More than 10 years ago, it was difficult to buy a tasty pineapple. The fruits that made it to the UK were green on the outside and, more often than not, hard with an unpleasant taste within. Then in 1996, the Del Monte Gold pineapple produced in Hawaii first hit our shelves.
The new type of pineapple looked more yellowy-gold than green. It was slightly softer on the outside and had a lot of juice inside. But the most important thing about this new type of pineapple was that it was twice as sweet as the hit-and-miss pineapples we had known. In no time, the Del Monte Gold took the market by storm, rapidly becoming the world's best-selling pineapple variety, and delivering natural levels of sweetness in the mouth, up until then only found in tinned pineapple.
In nutrition(营养) it was all good news too. This nice-tasting pineapple contained four times more vitamin C(维生素C) than the old green variety. Nutritionists said that it was not only full of vitamins, but also good against some diseases. People were understandably eager to be able to buy this wonderful fruit. The new type of pineapple was selling fast, and the Del Monte Gold pineapple rapidly became a fixture in the shopping basket of the healthy eater.
Seeing the growing market for its winning pineapple, Del Monte tried to keep the market to itself. But other fruit companies developed similar pineapples. Del Monte turned to law for help, but failed. Those companies argued successfully that Del Monte's attempts to keep the golden pineapple for itself were just a way to knock them out of the market.
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We learn from the text that the new type of pineapple is.
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| 2． |
Why was the new type of pineapple selling well?.
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| 3． |
The underlined word "fixture" in Paragraph 3 probably refers to something. |
| 4． |
We learn from the last paragraph that Del Monte.
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Every people has its own way of saying things, its own special expressions. Many everyday American expressions are on colors.
Red is a hot color. Americans often use it to express heat. They may say they are red hot about something unfair. When they are red hot，they are very angry about something. The small hot tasting peppers found in many Mexican foods are called red hots for their color and their fiery taste. Fast loud music is popular with many people. They may say the music is red hot, especially the kind called Dixieland jazz.
Pink is a lighter kind of red. People sometimes say they are in the pink when they are in good health. The expression was first used in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. It probably comes from the fact that many babies are born with a nice pink color that shows that they are in good health.
Blue is a cool color. The traditional blues music in the United States is the opposite of red hot music. Blues is slow, sad and soulful. Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded a famous song Mood Indigo about the deep blue color, indigo. In the words of the song: "You ain't been blue till you've had that Mood Indigo." Someone who is blue is very sad.
The color green is natural for trees and grass. But it is an unnatural color for humans. A person who has a sick feeling stomach may say she feels a little green. A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from high waves may look very green.
Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as a friend has, like a fast new car. That person may say he is green with envy. Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars or greenbacks. Dollars are called greenbacks because that is the color of the back side of the paper money.
The color black is used often in expressions. People describe a day in which everything goes wrong as a black day. The date of a major tragedy is remembered as a black day. A blacklist is illegal now. But at one time，some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations. If you had your wallet stolen while doing some shopping, you may call it ______ .
| A．a white day | B．a black day |
| C．a red day | D．a green day |
Suppose a Mr. Brown says he is very happy because his three children* are all in the pink, this means all his children are ______ .
| A．lucky and wealthy |
| B．gentle and modest |
| C．fit and healthy |
| D．creative and energetic |
When she got home and found nothing had been done by her husband, Jane was really ______ .
| A．red hot | B．green |
| C．blue | D．black |
In the following paragraph, the writer might tell the readers something about ______ .
| A．unpopular polarizations in the world |
| B．people's response towards a black day |
| C．the influence of the traditional blues |
| D．more words about colors，such as brown |
For many in the United States, Arab-Americans are an invisible part of the population. Though Arab-Americans as a community have made great contributions to American society in fields from literature to politics to medicine, many Americans know very little about Americans of Arab backgrounds.
Arab history in the United States goes back to the late 1800's when large numbers of Arab immigrants first began making their journey to a land known simply as "Amreeka".
Historians generally describe Arab immigration to America in two waves. The first wave took place between 1860 and 1924. The first wave consisted of Lebanese and Syrian，and some Egyptian immigrants. These new immigrants，who were mostly Christians, came to America in search of better opportunities. Even the doomed Titanic , which set sail for America in 1912, had close to a hundred Arab passengers aboard. The majority of Arab-Americans today are descendents of the first wave of immigrants； they are the third or more generation Americans.
The second wave of immigrants followed after World War Ⅱ， caused by political unrest in the Middle East. This second wave of immigrants consists of mainly Arab Muslims (穆斯林)and continues to this day.
Arab-Americans make up 3 million of the population in the United States，according to demographers. And quite different from popular belief, 64 percent of them are American-born. Eighty-two percent of Arab-Americans are US citizens.
Arab-Americans are beyond the national average in both education and income. Education is important among Arab-Americans； 82 percent have high school diplomas, 36 percent have bachelor's degrees or higher, and 15 percent have graduate degrees. The- median (中位数的)average income among Arab-Americans is $39, 580, which is higher than the US average. What would be the best title for the text?
| A．Arabs in America. |
| B．The Two Arab Immigration Waves to America. |
| C．Arab-Americans, Contributions to America. |
| D．Arab-Americans, Education and Income. |
The first wave of immigrants took place because ______ .
| A．all Arabs were Christian at that time |
| B．Arabs wanted to hunt for a better development |
| C．the Second World War broke out |
| D．Arabs wanted to gain higher income |
The writer of this passage mentioned Titanic ______ .
| A．to tell us that taking ship at that time was dangerous |
| B．because Titanic became a well-known disaster |
| C．to show us there were many Arabs flocking into America at that time |
| D．to inform us that Arabs are brave enough |
From the last paragraph we can infer that ______ .
| A．Arab-Americans are much more clever than native Americans |
| B．Arab-Americans are hard-working people |
| C．the higher education you receive, the higher income you will get in America |
| D．Arab-Americans play the most important role in the American average in both education and income |
The Poetry Foundation recently named American poet Jack Prelutsky as the nation's first children's poet laureate (桂冠诗人). The group created the award as a way to increase children’s love of poetry.
As children's poet laureate, Jack Prelutsky will give two public readings in the next two years. He will also advise the Poetry Foundation about children's literature and take part in projects concerning children and poetry.
Jack Prelutsky has been writing poetry for children for almost forty years. He has written more than thirty-five books of poems. His first book was called /4 Gopher in the Garden. It was published in 1967. His latest is called Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems.
Prelutsky is well known for creating new words by combining two words to creat a new kind of creature. For example, he combined "radish" with "shark" to get "radishark", "Lion" and "broccoli" became "broccolion", He also created "umbrellaphant", a mixture of the words "umbrella" and "elephant".
Jack Prelutsky says that children like his poems because he writes about things they care about. Poetry researchers say that Jack Prelutsky's poems recognize children's feeling. An example of this is the poem My Sister Is a Werewolf which is about how it feels to be different.
Jack Prelutsky also writes poems about American holidays. His poem It's Halloween is a very famous one about the holiday celebrated at the end of October. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Poems with New Words Grow Popular |
| B．First Children's Poet Laureate Named |
| C．Children's Love for Poetry Increased |
| D．Jack Prelutsky Awarded Nationwide |
What is Jack Prelutsky famous for?
| A．Creating new words in his poems. |
| B．His productivity. |
| C．His long time of writing. |
| D．His poems about American holidays. |
Children are in favour of his poems because ______ .
| A．they are easy to understand |
| B．the poet is famous |
| C．children like reading new words |
| D．the poet understands their feelings |
Put the following items in right order according to the passage.
a. two public readings
b. A Gopher in the Garden
c. Behold the Bold Unbrellaphant and Other Poems
d. My Sister Is a Werewolf
| A．b-c-d-a | B．d-a-c-b |
| C．b-d-c-a | D．a-b-c-d |
Personal computers and the Internet give people new choices about how to spend their time.
Some may use this freedom to share less time with certain friends or family members，but new technology will also let them stay in closer touch with those they care more about. I know this from my personal experience.
E-mail makes it easy to work at home, where I now spend most weekends and evenings. My working hours aren't necessarily much shorter than they once were but I spend fewer of them at the office. This lets me share more time with my young daughter than I might have if she'd been born before E-mail became such a practical tool.
The Internet also makes it easy to share thoughts with a group of friends. Say you do something fun—see a great movie perhaps— and there are four or five friends who might want to hear about it. If you call each one, you may be tired of telling the story.
With E-mail, you just write one note about your experience, at your convenience，and address it to all the friends who you think might be interested. They can read your message when they have time, and read as much as they want to. They can reply at their convenience, and you can read what they have to say at your convenience.
E-mail is also an inexpensive way to stay in close touch with people who live far away. More than a few parents use E-mail to keep in touch, even daily touch, with their children at college.
We just have to keep in mind that computers and the Internet offer another way of staying in touch. They don't take the place of any of the old ways. The purpose of this passage is to ______ .
| A．explain how to use the Internet |
| B．share the writer's joy of keeping up with the latest technology |
| C．tell the usefulness of the Internet |
| D．introduce the basic knowledge about personal computers and the Internet |
The use of E-mail has made it possible for the writer to ______ .
| A．spend less time working |
| B．have more time to spend with his children |
| C．work, at home on all weekends |
| D．work at a speed comfortable to him |
According to the writer, E-mail has an obvious advantage over the telephone because the former helps one ______ .
| A．reach a group of people at one time conveniently |
| B．keep his communication as personal as possible |
| C．pass on much more information than the latter |
| D．get in touch with his friends faster than the latter |
The best title for the passage is "______".
| A．Computer—New Technological Advances |
| B．Internet—New Tool to Maintain Good Friendship |
| C．Computer—Have Made Life Easier |
| D．Internet—A Convenient Tool for Communication |
Last month, students from one hundred and three universities in eighty-eight countries took part in an international computer programming contest. The Battle of the Brains took place in Harbin, China. Three-person teams from each school had five hours to solve eleven real world problems.
Jerry Cain coached the team from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He says the problems involved, among other things, paperweights，robots，castles and lakes.
The students first listed the problems in order of difficulty. Then they figured out the requirements of each. They designed ways to test their solutions. And they wrote the needed software systems. Even the winning team from Shanghai Jiaotong University in China was not able to solve all the problems within the given time limit. Stanford's team solved five problems and finished in fourteenth place. Stanford was one of twenty-one American universities that took part in the contest this year.
The official name of the Battle of the Brains is the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. It began in nineteen seventy at Texas A and M University. The contest quickly became popular in the United States and Canada. It developed and grew as more and more schools took part in local and area contests.
The first final competition was held in nineteen seventy-seven at the Association for Computer Machinery Computer Science Conference.
Today, a network of universities holds area competitions that send the winners to the world finals, which are now organized by IBM.
Contest spokesman Doug Heintzman says the world champions receive prizes and scholarships. They are also guaranteed an offer of employment or internship with IBM. This competition is an opportunity to be recognized and to be recruited (雇用，聘用) by some of the top technology and research firms around the world. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The winners will be sent to the world finals, which are now organized by IBM. |
| B．Five-person teams had three hours to solve eleven real world problems. |
| C．Shanghai Jiaotong University in China solved all the problems within the given time limit. |
| D．Stanford's solved five problems and finished in fortieth place in the contest. |
What is not the possible result of the world champions?
| A．Receiving prizes and scholarships. |
| B．Being offered employment or internship with IBM. |
| C．Being recognized and employed by top technology and research firms. |
| D．Being given an opportunity to go travelling around the world for free. |
This . passage would most likely be found in ______ section of the newspaper.
| A．politics | B．economy |
| C．education | D．entertainment |
Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
| A．The Battle of the Brains |
| B．Listing the Problems in Order of Difficulty |
| C．Champions Receiving Prizes and Scholarships |
| D．An International Computer Programming Contest |