Cowboys’ favorite things are their horses and their hats. The cowboy’s best friend is his horse. The horse and the cowboy are together before the sun comes up. They are often together long after the sun goes down. After a time they get to know each other better than most people know one another.

Cowboys really like the hats they wear. Most of the cowboys pay a lot of money for their hats, even up to one hundred dollars. Cowboys often work four months to pay for hats, but they usually get their money’s worth. Cowboys’ hats last years and years.

1. From the text we know cowboys must ride         .

A. only a few hours a day                    B. once a week

C. many hours every day                        D. day and night

2. Which is wrong according to the passage?

A. The first sentence is the topic sentence of the whole passage.

B. In the sentence “After a time they get to know…”, “they” refers to cowboys.

C. “The cowboy’s best friend is his horse” is the topic sentence of the first paragraph.

D. “Cowboys really like the hats they wear” is the topic sentence of the second paragraph.

3. What does “They usually get their money’s worth” mean in the text?

A. The hats are usually very expensive.

B. The hats cost little money.

C. The hats usually cost a lot, because cowboys like them.

D. They don’t think they waste their money

As motorways become more and more blocked up with traffic, a new generation on flying cars will be needed to ferry people along skyways. That is the conclusion of engineers from the US space agency and aeronautical firms, who envision future commuters traveling by “skycar”.
These could look much like the concept skycar shown in the picture, designed by Boeing research and development. However, such vehicles could be some 25 years from appearing on the market. Efforts to build flying vehicles in the past have not been very successful. Such vehicles would not only be expensive and require the skills of a trained pilot to fly, but there are significant engineering challenges involved in developing them. “When you try to combine them you get the worst of both worlds: a very heavy, slow, expensive vehicle that’s hard to use,” said Mark Moore, head of the personal air vehicle(PAV) division of the vehicle systems program at Nasa’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, US. But Boeing is also considering how to police the airways-and prevent total pandemonium(吵杂狂乱的喧闹)-if thousands of flying cars enter the skies.
“The neat, gee-whiz part is thinking about what the vehicle itself would look like,” said Dick Paul, a vice president with Phantom Works, Boeing’s research and development arm. “But we’re trying to think through all the consequences of what it would take to deploy(散开) a fleet of these.”
Past proposals to solve this problem have included artificial intelligence systems to prevent collisions between air traffic. Nasa is working on flying vehicles with the initial goal of transforming small plane travel. Small planes are generally costly, loud, and require months of training and lots of money to operate, making flying to work impractical for most people. But within five years, Nasa researchers hope to develop technology for a small plane that can fly out of regional airports, costs less than $100,000(£55,725), is as quiet as a motorcycle and as simple to operate as a car.
Although it would not have any road-driving capabilities, it would bring this form of travel within the grasp of a wider section of people. The new technology would automate many of the pilot’s functions. This Small Aircraft Transportation System(Sats) would divert pressure away from the “hub-and-spoke(中心辐射型)” model of air travel. Hub-and-spoke refers to the typically US model of passengers being processed through large “hub” airports and then on to secondary flights to “spoke” airports near their final destinations.
【小题1】The best title for this text would be      .

Casablanca, Sep. 24
A flood swept across the coastal plain about 100 miles southwest of here, killing hundreds of Moroccans in a market place yesterday morning.
Reports from the area said 218 bodies had been counted, and many of the people were missing.
The flood followed heavy rains, which filled the coastal plain and dry river beds and caused them to overflow. The flood, several feet high, hit the village of Khemis Nagua at midmorning yesterday as farmers from the surrounding area joined town people in an open market place. The roaring waters swept the villager’s living places, the market sheds （棚子），shoppers，cattle and farm tools for miles across the plain.
The flood was over almost as soon as it started, the reports said, as the water swept out to sea. Rescue workers quickly moved into the area from Safi, about 25 miles further south.
【小题1】You can learn from the text that ________.

We all remember seeing hitchhikers（搭便车的人）, standing by the side of the road, thumb sticking out, waiting for a lift. But it is getting rare nowadays. What killed hitchhiking? Safety is often mentioned as a reason. Movies about murderous hitchhikers and real-life crime have put many drivers off picking up hitchhikers. That no single women picked me up on my journey to Manchester no doubt reflects the safety fear: a large, strangely dressed man is seen as dangerous.
But the reason may be more complex: hitchhiking happens where people don’t have cars and transport services are poor. Plenty of people still hitchhike in Poland and Romania. Perhaps the rising level of car ownership in the UK means the few people lift hitchhiking are usually considered strange. Why can’t they afford cars? Why can’t they take the coach or the train?
Three-quarters of the UK population have access to a car; many of the remainder will be quite old. The potential hitchhiking population is therefore small. Yet my trip proves it’s still possible to hitchhike. The people who picked me up were very interesting-lawyer, retired surgeon, tank commander, carpenter, man who live in an isolated farmhouse and a couple living up in the mountains. My conclusion is that only really interesting people are mad enough to pick up fat blokes in red,
spotted scarves. Most just wanted to do someone a good turn; a few said they were so surprised to see a hitchhiker that they couldn’t help stopping.
The future of hitchhiking most likely lies with car-sharing organized over the Internet, via sites such as hitchhikers. org. But for now, you can still stick your thumb out(actually, I didn’t do much of that, preferring just to hold up my destination sign) and people-wonderful, caring, sharing, unafraid people-will stop.
In the UK, with its cheap coaches and reasonable rail service, I don’t think I’ll make a habit of it. But having enjoyed it so much, I’m ready now to do a big trip across Europe and beyond. In the 1970s a female friend of my wife’s hitchhiked to India. How wonderful it would be to have another go, though Afghanistan might be a challenge. I wish I’d got that tank commander’s mobile number.
【小题1】The author tried to hitchhike but was rejected by single women drivers because_____________ .

Do fight against painting pollution
Do you know what kind of things the young people are reading? More and more 21_  and teachers have noticed another kind of pollution, which comes from the printed papers 22   on streets.
These printed things  23 newspapers but have hardly anything to do with _24_. You can only find reading materials badly made up there—some are too strange for anyone to   25  ; others are frightening stories of something _26_. However, many of the young readers are getting interested in such 27  reading, which 28  them what they should pay for their breakfast and brings them nightmares and immoral ideas in  29 . Homework is left 30  and daily games lost.
These sellers stand about on streets selling their papers well. The writers, publishers and printers,  31  they are, we never know, are  32  their silent money.
The sheep-skinned wolf’s story seems to have been forgotten once again. Why not 33  this kind of thing? Yes, both teachers and parents have asked each other for more strict control of the young readers. 34  , the more you want to forbid it, the more they want to have a look at it.  35  you may even find several children, driven by their curious natures,  36  one patched paper, which has traveled from hand to hand.
It really does 37 to our society. It has already formed a sort of moral pollution. The  38   teachers and parents need more powerful support in their protection of the young generation. At the same time, the young   39    need more interesting books to help them  40  those ugly paper.