Barcelona December 22,2007.
Spain’s “El Gordo,” the word’s biggest lottery (彩票), gave out 2.2 billion euros (欧元) (1.6 billion pounds) in Christmas prizes on Saturday.
El Gordo, Spanish for "The Fat One", is designed so that as many people as possible across Spain get a festive windfall. The top prize this year was 3 million euros -- going to the series of tickets with the mag
ic number 06381.
Because the tickets are sold in a series of 10, only those who paid 200 euros for the whole strip get the full prize.
The bi
ggest 
share of winning tickets was bought by people in the town of Nava, in the north-western Asturias region.
The draw lasts three-and-a-half hours and is carried live on national television with children from the San Ildefonso school, a former orphanage in Madrid, in turn chanting the winning numbers and the amount won.
Lotteries have two centuries of history in Spain. The country spent 2.87 billion euros on the lottery -- 5.7 percent more than last year. Seventy percent is paid out in prizes. Most of the rest goes in costs. Eight out of ten Spaniards bought tickets for the lottery, spending on average 64 euros. Spaniards often choose lottery numbers matching significant dates although there was no particular favourite in 2007. In 2006, one of the most sought-after series was 22105, the date on which Fernando Alonso became Formula 1 world champion for the second year running.The underlined word “windfall” in par
agraph two probably means .
| A．fat gift | B．unexpected fortune |
| C．big feast | D．wind and snow |
Who is likely to win the full prize in El Gordo?
A．People who paid 200 euros for the wole group of seri es. |
| B．People who bough tickets with the magic number 06381. |
| C．People who lived in a town in the northwestern Asturias. |
| D．People who chose lottery numbers matching Alonso’s date. |
According to the text, children from the San Ildefonso School in Madrid will .
| A．host the draw of lottery live on TV |
| B．offer a show of three – and – a – half hours |
| C．perform with the lottery draw as Christmas celebration |
| D．help make some declarations for the draw as invited guests |
What can we learn about the history of lotteries in Spain?
| A．Most of the money people spent on lotteries goes in the cost. |
| B．The majority of Spaniards have the experience of buying lotteries. |
| C．Lottery numbers matching significant dates help people win every year. |
| D．As the biggest in the world, Spanish lotteries have a history of two centuries. |
Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed that the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked, Mark discovered the boy’s name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history that he was having a lot of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend.
Mark went home after leaving Bill at his house. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, and then both graduated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school, where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long-awaited senior year came. Three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk.
Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. “Do you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?” asked Bill. “You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother’s sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide(自杀). But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life.”What happened to Bill on his way home from school?
| A．Bill almost killed himself. |
| B．Bill was caught on something and almost fell down. |
| C．Bill was sleepy from the sleeping pills. |
| D．Bill noticed Mark following him home. |
After Bill got home, .
| A．he missed his friend Mark very much |
| B．he decided to break up with his girlfriend |
| C．he intended to kill himself immediately |
| D．he thought of the friendliness of Mark |
Mark saved Bill from committing suicide by.
| A．helping Bill pick up the fallen books on the ground |
| B．saying something comfortable and friendly to Bill |
| C．persuading Bill not to leave a mess for other people |
| D．being friendly to Bill in trouble |
Bill cleared his locker in order to .
| A．store away some of his mother’s sleeping pills |
| B．prepare for the next school year of high school |
| C．leave the world without troubling others |
| D．help his mother do some housework the last time |
I first met Annie Mae, a maid (女仆), at my parents-in-laws’ in 1959. She prepared and36 meals in her quiet, gentle way and then returned to the kitchen to read her Bible (《圣经》) while we 37 . She was a devoted Christian. I found this increasingly true 38 I came to know her more by observation than by conversation.
My husband and I 39 visited his parents. Each time I saw her eating 40 , reading her Bible, I wanted to sit down with her and just talk. 41 , whites didn’t do that with blacks then, and I had to42 the practice.
In 1965, I decided to 43 the furniture and return to my home state with my two 44 when my husband wanted a divorce (离婚).
Annie Mae asked if she could buy the boys’ 45 . When I answered 46 , she asked the price. Then, she asked if she could 47a little money each month. She was48 , and I knew her well.
Then each month, an envelope 49 us from Annie Mae with 2 or 3 dollars. A year passed. Annie Mae’s50 payment arrived along with the following note:
Dear Mrs. Holladay,
I am sending you my last payment of three dollars for the beds 51 . I told my two sons they could now put the beds 52 and sleep in them, for they are now paid for and rightfully53 us.Thank you for your 54 .
Annie Mae
I read the note two or three times, my eyes filled with tears. Had I only known earlier, I would have said, “Use them now. Don’t 55 until you pay for them.”
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Everybody is happy as his pay rises. Yet pleasure at your own can disappear if you learn that a fellow worker has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he is known as being lazy, you might even be quite cross. Such behavior is regarded as “all too human”, with the underlying belief that other animals would not be able to have this finely developed sense of sadness. But a study by Sarah Brosnan of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.
The researchers studied the behaviors of some kind of female brown monkeys. They look smart. They are good-natured, co-operative creatures, and they share their food happily. Above all, like female human beings, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of “goods and services” than males.
Such characteristics make them perfect subjects for Doctor Brosnan’s study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens (奖券) for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for pieces of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate and connected rooms, so that each other could observe what the other is getting in return for its rock, they became quite different.
In the world of monkeys，grapes are excellent goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was not willing to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either shook her own token at the researcher, or refused to accept the cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other room (without an actual monkey to eat it) was enough to bring about dissatisfaction in a female monkey.
The researches suggest that these monkeys, like humans, are guided by social senses. In the wild, they are co-operative and group-living. Such co-operation is likely to be firm only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of anger when unfairly treated, it seems, are not the nature of human beings alone. Refusing a smaller reward completely makes these feelings clear to other animals of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness developed independently in monkeys and humans, or whether it comes from the common roots that they had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Only monkeys and humans can have the sense of fairness in the world. |
| B．In the wild, monkeys are never unhappy to share their food with each other. |
| C．Women will show more dissatisfaction than men when unfairly treated. |
| D．Monkeys can exchange cucumbers for grapes, for grapes are more attractive. |
The underlined statement “it is all too monkey” means that ________.
| A．monkeys are also angry with lazy fellows |
| B．monkeys, like humans, tend to be envious of each other |
| C．no animals other than monkeys can develop such feelings |
| D．feeling angry at unfairness is also monkey’s nature |
Female monkeys of this kind are chosen for the research most probably because they are _________.
| A．more likely to pay attention to the value of what they get |
| B．attentive to researchers’ instructions |
| C．nice in both appearance and behaviors |
| D．more ready to help others than their male companions |
We can learn ________according to the passage?
| A．Human beings' feelings of anger are developed from the monkeys. |
| B．Cooperation between monkeys stays firm before the realization of being cheated. |
| C．In the research, male monkeys are less likely to exchange food with others. |
| D．Only monkeys and humans have the sense of fairness dating back to 35 million years ago. |
What can we infer about the monkeys in Sarah’s study?
| A．The monkeys can be trained to develop social senses. |
| B．The monkeys may show their satisfaction with equal treatment. |
| C．They usually show their feelings openly as humans do. |
| D．Cooperation among the monkeys remains effective in the wild. |
Most earthquakes occur within the upper 15 miles of the earth’s surface, but earthquakes can and do occur at all depths to about 460 miles. Their number decreases as the depth increases. At about 460 miles one earthquake occurs only every few years. Near the surface earthquakes may run as high as 100 in a month, but the yearly average does not vary much.
The extent of the disaster in an earthquake depends on many factors. If you carefully build a toy house with an erect set (坚立架), it will still stand no matter how much you shake the table. But if you build a toy house with a pack of cards, a slight shake of the table will make it fall. An earthquake in Agadir was not strong, but it completely destroyed the city. Many stronger earthquakes have done comparatively little damage. If a building is well constructed and built on solid ground, it will resist an earthquake. Most deaths in earthquakes have been due to faulty building construction or poor building sites. A third and very serious factor is panic. When people rush out into narrow streets, more deaths will result.
There is one type of earthquake disaster that little can be done about. This is the disaster caused by seismic (地震的) sea waves, or tsunamis (海啸). These are often called tidal waves, but the name is incorrect. They had nothing to do with tides. In certain areas, earthquakes take place beneath the sea. These submarine earthquakes sometimes give rise to seismic sea waves. The waves are not noticeable out at sea because of their long wave length. But when they roll into harbors, they pile up into walls of water 6 to 60 feet high. The Japanese call them “tsunamis” meaning “harbor waves”, because they reach a sizable (相当大的) height only in harbors.
Tsunamis travel fairly slowly, at speeds up to 500 miles an hour. An earthquake warning system is in use to warn all shores likely to be reached by the waves. But this only enables people to leave the threatened shores for higher ground: There is no way to stop the oncoming wave. Which of the following can NOT be concluded from the passage?
| A．The number of earthquakes is closely related to the depth. |
| B．Roughly the same number of earthquakes occur each year. |
| C．Earthquakes are impossible at depths over 460 miles. |
| D．Earthquakes are most likely to occur near the surface. |
The destruction of Agadir is an example of .
| A．faulty building construction |
| B．an earthquake’s strength |
| C．widespread panic in earthquakes |
| D．ineffective instruments |
According to the passage, the waves caused by submarine earthquakes are not noticeable out at sea because of .
| A．their high speed |
| B．the wide shores |
| C．their silent movements |
| D．their long wave length |
The significance of the slow speed of tsunamis is that people may .
| A．help reduce fear |
| B．find ways to stop them |
| C．be warned early enough |
| D．develop warning systems |
According to the passage, the number of factors that may determine the extent of the disaster in an earthquake is .
| A．two | B．five | C．four | D．three |
12-year-old John Thomas Robertson is a born train fan. "I’ve liked trains probably from the day I was born," he told Good Morning America. "When I was very little," he said, "my grandpa got me a train model. I would just watch it go round for hours and hours."
When Robertson finally had the opportunity to ride on a train, he felt great. His journey was so mind-blowing that he couldn’t keep it to himself: he decided to take all his classmates to go on a ride with him. When he found that some of his classmates couldn’t pay the fare, he collected cans (罐子) and bottles and raised more than $1,000 for them.
That trip was such a happy one that he made it a yearly action. "It never gets boring for some reason; it’s just fun," he said. "It really lets people get away from their busy life and have fun.
Every October, Robertson takes a new group of children to ride on the train —but now, he has a problem. Several disabled children were refused because the train was not accessible (可用的) to disabled people. "He was angry to think that children of his own age couldn’t ride a train," his mother said.
But he wouldn’t say no: he recently sent a letter to the train office for help. To his surprise, the leader, Ty Pennington, accepted the letter in person. He said that he and his workers would work on making a train accessible to disabled people. The first time John Thomas Robertson took a train, ________.
| A．he was frightened by it |
| B．he acted as a driver |
| C．he watched it for hours |
| D．he fell in love with it |
The author says John Thomas Robertson is a born train fan, because he ________.
| A．was greatly attracted to trains since early childhood |
| B．said so in Good Morning America |
| C．took a group of disabled children to travel by train |
| D．was taken to a train the day he was born |
The underlined words "mind-blowing" can be replaced by ________.
| A．important | B．terrible | C．amazing | D．disappointing |
The disabled children were refused to get on the train because _________.
| A．the trains then weren’t accessible to the disabled |
| B．Robertson had not saved enough money for the tickets |
| C．they couldn’t afford the train tickets |
| D．the driver would not allow them to do so |
According to the last paragraph, we can see that Robertson is a ________ child.
| A．helpful and crazy | B．kind and clever |
| C．kind but boring | D．lazy but kind |