Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing or whistle when you are happy.

　　Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy. However, they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.

　　Do you know what a “territory” is? A territory is an area that an animal, usually the male, claims (声称)as its own. Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species (物种)are welcome. Your yard and house are your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger should enter your territory and threaten you, you might shout. Probably this would be enough to frighten him away.

　　If so, you have actually scared the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time, especially at nesting(筑巢) season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird's song,and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.

　　Birds sing loudest in the spring when they are trying to attract a mate and warn others not to enter the territory of theirs.

　　You can see that birds have a language of their own. Most of it has something to do with attracting mates and setting up territories.

(1) Some scientists believe that most of the time birds' singing is actually________.

[　　]

A．an expression of happiness

B．a way of warning

C．an expression of anger

D．a way of greeting

(2) What is a bird's “territory”?

[　　]

A．A place where families of other species are not accepted.

B．A place where a bird may shout at the top of its voice.

C．An area for which birds fight against each other.

D．An area which a bird considers to be its own.

(3) Why do birds keep on singing at nesting sea-son?

[　　]

A．Because they want to invite more friends.

B．Because their singing helps frighten outsiders away.

C．Because they want to find outsiders a-round

D．Because their singing helps get rid of their fears.

(4) How does the writer explain birds' sing-ing?

[　　]

A．By comparing birds with human beings.

B．By reporting experiment results.

C．By describing birds' daily life.

D．By telling a bird's story.

　　Members of the working class have blue-collar jobs. They are construction workers, truck drivers, mechanics, steel workers, electricians, and the like. What makes this class differ from the lower class is, first, longer periods of emp1oyment-and therefore, more fixed incomes-and, second, employment in skilled or semi-skilled(半熟练的)occupations, not unskilled ones. Although unemployment hits all levels of the American economy, including those of skilled and semiskilled workers, it is most common at the bottom of the class structure and increasingly less common at each level upward. They consider themselves to be respectable and hard working and they look down upon members of the“lower”class, whom they often consider to be lazy, dishonest, and too ready to exploit public assistance.

　　Most people in the working class have at least high schoo1 education. Many have sorne experience of college(especially community co1lege), though few are college graduates. Unionization has helped the working class, but a rapidly changing economy and frequent periods of high unemployment make it difficult for most of its members to be able to increase their savings greatly. Purchasing a house for people in this class is extremely difficult, although a certain percentage may receive houses from their parents. (Homeowning rises with social class. )

　　A greater number of the members of the working class take relatively little satisfaction in their jobs, because much of their work is ordinary and boring. As a result, many seek their main satisfaction in recreational(娱乐的) activities. Many members of this class would like to earn enough money to leave their jobs and start their own businesses, though few make it. Many place their expectations on their children, hoping that they at least will rise in the ladder of success, American style.

(1) Which of the following is true about the working class?

[　　]

A．They are often employed as skilled and semi-skilled workers.

B．They are often offered jobs with high incomes.

C．They are often considered lazy and dis-honest.

D．They are often exploited by the public.

(2) The underlined word “hit” (paragraph 1)roughly means________.

[　　]

A．strike with a blow

B．have bad effects on

C．break up

D．beat

(3) Most people in the working class________.

[　　]

A．have difficulty increasing their savings greatly

B．have at least some experience of college

C．receive houses from their parents

D．buy houses by themselves

(4) Many members from the working class are not satisfied with their jobs because________.

[　　]

A．they could not rise in the ladder of success

B．they are not interested in their jobs

C．they could not earn much money

D．they are not their own bosses

　　Welcome to log on a new website-SCIENCE NEWS FOR KIDS!

　　Our goal is to offer timely items of interest to kids, accompanied by suggestions for hands-on activities, books, articles, Web resources, and other useful materials.

　　Our emphasis is on making the website appealing by offering kids opportunities to comment on and grade the subject matter, get ideas for science projects, and try out mathematical puzzles. At the same time, we offer teachers creative ways of using science news in their classrooms.

　　The Science News for Kids Web, founded by grants from several corporations and foundations, enhances the usefulness of Science News in the middle-school classroom and offers recreational reading and activities for students interested in science.

　　A section of the Science News for Kids Web is devoted to particular interests. At present, we have six such zones: a weekly brainteaser for those who enjoy solving and inventing puzzles (PuzzleZone), entertaining science-fiction composition exercises for those interested in writing (SciFiZone), and weekly science fair profiles along with science project ideas and tips (ScienceFair Zone). The GameZone contains a small selection of logic and memory games, implemented as Java applets (小应用程序). The TeacherZone has materials, including question sheets related to the feature article of the week, so that teachers can bring science news topics to the classroom. The LabZone features a weekly hands-on activity or science project idea. In the future, we might add additional zones, for example, for kids interested in robotics, the environment, computers, mathematics, or veterinary medicine(兽医)and animals.

　　Contact us at editor@ snkids. com.

　　Science News for Kids

　　1719 N Street, N. W.

　　Washington, DC 20036

　　Phone:202-785-2255

　　Fax:202-659-3065

(1) Science News for Kids is a website mainly devoted to________.

[　　]

A．introductions to the newly-published science books

B．useful teaching materials for teachers in schools

C．electronic games for those interested in computers

D．timely news for children interested in science

(2) Where is the Science News for Kids Web-site located in?

[　　]

A．New York

B．Washington, DC

C．Los Angeles

D．Philadelphia

(3) What makes the website an attractive one to the children?

[　　]

A．Offering recreational reading materials in science.

B．Trying out interesting and challenging mathematical puzzles.

C．Offering kids opportunities to com-ment on and grade the subject matter.

D．All of the facts mentioned above.

(4) Which of the following messages can't you find on Science News for Kids？

[　　]

A．Brazil's Air Traffic Contr0llers Back at Work After 6-H0ur Strike.

B．Taking a big bite isn't always the best strategy in this two-player game.

C．Astronomers have discovered a“family”of related objects in a region 0f the solar system.

D．Whatis 0ne-half of two-thirds of three-quarters of four-fifths of five-sixths of seven-eighths of eight-ninths of nine-tenths of 10000.

(5) Jenny has much imaginati0n and sense of w0nder and intendS t0 be a writer in the future. Which seCtion of the website is she likely to be interested in？

[　　]

A．PuzzleZone

B．LabZone

C．SciFiZone

　　Join the thousands of professionals and international travelers who depend on ChanpsElysees, Schau ins Land, Puerta del Sol, and Acquerello italiano to help them stay in touch with the languages and cultures they love. Designed to help you greatly improve your listening, vocabulary, and cultural IQ, these unique European audio-magazines(有声杂志) are guaranteed (保证) to give you enthusiasm and determination to study the language-or your money back !

　　Each audio-magazine consists of an hour-long programme on CD or DVD．You'll hear interviews with well-known Europeans,passages covering current events and issues as well as feature stories on the culture you love. A small book, which goes with CD or DVD, contains a complete set of printed materials, notes (background notes included)averaging 600 words and expressions translated into English. The result: you build fluency month in and month out.

　　To help you integrate language study into your busy life, we've made each audiomagazine convenient. Work on language fluency while driving to work, exercising, or cooking-anytime and anywhere you want I

　　Best of all, each programme is put together by professional broadcasters, journalists, and editors who have a strong interest in European languages and cultures. That enthusiasm comes through in every edition. From New York to London to Singapore, the users tell us no company produces a better product for language learners at all levels. Ring for more information, or order at www. audiomagazine. com. We guarantee that you have nothing to lose if it's not for you; let us know within 6 weeks and we will completely reimburse you.

(1) The audio-magazines in the passage are ________.

[　　]

A．published in European languages

B．read on the computer screen

C．designed in the form of small-sized books

D．broadcast on television and the radio

(2) The audio-magazines are mainly for________.

[　　]

A．European journalists

B．professional travelers

C．language learners

D．magazine collectors

(3) What is mentioned as a feature of the audiomagazines?

[　　]

A．They are translated into English.

B．They are convenient for the users.

C．They are very easy to read.

D．They are cheap and popular.

(4) What does the underlined part “reimburse you” probably mean?

[　　]

A．Return the money you paid.

B．Change the product you bought.

C．Offer you a free repair.

D．Guarantee you the quality.

　　When a storm is coming, most people leave the area as quickly as possible and head for safety. But there are a few people who will get into their cars and go straight for the center of the storm. These people are willing to risk (冒……危险) being killed by floods or 100-kilometer-an-hour winds for the excitement of watching the storm close up.

　　“Storm chasing (追逐) ” is becoming an increasingly popular hobby (喜好), especially in the Midwest of the United States, where there are frequent storms between March and July. A storm chaser begins the day by checking the Internet for the latest weather reports, and then drives up to 1 000 kilometers to where the storm will be and waits for it to develop.

　　Although anyone can do it, storm chasing is extremely dangerous. The power of a big storm can throw a cow into the air or destroy a whole house in seconds. Storm chasers are also often hurt in accidents caused by driving in a heavy rain. If you are a beginner,it is much safer to join a group for storm-chasing vacations during the storm season.

　　Even then, storm chasing is not all adventure and excitement. “Storm chasing is 95% driving, ” says Daniel Lynch, who spends most of his summer storm-chasing. “Sometimes you can sit around for hours waiting for something to happen, and all you get is blue sky and a few light showers. ”

　　However, for storm chasers, it is all worth it. “When you get close to a storm, it is the most exciting sight you will ever see in your life, ”says Jasper Morley. “Every storm is an example of the power of nature. It is the greatest show on Earth. ”

(1) For storm chasing, the first thing storm chasers do is to________.

[　　]

A．head straight for the center of the storm

B．get into the car for safety

C．wait patiently for the storm to develop

D．collect information about a coming storm

(2) Beginners of storm chasing are advised

[　　]

A．not do drive in a heavy rain

B．to do it in an organized way

C．not to get too close to a storm

D．to spend more time on it in summer

(3) By saying “it is all worth it” in the last paragraph, the author means that________.

[　　]

A．storm chasing costs a lot of money

B．storm chasing is worth hours of wait-ing

C．efforts in storm chasing are well paid

D．a storm presents the greatest show on Earth

(4) What can we learn from the text?

[　　]

A．Sometimes storm chasers get nothing but disappointment.

B．Many storm chasers get killed in the storms.

C．Storm chasing is becoming popular around the world

D．Storm chasing is only fit for young peo-ple.

　　A recent trend (趋势) in Californian restaurants shows new eating habits among those out to have an interesting dining experience. Appetizers (开胃品) seem to be the name of the games as diners turn away from the more traditional three-course meal in favor of smaller snacks sampled in various types of restaurants, bars and cafes. In this way, in the course of an evening out, you might go to a restaurant for a tasty dish to eat at one end of town, to a bar with some live music at the other end, then for a coffee,and finally back to the restaurant for a further appetizer.

　　Reasons for this trend are the fact that so many different types of restaurants have been set up recently, each with their own particular type of food and special atmosphere, combined with the increased sophistication in the type of snacks being offered. Gone are the cheese sticks of the old days,when appetizers were not really taken seriously. Some favorite snacks of the moment are slices of hot pizza, creamy fish-based dishes and crispy cakes and so on.

　　Prices for appetizers are not equal to a full meal; however, their new popularity has meant that they are by no means as cheap as they used to be. Certainly, for that special occasion, a meal in a nice restaurant, complete with the piano performance, is hard to beat However, if we see that this trend for “butterfly eating”-moving around several different places in one eveningcontinues, then all the traditional style restau-rants may well have to provide their own appetizer bars as well!

(1) How are Californian people's eating habits changing?

[　　]

A．People are dining out less.

B．Californian restaurants are becoming less popular.

C．Most people eat less than they used to.

D．A full restaurant meal is losing popularity.

(2) All the places which serve appetizers________.

[　　]

A．have much the same menu

B．have their own particular characteristics

C．have a bar with live music

D．are located at the end of the town

(3) If you go out for an evening of appetizers, you are likely to________.

[　　]

A．need a car or a bus or other transport

B．be bored with some kinds of snacks

C．spend more time for a full meal than you would

D．eat too much meat

(4) Appetizers used to be seen as________.

[　　]

A．relatively important

B．a full meal

C．a cheap meal

D．an expensive meal

　　Having reached the highest point of our route according to plan, we discovered something the map had not told us. It was impossible to climb down into the Kingo valley. The river lay deep between mountain sides that were almost vertical（垂直）. We couldn't find any animal tracks, which usually show the best way across the country, and the slopes were covered so thickly with bushes that we could not see the nature of the ground. We had somehow to break through to the river which would give us our direction out of the mountains into the inhabited lowlands.

　　Our guide cut a narrow path through the bushes with his long knife and we followed in single file. Progress was slow. Then, when we thought we had really reached the river, we found ourselves instead on the edge of a cliff with a straight drop of 1000 feet to the water below. We climbed back up the slope and began to look for another way down. We climbed, slipped, sweated and scratched our hands to pieces and finally arrived at the river. Happily we came downhill along its bank without having to cut our way. However, after a few miles the river entered a steep-sided gap between rocks and suddenly dropped thirty-five feet over a waterfall. There was no path alongside it and no way round it.

　　Then one of the guides saw a way of overcoming the difficulty. There was a fallen tree lying upside down over the waterfall with its leafy top resting on the opposite bank below the falls. Without hesitation he climbed down the slippery trunk to show us how easy it was. Having got to the fork of the tree, he moved hand over hand along a branch for four or five feet with his legs hanging in space, then he dropped onto the flat bank the other side, throwing his arms in the air like a footballer who has scored goal, and cheerfully waving us on.

(1)Having reached the highest point on their route, the travelers expected to be able to ________.

[　　]

A．track animals to the river

B．put away the maps they had been using

C．come near to the river from a different direction

D．get down to the river without much difficulty

(2)The travelers wanted to get to the river because ________

[　　]

A．it would lead them to the waterfall

B．it would show them which way to go

C．it was the only possible way out of the mountains

D．it was a quicker way than going over the mountains

(3)To get past the waterfall the guide had to ________.

[　　]

A．use a fallen tree as a kind of bridge

B．cross the river above the waterfall

C．slide down a steep river bank

D．swing across the river from a high branch

　　When I was a boy, my father told me that he could do anything he wanted to. Dad said that he wanted to be the first to develop color prints in our city, and so he did.

　　When I was 16, Dad looked closely at the violin I played and announced that he wanted to make one. He read about violin-making, and then became a violin-maker at the age of 43. He bought the tools and materials, opened a small store and set Mom up as the shopkeeper, while he worked at a local company. He retired from the company 17 years later and continued to make violins and other instruments.

　　Dad often guessed why the Stradivarius violins sound so beautiful. Some experts claimed that it was the unique varnish (油漆)that gave those instruments their beautiful sound. Dad argued that chemists could analyze the varnish-if that were the answer.

　　One of Dad's friends asked him once which kind of wood was used to make violins. When Dad explained that the top was made of spruce, his friend said that he had an old piece of spruce Dad might be interested in. He worked for the next 12 months making a violin from the wood that his friend had given him. It proved to be a superior violin and it would become Dad's masterpiece. He was convinced that the secret of the Stradivarius sound was in the wood itself.

　　Later, the instrument was stolen. Dad's spirit was broken by the robbery, and he stopped making instruments. But he kept the music shop until he was 80 years old, selling guitars and violins.

　　My father has been gone for 14 years now. The violin has been missing for more than 25 years. Somewhere a musician is playing a late-20th-century violin with an excellent tone. The owner today may never understand why this ordinary-looking violin sounds so much like a Stradivarius.

(1)The author mentions his father's developing color prints ________.

[　　]

A．to show that his father's real interest was not in making violins

B．to prove that his father could do anything he wanted to

C．to give an example proving that his father was an inventor

D．to describe the real thing that made the author believe his father

(2)What did the author's father think about Stradivarius violins?

[　　]

A．The varnish was different from the others.

B．The way of making them was special.

C．The wood of the violins was special.

D．They could only be analyzed by chemists.

(3)From the underlined sentence, we can learn that the author's father ________.

[　　]

A．liked the violin very much

B．got crazy after this happened

C．lost interest in instruments

D．didn't want to become famous

(4)How long did the author's father live after the violin was stolen?

[　　]

(5)We can infer from the last paragraph that the author ________.

[　　]

A．really hates the thief

B．misses his father a lot

C．really wants to play the violin

D．wonders who's playing the violin now

Google Works Miracles

　　GOOGLE (www. google. torn) 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 Ya-hoo! You type almost anything, however un-clear, 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 Becomes Giant

　　YAHOO (www. yahoo, com) was the first wonder of the web, and in many re-spects, 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 per-sonal 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 buy. Yahoo now offers almost eve-rything you could want: e-mails, instant mes-sages, 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 Bei-jing, 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 Makes Buying a New Experience

　　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 mil-lion titles after adding CDs, videos, DVDs and games. It continued to add new lines of busi-ness including toys, computer software, elec-tronics, 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________.

[　　]

(3) What goods did Amazon sell when it star-ted 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 company on the web.

　　Scientific experiments can sometimes go wrong and when they do the results may range from the disastrous to the troubling. One such experiment took place in South America about fifty years ago. Whether its final consequences will cause serious damage or nothing more than a small trouble still remains to be seen.

　　The story began in 1956 when an American scientist working in Brazil decided to solve the problem of increasing the productivity of that country's bees. He imported a very active type of African bee from Tanzania and mated (交配) it with the more easy-going native variety to produce a new kind of bee.

　　The new bees worked harder and produced twice as much honey. It seemed that Professor Kerr, for that was the scientist's name,had a total success on his hands.

　　Then things began to go wrong. For some reason as yet unseen, but perhaps as a result of something in their environment, the new bees began to develop extremely attacking personalities. They became bad-tempered and easy to be angry, attacked the native bees and drove them from their living places.

　　But worse was to follow. Having taken over the countryside, the new bees, with their dangerous stings (叮), began to attack its neighbours-cats, dogs, horses, chickens and finally man himself. A long period of terror began that has so far killed a great number of animals and about 150 human beings.

　　This would have been bad enough if the bees had stayed in Brazil. But now they are on the move, heading northwards in countless millions towards Central and North Americas, and moving at the alarming speed of 200 miles a year. The countries that lie in their path are naturally worried because it looks as if nothing can be done to stop them.

(1) The results of the South American experiment ________.

[　　]

A．have caused a serious trouble

B．have proved to be wrong

C．are not yet certain

D．are not important

(2) The experiment mentioned in this passage was designed to________.

[　　]

A．increase the amount of honey in Brazil

B．make Brazilian bees more easy-going

C．increase the number of bees in Brazil

D．make African bees less active

(3) Which of the following may be the cause of the new bees' attacking personalities?

[　　]

A．Their production of honey.

B．Their hard work.

C．Their living environment.

D．Their bad temper.

(4) The last paragraph implies that

[　　]

A．the bees have been driven to Central and North Americas

B．the bees may bring about trouble in more countries

C．the bees must be stopped from moving north

D．the bees prefer to live in Brazil