but let it flow," said Wang An, who wrote "Accordion".

Inspired by "Lord of the Rings", Jiang Lu wrote his story about magic wars between angels from the light and the dark side. "The main message of the story was to look at the balance of the world. Both dark and light angels fight with love as their weapons. I want to tell people that selfish love might bring hate," Jiang said.

"I was shocked by their work and felt so proud to be the editor of my students' book," said Nathaniel Timmermann, the oral English teacher at the school. Liu Xiuqin, an English teacher, started the project by asking students to write whatever was in their mind every week. "They have performed beyond expectation," Liu said. "They wrote interesting stories and their English has improved after they started to express their real minds."

"We never imagined that our homework would be so popular and profitable (盈利的). We sell the novels at five yuan, but many teachers pay more to encourage us," said Yuan Mengyao.

1. After Wang An finished the first part of his story, he _________.

A. couldn't go on                 B. had to put it aside   

C. just wanted to express it freely   D. lost it

2.What was not the outcome of the students' homework of writing whatever was in their mind?

A. Being popular.            B. Being profitable. 

C. Improving their English.    D. Winning prize.

3.What is the reason for the students' liking to write interesting stories?

A. It is creative and imaginative.             

B. It is profitable.

C. Interesting stories are sure to be popular.   

D. Interesting stories can be well sold.

4.What is the best title of this passage?

A. Creative homework leads to a popular book      

B. Writing interesting stories

C. Students' new book           

D. A popular book

单词和词组 （共10小题；每题1分，满分10分）

61. At that time people would ________ (挨饿) if food was difficult to find, especially during the cold winter months.

62. Today's festivals have many origins, some ________ (宗教上的), some seasonal, and some for special people or events.

63. The p________ “Mark Twain” means that the water is two fathoms deep.

64. The p________ is the ability to wait for a long time or to accept trouble without getting angry.

65. He sat there in silence, ________ (怒视) at the nobleman.

66.The shells on the sand were placed ________ (以某种形式) the letters PKU.

67. Some festivals are held ________ (纪念) the dead or to satisfy the ancestors, who might return either to help or to do harm.

68. I ______ (开始学) the violin when I was seven, but I haven’t played recently, so I forgot a lot.

69. It is too early to tell whether ________ (削减) the cost of production will benefit the company workers or not.

70. We ________ (打赌) the outcome of the next horse race, and as a result, I failed.

C

Elephants are the largest land animals and they need plenty of living span. They have seasonal migration(迁徙) routes. As human populations rise, elephant land is being cleared for agriculture and other kinds of development.

When animals are effectively trapped on small areas of land, it restricts the gene pool and also results in a shortage of food. Where elephant reserves (保护区 ) border agricultural areas, elephants are often attracted to leave parks to attack crops and barns. Only the strongest walls will stop an adult elephant, so farmers have great difficulty protecting their fields.

In India, elephants don’t only attack for food. Some even have developed a taste for rice beer. In Assam, elephant-human conflict has resulted in the death of more than 150 people and 200 elephants in two years.

Poverty leads to the killing of elephants for meat. If people don’t have enough food and their governments cannot afford to enforce poaching(偷猎) bans, it’s not difficult to predict the outcome.

Ivory comes from elephant tusks, which can grow to be 3 metres long. Both male and female African elephants have large tusks.

Most new ivory comes from Africa and is sold as a high status material in Asian countries such as Thailand, mainland China and Japan. It can fetch $150 a pound and is carved to make decorations, chopsticks and ink stamps(印章). The conservation priority(重点) here is to change public attitudes.

In some countries in southern Africa, where conservation efforts have been successful, there is not enough room for a growing elephant population and animals have to be killed. A CITES meeting in November 2002 ruled that Botswana, Namibia and South Africa may sell stock-piled（库存的） ivory, starting in 2004.

Many conservationists are convinced that this will fuel the demand for ivory and lead to more illegal poaching, they say it is almost impossible to tell legal from poached ivory. The governments argue that the sales will be used to fund conservation work.

64. Which of the following isn’t the result of smaller elephant land?

A. Seasonal migration.                        B. Elephant-human conflict.

C. Restricting the gene pool.                          D. Shortage of food.

65. The most important thing to protect elephants is _______.

A. to build strongest walls

B. to sell stock-piled ivory instead of illegal ivory

C. to enforce poaching bans

D. to change people’s ideas

66. What does the underlined word “this” in the last paragraph refer to?

A. The killing of dephants for meat.

B. The ban of the trade in African elephant ivory.

C. The selling of stock-piled ivory.

D. The sales to fund conservation work.

67. According to the passage, we can infer that_______.

A. farmers have trouble protecting their field since no walls can stop an adult elephant.

B. if the government could help solve poverty, there would be less killing of elephants.

C. only male elephants in Africa have tusks as long as 3 meters.

D. since there is not enough room for a growing elephant population, there is no need to ban poaching all over Africa.