In July 1994 Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, was struck by 21 pieces of a comet (彗星). When the fragments (碎片) landed in the southern part of the giant planet, the explosions(爆炸) were watched by scientists here on the earth. But what if our own planet was hit by a comet?

　The year is 2094. It has been announced that a comet is heading towards the Earth. Most of it will miss our planet, but two fragments will probably hit the southern part of the Earth. The news has caused panic.

　On 17 July, a fragment, four kilometers wide, enters the Earth's atmosphere with a huge explosion. About half of the fragment is destroyed. But the major part survives and hits the South Atlantic at 200 times the speed of sound. The sea boils and an enormous(巨大的) wave is created and spreads. The wall of water rushes towards southern Africa at 800 kilometres an hour. Cities on the African coast are totally destroyed and millions of people are drowned. The wave moves into the Indian Ocean and heads towards Asia.

　Millions of people are already dead in the southern part of the Earth, but the north won't escape for long. Tons of broken pieces are thrown into the atmosphere by the explosions. As the sun is hidden by clouds of dust, temperatures around the world fall to almost zero. Crops are ruined. Wars break out as countries fight for food. A year later civilization has collapsed(崩溃). No more than 10 million people have survived.

　Could it really happen? In fact, it has already happened more than once in the history of the Earth. The dinosaurs were on the Earth for over 160 million years. Then 65 million years ago they suddenly disappeared. Many scientists believe that the Earth was hit by a space fragment. The dinosaurs couldn't survive in the cold climate that followed and they became extinct. Will we meet the same end?

1.Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the author's description of the disaster in 2094?

A. The whole world becomes extremely cold

B. All the coastal cities in Africa are destroyed

C. The visit of the comet results in wars

D. The whole mankind becomes extinct

2.Why does the author mention dinosaurs at the end of the passage?

A. Because they could only live in the warm climate

B. Because their extinction indicates future disasters

C. Because they once dominated(控制) the earth

D. Because dinosaurs and humans never live in the same age

3. In writing the passage, the author intends to ______.

A. give an accurate description of the possible disaster in the future

B. prove that humans will sooner or later be destroyed

C. warn of a possible disaster in the future

D. tell the historical development of the Earth

4.It can be concluded that the passage is most probably part of a(n) ______.

A. article of popular science      B. news report

C. research paper                      D. horror story

Speeding off in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in for an unwelcome surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobiliser (锁止器), and a radio signal from a control centre miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again.

The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car contains a mini-cellphone, a micro- processor and memory, and a GPS (全球定位系统) satellite positioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the control centre to block the vehicle's engine management system and prevent the engine being restarted.

In the UK, a set of technical fixes is already making life harder for car thieves. 'The pattern of vehicle crime has changed,’ says Martyn Randall, a security expert. He says it would only take him a few minutes to teach a person how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10 years old.

Modern cars are far tougher to steal, as their engine management computer won't allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition (点火) key. In the UK, technologies like this have helped achieve a 31% drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997.

But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars, often by getting hold of the owner's keys. And key theft is responsible for 40% of the thefts of vehicles fitted with a tracking system.

If the car travels 100 metres without the driver confirming their ID, the system will send a signal to an operations centre that it has been stolen. The hundred metres minimum avoids false alarms due to inaccuracies in the GPS signal.

Staff at the centre will then contact the owner to confirm that the car really is missing, and keep police informed of the vehicle's movements via the car's GPS unit.

66. What's the function of the remote immobilizer fitted to a car?

A .To allow the car to lock automatically when stolen.

B. To prevent the car thief from restarting it once it stops.

C. To help the police make a surprise attack on the car thief.

D. To prevent car theft by sending a radio signal to the car owner.

67. By saying 'The pattern of vehicle crime has changed' (Lines 1-2. Para. 3). Martyn Randall suggests that ____.

A. self-prepared tools are no longer enough for car theft

B. the thief has to make use of computer technology

C. it takes a longer time for the car thief to do the stealing

D. the thief has lost interest in stealing cars over 10 years old

68. What is essential in making a modern car tougher to steal?

A. A GPS satellite positioning receiver.　      B. A unique ID card.   

C. A special cellphone signal.                D. A coded ignition key.

69. Why does the tracking system set a 100-metre minimum before sending an alarm to the operations centre?

A. To give the driver time to contact the operations centre.

B. To allow for possible errors in the GPS system.

C. To keep police informed of the car's movements.

D. To leave time for the operations centre to give an alarm.

70. What will the operations centre do first after receiving an alarm?

A. Start the tracking system.         B. Locate the missing car.

C. Contact the car owner.　         D. Block the car engine

The motor vehicle has killed and disabled more people in its brief history than any bomb or weapon ever invented. Much of the blood on the street flows essentially from uncivil behavior of drivers who refuse to respect the legal and moral rights of others. So the massacre (大屠杀) on the road may be regarded as a social problem .

In fact, the enemies of society on wheels are rather harmless people just ordinary people acting carelessly, you might say. But it is a principle both of law and common morality that carelessness is no excuse when one’s actions could bring death or damage to others. A minority of the killers go even beyond carelessness to total negligence (疏忽).

Researchers have pointed out that as many as 80 percent of all automobile accidents can result from the psychological condition of the driver. Emotional upsets can affect drivers’ reactions, slow their judgment, and blind them to dangers that might otherwise be clear. The experts warn that it is important for every driver to make a conscious effort to keep one’s emotion under control.

Yet the irresponsibility that accounts for much of the problem is not only caused by drivers. Street walkers regularly go against traffic rules, they are to blame in most vehicle walker accidents , and many cyclists even believe that they don’t obey the basic rules of the road.

Significant legal advances have been made towards safer driving in the past few years. Safety standards for vehicle have been raised both at the point of manufacture (制造业) and through regular road-worthiness inspections (车辆上路安检). In addition, speed limits have been lowered. Due to these measures, the accident rate has decreased. But the accident experts still worry because there has been little or no improvement in the way drivers behave. The only real and lasting solution, say the experts, is to convince people that driving is a skilled task requiring constant care and concentration. Those who fail to do all these things present a threat to those with whom they share the road.

1.The following is mentioned as being responsible for the road accidents except        .

A. careless bicycle riders        B. people walking in the street

C. irresponsible drivers D. irresponsible manufacturers of automobiles

2.Why does the author mention the psychological condition of the driver in Paragraph 3?

A. To give an example of the various reasons for road accidents.

B. To show how important it is for drivers to be emotionally healthy.

C. To show some of the inaccurate statements by researchers.

D. To show the hidden tensions in the course of driving

3.What is the author’s main purpose in writing this passage?

A. To show that the motor vehicle is a very dangerous invention.

B. To promote understanding between careless drivers and street walkers.

C. To discuss traffic problems and suggest possible solutions.

D. To warn drivers of the importance of safe driving.

4.Which of the following best reflects the author’s attitude toward a future without traffic accident problems?

A. Doubtful yet still longing for.       B. Happy and rather confident.

C. Surprised and very pleased.         D. Disappointed and not concerned.

To take the apple as a forbidden fruit is the most unlikely story the Christians（基督教徒）ever cooked up. For them, the forbidden fruit from Eden is evil（邪恶的）. So when Columbus brought the tomato back from South America, a land mistakenly considered to be Eden, everyone jumped to be the obvious conclusion. Wrongly taken as the apple of Eden, the tomato was shut out of the door of Europeans.
What made it particularly terrifying was its similarity to the mandrake, a plant that was thought to have come from Hell（地狱）.What earned the plant its awful reputation was its roots which looked like a dried-up human body occupied by evil spirits. Tough the tomato and the mandrake were quite different except that both had bright red or yellow fruit, the general population considered them one and the same, too terrible to touch.
Cautious Europeans long ignored the tomato, and until the early 1700s most of the Western people continued to drag their feet. In the 1880s, the daughter of a well-known plant expert wrote that the most interesting part of an afternoon tea at her father’s house had been the “introduction of this wonderful new fruit—or is it a vegetable?” As late as the twentieth century some writers still classed tomatoes with mandrakes as an “evil fruit”.
But in the end tomatoes carried the day. The hero of the tomato was an American named Robert  Johnson, and when he was publicly going to eat the tomato in 1820, people journeyed for hundreds of miles to watch him drop dead. “What are you afraid of?” he shouted. “I’ll show you fools that these things are good to eat!” Then he bit into the tomato. Some people fainted. But he survived and, according to a local story, set up a tomato-canning factory.
【小题1】The tomato was shut out of the door of early Europeans mainly because ______.

   A little girl was given so many picture books on her seventh birthday that her father. Who should have run his office and let her mother run the home, thought his daughter should give one or two of her new books to a little neighbor boy named Robert, who had visited their home sometimes.

   Now, taking books, or anything else, from a little girl is like taking sweets from a baby, but the father of the little girl had his way and Robert got a couple of her books. “After all, that leaves you with nine,” said the father, who thought he was a child psychologist（心理学家）,and couldn’t shout his big stupid mouth on the subject.

  A few weeks later, the father went to his library to look up “father” in The Oxford English Dictionary, eager to enjoy the praise of fatherhood through the centuries, but he couldn’t find volume（册）F-G and then he discovered that others were missing too. A-B,L-M, V-Z. He looked everywhere for them, and learned what had happened to the four missing volumes.

   “A man came to the door this morning” said the little daughter, “and he didn’t know how to get from here to Torrington or from Torrington to Wintec, and he was a kind man, much nicer than Robert, and so I gave him four of your books After all, there are thirteen volumes in the Oxford English Dictionary, and that leaves you with nine.

According to the writer’s opinion,      

A. a mother should keep house and father educate the children

B. A father should run the home as well as his office

C. A father should run his office and leave his children to his wife

D. A father shouldn’t only run his office but educate his children

“The father of the little girl has his way” means       

the father went out to work in his office 

B. the father decided to the girl a lesson

C. the father still did what he wanted to.

Considering himself a psychologist, the father        

couldn’t stop discussing the subject    

B. couldn’t helping（禁不住）talking about the subject

couldn’t refuse to listen to the subject  

D. couldn’t give an explanation of he subject

What’s still unclear to us in the story?

A. The exact number of the picture books the girl had received.

B. How many volumes the Oxford English Dictionary includes.

C. Whether each volume of the dictionary includes entries beginning with two letters.

D. Whether the father knew his daughter’s mind well

What do we know about the little girl?

A. She liked Robert very much.            B. She liked reading dictionary

She dislikes what her father did to her picture books.  

D. She is a kind and helpful girl.