A new study in West Africa shows how farm irrigation systems powered by the sun can
produce more food and money for villagers.The study in Benin found that solarpowered pumps
are effective in supplying water,especially during the long dry season.
     SubSaharan Africa is the part of the world with the least food security.The United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that more than one billion of the world's people
faced hunger last year.Around 265 million of them live south of the Sahara Desert.Lack of
rainfall is one of their main causes of food shortages.
     Jennifer Burney from Stanford University in California led the study.The research team
helped build three solarpowered drip irrigation (滴灌) systems in northern Benin.Between
30 and 35 women used each system to pump water from the ground or a stream.Each
woman was responsible for farming her own 120 square meters of land.They also farmed
other land collectively.
     The solarpowered irrigation systems produced an average of nearly two tons of vegetables
per month.During the first year,the women kept a monthly average of almost nine kilograms
of vegetables for home use.They sold the surplus produce at local markets.The earnings
greatly increased their ability to buy food during the dry season which can last six to nine
months.People in the two villages with the systems were able to eat three to five more
servings of vegetables per day.But making the surplus available at markets also had a wider
effect.
     The study compared the villages with two others where women farmed with traditional
methods like carrying water in buckets.The amount of vegetables eaten in those villages also
increased,though not as much.The researchers note that only four percent of the cropland in
SubSaharan Africa is irrigated.Using solar power to pump water has higher costs at first.But
the study says it can be more economical in the long term than using fuels like gasoline,diesel
or kerosene.And solar power is environmentally friendly.

1．Food security in SubSaharan Africa is insufficient mainly because of________.

A．lack of rainfall
B．limitation of farmland
C．a small crop variety
D．little sunlight

2．From the third paragraph we know that________.

A．water is wasted by using the system
B．the farmers irrigate the land together
C．all farmers use irrigation systems in northern Benin
D．the solarpowered systems take up more manpower

3．The underlined word "surplus" in the 4th paragraph most probably means________.

A．special
B．unnecessary
C．extra
D．abandoned

4．Using solar power to pump water has advantages EXCEPT that________.

A．solar energy has higher cost at first
B．solar power helps to protect environment
C．solar power helps farmers increase earnings
D．solar energy can be more economical in the long run

5．What can be the best title for the text?

A．Manpower affects rainfall in Africa
B．Irrigation by carrying water in buckets
C．Solarpowered pumps aid African farmers
D．Vegetable supply increased in African villages

     The year was 1985.Ronald Reagan was president.Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the USSR.
Back to the Future was boffo at the box office."Born in the USA" was climbing the charts.Philanthropy
(慈善业) and pop culture combined with LiveAid and "We Are the World. " And " .com ", which few 
people outside of the military or universities knew,came into this world.
     Looking back,few could have predicted ".com" would become one of the biggest cultural touchstones
of the century.In March 1985,the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California
assigned the first.com domain address to symbolics.com.That seemingly nominal (象征性的) event set into
motion forces that would change our world forever.
    .com wasn't the birth of the Internet,but it was the budding computer network's comingout party.It made
it pretty and inviting.It did away with the need to have complex "maps" that were the equivalent of writing a
phone number on your hand,and opened it up for a mainstream audience.
    After 1985,all it takes is a simple.com name to get into business.".com" became part of our daily lexicon
and  drove its own economic boom and depression. It helped create a whole new family of  industries,
facilitated  global commerce and connected people around the world in ways never before possible.
     It's now 2010.Barack Obama is president,thanks in part to his smart use of the Internet.There is no
USSR.A computergenerated Avatar has set new box office records."TiK ToK" tops the charts.We're
sending robots to find water on Mars.And that onceobscure computer communications system is one of
our civilization's most prominent features.

1．This passage was written to mark________.

A．the change of American presidency
B．the development of entertainment
C．the 25th anniversary of.com
D．the anniversary of the internet

2．What does the underlined word "boffo" probably mean?

A．Successful.  
B．Changeable.  
C．Tough.  
D．Novel.

3．Which of the following can be the main contribution of ".com"?

A．It gave birth to the Internet.
B．It combined politics,entertainment and space science.
C．It made the Internet accessible to ordinary people.
D．It helped produce more domain addresses.

4．We can infer that before 1985,getting on line was________.

A．impossible  
B．complex  
C．expensive  
D．popular

5．The first and last paragraphs were intended to________.

A．make comparison  
B．provide details
C．list arguments  
D．stimulate readers' interest

     The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the
Northeastern United States.The term is most commonly used to refer to those eight schools considered as
a group.The term is also connected with academic excellence,selectivity in admissions,and social elitism
(精英主义)．
     The term became official,especially in sports terminology,after the formation of the NCAA Division I
athletic conference in 1954,when much of the nation polarized around favorite college teams."IV" was used
because originally the league consisted only of four members.The use of the phrase is no longer limited to a
thletics,and now represents an educational philosophy inherent to the nation's oldest schools.In addition,Ivy
League schools are often viewed by the public as some of the most prestigious universities worldwide and
are often ranked amongst the best universities in the United States and worldwide.The eight institutions are
Brown University,Columbia University,Cornell University,Dartmouth College,Harvard University,Princeton
University,the University of Pennsylvania,and Yale University.
     All of the Ivy League's institutions place near the top in the US News & World Report college and
university rankings and rank within the top one percent of the world's academic institutions in terms of
financial endowment (捐助)．Seven of the eight schools were founded during America's colonial period；
the exception is Cornell,which was founded in 1865.Ivy League institutions,therefore,account for seven of
the nine Colonial Colleges chartered before the American Revolution.The Ivies are all in the Northeast
geographic region of the United States.All eight schools receive millions of dollars in research grants and
other subsidies from federal and state government.
      Undergraduate enrollments among the Ivy League schools range from about 4,000 to 14,000,making
them  larger than those of  a typical private liberal arts college and smaller than a  typical public state
university.Ivy League university financial endowments range from Brown's $2.01 billion to Harvard's $26
billion,the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world.

1．From the passage,we know the word "Ivy" in "the Ivy League" was first chosen to refer to________.

A．a plant  
B．a number  
C．a sport  
D．a spirit

2．What is special about Cornell University in the League?

A．It is the oldest one.
B．It was founded by colonists.
C．It has the smallest endowment.
D．It is the youngest one.

3．Which meaning can the term "the Ivy League" convey today?

A．The largest enrollment.
B．The strongest government support.
C．The most expensive schools.
D．Firstclass education.

4．Which of the following statements is true?

A．There is no longer sports competition in the Ivy League.
B．Seven colleges were set up before the USA was founded.
C．Brown University has the smallest number of students.
D．Typical public state universities are larger than the Ivies.

5．Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

A．The ABC of "The Ivy League"
B．Best Universities in the USA
C．The Financial Income of American Universities
D．How to Apply to an Ivy League University

      Albert Einstein (1879 ~ 1955) was one of the greatest and most original scientific thinkers of all time.
      Born of Jewish parents at Ulm in Germany, he completed his education in Switzerland and got his Ph.D at the University of Zurich. He went to live in the United States in 1933 because of the rise of Nazism(纳粹) in Germany and Hitler's persecution(迫害) of the Jews.
       In 1905, while still at Zurich, he published his Special Theory of Relativity,which was based on things everyone may have noticed. If two trains are standing alongside each other and one train starts to move,a
person sitting in the train may wonder whether his own train is moving or the other is moving, and before
he finds out what is happening,he can see that one train is moving relatively to the other. From this and
also from other more complicated facts, Einstein came to the conclusion that all motion is relative and that
there are really no such things as absolute(绝对) motion. Some of the other conclusions he drew are that
nothing can go faster than light,and that if something such as a ruler was moving faster and faster it would
seem to get shorter and shorter as its speed was near the speed of light. By 1915,Einstein had made
known his General Theory of Relativity. He also improved on Newton's theory of gravity. Most of his
theories have been tested and found to be true though some may sound strange. For his  important work
he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics.

1. In 1933,Einstein went to live in the United States  because     ___.

A. he loved the USA more than his own country
B. he had got some friends there with whom he  could work together
C. he wanted to live quietly in the USA
D. he could no longer work in Germany when Hitler came into power

2. Einstein published  his Special Theory of Relativity  when he was           .

A. in the United States
B. in Ulm,Cermany after he got his Ph.D
C. still in Switzerland at the age of twenty-six
D. still at the University of Zurich at the age of thirty-six.

3. One of the conclusions drawn by Einstein is that       .

A. places go faster than trains and buses
B. people couldn't run as fast as vehicles
C. light goes the fastest of all the things
D. two trains can go in different directions

4. Einstein added that if something such as a ruler was moving it would seem to get shorter and
    shorter        .

A. because the ruler itself was short
B. when it was moving faster and faster
C. because we can't see it clearly
D. because the ruler was broken into pieces

5. Einstein was world-famous for his ___   .

A. Special Theory of Relativity
B. Ceneral Theory of Relativity
C. improving on Newton's theory of gravity
D. all of the above

     In Britain all children have to go to school between the ages of 5 and 16.  In the US children must go
to school from the age of 6 to the ages between 14 and 16, depending on the state they live in.  
     Subjects
     In England and Wales the subjects taught in schools are laid down by the NATIONAL
CURRICULUM, which was introduced in 1988 and sets out in detail the subjects that children should
study and the levels of achievement they should reach by the ages  of 7,11,14,and 16, when they are
tested.
     The National Curriculum does not apply in Scotland, where each school decides what subjects it  
will teach.
     In the US the subjects taught are decided hy national and local governments. 
     Whereas British schools usually have prayers and religious instructions, American schools are not
allowed to include prayers or to teach particular religious beliefs.
     Examinations
     At 16, students in England and Wales take GCSE examinations.  These examinations are taken by
students of all levels of ability in any of a range of subjects, and may involve a final examination, an
ASSESSMENT of work done during the two-year course, or both of these things.  At 18 some students
take A-LEVEL examinations, usually in not more than 3 subjects.  It is necessary to have A-Ievels in
order to go to a university of POLY-TECHNIC.
     In Scotland students take the SCE examinations.  A year later, they can take examinations called
HIGHERS, after. which they can either go straight to a uruversity or spend a further year at school and
take theCertificate of Sixth Year Studies.  In Scotland the  university system is different from that in
England and Wales.  Courses usually last four years rather than  three, and students study a large number
of subjects as  part of their degree.
 
1.  According to the passage, children have to go to school between the ages of        in both Britain and
     the US.

A. 5-14  
B. 6-14  
C. 5-15  
D. 6-17
2. In  which parts of the world are the subjects taught only decided by the nation?

A.  England and Wales. 
B.  England and Scotland. 
C.  US and Britain. 
D.  Wales and Scotland.

3.  As for the A-LEVEL examination, it involves       . 

A. final examination
B.  assessment of work
C.  not more than 3 subjects
D.  Both B and C

4.  Which of the following is TRUE?

A. In the US, only local government can decide the subjects. 
B.  In Scotland,  students can take either the SCE examinations or the Certificate of Sixth
      Year  Studies.
C. In England, Wales and Scotland, students need to study religion.
D.  As for a 16-year-old student in England and Wales, he has to take both GCSE examinations
     and final examination.

     Millions of people around the world cook their food over a smoky fire every day.It is often difficult to
find wood for the fire.People who do not have wood must spend large amounts of money on cooking fuel.
However,there is a much easier way to cook food using energy from the sun.
     Solar cookers,or ovens,have been used for centuries.A Swiss scientist made the first solar oven in
1767.Today,people are using solar cookers in many countries around the world.People use solar ovens to
cook food and to heat drinking water to kill bacteria and other harmful organisms.
     There are three kinds of solar ovens.The first is a box cooker.It is designed with a special wall that
shines or reflects sunlight into the box.Heat gets trapped under a piece of glass or plastic covering the top
of the cooker.A box oven is effective for slow cooking of large amounts of food.
     The second kind of solar oven is a panel cooker.It includes several flat walls,or panels,that directly
reflect the sun's light onto the food.The food is inside a separate container of plastic or glass that traps heat
energy.People can build panel cookers with very few supplies quickly.They do not cost much.In Kenya,for
example,panel cookers are being manufactured for just two dollars.
     The third kind of solar oven is a parabolic(抛物线的) cooker.It has rounded walls that aim sunlight
directly into the bottom of the oven.Food cooks quickly in parabolic ovens.However,these cookers are
hard to make.They must be reaimed often to follow the sun.Parabolic cookers can also cause burns and
eye injuries if they are not used correctly.
     You can make solar ovens from boxes or heavy paper.They will not catch fire.Paper burns at two
hundred thirtytwo degrees Celsius.A solar cooker never gets that hot.Solar ovens cook food at low
emperatures over long periods of time.This permits people to leave food to cook while they do other
things.

1．Which of the following should be the best title for this text?

A. Cooking food with solar energy
B. How to make solar cookers
C. Introduce a new kind of energy
D. Different kinds of cookers

2．From this passage we know that ________.

A. there is no wood for people to use while making a fire now
B. people have been using solar cookers for more than 200 years
C. solar energy is the cleanest energy on the earth
D. more and more people cook food on smoky fires

3．Parabolic cookers may be dangerous to us because ________.

A. they may direct electricity to us humans
B. they may explode easily
C. they may cause burns and eye injuries
D. they may cause fires

4．The third,fourth and fifth paragraphs mainly ________.

A. show how to make solar cookers
B. explain which is the best cooker
C. prove that solar cookers need improving
D. tell us the different making ups of the three kinds of solar cookers

     We often think of future. We often wonder what the world will be like in a hundred years' time.
      Think of space,  perhaps a permanent (永久的) station on the moon will have been set up. Perhaps
people will be able to visit the moon as tourists. Cheap rockets for space travel will have been developed, permitting long journeys throughout the solar system(太阳系). When that time comes, people will be
taking holidays in space and visiting other planets. Creat progress will have been made in medicine, too.
Perhaps a cure will have been discovered for the most terrible of all diseases-cancer. Pollution is a
problem we must solve. In a hundred years' time it will have been controlled.
     All the world will have been developed-even Antarctica. There will be large cities in Antarctica. We
already have supersonic (超音速的)  flight,  but in a hundred years' time we will have supersonic land
travel as well.
     We will have used up most of the earth's land tobuild our cities, so floating cities will have been built.
The Japanese already have plans for cities of this kind.And there will be cities under the sea. The first of
these will have been completed.       .

1. We will have developed _    in a hundred years' time, permitting long journeys all over the solar
    system.   

A. cheap rockets for space travel
B. a plane
C. a spaceship
D. a satellite

2. Man will also have supersonic land travel         .  

A. in a year
B. about half a century later
C.in the year 2050
D. about a century later

3. The last paragraph mainly talks about _         .   

A. we'll make good use of space on the earth
B. cities under the sea
C. Japan will first build floating cities
D. earth's land is in danger

     MIT researchers and their colleagues are working tofind out whether energy from trees
can power a network ofsensors(传感器)to prevent spreading forest fires.
     What they learn could also raise the possibility of usingtrees as silent guards along the
nation's borders to discoverpotential threatssuchassmuggled (走私的 ) radioactivematerials.
     The U. S. Forest Service currently predicts and tracksfires with a variety of tools,
including remotc automatcdweather stations. But these stations arc expcnsive andsparsely
(稀疏地) distributed. Additionalsensors could savetrees by providing better local climate
data to be used in fireprediction models and earlier warnings. However,rechargingor
replacing batteries by hand at very hard-to-reach locationsmakes it impractical and costly.
     The new sensor system seeks to avoid this problem bydeveloping trees into a
self-sustaining power supply. Eachsensor is equipped with a battery that can be slowly
recharged using electricity produced by the tree. "A singletree doesn't generate a lot of
power, but over time thetrickle (细流 ) chargeaddsup, justlike '-', saidShuguang Zhang,
one of the researchers on the project andthe associate director of the MIT' s Center for
Biomedica}Engineering( CBE). "
      The system produces enough electricity to allow the temperature and humidity sensors
to wirelessly send outsignals four times a day,or immediately if there's a fire.Each signal
spreads from one sensor to another, until itreaches an existing weather station that sends
the data bysatellite to a forestry command center in Boise,Idaho. Scientists have long
known that trees can produceextremely small amounts of electricity. But no one knew
exactly how the energy was produced or how to takeadvantage of the power.

1. What are the disadvantages of the remote automatedweather stations?
a. They cost too much.
b. They are of poor quality.
c. They are not enough.
d. They can't reach remote places.

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

2. Which of the following is the best sentence to fill in theblank?

A. Far water does not put out near fire.
B. All rivers run into sea.
C. Many a little makes a miracle.
D. It never rains but it pours.

3. What would be the best title for the passage?

A. Preventing forest fires with tree power
B. Trees can produce electricity
C. Tree power in daily life
D. Developing new energy

     There is no denying that students should learn something about how computers work, just
as we expect them at least to understand that the internal-combustion engine (内燃机) has
something to do with burning fuel, expanding gases and pistons (活塞) being driven. For
people should have some basic idea of how the things that they use do what they do. Further,
students might be helped by a course that considers the computer's impact on society. But
that is not what is meant by computer literacy. For computer literacy is not a form of literacy
(读写能力); it is a trade skill that should not be taught as a liberal art.
      Learning how to use a computer and learning how to program one are two distinct
activities. A case might be made that the competent citizens of tomorrow should free
 themselves from their fear of computers. But this is quite different from saying that all ought
to know how to program one. Leave that to people who have chosen programming as a
career. While programming can be lots of fun, and while our society needs some people
who are experts at it, the same is true of auto repair and violin-making.
Learning how to use a computer is not that difficu1t, and it gets easier all the time as
programs become more "user-friendly". Let us assume that in the future everyone is
going to have to know how to use a computer to be a competent citizen. What does the
phrase "learning to use a computer" mean? It sounds like "learning to drive a car", that is,
it sounds as if there is some set of definite skills that, once acquired, enable one to use a
computer.
     In fact, "learning to use a computer" is much more like "learning to play a game", but
learning the rules of one game may not he1p you play a second game, whose rules may
not be the same. There is no such a thing as teaching someone how to use a computer.
One can only teach people to use this or that program and generally that is easily accomplished.

1. To be the competent citizens of tomorrow, people should.

A. try to lay a solid foundation in computer science
B. be aware of how the things that they use do what they do
C. learn to use a computer by acquiring a certain set of skills
D. understand that programming a computer is more essential than repairing a car.

2. In the second paragraph "violin-making" is mentioned to show that .

A. programming a computer is as interesting as making a violin
B. our society needs experts in different fields
C. violin-making requires as much skill as computer programming
D. people who can use a computer don't necessarily have to know computer programming

3. Learning to use a computer is getting easier all the time because .

A. programs are becoming 1ess complicated
B. programs are designed to be convenient to users
C. programming is becoming easier and easier
D. programs are becoming readily available to computer users

4. According to the author, the phrase "learning to use a computer" in Para. 3means learning.

A. a set of rules
B. the fundamentals of computer science
C. specific programs
D. general principles of programming

5. The author's purpose in writing this passage is .

A. to stress the impact of the computer on society
B. to explain the concept of computer literacy
C. to illustrate the requirements for being competent citizens of tomorrow
D. to emphasize that computer programming is an interesting and challenging job.