Death Valley is one of the most famous deserts in the United States, covering a wide area with its alkali sand. Almost 20 percent of this area is well below sea level, and Badwater, a salt water pool, is about 280 feet below sea level and the lowest point in the United States.
Long ago the Panamint Indians called this place “Tomesha”— the land of fire. Death Valley’s present name dates back to 1849, when a group of miners coming across from Nevada became lost in its unpleasantness and hugeness and their adventure turned out to be a sad story. Today Death Valley has been declared a National Monument(纪念碑) and is crossed by several well-marked roads where good services can be found easily. Luckily the change created by human settlement has hardly ruined the special beauty of this place.
Here nature created a lot of surprising, almost like the sights on the moon, ever-changing as the frequent wind moves the sand about, showing the most unusual colors. One of the most astonishing and variable parts of Death Valley is the Devil’ s Golf Course, where it seems hard for one to tell reality from terrible dreams. Sand sculptures(沙雕) stand on a frightening ground, as evening shadows move and lengthen._______ is the lowest place in the desert.
| A．Tomesha | B．Death Valley |
| C．Nevada | D．Badwater |
The name of the valley comes from _______.
| A．an Indian name |
| B．the death of the miners |
| C．the local people |
| D．a National Movement |
From the passage we can learn that _______.
| A．no one had ever known the desert before the miners |
| B．it’s still not easy to travel across the desert |
| C．people can find gas-stations, cafes and hotels in the desert |
| D．people have changed the natural sight of the desert |
Devil Golf Course is famous for _______.
| A．the frequent wind | B．the colors of the sand |
| C．dream-like sights | D．the sand sculptures |
From the passage we can see that the writer _______ the Death Valley.
| A．appreciates | B．is fearful of |
| C．dislikes | D．is tired of |
阅读表达（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）
Many students want to find friends on the Internet as a way of practising their language skills and learning more about new cultures. Traditional pen pals were the primary source for such contacts, and students could write each other letters. With the Internet, fingding friends has become much easier, and such relationships are called key pals.
However, care and consideration should be given when finding friends on the Internet:
◎Search the Internet for reputable(有信誉的) services. Look for reviews of such sites to learn more about other students’ experiences. Don’t join a service until you have done your research.
◎Check to see if you can use a nickname, instead of __________, to protect your identity.
◎Never give personal information to anyone, including your home address, phone number, and birthday.
◎Stop contact with others if you feel uncomfortable with the topics of conversation. Again, if you protect your identity, this will be easier to do. Tell your teachers, parents, or even local law enforement if problem arise.
◎Try to use the language you are studying in the classroom in your communication with others.
◎Ask appropriate questions that will also help you learn about other cultures. Remember that someone’s personal experience might help you to understand a whole culture. You have to talk to many different people, and this will get you started.Please give this passage a proper title. (Please answer with 10 words.)
___________________________________________________________________________Please fill in the blank with proper words. (Please answer within 5 words.)
___________________________________________________________________________ Which sentence in the passage is the closest in meaning to the following one?
Pen friends used to write letters to keep in touch with each other.
___________________________________________________________________________Why do many students want to find friends on the Internet?
(Please answer within 30 words.)
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________Please translate the underlined sentence.
___________________________________________________________________________
Attending a university is an important part of a person’s life. Today, many people go to a university to study and train for a future job in subjects like law, medicine, or education. But the university is not a modern invention. It has a history that is over a thousand years old.
The world’s oldest university, Al-Azhar, is in Cairo, Egypt. It was first built as a mosque in A.D. 972. A few years later, learners and teachers began meeting in the mosque in “tutoring circles”. They read and talked about the subject of law. Around 988, leaders in the city of Cairo decided to create a school for higher learning and the University of Al-Azhar was founded.
At Al-Azhar, there were many university ‘firsts.’ Courses were created. The earliest ones taught at Al-Azhar were in law and religion. In a course, students read and studied with the teacher, but there was also free discussion. Often, students and teachers talked about a topic, and there was no ‘right’ answer. Finally, scholars from around the world came to Al-Azhar to teach and do research. At the university, people studied the past, but it was also a place for sharing new ideas.
Over a thousand years later, Al-Azhar is still an important university in the world. Its library contains more than 250,000 of the world’s oldest and most valuable books. Today, many of the world’s most important universities such as Oxford and Harvard still follow the traditions started at Al-Azhar. What’s this passage mainly about?
| A．The history of the world’s oldest university. |
| B．The importance of attending a university. |
| C．The relationship between university and future job. |
| D．The invention of a modern university. |
The first university was founded over _____ years ago.
| A．a hundrend | B．hundreds of | C．a thousand | D．thousands of |
The oldest university in the world is _____.
| A．Oxford | B．Cambridge | C．Harvard | D．Al-Azhar |
What does the underlined word “course” mean in this passage?
A. A series of lessons. C. A period of time.
C. A series of actions. D. A group of professors.What’s the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．How many books are in the Al-Azhar’s library. |
| B．How valuable the Al-Azhar’s books are. |
| C．Why Oxford and Harvard still follow Al-Azhar’s pattern. |
| D．How Al-Azhar still holds an important role in the world. |
Last year I had a wonderful experience. I went on a student exchange to Japan. It was an exciting time of my life and I learned many things about the school system in Japan. I was in Grade 11, which is second year of high school in Japan, but I was younger than most of my classmates. That’s because Japanese children enter first year of elementary school (小学) in April following their sixth birthday. I started school when I was still five years old.
In Japan, Children attend elementary school for six years, where they study Japanese, arithmetic, science, social studies, music, crafts, physical education, and home economics (simple cooking and sewing skills). During their three years in middle school, English is added to this list. Most schools have access to computers and the Internet.
The classes in my school seemed rather big to me, around 30 students in a typical high school class. We ate lunch in the classroom, instead of a cafeteria and enjoyed a healthy, nutritious meal prepared by the school or by a local “school lunch centre” instead of eating the same, dry sandwiches every day. I really like the Japanese interpretation of school lunches. I also enjoyed the field trips and activities. At Japanese schools, there are many school events during the year, such as field day when students compete in tug-of-war, field trips, and arts and cultural festivals.The writer went to Japan _____ last year.
| A．to visit his family memebers | B．to finish his high school there |
| C．to study as an exchange student | D．to do research on school system in Japan |
Children in Japan may start their elementary school at the age of ____.
| A．5 | B．6 | C．7 | D．11 |
Japanese students start to learn English _____.
| A． before they start their school year | B．when they are in elementary school |
| C．when they are in middle school | D．when they are in high school |
In the writer’s country, there are normally _____ students in a high school class.
| A．less than 30 | B．exactly 30 | C．more than 30 | D．Not certain |
In the writer’s country, students probably _____.
| A．have lunch in the classroom | B．have different lunch every day |
| C．have lunch at home | D．have sandwiches for lunch |
Can storms in Africa cause asthma(哮喘) in the Caribbean(加勒比)? Islanders point to the desert insects that land on beaches after a 5,000-kilometer flight across the Atlantic. If they can use winds to get from one continent to another, so can clouds of dust that carry disease.
Scientists think that as Africa becomes drier, dust from expanding deserts is being blown away into Caribbean islands. A study in Barbados shows that asthma has increased 17 times since Africa’s drought(干旱) began in 1973.
Other forms of life are suffering, too. Among them are the Caribbean’s famous coral reefs( 珊瑚礁), which began dying in large numbers in the 1900s. Eugene Shinn of the U.S. Geiological Sudrvey(USGS) in Florida went to the virgin Islands to study the reefs. The tests he and his colleagues carried out showed that the coral was dying of disease caused by Africa microbes(微生物) from across the ocean.
William Sprigg of the University of Arizona is studying the problem as part of a major UN project. He says that dust is causing problems in the U.S., too.
“We are just beginning to collect the evidence of airborne(空气传播的) dust influences on human health,” he told The Washington Post. Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?
| A．Dangerous Dust | B．Dangerous Disease |
| C．Changing Weather | D．Developing Technology |
Where does the dust talked about in this passage come from?
| A．America. | B．Africa. | C．The Atlantic. | D．The Pacific. |
The increase of asthma in the Caribean is probably related to _____ according to scientists.
| A．desert insects | B．strong winds | C．airborne dust | D．dry weather |
Which of the following is NOT true about the Caribbean coral reefs?
| A．They are in Florida. |
| B．They used to be very beautiful. |
| C．They began dying in the past decades. |
| D．The African microbes have bad effect on them. |
Which of the following is TRUE about William Sprigg?
| A．He is a member of UN. |
| B．He thinks African dust also affects the US. |
| C．He has collected enough evidence about dust influences. |
| D．He is a reporter from The Washington Post. |
Diamonds may be forever. But what’s a girl to do when she gets dumped (失恋) or divorced (离婚) and those rings, necklace and love gifts lose their emotional (情感) sense?
Help is just a click away on new Web sites that provide an outlet for selling jewelry(珠宝) from past relationships, sharing break-up stories and helping broken hearts heal (愈合).
“You go through a divorce. What do you do with that ring? Maybe you have a child you can pass it on to. Maybe you don’t. It just sits there, ” said Megahn Perry, who with her stepmother (继母) Marie Perry runs www.exboyfriendjewelry.com.
Three months after its start with the slogan(口号) “You Don’t Want It. He Can’t Have It Back,” the web site has 3,000 registered users and more than 600 postings of rings, bracelets and earrings for sale—all with a personal tale attached.
As one woman posting a diamond ring for $3,500 wrote:
“Beautiful ring came with a wrong man. Decided to sell to regain the money that I spent finishing payments on the ring that my ex didn’t.”
The idea was born when Megahn Perry, a Los Angeles actress and writer, was looking for a safe place to sell a wedding set after a divorce and realized others might have former boyfriends’ jewelry with memories(记忆) that make them too painful to wear.
The local pawn shop(当铺) proved an unattractive choice. So she teamed up with her stepmother Marie, researched the market and found a gap in it. The passage is mainly about _____.
| A．how a web site is set up | B．how sad the love stories are |
| C．How much a website can make | D．How many people like the web site |
How long is it since the start of this website?
| A．Less than three months. | B．At least three months. |
| C．Less than one month. | D．Not known. |
How many people have registered on this website within three months?
| A．About 600. | B．About 3,000. | C．About 3,500. | D．Not know. |
Who set up this website?
| A．Megahn herself alone. | B．Megahn and her best friend. |
| C．Megahn and her stepmother. | D．Megahn and her exboyfriend. |
What’s the meaning of the underlined word “gap” in the last sentence?
| A．Gulf between two people. | B．Misunderstandings among each other. |
| C．Differences from a pawn shop. | D．A market worth developing. |
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