Let These Plants Swat the Bugs for You Some plants get so hungry that they eat flies，spiders, and even small frogs. What's more amazing is that these plants occur naturally (in special environments) in every state. In fact, they're found on every continent except Antarctica.
You've probably seen a Venus' flytrap. It's often sold in museum gift stores, department stores, and even supermarkets. A small plant，it grows 6 to 8 inches tall in a container. At the end of its stalks (are specially modified leaves that act like traps. Inside each trap is a lining of tiny trigger (触发)hairs. When an insect lands on them, the trap suddenly shut. Over the course of a week or so, the plant feeds on its catch.
The Venus' flytrap is just one of more than 500 species of meat-eating plants， says Barry Meyers-Rice ， the editor of the International Carnivorous Plant Society's Newsletter. Note： Despite any science-fiction stories (科幻小说)you might have read, no meat-eating plant does any danger to humans.
Dr. Meyers-Rice says a plant is meat-eating, only if it does all four of the following："attract, kill, digest, and absorb" some form of insect, including flies, butterflies, and moths. Meat-eating plants look and act like other green plants—well, most of the time.
All green plants make sugar through a process called photosynthesis (光合作用). Plants use the sugar to make food. What makes "meat-eating" plants different is their bug-catching leaves. They need insects for one reason ： nitrogen (氮). Nitrogen is a nutrient that they can't obtain any other way. Why?
Almost all green plants on our planet get nitrogen from the soil. "Meat-eating" plants can't. They live in places where nutrients are hard or almost impossible to get from the soil because of its acidity (酸度). So they've come to rely on getting nitrogen from insects and small animals. In fact, nutrient-rich soil is poisonous to "meat-eating" plants. Never fertilize (施肥)them! But don't worry, either, if they never seem to catch any insects. They can survive, but they'll grow very slowly. Venus flytrap ______.
| A．is a small plant which grows in a container |
| B．is a kind of plant which gets hungry easily |
| C．can attract, kill， digest and absorb some form of insects |
| D．grows 6—8 inches tall |
From the passage, we know ______.
| A．"meat-eating" plants are found on every continent |
| B．all green plants get nitrogen from the soil |
| C．bug-catching leaves make "meat-eating" different from other plants |
| D．some "meat-eating" plants in the rainforest do danger to humans |
"Meat-eating" plants grow very slowly, ______.
| A．so you'd better fertilize them |
| B．probably because the source of nitrogen is cut off |
| C．simply because they can't absorb nitrogen from the soil |
| D．and then they will die slowly |
Which of the following is true?
| A．"Meat-eating" plants look and act like other green plants. |
| B．No insects, no "meat-eating" plants. |
| C．The reason why Venus flytrap needs flies is that it needs to get nutrient from them. |
| D．Green plants make sugar at night. |
“I sometimes get up at three or four in the morning and I surf the net.”
“I often check my e-mail forty times a day. ”
“I often spend more than three hours during one time on the net.”
“I spend more time in chat rooms than with my ‘real-life’ friends.”
Do you know any people like these? They are part of a new addiction（上瘾）called Internet addiction. Internet addicts spend at least thirty to forty hours online every week. The use of the Internet can be an addiction like drug（毒品）use. People lose control（控制）of the time they spend on the Internet.
For example, one college student was missing for several days. His friends were worried, and they called the police. The police found the student in the computer lab: he was surfing the net for several days straight.
Studies show that about 6% to 10% of Internet users become addicted. And people worry about the teens because the Internet is changing the playing field for some of them. They spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.
Is “surfing the net” a hobby or an addiction for you? You may have a problem if you have these symptoms（症状）: ①You do not go to important family activities or you do not do school work because you like to spend hours on the Internet. ②You can’t wait for your next online time. ③You go out with your friends less and less. ④You plan to spend a short time online, but then you spend several hours.How does the writer describe the addicts’ use of Internet?
| A．It is something like keeping drugs. | B．It is like taking drugs. |
| C．It is a way of producing drugs. | D．It is terrible to imagine. |
Why do people worry about the teens?
| A．The teens are wasting too much money. |
| B．They used to work on the Internet. |
| C．The playing field of the teens will disappear. |
| D．More and more of the teens will become addicted to the Internet. |
The example in the passage shows that .
| A．some of the Internet users have already been seriously addicted |
| B．Internet addicts usually stay in the computer lab without sleep |
| C．Internet problems are more serious among college students |
| D．the police often help to find those Internet addicts |
What is the writer trying to tell us at the end of the passage?
| A．Do things as you have planned. | B．Go to family activities more often. |
| C．Don’t be addicted to the Internet. | D．Stay with your parents as often as possible. |
There is a wonderful story about a young girl who had no family and no one to love her.
One day, feeling very sad and lonely, she was walking through a grassland when she noticed a small butterfly（蝴蝶） caught in a thorn（荆棘）bush. The young girl carefully released the butterfly. Instead of flying away, the little butterfly changed into a beautiful fairy（仙女）. The young girl rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
“For your wonderful kindness,” the good fairy said to the girl, “I will give you any wish you would like.” The little girl thought for a moment and then replied, “I want to be happy.”
The fairy leaned（倾斜） toward her and whispered（耳语）in her ear. Then the fairy disappeared.
As the little girl grew up, there was no one in the land as happy as she. Everyone asked her secret of happiness. She would only smile and answer, “The secret of my happiness is that I listened to a good fairy when I was a little girl.”
When she was very old and on her deathbed, the neighbors all gathered around her, afraid that her unbelievable secret of happiness would die with her. “Tell us, please,” they begged, “Tell us what the good fairy said.” The lovely old woman simply smiled and said, “She told me that everyone, no matter how secure（安全的）they seemed, no matter how old or young, how rich or poor, had need of me.”Noticing the butterfly was caught by the thorn, the orphan（孤儿） girl .
| A．felt sorrow, but she didn’t help it | B．failed to help it release from the thorn |
| C．fell down on it too | D．helped the butterfly escape from the thorn |
The butterfly after being saved by the little girl.
| A．flied away | B．was more beautiful than before |
| C．changed into a fairy | D．still died |
The only thing that the little girl wanted was .
| A．wealth | B．parents | C．happiness | D．friends |
The neighbors all gathered around the old happy woman when she was dying, because .
| A．they loved this woman deeply and they didn’t want her to die |
| B．the woman had lots of money to be shared as soon as she died |
| C．they wanted to pray for her after her death |
| D．they wanted to know the secret of her lifetime happiness |
Besides giving off gases and dusts into the air, humans produce waste that is poured on the environment. Often, this waste produced by major industries and people is harmful to both nature and human life.
One of the main causes of the large amount of dangerous waste is that people do not realize how large a problem it is. Because it can be simply removed and sent to a landfill(废渣填埋场),the problem is often believed to end there. In addition, industries have often shown an unwillingness to find ways to deal with dangerous waste because of the related expenses. Many industries and governments build simple landfills to store waste, and often just pour waste chemicals into nearby bodies of water. Often, chemicals used for industrial production cause dangerous forms of waste. The amount of these chemicals has increased greatly in the past, but it is often difficult and expensive to get rid of these chemicals or to store them in a way safe to human life and the environment.
Every year, major health problems result from dangerous waste. Sadly, it is often only after someone has died or become seriously ill that governments will take measures to reduce levels of harmful waste.
Some governments have realized how serious the dangerous waste problem is and are now trying to settle this problem. They are also trying to limit the amount of waste industries are allowed to produce.
Not only governments but ordinary people as well must work together to solve the problem. They can choose not to buy those products which require the production of dangerous waste, and produce less harmful waste themselves. Many scientists think that waste production can be cut. The waste can be reduced by at least one third using existing technologies and methods. What would be the best title for the text?
| A．Measures of Reducing Dangerous Waste |
| B．Danger of Harmful Waste to Mankind |
| C．Dangerous Waste and Water pollution |
| D．Environmental Protection |
According to the text, people ___________.
| A．do not produce harmful waste in their daily life |
| B．do not know where to place the dangerous waste |
| C．are not clear about how serious the dangerouswaste problem is |
| D．are not sure about where harmful waste ends |
What troubles industries most in dealing with the dangerous waste problem?
| A．How to get government support. |
| B．How to increase their production. |
| C．How to store harmful waste. |
| D．How to cut down the related costs. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．The polluting industries are not allowed to sell their products. |
| B．Present technologies have settled the harmful waste problem. |
| C．Everyone should obey the government rules for the problem. |
| D．To solve the problem requires the efforts of the whole society. |
A growing number of college students are applying to take entry tests for medical and dental （牙科的） schools among increasing graduate unemployment in Korea.
“I’ve decided to apply for the test to enter a medical college to become a doctor, changing from my original plan to prepare for a lawyer qualification exam in order to get a more stable job in the future,” said a 24-year-old college graduate, Lee, who majored in business administration during his undergraduate schooling.
The new medical and dental school system is getting popularity, attracting an increasing number of students every year since its appearance in 2004, as it is open to all college graduates regardless of their previous majors.
The Education Development introduced the new medical and dental education system, in which college students with bachelor’s degrees are allowed to study medicine or dentistry by taking the Medical Education Test (MET) and Dental Education Test (DET).
Ten medical schools and six dental colleges that have used the new system have received 4,377 applications (申请) for the entrance exams.
Applicants are getting younger compared with those in their 20s representing 76.9 percent of the total. The tests might be easier for students with biology and chemistry majors, but graduates from other majors are also applying for the tests.
Under the existing medical and dental education system, students should take a two-year premedical course followed by a four-year medical course.
Students graduating under the new medical or dental education system are given master’s degrees, while those graduates who studied under the previous system have bachelor’s degrees. Why do more and more Korean students apply for medical schools?
| A．Because doctors are highly respected in Korea. |
| B．Because they want to get a more stable job. |
| C．Because medicine is easier to learn than other subjects. |
| D．Because the medical education system is reasonable. |
Students in the old system may spend _______ years at college to get bachelor’s degrees.
| A．two | B．four | C．six | D．seven |
We can learn from the passage that _______.
| A．it takes a longer time to get the master’s degree in the old system |
| B．students may find it a lot easier to get a bachelor’s degree in medicine |
| C．graduates from other majors like history are not allowed to apply for those schools |
| D．the new system are not so popular as expected because of its high unemployment |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．New Medical and Dental School System Is Carried Out in Korea |
| B．Korean College Students Have a New Job Choice |
| C．Korean College Students Rush to Medical and Dental Schools |
| D．Doctors Are Becoming Popular in Korea |
Robby was 11 when his mother dropped him off for his first piano lesson. I prefer students begin at an earlier age. Robby insisted that it had always been his mother’s dream to hear him play the piano, so I took him in as a student.
Robby tried and tried while I listened and encouraged him and gave him more instructions (指导). But he just did not have any inborn ability.
I only saw his mother from a distance. She always waved and smiled but never came in. Then one day Robby stopped coming to our lessons. I thought about calling him but I guessed he had decided to try something else.
I was also glad that he stopped coming for the sake of my career. However, several weeks before the recital (演奏会) of my students, Robby came，telling me that he never stopped practicing and begged me to allow him to take part. I agreed but I made him perform last in the program, so I could always save his poor performance through my “curtain closer”.
I was surprised when he announced that he had chosen one piece of Mozart’s. Never had I heard a piece of Mozart’s played so well by someone at his age. When he finished, everyone was cheering.
I ran up and put my arms around Robby in joy. “I’ve never heard you play like that, Robby! How’d you do it?”
“Well, Miss Hondorf. Do you remember I told you my mom was sick? Actually she died this morning. She was born deaf so tonight was the first time she could hear me play. I wanted to make it special. I knew I could.” That night, Robby was the teacher and I was the student. He taught me so many important things about life.Why did Robby stop coming to the piano lessons suddenly?
| A．He lost heart and believed that he would never make it. |
| B．His mother was too sick to send him to the piano lessons. |
| C．He thought his teacher disliked him. |
| D．His mother died and he didn’t need to play any longer. |
Which statement is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．The writer thought playing the piano shouldn’t start too late. |
| B．The writer thought that Robby had given up the piano lesson. |
| C．The writer taught Robby carefully although he hadn’t a gift for music. |
| D．No one else could play the piece of Mozart’s well. |
From the underline sentenced we can infer that __________.
| A．the writer looked down upon Robby and disliked him |
| B．the writer thought Robby a bad advertisement for his teaching |
| C．with Robby present, the other children couldn’t play well |
| D．the writer couldn’t teach so many students at a time |
What did the writer learn from Robby?
| A．The meaning of true love. |
| B．The meaning of giving up necessarily. |
| C．The meaning of being kind to teachers. |
| D．The meaning of believing in teachers. |
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