“I don’t want to write a story about girls! I don’t know anything about girls,” Louisa May Alcott told her publisher, Mr. Niles. But she was desperate for money. She seemed to be the only one in her family who could make any money. Niles had asked her to write about something she knew, instead of the romantic adventure stories she had been writing. “So I plod away,” Alcott wrote, “though I don’t enjoy this sort of thing.” It was 1867, and the horrible Civil War was over. Now Alcott could turn her energy to making money.

Alcott wrote a simple story of life in her family, their pillow fights on Saturday nights and the amateur (业余的) plays they performed. “Our experiences may prove interesting, though I doubt it.” (“Good joke,” she wrote years later.) Her book described her days growing up with four sisters in a family that had no money. She sketched (勾画) a loving mother who took time to be interested in each child, and she told of the death of a beloved sister. She portrayed her family and friends in her book Little Women. Finally, in July of 1868, she finished writing. With a sigh and a headache, she sent off all 102 handwritten pages of her book.

Niles thought the book was dull, and so did Alcott. But when she received her copies of the book, Alcott thought it seemed better than expected. “Not a bit sensational,” she wrote, “but simple and true. We really lived most of it.” Niles asked some girls to read Little Women, and they loved it.

In three months, all the copies of Little Women had sold. It was already time to print more books! Niles thought he could sell three or four hundred more copies. “An honest publisher and a lucky author made a dull book into a golden egg for an ugly duckling,” Alcott wrote in 1885. Later, with a great sigh of relief, she was able to write, “Paid off all the debts! Now I feel that I could die in peace. If my head holds out, I’ll do all I once hoped to do.”

1.Which of the following would be used to describe Alcott’s book?

A. funny         B. boring        C. magic       D. skillful

2.In which order did the following happen?

a. Alcott began writing Little Women         b. Niles asked Alcott to write about girls

c. Alcott wrote romantic adventure stories     d. Alcott performed plays with her sisters

e. Niles was not pleased with Alcott’s work.

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

3.When she handed her first writing in, Niles was _________.

A. sure of her success          B. happy about her work

C. unsatisfied with the work     D. unpleased with the publisher

4.We learn from the story that, after Little Women sold out, _________.

A. Alcott wrote another book              B. some girls started to read the book

C. Alcott paid off all her billsD. Niles published hundreds of books girls liked

Sometimes life gets a little dull. What used to be fun and different becomes boring. That is the time to look for something new. It is the time for a big idea to get your mind off everyday life. So why not search for extraterrestrial (地球外的) intelligence? Or even better, why not get your computer to do it for you?

       Over two million people have joined the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence（SETI）project. Based in California, the SETI project analyzes information taken from a giant radio telescope based in South America. Its task is to look for signals from outer space that might prove that life exists on other planets.

       Processing this information is far too big a job for one computer. So the SETI project workers divide the work among volunteers who visit their website. Each computer gets some information to work out from the SETI network through the Internet. This process is often known as “meta-computing”.

       It is a wonderful thought. You are sleeping, eating a meal or going out with friends. All this time, your computer is searching the stars for signs that might show something is out there trying to get in touch. Volunteers are proud of being involved in the SETI project. It shows that they understand the potential (潜能) of computing. They know that it is more than just a way of working or playing games.

       Meta-computing may also be creating intelligence as well as looking for it. This idea is based on the theory that human intelligence is created by the way in which different parts of the brain communicate with each other. As the saying goes, “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” People who join the SETI project sometimes wonder whether their computer will become part of a huge network that has learned to think for itself.

1.According to the writer, meta-computing may be creating intelligence        .

A. because human beings are intelligent    B. because a computer works as the brain does

C. because of a network of many computers  D. because of the number of computers

2.Which of the following shows the order in which the SETI network works?

A. Radio telescope→SETI website→Volunteers’ computer→SETI base

B. Radio telescope→SETI base→SETI website→Volunteers’ computer

C. SETI base→SETI website→Volunteers’ computers→Radio telescope

D. SETI base→Radio telescope→SETI website→Volunteers’ computers

3.The underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refers to        .

A. extra-terrestrial intelligence     B. human intelligence 

C. the SETI projectD. meta-computing

4.The passage mainly tells us about        .

A. a new way to work on the computer

B. a new way to work and play games

C. a new way to search for life outside the earth   

D. a new way to make life interesting and different

Air quality in Shanghai worsened last week compared with the previous week, according to the latest report from the Shanghai Environment Monitoring Centre.

The average air pollution index (API) for sulphur dioxide (SO₂) remain almost unchanged from the previous week, but the APIs for nitrogen oxide (NOx) and total suspended (悬浮) particles (TSP) rose by 35 and 27 percent.    The overall quality still belonged to class 2 category. Nitrogen oxide, caused mainly by vehicle exhaust and burning of cooking gas, was still the major pollutant of the week.

The Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Centre operates six automatic air monitors in the city’s Putuo, Yangpu, Luwan, Hongkou, Jing’an and Xuhui districts.

API

       0   12      13       14       15      16       17      18(October)

0-50: excellent               51-100: good           101-200: slight pollution

201-300: medium pollution     301-400: heavy pollution

1.Judging from the chart, on which day was the air quality the worst?

A. October 13.         B. October 14.        C. October 17.              D. October 18.

2.Which of the following can be used to describe the air quality of the week?

A. GoodB. Seriously polluted.  C. Excellent.      D. Slightly polluted.

3.Six automatic air monitors are operated in the city except ________.

A. Putuo District      B. Xuhui District     C. Chang’an District D. Hongkou District

4.In Shanghai, nitrogen oxide mainly comes from ________.

A. the burning natural gasB. the burning cooking gas

C. the burning coal                       D. dust raised by vehicles

The terrible college entrance exam is not only a big challenge (挑战) for Chinese high school students, but also a very important exam in the lives of South Korean students.

    Although the long, cold winter has already started in South Korea, the annual (一年一度的) national exams have made the atmosphere very heated.

    More than 675,000 South Korean high school graduates took the college entrance exam last Wednesday. They usually take exams in Korean, maths, sociology (社会学), history and foreign languages.

    Officially there is one college place for every 1.33 students. But because all the students want to go to the top universities in the country, the competition can reach one place for 10 students. The students want to attend these colleges for both their famous names and better job opportunities.

     Because students face fierce competition, they have to study very hard to realize their dreams. Park Seung said he and his classmates often go to school before 7:30 a.m. After school has finished at 6:30 p.m., most of them go to the library to continue their study instead of returning home. Since many libraries in South Korea are open 24 hours a day, they often stay long into the night. Many of the Senior 3 students only sleep for three to four hours a day. “I feel a lot of pressure, but I have to study very hard in order to make my dream come true. This is my lifetime goal and it will be a turning point in my life which could decide my future,” Park said.

    The exam day is a very serious day for the whole of South Korea. Vehicles are not allowed within a 200-metre radius (范围) of all the test sites to make sure the students have quiet surroundings. Tooting (吹奏) of horns is forbidden, even airplanes are ordered to avoid landing and take-off near the test sites during listening comprehension test hours.

    Students are told their scores in December before they apply for college. This is followed by face-to-face oral tests. There are public and private universities in South Korea. Many private universities are well-known, but their fees can be 18, 000 yuan each term. This has made a lot of students think again.

1.We can infer that there are almost ________ college places for high school graduates.

A. 675, 000      B. 507, 520    C. 500, 000     D. 600, 000

2.The students want to study in top colleges mainly because ________.

A. they can succeed more easily in future    B. they can learn more

   C. they can make more money   D. it is interesting to study there

3.Before students are allowed to colleges ________.

   A. they will be interviewed              B. they will ask questions of colleges

   C. they will not be tested any more        D. first they will pay all the education fee at all

认真阅读下面短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。

(注意：每空不超过6个单词。)

Have you ever been frustrated (沮丧的) when left talking to yourself after your mobile phone battery runs out in the middle of a call? If yes, then here comes some good news. Scientists are now perfecting a way to recharge (充电) electrical equipment while on the move.

Researchers from the Netherlands, France and Portugal announced last week that they have developed very thin solar panels (太阳能板) that can be put on clothes. They can also be added to furniture and rooftops. They change light from the sun into electricity.

In about three years, you'll be able to wear a jacket that will recharge your phone as you walk. For camping fans, the development could lead to a tent which charges batteries all day so you can have light or music at night.

The basic technology of wearable solar panels is the same as that used for conventional (传统的) solar panels. Pairs of sheets of semi-conducting silicon (半导体硅) are linked together to form the panel.

But scientists made them much thinner by using different silicon. At one micrometre, they are the same thickness as photographic film.

"This technology will make it easier for people to use clean energy sources," said Gerrit Kroesen, a physicist in the Netherlands who led the team of scientists.

But the thin panels are not as efficient as the thicker ones. While some solar panels now operate at an efficiency of about 20 per cent, the new flexible (柔韧的) panels are only 7 per cent efficient. But the scientists believe that this is worth accepting for a stronger and more useful panel.

But the thinner panel is cheaper. An A4 sized panel put onto the back of a jacket costs less than US$13. It could charge a cell phone during a summer walk in the countryside. As long as you stay within range of the transmitting masts (发射天线) that relay a call to the networks, phones will never again run out of power.

New Way to Recharge Electrical Equipment

假如下图是你对你班上周午休时间学生活动的调查结果。请根据图表，用英语进行描述，再谈谈你对这个结果的看法。要求150词左右。（首句已经给出，不记入总词数。）

Last week, I had a survey about the activities the students of our class did at noon at school.

_   ______________________________________________________________________________

_   ________________________________________________________________________

Last week, I had a survey about the activities the students of our class did at noon at school.

_   ________________________________________________________________

 The 2010 Shanghai World Expo is intended to achieve our common goal: ________world that is safer, cleaner and healthier than ________ one we’re living in.

A. the; the             B. a; /                  C. a ; the              D. the ; /  

 One of the greatest benefits of Internet friendships is that they are based on common interest ________ appearance, age or popularity.

A. in case of               B. in the form of         C. in spite of            D. instead of

 China’s quick reaction and the public efforts have ________ the rapid restoration（恢复）and reconstruction of Wenchuan.

A. applied to           B. contributed to         C. adjusted to           D. resulted from

 --- Is there any possibility ________ we can get a ticket for The 2010 Shanghai World Expo?  --- Of course, yes. You can either go to the Expo in person or buy ________ through the Internet.

A. which; it                  B. that; it                    C. that; one                D. which; it