Hee-haw! Scores of farms across the country are opening up to overnight guests. The best have all the appeal of a first-rate inn ----- plus here a moo, there a moo.
Sure, you and your kids plan to conquer the theme parks. In the meanwhile, why not make a little hay? Farm stays are fast becoming the great American alternative to the pre-packaged vacation.
LIBERTY HILL FARM
Rochester, Vt.; 802/767-3926; www.libertyhillfarm.com. Adults$75, teens $50,kids 12 and under $35, including breakfast and dinner; shared baths.
Beth and Bob Kennett run a farm straight out of a storybook. You’ll find Beth in the kitchen, rolling out dough（生面团） for a pie. Bob’s busy with other work. Guests sleep in seven sunny bedrooms right in the farmhouse and can participate in any of the farm jobs. Maybe you and your kids won’t be up at 6 a.m. to meet the milk truck, but you can help with the milking twice a day, collect eggs, and pick sweet corn and wild blackberries in season.
HULL-O FARM
Durham, N.Y.; 518/239-6950; www.hull-o.com; Adults $110, kids 10—14 $60, 5—9 $50, 2—4 $35, under 2 free, including breakfast and dinner; private baths.
It started in 1993 as a way to bring in some extra money at a time of falling milk prices. But soon after Frank and Sherry Hull opened their Catskill Mountains dairy farm to overnight visitors, they discovered they loved it. As you drive up, Sherry greets you on the porch（入口处）of the 1825 farmhouse with a cow-shaped cookie jar. Before long your kids are playing around with the cows, sheep, ducks, goats and getting ready for a hayride（乘坐装满干草的牛车出游）.
MERAMEC FARM CABINS
Bourbon, Mo.; 573/732-4765; http://www.wine-mo.com Doubles with private bath $75, $10 per additional person. Trail and riding fees extra.
Climb onto the back of the Ford pickup and catch up with the herd. One gentle cow named Cricket will even let the kids sit on her back. At the barn（牲口棚）, Carol will introduce you to the horses ---15 Missouri Fox Trotters --- and lead you on a trail ride over the hills and down along the spring-fed Meramec River, where everyone swims. Grab a fishing pole and head back to the river. When you have your fill of the wild, try Carol and Dave’s favorite restaurants or wineries（酿酒厂）, within 20 miles of the farm.
【小题1】The underlined sentence in the first paragraph implies that ___________.

Liu Xiang, a 21-year-old Chinese athlete, got the gold medal of the fascinating men's 110m hurdles(跨栏) before a crowd of 70 000 at the Olympic Stadium in the 28th Olympics in Athens late Friday local time. He clocked an excellent 12.91 seconds to equal the world record set by Britain's Collin Jackson in 1993.?

It is the first gold Chinese men's athlete has ever won from the track and field in the Olympics history. China has won over 100 gold medals from the summer Olympic Games since 1984 but its male athletes only got one medal from Olympics' most popular sport.

The Shanghai native, with his father a truck driver and mother an out-of-work housewife, loved sports when he was very little. Liu was selected to the Junior Sports School of Putuo District of Shanghai to practice jumping as a fourth grader in the primary school. But after a bone test showing that he will not be able to become a tall man, Liu was asked to give up sports one year later, although he had won the national champion at that level.

In 1998 when he attracted coach Sun Haiping's attention as a 15-year-old jumper. Sun was a well-known hurdle coach and he believed a star was born at the first sight of Liu. He visited Liu's parents several times and finally persuaded them to let Liu transfer to the 110m hurdles.?

After only three years, Liu launched his career in style in the IAAF Grand Prix in Lausanne in 2001 by breaking the world youth and Asian record with a time of 13.12.

But the first warning he sent to the world was his bronze-winning feat(战绩)at the world indoor championships in Birmingham, England, last year.?

In 2004, Liu won the silver in the world indoor championships in Budapest in March. Two months later, he proved the winner in a race against American great Allen Johnson in the IAAF Grand Prix in Osaka, Japan, where he clocked a new Asian record and world's season best time of 13.06 seconds.

He went on to win two Johnson-absent races in Lille, France, on June 26 and Zagreb, Croatia, three days later. He put up an exciting show at the Golden Gala meet in Rome on July 3,when he and Johnson clocked an identical time of 13.11.Race officials had to examine a photo finish to declare Johnson the winner. Liu did a better job of clearing the hurdles than Johnson, but Johnson's stronger start ended up making the difference. The race boosted(提高) Liu's optimism for the Olympics, although Johnson bettered his season best time by 0.01 second in Lausanne, Switzerland, on July 6.

The world has put the Olympics a Johnson-Liu duel but surprisingly Johnson crashed out of the Games after falling at the ninth hurdle at round 2.Johnson's early exit paved the way for Liu's win. He finally took the gold medal and put a Chinese man's name on the record book.?

(China daily. com. cn/Xinhua) Updated:2004-08-28 02:57

According to Paragraph One, which of the following is TRUE?

A. Liu Xiang is the fastest of the four mentioned athletes.

B. Liu Xiang has set a new world record in the event of the men's 110m hurdles.

C. Both Liu Xiang and Jackson have got a gold medal at the Olympics.?

D. In the Olympics history, Liu Xiang is as fast as Britain's Collin Jackson.

Before the 28th Olympics in Athens, _______.

A. no Chinese athlete got a gold medal from the track and field at the Olympics

B. there was already a Chinese male medallist in the track and field at the Olympics

C. Terrence Trammell got a gold medal from the men's hurdles at the Sydney Olympics

D. Zhu Jianhua got a bronze medal from the men's hurdles in the 1984 Los Angeles Games

In the last paragraph, the underlined word “duel” most probably means “_______”.?

A. contest       B. friendship   C. Partner       D. company?

.From the passage, we can conclude that _______.?

A. Liu Xiang had no gift for jumping when he was a little boy?

B. Liu Xiang set a new world youth record when he was 17 years old?

C. Liu Xiang has succeeded because of his coach Sun?

D. Johnson might have won the gold medal if he had not dropped out??

All too often , a choice that seems sustainable（可持续的）turns out on closer examination to be problematic. Probably the best example is the rush to produce ethanol（乙醇）for fuel from corn . Corn is a renewable resource —you can harvest it and grow more, almost limitlessly. So replacing gas with corn ethanol seems like a great idea .

One might get a bit more energy out of the ethanol than that used to make it, which could still make ethanol more sustainable than gas generally, but that’s not the end of the problem. Using corn to make ethanol means less corn is left to feed animals and people, which drives up the cost of food. That result leads to turning the fallow land — including, in some cases, rain forest in places such as Brazil — into farmland, which in turn gives off lots of carbon dioxide（CO₂）into the air. Finally, over many years, the energy benefit from burning ethanol would make up for the forest loss. But by then, climate change would have progressed so far that it might not help.

You cannot really declare any practice “sustainable” until you have done a complete lift-cycle analysis of its environmental（环境的）costs. Even then, technology and public policy keep developing, and that development can lead to unforeseen and undesired results. The admirable goal of living sustainable requires plenty of thought on an ongoing basis.

1.What might directly cause the loss of the forest according to the text?

A. The growing demand for energy to make ethanol.

B. The increasing carbon dioxide in the air.

C. The greater need for farmland.

D. The big change in weather.

2.The underline word “it” in the second paragraph refers to “              ” .

A. the energy benefit               B. the forest loss

C. climate change                  D. burning ethanol

3.The author thinks that replacing gas with corn ethanol is               .

A. impractical   B. acceptable    C. admirable    D. useless

4.What does the author mainly discuss in the text?

A. Technology.                   B. Sustainability.

C. Ethanol energy.                D. Environmental protection.

Driving cars, trucks and motorcycles is an important part of our lives. We do it every day to get to work, to school or to friends' houses.
Traffic accidents declare millions of lives every year worldwide. In Taiwan alone, over seven people are killed in accidents every day. The annual death rate from traffic accidents in Taiwan is twice that of Japan.
To allow traffic to move smoothly and safely, everybody must follow the rules. Before you drive, learn all the traffic laws. That way of driving is safe, convenient and even fun!
【小题1】The underlined sentence “Traffic accidents declare millions of lives worldwide” in the passage means “_______”.

A．Traffic accidents make some people become millionaires

B．Many people die from traffic accidents

C．Millions of people say they themselves have had traffic accidents

D．Millions of people remain healthy after traffic accidents

A．you are patient	B．you obey all the traffic rules
C．you don't cut another car off	D．you wait in line at a red light