56．What made Jean take part in sports?

　　　 A．She was brave.　

B．She was competitive.　

C．She was strong.

D．She was disabled.

20．What does the underlined phrase “the 31 Buick GL8 SUV cars” in the reading passage refer to?

　　　 A．The cars of the 31 Buick GL8 SUV model.　

B．The 31 cars of the GL8 or SUV model of Buick.

　　　 C．The 31 cars of the Buick or GL8 SUV model.

19．The underlined sentence “Buick…has greater capabilities…” in Paragraph 4 may mean that Buick is 　　　　　　.　　

　A．able to run faster　 B．able to seat more passengers

C．more powerful　　　　　　 D．more valuable

18．If you want to rent a Santana for as long as most leasers do, how much should you expect to spend?　　　　

A．About 1200 yuan.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B．About 2100 yuan.

C．About 2500 yuan.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D．About 3500 yuan.

17．The cars mentioned in the passage fall into three major brands(品牌), which are　 　　　　　.

　　　 A．Yongda, Anji and Dazhong　　　　　　　 B．Buick, Santana and Jetta

　　　 C．Yongda, Santana and Jetta　　　　　　　 D．SUV, GL and GS

16．If this passage comes from a newspaper, in which page may it be?

　　　 A．Culture.　　　　　　　 B．Education.　　　　 C．Science.　　　　　　 D．Society.

E

More Shanghai people are renting cars to travel over the coming Spring Festival, eastday. com reported today.

Most cars in large local car-rental companies such as Yongda, Anji and Dazhong are leased(=rented) so far with the Buick Sport Utility Vehicle(SUV) in high demand.

Santana and Jetta used to be the most popular car models rented by Shanghai people for travel, while the high-end Buick models have generated(=caused)great interest among locals renting cars this year. However, the rent on a Buick GL or GS model is between 650 yuan and 750 yuan a day, nearly double those of the Santana and Jetta cars.

Compared with Santana, Buick looks better, has greater capabilities and is safer and more comfortable, said a car leaser. “I’ don’t mind paying a higher cost for a Buick to enjoy the traditional holiday,” he said.

SUV cars are very popular in the car renting market, according to some car-rental firms.

“All the 31 Buick GL8 SUV cars　 were leased out several days ago,” said an employee with the Shanghai Yongda Car Rental Company.

Local people prefer to go traveling with a group of friends, so SUV cars are a better choice, said an industry analyst(分析家). Moreover, SUV cars are safer on rugged and rough roads, the analyst said.

According to the data(数据), most people rented cars of seven days, a lesser number rented them for two or three days.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 (Wendy Zhang)

15．When scientists found that sheep show similar abilities in many ways to humans they may think it　 　　　　.　

　A．worrying　　　　　　　　　 B．moving C．frightening　　　　　　　　　　　 D．interesting

14．As is shown in the passage, 　　　　　　.

　　　 A．sheep are among the weak animals　　　　 B．it is not right for people to raise sheep in groups

　　　 C．when sheep eat grass in the fields, their minds may be active

　　　 D．if people feel frightened, sheep may become more brave

13．From what Kendrick said in the interview we learn that scientists 　　　　　　.

　　　 A．have learned a lot about sheep’s intelligence　　 B．have learned little about sheep’s intelligence

　　　 C．can’t do anything more about sheep’s memory　 D．don’t have to research animals’ memory

12．What does the story mainly talk about?

　　　 A．Advantages and disadvantages of Esperanto.

　　　 B．Men’s dream of sharing the same language.

　　　 C．The most successful planned language-Esperanto.

　　　 D．Comparison of Esperanto and other languages like English and Chinese.

D

London-Sheep, like turkeys and ostriches, are not considered the most clever animals. British scientists said last Wednesday humans may have understimated(低估)the wooly creatures. They could be much smarter than we think.

Researchers at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, southern England, have shown that the animals have a good memory system and are extremely good at recognizing faces-which they think is a sure sign of intelligence(cleverness).

Behavioral(行为的)scientist Keith Kendrick and his friends trained 20 sheep to recognize and distinguish(区别) 25 pairs of sheep faces and used electrodes(电极)to measure their brain activity, which showed they could remember 50 faces for up to two years.

“If they can do that with faces, the fact is that they have to have reasonable intelligence; otherwise, what is the point of having a system for remembering faces and not remembering anything else,” Kendrick said in an interview.

So hours of seemingly mindless eating grass may not be so mindless after all.

Kendrick believes sheep got their reputation(名声)as dumb(unable to speak) animals because they live in large groups and do not appear to tend about everything.

“All animals including humans, once they are frightened, don’t tend to show signs of intelligent action,” he explained.

In research reported in the science journal Nature, Kendrick and his team showed that sheep, like humans, have a specialized system in the brain which allows them to distinguish between many different faces which look extremely similar.

“The most important finding(of the study) is that they are able, both from a behavioral point of view and from looking at the way the brain is organized, to remember a large number of faces of individual(个体) for a very long time.” Said Kendrick. “It is a very strange system. They are showing similar abilities in many ways to humans.”