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Tristan da Cunha, a 38squaremile island, is the farthest inhabited island in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. It is 1,510 miles southwest
of its nearest neighbor, St.Helena, and 1,950 miles west of Africa. Discovered
by the Portuguese admiral（葡萄牙海军上将）of the same name in 1506, and settled
in 1810, the island belongs to Great Britain and has a population of a few hund
red.
Coming in a close second—and often wrongly mentioned as the most distant land—is Easter Island, which lies 1,260 miles east of its nearest neighbor, Pitcair
n Island, and 2,300 miles west of South America.
The mountainous 64-square-mile island was settled around the 5th century, supposedly by people who were lost at sea. They had no connection with the outside world for more than a thousand years, giving them plenty of time to build more than 1,000 huge stone figures, called moai, for which the island is most famous.
On Easter Sunday, 1722, however, settlers from Holland moved in and gave the island its name. Today, 2,000 people live on the Chilean territory (智利领土).They share one street, a small airport, and a few hours of television per day.
1.It can be learned from the text that the island of Tristan da Cunha_______.
A.was named after its discoverer
B.got its name from Holland settlers
C.was named by the British government
D.got its name from the Guinness Book of Records
2.Which of the following is most famous for moai?
A. Tristan da Cunha. B. Pitcairn Island. C. Easter Island. D. St. Helena.
3. Which country does Easter Island belong to?
A. Britain. B. Holland. C. Portugal. D. Chile.

There are three separate sources of danger in supplying energy by nuclear power(原子能).
First, the radioactive material must travel from its place of production to the power station. Although the power stations themselves are strongly built, the containers used for the transport of the materials are not. Normally, only two methods of transport are in use, namely road or rail. Unfortunately, both of these may have an effect on the general public, since they are sure to pass near, or even through, heavily populated areas.
Second, there is the problem of waste. All nuclear power stations produce wastes that in most cases will remain radioactive for thousands of years. It is impossible to make these wastes nonradioactive, and so they must be stored in one of the inconvenient ways that scientists have invented. For example, they may be buried under the ground, or dropped into deserted mines, or sunk in the sea. However, these methods do not solve the problem, since an earthquake could easily break the containers.
Third, there may occur the danger of a leak(泄漏) or an explosion at the power station. As with the other two dangers, this is not very likely, so it does not provide a serious objection to the nuclear program. However, it can happen.Separately, these three types of dangers are not a great cause for worry. Taken together, though, the probability of disaster(灾难) is extremely high.
1.Which of the following is FALSE?
A.It is possible that a leak or an explosion occurs at a power station.
B.It is unusual for radioactive materials to be transported across land.
C.The containers are likely to be broken by an earthquake.
D.Nuclear wastes remain dangerous in most cases for many years.
2.The author thinks that the ways to store nuclear wastes are ________.
A.easy B.impossible C.reasonable D.ineffective
3.What do we learn from the last paragraph?
A.The power station is a safe place.
B.The dangers of nuclear energy can be prevented.
C.The general public are strongly against the nuclear program.
By itself, none of the three dangers is very likely to cause much worry.
4.What is this passage about?
A.Uses of nuclear power. B.Dangers from nuclear power.
C.Public anger at nuclear power. D.Accidents caused by nuclear power.

When a group of children politely stop a conversation with you, saying，“We have to go to work now.” you're left feeling surprised and certainly uneasy. After all, this is the 1990s and the idea of children working is just unthinkable. That is , until you are told that they are all pupils of stage schools, and that the “work” they go off to is to go on the stage in a theatre.
Stage schools often act as agencies (代理机构) to supply children for stage and television work. More worthy of the name “stage school” are those few places where children attend full time, with a training for the theatre and a general education.
A visit to such schools will leave you in no doubt that the children enjoy themselves. After all, what lively children wouldn't settle for spending only hal
f the day doing ordinary school work, and acting, singing or dancing their way through the other half of the day?
Then of course there are times for the children to make a name and make a little money in some big shows. Some stage schools give their children too much professional work at such a young age. But the law is very tight on the amount they can do. Those under 13 are limited to 40 days in the year; those over 13 do 80 days.
The schools themselves admit that not all children will be successful in the profession for which they are being trained. So what happens to those who don't make it? While all the leading schools say they place great importance on children getting good study results, the facts seem to suggest this is not always the case.
1.People would stop feeling uneasy when realising that the children they're talking to ________.
A. attend a stage school
B. are going to the theatre
C. have got some work to do
D. love singing and dancing
2.In the writer's opinion, a good stage school should ________ .
A. produce star performers
B. help pupils improve their study skills
C. train pupils in language and performing arts
D. provide a general education and stage training
3.“Professional work” as used in the text means ________ .
A. ordinary school work
B. moneymaking performances
C. stage training at school
D. acting, singing or dancing after class
4.Which of the following best describes how the writer feels about stage schools?
A. He thinks highly of what they have to offer.
B. He favours an early start in the training of performing arts.
C. He feels uncomfortable about children putting on night shows.
D. He doubts the standard of ordinary education they have reached.

If you dream of going someplace warm to escape the cold winter weather,a trip to a recently discovered planet would certainly warm you right up.The planet,named
OGLE-TR-56b,has temperatures of more than 3,000°F.“This is the hottest planet we know about,”says Dr Dimitar Sasselov,a scientist who led the discovery team.“It is hot enough to have an iron fog and to rain hot iron droplets(细沫).”
The new planet is 30 times farther away than any planet discovered by scientists
before.It is in the Milky Way(银河)but it is not in our solar(太阳的)system.The new planet moves around a star much like our sun,however scientists discovered the planet by using a new planetsearching method called transit technique.They were able to catch sight of the planet when it moved in front of its star,causing the star's light to dim(变暗).Scientists compare the method to discovering the shadow of a bee flying in front of a searchlight 200 miles away.“We believe the door has been opened wide to go and discover planets like the Earth,”says Sasselov.
1.We can infer from the passage that_________.
A.there is iron on the new planet
B.we could go to the new planet in winter
C.the star could block our view of the new planet
D.scientists are studying the weather
2.The “transit technique”can_____________.
A.help dim the light of a star
B.help scientists with a searchlight
C.help discover a bee on a planet
D.help find a planet moving before its star
3.Which is the best title for the passage?
A.New Planet searching Technique
B.New Distant Discovery
C.Space Searching
D.Dream Planet

If you ask people to name the one person who had the greatest effect on the English language,you will get answers like “Shakespeare”,“Samuel Johnson”and“Webster”,but none of these men had any effect at all compared to a man who didn't even speak English—William the Conqueror.
Before 1066,in the land we now call Great Britain lived peoples belonging to two major language groups.In the westcentral region lived the Welsh,who spoke a Celtic language,and in the north lived the Scots,whose language,though not the same as Welsh, was also Celtic.In the rest of the country lived the Saxons,actually a mixture of Anglos,Saxons,and other Germanic and Nordic peoples,who spoke what we now call AngloSaxon(or Old English),a Germanic language.If this state of affairs had lasted,English today would be close to German.
But this state of affairs did not last.In 1066 the Normans led by William defeated the Saxons and began their rule over England.For about a century,French became the official language of England while Old English became the language of peasants. As a result,English words of politics and the law come from French rather than German.In some cases,modern English even shows a distinction (区别) between upper class French and lowerclass AngloSaxon in its words. We even have different words for some foods,meat in particular,depending on whether it is still out in the fields or at home ready to be cooked,which shows the fact that the Saxon peasants were doing the farming,while the upperclass Normans were doing most of the eating.
When Americans visit Europe for the first time,they usually find Germany more“foreign” than France because the German they see on signs and advertisements seems much more different from English than French does. Few realize that the English language is actually Germanic in its beginning and that the French influences are all the result of one man's ambition.
1.The two major languages spoken in what is now called Great Britain before 1066 were_________.
A.Welsh and Scottish B.Nordic and Germanic
C.Celtic and Old EnglishD.Anglo Saxon and Germanic
2.Which of the following groups of words are,by inference,rooted in French?
A.president,lawyer,beef B.president,bread,water
C.bread,field,sheep D.folk,field,cow
3.Why does France appear less foreign than Germany to Americans on their first visit to Europe?
A.Most advertisements in France appear in English.
B.They know little of the history of the English language.
C.Many French words are similar to English ones.
D.They know French better than German.
4.What is the subject discussed in the text?
A. The history of Great Britain.
B. The similarity between English and French.
C. The rule of England by William the Conqueror.
D. The French influences on the English language.