Earth is the third planet from the sun.It is one of the four inner planets.The other three inner planets are Mercury,Venus,and Mars.The inner planets are also called the rocky planets,because they are made of rocks.
Earth is often called the “Water Planet”,because it is the only planet in our solar system which has liquid water on its surface.About 70% of the surface of Earth is covered by water! The other part of Earth is made up of continents and islands which have different landforms on them.Examples of landforms are mountains and plains.Plants and animals can live on Earth,because it has so much water.
Earth spins very quickly compared to other planets.It only takes Earth 24 hours to spin around its axis one time.One Earth day is 24 hours long!Earth orbits the sun in 365 days! This makes one Earth year 365 days long!
Earth is the only planet in our solar system where humans,other animals,and plants can live.There is plenty of water to drink or to live in.Water is present on Earth in its big oceans and in the air! Clouds are made of water vapor.The atmosphere has a lot of oxygen in it for animals to breathe,but the rest of our “air” is made up of water vapor,nitrogen,carbon dioxide,and other gases.The air is perfect for plants to grow.Earth temperature is not the same in all places,but the temperature is just right for plants,animals,and humans in most places on Earth.
Like the other inner planets,Earth has volcanoes.Volcanoes on Earth are different from those on other planets,because they still erupt.Scientists think that there may be active volcanoes on other planets and moons in our solar system,but they are still studying this.
Earth has one planet which we call the Moon.The surface of the Moon has many craters on it These were caused when meteorites hit it.It has many volcanoes on it which do not erupt anymore.We can see the moon at night without using a telescope.It is the closest space object to our planet,Earth.Earth is called the Water Planet,______.
| A．because animals need water |
| B．the water makes it look blue from space |
| C．it has liquid water on its surface |
| D．Earth is the third planet from the sun |
It takes Earth ______to orbit the sun in one year.
| A．24 hours | B．24 days | C．365 days | D．360 days |
Life exists on Earth,______.
| A．because the water,air,and temperature are just right |
| B．there is water vapor in clouds |
| C．Earth is the planet closest to the sun |
| D．earth has volcanoes |
It is only during the last few years that man has generally realized that in the world of nature a balance exists between all forms of life. No living thing can exist by itself. It is part of a system in which all forms of life are joined together. If we change one part of the nature order, this will almost certainly bring about changes in some other parts.
The cutting of forests reduced the supply of oxygen. The killing of weeds and insects by chemicals led to the wide-spread poisoning of animals and birds. The throwing of waste products into the ocean hurt life in the sea, while waste gases changed the chemical balance of the atmosphere and shut out some of the sun’s necessary life-giving rays.
And so we could go on adding more examples until in despair(绝望) we might feel like giving up the struggle to control these harmful human activities. Man is very clever at changing the world around him to satisfy his immediate needs, but he is not so clever at looking far ahead, or at thinking about what the future results of his action might be. Man may well destroy himself because of his silly action. The first paragraph tells us that _____.
| A．all living things in nature depend on each other |
| B．everything in nature can’t exist without the help of man |
| C．man has known the importance of the balance of nature for a long time |
| D．no living thing can live naturally |
In the second paragraph the examples given are used to prove that _____.
| A．all forms of life belong to a system in which all the parts can be changed for one another |
| B．it is only during the last few years that man has generally known the balance of nature |
| C．there are some living things which can exist by themselves without change |
| D．we can’t change one form of life without destroying the balance of nature |
The last paragraph suggests that in order to get his immediate benefits(利益) _____.
| A．man is always anxious to control his activities within limits |
| B．man is always too eager in planning for distant future |
| C．man often fails to think about their future results of his action |
| D．man often feels that he will have to give up in despair |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Cutting down woods does little harm to human beings. |
| B．Man has to pay much more attention to the future results of his present action. |
| C．Oxygen comes from forests. |
| D．The passage tells us to try our best to get as much as possible immediately. |
After years of hearing drivers complain about scratches on their cars, Japan's Nissan Motor Company has officially announced the next big thing---a paint that not only resists scratches and scrapes, but actually repairs itself within a few days.
The new material, developed by Nippon Paint Company, contains an elastic rubbery-like resin(弹性树脂) that is able to heal minor marks caused by car wash equipment, parking lot encounters, road debris (石头碎片) or even on-purpose destruction. The automaker admits its results vary depending on the temperature and the depth of the damage, but adds this is the only paint like it in the world, and tests prove it works. Minor scratches, the most common type, are said to slowly fade over about a week. And once they're gone, there is no trace that they were ever there. The special paint is said to last for at least three years after it is first applied, but there is no word yet on whether more can be added after that period.
Nissan claims car washes are the worst offenders for this type of damage, accounting for at least 80 percent of all incidents. But the complete auto-healing won't come without scratching your wallet. The vehicle maker notes the special paint adds about $ 100 U.S. to the price of a car. It plans to use its new chemical mixture only on its X - Trail SUVs in Japan for now, as it looks for a more widespread presentation. And while plans to offer the feature overseas haven't been made yet, if it's a hit there, you can be almost sure market forces will drive it to these shores, as well.From the article, we can find that_______.
| A．the paint has already been used on cars by now |
| B．it beats other products of its kind in its lengthy effect |
| C．car damage is mainly caused by scratches and scrapes |
| D．marketing this paint in Europe is not under way |
The paint used on cars can______.
| A．last 3 years before it is re-applied again |
| B．fade only in a few days |
| C．help to protect cars from minor paint damage |
| D．reduce car scrape incidents to 20 percent |
What can be inferred from the article?
| A．The paint was developed by Nissan Motor Company. |
| B．The paint might work better in summer than in winter. |
| C．The mark on the car could disappear as soon as the paint is applied. |
| D．The paint is very popular in Japan. |
Early one morning the sub-inspector at a station at the other end of the town rang me. An elephant was damaging the town. Would I please come and do something about it? I did not know what I could do, but I got onto a horse and started out. I took my gun, maybe too small to kill an elephant, but I thought the noise might scare him. Various local people stopped me on the way and told me about the elephant's doings. It was not, of course, a wild elephant, but a tame one. It had been chained up but last night it had broken its chain and escaped. Its owner had set out to run after it, but had taken the wrong direction. He was now twelve hours' journey away, and in the morning the elephant had suddenly appeared in the town. It had already destroyed somebody's bamboo hut (棚屋), killed a cow and turned over fruit¬stalls. I came round the hut and saw a man's dead body sprawling in the mud. He was an Indian, and he could not have been dead many minutes. The people said that the elephant caught him with its trunk, put its foot on his back and grounded him into the earth. This was the rainy season and he was lying on his stomach in the soft mud, the peacebreaker standing beside, looking innocent. As I lifted my gun, I hesitated a few seconds. Then I fired. That was a shot for him. You could see the pain of it knocking the last strength from his legs. But in falling he seemed for a moment to rise, his trunk reaching skyward like a tree. He trumpeted, for the first and only time. And then down he came, with a crash that shook the ground.Which of the following statements about the author is TRUE?
| A．He was an Indian. |
| B．He knew elephants well. |
| C．He was not a local villager. |
| D．He was the owner of the elephant. |
The elephant made so much trouble because ________.
| A．its owner treated him cruelly |
| B．it got out of control |
| C．it hated the village people |
| D．it was a wild elephant |
The underlined words “the peacebreaker” in Paragraph 4 refer to ________.
| A．the elephant | B．the dead man |
| C．the author | D．the sub¬inspector |
It can be inferred that the author felt ________ when he shot the elephant.
| A．excited | B．sad | C．frightened | D．happy |
Last week, I bought an alarm system for about $ 450. It consisted of a control unit with three small units. I put the control unit in the sitting-room and fastened the other units by the front door, back door and living-room windows. The instructions told us to choose three numbers, so we chose 4, 9 and 1, the last three numbers of our telephone number.
Now I must explain how the alarm works:
l There is a power siren(警报器) in the control unit. It makes a very loud noise.
2 Each of the small units sends out beams or rays in different directions. If anything moves, it breaks a beam. This sends a signal to the control unit. The siren makes a noise which you can hear 50 meters away.
3. When we go to bed, I press the three buttons numbered 4, 9 and 1. Then we have 30 seconds to get out of the room before the alarm starts to work.
That night I slept soundly because I was sure that no burglar(夜贼) could get into our house. However, at about 2:10 a. m., I woke up and heard the siren. “There must be a burglar in the house,” Mary said. “What shall we do?”“I’ll go and see who’s there,” I said. “Stay here. Don’t make a noise.”I went downstairs quietly. When I reached the living-room, I switched on my torch and looked round the room. Then I turned the light on. I switched the siren off and searched the rooms downstairs. There was nothing wrong except that the back door was unlocked. I locked it, reset the alarm and went back to bed. About an hour later, the alarm started again. I jumped out of bed, fell over a chair in the dark and bumped into the bedroom door. Mary woke up and started hitting me with a torch. “Hey! Wait a minute!” I whispered. “It’s only me. I’m going downstairs to see what’s wrong.”I went down into the living-room and listened for a moment. The only sound I could hear was the siren. I turned on the light and then switched the siren off. As I did so, I glanced across at the curtains in front of the windows. I saw a house lizard (a kind of small animal) disappear behind the curtains.“Oh!” I said to myself. “That’s our burglar. ”When the lizard moved, it started the siren. I guessed that the alarm had been made in Europe, where there are no house lizards. Well. I won’t finish this story but if you want an alarm system free of charge, let me know. I’ll send you ours. We bought a dog this morning. It knows the difference between a lizard and a burglar.The writer bought an alarm system to ________.
| A．make sure that he got up early every day |
| B．warn him when there were lizards in his house |
| C．frighten burglars and tell him that somebody had got into the house |
| D．make Mary feel safe to live in the large room |
The purpose of the three units was to________.
| A．send a message to the control unit and start the siren |
| B．sound their own sirens when the control unit told them so |
| C．check that the control unit worked properly all the time |
| D．give them enough light |
If the writer set the alarm and remained in the room for more than half a minute, _______.
| A．nothing would happen |
| B．the control unit would not work |
| C．the siren would make a noise |
| D．the dog would bark |
The purpose of the writer in writing the passage is to ________.
| A．tell us that the alarm system doesn’t work |
| B．tell us an interesting experience |
| C．show us how the alarm system works |
| D．make it clear that he wants to give away his alarm system |
阅读下面短文和问题，根据短文内容，在相应题号后的横线上写下相关信息(不多于
五个单词)，完成对该问题的回答。答语要结构正确，书写工整，字迹清楚。
 1. Cousins You could say that the alligator and the crocodile are cousins because they belong to the same animal group. The group is called Archosauria (ark-o-SOR-ee-ah). The name means "ruling lizards." The alligator and the crocodile are alike in many ways. Both have hard, bumpy skin. Both lay eggs in nests that they build near water. Both are reptiles (爬行动物), too.  2. Look Again Even though alligators and crocodiles are similar, there are ways to tell them apart. Adult alligators are usually gray or black, and they are darker than crocodiles. Adult crocodiles may be tan, green, or brown. Most types of alligators have broad snouts. Crocodiles' snouts are different. Their snouts are long and narrow. Look at the picture of the alligator. Whenever an alligator closes its mouth, only the top teeth show. Now look at the picture of the crocodile. Do you see a difference? Whenever a crocodile closes its mouth, some of the lower teeth also show.  3 Alligators and crocodile also have different ways of doing things. Alligators like freshwater. They sometimes wander into salty seawater, but they don't stay in the water very long. The salt can be bad for them. Alligators usually make their nests at the edge of freshwater lakes, rivers, or swamps. They use grass and leaves to make their nests. Crocodiles, on the other hand, usually build their nests in mud or sand. Sometimes they construct these nests near salty water. The salty water doesn't hurt them. Alligators and crocodiles do other things differently, too. A mother alligator stays near her nest. When the eggs hatch, she carries the babies to water. They may even ride around on her head as she swims. They depend on her to help them stay safe. Crocodile babies don't rely as much on their mothers. In fact, the babies leave the nest a few days after they are born. |
Where do they (alligators and crocodiles) lay eggs?
According to Part 2 "Look Again", how can we tell alligators and crocodiles apart?
What might be a suitable heading for Part 3?
According to the passage, who rely more on their mothers?
Who is the passage most likely intended for?