There have been many great inventions or things that changed the way we live. The first great invention was the one that is still very important today——the wheel. This made it easier to carry heavy things and to travel long distance.
For hundreds of years after that there were few inventions that as much effect as the wheel . Then in the early 1800s the world started to change. There was little unknown land left in the world. People didn’t have to explore much any more. They began to work instead to make life better.
In the second half of the 19^th century many great inventions were made. Among them were the camera, the light and the radio. These all play a big part in our daily life today.
The first part of the 20^th century saw more great inventions. The helicopter in 1909, movies with sound in 1926, the computer in 1928, jet planes in 1930. This was also a time when a new material was first made. Nylon came out in 1935. It changed the kind of clothes people wore.
The middle part of the 20^th century brought new ways to help people get over diseases. They worked very well. They made people healthier and allowed them to live longer. By the 1960s most people could expect to live to be at least 60.
By this time most people in developed countries had a very good life. Of course new inventions continued to be made. But man now had a desire(渴望) to explore again. The earth was known to man but the stars were not. Man began looking for ways to go into space. Russia made the first step. Then United States took a step. Since then other countries , including China and Japan, have made their own steps into space.
In 1969 man took his biggest step away from earth. Americans first walked on the moon. This is certainly just a beginning, though. New inventions will some day allow us to do things we have never yet dreamed of.
【小题1】 This passage talks mainly about         .

Train-spotting

Many people around the world have seen Danny Boyle’s movie Train spotting starring Ewan McGregor, but how many of us really know what train-spotting is all about? Now this is not considered cool in town and the word “train-spotter” in Britain is related to “geek” or “nerd” (someone who seems very ridiculous). But is this reputation really deserved?

First of all, let’s see what train-spotting is. It is said that there are some 100,000 train spotters in the UK. Exactly as the title suggests, they spot trains, that is, they stand in train stations, look at the number of each train that leaves and arrives and write it down. The eventual aim is to have seen every train in the country.

    Being crazy about railways and trains is not modern and it dates back to 1804. As the number of trains grew and they got faster and faster, so did the interest in them grow? Is this any stranger than people who love cars?

    So, what do you need to be a train-spotter? Well, all you really need is a pen or pencil and a notebook to write down the train numbers. Other equipment(装备) includes hot tea in a thermos, a camera and some sandwiches for those long afternoons spent on train platforms when you don’t want to risk the delights of railway station food.

    It’s interesting to note that despite the “bad name” of train-spotting, there have been famous railway lovers in history, such as Alfred Hitchcock, who filmed them regularly, especially The 39 Steps. There is evidence, too, that being a train-spotter is not necessarily a strange phenomenon（现象）in Britain.

    One glance at the US train stations should be enough to convince you that train-spotters there are alive and well. In America, they try to call rail lovers “train-fans” and talk of “train-fanning”. Don’t let this fool you—these people are train spotters and there are a lot of them. Each month, two million pages are visited on the website TrainWeb.org.                      

340words

1.What is train-spotting according to the passage?

A. A kind of hobby.             B. A type of sport.

C. A strange phenomenon.        D. A special job.

2.Which of the following about train-spotters is true according to the passage?

A. They number each train they see.

B. They keep a careful path of every train.

C. They count the trains passing in front of them.

D. They produce films about trains with video cameras.

3.The writer writes the passage to        .

A. introduce some famous train-spotters

B. encourage readers to do more train-spotting

C. try to present a true picture of train-spotting

D. describe the necessary equipment in train-spotting

4. What do we learn from the passage?

A. Train-spotters in the UK want to fool people.

B. Train-spotting is more acceptable in America.

C. Train-spotters are much stranger than car lovers.

D. Train-spotting relates to（与…有关）a dangerous lifestyle.

B
If you want to find out a piece of information about anything , the best place to search for it is Wikepedia. This online encyclopedia is written by thousands of people around the world. Anyone can add or change the information if he or she finds it not correct or not well written. In this way, people who know a lot about a certain subject can write about it even if they are not university professors.
What is more, Wikepedia includes articles written in about 235 languages. This fact makes it one of the few websites (网站)on the Internet that are truly international. It was started in 2001 by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales, as a free online English-language encyclopedia project. By April 2008, over 10 million articles had been put on Wikipedia. A quarter of the articles are in English. Wikipedia is also a place where people can find the latest news.
However, Wikipedia has its own problems. There have been many complaints that some of the information on Wikipedia is not accurate and some important subjects are not included. This has led to arguments between the writers of articles. The people running Wikipedia say that the accuracy of the information is improving and that it is one of the top 20 visited websites on the Internet.
So, if you are looking for some information, why not try Wikipedia?
【小题1】Wikipedia is ___________.

翻译句子 （共5小题；每小题2分，共10分）

1.家乡这些年变化很大以至于我简直不能相信自己的眼睛。

There have been                      _________ I can’t believe my ears.

2.湿地给多种鸟类提供食物和栖息地。

Wetlands ______________________________ many kinds of birds.

3.Jimmy为能给他的父母亲买得起一所大房子而自豪。

Jimmy is so proud that _____________________________________ a big house for his parents.

4.她们真有耐心，足足等了1个小时。

They were                                   an hour.

5.你介意教我如何在网上搜索世界公园的信息吗？

Would you mind ____________________________________ some information about the World Park on the Internet？

There have been many great inventions or things that changed the way we live. The first great invention was the one that is still very important today——the wheel. This made it easier to carry heavy things and to travel long distance.

For hundreds of years after that there were few inventions that as much effect as the wheel . Then in the early 1800s the world started to change. There was little unknown land left in the world. People didn’t have to explore much any more. They began to work instead to make life better.

In the second half of the 19^th century many great inventions were made. Among them were the camera, the light and the radio. These all play a big part in our daily life today.

The first part of the 20^th century saw more great inventions. The helicopter in 1909, movies with sound in 1926, the computer in 1928, jet planes in 1930. This was also a time when a new material was first made. Nylon came out in 1935. It changed the kind of clothes people wore.

The middle part of the 20^th century brought new ways to help people get over diseases. They worked very well. They made people healthier and allowed them to live longer. By the 1960s most people could expect to live to be at least 60.

By this time most people in developed countries had a very good life. Of course new inventions continued to be made. But man now had a desire(渴望) to explore again. The earth was known to man but the stars were not. Man began looking for ways to go into space. Russia made the first step. Then United States took a step. Since then other countries , including China and Japan, have made their own steps into space.

In 1969 man took his biggest step away from earth. Americans first walked on the moon. This is certainly just a beginning, though. New inventions will some day allow us to do things we have never yet dreamed of.

1. This passage talks mainly about         .

   A. why cars were very important

   B. when light was invented

   C. how inventions affect people’s daily life

   D. which country made the first step into space

2.According to the passage man didn’t have a desire to explore a lot         .

   A. at the beginning of 1800s             B. in the 1960s 

   C. since the 1900s                     D. from the 1800s to 1960s

3.In the 1800s, people began to work in order to make      

   A. explorations    B. their life better     C. discoveries      D. a trip to space

4. Nylon came out of five years later than        .

   A. radio          B. camera           C. jet planes          D. movies

5.People can live longer lives because        that help cure diseases have worked very well.

   A. doctors        B. new ways         C. medicines       D. new hospitals