10-year–old John ran barefoot out of the door on a windy, cold day in February and he   1   straight for the 125-foot electric tower behind their home. The tower carried 230,000 volts through its silver wires but John wasn′t    2   of the danger. He had suffered from a mental illness, a condition that separates him from reality,   3  him to live within his own   4   . That day his thoughts were set on climbing to the top of that tower, touching the sky and feeling what it was like to   5   .

       His seventeen-year-old brother, James, who had always been close by, watching him and making sure that no   6   came to him,   7  to realize that he was missing this time.

       John had already   8   the handrails（栏杆）and was making his   9   to the sky by the time James   10   him. James understood the    11   of the electrical tower but he chose to follow his younger brother up each gray rail, trying not to look   12   , all the way to the top. James finally   13   his brother and held him tightly with his right hand. With his left hand, he held on to a metal bar to help stabilize（固定）them   14   .

       The minutes lengthened into hours   15   they balanced on a three-inch rail. James sang songs to   16   his own beating heart and to draw his brother′s attention away from the rescue action taking place   17  .

       Hundreds of people gathered at the base of the tower and they looked like ants to James. Helicopters（直升飞机）began to circle overhead and emergency trucks rushed to the   18   . When secured with a safety line, the brothers and their rescuers were carefully lowered to the ground, the crowd below burst out  19   . They witnessed the   20  of a 17-year-old boy named James.

1．A．looked                  B．headed                C．cared                  D．sent

3．A．teaching                B．allowing              C．coaching             D．forcing

4．A．words                   B．opinions              C．thoughts              D．ideas

5．A．run                       B．fly                      C．rush                    D．walk

6．A．harm                    B．wound                C．fear                    D．damage

7．A．refused                 B．happened             C．pretended            D．failed

8．A．removed               B．cleared                C．overcome            D．occupied

9．A．way                      B．trip                     C．tour                    D．journey

10．A．caught                B．saved                  C．found                  D．recognized

11．A．usage                  B．danger                 C．effect                  D．height

12．A．left                     B．right                    C．up                      D．down

13．A．reached               B．touched               C．fetched               D．found

14．A．either                  B．both                    C．all                       D．each

15．A．before                 B．till                       C．where                 D．as

16．A．stop                    B．rest                     C．calm                   D．resist

17．A．below                 B．nearby                 C．ahead                  D．around

18．A．land                    B．space                  C．center                 D．scene

19．A．cries                   B．cheers                 C．laughter               D．shouts

20．A．carefulness          B．friendliness          C．braveness            D．unselfishness

“The brightest light in the darkest night”

       The movie Babel is hot on screen now. The title of the movie refers to the story in the Bible（圣经）where people tried to build a tower to reach Heaven. Angry God prevented them by confusing their languages so that they could no longer understand one another.

       The movie tells a number of intersecting（相交）stories about the world we live in and the problems we suffer due to our inability to communicate.

       The first story talks about a married couple Brad and Cate visiting Morocco. One day they′re traveling by bus through a rocky area when a gunshot wounds the wife. The husband flies into hysterics trying to save her life. However, since he′s in a foreign country, he suffers from his inability to communicate with the locals.

       Then, there′s the story of the shooters, Yussef and his brother, who are given a gun by their father to help guard the sheep. They are fooling around with the gun and fire a shot on a passing bus. At first, they refuse to tell anybody what happened for fear of the trouble but when the police come knocking, they are forced to come out with the truth with tragic results.

       The next story follows the children of Brad and Cate. They are living back in California under the care of the family nanny, Amelia. The shooting delays the return of their parents but Amelia was eager to attend her son′s wedding in Mexico. At last she is forced to bring the children over the border（边境）along with her nephew Santiago. When traveling back over the border later that evening, they are stopped and questioned by the border police. After a couple of miscommunications, they are asked for some identification（身份）at which point Santiago tries to escape and leave Amelia and the children in the middle of the desert.

       The final story deals with a Japanese family Chieko and her father Yasujiro, who sold the gun to the father of the two young boys. Chieko is a deaf mute（哑巴）who has a whole other set of communication problems. And because her inability to communicate makes her“different”, she isn′t afraid to give a little attitude to anyone who she thinks deserves it. How does her father fit into all of this?

1．Who shoots the tour bus on which Brad and Cate sit?

      A．Amelia.               B．Chieko.               C．Santiago.             D．Yussef.

2．Why does Santiago try to escape at the border?

       A．He didn′t have proper identification.

       B．He doesn′t expect the police are waiting,

       C．He thinks the children are a trouble for him

       D．He doesn′t love Amelia any more.

3．How do you understand the underlined sentence?

       A．She thinks everyone deserves his inability

       B．She is tough in some ways to the people around.

       C．She is shy to communicate with people around.

       D．She is not afraid to show her attitude to others.

4．What message does the movie mean to give people?

       A．It′s very dangerous for young people to play with guns.

       B．Communication is very important when traveling abroad.

       C．Different languages and cultures make the world life difficult.

       D．Language is the most important thing in our modern world

Open a large handkerchief out and show both sides of it to your friends. Point out that there is nothing in it; then show them both sides of your hands, which are also empty. Now ask a member of your audience to give you a match. Ask him to put a mark on it with a pen or a pencil. Fold up the handkerchief with the match in it, and let everyone present see you do this.

       Give the handkerchief to anyone in the audience and say：“Here′s the match. Can you feel it? Good! Now I want you to break it into two pieces.”When he or she has broken the match, you say “Would anyone like to feel the broken match in this handkerchief?”several people will probably want to feel it. When they have satisfied themselves that the match really is broken, you say,“Now I′m going to make the match whole again.”Perhaps your friends will say that  is impossible.

       Hold the handkerchief in one hand and pass your hand or your wand（magic stick）over it, saying：“Abracadabra, abracadabra.”Open the handkerchief and let the match fall on to the table or floor, saying“Presto”as it does so. When the audience examine the match, they will find that it is quite whole and undamaged. The member of the audience will see his mark on the match. Everyone will be amazed!

       The secret of this trick is quite simple, as in all magic tricks. Long before you do the trick you must do one thing-you must push one of your own matches into the hem（摺边）of the handkerchief. This must be pushed well along the hem so that it cannot fall out or be seen. When you have wrapped up the match provided by a member of the audience you must take care that it is the match in the hem which is broken, and not the other. You should practice the trick in private, of course, before you perform it before an audience.

1．The magician shows both sides of the handkerchief in order to      .

      A．show the audience what the handkerchief is like

       B．push a match into the hem of the handkerchief

       C．let the audience put a mark on it with a pencil

       D．make the audience believe there is no trick in it                      

2．How many matches are there wrapped in the handkerchief in fact?

       A．0                        B．1                        C．2                        D．3 

3．Why does the magician say“abracadabra”?

       A．He intends to make the match whole again.

       B．He needs to draw the audience′s attention away.

       C．He pretends something super-natural will happen.

       D．He wants to make himself less nervous

4．This magic is actually a      ?

       A．trick of replacement                             B．chemical change

       C．language cheating    D．quick hand movement

       GooGLE（www.Google.com）is a daily miracle to millions of people. If the Internet had only this very fast search engine, it would have justified its existence many times over. It is the most popular search engine on the web with a 54% market share, ahead of Yahoo! You type almost anything, however unclear, into the space provided and in a second it has come up with hundreds of references. If knowledge is power, then Google commands the gateway.

       YAHOO（www.yahoo.com）was the first wonder of the web, and in many respects, it still is. It started in January 1994 when two California graduate students, Jerry Yang and David Filo, started compiling（编译）a database of links, mainly for their personal use. But well before the end of the year, it had become recognizable as Yahoo we know today. In the past seven years, Yahoo had grown rapidly, partly through a long string of buys. Yahoo now offers almost everything you could want: emails, instant messages, chats, clubs, photo albums and a lot more.

eBay Enables Everyone to Buy and Sell

       eBAY（www.ebay.com）, which deals with online trading and shopping services, is the most impressive large Internet company where people buy and sell goods and services worldwide. It has, for instance, opened up a global marketplace in which people from Beijing, San Francisco, or Moscow can bid（投标）against each other for products put up for sale by someone in London. The company′s online service permits sellers to list items for sale, buyers to bid on items of interest, and eBay users to browse（浏览）through listed items that is available online seven days a week.

       Amazon（www.amazon.com）started out as an online bookstore, constantly putting up new book titles it offered for sale. In the late 1990s, Amazon had more than four million titles after adding CDs, videos, DVDs and games. It continued to add new lines of business including toys, computer software, electronics, like MP3 players, power tools, home improvement products and online sales. For regular users, Amazon has made itself the shortest possible path between wanting and buying.

1．What is Google used mainly for?

       A．Commanding the gateway.                    B．Searching for information.

       C．Storing reference books.                      D．Providing extra space.

2．“Rome is not built in one day”but Yahoo is built in one      .

       A．year                    B．day                     C．month                 D．minute

3．What goods did Amazon sell when it started its business?

       A．Videos and games.                               B．Different books.

       C．Power tools.                                       D．MP3 players.

4．Which of the following is true?

       A．Buying and selling can only be done through Amazon.

       B．If you feed in something unclear, Google will refuse to do the searching.

       C．Yahoo owns more market shares than any other companies on the web.

       D．eBay Company′s online service is always there for its users.

Some houses are designed to be smart. Others have smart designs. An example of the second type of house won an Award of Excellence from the American Institutes of Architects.

       Before Hugo, many new houses built along South Carolina′s shoreline were poorly constructed, and enforcement（强制执行）of building laws wasn′t strict, according to architect Ray Huff, who created the cleverly-designed beach house. In Huff′s opinion, all new shoreline houses should meet stricter, better-enforced building laws. The new beach house on Sullivan′s Island should be able to stand a Gategory（级）3 hurricane with the strongest winds of 179 to 209 kilometers per hour.

       At first sight, the house on Sullivan′s Island looks anything but hurricane-proof（防风）.Its redwood shell makes it look like“a large party lantern”at night. But looks can be cheating. The house′s wooden frame is extra strengthened with long steel bars. To further protect the house from hurricane damage, Huff raised it 2.7 meters off the ground on a wooden structure set deep in the sand. The structure might appear unsafe, but it is strong enough to support the weight of the house. It can also lift the house above storm waves. The structure allows the waves to run under the house instead of running into it.“These waves come ashore at tremendous speeds and cause most of the damage done to beach-front buildings,”said Huff. 

       Huff designed the wooden structure to be partially hidden under the house′s ground-to-roof shell（外壳）.“The shell covers the structure so that the house doesn′t look like it′s standing with its pant legs pulled up,”said Huff.“In the event of a storm, the shell should break apart and let the waves rush under the house,”the architect explained.

1．After the Hurricane Hugo, new houses built along South Carolina′s shoreline are required    .

       A．to be easily reinforced                          B．to look smarter in design

       C．to meet stricter building rules                D．to be designed in the shape of cubes

2．The award-winning beach house is quite strong because      .

       A．it is strengthened by steel bars               B．it is made of redwood

       C．it is in the shape of a shell                     D．it is built with wood and concrete

3．Huff raised the house 2.7 meters off the ground in a wooden structure in order to      .

       A．stand strong winds of about 200 km/hr  B．build a strong structure deep in the sand

       C．break huge waves into smaller ones       D．prevent water from rushing into the house

4．The main function of the shell is       .

       A．to strengthen the structure of the house

       B．to give the house a better look

       C．to protect the wooden frame of the house

       D．to slow down the speed of the strong waves

5．It can be inferred from the passage that the shell should be      .

       A．fancy-looking                                      B．waterproof         

       C．easily breakable              D．extremely strong

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The taxi driver was put in        prison because his car had knocked down a child. His wife    went to        prison to see him twice a month.

A．不填；不填     B．the; the     C．不填；the      D．the;不填

Most of our classmates are        taking a trip to the National Park.

A．in honour of     B．in favour of      C．in search of    D．in place of

Mary can’t speak English        her friends, but her written work is perfect.

A．as well as     B．as often as     C．so much as    D．as good as

A policeman should never drink alcohol        duty.

A．during      B．with  C．at     D．on