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. |
A safari park is a park in which wild animals are kept. They are mainly located in east or central Africa. They often occupy a very wild area, with mountains and rivers. To visit the park and look at the animals, people have to drive around in a car for a few of hours because the park is huge.
In south Africa there is a safari park, which contains all sorts of wild animals like lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, zebras, wild pigs, deer and giraffes.
There is a wild road leading through the park, but nobody is permitted to walk on the road. Anyone traveling in the park has to go in a car because wild animals may fiercely attack people. From the car he may see almost every types of African wildlife. Some of these are getting rare because people kill them for various reasons. For example, rhinoceroses are killed for their horns, which are used in traditional Chinese medicines for colds and headaches. Perhaps they will be seen only in museums and books one day.
Travels may purchase food for the animals. They can feed them when they tour the park. Of course, they should not feed them in a close distance because the wild animals may attack people. In addition, they should only give proper food to the animals.
A traveler may carry a gun with him in his journey. The gun is given to him by the government. However, it is not used for hunting. In fact, a seal(封条) is fixed to it. The traveler may fire at a wild beast to defend himself in case he is attacked. However, he has to prove to the government that he has been attacked and that he has not fired at a harmless animal.When travelers feed the animals, they should _________.
| A．give nutritious food | B．stay away from the animals |
| C．stand close | D．use tools |
The government knows whether the gun is fired by the traveler or not by ___________.
| A．checking the seal | B．hunting the animals |
| C．following the traveler | D．observing the traveler |
What is the best title of this passage?
| A．Protecting Wild Animals |
| B．Traveling in South Africa |
| C．A Safari Park in South Africa |
| D．Wild Animals in South Africa |
Throughout July 1945, the Japanese mainland, from Tokyo on Honshu northward to the coast of Hokkaido, were bombed as if an invasion were about to take place. In fact, something far more threatening was at hand, as the Americans were telling Stalin at Potsdam.（伯茨坦）
In 1939 physicists in the United States had learned of experiments in Germany showing the possibility of atomic power and understood the coming damage of an atomic bomb. On August 2, 1939, Albert Einstein warned President Roosevelt of the danger of Nazi Germany’s advances in development of the atomic bomb. Eventually, the U.S. Office of Scientific Research Development was created in June 1941 and given combined responsibility with the War Department in the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear bomb. After four years of research and development efforts, an atomic device was set off on July 16, 1945, in a desert area at Alamogordo, New Mexico, producing an explosive power equal to that of more than 15,000 tons of TNT. Thus, the atomic bomb was born. Truman, the new U.S. president, believed that this terrible object might be used to defeat Japan in a way less costly of U.S. lives than an ordinary invasion of the Japanese homeland. Japan’s unsatisfactory reply to the Allies’ Potsdam Declaration decided the matter.
On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb, carried from Tinian Island in the Mariana in a specially equipped B-29 was dropped on Hiroshima, at the southern end of Honshu. The combined heat and explosion destroyed everything in the explosion’s immediate neighbourhood , produced fires that burned out almost 4.4 square miles completely, and killed between 70,000 and 80,000 people, in addition to injuring more than 70,000 others. A second bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, killed between 35,000 and 40,000 people, injured a like number and ruined 1.8 square miles.What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. |
| B．After research and development efforts, an atomic bomb was born. |
| C．An invasion was about to take place with the use of the atomic bomb. |
| D．The birth and use of the atomic bomb ended the Second World War. |
Albert Einstein warned Roosevelt of _________.
| A．Nazi Germany’ success in making an atomic bomb |
| B．the possibility of atomic power from Nazi Germany |
| C．Japan’s unsatisfactory reply to the Allies’ Potsdam Declaration |
| D．destruction of everything from the explosion of the atomic bomb |
What made the U.S. decide to drop the atomic bombs over Japan?
| A．Truman’s becoming the president of the United States. |
| B．The great destruction power of the atomic bomb. |
| C．Reducing the cost of its lives. |
| D．Not being content with Japan’s reply. |
How many people were killed by the two bombs dropped in Japan?
| A．Between 105,000 and 120,000 people. |
| B．Between 35,000 and 40,000 people. |
| C．Between 70,000 and 80,000 people. |
| D．Between 140,000 and 150,000 people. |
A desert is a beautiful land of silence and space. The sun shines, the wind blows, and time and space seem endless. Nothing is soft. The sand and rocks are hard, and many of the plants even have hard needles instead of leaves.
The size and location of the world's deserts are always changing. Over millions of years, as climates change and mountains rise, new dry and wet areas develop. But within the last 100 years, deserts have been growing at a frightening speed. This is partly because of natural changes, but the greatest makers are humans.
Humans can make deserts, but humans can also prevent their growth. Mauritania is planting a similar wall around Nouakchott, the capital. Iran puts a thin covering of oil on sandy areas and plants trees. The oil keeps the water and small trees in the land, and men on motorcycles keep the sheep and goats away. The USSR and India are building long canals to bring water to desert areas.In this passage, the underlined word “needles” refers to ________.
| A．small, thin pieces of steel |
| B．long, thin pieces of branches |
| C．thin, hard, pointed leaf |
| D．small, thin pieces of sticks |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．The greatest desert makers are human beings. |
| B．There aren't any living things in the deserts. |
| C．Deserts have been changing quickly. |
| D．The size of the deserts is always growing. |
People in some countries are fighting a battle against ________.
| A．the growth of deserts |
| B．desert climate |
| C．natural changes |
| D．the disappearance of desert |
What does the author want to tell us?
| A．Deserts are lands of hardness, silence and space. |
| B．The deserts of the world are changing from time to time. |
| C．Man is to take measures to control the growth of deserts. |
| D．Deserts have grown at a fast pace in the past 10 years. |
Years ago there was a group of kids who would hang around at some local ponds（池塘） in the woods near their houses in Warwick, Rhode Island. In summer they caught frogs and fish. When winter arrived they couldn’t wait to go skating. Time passed, and the ponds became the only open space for the kids to enjoy themselves in that neighborhood.
One day a thirteen-year-old boy from this group of kids read in the local newspaper that a developer wanted to fill in the ponds and build over a hundred small houses called apartments. So the boy went door to door and gathered more than two hundred signatures to stop the development. A group of citizens met and decided to support him.
At the meeting of the town planning organization，the boy was quite nervous at first and spoke very softly. But when he saw the faces of his friends and neighbors in the crowd and thought about what was happening to their favorite ponds，his voice grew louder. He told the town officials that they should speak for the citizens. He also insisted that they should leave enough space for children. A few days later，the developer stopped his plan.
Nine years later, when that teen was a senior in college, he was informed that the developer was back with his proposal to build apartments. Now twenty-two years old, he was studying wetlands ecology. He again appeared before the town planning organization. This time as an expert, he used environmental protection laws to explain restrictions on development in and around wetlands and the knowledge of wetlands ecology to help to improve the development. Finally some apartments were built, but less than half the number the developer wanted. The ponds where those kids used to hang around were protected by a piece of natural land, and are still there today.The kids liked to ___________ at the local ponds in winter.
| A．make a snowman | B．throw snowballs |
| C．go skating | D．go skiing |
The boy thought that the town officials should be ___________ for the citizens.
| A．responsible | B．modest | C．anxious | D．thankful |
Which statement is true according to the passage?
| A．The apartments were built as the developer had planned. |
| B．The grown-up boy helped to protect the wetlands as an expert. |
| C．The developer stopped the boy’s plan at the meeting years ago. |
| D．The ponds were filled in and some apartments were built on them. |
The underlined word “restrictions” in the last paragraph probably means________.
| A．rules | B．plans |
| C．advantages | D．limitations |
Do you love your holidays but hate the increase weight that follows? Your are not alone.
Holidays are happy days with pleasure and delicious foods, Many people, however, are worried about the weight that comes along with these delicious foods.
With proper planning, though, it is possible to control your weight. That idea is to enjoy the holidays but not to eat too much. You don’t have to turn away from the foods that you enjoy. The following suggestions may be of some help to you.
Do not miss meals. Before you leave home for a feast(宴会), have a small, low-fat snack（小吃）. This may help to keep you away from getting too excited before delicious foods. Begin with clear soup and fruit or vegetables. A large glass of water before you eat may help you feel full. Use a small plate; a large plate will encourage you to have more than enough.
Better not have high-fat foods. Dished that look oily or creamy have much fat in them.
Choose lean meat（瘦肉）. Fill your plate with salad and green vegetables.
If you have a sweet tooth, try mints（薄荷） and fruits. They don’t have fat content as cream and chocolate .
Don’t let exercise take a break during the holidays. A 20-minute walk after a meal can help burn off excess（过多的） calories.
| A．bring weight problems |
| B．bring you much trouble in your life |
| C．make you worried about your foods |
| D．make you hate delicious foods |
| A．drink much water and have vegetables only |
| B．not eat the food in high fat |
| C．no t accept invitations to feasts |
| D．turn away from delicious foods |
| A．vegetables | B．water |
| C．calories of energy | D．physical exercise |
| A．enjoy delicious foods |
| B．go to many feasts |
| C．can’t control themselves . |
| D．can’t help turning away from the foods |
| A．how to eat properly during holidays |
| B．what you should remember in a feast |
| C．how to control your weight during holidays |
| D．the benefits of doing sports during holidays |
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