Little Brother
By Cory Doctorow, 382 pages, $19.95
In the very near future, Marcus Yallow is walking with his friends in San Francisco when a 9/11-sized terrorist attack occurs blocks away. Everyone around is secretly taken away by the Department of Homeland Security to see whether they're terrorists. However, during the investigation, one of his friends dies mysteriously. The friends try to find out the truth. If you read only one science-fiction novel this year, make it this one.
The Flying Troutmans
By Miriam Toews, 274 pages, $32
The heart of the book is a road journey in Canada made by Hattie，Thebes and Logan to find Cherkis, the kids' dad. It's rich in dialogue, sometimes funny, sometimes surprisingly sad, always character-true. Toews is an extraordinarily gifted writer, with tough-minded compassion (同情) for her characters.
Reading By Lightning
By Joan Thomas, 388 pages, $22.95
We're in 1930s Canada, where Lily's father arrived three decades earlier to be promised fertile agricultural land. But they had been cheated and thrown in the middle of Manitoba. Now William Piper and his wife farm their land and place little hope in this life.
What They Wanted
By Donna Morrissey, 325 pages, $32
A father has a heart attack; a brother and a sister leave Newfoundland and go to Alberta, Canada to work； a tragedy brings reconciliation (和解), but also terrible loss. Primarily a novel of character, it's also a novel of Canada, of two very specific and vividly drawn places. Donna Morrissey's characters are troubled, sensitive, quick to be moved to anger or pain, and just as quick to laughter and affection.If Jim only has 20 dollars, which book could he buy?
| A．The Flying Troutmans. | B．What They Wanted. |
| C．Little Brother. | D．Reading By Lightning. |
According to the text, we know that The Flying Troutmans is .
| A．full of dialogue | B．a sad story | C．about tourism | D．a real story |
In Reading By Lightning, why did William Piper arrive in Canada?
| A．To carry out his promise. | B．To work in a big city. |
| C．To get work experience. | D．To seek his fortune. |
Jurassic Park could become a reality with dinosaurs making a comeback after a discovery last week. Scientists found remains of a dinosaur’s blood vessels（血管）and cells .In theory, DNA from these cells could be used to clone the longdead dinosaur.
A team from North Carolina State University found the remains in a fossil(化石)of the leg bone of a Tyrannosaurus rex（暴龙）in Montana, US.
The last dinosaurs on Earth died some 65 million years ago, but they left bits of themselves behind wherever they lived. Around the world ,dug-up bones and fossils have given scientists many ideas about what the animals were like.
Preserved by minerals, the newly discovered leg bone was hard. So the scientists used a liquid to dissolve（溶解）the minerals. A week later, the remaining material was soft and stretchy（有弹性的）,which surprised the researchers.
Some of the materials appeared to be a network of blood vessels. Out of these, the researchers were able to squeeze(挤出)tiny , round, dark-red and deep-brown structures that seemed to be ancient blood cells.
Scientists are overjoyed by this discovery because most fossils come from hard body parts, like bones and shells, which last a long time. Soft tissues, like skin, muscle, and organs are very hard to find because they tend to break down more quickly.
Scientists think that the new discovery will help them to better understand how fossils form. Future finds should also help flesh out how the dinosaurs lived.
They were also very excited by the possibility of having some dinosaur DNA.From that scientists could create a real life “Jurassic Park”.
In the Hollywood movie, scientists reproduced dinosaurs from the DNA they found in a mosquito fossil and disaster soon followed.Scientists are excited _________________________ .
| A．because they have got dinosaur DNA |
| B．about making a movie called “Jurassic Park” |
| C．because they found the liquid to dissolve fossils |
| D．because it,s very hard to find soft tissues in fossils |
The latest discovery can tell us .
| A．what the animals were like | B．how fossils form |
| C．how the dinosaur lived | D．how to get dinosaur DNA |
What does the underlined phrase“flesh out”mean in the article?
| A．add more details or information to | B．take more photos of |
| C．make the public know more about | D．find the answer to |
Why is the latest discovery very important?
| A．It could make it possible to make dinosaurs return to the former position. |
| B．It could throw light on how dinosaurs lived many years ago. |
| C．It could prove what dinosaurs were like. |
| D．It could explain why dinosaurs died some 65 million years ago. |
It seems that Great Wall is the place to rock. There will be two parties held on the Great Wall this month.
Great Wall Ⅰ
The latest Great Wall party is sponsored(主办)by the Club and electrobeat and held at Jinshanling. Local DJ Mark ,as well as guest Slab from Australia ,Usami and Bobby from Hong Kong will spin the sounds. All drinks are priced at 20 yuan(＄2.4).
Tickets:200 yuan(＄24), including bus ride there and back plus entrance fee to the Great Wall.
T/D: 8 p.m. to 2 a. m., Sept.20.
Pre-sale tickets are available at: Public Space: 6416-0759 Neo Lounge: 6416-1077
Location: Buses leave at 5 p.m. on Saturday ,Sep. 20 from Neo Lounge, 99 Xinfuncun Zhonglu, Sanlitun, Chaoyan District.
For more info: www. elektrobeat.com
Great Wall Ⅱ
The other party at the end of this month at Jinshanling will be kick-started with live performances by Askar, Brain Failure, Longkuan, Supermarket, Mr.Zhou, Beijing Talking and the Yi band.
Dance till dawn to the groovy(绝妙的)sounds of DJs Ben ,Mickey Zhang ,Will, Cheese, Gao Hu and Huang Weiwei.
T/D: 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. ,Sept. 27.
Tickets: 350 yuan(＄42)or 300 yuan(＄36) for groups of 10 or more, 500 yuan (＄60) at the door and VIP tickets 800 yuan(＄72), transportation included..
Location: Buses depart from the north gate of Workers, Stadium at noon, 2 p.m., 4 p.m., Sept. 27.
For more info: contact Li Zhenhua at lzh@msgp.org or call 133-2119-1731. Which is true according to the text?
| A．You have to pay extra money for entering the Great Wall with a ticket. |
| B．You have to use a computer to get the details about Great Wall Rock. |
| C．You have to pay extra money for bus ride with a ticket. |
| D．It is at least 4 hours, ride from Neo Lounge to Jinshanling. |
What day of the week is September 27?
| A．Saturday . | B．Sunday. | C．Weekday. | D．It can’t be known. |
A dozen people want to attend Great Wall Ⅱ.They should pay at least _________ for the tickets.
| A．＄504 | B．＄432 | C．＄720 | D．＄864 |
If you want to go Great Wall Rock , _______________________.
| A．you’ll have to get up early to catch the bus |
| B．you’ll have to spend a whole day on the bus |
| C．you can take a bus at any time from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. |
| D．you can’t take a morning bus to get there |
The public commonly associates steroid use with big-time athletics. But the drugs may be even more of a menace to teenagers. The synthetic hormones can stunt a young person’s growth by prematurely closing the ends of the long bones in the skeleton. That means a 1.7 metre, 15-year-old high school student who uses steroids “might get bigger but won’t get any taller”, according to a US doctor.
Nearly seven percent of boys in the US try steroids before the end of high school, according to a 1988 study by professors Charles Yesalis and William Buckley, of Penn State University. The estimate comes from a poll of 3,400 seniors in 46 public and private schools across the US.
“Abusers of Steroids did it to improve their appearance and to excel at sports,” Professor Yesalis said. “Parents, teachers and coaches make boys believe that to be an ideal male you need to have these. Then they say: ‘you can’t play games to have fun; you play games to win.’”
“Such attitudes put many high school athletes at high risk of becoming abusers of steroids,” said Mike Gimbel, director of Baltimore County Office of substance Abuse. “For these athletes, the pressure to perform is incredible,” he said. “It was inevitable that it would seep down to high school level.”The word “big-time” in Paragraph 1 most nearly means “________”.
| A．long time | B．good time | C．top rank | D．modern |
Why are steroids even more of a threat to teenagers?
| A．Because they make teenagers grow too tall. |
| B．Because they make teenagers get too big. |
| C．Because they prevent teenagers from getting taller and taller. |
| D．Because they give teenagers too much pressure. |
Which of the following statements is implied but not mentioned?
| A．School athletes have too much pressure. |
| B．Steroids can help people have lots of muscles. |
| C．The pressure chiefly comes from parents, teachers and coaches. |
| D．Girls are not interested in steroids. |
Which of the following is a good title for this passage?
| A．Drugs and Sports |
| B．The Pressure to School Boys are Too Much |
| C．School Boys are Interested in Drugs |
| D．School Athletes Risk Damage from Drugs |
After a fortnight of extraordinary type, the much-feared computer virus that was supposed to strike the globe’s hard drives last Friday simply fizzled. So many warnings were sounded that most computer owners either fed anti-virus programs into their systems or refused to turn the power on during the dreaded M-day. They dodged one disease, but more strains are on the way. The eponymous Friday-the-13th virus is due to strike this week, and the Maltese Amoeba may detonate on March 15.
Who creates these things? A disproportionate number seems to originate in Bulgaria or Russia, where writing the smallest, most elegant virus programs has become a matter of quirky pride. Viruses are transmitted either by shared disks (as was Michelangelo) or over telephone lines. The virus program hides in a computer until, activated by a date, time, or some other trigger, it springs to life. The most common virus, Stoned, makes your screen announce: “Your computer is now stoned. Legalize marijuana. ” (Regardless of your politics, you don’t want this one around; it can damage your files inadvertently.) Solution: either keep your computer isolated—no trading disks, no on-line communication—or else install one of a dozen or so commercially available anti-virus programs that detect and delete the little time bombs. If they can come up with a virus that is hidden, will they next try to extort a business?—as in, pay me $1 million or my virus will destroy your system.
In the meantime, money is being made by firms selling anti-virus programs. Egghead software stores logged a 3,000 percent jump in anti-virus sales. Was the threat overblown by the companies that make millions selling anti-virus software? Thanks to the media blitz, no one will ever know what might have happened—an unallied number of computer owners discovered and deleted Michelangelo before it was supposed to strike—on the artist’s birthday.The much-feared M-day was ________.
| A．Friday-the-13th when the eponymous virus was due to strike |
| B．Friday-the-15th when the Maltese Amoeba would be activated |
| C．the previous Friday when Michelangelo virus was due to strike |
| D．the previous Friday which coincided with the artist's birthday |
Computer viruses are ________.
| A．diseases spread from one computer to another by shared disks |
| B．viruses hidden in a computer’s instructions by the designers |
| C．little time bombs hidden in a computer waiting to be triggered |
| D．just those computer programs created by malevolent designers |
Which of the following sayings fits the Michelangelo virus?
| A．A burnt child dreads the fire. | B．The bug’s bark was worse than its bite. |
| C．A barking dog seldom bites. | D．Once bitten, twice shy. |
The author implies that in days to come the viruses might be used ________.
| A．to destroy data | B．to commit crimes |
| C．to commit mischief | D．to create confusion |
Between ten and midnight the United States is politically leaderless—there is no center of information anywhere in the nation except in the New York headquarters of the great broadcasting companies and two wire services. No candidate and no party can afford the investment on election night to match the news-gathering resources of the mass media; and so as every citizen sits in his home watching his TV set or listening to his radio, he is the equal of any other in knowledge. There is nothing that can be done in these hours, for no one can longer direct the great strike for America’s power; the polls have closed. Good or bad, whatever the decision, America will accept the decision—and cut down any man who goes against it, even though for millions the decision runs contrary to their own votes. The general vote is an expression of national will, the only substitute for violence and blood. Its decision is to be defended as one defends civilization itself.
There is nothing like this American expression of will in England or France, India or Russia. Only one other major nation in modern history has tried to elect its leader directly by mass, free, popular vote. This was the Weiman Republic of Germany, which modeled its unitary vote for national leaders on the American practice. Out of its experiment with the system it got Hitler. Americans have had Lincoln, Wilson and two Roosevelts. Nothing can be done when the voting returns are flooding in; the White House and its power will move to one or another of the two candidates, and all will know about it in the morning. But for these hours history stops.Between ten P.M. and midnight the United States is politically leaderless because ________.
| A．the president has been murdered |
| B．the general strike for power has ended |
| C．the government has resigned |
| D．the general vote is being held |
“The great strike for America’s power” in Paragraph 1 refers to ________.
| A．the strike of the government members |
| B．the great vote |
| C．the election campaign |
| D．the strike of the government employees |
The author believes that the decision at the polls will ________.
| A．lead to a civil war | B．result in a general strike |
| C．cause violence and blood | D．be defended by all Americans |
Without the general vote, the author implies ________.
| A．there would be a civil war | B．there would be a general strike |
| C．there would be an election campaign | D．there would be a fierce debate |
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