Today Newtown is a very clean place. Many years ago, however, there were millions of rats (老鼠)
in Newtown. They attacked the cats and dogs. Sometimes a great number of them knocked down a man
or woman walking home at night. The rats were very large and they harmed many people.
       The Government (政府) ordered everybody to kill rats. Most people were very lazy, so they did not
kill them. Then the Government promised to pay some money for each dead rat. That made people very
happy. A Government officer put all the dead rats in a big pile. Sometimes a man brought hundreds in a
day.
       After two weeks there were not many rats in the city, but people still brought rats to the Government
officer. The Government officer thought that people were stealing dead rats from the pile. He ordered his
men to dig a deep hole and put the rats in it. Soon there were no more rats, and the Government did not
pay any more money.

1. The underlined phrase "A great number of" means             .

A. a great deal
B. a good many of
C. a great amount of
D. a good much of

2. According to (根据) the passage, which of the following is true?

3. Why were the people stealing the rats from the pile?

A. Because they thought the dead rats should be put in a deep hole.
B. Because they thought it was a good way to get more money from the Government.
C. Because they thought they were not lazy.
D. Because they thought they were all poor and were forced to do so.

4. Which of the following is the correct one?

A. The officer ordered his men to dig a deep hole and put the dead rats in it just only to save money for 
     the Government.
B. Soon the Government did not pay any more money, and there were no more rats.
C. The officer wanted to teach the lazy people a lesson, so he ordered his men to put the dead rats in
     deep hole.
D. The officer and his men put the dead rats in a deep hole in order to prevent the dead rats from being 
     stolen and get rid of all the rats in the city.

A. How Newtown became a very clean place
B. How the people in Newtown became rich
C. How to dill rats in a city
D. Newtown — a rat city

                                                      A 5R Rule for Environment
       1. Reduce(减少) 
       If you want to reduce waste, you should use things wisely. A large number of trees are being cut down to
make paper. If everyone uses a little paper carelessly and throw it out, soon we would not have any trees left.
Other things are also being wasted, and people don't know what to do with the waste in big cities. So it is
necessary to reduce the waste.
       2. Reuse 
       You should always think of reusing the usable things before throwing them out. Give your clothes you do
not use or the ones which are too small to the poor. In a family, you may pass on such clothes to younger
brothers or sisters.
        3. Recycle
        Bottles, cans and paper can easily be recycled. By doing so we save lots of time and money. For example,
coke cans are sent to a factory, where they are smashed (打碎) flat and melted (融化) and the metal things are
made for new coke cans.
         4. Recover
         When you buy a box of apples, there may be a few rotten apples, you have two choices: one is to throw
the whole apples away, or you could cut off the rotten parts and use the good parts. In this way, you are
recovering the eatable parts of food.
         5. Repair
         If one of the legs of your table is broken, you can repair it. If you want to change for better ones, it is
better for you to sell the old things or give them to other people who can use them after doing some repair. It is
true that North America is a "throw-away" society, but the time has come to change our way of life so that we
can protect our environment. Every one of us should try our best.

1. The "Reduce" rule mainly requires (要求) us ______.

A. to use things wisely
B. to cut down many trees
C. to use less paper
D. to throw away the old things.

2. The right order of recycling coke cans is ______.
    a. collect the used cans         b. melt them         c. smash them flat         d. send them to a factory

A. a b c d
B. a d c b
C. d b c a
D. c a b d

3. The "Recover" rule mainly requires us ______.

4. ______ is the best way to do with your broken tables.

A. Throwing them away
B. Repairing them
C. Putting them away
D. Selling them

5. According to the passage, ______ can not be reused.

A. clothes
B. shoes
C. rotten apples
D. bags

       Think of life in a desert: no food or water, only strong sun and heavy wind full of sand. You'd die of
thirst while waiting for a passing plane that never comes.
        But don't dismiss the thought as a nightmare (噩梦). Your hometown could become a desert if nothing
is done to prevent it.
        Deserts are eating land at high speed. In China, desertification (沙漠化) has affected 2,622,000 square
kilometres, equal to 14 Guangdong Provinces, mostly in the North. Deserts are advancing at a pace of 2,460
kilometres per year.
       According to the UN, one-third of the planet's land surface, with one billion people, has become desert.
Africa, Asia and Latin America have the driest land in danger of desertification.
        Recognizing the threat (威胁) to human beings, the United Nations has named 2006 the International
Year of Deserts and Desertification.
        It wants to increase public awareness (关注) of advancing deserts. Activities include a film festival in
Rome with films on life in unproductive (贫瘠的) lands. Meetings will discuss international cooperation, such
as planting trees and changing agricultural practices.
        Desertification takes place where rain is little and the climate hot. But human activities are the biggest
cause. Land turns into desert when the soil is over-farmed and too many animals eat up plants. To make
money, people also cut down trees that hold the soil. Desertification brings serious problems. From 1991 to
2000, droughts (干旱) killed over 280,000 people worldwide. When land becomes useless, there's a big loss
in food production.     
        Dust from deserts is blown into cities around the world. Each spring, Beijing is at risk of yellow dust
from the Gobi Desert. Dust from Africa reaches cities in the US and Europe, leading to illnesses and
worsening environments.

A. The bad influences of deserts.
B. How serious desertification is.
C. What makes land turn into desert.
D. The ways to change deserts into farms.

2. The purpose of writing the first paragraph is to _______.

A. serve as a picture of a large desert
B. show how important water is to humans
C. draw your attention to the problem of desertification
D. show how much is needed to be done to change deserts