For those who make journeys across the world, the speed of travel today has turned the countries into a series of villages. Distances between them appear no greater to a modern traveler than those which once faced men as they walked from village to village. Jet planes fly people from one end of the earth to the other, allowing them a freedom of movement undreamt of a hundred years ago.
Yet some people wonder if the revolution in travel has gone too far. A price has been paid, they say, for the conquest (征服) of time and distance. Travel is something to be enjoyed, not endured (忍受). The boat offers leisure and time enough to appreciate the ever-changing sights and sounds of a journey. A journey by train also has a special charm about it. Lakes and forests and wild, open plains sweeping past your carriage window create a grand view in which time and distance mean nothing. On board a plane, however, there is just the blank blue of the sky filling the narrow windows of the airplane. The soft lighting, in-flight films and gentle music make up the only world you know, and the hours progress slowly.
Then there is the time spent being ‘processed’ at a modern airport. People are conveyed like robots along walkways; baggage is weighed, tickets produced, examined and produced yet again before the passengers move to another waiting area. Journeys by rail and sea take longer, yes, but the hours devoted to being ‘processed’ at departure and arrival in airports are luckily absent. No wonder, then, that the modern high-speed trains are winning back passengers from the airlines.
Man, however, is now a world traveler and cannot turn his back on the airplane. The working lives of too many people depend upon it; whole new industries have been built around its design and operation. The holiday-maker, too, with limited time to spend, patiently endures the busy airports and the limited space of the flight to gain those extra hours and even days, relaxing in the sun. Speed controls people’s lives; time saved, in work or play, is the important thing—or so we are told. Perhaps those first horsemen, riding free across the wild, open plains, were enjoying a better world than the one we know today. They could travel at will, and the clock was not their master. What does the writer try to express in Paragraph 1?
| A．Travel by plane has speeded up the growth of villages. |
| B．Man has been fond of traveling rather than staying in one place. |
| C．The speed of modern travel has made distances relatively short. |
| D．The freedom of movement has helped people realize their dreams. |
How does the writer support the underlined statement in Paragraph 2?
| A．By giving examples. |
| B．By giving instructions. |
| C．By analyzing cause and effect. |
| D．By following the order of time. |
According to Paragraph 3, passengers are turning back to modern high-speed trains because ______.
| A．they pay less for the tickets |
| B．they feel safer during the travel |
| C．they can enjoy higher speed of travel |
| D．they don’t have to waste time being ‘processed’ |
What does the last sentence of the passage mean?
| A．They could travel with their master. |
| B．They needed the clock to tell the time. |
| C．They preferred traveling on horseback. |
| D．They could enjoy free and relaxing travel. |
People like different kinds of vacations. Some go camping. They swim, fish, cook over a fire and sleep outside. Others like to stay at a hotel in an exciting city. They go shopping all day and go dancing all night. Or maybe they go sightseeing to places such as Disneyland, the Tai Mahal or the Louvre.
Some people are bored with sightseeing trips. They don’t want to be “tourists”. They want to have an adventure— a surprising and exciting trip. They want to learn something and maybe help people too. How can they do this? Some travel companies and environmental groups are planning special adventures. Sometimes these trips are difficult and full of the world. Some volunteers spend two weeks and study the environment. Others work with animals. Others learn about people of the past.
Would you like an adventure in the Far North? A team of volunteers is leaving from Murmansk, Russia. The leader of this trip is a professor from Alaska. He’s worried about chemicals from factories. He and the volunteers will study this pollution in the environment. If you like exercise and cold weather, this is a good trip for you. Volunteers need ski sixteen kilometers every day. -
Do you enjoy ocean animals? You can spend two to four weeks in Hawaii. There, you can teach language to dolphins. Dolphins can follow orders such as “Bring me the large ball”. They also understand opposites. How much more can they understand? It will be exciting to learn about these intelligent animals. Another study trip goes to Washington State and follows orcas. We call orcas “Killer Whale”, but they’ re really dolphins—the largest kind of dolphin.. These beautiful animals travel together in family groups. They move through the ocean with their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Ocean pollution is chasing their lives. Earthwatch is studying how this happens.
Are you interested in history? Then Greece is the place for your adventure. Thirty-five hundred years ago a volcano exploded there, on Santorini. This explosion was more terrible than Krakatoa or Mount Saint Helens. But today we know a lot about the way of life of the people from that time. There are houses, kitchens, and paintings as interesting as those in Pompei. Today teams of volunteers are learning more about people from the past.
Do you want a very different vacation? Do you want to travel far, work hard and learn a lot? Then an Earthwatch vacation is for you.
The Tai Mabal may be _________.
| A．a shopping center | B．a hotel |
| C．a dancing ball | D．a place of interest |
From the passage, on an adventure trip, people ______________.
| A．may not spend much time on sightseeing |
| B．won’ t meet some difficulties or hardships |
| C．can’t enjoy themselves |
| D．can’t learn something |
If you want to learn something about people of the past, you can ___________
| A．join the team to Hawaii |
| B．join the team to the Far North |
| C．join the team to Washington |
| D．join the team to Greece |
The word “intelligent” in paragraph 4 means __________________.
| A．exciting | B．beautiful | C．large | D．clever |
Which of the following is false ?
| A．Some people find sightseeing trips boring. |
| B．Earth watch is planning all these special adventures |
| C．The number orcas is decreasing. |
| D．3 volcano explosions in all broke out 3, 500 years ago in Greece. |
The Washington post – NASA’s newest space habitat looks sort of like a kids’ moon bonce, a big, bright, inflatable globe that could be lots of fun to play in. Soon astronauts on the International Space Station could get the chance to try . The expandable habitat made by Bigelow Aerospace recently passed NASA’s strict certification requirements and is scheduled to be flown to the station in September.
Called the BEAM ( Bigelow Expandable Activity Module), the habitat would be attached to the space station, where it would stay for two years. While there, it would be tested to see how it handles the rigors of space – the radiation, the station’s movement and even how it stands up to the debris (碎片) flying around in orbit.
The private Las Vegas company, founded by millionaire real estate mogul(地产大亨) Robert Bigelow, won a $17.8 million contract from NASA to provide the module to the space station.
“Today is the first step, but it’s a big step,” said Bigelow’s George Zamka. Replace the space station or make it larger. It also hopes to build the habitats on the moon. Its B330 module would be even bigger, with 330 cubic meters of internal (内部的 ) space. The modules could be connected. Creating research facilities, the company says, or even space hotels.
In an interview ,NASA’s William Gerstenmaier, said he was eager to see how the module performs , and said he was especially pleased “ to see how the private sector can step up and help us meet our requirements.” The module will be flown to the space station by SpaceX, the first commercial company to resupply the space station.
What would be the best title for this passage?
| A．NASA’s space habitats flown to the station. |
| B．NASA’s space habitat it the station. |
| C．NASA’s new expandable space habitat. |
| D．NASA’s newest inflatable globe. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．NASA’s newest space habitat is a kids’ moon bounce. |
| B．Astronauts of Bigelow Aerospace could get the chance to try the space habitat. |
| C．NASA was founded by Robert Bigelow. |
| D．The B330 module to be built on the moon would be with an inside space of 330 cubic meters. |
The underlined word “rigors” in Paragraph 2 refers to “_________”.
| A．difficulties | B．environments |
| C．movements | D．changes |
The passage is most probably taken from ________.
| A．a newspaper | B．a booklet |
| C．a magazine | D．a science fiction |
The food we eat seems to have a great effect on our health. Although science has made big steps in making food more fit to eat, it has, at the same time, made many foods unfit to eat. Some research has shown that perhaps eighty percent of human illness is related to food and forty percent of cancer is related to food as well. That food is related to illness is not a new discovery. In 1945, some researchers realized that things commonly used to keep colors in meats and other food additives (添加剂) caused cancer.
Yet, these additives remain in our food, and it is difficult to know which things on the wrappings（包装）of foods are helpful or harmful. The additives which we eat are not all so direct. Farmers often give penicillin (青霉素) to their animals, and because of this, penicillin has been found in the milk of cows. Sometimes similar things are supplied to animals not for their health, but just to make a profit.
The farmers are simply trying to fatten the animals in order to get a higher price on the market. Although some countries have tried to control such things, the practice continues.According to this passage, we can know _____.
| A．perhaps most kinds of cancer are related to what people eat |
| B．perhaps most of human illness is caused by what we eat |
| C．cancer was discovered in 1945 |
| D．science has made food unfit to eat |
Things that are used to keep colors in meats are _____.
| A．harmful | B．useless | C．helpless | D．dangerous |
People use additives _____.
| A．to make food more unfit to eat |
| B．to cause cancer |
| C．to change the color of the food |
| D．to take off the diseases of the food |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Some wrappings of food are harmful. |
| B．Farmers try to make more money on the market by fattening their animals. |
| C．"The practice continues" means "things are still going on like that". |
| D．We needn't take care of what we eat. |
Du Kun，a Chinese boy is called“the youngest writer in the world．”He has written three books till now．Du Kun was born in Jiangsu in 1994．When he was 7 months old．his parents started working in over 30 different cities，such as xi’an and Shenzhen．This kind of life gave him things to think and write about．When he was 9 months old，he could speak and at the age of one，he could say five to six hundred words．At three，he could look up words in the dictionary．At four，his father taught him how to learn by himself．His parents like reading very much．So does he．At the age of 5，he began writing fairy tales．At the age of 6．he wrote a novel about his life in different cities with his parents．His fairy tales are all from his life．One day，he found many mice in the house．They not only ate their food but also hurt his mother’s hand．So he thought，“If we give mice the stomach of cows，they will eat grass and they will be helpful to people．”This was his first fairy tales Change Stomach for Mice．Now he studies well in a middle school．
He has written his third book．The novel called Eyes of Children．He says，“I am not different from other children，I just wrote several books．”Thanks to his________，Du Kun could write his books．
| A．mother | B．father |
| C．school life | D．life in different cities |
Du Kun began to use a dictionary，________．
| A．when he wrote fairy tales |
| B．before his father taught him how to learn something |
| C．after he went to school |
| D．after his mother taught him how to learn something |
The underlined sentence shows us that Du Kun________．
| A．is different from other children |
| B．doesn’t tell the truth |
| C．is the same as other children |
| D．likes his books |
Which is the best title?
| A．Three Books by a Child |
| B．How to Write a Fairy Tales |
| C．How Clever the Boy is |
| D．Du Kun the Youngest Writer |
| Timetable |
|
| Sunday 8:30---11:30 Personal Inventions Mr. Johnson You can see many inventions by the students; you may also bring your own inventions. |
Monday 19:00---21:00 Space and Man Dr. Thomas West If you want to know more about the universe (宇宙). |
| Wednesday 19:30---21:00 Modern Medicine Mrs. Lucy Green Would you like to know medical science? |
Friday 18:30---21:00 Computer Science Mr. Harry Morison from Harvard University, USA. Learn to use Windows XP. |
You may have a chance to introduce your inventions on ______.
| A．Sunday | B．Monday | C．Wednesday | D．Friday |
The person who teaches Computer Science is from______.
| A．Canada | B．Japan | C．Australia | D．America |
You may learn something about a disease called TB from ______.
| A．Dr. West | B．Mr. Morison |
| C．Mrs. Green | D．Mr. Thomas |
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