Japanese people,who never miss a chance to be photographed,were lining up to get their pictures on a postage stamp．Vanity（虚荣）stamps with personal photographs went on sale for the first time in Japan as part of an international postage stamp exhibition．The customer’s photo was taken with a digital camera and then printed on stamp sheets,a process that takes about five minutes．Sold in a sheet of 10 stamps for $8．80,little more than the cost of lunch in Tokyo,each stamp printed a different scene from a traditional painting along with the photo．
The stamps can be used normally to mail a letter,and postal officials hope they will help encourage interest in letter writing in the Internet age．“Certainly e-mail is a useful method of communication,but letters are fun in a different way,”said Hatsumi Shimizu an official in the Post Ministry．“We want to show young people that letters can be fun too．”[
While similar stamp sheets appeared in Australia in 1999 and are now sold in some nations and territories,Japan’s fondness for commemorative photos is likely to make them especially popular here．Indeed,officials had prepared 1 000 sheets but they were sold out in less than 30 minutes．Although the stamps are currently only available as a special service during the exhibition,postal officials said they may start selling them on a regular basis in the future．The best title of this passage might be______．
| A．Never Miss a Chance to be Photographed |
| B．Your Own Face on a Postage Stamp |
| C．First Japanese Postage Stamps with a Photo |
| D．Letters are as Fun as E-mails |
By saying“little more than the cost of lunch in Tokyo”,the author really means______．
| A．this service is not very expensive |
| B．the cost of this service is very high |
| C．food in Tokyo is very dear |
| D．$8．80 is a very small amount of money |
The purpose of this activity is______．
| A．to make the international postage stamp exhibition more interesting |
| B．to make more stamps for normal use |
| C．to draw interest in writing letters |
| D．to satisfy Japan’s fondness of commemorative photos |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Japanese people like to take photos． |
| B．This kind of stamps must be used to mail letters． |
| C．Japanese people can get this kind of stamps easily after the stamp exhibition． |
| D．This service is more popular in Japan than in other places． |
It's not quite a rat. Nor is it a squirrel, or a mouse. It's definitely a rodent (啮齿目动物), and it's also a brand-new family of mammals.
The locals of the Southeast Asian country of Laos call the creature a kha-nyou (ga-nyou). The kha-nyou have long body hair, short legs, and a hairy tail less thick than a squirrel's. They're vegetarians living in the rocky hills of Laos, and they come out at night, but for more information, you'll have to ask the Lao people.
"It was for sale on a table next to some vegetables. I knew immediately it was something I had never seen before," said Robert Timmins, a researcher for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Timmins was working in Laos to stop people from selling endangered animals when he spotted the species. Criminals who trade illegal wildlife can make a lot of money, but they also push the animals closer to disappearing from the planet.
The kha-nyou live in karsts, or rough rock. Mark Robinson, a scientist with the World Wildlife Foundation, set out with Lao villagers to find a few more of the rodents for study. They climbed onto a karst, trapped with rice, and caught several.
“To find something so unusual in this day and age is just extraordinary,” said Timmins. “For all we know, this could be the last remaining animal family left to be discovered.”
It’s a big deal to discover an entirely new family of animals. Humans, for instance, belong to the same family as great apes, chimpanzees, and gorillas. So even though kha-nyous look like rats, they’re really very different. The last time scientists discovered a new family of mammals may have been in the 1970s, when they found new bats in Thailand.
Timmins seems to have the gift for finding new animals in Laos—he discovered a new species of rabbit there in 1999.
Scientists call the kha-nyou Laonastes aenigmamus, which means “mysterious mouse that lives among the stones.”But if that's too hard, Timmins and Robinson suggest you call them “rock rats”.Which of the following is not the name for this new creature?
| A．Karsts. | B．Kha-nyou. |
| C．rock rats. | D．Laonastes aenigmamus. |
Which of the following cannot describe the new species of rodent?
| A．They live among the rocky hills of Laos. |
| B．They live on meat of other animals. |
| C．They look like rats but are of different kind. |
| D．They are of the latest discovery of a new species. |
Which of the following is the last discovery of new species of animal except the rodent?
| A．A new kind of bats. | B．Great apes. |
| C．A new kind of squirrel. | D．A new kind of rabbit. |
It implies in the passage that ______.
| A．finding a new animal family in Southeast Asia is easy |
| B．finding a new animal family in modern time is extremely rare |
| C．in Southeast Asia new species of animals are often discovered |
| D．animals that look like the same are of the same family |
SPORTS EVENTS
BASKETBALL:
Central Sports Centre. City Road.
All Stars vs Rockets, Saturday 8: 30 p.m. $12
Northerners vs Tigers, Sunday noon $14
BUSHWALKING (越野走)：
Meet at Wanda Station, Saturday 9:00 a.m. sharp for 3-hour walk to Canary Mountains. $7, ph 341-5432 Meet at Westley Station, Sunday 9:00 a.m. sharp for a full day walk to Wombak Valley. $5, ph 341-8643. Bring your own lunch.
FOOTBALL:
St Martins Sports Centre
St Martins vs Doonsberg, Saturday 2:00 p.m. $8
Eastside Central vs Light Hill, Sunday 2:00 p.m. $8
Neill Park Recreation Centre
Neill Park vs Robinson, Saturday 2:00 p.m. $11
Essen vs Springwood, Sunday 2:00 p.m. $11
LAWN BOWLS(草坪滚木球）：
Tans Town B.C
Tans Town vs White Vale, Saturday 9:00 p.m. $10
Wake Hill B.C.
Wake Hill vs Colls, Saturday 2: 00 p.m. $9According to the passage, the most popular time for the sporting events may be ____.
| A．Sat 8:30 pm | B．Sun noon |
| C．Sun 2:00 pm | D．Sat 2:00 pm |
The purpose of the passage is to let people ____.
| A．compare the prices of the matches |
| B．find the nearest place to watch a match |
| C．know the sport matches and come to watch them |
| D．spend their money on these matches wisely |
You may find the passage most probably in a ____.
| A．handbook | B．newspaper about match reviews |
| C．magazine about ball matches | D．notice |
If you have $18, you can go to watch both ____.
| A．Walk Hill vs Colls and Essen vs Springwood |
| B．All Stars vs Rockets and the bushwalking at Westley Station |
| C．Neill Park vs Robinson and Eastside Central vs Light Hill |
| D．St Matins vs Doonsberg and Northerners vs Tigers |
I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn’t think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.
I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.
It takes confidence to make a new start — there’s a dark period in-between where you’re neither one thing nor the other. You’re out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you’re too ashamed to say, “Well, I’m writing a navel, but I’m not quite sure if I’m going to get there.” My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.
Then I met an agent（代理商）who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.
The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal — that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for. It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck — of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract（合同）of the publisher — to be a published writer — is unbelievably rewarding.The author decided to write a novel ______.
| A．to finish the writing course | B．to realize her own dream |
| C．to satisfy readers’ wish | D．to earn more money |
How did the writer feel halfway with the novel?
| A．Disturbed. | B．Ashamed. |
| C．Confident | D．Uncertain. |
What does the author mainly want to tell readers in the last paragraph?
| A．It pays to stick to one’s goal. |
| B．Hard work can lead to success. |
| C．She feels like being unexpectedly lucky. |
| D．There is no end in sight when starting to do something. |
People are being tricked into Facebook with the promise of a fun, free service without realizing they’re paying for it by giving up loads of personal information.
Most Facebook users don’t realize this is happening. Even if they know what the company is up to, they still have no idea what they’re paying for Facebook because people don’t really know what their personal data is worth.
The biggest problem, however, is that the company keeps changing the rules early on you keep everything private. That was the great thing about Facebook. You could create your own little private network. Last year. The company changed its privacy rules so that many things; your city, your photo, your friends’ names were set, by default (默认)to be shared with everyone on the Internet.
According to Facebook’s vice-president Elliot Schrage, the company is simply making changes to improve its service, and if people don’t share information，they have a “less satisfying experience”.
Some critics think this is more about Facebook looking to make more money. In original business model, which involved selling ads and putting them. At the side of the pages totally, who wants to took at ads when they’re online connecting with their friends?
The privacy issue has already landed Facebook in hot water in Washington. In April. Senator Charles Schumer called on Facebook to change its privacy policy. He also urged the Federal Trade Commission to set guidelines for social networking sites. “I think the senator rightly communicated that we had not been clear about what the new products were and how people could choose to use them or not to use them,” Schrage admits.
I suspect that whatever Facebook has done so far to invade our privacy, it’s only the beginning, which is why I’m considering cancelling my account. Facebook is a handy site, but I’m upset by the idea that my information is in the hands of people I don’t know. That’s too high a price to pay.What do we learn about Facebook from the first paragraph?
| A．It is a website that sends messages to users who want to get married. |
| B．It earns money by putting on advertisements. |
| C．It makes money by selling its users’ personal data. |
| D．It provides loads of information to its users. |
What does the author say about most Facebook users?
| A．They are unwilling to give up their personal information. |
| B．They don’t know their personal data enriches Facebook. |
| C．They don’t identify themselves when using the website. |
| D．They care very little about their personal information. |
Why does Facebook make changes to its rules according to Elliot Schrage?
| A．To provide better service to its users. |
| B．To obey the Federal guidelines. |
| C．To improve its users’ connection |
| D．To expand its business. |
Why does the author plan to cancel his Facebook account?
| A．He is dissatisfied with its present service. |
| B．He finds many of its users untrustworthy. |
| C．He doesn’t want his personal data badly used. |
| D．He is upset by its frequent rule changes. |
The drug store was closing for the night. Young Alfred Higgins, the shop-assistant, was ready to go home. Mr. Carr, the boss, stared at him and said: “Hold on, Alfred. Maybe you'd be good enough to take the things out of your pockets and leave them here before you go.” Alfred's face got red. After a little hesitation, he took out what he had stolen. Mr. Carr said, “Maybe I should call your mother and let her know I'm going to have to put you in prison.”
Alfred thought his mother would come rushing in, eyes burning with anger. But, to his surprise, she arrived wearing a smile. “Hello, I'm Alfred's mother. Is he in trouble?” she said. Mr. Carr was surprised, too. He had expected Alfred's mother to come in nervously, shaking with fear, asking with wet eyes for a mercy for her son. But no, she was most calm, quiet and pleasant and was making Mr. Carr feel guilty…. Soon Mr. Carr was shaking his head in agreement with what she was saying. “Of course”, he said, “I don't want to be cruel. You are right. Sometimes, a little good advice is the best thing for a boy at certain times in his life and it often takes the youths long time to get sense into their heads.” And he warmly shook Mrs. Higgins's hand.
Back home, without even looking at Alfred, she said, “You are a bad luck. It is one thing after another, always has been. Why do you stand there so stupidly? Go to bed.” In his bedroom, Alfred heard his mother in the kitchen. There was no shame in him, just pride in his mother's strength. He felt he must tell her how great she was. As he got to the kitchen, he saw his mother drinking a cup of tea. He was shocked by what he saw. His mother's face was a frightened, broken one. It was not the same cool, bright face he saw earlier in the drug store. As she lifted the tea cup, her hand shook. And some of the tea splashed on the table. Her lips moved nervously. She looked very old. He watched his mother without making a sound. The picture of his mother made him want to cry. He felt his youth coming to an end. He saw all the troubles he brought his mother in her shaking hand and the deep lines of worry in her grey face. It seemed to him for the first time he had ever really seen his mother.Which of the following is probably said by Mrs. Higgins while talking to Mr. Carr?
| A．“Please, for God's sake, you know, he is just a kid.” |
| B．“I can't believe it! You are treating my son like that!” |
| C．“You know, it takes time for a youth to truly grow up.” |
| D．“Punishment makes sense because it teaches about the law.” |
What does the underlined phrase "his mother's strength"(Para. 3) refer to?
| A．Mrs. Higgins's calmness and communicating skills. |
| B．Mrs. Higgins's attitude towards parental sufferings. |
| C．Mrs. Higgins's love and care for her son Alfred. |
| D．Mrs. Higgins's greatness as a woman. |
After the incident, young Alfred would probably ________.
| A．feel ashamed of her mother |
| B．change his attitudes towards life |
| C．learn to live an independent life |
| D．hate Mr. Carr for hurting her mother |
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