The old man told the little boy that the sun         in the east and sets in the west.

完型填空

Probably you have seen photos of the Grand Canyon. But you must go there    1   to feel its size and beauty. The Grand Canyon is one of the greatest

   2   wonders of the world.

The Colorado River made the Grand Canyon over millions of years. Slowly, the river cut down   3  hard rocks. At the same time, the land was    4  . Today the canyon is very   5   . It’s also very    6  , about 20 kilo-

metres. And    7   its height, there are different kinds of plants and animals on both sides of the canyon.

The canyon looks different at different times of the day, and   8   different seasons and weather. At sunrise, the red, gold, brown and orange colours of the rocks are    9   clear and bright. Whether you see the Grand Canyon from the top or the bottom, it will be a(n)   10   that you will never forget.

IQ（intelligence quotient智商）is a score that shows a person’s level of intelligence.

    People used to believe that some people are born with a high IQ and some aren’t.

      32  , a study by scientist at University College London has challenged（挑战）this idea. According to an article last October on the Journal Nature, scientists are beginning to think that our IQ is not a constant（不变的）score.

    The scientists tested 33 healthy young people in 2004 between the ages of 12 and 16. Then they did tests again four years later, when the same people were between 16 and 20.

    Scientists found big changes in the IQ scores between 2008 and 2004. Some  33  and some fell  34  as many as 21 points.

    To test whether these scores were meaningful, the scientists compared them with results from brain scans（扫描）. They found that the IQ changes matched changes in the structure（结构）of the subjects’ brains. “A change in 20 points is a huge  35  ,” said Professor Cathy Price, who led the research. He said it could mean the difference between an average and a  36  person. The team has not found a clear cause for these changes. However, they say it is  37  that education plays a role in changing IQ.

    “Here we have shown that children’s  38  is likely to be still developing, ” says Price. “We have to be careful not to write off  39  performers at an early stage. In fact, their IQ may improve in a few more years. ”

1.A. And            B. However      C. Besides      D. Though

2.A. rise           B. rose         C. raise            D. raised

3.A. of         B. with         C. by           D. from

4.A. difference     B. matter           C. thing            D. meaning

5.A. successful     B. gifted           C. able         D. rich

6.A. natural        B. true         C. certain          D. possible

7.A. score          B. intelligence     C. skill            D. interest

8.A. clever    B. prettier    C. nicer            D. poorer

One windy spring day, I noticed young people having fun using the wind to fly their kites. Colorful creations of different shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds flying and dancing. As the strong winds blew against the kites, a string kept them in control.
Instead of blowing away with the wind, they rose against it to achieve great heights. They shook and pulled, but the restraining (控制的) string and the cumbersome (笨重的) tail kept them in control, facing upward and against the wind. As the kites struggled against the string, they seemed to say, “Let me go! Let me go! I want to be free!” They rose beautifully even when they fought the restriction of the string. Finally, one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose(松散的). “Free at last,” it seemed to say. “Free to fly with the wind.”
Yet freedom(自由) simply put it in the control of an unkind wind. It fell down to the ground and landed in a mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. “Free at last”, free to lie powerlessly in the dirt, to be blown helplessly along the ground, and to stop lifelessly against the first obstacle (障碍物).
How much like kites we sometimes are. The Heaven gives us adversity (逆境) and rules, rules to follow from which we can grow and get strength. Some of us break away from the rules so hard that we never reach the heights we might get to. We keep part of the rules and never rise high enough to get our tails off the ground.
Let us each rise to the great heights, knowing that some of the rules that we may be angry about are in fact the strong force that helps us achieve.
【小题1】Why does the writer write the first paragraph?