When I was seven, my father gave me a Timex, my first watch. I loved it, wore it for years, and haven’t had another one since it stopped ticking a decade ago. Why? Because I don’t need one. I have a mobile phone and I’m always near someone with an iPod or something like that. All these devices (装置) tell the time — which is why, if you look around, you’ll see lots of empty wrists (手腕); sales of watches to young adults have been going down since 2007. 

But while these wise people have realized that they don’t need them, others — including some distinguished ones of our time — are spending total fortunes on them. Brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Breitling command shocking prices, up to £ 250.000 for a piece.

This is ridiculous. Expensive cars go faster than cheap cars. Expensive clothes hang better than cheap clothes. But these days, all watches tell the time as well as all other watches. Yes, you may say expensive watches will come with some extra functions — but who needs them? How often do you dive to 300 metres into the sea to test its function of waterproof, or need to find your direction in the area around the South Pole by using its compass? So why pay that much of five years’ school fees for watches that allow you to do these things?

If justice were done, the Swiss watch industry should have closed down when the Japanese discovered how to make accurate watches for a five-pound note. Instead, the Swiss re-invented the watch, with the aid of millions of pounds’ worth of advertising, as a message about the man —— usually a famous star, wearing it. Rolexes are for those who spend their weekends climbing icy mountains; a Patek Philippe is for one from a rich or noble family; a Breitling suggests you like to pilot planes across the world. 

Watches are classified as “investment items” (投资项目) now. A 1994 Philippe recently sold for nearly £ 350, 000, while 1960s Rolexes have gone from 15, 000 to 30, 000 plus in a year. But, to some wealthy people, a watch is more than an investment. It’s a valuable toy for self-satisfaction, a matter of fashion. Prices may keep going up — they’ve been rising for fifteen years. But when fashion moves on, the owner of that £ 350, 000 treasured object will suddenly find his pride and joy is no more a good investment than my childhood Times. 

1.The sales of watches to young people have fallen because ______. 

2.It seems ridiculous to the writer that ______. 

3.What can be learnt about Swiss watch industry from the passage?

4.Which would be the best title for the passage?

Plants can’t communicate by moving or making sounds, as most animals do. Instead, plants produce volatile compounds (挥发性化合物) —— chemicals that easily change from a liquid to a gas. A flower’s sweet smell, for example, comes from such volatile compounds to attract insects such as bugs and bees.

Plants can also discover  volatile compounds produced by other plants. A tree under attack by hungry insets, for instance, may give off these chemicals in order to let other trees know about the attack. In response, the other trees may send off their chemicals to keep the bugs away —— or even chemicals that will attract the bugs’ natural enemies.

Now scientists have created a quick way to understand what plants are saying: a chemical sensor (传感器) called an “electronic nose”. The “e-nose” can tell such compounds as plants make. When plants are attacked, scientists say, the e-nose could help quickly decide whether plants are being eaten by insects. But today, the only way to spot such insects is to inspect individual plants by observing them. This is a challenging task for managers of greenhouses, including those that can house thousands of plants. The research team is working with an e-nose that can recognize volatile compounds. Inside the device, 13 sensors chemically react with volatile compounds based on the interactions (相互作用), and then the e-nose will give off electronic signals that the scientists can analyze by using computer software.

To test the e-nose, the team presented it with healthy leaves from cucumber, pepper and tomato plants, all being common greenhouse crops. Then scientists collected samples of the air around damaged leaves from each type of crop. These plants had been damaged either by insects or by scientists who made holes in the leaves with a hole punch (打孔器).

The e-nose, it turns out, can identify healthy cucumber, pepper and tomato plants based on the volatile compounds they produce. It could also identify tomato leaves that had been damaged. But even more impressive, the device could tell which type of damage —— by insects or with a hole punch —— had been done to the tomato leaves.

With some fine-tuning (微调), a device like the e-nose can one day be used in greenhouses to quickly spot harmful bugs, the researchers say. A device like this can also be used to identify fruits that are perfectly ripe and ready to pick and eat, says Natalia Dudareva, a biochemist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, India, who studies smells of flowers and plants. Hopefully, scientists believe, the device can bring large benefits to greenhouse managers in the near future.

1.We learn from the text that plants communicate with each other by ______.

2.What did the scientists do to find out if the e-nose worked?

3.According to the writer, the most amazing thing about the e-nose is that it can ______.

4.We can infer from the last paragraph that the e-nose ______.

1.He noticed someone following him, and glanced round. He _______ _______ _______ a dark figure in the shadows.  

2.The best love for someone is heartful care _______ _______ money

3.I was _______ _______ eating heavy food then by my doctor, because of my stomach trouble. 

4.I could see the faint gleam of light _______ _______ _______. 

1.There is an a__________ of peace and calm in the country; it’s so different from that of cities. 

2.When you are learning to ride a bicycle you must learn to b__________.

3.Being e__________, I don’t feel like doing anything.

4.I need to live in pleasant s__________. It is too crowded and dirty here.

5.Man is the only creature that has a g__________ for speech. 

6.There are many differences between your r__________ beliefs and mine. 

7.The quality of u__________ living has been damaged by excessive noise levels in the city.

8.New evidence has c__________ the first witness's story.

9.The government has taken some immediate m__________ to prevent trains from crashing again.

10.He was t__________ to stay home at night alone without the company of his parents.

11.He is always a stubborn person; however, we m__________   to persuade him this time.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号 (∧) , 并在此符号下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线 ( \ ) 划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线, 并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2. 只允许修改10处, 多者 (从第11处起) 不计分。

I always wanted to be great scientist. I had a dream of discovering a new drug that would save hundreds of people’s life. Unfortunately, I was never very well at chemistry at school and the teacher was used to get angry with me. I decided to becoming an inventor and designed an amazing new product. My parents were encouraging, but told me to be a few more realistic. A few weeks late, I had an idea of designing a pen to write in water. In my disappointment, a friend of me pointed out that it was not a new invention. 

----I’m afraid I’ve broken your cup.

----______________, it was old and I was going to throw it away.

The development of industry has been ________ gradual process throughout ______ human existence from stone tools to modern technology.

Nowadays, an increasing number of people have ___________ to the information they need through the Internet.

I don’t know how it ___________ that our car was bumped from behind.

While reading, Helen has a habit of stopping _____ to give her long and flowing hair a smooth.