The Chinese invented paper in 105 A. D. They mixed the bark of a tree and rags (破布) with water, put a screen into the mixture, and lifted out a thin piece of wet paper. They dried the paper in the sun.
The Chinese kept their secret of how to make paper until a war with Muslims in the ninth century. The art of papermaking soon spread throughout the Muslim world.
The Mayan Indians in Central America and Pacific Islanders also discovered how to make paper, but their knowledge never spread to the rest of the world.
For centuries, all paper was made by hand. Rags were the main material. Then a French scientist discovered that people could make paper from wood, too. Finally, in the eighteenth century. a Frenchman invented a machine to make paper from wood. Who discovered how to make paper?
| A．The Chinese. | B．The Pacific Islanders. |
| C．The Mayan Indians. | D．All of the above. |
When did the Chinese invent paper according to the passage?
| A．About 1 ,800 years ago. | B．About 1, 900 years ago. |
| C．About 2, 000 years ago. | D．About 2, 100 years ago. |
How was papermaking introduced into the rest of the world from China?
| A．Through wars. | B．Through the Mayan Indians. |
| C．Through the Muslims. | D．Through the Pacific Islanders. |
Which of the following is the best title for this passage?
| A．The History of Papermaking. | B．The Invention of Paper. |
| C．Different Ways of Making Paper. | D．The Invention of a Papermaking Machine. |
You’re in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater. You listen to their conversation:
“I can’t believe it—a Lorenzo Bertolla! They are almost impossible to find. Isn’t it beautiful? And it’s a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in Rome.”
They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater. It’s nice and the price is right. You’ve never heard of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish. They must know. So, you buy it. You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency. They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo Bertolla clothes.
Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating. If the person looks cool, the product seems cool, too. This is the secret of undercover marketing. Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it.
Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don’t pay attention to traditional advertising. This is particularly true of the MTV generation—consumers between the age of 18 and 34. It is a golden group. They have a lot of money to spend, but they don’t trust ads.
So advertising agencies hire young actors to “perform” in bars and other places where young adults go. Some people might call this practice deceptive (骗人的), but marketing executive Jonathan Ressler calls it creative. “Look at traditional advertising. Its effectiveness is decreasing.”
However, one might ask what exactly is “real’ about of young women pretending to be enthusiastic about a sweater? Advertising executives would say it’s no less real than ad. The difference is that you know an ad is trying to persuade you to buy something. You don’t know when a conversation you overhear is just a performance.
1. The two attractive young women were talking so that they could_________.
A. get the sweater at a lower price
B. be heard by people around
C. be admired by other shoppers
D. decide on buying the sweater
2. Lorenzo Bertolla is .
A. a very popular male singer
B. an advertising agency
C. a clothing company in Rome
D. the brand name of a sweater
3. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A. The two girls are in fact employed by the Lorenzo Bertolla Company.
B. The MTV generation tend to be more easily influenced by ads.
C. Traditional advertising is becoming less effective because it’s too direct.
D. Undercover marketing will surely be banned soon by the government.
4. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A. Two Attractive Shoppers
B. Lorenzo Bertolla Sweaters.
C. Ways of Advertising
D. Undercover Marketing
Climate change, pollution, overuse of water and development are killing some of the world’s most famous rivers including China’s Yangtze, India’s Ganges and African’s Nile, WWF said on Tuesday. At the global launch of its report “World’s Top 10 Rivers at Risk”, the group said many rivers could dry out, affecting hundreds of millions of people and killing unique aquatic life.
“If these rivers die, millions will lose their livelihoods, biodiversity will be destroyed on a massive scale, there will be less fresh water and agriculture, resulting in less food security,” said Rayi Singh, secretarygeneral of WWF-India. The report launched ahead of “World Water Day” today, also cited the Rio Grande in the United States, the Mekong and Indus in Asia, Europe’s Danube, La Plata in South America and Australia’s Murray-Darling as in need of greater protection.
Rivers are the world’s main source of fresh water and WWF says about half of the available supply is already being used up. Dams have destroyed habitats and cut rivers off from their flood plains while climate change could affect the seasonal water flows that feed them, the report said. Fish populations, the top source of protein and overall life support for hundreds of thousands of communities worldwide, are also being threatened, it found… The Yangtze basin is one of the most polluted rivers in the world because of decades of heavy industrialization, damming and huge influxes of sediment from land conversion.
Climate change, including higher temperatures, also means serious consequences for fishery productivity, water supply and political security in Africa’s arid Nile basin. Tributaries flowing into the Ganges are drying up because of irrigation, WWF said.
1. What does the text mainly about?
A. Saving fresh water in our life.
B. How to protect our rivers.
C. An important discovery.
D. World’s top 10 rivers are at risk.
2. We can infer from the text that_________.
A. rivers’ dying out could affect food security
B. there are four Asian rivers mentioned in the passage
C. the Yangtze is polluted thanks to the lack of enough tributaries
D. higher temperatures couldn’t affect fishery productivity
3. The top 10 rivers are fast dying as a result of the following EXCEPT_________。
A. climate change B. wasting water
C. pollution D. dams
4. WWF is probably a name of_________.
A. an organization B. a newspaper
C. a magazine D. a report
There is much discussion today about whether economic growth is desirable. At an earlier period, our desire for material wealth may have been justified. Now, however, this desire for more than we need is causing serous problems. Even though we have good intentions, we may be producing too much, too fast.
Those who criticize economic growth argue that we must slow down. They believe that society is approaching certain limits on growth. These include the fixed supply of natural resources, the possible negative effects of industry on the natural environment, and the continuing increase in the world’s population. As society reaches these limits, economic growth can no longer continue, and the quality of life will decrease.
People who want more economic growth, on the other hand, argue that even at the present growth rate there are still many poor people in the world. They believe that only more growth can create the capital needed to improve the quality of life in the world. Furthermore, they argue that only continued growth can provide the financial resources required to protect our natural surroundings from industrialization.
This debate over the desirability of continued economic growth is of vital importance to business and industry. If those who argue against economic growth are correct, the problems they mention cannot be ignored. To find a solution, economists and the business community must pay attention to these problems and continue discussing them with one another.
1. According to those who argue against economic growth we must slow down for the following reasons EXCEPT that_________.
A. our natural surroundings are in danger of being destroyed by industry
B. the fixed supply of natural resources marks a point beyond which economic growth cannot continue
C. the world population is ever increasing
D. more efforts should be made to improve the quality of our material life
2. Those who want more economic growth believe that continued economic growth_________
A. is essential to the well-being of society as a whole
B. can provide the solution to many of our social problems today
C. can protect our environment from being polluted by industry
D. can provide us with more natural resources for industrialization
3. The passage is mainly about _________
A. the contradiction between economists and the business community
B. the present debate on economic growth
C. the advantages and disadvantages of economic growth
D. the importance of the debate on economic growth
4. We may infer from the passage that _________.
A. the author describes the case as it is
B. the author is for economic growth
C. the author is against continued economic growth
D. the author is very much worried about the problems caused by continued economic growth
四、阅读理解
There’s a box of chocolates in the fridge. It’s been there for more than a week since I was given it as a present. I do love chocolates, but they make me fat if I eat too many! Can I control myself? If I eat one, will I have to eat all of them?
My son Harry is obsessed with playing Wii(/wi:/, 任天堂的一款游戏机) games. Sometimes, it’s difficult to get him to concentrate on his homework because he wants to play some more.
Last week I had to wake up a student in my class. I asked him why he was so tried and he said he had stayed up late to play his favourite Internet game, Farmville. He said he just couldn’t stop playing it! Now his academic work is suffering because he can’t control his urge to play games.
What my son, my student, and I myself need is simply self-control.
In the late 1960’s, American psychologist Walter Mischel launched an experiment about self-control. He left a group of four-year-olds in a room and told them that if they could wait 20 minutes, they could have two marshmallows, a kind of sweet. If they couldn’t wait, he would only give them one.
In videos of the experiment, you can see children squirming, kicking, hiding their eyes—desperately trying to control themselves. Some did wait patiently, while others couldn’t wait a single minute.
Years later, the self-controlled children turned out to get higher SAT scores and got into better colleges. The children who couldn’t wait were more likely to become bullies.
So, the chocolates are still in the fridge. My son Harry is doing his homework with a promise that he can play on the Wii later, and my student says he will try harder to control himself. We all have our own temptations. But if we can control them, we will achieve more.
1. Which of the following is different from the other three?
A. The writer. B. Harry. C. The writer’s student. D. Walter Mischel.
2. We can know from paragraph 5 to paragraph 7 that _________
A. all the children got two marshmallows
B. all the children waited patiently
C. self-control can help children succeed later
D. the children who lack self-control get higher SAT scores
3. Which of the following statement is true?
A. The writer is addicted to Wii.
B. The writer’s son is addicted to Farmville.
C. The writer’s student is addicted to chocolates.
D. The writer’s student is addicted to Farmville.
4. What does the underlined word mean in paragraph 5?
A. Something we can eat. B. A kind of toy.
C. A kind of mushroom. D. A kind of prize.
Farmers use different kinds of soil conservation methods to protect their land from damage by farming and the forces of nature . One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks . Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves . Farmers plant them in lines around their fields .
Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away . They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops . They are very important for growing grains , such as wheat . There have been studies done on windbreaks in parts of West Africa , for example . These found that grain harvests can be twenty percent higher in fields protected by windbreaks compared to fields without such protection .
However , windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through . If the wall of trees and plants stops wind completely , then violent air motions will take place close to the ground . These motions will lift soil into the air where it will be blown away .
For this reason , a windbreaks is best if it has only sixty to eighty percent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line . An easy role to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreaks .
These should be at least two lines in each windbreak . One line should be large trees . The second line , right next to it , can be shorter trees and other plants with leaves . Locally grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks .
1.What is the best title for the passage?
| A.Building a windbreak to protect soil |
B.Building a windbreak to protect crops |
| C.Using a windbreak to improve grains |
D.Using a windbreak to improve plants |
2.In the fifth paragraph the author tells us windbreaks______.
| A.do not work at all |
B.do not stop wind fully |
| C.will not take place |
D.will not allow wind to pass through |
3.According to the passage , which of the following statement is wrong ?
A.Windbreaks are barriers .
B.Windbreaks can be used to make fences .
C.In general , there are two lines in all in every windbreak .
D.Windbreaks can protect areas .