Edmund Halley was an English scientist who lived over 200 years ago. He studied the observations of comets(彗星)which other scientists had made. The orbit（轨道） of one particular comet was a very difficult mathematical problem. He could not figure it out. Neither could other scientists who dealt with such problems.
However, Halley had a friend named Isaac Newton, who was a brilliant mathematician. Newton thought he had already worked out that problem, but he could not find the papers on which he had done it. He told Halley that the orbit of a comet had the shape of an ellipse(椭圆形).
Now Halley set to work. He figured out(解决，计算出)the orbits of some of the comets that had been observed by scientists. He made a surprising discovery. The comets that had appeared in the years 1531, 1607, and 1682 all had the same orbit. Yet their appearance had been 75 to 76 years apart.
This seemed very strange to Halley. Three different comets followed the same orbit. The more Halley thought about it, the more he thought that there had not been three different comets as people thought. He decided that they had simply seen the same comet three times. The comet had gone away and had come back again.
It was an astonishing idea! Halley felt certain to make a prediction(预言)of what would happen in the future. He decided that this would appear in the year 1758. There were 53 years to go before Halley’s prediction could be tested. In 1758 the comet appeared in the sky. Halley did not see it, for he had died some years before. Ever since then that comet had been called Halley’s comet, in his honor.Edmund Halley figured out the orbit of ____.
| A．some different comets appearing several times |
| B．the same comet appearing at different times |
| C．three different comets appearing at the same time |
| D．several comets appearing at the same time |
Halley made his discovery ____.
| A．by doing experiments |
| B．by means of his own careful observation |
| C．by using the working of other scientists |
| D．by chance |
Halley made a surprising, but correct prediction in the year____.
| A．1704 | B．1705 | C．1706 | D．1707 |
This passage in general is about ____.
| A．Halley and other scientists |
| B．the orbit of a comet |
| C．Newton and Halley |
| D．Halley and his discovery |
Which of the following is TRUE?
A．Edmund Halley was an American  scientist. |
| B．Halley made his discovery by doing experiments. |
| C．Isaac Newton was a famous mathematician. |
| D．The orbit of a comet had the shape of an around. |
If the world were a village of 1,000 people, it would include:
★ 584 Asians
★ 124 Africans
★ 95 Eastern and Western Europeans
★ 84 Latin America
★ 55 former Soviets (including Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, and other national groups)
★ 52 North Americans
★ 6 Australians and New Zealand
The people of the village would speak:
★ 165 Mandarin
★ 86 English
★ 83 Hindu/Urdu
★ 64 Spanish
★ 58 Russian
★ 37 Arabic
The above list covers the mother tongues of only half the village.
One-third of the people in the village are children, and only 60 are over the age of 65. Just under half of the married women in the village have access to modern equipments.
This year 28 babies will be born. Ten people will die, 3 of them for lack of food, 1 from cancer. Two of the deaths will be of babies born within the year. With the 28 births and 10 deaths, the population of the village next year will be 1018.
In this village of 1,000 persons,200 people receive 75 percent of the income: another 200 receive only 2 percent of the income.
About one third have access to clean, safe drinking water.
Of the 670 adults in the village, half can not read nor write.
The village has a total yearly budget(预算), public and private, of over $ 3 million--$ 3,000 per person if it is distributed evenly. Of the total $ 3 million:
★ 181,000 goes to weapons and warfare
★ 159,000 to education
★ 132,000 to health care
These weapons are under the control of just 100 of the people. The other 900 are watching them with deep anxiety, wondering whether they can learn to get along together. Which of the following is true about Mandarin according to the text?
| A．Nearly one third of Asian people speak Mandarin in the village. |
| B．About 25 percent of the people speak Mandarin in the village. |
| C．About 16.5 percent of the people speak Mandarin in the village. |
| D．Nearly all the Mandarin-speaking people are from Asia in the village. |
Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the text?
| A．Poverty | B．Education. | C．Environment. | D．Marriage. |
The underlined part “have access to”(in Para. 4) means____.
| A．use | B．buy | C．produce | D．try |
The last sentence in the text implies that most of the people long for ___.
| A．a peaceful world | B．good education | C．better health care | D．a life without anxiety |
If you are a recent social science graduate who has had to listen to jokes about unemployment from your computer major classmates, you may have had the last laugh. There are many advantages for the social science major because this high-tech “Information Age” demands people who are flexible(灵活的) and who have good communication skills.
There are many social science majors in large companies who fill important positions. For example, a number of research studies found that social science majors had achieved greater managerial success than those who had technical training or pre-professional courses. Studies show that social science majors are most suited for change, which is the leading feature(特点) of the kind of high-speed, high-pressure, high-tech world we now live in.
Social science majors are not only experiencing success in their long-term company jobs, but they are also finding jobs more easily. A study showed that many companies had filled a large percentage of their entry-level positions with social science graduates. The study also showed that the most sought-after quality in a person who was looking for a job was communication skills, noted as “very important”, by 92 percent of the companies. Social science majors have these skills, often without knowing how important they are. It is probably due to these skills that they have been offered a wide variety of positions.
Finally, although some social science majors may still find it more difficult than their technically trained classmates to land the first job, recent graduates report that they don’t regret their choice of study.By saying that “you may have had the last laugh” in the first paragraph, the author means that you may have____.
| A．shared the jokes with computer majors | B．earned as much as computer majors |
| C．found jobs more easily than computer majors | D．stopped joking about computer majors |
Compared with graduates of other subjects, social science graduates ___.
| A．are ready to change when situations change | B．are better able to deal with difficulties |
| C．are equally good at computer skills | D．are likely to give others pressure |
The underlined word “land” in the last paragraph probably means ___.
| A．keep for some time | B．successfully get | C．immediately start | D．lose regretfully |
According to the text, what has made it easy for social science graduates to find jobs?
| A．Willingness to take low-paid jobs. | B．Readiness to gain high-tech knowledge. |
| C．Skills in expressing themselves. | D．Part-time work experience. |
Before a new type airplane goes service, every part of it is tested again and again. But there are two tests that are more of into important than the others.
The first is called the “tank test”. A modern airplane must fly very high in the sky. Air must be pumped into the plane so that the passengers can breathe. The metal structure of the plane has to be very strong for this reason. When the plane is filled with air, the air presses against the skin of the plane inside. The pressure(压力)on a small window is like a huge foot that is trying to get out. If a small part of the plane were to fail, the plane would explode in the sky. To test the structure of the plane, the plane is lowered into a huge tank or container of water. Then it is filled with air. The pressure inside the plane is greater than it ever will be when it is high up in the air. Finally, there is an explosion. This does not cause so much damage inside the water tank as it would anywhere else. Engineers can discover which part of the plane has broken. Then that part is made stronger.
The most dangerous test happens when the new plane is going through test flights in the air. The test must find out exactly what happens when the engines(发动机) are all shut off at once. The plane begins to fall like a stone. It is the pilot’s job to find out how he can get control of the plane again. These two tests are examples of how planes are made safe before they ever carry passengers.By doing the “tank test”, the engineers can find out ____.
| A．the amount of air in the plane | B．the strength of the plane structure |
| C．the pressure inside and outside the plane | D．the power of the airplane engines |
What will happen to the plane under the “tank test”?
| A．It will be broken | B．It will be made stronger. |
| C．It will be filled with water. | D．It will be tested by pilots. |
According to the text, why are test flights most dangerous?
| A．The plane may explode in the air | B．The pilot may lose control of the plane. |
| C．The engines may be damaged. | D．Too much air may get into the plane. |
What might be the most suitable title for the text?
| A．Two Important Tests on Airplane | B．The Importance of Flying Safety |
| C．The Danger of Testing Airplanes | D．How Airplanes Are made and Tested |
A sixth of undergraduates in Beijing this year have registered at driving school. The students, mostly from majors such as business management or international trade, will finish their driving courses within 20 days or so.
Training costs have dropped to 2, 600 yuan for students, according to the Haidian Driving School in Beijing. The price is not really low, but students will accept it, seeing it as an investment （投资）in their future. Familiarity with the operation of computers and fluent English are the basic skills graduating students need to find a job. But a driver’s permit has become another factor （因素）.
“In the job market, owning a driver’s permit sometimes strengthens a graduating student’s competitiveness for a good position, ”says Zhou Yang, an undergraduate at the China University of Political Science and Law.
Cars will become a necessary part of many people’s lives in the coming years, and it is difficult to get a permit of campus because of the pressures on working people’s time. “Having a fulltime job after graduation offers limited time to learn to drive. We senior students have plenty of spare time, plenty of opportunity to learn. ”Zhou says.
Xu Jian, an official at the driving school, said undergraduates were very able and serious, and could grasp in an hour what ordinary people took four hours to learn. In this driving school, middle -aged people, young women and college students are the main customers.
To get a driver’s permit, a beginner is now required to have at least 86 hours’practice before the final road test.
________ in Beijing want to learn to drive.
| A．Most of the undergraduates |
| B．Many undergraduates |
| C．Many students in the driving school |
| D．Most of the students who learn business or international trade |
The undergraduates are learning to drive because ________.
| A．they need this skill to find a good job |
| B．they like to drive cars |
| C．they will not have any time to learn to drive after they have found a full - time job |
| D．most of them will be able to buy cars in the future |
Which of the following is likely to be Xu Jian’s opinion of students learning to drive?
| A．He thought it was better to learn it at college than at work. |
| B．He decided it was a waste of money and time to learn to drive. |
| C．He agreed that they could learn to drive. |
| D．He thought they would spend three times more time to learn to drive than usual. |
Which of the following can be the best headline for the passage?
| A．Students Pay Less to Learn to Drive Now. |
| B．Students Learn to Drive. |
| C．It is Better to Learn to Drive at Colleges. |
| D．Welcome to the Driving School. |
Inside China Daily
China, Japan ink fishery accord
The New China -Japan Fishery Agreement will be put into effect starting June this year, Chinese vice - minister of agriculture, Qi Jingfa told a press conference yesterday in Beijing.
—Page 2
Offshore funeral
The remains of more than 500 dead will be scattered at sea this spring near the mouth of Yangtze River in Shanghai. To save space Shanghai officials discouraged land burials.
—Page 3
The only wise choice
Co -operation with the mainland for a peaceful reunification should be the only wise choice for the newly elected Taiwan leader.
—Page 4
Interest in activity such as fairs, galleries and exhibitions has caused the art market to take shape in China. —Page 9
Two sides of a story.
The government’s efforts to cut the homework burden of primary and middle school students have drawn mixed reactions.
—Page 10
Blind, but not out.
Yang Jia, an English professor at the Chinese Academy of Science meets the challenges brought by the sudden loss of her eyesight and continues to make it in her work.
—Page 11
The above section may possibly appear on ________ of China Daily.
| A．Page 5 | B．the Front Page |
| C．Page 9 | D．the last page |
From the text we can learn that ________ .
| A．no one will be buried in the ground after they die in Shanghai |
| B．Chinese fishermen can go fishing freely in Japan soon |
| C．a blind professor can work better |
| D．more and more people have begun to do art business |
When you look through this issue of China Daily, you are sure to find ________ .
| A．how Taiwan’s new leader was made |
| B．that people think differently of reducing pupils’ burden |
| C．sad stories about students with heavy burden in primary and middle schools |
| D．interesting stories of art fairs, galleries and exhibitions of different shapes in China |