Waller was a liked－by－all fellow full of fun who often went to coffee houses to tell people interesting stories, of which some even brought him some money. One day, asked by an office secretary who told Waller that his boss was a never－seen before serious man and he never even smiled. Waller would tell a most funny story. “Well, sir,” Waller said before he began the story, “What will be given in return of my success?”“＄100,”replied the secretary. “I haven’t seen him have a bright face since I worked in his office.”

“Then let’s make it.” Waller went to the man’s table and whispered to him, “Please tell your boss that the funny man Waller’s hen gave birth to a baby.”

Three days later a letter reached Mr. Waller in which were ＄100 and a piece of yellow paper with the words, “Mr. Waller, you have succeeded—When I repeated your ＄100－worth sentence, my boss burst into frightening laughter, saying that whoever has managed to make him laugh during the business hours will get dismissed!”

1.The secretary asked Waller for a most funny story because he ______.

2.Saying "Let's make it," Waller______．

3.Which of the following ends is true according to the passage?

4.Which sentence can describe the theme of the story?

You don’t have to ask Barack Obama what it is like to be a president-elect. Chances are you can be one, too, and it won’t take more than 30 years’ efforts to achieve that.

A new computer game, Commander in Chief, offers the chance to step into the president’s shoes and see whether you can do a better job running the country than he can.

The video game will be available on January 20, the day Obama is sworn in (宣誓就职) as president.

So what will you do in the game?

Like Obama, your early task is to select members of the Cabinet（内阁）from 250 personality types. Then you immediately face internal（国内的）and external challenges. Every decision you make has an in-game consequence.

“You can put your own political theories into action and see the domestic（国内的）and international effect,” said the lead designer Louis-Marie Rocques.

Internal decisions involve managing budgets, security, education, health care and discussion over many proposed laws. You also have to respond to critics. Every decision has a consequence, which changes the political environment. For example, raising taxes will raise criticisms and protests while lowering taxes means you will have less money to play with.

What about external decisions? Well, you have to deal with military issues, global economics, trade agreements, and spending time lobbying（游说）other presidents. You can determine the course of world events by invading（侵略）a neutral country, or toppling（推翻）an unfriendly country but then you must face the economic, political, and military consequences.

Don’t want to be president of the US? The game also lets you become virtual（虚拟的）leader of other countries including France, Germany, Spain and Russia.

The purpose of writing this passage is mainly to     .

   A. show you how hard it is to be the newly-elected president, Barack Obama

   B. explain why the video game is so popular among American citizens

   C. introduce to you one special computer game, Commander in Chief

   D. inform how designers developed the interesting computer game

Which of the following items belongs to internal affairs in the game?

A. Managing budgets, responding to critics and military issues.

   B. Managing budgets, raising taxes and trade agreements.

   C. Health care, discussing proposed laws and lowering taxes.w(w w.ks&5 u.c*o m

   D. Education, security and lobbying other countries.

Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

   A. Those who want to be a president one day will get a taste of their private life.

   B. The first task in the game is to form the Cabinet consisting of 250 members.

   C. The video game has hit the stores in America and enjoys sales success.

   D. Like a real president, the players will face challenges at home and abroad

 Would you eat a ready meal from the fridge rather than cook? Have you been doing internet shopping rather than going to the stores? What can’t you be bothered to do?

    A study into how lazy British people are has found more than half of adults are so idle（闲散的）they’d catch the lift rather than climb two flights of stairs.

    Just over 2,000 people were quizzed by independent researchers at Nuffield Health, Britain’s largest health charity. The results were shocking. About one in six people surveyed said if their remote control (遥控器)was broken, they would continue watching the same channel rather than get up.  More than one third of those questioned said they would not run to catch a bus. Worryingly, of the 654 questioned people with children, 64% said they were often too tired to play with them.  This led the report to conclude that it’s no wonder that one in six children in the UK are classifted as obese（肥胖）before they start school.

Dr Sarah Dauncey, medical director of Nuffield Health, said: “People need to get fitter, not just for their own sake, but for the sake of their families， too. If we don’t start to take control of this problem, a whole generation will become too unfit to perform even the simplest tasks.”

    And Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, was shamed as the laziest city in the UK, with 75% surveyed admitting they do not get enough exercise, followed closely by Birmingham and Southampton, both with 67%.

The results pose serious challenges for the National Health Service, where obesity-related illnesses such as heart disease and cancer have been on a steady increase for the past 40 years and are costing billions of pounds every year.

1. According to the researchers at Nuffield Health, about ________ people who were surveyed would not run to catch a bus.

A. 10            B. 150             C. 330              D. 660

2. One in six children in the UK are classified as obese before they start school because ________.

A. they stay too long a time with their pets  

B. they spend too much time watching TV

C. their parents don’t play with them much  

D. they suffer from obesity-related illnesses

3. ________ is the second laziest city in the UK.

    A. Scotland       B. Glasgow         C. Birmingham       D. Nuffield

4. What’s the writer trying to tell us?

    A. Parents have much to do with their children’s obesity-related illnesses.

    B. British people are getting lazier, which can cause serious social problems.

    C. The National Health Service has to face a lot of serious challenges every year.

    D. A study into how lazy British people are has been carried out at Nuffield Health.

What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in bio-technology(生物技术). With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today’s leading killers, such as heart disease, cancer, and aging itself, will become distant memories.

In discussion of technological changes, the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond l20 years because the basic materials of cells, such as those of brain cells, would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs. The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells, and so on—in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.

It is exciting to imaging that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic condition of human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future. 

6. According to the passage, human death is now mainly caused by        .

A. diseases and aging                                 B. accidents and war

C. accidents and aging                        D. heart disease and war

7. In the author’s opinion, today’s most important advance in technology lies in        .

A. medicine          B. the Internet     C. brain cells                     D. human organ

8. Humans may live longer in the future because        .

A. heart disease will be far away from us

B. human brains can decide the final death

C. the basic materials of cells will last forever

D. human organs can be repaired by new medicine

9. How long can humans live in the future according to the passage?

A. Over 100 years.                             B. More than 120 years.

C. About 150 years.                                   D. The passage doesn’t tell us.

10. We can learn from the passage that        .

A. human life will not last more than 120 years in the future

B. humans have to take medicine to build new skin cells now

C. much needs to be done before humans can have a longer life

D. we have already solved the technical problems in building new cells

What will city life be like in the future? Some people think that life in the cities is going to be horrible. They say that cities will become more and more crowded. As the number of people increases, there will be less space for each person. This overcrowding will cause other problems — more crime, dirtier streets , and worse problems with traffic than we have now. How will people find enough drinking water, energy (such as gas and electricity ), and housing? Because life will be hard, people who live in cities will worry more, and they may become sick. For these reasons, some say that nobody will want to live in city areas.

How can we deal with such problems as overcrowding, crime, and traffic? In some cities, thousands of people are already sleeping in the streets because there is little suitable housing — and because houses are too expensive. The crime rate isn’t going down. Instead, it is increasing so fast that many people are afraid to go out at night. Traffic is also getting worse. More and more often, traffic jams are so bad that cars don’t move at all for several streets. These problems have been getting worse, not better, so many people see no hope for the future of the city.

Los Angeles, California, for example, has no subway system and buses are slow. Instead, many commuters (乘、开车上班族) drive many miles from their homes to work. Many of these drivers spend several hours each day on busy freeways. New York, however, has a big transport system — buses, commuter trains, and subways. Because the public transportation is crowded and dirty, many people drive private cars, and the traffic jams are worse than that in Los Angeles. A taxi driver complains, “I was driving home, but in forty-five minutes I moved only two miles! Finally, I turned off the engine and just sat there. A lot of people left their cars where they were in the middle of the street and went into a bar for a few beers!”

On the other hand, some cities have clean, fast and pleasant public transportation systems. In Paris, France, and Toronto, Canada, for example, anyone can use buses or subways to move quickly from one part of the city to another.

1.What do some people think is the main problem of the future city like?

A．Poor housing.                          B．Overcrowding.

C．Environmental pollution.                  D．Traffic jams.

2.The best way to work out the traffic problem in Los Angels might be _________.

A．cutting down the number of private cars

B．providing more buses in the freeway

C．building a subway system

D．persuading people to live nearer to their workplaces

3.Which of the following sentences is NOT TRUE?

A．Thousands of people are already sleeping in the streets.

B．The crime rate isn’t going down.

C．The traffic jams are so bad that cars don’t move at all for several streets.

D．Many people have a positive attitude towards the future of the city.