It's going to take several days for my car to be repaired -- ______I'm renting one.

  A. as a consequence         B. in the meanwhile  

  C. for one thing             D. in addition

Mary and Peter were having a picnic with some friends near a river when Mary shouted, “Look! That's a spaceship up there and it's going to land here.”

Frightened by the strange spaceship, _ 61   of the young people got into their cars and drove away as quickly as possible. Peter loved Mary and always stayed close to her. They, more __62  than frightened, watched the spaceship land and saw a door open. When nobody came out, they went to look __63  it. In the center of the floor, there was a pile of food. Peter followed Mary into the spaceship and did not __64   the door close behind him. The temperature fell rapidly and two young people lost their __65  .

When they came to, they were __66  to see that they were back by the river again. The spaceship had gone. __67  car was nearby.

“What happened?” asked Mary.

Peter scratched his head, saying slowly, “Don't ask me. Perhaps we had a __68  . Come on.It's time to go home.”

After driving about fifty meters, they found their way blocked by a thick wall made of something like __69  . On the other side of the wall, a few strange beings stopped to look through it and read a notice which, translated into English, said: “New arrivals at the zoo: a pair of __70   inhabitants in their natural surroundings with their house on wheels.”

61. A. both         B. all         C. several       D. most

62. A. tired        B. curious     C. confused      D. astonished

63. A. at           B. for         C. into          D. around

64. A. hear         B. watch       C. let           D. make

65. A. way          B. weight      C. speech        D. consciousness

66. A. pleased      B. disturbed   C. surprised     D. disappointed

67. A. A            B. Another     C. Their         D. No

68. A. game         B. dream       C. mistake       D. problem

69. A. glass        B. stone       C. wood          D. steel

70. A. city         B. space       C. land          D. Earth

 — Hurry up, I think it’s going to rain.

    — ______ . The skies are dark and cloudy.

A. Not really.             B. I guess so.              C. Why not?       D. How great!

A little under one-third of U.S. families have no Internet access and do not plan to get it, with most of the holdouts seeing little use for it in their lives, according to a survey released on Friday.

Park Associates, a Dallas-based technology market research firm, said 29 percent of U.S. families, or 31 million homes, do not have Internet access and do not intend to subscribe（预订） to an Internet service over the next 12 months. The second annual National Technology Scan conducted by Park found that the main reason why potential customers say they do not subscribe to the Internet is because of the low value to their daily lives rather than concerns over cost.

Forty-four percent of these families say they are not interested in anything on the Internet, versus just 22 percent who say they cannot afford a computer or the cost of Internet service, the survey showed. The answer "I'm not sure how to use the Internet" came from 17 percent of participants who do not subscribe. The response "I do all my e-commerce shopping and YouTube-watching at work" was cited by 14 percent of Internet-access refuseniks. Three percent said the Internet doesn't reach their homes.

The study found U.S. broadband adoption grew to 52 percent over 2006, up from 42 percent in 2005. Roughly half of new subscribers converted（转变） from slower-speed, dial-up Internet access while the other half of families had no prior access.

"The industry continues to chip （击破）away at the core of non-subscribers, but has a long way to go," said John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates. "Entertainment applications will be the key. If anything will pull in the holdouts, it's going to be applications that make the Internet more similar to pay-TV," he predicted.

What does the underlined word “holdouts” in the first paragraph most probably mean?

A. some American families      

B. those who hold out one’s opinions

C. those who have been surveyed    

D. those who still haven’t access to the Internet currently

Many potential customers refuse to subscribe to the Internet mainly because __________.

A. they show too much concern about the cost

B. they can find little value of it

C. they do most YouTube-watching at work

D. the Internet doesn’t reach their homes

From the passage we can infer that _____________.

A. It is not an easy job to transform those holdouts into the Internet users

B. people will adopt dial-up Internet access no more

C. many Americans enjoy doing e-commerce shopping at home

D. more than half of the population are using the Internet in 2005

According to John Barrett, what is the key to attracting more U.S. families to broadband service?

A. making the Internet look more similar to TV set

B. applying the Internet more to entertainment

C. providing more pay-TV programs

D. chipping away at the core of non-subscribers

Which is the best title for the passage?

A. Web develops with technology

B. The present situation of web

C. Many Americans see little point to web

D. It is urgent to promote web service

Kids will often ignore your requests for them to shut off the TV,start their chores(杂事),or do their homework as a way to avoid following your directions.Before you know it,you’ve started to sound like a broken record as you repeatedly ask them to do their assignments,clean their room,or take out the trash.Rather than saying “Do your chores now.” you’ll be more effective if you set a target time for when the chores have to be completed.So instead of arguing about starting chores,just say,“If chores aren’t done by 4 pm,here are the consequences.”Then it’s up to your child to complete the chores.Put the ball back in their court.Don’t argue or fight with them,just say,“That’s the way it’s going to be.”It shouldn’t be punitive(惩罚性的)as much as it should be persuasive.“If your chores aren’t done by 4 pm,then no video game time until chores are done.And if finishing those chores runs into homework time,that’s going to be your loss.”On the other hand,when dealing with homework,keep it very simple.Have a time when homework starts,and at that time,all electronics go off and do not go back on until you see that their homework is done.If your kids say they have no homework,then they should use that time to study or read.Either way,there should be a time set aside when the electronics are off.

When a kid wears his iPod or headphones when you’re trying to talk to him,make no bones about it；he is not ignoring you,he is disrespecting you.At that point,everything else should stop until he takes the earplugs out of his ears.Don’t try to communicate with him when he’s wearing headphones — even if he tells you he can hear you.Wearing them while you’re talking to him is a sign of disrespect.Parents should be very tough about this kind of thing.Remember,mutual respect becomes more important as children mature.

1.According to the passage,it seldom happens that ________.

A．kids turn a deaf ear to their parents’ requests

B．parents’ directions sound like a broken record

C．children are ready to follow their parents’ directions

D．parents are unaware of what they are repeating to their kids

2.Parents will be able to deal with their children more effectively if they ________.

A．avoid direct ways of punishment      B．make them do things at their request

C．argue and fight with their children    D．allow their children to behave in their own way

3.When the kid is doing his homework,parents ________.

A．should provide him with a good learning environment

B．can do whatever they like

C．can stay aside watching TV

D．must switch off the power

4.It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

A．parents should take off his headphones when trying to have a talk with their child

B．it will make no difference that a kid is wearing his earplugs while talking to his parents

C．parents shouldn’t give in to their kid when he shows no sign of respect

D．kids’ purposely talking to their parents with iPod gives them a sense of power and

control

5.The main idea of the passage is ________.

A．that respecting each other is more important than anything else

B．how kids behave to ignore and disrespect their parents

C．that children should make choices and decisions on their own

D．how parents can deal with their kids’ behavior effectively