Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants. 
Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns(角) had not yet developed. A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today—a person who is new in a job. 
Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early nineteen hundreds. A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died.
The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs.
Green is also the color used to describe the powerful feeling, jealousy(嫉妒). The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about four hundred years ago by British writer William Shakespeare in his play “Othello”. It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants. A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else. Or, that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay rise and she does not. Greenhorn now refers to ____.
| A．a person who is new in a job | B．a new solider |
| C．a young horse | D．None of above |
A person who has a green thumb is a person ____.
| A．who is good at growing plants | B．whose thumbs are in green color |
| C．whose garden is greener than others’ | D．who is younger than his neighbors |
The author is actually talking about ____.
| A．colors | B．language | C．politics | D．agriculture |
One warm May day, two eighteen – year – old students from San Francisco State College decided to cool off with a swim at Bakers’ Beach. The two students were named Robert Kogler and Shirley O’Neill. They headed out to sea for a distance of 50 meters. Robert was in front.
“Suddenly, I heard him scream,” Shirley recalls. “I looked round and saw this great grey thing going up in the air. The water seemed to be alive.”
Robert screamed again. “It’s a shark! Get out of here!”
An eye – witness, Army Sergeant Leo P. Day was on guard at the nearby army post. He saw exactly what happened next. “I could see this boy struggling with the shark in the water,” he said. “The sea was red with blood. He was shouting and signaling someone to go back, go back. Then I saw the girl. She was swimming towards him. She completely ignored his warning.”
Shirley reached Robert, and tried to take his hand.
“When I pulled, all I could see was his arm, handing by a thread,” she said.
So she put her arm about Robert’s back, and started to swim towards the shore. She kept praying “Don't’ let it attack again!” That journey to the shore seemed to last for hours. At last, as they neared the shore, a fisherman threw them a line, and pulled them both the rest of the way.
The young man had lost a lot of blood, and died two and a half hours later. From the teeth marks, experts identified the attacker as a Great White Shark.
For what Sergeant Day called “the greatest exhibition of bravery I have ever seen,” the President of the US gave Shirley a medal for bravery.When Robert was attacked by a shark Shirley ? .
| A．was swimming in the sea |
| B．was watching him on the shore |
| C．was on guard at the nearby army post |
| D．was shouting and struggling with a shark, too |
Choose the right time order of the following events in the story.
a. Army Sergeant saw the girl swimming to the boy.
b. Shirley saw a great grey thing.
c. They headed out to sea.
d. Robert died.
e. A fisherman threw them a line.
f. He saw a boy struggling with a shark.
| A．b, c, e, d, f, a | B．c, a, f, d, e, b | C．b, c, f, a, d, e | D．c, b, f, a, e, d |
We can learn from the passage that ______. .
| A．the two students were brave and considerate |
| B．the fisherman was adventurous and helpful |
| C．the experts didn’t do much research on sharks |
| D．the Sergeant cared too much about his own life |
Which of the following is true?
| A．The President of the US gave Shirley a medal for bravery. |
| B．They were swimming in a lake. |
| C．There is no eye – witness. |
| D．Shirley saved Robert’s life. |
The Kingdome in Seattle was destroyed on March 26, 2000. It was taken down to make room for a new stadium. The blast(爆破) from the falling building caused the earth to shake as if an earthquake had happened.
Scientists placed more than 200 earthquake recorders in the earth to measure the movement. They found which parts of the city shook the most. This information helped them know which parts of the city would be damaged in a real earthquake at an early time.
A real earthquake happened on February 28, 2001 in Seattle. The Nisqually earthquake was 6.8 on the Richter scale(里氏6.8级). It damaged the same parts of Seattle that scientists had predicted(预测) from the pulling down of the Kingdome. It was a plate quake. It started deep in the earth, 37 miles below the surface on the Juan de Fuca Plate. Sometimes, huge plates under the earth cause earthquakes when the plates move against each other suddenly.
Scientists have learned that deep earthquakes have very few aftershocks(余震). The Nisqually earthquake had only 4 ones. Another earthquake in California that was close to the surface had over 120 aftershocks. Scientists do not know why the deep earthquakes have fewer aftershocks.
Scientists plan to blast in the ground near Seattle with the purpose of testing the plate. The shockwaves from the blast will jump off the plate and give them an idea of where the plate is and how it is moving. This will give them more information in case another real earthquake hits the area.
72． According to the passage, ______ have the most aftershocks.
A．shockwave earthquakes B．shallow earthquakes
C．deep earthquakes D．earthquakes more than 6.8 Richter scale
73．What do scientists hope to learn from the blast above the Juan de Fuca Plate?
A．They hope to learn where the plate is and how it is moving.
B．They want to destroy the Kingdome.
C．They want to know which places are likely to have the most damage.
D．They hope to find out how many plates there are in the ground there.
74．Why were the scientists interested in the pulling down of the Seattle Kingdome?
A．They wanted to see which areas near the Kingdome would shake the hardest.
B．They wanted to predict what might happen in a real earthquake.
C．They wanted to measure the movement of the Earth with earthquake recorders.
D．All of the above.
75．What will happen after a deep earthquake according to the scientists?
A．There will be many aftershocks.
B．There will be very few aftershocks.
C．The Richter scale of the quakes will be a 6.8 or more.
D．There will be little damage.
There is no doubt that adults, and even highly educated adults, vary greatly in the speed and efficiency of their reading. Some proceed very lowly throughout; others dash along too quickly and then have to regress. Poor readers in particular may lack the ability to vary their manner of reading according to the type of reading matter and to their intentions in reading it. A good reader can move at great speed through the text of a novel or similar light reading matter. He may be able to skim a page, picking up a word or two here and there, and gain a general idea of what the text is about without really reading it. In reading more difficult material, with the intention of taking in the whole of it, he will proceed more slowly, but even then he will vary his pace, concentrating on the key words and passages, perhaps re-reading them several times and pass more quickly over the remainder. A less efficient reader tends to maintain the same speed whatever the material he reads. Consequently, even light reading matter gives him little pleasure because he reads so slowly. But this pace may be too fast for really difficult material which requires special concentration at difficult points.
A type of reading which necessitates(需要) careful attention to detail is proofreading, in which the reader, in order to detect misprints in a sample print, has to notice not so much the meaning of what he reads as the exact shape and order of letters and words in the text. This is extremely difficult for most people, since they are accustomed to overlooking such details. In fact, considerable practice is required to practise this task efficiently and it can be done only by reading very slowly, and by paying comparatively little attention to the general meaning of the text.
68．This article is mainly concerned with ________.
A．the ability to read fast
B．difference in the speed and efficiency of reading
C．different reading skills
D．the reading speed of highly educated adults
69．According to the article, there is a difference in reading speed ________.
A．among adult readers
B．among young educated people
C．among readers who have different experiences
D．between the poorly educated and the highly educated
70．The underlined word "regress" can be best replaced by "________".
A．regret B．stop C．move slowly D．go back
71．The author believes a good reader should ________.
A．always read at great speed
B．read carefully and catch every detail
C．always review the text he has read
D．change his speed according to the type of text
If US software(软件) companies don’t pay more attention to quality, they could kiss their business good-bye. Both India and Brazil are developing a world-class software industry. Their weapon is quality and one of their jobs is to attract the top US quality specialists whose voices are not listened to in their country.
Already, of the world’s 12 software houses that have earned the highest position in the world, seven are in India. That’s largely because they have used new methods American software specialists refused to use. For example, for years, quality specialists, W. Edwards Deming and J.M. Juran had tried to persuade US software companies to change their attitudes to quality. But their quality call mainly fell on deaf ears in the US--but not in Japan. By the 1970s and 1980s, Japan was taking its market share with better, cheaper products. They used Deming’s and Juran’s ideas to bring down the cost of good quality to as little as 5% of total production costs. In US factories, the cost of quality then was 10 times as high: 50%. In software, it still is.
Watts S. Humphrey spent 27 years at IBM heading up software production and then quality assurance(保证). But his advice was seldom paid attention to. He retired from IBM in 1986. In 1987, he worked out a system for assessing(评估) and improving software quality. It has proved its value time and again. For example, in 1990 the cost of quality at Raytheon Electronics Systems was almost 60 % of total software production costs. It fell to 15% in 1996 and has since further dropped to below 10 %.
Like Deming and Juran, Humphrey seems to be winning more praises overseas than at home. The Indian government and several companies have just founded the Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute at the Software Technology Park in Chennai, India. Let’s hope that US lead in software will not be eaten up by its quality problems.
64. Which country has the most first-class software companies in the world?
A. Germany. B. The USA. C. Brazil. D. India.
65. Which of the following statements about Humphrey is true?
A. He is now still an IBM employer.
B. He has worked for IBM for 37 years.
C. The US pays much attention to his quality advice.
D. India honors him highly.
66. By what means did Japan take its large market share by the 1970s and the 1980s?
A. Its products were cheaper in price and better in quality.
B. Its advertising was most successful.
C. The US hardware industry was falling behind.
D. Japan hired a lot of Indian software specialists.
67. What is the writer worrying about?
A. Many US software specialists are working for Japan.
B. The quality problem has become a worldwide problem.
C. The US will lose its lead in software in the world.
D. India and Japan are joining hands to compete with the US.
Koeler took special notice of the tall woman who was nicely dressed, but she was wearing ugly, thick-soled(厚底) shoes.
Now the woman was taken to a room for questioning. There it was found that the soles of the shoes were hollow(中空的). They were opened. Some diamonds fell out on the floor. Their total weight was 3377 carats(克拉).
The young woman broke down in tears. Then she told her story. For years she had dreamed of coming to live in America, she said. At last she had managed to get the papers she needed to come to the U.S. Then a strange man called on her. He said he would pay for her trip and give her one hundred dollars. All she had to do was to smuggle the diamonds past the U.S. Customs. The man gave her the shoes and also bought her a plane ticket. Just before she got on the plane, he gave her an envelope. He said that it was the hundred dollars he had promised.
The weeping woman handed the envelope to Koeler. He tore it open. There was only eighteen dollars. She was cheated. In the end the woman was trialed and sentenced to eighteen months in prison for her part in the smuggling.
60. Where did the story happen?
A. At an airport. B. At a police station.
C. At a railway station. D. In a custom office in China.
61. The underlined word “smuggling ” in this passage most probably means_____.
A. 偷税 B. 盗窃 C. 走私 D. 交换
62. The woman had agreed to smuggle the diamonds______.
A. in order to get the papers she needed B. in hope of selling them
C. in return for some money and a free trip D. so as to share them with the man
63. Which is the right order of the events(事件)given in the passage?
a. She wanted to live in the U.S.
b. She arrived in the U.S.
c. She was given an envelope.
d. She was given a plane ticket.
e. She was found out.
f. She was put into prison.
A. a, d, c, b, e, f B. a, b, c, e, f, d
C. a, c, d, b, e, f D. a, b, d, c, e, f