78. 为庆祝新经理上任,今晚我们将举办晚会.(in honour of)

77. 他们一直在玩电脑游戏,已达4个小时了.(have been doing)

76. 直到这学期,她才认识到学习的重要性.(not until)

E

Every year more and more plants and animals disappear never to be seen again. Strangely, it is the most intelligent but most thoughtless animal that is causing most of the problems-man. Nature is very carefully balanced and if this balance is disturbed, animals can disappear very fast. Every day, thousands of species of animals draw closer to extinction. There are countless number of species which may become extinct before they are even discovered.

In many lakes the fish are dying. Fishermen are worried because every year there are fewer fish and some lakes have no fish at all. Scientists are beginning to get worried too. What is killing the fish?

The problem is acid rain. Acid rain is a kind of air pollution. It is caused by factories that burn coal or oil or gas. These factories send smoke high into the air. The wind often carries the smoke far from the factories. Some of the harmful substances in the smoke may come down with the rain hundreds of miles away.

The rain in many places isn't natural and clean any more. It's full of acid chemicals. When it falls in lakes, it changes them too. The lakes become more acidic. Acid water is like vinegar or lemon juice. It hurts when it gets in your eyes. It also kills the plants and animals that usually live in lake water. That is why the fish are dying in lakes.

But dead fish may be just the beginning of the problem. Scientists are finding other effects of acid rain. In some large areas trees are dying. Not just one tree here and there, but whole forests. At first scientists couldn't understand why. There were no bugs or diseases in these trees. The weather was not dry. But now they think that the rain was the cause. Acid rain is making the earth more acidic in these areas. Some kinds of trees cannot live in the soil that is very acidic.

Now scientists are also beginning to study the effects of acid rain on larger animals. For example, they believe that some deer in Poland are less healthy because of acid rain. If deer are hurt by the rain, what about people? This is the question many people are beginning to ask. No one knows the answer yet. But it is an important question for us all.

44. Every year thousands of species of animals ______________.

45. Acid rain is caused by ______________.

46. If me don't make an attempt to stop acid rain, we ____________.

47. Coal, oil or gas form dangerous combinations after _____________.

48. How far can factory smoke travel?

49. Scientists think acid rain ______________.

50. The word "bug" in this context means　 ______________.

D

For five years from December 1903 to September 1908, two young bicycle mechanics from the state of Ohio in America repeatedly claimed that they had built a heavier-than-air machine which they had flown successfully. Despite demonstrations and photographs of themselves flying, the claims of Wilbur and Orville Wright were laughed at and dismissed as a practical joke by the magazine Scientific American, the newspaper the New York Herald, the US Army and most American scientists.

Experts rejected the Wright brothers' claim without troubling to examine the evidence as they were so convinced, on purely scientific grounds, that flight in powered machines which were heavier than air was impossible. It was not until President Theodore Roosevelt ordered public trials at Fort Myers in 1908 that the Wrights were able to prove their claim conclusively and the Army and the scientific press were forced to accept that their flying machine was a reality.

It is perhaps not too surprising that a couple of young bicycle mechanics in a remote town on the prairies should be ignored by the intellectuals of the more sophisticated east coast of America at a time when the horse was still the principal means of transport. What is more surprising is that the local newspapers in their home town of Dayton, Ohio, should have ignored the Wrights. In 1904, a local banker, Torrence Huffman, allowed the brothers to use a large piece of farm land owned by him outside the town for their flying experiments. The land was bordered by two main roads and the local railway line so that, as the months went by, hundreds of people actually saw the Wrights flying.

Many of the amazed passengers wrote to the local newspapers to ask who were the young men who were regularly flying near the railway line and why had nothing appeared about them in the papers. Eventually the enquiries became so frequent that the papers complained that they were becoming a nuisance, but still their editors showed no interest in the story, sending neither a reporter nor a photographer. In 1940, Dan Kumler, the city editor of the Dayton Daily News at the time of the flights gave an interview about his refusal to publish anything thirty-five years earlier and spoke frankly about his reasons. Kumler recalled,"I guess we just didn't believe it. Of course, you must remember that the Wrights at that time kept things very secret."

The interviewer responded in amazement,"You mean they kept things secret by flying over an open field?" Kumler considered the question, grinned and said,"I guess the truth is we were just plain stupid."

37. What do we learn about the Wright brothers in the first paragraph?

38. How did Theodore Roosevelt become involved with the Wright brothers?

39. Why are horses mentioned in the third paragraph?

40. The writer surprisingly finds that ___________________________.

41. Torrence Huffman helped the Wright brothers by　___________________________.

42. Why did people write to the newspapers?

43. Why was the interviewer surprised by the first answer given by Dan Kumler?

C

The US, Canada, and Mexico announced a comprehensive plan for free trade across North America on August 12, 1992. It was portrayed as an opportunity for greater economic growth for all 3 nations. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was greeted enthusiastically by business groups generally, but US labor unions, long opposed to opening the southern border, contended that the accord would send jobs to Mexico, where labor costs were lower and environmental regulations more lax than in the US. The 3 countries attempted to satisfy some of the opposition to NAFTA by concluding side agreements, announced a year later. The agreement brings together 36 million consumers in a 6.6 trillion dollars market. It effectively creates the world's largest and richest trading bloc.

31. What was the date when the plan for free trade across North America was announced?

32. Which area does NAFTA address?

33. According to the report, what was the opposing argument to NAFTA?

34. ______________ opposed NAFTA.

35. What was the argument in favor of NAFTA?

36. The result of NAFTA is that ______________ .

A

Almost every family in America or England buys at least one copy of a newspaper each day. Some people buy as many as two or three different papers.

Why do people read newspapers?

Newspapers supply us with news about events in our home towns, in our country, and in other parts of the world. Today we can read about important things that took place in foreign countries on the same day they happened, even in countries far away. But hundreds of years ago news of things took months or even years to travel from one country to another. In those times, news was often passed from one person to another and never entirely true. Newspapers today supply us with more than just what happened in our country or in other countries. If we want to know what the weather will be like, we can read the weather reports. If we want to find out what films are being shown, or what plays or concerts we can go to, we can look in the newspapers.

21. This article tells us _______.

　 A. most people read newspapers

　 B. all people read newspapers

　 C. every person in America or England reads newspapers

　 D. all families read newspapers

22. Newspapers supply us with _______.

　 A. only home news

　 B. only world news

　 C. home news and world news

　 D. important things

23. Today we can read in our newspapers about important events _______.

　 A. that took place hundreds of years ago

　 B. that took place in faraway countries soon after they happened

　 C. that will take place in foreign countries

　 D. that will take place in the world

24. Things such as _______ can be found in newspapers.

　 A. weather reports and film or concert guides

　 B. requirements for a job or a house

　 C. information about a lost person

　 D. all of the above

25. Which is NOT true according to the passage?

　 A. The habit of reading newspapers is found among most people.

　 B. Newspapers can not only supply us with news from all over the world but also give us a lot of useful information.

　 C. Hundreds of years ago news was not wholly true because it was told in spoken words.

　 D. If you have no place to live in, you can put notice in a newspaper and then you will certainly get a room to live in.