Maggie was very glad that James was not a frequent visitor to the house. So far as the children were concerned, they had a mystery about him that stirred their imagination. He stirred Maggie’s anger, however, so that she often said to her husband, “It’s mercy that brother of yours doesn’t come oftener.”
In fact James came once a year, unexpectedly, around eight o’clock in the evening, and he stayed for six hours of close discussion with his brother. His arrival was a signal to the children that their bedtime would be delayed. Not that he ever spoke to them or played with them. He took no notice of them, as if he was unable to see children, at least until the time came for him to go. Instead, after his first greeting and a careless kiss, James took no notice of Maggie either, except to add, “You’ll be getting on with the supper, Maggie.” Such was his regard for her.
Maggie paid him back in her own way. She kept the children up, the four of them, to keep her company, she said, but of course they sang and made a noise and broke the endless sound of James’s voice. Very late, they dropped off to sleep in their chairs. Then, when James was about to go, Maggie woke them up and so more or less forced him to part with four shillings before he left. That gave her some satisfaction, for James, though rich, was mean. He always went home by the last train, just after two o’clock.
Maggie’s children secretly stared at their uncle. They could not forget that he had, in their mother’s words, “lost two wives and taken a third, ” They wondered about those two unfortunate lost ladies. They asked each other what their fate had been, and if neither could ever be found again. James never brought his third wife with him nor ever mentioned her. The children decided that he must be so frightened of losing her that he never allowed her outside the door. The underlined word “mercy” in the text most probably means _______.
| A．loss | B．wonder |
| C．lucky thing | D．terrible thing |
Maggie never prepared anything special for James because _______.
| A．he was a man difficult to please |
| B．she never knew when he was coming |
| C．she was too busy looking after her children |
| D．he never stayed long enough for a meal |
What do we know about James’ behavior?
| A．He was a kind man, with love for the family. |
| B．He was generous, especially towards his brother. |
| C．He was anxious to please the family, especially the kids. |
| D．He was rude to his sister-in-law. |
Maggie felt pleased when _______.
| A．she paid James the money that she owed him |
| B．James gave some money to the children |
| C．she had to wake James up to catch his train |
| D．James thanked her for the nice supper |
The children did not realize that two of James’ wives _______.
| A．had been dead | B．suffered from loss of memory |
| C．had run away from him | D．might appear again one day |
Not being able to fall asleep or stay asleep is not a disorder in itself but a sign of some other problems, often a physical one.
If you have trouble sleeping, the American Sleep Disorders Association suggests that, for a week or two, you put down the time you go to bed, get up, exercise, and drink coffee, tea or wine. The purpose is to find the habits that may affect your sleep.
Then:
a.Don’t drink coffee in the six hours before going to bed.
b.Stop smoking and drinking at bedtime.
c.Don’t sleep during the day.
d.Go to bed at the same time every night. Set your alarm clock for the same time every morning and get up at that time, whether or not you sleep well.
e.Use the bedroom only for sleep. Read, watch TV, eat and talk elsewhere.
f.Take sleeping pills according to your doctor’s directions and don’t take them for longer than three weeks at a time.
g.If you haven’t fallen asleep within 15 minutes of going to bed, don’t turn over worrying about it. Get up and read or watch TV until you are sleepy, then return to bed.
If you continue to have trouble sleeping, ask your doctor for help or go to a sleep-disorders center. According to the passage, there is probably if you are not able to fall
asleep or stay asleep.
| A．a bad way of sleeping | B．a disorder in sleep |
| C．a physical reason | D．a problem caused by the brain |
If you have trouble sleeping, you should try to ______.
| A．ask a doctor for help or go to a sleep-disorders center |
B．p ut down the time you do things every day |
| C．do more physical exercise |
| D．find out the cause first |
According to the passage, which of the following would be the best way to help you sleep well?
| A．Taking some sleeping pills every day. |
| B．Reading books before you go to bed. |
| C．Setting your alarm clock at night. |
| D．Forming good living habits. |
The author writes this article in order to ______.
| A．tell us not being able to fall asleep is a serious disease |
| B．provide us with some suggestions on sleep problem |
| C．persuade us not to go to see the doctors when we are ill |
| D．help the American Sleep Disorders Association to find the causes of not being able to fall sleep |
What does fizz (气泡) taste like? In Bubbly (多泡的)drinks such 
as sodas, tiny bubbles give the drink a lift--- and have a distinct taste, In a new study on mice, scientists have connected that fizzy-taste feeling to the ability to taste sourness, such as that of oranges or vinegar.
Scientists first thought the taste of bubbles came from the bubbles bursting on the tongue, but now ate starting to think differently. Charles Zuker, of Columbia University, and his team studied the nervous system of mice to understand how the tongue tastes carbon dioxide, which is the gas that makes up the bubbles.
Animals, including human beings, are able to detect different tastes by using taste buds(味蕾) which pick up tastes in the mouth, and then send them to the brain. In the experiment, different groups of mice were genetically engineered to be missing one of the senses involved in taste. “Genetically engineered” means the researchers were able to turn off the switches for certain senses by changing the genes responsible for taste. The mice in one group could not taste sweet; another, sour; the third, bitter, and the fourth, salt. When the scientists gave carbon dioxide to the mice, the nervous systems of all the mice responded to the gas, except those of the mice that could not taste sour.
This shows that the taste of the bubbles must be sour, and that by turning off the ability of the mice to taste sour, the scientists also turned off their ability to taste carbon dioxide. When they studied the cells that detect sourness, the researchers found a protein attached to the cells that is important to the process of tasting carbon dioxide. When carbon dioxide comes into contact with this protein, the protein knocks off particles called protons. These protons(质子), in turn, travel to the brain, which says ,” Hey! That’s a taste!”
It may seem like a lot of work to get from a can of soda to a taste, but the science of the senses is anything but simple, “ Taste is a challenging system to study,” one researcher says. What is the most important function of the bubbles?
| A．To look interesting . | B．To make drinks taste good. |
| C．To make drinks funny. | D．To produce a lot of fizz. |
From the experiment the researchers learned that______.
| A．sourness has nothing to do with the taste of bubbles. |
| B．there is a connection between sourness and bubbles. |
| C．the taste of bubbles is better if it’s less sour. |
| D．most mice cannot taste carbon dioxide. |
It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
| A．the taste of bubbles is produced by the bubbles bursting on the tongue. |
| B．the nervous systems of mice show how the tongue tastes carbon dioxide. |
| C．taste seems simple but is very complex to research. |
| D．nerve cells sending signals to the brain is the first step in tasting something. |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Nervous Systems Understand How the Tongue Tastes. |
| B．The Process of Taste |
C．The taste of Bubbles. |
| D．Different Animals Detect Different Tastes. |
Do you know what it means when somebody tells you that he had “a catch-22 experience”?
The phrase “catch-22” comes from a book of the same title by the American writer Joseph Heller published in 1961．Catch-22 is a book of black humor．The author uses silly and even surreal(超现实的)events．It has a non-linear narrative structure(非线性的叙述结构)in which events follow the theme rather than the timing，to give us a very strange picture full of contradictions(矛盾)．
The story takes places in a bomber base in Italy during World WarⅡ．The main character, Captain Yossarian wants to leave the war．Unfortunately, every time he completes the number of tasks to be sent home，the number is raised 
and he is forced to continue fighting．It seems hopeless for him to go home under the very strange rule in this Air Force-catch-22：only when a soldier goes crazy can he be allowed to go home．But he has to go to the hospital to show the doctors that he is crazy．However, if he tells them he is crazy but is obvious healthy, he cannot go home．In short，catch-22 is“heads 1 win，tails I lose．If you can you can’t；and if you can’t，you can．”Whenever you try to behave correctly in a crazy world．There’s a catch(潜在的困难)．
During the Vietnam War, the phrase“catch-22”became a popular term for being caught in a no．win，circular dilemma and is now commonly used．
The Oxford English Dictionary explains catch．22 as“a set of circumstances in which one requirement，etc，is dependent upon another, which is in turn d
ependent upon the first．” Which of the following statements is right?
| A．Catch-22 is one of Heller’s experiences during World War II． |
| B．Catch-22 is one of Yossarian’s experiences during the Vietnam War． |
| C．The events in catch-22 follow the theme． |
| D．The events in catch-22 follow the timing． |
Why did Captain Yossarian fail to leave the war?
| A．He wasn’t so anxious to leave the war． |
| B．He didn’t finish his tasks． |
| C．He was put into a catch-22 situation． |
| D．He wasn’t mad enough to be sent home． |
What does the underlined sentence most probably mean?
| A．Whenever and however you try, you are unable to reach the goal． |
| B．You can solve every problem you meet as long as you want to． |
C．You can’t solve a ny problem in your life． |
| D．If you can’t solve all the problems．you can solve none． |
The phrase“catch-22”came into being ________ _．
| A．in World War II | B．in the Vietnam War | C．in the 1950s | D．in the 1960s |
Imagine a boy from a small village in East Africa. He, since a very early age, has been looking after cattle. At twelve years old he knows more about cattle than most of you. However, he has never been to school. Has this boy had any education?
Education is discovering about ourselves and about the people and things around us. All the people who care about us — our parents, brothers, sisters, friends — are our 
teachers. In fact, we learn something from everyone we meet. We start learning on the day we were born, not on the first day we go to school. Every day we have new 
experiences, like finding a bird’s nest, discovering a new street in our neighborhood, making friends with someone we didn’t like before. New experiences are even more fun when we share them with other people.
Encouragement from the people around us enables us to exp
lore things as many as possible. As we grow up, we begin to find out what we are capable of doing. You may be good at cooking, or singing or playing football. You find this out by doing these things. Just thinking about cooking doesn’t tell you whether you are good at it.
We learn so much just living from day to day. So why is school important? Of course you can learn some things better at home than at school, like how to do the shopping, and how to help old or disabled people who can’t do everything for themselves. At school, teachers help us to read and write. With their guidance, we begin to see things in different ways. The writer takes the African boy as an example to show that _______.
| A．African children are very poor. | B．some children are unlucky. |
| C．there are many kinds of education. | D．schools are of great importance. |
In the opinion of the writer, .
| A．we have to learn from the people around us. | B．the school is not important at all. |
| C．only people who care for us can teach us. | D．education takes place everywhere. |
One can find out what he / she is good at by _.
| A．what people encourage him/ her to do. | B．the teachings of those he / she meets. |
| C．thinking about it when growing up. | D．trying and practising things. |
The passage tells us that _.
| A．everyone gets education from the day he or she was born. |
| B．different classes of people receive different kinds of education. |
| C．the school is absolutely necessary if one wants to understand the world. |
| D．everyone will find out what he or she is good at. |
According to the last paragraph, we know that .
| A．the school is not so important as our living places. |
B．the school enables us to understand the world in other ways. |
| C．the school teaches us things which are useless at home. |
| D．the school cannot prepare us for our daily lives. |
Casablanca, Sep. 24
A flash flood swept across the coastal plain about 100 miles southwest of here, killing hundreds of Moroccans in a market place yesterday morning.
Reports from the area said 218 bodies had been counted, and many of the people were missing.
The flood followed heavy rains, which filled the coastal plain and dried river beds and caused them to overflow. The flood crest, sev
eral feet high, hit the village of Khemis Nagua at midmorning yesterday as farmers from the surrounding area joined town people in an o
pen market place.
The roaring water swept the village’s living places, the market sheds (棚子), shoppers, cattle and farm tools for miles across the plain..
The flood was over almost as soon as it started, the reports said, as the cre
st swept out to sea. Rescue workers quickly moved into the area from Sari, about 25 miles further south. It can be learnt from the te
xt that _____.
| A．the news report is from Khemis Nagua | B．the flo od didn’t last long |
| C．hundreds of Moroccans were saved | D．Casablanca is a city in Africa |
The report mainly tells the public about _____.
| A．how the flood swept the coastal plain | B．why the terrible flood took place |
| C．the flash flood in the fall | D．a rescue attempt |
According to the text, which of the following maps may be correct?
(KN="Khemis" Nagua C="Casablanca" S=Safi)