The biggest secret about inventing is that anybody can do it! Perhaps this sounds crazy, but it’s true. Maybe you have the wrong idea about inventing, so read on to discover the truth.
Wrong idea No.1： An invention has to be something completely new.
Well, inventing means creating something “new”, but the idea could come from something that already exists*. The Wright Brothers, for example, got the idea for building a “flying machine” from watching birds.
Wrong idea No.2： Inventors are born, not made.
There are a lot of factors* that make invention possible. Take Mozart, for example. He was born with an endowment for musical composition. But other factors were also important for his creativity. His father was a music teacher, and Mozart practiced for hours every day, from the time he was four years old. Thomas Edison said that being an inventor was “99% hard work and 1% inspiration”!
Very successful creators don’t give up when they get something wrong. As one inventor said, “A failure is the right answer to the wrong question.”
Wrong idea No.3： Inventors are always old people.
Don’t believe that you can’t invent something when you are young. Here are two examples of young inventors： Louis Braille went blind when he was a child. When he was fifteen, he invented a system of reading and writing for blind people that is still used in most countries today.
As a young man, George Nissen was watching some artists performing in a show. He watched how they fell into the safety net and then jumped back up again. This gave him an idea, and he invented the trampoline*.
got the idea for building a “flying machine” from watching birds.
| A．Mozart | B．George Nissen |
| C．Louis Braille | D．The Wright Brothers |
The underlined word “endowment” probably means “ ”.
| A．态度 | B．品质 | C．天赋 | D．能量 |
According to the passage, which of the following is right?
A. Anybody can do inventing.
B. Inventors are born, not made.
B. Inventors are always old people.
D. An invention has to be something completely new.
The best title for the passage would be _______.
| A．How to perform in a show | B．Be a composer |
| C．How to help blind people | D．Be an inventor |
根据描述为下列人物选择应该借鉴文章中的哪条建议（将相应数字序号填在横线上）
How to Make Friends
1. It’s hard to make friends if you stay home alone all the time. Get out of the house and do things that will put you in touch with other people. Join a club or play a sport. Attend meetings or other groups. It’s easier to make friends when you have similar interests.
2. Learn from people who seem to have lots of friends. Watch carefully how they make and keep friends. Don’t copy all of the things they do, but try to notice what they do. Then try some of those things yourself.
3. Don’t be afraid to show people what you’re really good at. Talk about the things you like and do best. Don’t hide your strong points. People will be interested in you if there is something interesting about you.
4. Plan things to talk about with people. Find out what’s in the newspaper headlines, listen to CDs, learn about what’s new with your favorite TV or movie star. The more you have to say, the more people will be interested in having a conversation with you
5. Look people in the eye when you talk to them. That way, they’ll find it easier to talk to you. It’s very difficult to have a conversation with people whose eyes are looking to the left, to the right, or at the floor. People may think you’re not interested in them and may stop being interested in you.
6. Be a good listener. Let people talk about themselves before talking about “me, me, me.” Ask lots of questions and show an interest in their answers.
____4_______a. Tony is never sure what to talk about when he meets people.
____________b. Rose wants to know why her classmate, Cindy, is so good at making friends.
____________c. Adam stays home every weekend and watches videos.
____________d. Benson is a very good dancer, but he never tells anyone about it.
____________e. Martha doesn’t care for others. She always talks about herself.
____________f. When Pedro feels uncomfortable talking to someone, he starts to look away.
a____4__; b.________; c._______; d.______; e.______; f._______
根据短文内容，从每小题A、B、C三个选项中选出一个最佳答案。
There are many unusual hotels around the world. In Greenland, there is a hotel made out of ice, open between April and December every year. In Turkey, there is a cave hotel with a television, furniture, and a bathroom in each room. And in Bolivia, there is the Salt Palace Hotel.
Thousands of years ago, the area around the Salt Palace Hotel was a large lake. But over time, all the water disappeared. Today, the area has only two small lakes and two salt deserts.
The larger of the two deserts, the Uyuni salt desert, is 12,000 square kilometers. During the day, the desert is bright white because of the salt. There are no roads across the Uyuni desert, so local people must show guests the way to the hotel.
In the early 1990s, a man named Juan Quesada built the hotel. He cut big blocks (块) of salt from the desert and used the blocks to build it. Everything in the hotel is made out of salt: the walls, the roof, the tables, the chairs, the beds, and the hotel’s bar.
The sun heats the walls and roof during the day. At night the desert is very cold, but the rooms stay warm. The hotel has 12 rooms. A single room costs＄40 a night, and a double room costs＄60.
A sign on the hotel’s wall tells guests, “ Please don’t lick the walls－it doesn’t taste good!” People can go to __________ to visit the ice hotel in April.
A. Greenland B. Turkey C. BoliviaThe Salt Palace Hotel is unusual because __________.
A. it has a long history
B. it’s made out of salt
C. the rooms stay cold all dayWhere did the salt used for the hotel come from?
A. A salt factory. B. The desert. C. The lakes.The underlined word “lick” means __________ in Chinese.
A. 摸 B. 踢 C. 舔The best title for the passage is _________.
A. Unusual Hotels B. Salt Desert C. A Story of Juan Quesad
根据短文内容，判断下列句子是否正确，对的涂（A），错的涂（B）。
Plants are very important living things. Life could not go if there were no plants. This is because plants can produce food from the air, water and sunlight. Animals and man cannot produce food from the air, water and sunlight as plants do. Animals get their food by eating plants or other animals which eat plants. So animals and man need plants in order to live.
If you look carefully at the plants around you, you will find that there are two kinds of plants: flowering plants and non-flowering ones.
Flowering plants can make seeds. The seeds are protected by the fruits. Some fruits have one seed. Some have two, three or four. Some have many. But a few fruits have no seeds at all. An example of a fruit without seeds is the banana.
Most non-flowering plants don’t grow from seeds. They grow from spores (孢子). Spores are very, very small. Some spores are so small and light that they can float in the air. We may say that spores are quite the same as the seeds. When these spores fall on wet and shady places, they usually grow into new plants. Plants are very important to life.
Both animals and plants can produce food from the air, water and sunlight.
Banana is a fruit that does not have seeds.
All the flowering plants have many seeds.
Spores can grow into new plants wherever they fall.
阅读短文，按要求完成各题。
Jane Goodall is one of the most well-known scientists in the world. Much of the information we have today about chimpanzees comes from the research of Jane Goodall.
Jane Goodall was born in London in 1934. She became interested in animals and animal stories when she was a very young child. She always dreamed of working with wild animals. When she was eleven years old, she decided that she wanted to go to Africa to live with and write about animals. But this was not the kind of thing young women usually did in the 1940s. Everybody was laughing except her mother. “If you really want something, you work hard, you take advantage of opportunity, you never give up, you find a way,” her mother said to her. The opportunity came at last. A school friend invited her to Africa. Jane worked as a waitress until she had got enough money to travel there.
In 1957, Jane Goodall traveled to Africa. She soon met the well-known scientist Louis Leakey and began working for him as an assistant. He later asked her to study a group of chimpanzees living by a lake in Tanzania. Very little was known about wild chimpanzees at that time.
Jane spent many years studying chimpanzees in this area of Africa. It was not easy work. They were very shy and would run away whenever she came near. She learned to watch them from far away using binoculars. Over time, she slowly gained their trust(信任). She gave the chimpanzees human names such as David Graybeard, Flo and Fifi. Watching the chimpanzees, she made many discoveries. They ate vegetables and fruits. But she found that they also eat meat. A few weeks later, she made an even more surprising discovery. She saw chimpanzees making and using tools(工具) to help them catch insects.
Jane Goodall has written many books for adults and children about wild chimpanzees. Her most recent book is called Hope for Animals and Their World. It tells about saving several kinds of endangered animals.根据短文内容完成句子（每空限填一个单词）。
From the first two paragraphs we know Jane Goodall is a __________, and she had a special interest in ___________ when she was a young girl.根据短文内容完成句子（每空限填一个单词）。
In order to __________ to travel to ___________, Jane Goodall once worked as a waitress.把短文中划底线的句子译成汉语。
_________________________________________________________________________根据短文内容回答问题。
What is Jane Goodall’s most surprising discovery?
_________________________________________________________________________根据短文内容用一个完整的英文句子（限10个词以内）回答问题。
What is Jane Goodall famous for?
_________________________________________________________________________
Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa. It is also the second largest lake in the world. It is an important lake because it is one of the sources(源头) for the longest river in the world, the Nile River. Lake Victoria provides a source of water, food, and power(电力) for several African countries. Lake Victoria is a big part of African life.
Unfortunately, Lake Victoria has a problem. It is shrinking. There are several power stations at Lake Victoria in Uganda. These are on the Nile River, and besides producing power, they keep the water of the lake at a certain level. For the past forty years, that level has been 11.9 meters. Over the last several years, the water level has dropped by about 2.5 meters. There seem to be several reasons for this drop.
One possible reason is drought(干旱). Drought has been very bad in the area since 2000. Lake Victoria gets all of its water from rain, so the drought means less water in the lake.
However, some environmentalists believe that the real problem is the power plants(工厂) on Lake Victoria. Uganda depends on those power plants for most of its power, and they made the power plants larger in 2000. Many people believe the power plants have been taking too much water off Lake Victoria. As a result, they have been asked to use less water until Lake Victoria goes back to its old level.
Whether the low water level is caused by drought or power plants, the result is the same. This is already a poor area of Africa, where many people live a really hard life. People, animals and plants around Lake Victoria will suffer even more from low water levels on the lake. Many people need Lake Victoria for fishing or growing food. Fish need the water to live, and animals need it for water. Plants around the lake will die without the water, and then more animals and people will suffer. Unless the lake fills soon, many people will suffer and die.Lake Victoria is __________.
| A．an important lake in Africa |
| B．the largest lake in the world |
| C．the source of water, food and power for America |
| D．the only source for the Nile River |
What does “It is shrinking” most probably mean?
| A．It is becoming larger. |
| B．It is becoming more beautiful. |
| C．It is becoming smaller. |
| D．It is becoming more useful. |
The water level of Lake Victoria is now __________.
| A．2.5 meters | B．11.9 meters | C．14.4 meters | D．9.4 meters |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A. Rain water is the only source for the lake.
B. There has been little rain in the lake area since 2000.
C. The power plants in Uganda provide water for the lake.
D The power plants in Uganda were made larger in 2000.According to the passage, how can we solve the problems around Lake Victoria?
| A．People must build more power plants. |
| B．More sources of water must be found. |
| C．Every country should offer some money to Africa. |
| D．All the people living in the area should move to another place. |
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