Is there life on Mars（火星）? We do not know. But we are sure that earth people do not live on Mars. Earth people need oxygen to breathe. There is almost no oxygen on Mars. It is uncertain exactly how life arose on Earth, so it is difficult to determine how common such mechanisms are. But if life also arose on Mars, this would show that those mechanisms operated not just once, but twice, arguing that life may well be common elsewhere.

　　Living on Mars would be like living on a very high mountain. There would be little air. It might be 50 degree above zero at noon and 100 degree below zero at night.

　　Many people think there may be plants on Mars. We know that Mars has carbon. This is a kind of material found in all plants and animals on earth. Through a telescope, Mars looks red. In some places, it seems gray. At times, the gray colour turns gray--green, then brown, then gray again. The gray-green colour may be a kind of plant life changing colour with seasons.

　　Mars is a spectacular（引人入胜）place, and will remain so even if it is finally proved to be lifeless. Today, we don't know for sure if there is or ever was life on Mars. But one thing is certain--one day, there will be.

　　Will man go to Mars one day? If they do, they will have to take along their own oxygen, food, clothing, and shelter（住所）.

(1)What do you think is the main reason why men can't live on Mars? Because ________ .

[　　]

A．living on Mars is like living on a high mountain

B．here is no oxygen on Mars

C．there are not any plants or animals on Mars

D．on Mars it is too hot at noon and too cold at night

(2)The story does not say this, but from what we have read, we can tell that ________ .

[　　]

A．someday we may know if there is life on Mars

B．men must take food and clothing with them when they go to Mars

C．people on Mars need no air to breathe

D．the plants on Mars are red

(3)The main idea of the whole story is that ________ .

[　　]

A．there may be life on Mars

B．earth people could live on Mars

C．Mars turns its colour with seasons

D．man will one day land on Mars

(4)Which of the following does this story lead you to believe? ________ .

[　　]

A．Some earth people have already visited Mars

B．There is a lot of oxygen and carbon on Mars

C．There may be strange forms of life on Mars

　　If Earth, Venus（金星）and Mars（火星）all started out with water on their surfaces, why don't Venus and Mars still have liquid water on their surfaces?

　　Earth, Venus and Mars probably all began with similar amounts of water. Mars still has some of its water--but it's frozen underground. Scientists aren't sure how much water Venus had on its surface, and when that water was lost. Theories suggest that Venus once had abundant water--maybe even a large ocean.

　　But Venus lost its water--due to what's called a“runaway greenhouse effect”. Water vapor is a strong greenhouse gas--in other words, it traps heat. Water vapor may have caused Venus to heat up--which increased evaporation（蒸发）on the planet's surface--which increased warming even further. It eventually got so hot on Venus that all the surface water evaporated.

　　Today Venus is covered by thick clouds composed of droplets of sulfuric acid（硫磺酸）and carbon dioxide--another strong greenhouse gas. The planet's nearness to the sun and its greenhouse effect keep the planet very hot--about 900 Fahrenheit--or hot enough to melt lead.

　　When speaking of the possibility of liquid water on other planets, some scientists refer to the“Goldilocks problem”. That is, Venus is too hot, Mars is too cold, and Earth is just right.

(1)Which of the following statements can best describe the main idea of the passage?

[　　]

A．Earth, Venus and Mars probably all began with similar amounts of water.

B．Water vapor is a strong greenhouse gas.

C．It explains why Venus and Mars don't have liquid water on their surfaces.

D．It tells the fact that Venus is too hot, Mars is too cold, and Earth is just right.

(2)Venus lost its water because ________ .

[　　]

A．the water evaporated

B．the water is frozen underground

C．it once had very little water

D．it is covered by thick clouds

(3)From the passage,“greenhouse effect”is ________ .

[　　]

A．the effect of growing plants in a greenhouse

B．caused by the nearness to the sun

C．caused by the loss of water

D．the effect as a result of heat being trapped

(4)The meaning of the underlined word“abundant”in the first paragraph is most similar to ________ .

[　　]

　　When he first began his speaking career, Mark Twain recalled, he used a full page of notes to keep him from getting mixed up. He would write down the beginning of key sentences, to take him from one point to another and to protect him from skipping（遗漏）. For a typical evening's lecture, he would write and memorize key beginnings．

　　The plan failed. Twain would remember the sentences, all right, but forget their order. He would have to stop, consult（参考）his notes, and there-by spoil the spontaneous（自然）effect of the whole speech.

　　Twain then decided to memorize not only key sentences, but also the first letter of each sentence. This initial-letter（首字母）method didn't work either. “I kept track of the fingers for a while”, he wrote in his essay, “then I lost it, and after that I was never quite sure which finger I had used last.”

　　He considered licking（舔）off the inked letters as he went along with the speech. People noticed he seemed more interested in his fingernails than his subject; one or two listeners would come up afterwards and ask what was wrong with his hands.

　　Mark Twain tried several ways in making speeches, but failed. Then his great idea came--why not draw some pictures? So he began.

　　Having once drawn the pictures, he found he could throw them away. He discovered that, having once made a series of drawings, he could recall their image at will． From that day, Twain was able to speak without notes, and the system never failed him. Each portion of his speech would be represented by a picture. He would draw them, all strung out（使……排成行）in a row, then look at them and destroy them. When the time came to speak, there was the row of images sharply in his mind.

(1) The main idea of the passage is ________ .

[　　]

A．how Mark Twain began his speaking career

B．how Mark Twain remembered the key sentences

C．what Mark Twain's initial-letter method was

D．what Mark Twain's speechmaking strategy（策略）was

(2) Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage?

[　　]

A．Twain used notes to keep him from getting mixed up.

B．Twain wrote down the beginning of key sentences to protect him from skipping.

C．Twain read the first sentence of each part aloud to keep him from forgetting.

D．Twain drew a series of pictures to help him to remember his speech draft.

(3) In the last paragraph, the underlined word“image”means ________ .

[　　]

(4) From the passage, we can infer ________ .

[　　]

A．Mark Twain made great success in his speech

B．Mark Twain didn't make any success in his speech

C．Mark Twain was very famous for his speechmaking methods

　　Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

　　The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1894) was a pinnacle in Twain's career--not only as author, but as critic（批评家）. In that book, Twain had attacked racism with irony. In the following years, he spoke out on themes of morality（道德）, religion, and politics while still, somehow, eliciting（引起）laughter.

　　After the Spanish-American War（1898）, Twain became an ardent（激烈的）anti-imperialist（抗击帝国主义者）; he was especially critical of Belgium's role in the Congo（刚果）and the policy of the United States in the Philippines. Twain was not always funny, and not always well received, but, he was always repeated. By the close of his career, the New York Times estimated that Twain was quoted（引用）in common conversation more often than any other American, including Ben Franklin and Abe Lincoln. Ernest Hemingway（海明威）stated what generations of readers were convinced （确信）of, that“All modern American literature comes from on book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. American writing comes from that. There is nothing before. There has been nothing as good since .”

(1)The underlined word“pinnacle”in the first paragraph means ________ .

[　　]

A．very famous

B．the most successful part in literary

C．the most lowest point

D．the mountain top

(2)What is the main idea of the passage?

[　　]

A．Mark Twain was the best famous writer in America.

B．Mark Twain was not always funny.

C．Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was Mark Twain's most successful, powerful, exciting book.

D．Mark Twain was more famous than any other American.

(3)Which of the following statements is right?

[　　]

A．All American literature comes from on book named Huckleberry Finn.

B．American writing began from the book named Huckleberry.

C．There has been nothing as good as the book Huckleberry Finn since Mark Twain's times.

　　Mark Twain (whose real name was Samuel Clemens) was born in Missouri and grew up close to the banks of the Mississippi River. Clemens started out as a printer, setting type in Iowa, New York City, Philadelphia, and other cities. Clemens then turned to piloting a steamboat on the Mississippi River until the American Civil War. In 1861, Clemens served briefly as a soldier in the Confederate（联盟）army. Later that year, Clemens moved to Nevada and began writing articles as a newspaper reporter.

　　In 1863, Clemens began signing his articles with the pseudonym（笔名）Mark Twain. In 1865, Twain finished his first story,“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, which became an instant hit.

　　In 1870, Twain married Olivia Langdon, and they later moved to Hartford, Connecticut. Some famous writings followed, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) , A Tramp Abroad (1880) , The Prince and the Pauper (1882) , A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court(1889) .

　　Twain's masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) remains an icon（偶像）of American literature.

　　Later works include Puddn' head Wilson(1894) , Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc(1896) , and the short story “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg”(1899) .

　　In his later years, Twain became a celebrity, becoming known for wearing white suits wherever he went.

　　Although known primarily as a humorist during his life, scholars now regard his work as some of the best and most authentic（可信的）in American literature. His portraits of pre-civil war America, and his use of spoken language in his novels dominate（占优势）Twain's legacy（遗产）.

(1)Mark Twain's masterpiece is ________ .

[　　]

A．The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

B．A Tramp Abroad

C．The Prince and the Pauper

D．The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

(2)Mark Twain became a famous person in his later years for ________ .

[　　]

A．his works

B．his humor

C．spoken language

D．wearing white suits wherever he went

(3)The underlined word“hit”in the second paragraph means ________ .

[　　]

　　Increasingly, over the past ten years, people--especially young people--have become aware of the need to change their eating habits, because much of the food they eat, particularly processed（加工，处理）food, is not good for the health. As a result, there has been a growing interest in natural foods： foods which do not contain chemical additives（添加剂）and which have not been affected by chemical fertilizers, widely used in farming today.

　　Natural foods, for example, are vegetables, fruit and grain which have been grown in soil that is rich in organic（生物）matter. Natural foods also include animals which have been allowed to feed and move freely in healthy pastures. Compare this with what happens in the mass production of poultry （家禽）：there are battery farms, for example, where thousands of chickens live crowded together in one building and are fed on food which is little better than rubbish. Chickens kept in this way are not only tasteless as food; they also produce eggs which lack important vitamins.

　　There are other aspects（方面）of healthy eating which are now receiving increasing attention from experts on diet. Take, for example, the question of sugar. This is actually unnecessary! Although a natural alternative（选择）, such as honey, can be used to sweeten food if this is necessary, we can in fact do without it. It is not sugar that is harmful in itself. But it does seem to be addictive: the quantity we use has grown over the last two centuries and in Britain today each person consumes（消耗）an average of 200 pounds a year! Yet all it does is to provide us with energy, in the form of calories. There are no vitamins in it, no minerals, and no fiber.

　　It is significant（有意义的）that nowadays fiber is considered to be an important part of a healthy diet. In white bread, for example, the fiber has been removed. But it is present in unrefined（未加工的）flour and of course in vegetables. It is interesting to note that in countries where the national diet contains large quantities of unrefined flour and vegetables, certain diseases are comparatively （相对地） rare. Thus the emphasis is placed on the eating of whole meal bread and more vegetables by modern experts on “healthy eating”.

(1)Which of the following can best sum up the passage?

[　　]

A．People's growing interest in natural foods.

B．Natural foods and healthy eating.

C．Harmful effects of sugar.

D．The importance of fiber in foods.

(2)People become more interested in natural foods because ________ .

[　　]

A．they want to change their eating habits

B．they have become conscious of the importance of health

C．natural foods are more nutritious than processed ones

D．natural foods, as natural alternatives, can also provide people with energy

(3)Which of the following descriptions of chickens raised in poultry farms is false?

[　　]

A．They are fed on food which is little better than garbage.

B．They live in very crowded condition.

C．The eggs they lay lack important vitamins.

D．They are fed well and move around in one building.

(4)By mentioning “the question of sugar” (Line 2, Para．3), the author implies that ________ .

[　　]

A．the output of sugar cannot meet the needs of our consumption

B．sugar, as one kind of additive, is bad for health

C．the increasing consumption of sugar is habit forming

D．sugar merely sweetens food, but provides us with nothing useful

(5)Which of the following can we infer from the passage?

[　　]

A．Soil that is rich in organic matter is not nourished by chemical fertilizers.

B．Nowadays chemical fertilizers are scarecely used in agriculture.

C．People will live on more and more sugar.

　　Generations of Americans have been brought up to believe that a good breakfast is necessary for their life. Eating breakfast at the start of the day, we have all been told and told again, is as necessary as putting gas in the family car before starting a trip.

　　But for many people the thought of food as the first thing in the morning is by no means a pleasure. So despite（尽管）all the efforts, they still take no breakfast. Between 1977 and 1983, the latest year for which figures are available （可得到的）, the number of people who didn't have breakfast increased by 33 percent-from 8.8 million to 11.7 million--according to the Chicago-based Market Research Corporation of America.

　　For those who feel pain or guilty（内疚的）about not eating breakfast, however, there is some good news. Several studies in the last few years show that, for adults especially, there may be nothing wrong without having breakfast. “Going without breakfast does not affect performance,”said Arnold E. Bender, former professor of nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College in London, “nor does giving people breakfast improve performance.”

　　Scientific evidence linking breakfast to better health or better performance is surprisingly not proper, and most of the recent work relates to children, not adults. “The literature,” says one researcher, Dr．Ernesto Pollitt at the University of Texas, “is poor”.

(1)The latest year for which figures could be obtained is ________ .

[　　]

(2)For those who do not take breakfast, the good news is that ________ .

[　　]

A．several studies have been done in the past few years

B．the omission of breakfast does no harm to one' s health

C．adults have especially made studies in this field

D．eating little in the morning is good for health

(3)“…nor does giving people breakfast improve performance” means ________ .

[　　]

A．anyone without breakfast does improve his performance

B．not giving people breakfast improve performance

C．having breakfast does not improve performance, either

D．people having breakfast do improve their performance, too

(4)The word“literature”in the last sentence refers to ________ .

[　　]

A．stories, poems, plays, etc.

B．written works on a particular subject

C．any printed material

D．the modem literature of America

(5)What is implied but not stated by the author is that ________ .

[　　]

A．breakfast does not affect performance

B．Dr．Pollitt is engaged in research work at an institution of higher learning

C．not eating breakfast might affect the health of children

　　Midsummer was the festival throughout most of England, most of Scotland, Shetland Islands, and the Orkneys. Fires, dancing, games, and various shenanigans（胡闹）were the general rule on this “longest day of the year”. But the festival has lost some of its color in the passing centuries.

　　By the 1680s, British folklorist（民俗学家）John Aubrey reported that “still in many places, they make fires on the hills: but the Civil War in Britain in the 1640s have put all these customs quite out of fashion”.

　　Thousands of years ago, builders of Stonehenge（巨石阵）no doubt celebrated their own midsummer festival among the stones. More recently a British group called the Ancient Order of Druids, founded in 178l by Hurle, suggested celebrating the festival on June 21 every year at the site. In the later years this day attracted huge crowds. Bread and wine, candles, bells, incense （熏香）, and priests（神甫）in white and purple shared wine from a silver cup as the midsummer sun shone across the old stones. It remained a local festival for a long time in history. In the mid-1980s, vandalism（故意破坏艺术的行为）and unruly people imperiled （危害）the festival's future.

(1)Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

[　　]

(2)What can we learn about the festival?

[　　]

A．It is no longer celebrated on earth.

B．It used to be a festival celebrated worldwide.

C．It is the longest day of the year.

D．It changed its nature in the Civil War.

(3)Stonehenge is a place ________.

[　　]

A．where Midsummer was first celebrated

B．where there are old stone figures

C．where the Ancient Order of Druids was set up

D．where Midsummer is celebrated

(4)The underlined word“unruly”means ________.

[　　]

　　Tony Bennett, the American singer recently touring Britain can't remember how many times he has sung his standard hit “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”. He sang it again to his audience at the London Palladium last night.

　　“I never get tired of singing it,” he said, “I like it too much. It's a great city and it's a good song.”

　　Bennett is to record a TV special with American singer Lena Horne while he is here. And a new LP recorded by him in London for Philips titled “Listen Easy” will be published in June.

　　“I like it here,” he added quietly over whiskey, “I would like to live here so many months of the year.”

　　He already keeps a large flat in Grosvenor Square, here he is staying with his actress wife Sandie Grant and their three-year-old daughter Joanna. It has a studio where he likes to paint. Tony plans to have his first exhibition later in the year and he has already sold one picture for $ 4,000. At the end of the year Tony is to star in a musical film which has been specially written for him called “Two Bits”, an informal expression for 50 cents. It's about an Italian immigrant （移民） who goes to America, but is a failure.

　　“In many ways it's very close to my life the way the story has been written,” said Bennett, “my father, an Italian, was ill and died when I was nine. He always wanted me to sing, but he never lived long enough to be a part of my success.”

　　The film is to be made by Italy's top director Vittoria De Sica.

(1) The underlined phrase “standard hit” probably means ________.

[　　]

A．Bennett's favourite song but it's not very popular

B．a song that is always popular

C．a song which makes him standard

D．a song which is like a heavy blow to his audience

(2) What was Tony Bennett doing when he was interviewed?

[　　]

(3) What does Tony Bennett want to do?

[　　]

A．Buy a house and live in England.

B．Stay with his wife and daughter in England.

C．Live for part of the year in England.

D．Leave America and settle in England.

(4) What's Tony Bennett's hobby?

[　　]

(5) What can we learn about Tony Bennett's father from this passage?

[　　]

A．He liked his son's singing.

B．He was born in Italy and died in America.

C．He was a part of Bennett's achievement.

D．He was glad that his son became famous.

　　Eddie liked music very much when he was at school, but when he went to the college he decided to study medicine instead of music. When he passed his examinations and became a doctor, he had to work in a hospital for some time. There he found out that a lot of patients were happier and caused less trouble if pleasant music was played to them. When he got an office and began to work for himself, he decided to keep his patients happy by having a tape recorder in his waiting room to play beautiful music for them. But soon after the tape recorder had been put in, Eddie's nurse heard a woman, Who was sitting in the crowded waiting room one morning, complained, “Here we're all waiting to see the doctor, but he is just playing the violin in his office instead of doing his work.”

(1) Eddie preferred to be ________.

[　　]

A．a musician instead of a doctor

B．a doctor instead of a musician

C．both a doctor and a musician

D．a violin player

(2) After he graduated he ________.

[　　]

A．first worked as a doctor then a singer

B．first worked in his own office

C．played the violin to many people

D．first worked as a doctor for others for a time

(3) What he found was ________.

[　　]

A．pleasant music could cause trouble

B．many patients became happy when they listened to pleasant music

C．a lot of patients didn't like pleasant music

D．more trouble may be brought about when patients listened to pleasant music

(4) Which of the following is true?

[　　]

A．Eddie put a tape recorder in his own office.

B．Eddie put a tape recorder in the waiting room of his own office and made it play beautiful music in order to make his patients happy.

C．Eddie worked in a hospital all the time.

D．Beautiful music can cause no trouble.

(5) The woman in the waiting room ________.

[　　]

A．didn't like to listen to music

B．liked to listen to music

C．thought that the doctor himself was playing the violin

D．was waiting to listen to music in order to cure her illness