Hainan is a very large island and it’s the second            island in China.

   A. large     B. larger        C. largest     D. most large

China has input several billion yuan of money to stop the dirty water waste on the upper and middle area of the Pearl River from polluting the lower reaches of the river, especially the Macao Spe­cial Administrative Region．

The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the upper and middle reaches of the Pearl River has been rapidly urbanized（城市化）and industrialized in recent years, leading to a rise in the amount of urban rubbish to the damage of the land, rivers and atmosphere．

Refuse dumps and special plants in most cities treat rubbish to make it harmless, with 5,800 tons of wastes being burnt, buried or made into fertilizers on a daily basis．

He Suping, a woman engineer with the water re­sources department in Guangxi said, it is imperative for the autonomous region to treat sewage wastes to protect the area’s Karst terrain（喀斯特地形）and rain water which brings contact between groundwater and surface water, making groundwater more easily polluted．

The Xijiang River, a branch of the Pearl River which runs from Guangxi to neighboring Guangdong Province, provides fresh water for a number of river­side cities such as Macao, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Zhaoqing, so Guangxi must begin to treat rubbish quickly to protect the water sources, said Liu Chen, a senior engineer with the Ministry of Water Resources．

The government 2001—2006 plan to spend bil­lions of yuan to turn wastes harmless has been mainly provided by national debt payments and overseas in­vestment．So far wastes treatment projects have re­ceived a total of 400 million yuan（48 million US dol­lars）from national debts and 60 million yuan（7．22 million US dollars）from overseas loans（贷款）．

1.The main idea of the passage is __     

         A．A large number of waterways have been polluted in China up to now．

         B．Guangxi and Guangdong have taken the lead in making water clean．

         C．China's rivers are badly in need of improve­ment．

         D．China is making efforts to reduce pollution of the rivers．

2.The main idea of the last paragraph is __

         A．The government has no ability to afford the expenses of treating wastes．

         B．The government has a long-term plan to treat wastes．

         C．National debt payments and overseas investment are taking an important part in developing China's economy．

         D．A great deal of money is needed in dealing with wastes．

3.The basic reason why the amount of urban rubbish rises in Guangxi lies in _____．

         A．the improvement of people’s living standard

         B．people’s wasting too much

         C．urbanization and industrialization

         D．too many tourists’ coming

4.The word “imperative” here probably means _______．

         A．unnecessary            B．important              C．easy           D．unbelievable

China news, Beijing, Feb. 9 – Housing price in China has always aroused heated discussions among property developers and ordinary Chinese. To many property developers and local government officials, housing price in China is still low compared with many developed countries. However, the average housing price in the United States is only 8,000 yuan per square meter, while in China, it is even higher than in the United States. This shows that there are some bubbles(泡沫) in Chinese real estate market, the International Finance News reported.

    Although the average price of residential houses in the United States, after converted to Renminbi, is about 8,000 yuan per square meter, the houses in US are not sold in terms of building area, as most Chinese property developers do when they sell their houses. If US property developers sell their houses according to the building area, then the housing price will be even lower than 8,000 yuan per square meter. In most big Chinese cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, houses are sold at a price even higher than those in the US.

    The high housing sales price in large cities in China proves that Chinese real estate market does have some bubbles. Moreover, Chinese houses can not be compared with houses in US in terms of building quality, environment and supporting facilities. Furthermore, it should be noted that American people’s average income is several dozen times higher than that of Chinese people. How can the Chinese afford to buy a house which is even more expensive than that sold in US?

     At the beginning of 2007, Chinese government issued a set of policies that aimed to benefit the public. Now in order to reduce the high housing prices, the government can regulate(控制) the real estate market by raising tax on property industry and controlling the release of loans and lands to property developers. At the same time, the government should allow people to build more houses through various fund-raising channels, such as funds collected from buyers or raised by working units. By applying these multiple means, it is expected that the high housing prices can be lowered.

1.What is the average housing price per square meter in China?

    A. 8000 yuan    B. 10000 yuan     C. 7000 yuan    D. It’s not mentioned here

2.Which of the following does NOT support the idea that the average housing price in China is even higher than in the United States?

    A. Chinese houses can not be compared with houses in US in terms of building quality, environment

and supporting facilities.

    B. American people’s average income is several dozen times higher than that of Chinese people.

    C. The houses in US are not sold in terms of building area, as most Chinese property developers do

when they sell their houses.

    D. There are more people who need houses in China.

3. What is the main idea of this passage?

    A. The housing price in China is so high that the government should do something useful to prevent it.

    B. There are some bubbles in Chinese real estate market

    C. The average housing price in China is even higher than in the United States

    D. Chinese government issued a set of policies that aimed to benefit the public.

4.How many measures are mentioned in the last paragraph in order to reduce the high housing prices?

    A. Four               B. Three              C. Five               D. Two

The magnitude 7.9 quake struck Sichuan province on May 12 at around noontime, which may have increased the human death toll because many people were at school, and the school buildings turned out to be not firm enough to collapse because of poor construction. More than 69,000 people have been confirmed dead so far, and more than 374,000 injured, with fears of further disasters because several lakes created by rockfall dams may give way and cause sudden flooding.

Clark Burchfiel, Schlumberger Professor of Geology, and Leigh Royden, professor of geology and geophysics in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT, have been doing extensive research in that region of China and the Tibetan plateau(高原) for more than two decades, but had found no signs that suggested such a large earthquake might strike the area.

The team operated 25 broadband seismograph (地震仪) stations in this region of western Sichuan for more than a year. "Nobody was thinking there would be a major earthquake in that area," Royden says. "This earthquake was quite unusual, and may have involved a simultaneously（同时发生的） severe break of two separate but neighboring faults," she continued.

The region is extremely unusual geologically, Royden says, because of the very steep slopes at the boundary between the Sichuan Basin to the east and the Tibetan plateau to the west. The altitude rises sharply by about 3,500 meters (more than two miles) over a span of only about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles).

The area where the quake occurred is part of the boundary between two of the Earth's structural plates, where the Indian and Asian plates meet in an ongoing collision that has created the Himalayan mountains and the Tibetan plateau. But in central and eastern Tibet, unlike most other areas of continental collision, much of the movement of crust（地壳） is hidden from view. Instead of thickening the entire crust by folding and faulting, the surface of the eastern Tibetan plateau is not deformed（变形的） and is being lifted upward by thickening of a weak crustal layer more than 15 km below the surface.

60. Why did the school buildings collapse in the earthquake, according to the passage?

A. They had too long a history.

B. They were poorly built.

C. They were crowded with students and teachers.

D. They were damaged by the earthquake.

61. Based on Para. 1, why does the writer think that more people will be killed or injured after 

the earthquake?

A. Because there will be more aftershocks after the major quake.

B. Because more school buildings will collapse after the quake.

C. Because destructive flooding caused by rockfall dams is likely to occur..

D. Because there was not enough medical care for the injured in the area.

62. What can we infer from this passage?

A. There was no prediction that such a large-scale quake might occur there.

B. Researchers had done little research in that area before the earthquake struck it.

C. The 5.12 earthquake was the most destructive in the world.

D. If more research had been done, the destruction could have been avoided.

63. Which one can be used as the best title for this passage?

A. The Great Disasters.

B. The Earthquake was very frightening.

C. The Causes of the earthquake.

D. An Extremely Unusual Earthquake.