What will power your house in the future？Nuclear，wind，or solar power？According to scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US，it might be leaves — but artificial (人造的) ones.
Natural leaves are able to change sunlight and water into energy. It is known as photosynthesis (光合作用)．Now researchers have found a way to imitate this seemingly simple process.
The artificial leaf developed by Daniel Nocera and his colleagues at MIT can be seen as a special silicon chip with catalysts (催化剂)．Similar to natural leaves，it can split water into hydrogen and oxygen when put into a bucket of water. The hydrogen and oxygen gases are then stored in a fuel cell，which uses those two materials to produce electricity，located either on top of a house or beside the house.
Though the leaf is only about the shape of a poker card，scientists claimed that it is promising to be an inexpensive source of electricity in developing countries. “One can imagine villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing an affordable basic power system based on this technology,” said Nocera at a conference of the American Chemical Society.
The artificial leaf is not a new idea. The first artificial leaf was invented in 1997 but was too expensive and unstable for practical use. The new leaf，by contrast，is made of cheap materials，easy to use and highly stable. In laboratory studies，Nocera showed that an artificial leaf prototype (原型) could operate continuously for at least 45 hours without a drop in activity.
The wonderful improvements come from Nocera's recent discovery of several powerful，new and inexpensive catalysts. These catalysts make the energy transformation inside the leaf more efficient with water and sunlight. Right now，the new leaf is about 10 times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural one. Besides，the device can run in whatever water is available；that is，it doesn't need pure water. This is important for some countries that don't have access to pure water.
With the goal to “make each home its own power station” and “give energy to the poor”，scientists believe that the new technology could be widely used in developing countries，especially in India and rural China.Which of the following orders correctly shows how the artificial leaf is used to produce electricity?
a．artificial leaves split water into hydrogen and oxygen
b．the hydrogen and oxygen gases are stored in a fuel cell
c．the artificial leaves are put in water
d．the fuel cell uses hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity
| A．c，a，b，d | B．c，b，a，d |
| C．b，c，a，d | D．c，a，d，b |
The purpose of the scientists at MIT in developing the new artificial leaf is to________.
| A．build up more power stations in the world |
| B．provide cheaper energy for developing countries |
| C．offer people in developing countries access to pure water |
| D．gain a deeper understanding of the photosynthesis process |
The main idea of this passage is ________.
| A．an introduction to the history of artificial leaves |
| B．a mixture of water power and solar energy |
| C．giving energy to the poor |
| D．an invention copying photosynthesis |
In the United States, 30%of the grown-up population has a “weight problem”. To many people, the cause is clear: we eat too much. 
But scientific experiments do little to support this idea. Going back to the America of 1910, we find that people were thinner than today, yet they ate more food. In those days people worked harder physically, walked more, used machines much less, and didn’t watch TV.
Several modern studies, besides, have shown that fatter p
eople do not eat more on average than thinner people. In fact, some research work, such as the 1979 study of 3,545 London office workers, reports that fat people eat less than thinner people on average. Studies show that thin people are more active than fat people. A study by the research group at Standford University School of Medicine found the following fa
ct: the more the ma
n ran, the greater body fat he lost. The more he ran, the greater was his need for food. Thus, those who ran the most ate the most, yet lost the greatest amount of body fat.
1. What kind of physical problem do many grown-up Americans have?
A. They are too thin. B. They work too hard.
C. They are too fat. D. They lose too much body fat.
2. Based on the information given this article, suppose there are 500 gro
wn-up Americans, about how many of them have a weight problem?
A. 30 B. 50 
C. 100 D. 150
3. Are there scientific facts to support that eating too much is the cause of the “weight problem”?
A. Yes, there are plenty of them.
B. Of course, there are facts to show this is true.
C. There are hardly any scientific facts to support this.
D. We don’t know because the inform
ation is not given.
4. Compared with the grown-up Americans today, the Americans of 1910______.
A. ate more food and had more physical activities
B. ate less food but had more activities
C. ate less food and had less physical activities
D. had more weight problems
What makes one person more intelligent than another? What makes one person a genius, like the brilliant Albert Einstein, and another person a fool? Are people born intelligent or stupid, or is intelligence
the result of where and how you live? These are very old questions and the answers to them are still not clear.
We know, however, that just being born with a good mind is not enough. In some ways, the mind is like a leg or an arm muscle. It needs exercise. Mental (done with the mind) exercise is particularly important for young children. Many child psychologists (心理学家) think that parents should play with their children more often and give them problems to think about . The children are then more likely to grow up bright and intelligent. If, on the other hand, children are left alone a great deal with nothing to do, they are more likely to become dull and unintelligent .
Parents should also be careful with what they say to young children. According to some psychologists, if parents are always telling a child that he or she is a fool or an idiot, then the child is more likely to keep doing silly and foolish things. So it is probably better for parents to say very positive (helpful) things to their children, such as “That was a very clever thing you did.” or “You are such a smart child.”
1. According to the context we can guess that a genius is ________ while an idiot is ________ .
A. a normal person; a funny person
B. a strong person; a weak person
C. a highly intelligent person; a foolish or weak-minded person
D. a famous person; an ordinary person
2. It is better for parents ________.
A. to praise and encourage their children more often
B. to be hard on their children
C. to leave the
ir children alone with nothing to do
D. to give their children as much help as possible
3. Which of the following is NOT true according to the article?
A. Parents play an important part in their children’s growth.
B. The less y
ou use your mind the duller you may become.
C. Intelligence is obviously the result of where and how you live.
D. What makes a person bright or stupid is still under discussion.
4. According to the passage,which is the best sentence parents should say?
A. You
are quite wrong .
B. You are such a smart child
C.How many times have you made such a mistake ?
D. I can't agree with you, because you are a fool.
三. 阅读理解（共15小题，每小题2分，共30分）阅读下列短文，
从每题所给的四个选项中，选出最佳答案.
Trees 
are useful to man in three important ways: they give him wood and other useful things, they give him cool places, and they help to stop drought and flood.Unluckily, in many parts of the world, man has not found that the third of these points is the most important. Man wants to make money from trees, so he
has cut them down in large numbers, only to find that without them he has lost the best friends he had. And also, he is usually too careless to plant and look after new trees. So the forests slowly disappear. This does not only mean that
man will have fewer trees.
The results are even worse: for where there are trees, their roots break up soil-make the rain in-and also bind the soil, thus stopping it from being washed away easily; but where there are no trees, the rain falls on hard ground and flows away, causing floods and carrying away the rich top-soil. When all the top-soil is gone, nothing is left but useless desert.
1.The most important points of trees to man is ________.
A. they help him to make money
B. they give him cool
C. they help him to stop drought and flo
od
D. they give him wood and other things
2.In many places forests slowly disappear because ________ .
A. many trees have been cut down by man
B. new trees are not well looked after
C. man has not paid enough attention to planting trees
D. all the above
3.Land becomes desert after all trees are cut down because ________ .
A. roots of trees break up the soil
B. there are too many rainfalls
C. strong winds bring a lot of sand
D. there are no longer trees to keep the rain and protect the top-soil.
4.Which title best fits the passage?
A. Trees and Man
B. The Function of Tree Wood
C. How do People do with Trees?
D. The Usage of Tree Roots
第四部分：任务型阅读（共10题；满分10分）
请认真阅读下面短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。 注意：每空格1个单词。
Chinese are very generous(慷慨的) when it comes to educating their children. Not caring about the money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad to England, the U.S. or Australia. They also want their children to take extra-course activities where they will either learn a musical instrument or ballet, or other classes that will give them a head start in life. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an education is, the better it is. So parents will spend unreasonable amount of money on education. Even poor couples will buy a computer for their son or daughter.
However, what most parents fail to see is that the best education they can give their children is usually very cheap.
Parents can see that their children’s skills vary, skilled in some areas while poor in others. What most parents fail to realize though, is that today’s children lack self-respect and self-confidence.
The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to take multiple-choice tests and how to study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills they need to be confident, happy and clever.
Parents can achieve this by teaching practical skills like cooking, sewing and doing other housework.
Teaching a child to cook will improve many of the skills that he will need later in life. Cooking demands patience and time. It is an enjoyable but difficult experience. A good cook always tries to improve his cooking, so he will learn to work hard and gradually finish his job successfully. His result, a well-cooked dinner, will give him much satisfaction and a lot of confidence.
Some old machines, such as a broken radio or TV set that you give your child to play with will make him curious and arouse his interest. He will spend hours looking at them, trying to fix them; your child might become an engineer when he grows up. These activities are not only teaching a child to read a book, but rather to think, to use his mind. And that is more important.
Title: What Chinese Parents Do in (71)_____ ▲_______ Their Children
| Attitude towards Children’s education |
●Chinese are very (72)____ ▲______, serious and devoted in education. |
| Measures |
●Never (73) ____▲_____ too much of money. ●Send them to the best schools or abroad. ●Want their children to take (74) __▲___ in extra-course activities. |
| Belief |
●The more investment in education, the (75) __▲____ the result will be. |
| What they can see in their children |
●Their children skill in some fields with (76)__ ▲___ skills. |
| What they can’t see in their children |
●Lack of self-respect and (77)___ ▲___ in themselves. |
| (78)____ ▲____ of their failure |
●Only teach them how to take multi-choice tests and (79) _____▲_____ hard at study. ●Never teach them the most important skills they need to be confident, happy and clever. |
| (80)How to___▲__with the problems |
●Only by teaching practical skills, can they succeed in education. |
It was Thanksgiving morning and in the crowded kitchen of my small home I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags(破旧衣服) huddling together inside the storm door on the top step.
"Any old papers, lady? " asked one of them.
I was busy. I wanted to say "no" until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals(凉鞋), wet with heavy snow.
“Come in and I'll make you a cup of hot cocoa.”
They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I served them cocoa and bread with jam to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started again on my household budget.
The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, "Lady, are you rich? "
"Am I rich? no!"
I looked at my shabby slipcovers(旧家具套). The girl put her cup back in its saucer (茶托;浅碟)carefully and said, "Your cups match your saucers." Her voice was hungry with a need that no amount of food could supply. They left after that, holding their bundles of papers against the wind. They hadn't said "Thank you." They didn't need to. They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful.
Plain blue china(瓷的) cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they matched.
I tasted the potatoes and stirred the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof over our heads, my man with a good steady job--these matched, too.
I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy prints of small sandals were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a while, I thought, just in case I should begin to forget how rich I am.
1. Why did the writer let the children in?
A. She showed great pity on them.
B. She wanted to sell old papers.
C. She knew them and wanted to make them a cup of cocoa.
D. She wanted to invite them to her Thanksgiving party.
2. The girl thought the writer was rich perhaps because_________
A. she saw that the lady's room was comfortable
B. she saw the cups matched the saucers
C. the writer's slipcovers were very new
D. the woman had expensive clothes
3.What was the weather probably like when the story happened?
A. cloudy B. sunny C. windy D. snowy
4. From the passage, we can infer that whether you are rich depends on_______
A. how much money you have had B. how you feel about your life
C. how you have helped others D. what job you are doing
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