More than 50,000,000 people live in the rainforests of the world and most of them do not hurt the forest they live in. They eat the fruits that grow on the forest trees, but they do not cut them down. They kill some animals to eat, but they do not destroy them.
When we cut down the rainforests, we destroy these forest people, too. In 1900, there were 1,000,000 forest people in the Amazon forest. In 1980, there were only 200,000.
The Yanomami live along the rivers of the rainforest in the north of Brazil. They have lived in the rainforest for about 10,000 years and they use more than 2,000 different plants for food and for medicine. But in 1988, someone found gold in their forest, and suddenly 45,000 people came to the forest and began looking for gold. They cut down the forest to make roads. They made more than a hundred airports. The Yanomami people lost land and food. Many died because new diseases came to the forest with the strangers.
The Yanomami people tried to save their forest, because it was their home. But the people who wanted gold were stronger.
Many forest people try to save their forests. Chico Mendes was famous in Brazil because he wanted to keep the forest for his people. “I want the Amazon forest to help all of us-forest people Brazil, and all the Earth,” he said. A few months later, in December 1988, people who wanted to cut down the forest killed Chico Mendes.
In Borneo, people were cutting down the forest of the Penan people to sell the wood. The Penan people tried to save their rainforest. They made blockades across the roads into the forest. In 1987, they closed fifteen roads for eight months. No one cut down any trees during that time.
In Panama, the Kuna people saved their forest. They made a forest park which tourists pay to visit.
The Gavioes people of Brazil use the forest, but they protect it as well. They find and sell the Brazil nuts(坚果) which grow on the forest trees.The number of the people living in the Amazon forest in 1980 was _______ of that in1900.
| A．half | B．one-third | C．two-fifths | D．one-fifth |
The people who _______ have destroyed the rainforest of the Yanomami.
| A．pick fruits and kill animals to eat |
| B．use plants for food and medicine |
| C．have lived there for about ten thousand years |
| D．made the roads and the airports |
Those people built roads and airports in order to ________.
| A．carry away the gold conveniently |
| B．make people there live a better life |
| C．stop spreading the new diseases |
| D．develop the tourism(旅游业) there |
We can infer the underlined word blockades probably means:
| A．包围 | B．障碍 | C．街区 | D．通道 |
From the passage, we learn that _________.
| A．we need wood to build houses, so we have to cut down trees |
| B．the rainforest people have done something to protect their home |
| C．to humans, gold is more important than trees |
| D．we mustn’t cut down any trees or kill any animals |
Computer programmer David Jones earned $ 150,000 a year designing new computer games, yet he cannot find a bank prepared to let him have a check card . Instead, he has been told to wait another two years until he is 18.
He works for a small firm in Liverpool, where most young people of his age are finding jobs. David’s biggest headache is what to do with his money. Though he has high payment, he cannot drive a car, or get credit cards.
David got his job four months ago, a year after leaving school with six O-Levels(普通成绩) and working for a time in a computer shop. “I got the job because the people who run the firm knew I had already written some programs,” he said. “I suppose $150,000 sounds a lot but I hope it will come to more than that this year.” He spends some of his money on records and clothes, and gives his mother $20 a week as he lives with his parents. But most of his spare time is spent working. “Unfortunately, computing was not part of our studies at school,” he said. “ But I had been studying it in books and magazines for four years in my spare time. I knew what I wanted to do and never considered staying on at school. Most people in this business are fairly young, anyway. I would like to earn a million and I suppose early retirement is a possibility. You never know when the market might disappear.why is David so different from other young people of his age?
| A．He has got a job. |
| B．He lives at home with his parents |
| C．He does not get out much. |
| D．He earns a high payment |
David’s greatest problem is that _____.
| A．he can’t be treated as an adult (grown-up) by the bank |
| B．he can’t make as many games as he wishes |
| C．he doesn’t know what to buy with the money |
| D．he is too young to drive a car |
He was employed by the company because _____
| A．he had worked in a computer shop |
| B．he had written some computer programs |
| C．he is clever and works hard at his lessons |
| D．he had learnt computer from books and magazines |
He left school after taking six O-Levels because ____.
| A．he was afraid of getting too old to start computing |
| B．he didn’t enjoy school |
| C．he wanted to work with computers |
| D．he wanted to earn a lot of money. |
Why does David think he might retire early?
| A．He thinks computer games might not always sell so well. |
| B．He wants to stop working when he is a millionaire. |
| C．One has to be young to write computer programs |
| D．He thinks his firm might close down. |
Fish have ears. Really. They're quite small and have no opening to the outside world carrying sound through the body. For the past seven years, Simon Thorrold, a university professor, has been examining fish ears, small round ear bones called otoliths.
As fish grow, so do their otoliths. Each day, their otoliths gain a ring of calcium carbonate(碳酸钙).By looking through a microscope and counting these rings, Thorrold can determine the exact age of a young fish. As a fish gets older, its otoliths no longer get daily rings. Instead, they get yearly rings, which can also be counted, giving information about the fish's age, just like the growth rings of a tree.
Ring counting is nothing new to fish scientists. But Thorrold has turned to a new direction. They're examining the chemical elements of each otolith ring.
The daily ring gives us the time, but chemistry tells us about the environment in which the fish swam on any given day. These elements tell us about the chemistry of the water that the fish was in. It also says something about water temperature, which determines how much of these elements will gather within each otolith ring.
Thorrold can tell, for example, if a fish spent time in the open ocean before entering the less salty water of coastal areas. He can basically tell where fish are spending their time at any given stage of history.
In the case of the Atlantic croaker, a popular saltwater food fish, Thorrold and his assistant have successfully followed the travelling of young fish from mid-ocean to the coast, a journey of many hundreds of miles.
This is important to managers in the fish industry, who know nearly nothing about the whereabouts of the young fish for most food fish in the ocean. Eager to learn about his technology, fish scientists are now lending Thorrold their ears.What can we learn about fish ears from the text?
| A．They are small soft rings. |
| B．They are openings only on food fish. |
| C．They are not seen from the outside. |
| D．They are not used to receive sound. |
Why does the writer compare the fish to trees?
| A．Trees gain a growth ring each day. |
| B．Trees also have otoliths. |
| C．Their growth rings are very small. |
| D．They both have growth rings. |
The Atlantic croaker is ___________.
| A．a fish research | B．a fishing company |
| C．an ocean area | D．a fish |
Why is it important to study the chemistry of otolith rings?
| A．The elements of the otoliths can tell the history of the sea. |
| B．Chemical contents of otoliths can tell how fast fish can swim. |
| C．We can know more about fish and their living environment. |
| D．Scientists can know exactly how old a fish is. |
How would you understand “fish scientists are now lending Thorrold their ears”?
| A．They are very interested in Thorrold's research findings. |
| B．They want to know where they can find fish. |
| C．They lend their fish for chemical studies. |
| D．They wonder if Thorrold can find growth rings from their ears. |
“One of my actors is sick! He has just one line and you’re the only one who fits his clothes!” One afternoon, the school drama director suddenly shouted to me. She seemed so nervous and worried that I felt sorry for her and said, “Ok”.
“You will be fine. It's easy!” She said. But it wasn’t easy at all. On the stage, four other actors and actresses spoke their lines, and I opened my mouth. Nothing came out. I couldn’t even breathe. I just wanted to leave. The next thing I knew, I was running off the stage.
As I was running off the stage, I accidentally knocked over a glass of grape juice that was on a table. The purple juice hit the girl next to me --- Andrea, the leading actress of the drama. She gave me a nasty look. I thought she was going to kill me!
But then, Andrea quickly said, “Darling, you’re so silly! Let's toast(干杯) to my darling’s silliness! Cheers!” She grabbed another glass of grape juice and drank it. The other actor quickly followed Andrea’s lead and saved the scene. The audience thought my mistake was part of the play!
I apologized to everyone after the play. To my surprise, they were not angry with me. They told me, “It’s all a part of being on stage.” I could be wrong, but I think I liked being on stage. I think I will try again.Which of the following was a problem in the story?
| A．Andrea was the leading actress of the drama. |
| B．Andrea drank the grape juice. |
| C．The writer had only one line. |
| D．The writer forgot his line. |
There were ___________ actors and actresses on the stage.
| A．three | B．four | C．five | D．six |
From the passage, we know that Andrea was a ________ leading actress.
| A．silly | B．pretty |
| C．quick-minded | D．warm-hearted |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．The writer made Andrea’s dress dirty. |
| B．The audience knew something was wrong. |
| C．The school drama director asked the writer to play a role. |
| D．The writer said sorry to the drama club. |
The writer will most probably _________ in the future.
| A．join the drama club |
| B．dislike Andrea |
| C．stay away from the stage |
| D． help Andrea wash her clothes. |
That cold January night, it seemed I was growing sick of my life in San Francisco. There I was, walking home at one in the morning after a tiring practice at the theater. With opening night only a week away, I was still learning my lines. I was having trouble dealing with my part-time job at the bank and my acting at night at the same time. As I walked, I thought seriously about giving up both acting and San Francisco. City life had become too much for me.
As I walked down empty streets under tall buildings, I felt very small and cold. I began running, both to keep warm and to keep away any possible robbers(抢劫犯). Very few people were still out except a few sad-looking homeless people under blankets.
About a block from my apartment, I heard a sound behind me. I turned quickly, half expecting to see someone with a knife or a gun. The street was empty. All I saw was a shining streetlight. Still, the noise had made me nervous, so I started to run faster. Not until I reached my apartment building and unlocked the door did I realize what the noise had been. It had been my wallet falling to the sidewalk.
Suddenly I wasn’t cold or tired anymore. I ran out of the door and back to where I’d heard the noise. Although I searched the sidewalk anxiously for fifteen minutes, my wallet was nowhere to be found.
Just as I was about to give up the search, I heard the garbage truck(垃圾车) pull up to the sidewalk next to me. When a voice called from the inside, “Alisa Camacho?” I thought I was dreaming. How could this man know my name? The door opened, and out jumped a small red-haired man with an amused look in his eyes. “Is this what you’re looking for?” he asked, holding up a small square shape.
It was nearly 3 a.m. by the time I got into bed. I wouldn’t get much sleep that night, but I had got my wallet back. I also had got back some enjoyment of city life. I realized that the city couldn’t be a bad place as long as people were willing to help each other.How did the writer feel when she was walking home after work?
| A．Cold and sick |
| B．Lucky and hopeful |
| C．Satisfied and cheerful |
| D．Disappointed and helpless |
From the first paragraph (段落), we learn that the writer was busy_____.
| A．solving her problem at the bank |
| B．taking part in various city jobs |
| C．learning acting in an evening school |
| D．preparing for the first night show |
On her way home the writer_____
| A．lost her wallet unknowingly |
| B．was stopped by a garbage truck driver |
| C．was robbed of her wallet by a man with a knife |
| D．found some homeless people following her |
In the fifth paragraph, why did the writer say she was dreaming?
| A．Someone offered to take her back home |
| B．A red-haired man came to see her. |
| C．She heard someone call her name |
| D．Her wallet was found in a garbage truck |
From the text, we can infer that the writer_____
| A．would stop working at night |
| B．would stay on in San Francisco |
| C．would make friends with cleaners. |
| D．would give up her job at the bank |
The popular Disneyland has some deep, dark, and sometimes amusing secrets that you probably don't know. Read on to learn them.
General Main Street
By using a special method of construction(建筑), Disneyland created an effect that you don't notice until your tired family leaves the park. The next time you enter Disneyland, make note of the distance that it appears you have to travel to get to the “Partners” statue. Then look at the exit of the park from the statue. That's correct. The distance appears to be shorter entering the park than going out. The purpose was to keep guests from wanting to take the long walk out.
Birthday fun
If you visit Disneyland on your birthday, be sure to tell the person at the gate that it's your big day. You'll be sent to City Hall where you'll be presented with a special sticker by cast members, letting everyone know it's your birthday. You may also be able to score special items from other cast members throughout the park, so it's certainly worth a try!
The music never stops.
Visitors like the music and sounds in the park.. Did you know the music never stops at the park? Even when the park was closed, the music and sounds are kept on going. Some believe it cost too much for Disney to keep turning off the music and then restarting it each day. But the truth is that it helps some workers clean up after 2 a.m!
Club 33
“Club 33” is the only place in Disneyland that provides guests with alcoholic beverages(酒精饮料). Club 33 members and their guests get free entrance to Disneyland so long as they have a meal at Club 33 on the day of their visit.There are ________amusing secrets about Disneyland mentioned in this passage.
| A．two | B．three | C．four | D．five |
________makes the distance going out of the park seem to be longer.
| A．The “partner’’ statue |
| B．The gate of the park |
| C．The construction along the street |
| D．the music in the park |
If you tell the staff it’s your birthday, you will___________.
| A．get free entrance to Disneyland |
| B．be given a special gift at the City Hall |
| C．be taken to Club 33 and have a meal |
| D．let everyone in the park know your name |
The music never stops at the park because __________.
| A．visitors like the music and the sounds very much |
| B．it’s difficult to shut off the music and the sounds |
| C．Disneyland has to pay a lot to restart the music every day |
| D．it may keep some late night workers awake and full of energy. |
The purpose of this passage is to__________.
| A．let the readers know the dark side of Disneyland Park. |
| B．help the readers better enjoy their visits in Disneyland Park |
| C．encourage the readers to go to visit Disneyland Park |
| D．make the readers be aware of the importance of Disneyland Park |
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