The television news feature about Ben Heckmann, an eighth grader from Farmington, Minn, was breathless in its praise. “At 14, he has accomplished something many adults can’t achieve,” the reporter said, “Ben is a twice-published author.” But Ben’s two “Velvet Black” books, describing a fictional rock band, were not picked from a pile of manuscripts（手稿）by an eagle eyed publisher. They were self-published, at the cost of $400 by Ben’s parents.
Over the past five years, print-on-demand technology and a growing number of self publishing companies whose books can be sold online have inspired writers of all ages to avoid the traditional gatekeeping system for determining who could call himself a “published author.”
The mothers and fathers who foot the bill say they are simply trying to encourage their children, in the same way that other parents buy equipment for a promising baseball player. But others see self-publishing as a lost opportunity to teach children about hardship and perseverance. Mr. Robbins, a critic, thinks it is wonderful to start writing at a young age, but worries self-publishing sends the wrong message. “There are no prodigies(神童) in literature,” he said. “Literature requires experience, in a way that mathematics and music do not.” Alan Rinzler, a publishing industry veteran, suggested parents hire a professional editor like him to work with their child to tear a manuscript apart and help make a better. Ben’s father, Ken, said Ben’s ambitions “weren’t to knock Harry Potter off the list,” but “to get that good feeling inside that you’ve done something.”
Ajla Dizdarevic, 12, who has self-published two books of poetry, has been on television and in local newspapers. “Being a published author,” she said, “was always a dream of mine.” Her new dream: three books by age 15.Which of the following is true of Ben?
| A．He has achieved something unusual for his age. |
| B．His self-published books were well received. |
| C．His manuscripts were favored by the publisher. |
| D．He was thought little of by the public media. |
What makes it possible for writers of all ages to self-publish their works?
| A．The rapid increase of online readership. |
| B．The increasing number of publishers. |
| C．The immediate access to marketing agencies. |
| D．The development of printing and publishing. |
Why do some parents pay the self-publishing bill?
| A．They want to offer opportunities to their children. |
| B．They want to give encouragement to their children. |
| C．They want to help their children avoid hardship. |
| D．They want to show love and care for their children. |
What dose Alan Rinzler suggest that children should do?
| A．Be forbidden to write books |
| B．Start writing at an early age |
| C．Be professionally guided |
| D．Learn from experience |
Why do some children self-publish works according to the last part?
| A．Just to achieve their dreams. |
| B．Just to earn more money. |
| C．Just to gain self-confidence. |
| D．Just to satisfy their parents. |
What does fizz (气泡) taste like? In Bubbly (多泡的)drinks such 
as sodas, tiny bubbles give the drink a lift--- and have a distinct taste, In a new study on mice, scientists have connected that fizzy-taste feeling to the ability to taste sourness, such as that of oranges or vinegar.
Scientists first thought the taste of bubbles came from the bubbles bursting on the tongue, but now ate starting to think differently. Charles Zuker, of Columbia University, and his team studied the nervous system of mice to understand how the tongue tastes carbon dioxide, which is the gas that makes up the bubbles.
Animals, including human beings, are able to detect different tastes by using taste buds(味蕾) which pick up tastes in the mouth, and then send them to the brain. In the experiment, different groups of mice were genetically engineered to be missing one of the senses involved in taste. “Genetically engineered” means the researchers were able to turn off the switches for certain senses by changing the genes responsible for taste. The mice in one group could not taste sweet; another, sour; the third, bitter, and the fourth, salt. When the scientists gave carbon dioxide to the mice, the nervous systems of all the mice responded to the gas, except those of the mice that could not taste sour.
This shows that the taste of the bubbles must be sour, and that by turning off the ability of the mice to taste sour, the scientists also turned off their ability to taste carbon dioxide. When they studied the cells that detect sourness, the researchers found a protein attached to the cells that is important to the process of tasting carbon dioxide. When carbon dioxide comes into contact with this protein, the protein knocks off particles called protons. These protons(质子), in turn, travel to the brain, which says ,” Hey! That’s a taste!”
It may seem like a lot of work to get from a can of soda to a taste, but the science of the senses is anything but simple, “ Taste is a challenging system to study,” one researcher says. What is the most important function of the bubbles?
| A．To look interesting . | B．To make drinks taste good. |
| C．To make drinks funny. | D．To produce a lot of fizz. |
From the experiment the researchers learned that______.
| A．sourness has nothing to do with the taste of bubbles. |
| B．there is a connection between sourness and bubbles. |
| C．the taste of bubbles is better if it’s less sour. |
| D．most mice cannot taste carbon dioxide. |
It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
| A．the taste of bubbles is produced by the bubbles bursting on the tongue. |
| B．the nervous systems of mice show how the tongue tastes carbon dioxide. |
| C．taste seems simple but is very complex to research. |
| D．nerve cells sending signals to the brain is the first step in tasting something. |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Nervous Systems Understand How the Tongue Tastes. |
| B．The Process of Taste |
C．The taste of Bubbles. |
| D．Different Animals Detect Different Tastes. |
Do you know what it means when somebody tells you that he had “a catch-22 experience”?
The phrase “catch-22” comes from a book of the same title by the American writer Joseph Heller published in 1961．Catch-22 is a book of black humor．The author uses silly and even surreal(超现实的)events．It has a non-linear narrative structure(非线性的叙述结构)in which events follow the theme rather than the timing，to give us a very strange picture full of contradictions(矛盾)．
The story takes places in a bomber base in Italy during World WarⅡ．The main character, Captain Yossarian wants to leave the war．Unfortunately, every time he completes the number of tasks to be sent home，the number is raised 
and he is forced to continue fighting．It seems hopeless for him to go home under the very strange rule in this Air Force-catch-22：only when a soldier goes crazy can he be allowed to go home．But he has to go to the hospital to show the doctors that he is crazy．However, if he tells them he is crazy but is obvious healthy, he cannot go home．In short，catch-22 is“heads 1 win，tails I lose．If you can you can’t；and if you can’t，you can．”Whenever you try to behave correctly in a crazy world．There’s a catch(潜在的困难)．
During the Vietnam War, the phrase“catch-22”became a popular term for being caught in a no．win，circular dilemma and is now commonly used．
The Oxford English Dictionary explains catch．22 as“a set of circumstances in which one requirement，etc，is dependent upon another, which is in turn d
ependent upon the first．” Which of the following statements is right?
| A．Catch-22 is one of Heller’s experiences during World War II． |
| B．Catch-22 is one of Yossarian’s experiences during the Vietnam War． |
| C．The events in catch-22 follow the theme． |
| D．The events in catch-22 follow the timing． |
Why did Captain Yossarian fail to leave the war?
| A．He wasn’t so anxious to leave the war． |
| B．He didn’t finish his tasks． |
| C．He was put into a catch-22 situation． |
| D．He wasn’t mad enough to be sent home． |
What does the underlined sentence most probably mean?
| A．Whenever and however you try, you are unable to reach the goal． |
| B．You can solve every problem you meet as long as you want to． |
C．You can’t solve a ny problem in your life． |
| D．If you can’t solve all the problems．you can solve none． |
The phrase“catch-22”came into being ________ _．
| A．in World War II | B．in the Vietnam War | C．in the 1950s | D．in the 1960s |
Imagine a boy from a small village in East Africa. He, since a very early age, has been looking after cattle. At twelve years old he knows more about cattle than most of you. However, he has never been to school. Has this boy had any education?
Education is discovering about ourselves and about the people and things around us. All the people who care about us — our parents, brothers, sisters, friends — are our 
teachers. In fact, we learn something from everyone we meet. We start learning on the day we were born, not on the first day we go to school. Every day we have new 
experiences, like finding a bird’s nest, discovering a new street in our neighborhood, making friends with someone we didn’t like before. New experiences are even more fun when we share them with other people.
Encouragement from the people around us enables us to exp
lore things as many as possible. As we grow up, we begin to find out what we are capable of doing. You may be good at cooking, or singing or playing football. You find this out by doing these things. Just thinking about cooking doesn’t tell you whether you are good at it.
We learn so much just living from day to day. So why is school important? Of course you can learn some things better at home than at school, like how to do the shopping, and how to help old or disabled people who can’t do everything for themselves. At school, teachers help us to read and write. With their guidance, we begin to see things in different ways. The writer takes the African boy as an example to show that _______.
| A．African children are very poor. | B．some children are unlucky. |
| C．there are many kinds of education. | D．schools are of great importance. |
In the opinion of the writer, .
| A．we have to learn from the people around us. | B．the school is not important at all. |
| C．only people who care for us can teach us. | D．education takes place everywhere. |
One can find out what he / she is good at by _.
| A．what people encourage him/ her to do. | B．the teachings of those he / she meets. |
| C．thinking about it when growing up. | D．trying and practising things. |
The passage tells us that _ .
| A．everyone gets education from the day he or she was born. |
| B．different classes of people receive different kinds of education. |
| C．the school is absolutely necessary if one wants to understand the world. |
| D．everyone will find out what he or she is good at. |
According to the last paragraph, we know that .
| A．the school is not so important as our living places. |
B．the school enables us to understand the world in other ways. |
| C．the school teaches us things which are useless at home. |
| D．the school cannot prepare us for our daily lives. |
Casablanca, Sep. 24
A flash 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 dried river beds and caused them to overflow. The flood crest, sev
eral feet high, hit the village of Khemis Nagua at midmorning yesterday as farmers from the surrounding area joined town people in an o
pen market place.
The roaring water swept the village’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 cre
st swept out to sea. Rescue workers quickly moved into the area from Sari, about 25 miles further south. It can be learnt from the te
xt that _____.
| A．the news report is from Khemis Nagua | B．the flo od didn’t last long |
| C．hundreds of Moroccans were saved | D．Casablanca is a city in Africa |
The report mainly tells the public about _____.
| A．how the flood swept the coastal plain | B．why the terrible flood took place |
| C．the flash flood in the fall | D．a rescue attempt |
According to the text, which of the following maps may be correct?
(KN="Khemis" Nagua C="Casablanca " S=Safi)
I used to be a mortgage broker(贷款中间人) in the Phoenix area. In April 2007, the company that I had been with for a year went out of business. That was the latest of the four companies that I had worked for since 2000 .They all either went under or let most of the employees go, including me.
In December 2007, the bank took
back my house, and I had no choice but to move in with my parents, five miles away. My sister has three children, and she had no room. My fiancée(未婚妻), Brandi Wetch, and I have been living in my parents’ house for about a year and a half now.
My mother, Sue, works part-ti
me at a high school library. My father left for a job in the Marshall Islands a few months ago and will be gone for two years.
I’m trying to be patient with finding a new job, but it’s been hard. I check the Internet for jobs every morning. I have sent countless letters but have never got a job. I have no idea how many other people are applying for the same job.
I do the housework and washing, and 
I take care of the garden. Sometimes, I feel like the best part of my life is over. The worst part of the day is when I chat with my friends on the Internet. I’ve talked to about 10 old friends online. The f
irst thing they usually ask is what I’m doing now.
My mother, who is in her 60s, has been so patient and supportive. She acts like she’s happy to have us, not like we’re crowding her. We have learned what’s important since I lived here. We can infer that the writer is living a _________ life.
| A．busy | B．rich | C．difficult | D．hopeful |
How long has the writer been out of work?
| A．For more than a year | B．For a year and a half |
| C．For less than two years | D．For more than two years |
Which of the following types of work is NOT done by the writer in his parents’ house?
| A．Looking after children | B．Doing the housework. |
| C．Washing clothes and dishes | D．Applying for a job online. |
It can be learned from the passage that the writer now________.
| A．is preparing for his wedding | B．is fond of doing the housework |
| C．is patient with job-hunting | D．is afraid of being asked about work |
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