“Time is a problem for children,” states a news report for a new Swiss watch. Children in some countries “learn time slowly” because “they don’t wear watches” and “parents don’t really know how to teach them time.” The children grow up with this handicap and become adults-and then can’t get to work on time. Is there an answer to this problem? Of course-it’s the Flick Flak, made by a famous Swiss watch company.

The Flick Flak is being marketed as something teaching watch for children aged 4 to 10. The watch itself does not teach children how to tell time, of course; it merely “takes their imagination” by presenting the “hour” hand as a beautiful red girl named Flak and the “minute” hand as a tall blue boy named Flick. Flick points to related “blue” minutes on the dial, while Flak points to “red” hour numbers. The characters and colors combined with parental help, are supposed to teach young children how to tell time.

The watch comes equipped with a standard battery and a nylon band (尼龙表带). Peter Lipkin, the United States sales manager for the Flick Flak, calls it “childproof: if it gets dirty you can throw the whole watch in the washing machine.” The product is being sold in select department stores in Europe, Asia and the United States for a suggested price of $25. Parents who buy the watch may discover that it is one thing to tell time; it’s quite another for them to be on time.

1.From the news report we know that ______.

A．parents are patient when teaching children time

B．parents have little idea of how to teach children time

C．children are likely to learn time quickly

D．children enjoy wearing the Flick Flak watch

2.The author doesn’t seem to believe ______.

A．children will be on time if they have not learnt how to tell time

B．a Flick Flak can help parents teach their children how to tell time

C．the Flick Flak can take children’s imagination

D．children usually have trouble telling time if they don’t wear watches

3.The underlined word handicap (Para. 1) means ______.

A．displeasure        B．discouragement     C．disappointment     D．disadvantage

4.The United State sales manager calls the new watch “childproof” because ______.

A．it is designed to teach children to be on time

B．it proves to be effective in teaching children time

C．it is made so as not to be easily damaged by children

D．it is the children’s favorite watch

完成句子（共10小题；每小题1. 5分，满分15分）

阅读下列各小题，根据括号内的汉语提示，用句末括号内的英语单词完成句子，并将答案写在答题卡上的相应题号后。

71. ________（据报道）in the newspaper, talks between the two countries are making progress. (report).  

72. You’d better paint one side of the board red, ________（另一面白色）. (white)

73. ________(消息传来) Britain’s old king died without a son. (word)

74. ________（安装了）air-conditioners, our classroom is much more comfortable than ever. (equip)

75. Only if people of all the countries are united ________（我们才能解决）the existing problems in the world. (solve)

76. My father was so satisfied with ________（我所做的）that he rewarded me with a chance to visit Shanghai Expo. (do)

77. ________ (Peter受惩罚) made all the students in his class feel uncomfortable, for he has never made such a silly mistake before  (punish)

78. With ________（这么多风景名胜要看）, I have decided to stay for another two days. (see)

79. Not only I but also Jane and Mary ________（讨厌踢）football. (tired)

80. I began to doubt my ability of learning, because________(我无论怎么努力尝试), I was unable to work out the math problem. (however)

NASA is moving ahead with plans to put a long-armed lander on Mars’ icy north pole to search for clues^① for water and possible signs of life.

The $386 million Phoenix Mars is planned to touch down in the Martian arctic in 2008. The stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy land and pick up soil samples^② to analyze. In 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter spotted evidence of ice-rich soil near the arctic surface.

Scientists hope the Phoenix mission will find clues to the geologic history of water on the Red Planet and determine whether microbes^③ existed in the ice.

Phoenix will be the first mission of the Mars Scout program, a renewed, low-cost effort to study the Red Planet. “The Phoenix mission explores new territory in the northern plains of Mars analogous to the permafrost regions on Earth,” Peter Smith said.

True to its name, Phoenix rose from the ashes of previous^④ missions. The lander for Phoenix was built to fly as part of the 2001 Mars Surveyor program. But the program broke down after the well-known disappearance of the Mars Polar Lander in 1999. The Polar Lander lost contact during a landing attempt near the planet’s south pole after its rocket engine shut off prematurely, causing the spacecraft to fall about 130 feet to almost certain destruction.

The Phoenix probe had been in storage at a Lockheed Martin clean room in Denver before it was reused for its present mission. It will carry science instruments that were designed for the Mars Surveyor program including an improved panoramic camera and a trench-digging robotic arm. Phoenix will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in August 2007 and land on the planet nine months later.

Notes:

clue  n. 线索

sample  n. 标本，样品

microbe  n. 微生物

previous  adj. 先前的

The passage mainly tells readers that _________.

        A. clues of water will be found in Phoenix

        B. Phoenix will be sent to find clues of water on Mars

        C. August 2007 will see Phoenix lift off

        D. the Mars Scout program will be carried out

The underlined word “prematurely” (paragraph 5) means _________.

        A. on time     B. behind the time      C. out of work       D. ahead of time

According to the passage, we know Phoenix will land on Mars _________.

A. in May 2008            B. in August 2007   

C. in August 2008          D. in September 2008

According to the passage, the name “Phoenix” is after the meaning of _________.

        A. rebirth         B. death        C. energy        D. hope

After Phoenix lands on Mars, we can infer it will firstly _________.

        A. find soil samples and send them to the earth

        B. look for the icy land to dig for the soil samples

        C. take photos and send them to the earth

        D. find the remains of the Mars Polar Lander

根据对话内容，从对话后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项，并在机读卡上将该项涂黑。选项中有两项多余选项。（共5小题;每小题2分,满分10分）

—Peter, are you planning to drive at Robert’s Driving School?

—Yes.   1    .

—Is it expensive?

—Well, it depends.    2    .

—I see. And is the teacher’s car new?

—Yes, but it’s not a big car, and parking is easy.

—Good.    3    .

—I failed it last week.

—Oh what a pity.    4    .

—The traffic lights were red but I didn’t see them and I couldn’t brake in time.

—    5    . You can take the test again. Tell me about your teacher. Is he friendly?

—He’s OK. He’s quite young and kind, but my father will give me my next lessons. He’s cheaper.

Disease, poverty, hate, love—Charles Dickens’ stories opened his readers eyes to the most important themes of his age. Two hundred years on, his stories still speak volumes across the world, proving that Dickens’ legacy(遗产) was far greater than just “great literature”
February 7 marks the 200^th anniversary of the writer’s birthday. To mark this date, BBC writer Alex Hudson listed six things Dickens gave the modern world. Let’s take a look at two of them.
A white Christmas
Dickens is described as “the man who invented Christmas”—not the religious festival, but the cultural aspects that we associate with the festive season today. In the early 19^th century, Christmas was barely worth mentioning, according to critic and writer Leigh Hunt. The committee which ran the Conservative Party even held ordinary business meetings on Christmas Day – unthinkable in the West nowadays, when everyone but the most necessary workers takes at least three days off.
Many people believe that Dickens’ popular descriptions of the festive period became a blueprint for generations to come. In his classic novel, A Christmas Carol, he not only put forward the idea of snow at Christmas, but also painted a picture of glowing warmth –“ home enjoyments, affections and hopes”.
In his biography of Dickens, Peter Ackroyd wrote: “ Dickens can be said to have almost single-handedly created the modern idea of Christmas.”
“Dickensian” poverty
Dickens was one of the first to take an honest look at the underclass and the poor of Victorian (the period during British Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837 to 1901) London.
He helped popularize the term “red tape” to describe situations where people in power use needless amounts of bureaucracy（官僚作风） in a way that particularly hurts the weaker and poorer members of society.
“Dickensian” has now become a powerful word for describing an unacceptable level of poverty. In 2009, when the president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in the UK wanted to talk about deprivation in some areas of Britain, she did not use words like “terrible” or “horrific”, but rather described it as “life mirroring the times of Dickens”. 
【小题1】What is the main idea of the article?