Modern inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor-cars cover a hundred miles in little more than an hour, aircraft cross the world inside a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every year motor-cars are produced which go even faster and each new computer boasts (吹嘘) of saving precious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves time, but at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an air
plane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel that they have been left behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at computer results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also have their dangers, according to some scientists; too much use may transmit harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.
However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not rel
ax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and d
o nothing, or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imagination take us into another world.
There was a time when some people’s lives were devoted simply to the cultivation of the land or the care of cattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard
tasks our ancestors faced: they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence. The new products become more and more time-saving because .
| A．the manufacturers boast a lot | B．time is limited |
| C．the prices are increasingly high | D．our love of speed seems never-ending |
What does “the days” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
| A．Simple life in the past. | B．Imaginary life. |
| C．Times of inventions. | D．Time for constant activity. |
. What is the author’s attitude towards the modern technology?
| A．Critical. | B．Optimistic. | C．Objective. | D．Negative. |
. What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A．The present and past times. | B．Modern technology and its influence. |
| C．Imaginations and inventions. | D．Machinery and human beings. |
Read the following advertisements and then choose the correct answers．
| （China Daily, March 3, 1996） the biggest shopping center will open on March 8． Every body with today's China Daily will get a small present that day． You are welcome． Telephone: 38990688; address: No． 6 Xidan Road …… |
| （ENGLISH NEWSPAPER, March 19） English Newspaper needs a foreign editor． He （She ） must have worked in China for more than 2 years． British nationality is necessary． The salary is $ 100,000 a year． The term is 3 years． In ten days this piece of advertisement will not be useful． Telephone: 3890666; addreses: No． 6 Xinling Road … |
| （CHINA FOOTBALL, February 3, 1996） Shanghai Shenhua Team Vs Beijing Guo'an Team TIME: February 8． Sunday （3:00） PLACE: Hongkou Stadium TICKET PRICE; RMB 25 yuan （for adults ） RMB 1  5 yuan （for students）NAME: China Cup Football Contest COACHES: Xu Genbao, Jin Zhiyang … |
If an Englishman who has worked in China for 3 years comes to English Newspaper office to ask for the job in April, he will _____．
| A．get the job | B．not get the job |
| C．be a good editor | D．not be useful |
If three adults and six students went to watch the match, the tickets would cost them _____ yuan．
| A．165 | B．135 | C．196 | D．255 |
Which of the following is NOT TRUE?
| A．The shopping center is at NO． 6 Xidan road． |
| B．The telephone number of English Newspaper is 3890666． |
| C．The match was between Beijing Team and Guo'an Team． |
| D．Xu Genbao is a coach． |
No one wants to look stupid or do the wrong thing at a new job. It is important to make the right impression from the very first day. You will face new 
people. You will be in a new place.
It may be difficult to know what to do. Here are five tips to help you make it through the first days at a new job:
1. First impressions can last forever. Make sure you make a good one. Before your first day, find out if your new job has a dress code (rules about what you can wear to work). If so, be sure to follow it. No matter what, always be neat and clean.
2. Get to work on time. Give yourself an extra15 minutes to make sure you arrive on time.
3. Pay attention to introductions. One of the first things that your supervisor may do is to introduce you to co-workers. These co-workers will be important to you. They are the ones who will answer your questions when the boss is not around.
4. Ask plenty of questions. Make sure that your supervisor has told you what is expected of you. If he or she has not told you your duties, ask for a list. Set daily and weekly goals for yourself.
5. Never be the first one to leave. Observe(观察) what your co-workers do around quitting time 
(下班时间). It does not look good for you to be eager to leave. Before you arrive at work on the first day, you should __________.
| A．dress in a right way | B．introduce yourself |
| C．know your duties | D．know your co-workers well |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．You should be the first one to arrive at work. |
| B．You should ask your co-workers about your duties. |
| C．You should not be eager to go back home after work. |
| D．You are required to arrive 15 minutes earlier. |
According to the passage, your supervisor is most likely your _____________.
| A．visitor | B．teacher | C．workmate | D．leader |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．Getting a New Job. | B．Tips on How to Work. |
| C．The First-day Work. | D．The Importance of Co-workers. |
It doesn’t matter when or how much a person sleeps, but everyone needs some rest to stay alive. That’s what all doctors thought, until they heard about Herpin. Herpin, it was said, never slept, Could this be true? The doctors decided to see this strange man themselves.
Herpin was 90 years old when the doctors came 
to his home in New Jersey. They thought for sure that he got some sleep of some kind. So they stayed with him and watched every movement he made. But they were surprised . Though they watched him hour after hour and day after day, they never saw Herpin sleeping , In fact, he did not even own a bed. He never needed one.
The only rest that Herpin sometimes got was sitting in a comfortable chair and reading newspapers. The doctors were puzz
led by this strange continuous sleeplessness. They found only one answer that might explain his condition. Herpin remembered some talk about his mother having been injured several days before he was born. But that was all. Was this the real reason? No one could be sure.
Herpin died at the age of 94.The main idea of this passage is that _______.
| A．a person was found who actually didn’t need any sleep |
| B．large numbers of people do not need sleep |
| C．everyone needs some sleep to stay alive |
| D．people can live longer by trying not to sleep |
The doctors came to visit Herpin , expecting to ______.
| A．cure him of his sleeplessness |
B．find that his sleepless ness was not really true |
| C．find a way to free people from the need of sleeping |
| D．find out why some old people didn’t need any sleep |
After watching him closely, the doctors came to believe that Herpin ________.
| A．was too old to need any sleep | B．often slept in a chair |
| C．needed no sleep at all | D．needed some kind of sleep |
One reason that might explain Herpin’s sleeplessness was ________.
| A．that he hadn’t got a bed |
| B．that he had gradually got rid of the sleeping habit |
| C．his mother’s injury before he was born |
| D．his magnificent physical condition |
The English are often considered as unfriendly people who don't talk to strangers, but not London taxi drivers. I once asked a cabbie to describe his life to me and he didn't stop talking until I arrived home half an hour later. He told me many interesting stories and this is one of them: “Some very strange things happen late at night. The other day I was taking a woman home from a party. She had a little dog with her. When we got to her house she foun
d that she'd lost her key. So, I waited in the cab with the dog while she climbed up the window.”“ I waited … and waited … After half an hour of ringing the bell I decided to find out what was going on. I tied the dog to a tree and started to climb up the window. The next thing I knew was that the police came. They thought that I was trying to rob the house! Luckily, the woman came downstairs, she'd gone to sleep and forgotten about me and the dog. I was in such a hurry to get away that I forgot to ask her for the fare (车费).”In the writer’s opinion, London taxi drivers are _____________.
| A．unfriendly | B．talkative | C．helpful | D．strange enough |
From the passage we guess that the writer ______.
| A．is the driver of the taxi | B．often travels by taxi |
| C．is a foreigner visiting London | D．lives in London |
What does the underlined word “cabbie” mean in this passage?
| A．Conductor | B．Stranger | C．Taxi driver | D．author |
The man was waiting outside the woman's house because ______.
| A．he began to like the woman and her dog at the first sight |
| B．the woman had not paid him |
| C．he wanted to know what would happen when the police came |
| D．he was trying to go on talking with her |
Edward Wilson is America’s, if not the world’s, leading naturalist. In The Future of Life, he takes us on a tour of the world’s natural resources. How are they used? What has been lost? What remains and is it able to continue with the present speed of use? Wilson also points out the need to understand fully the biodiversity(生物多样性)of our earth.
Wilson begins with an open letter to the pioneer in environment protection, Henry David Thoreau. He compares today’s Walden Pond with that of Thoreau’s day. Wilson will use such comparisons for the rest of the book. The problem is clear: man has done great damage to his home over the years. Can the earth, with human help, be made to return to biodiversity levels that will be able to support us in the future?
Biodiversity, Wilson argues, is the key to settling many problems the earth faces today. Even our agricultural crops can gain advantages from it. A mere hundred species are the basis of our food supply, of which but twenty carry the load. Wilson suggests changing this situation by looking into ten thousand species that could be made use of, which will be a way to reduce the clearing of the natural homes of plants and animals to enlarge farming areas.
At the end of the book, Wilson discusses the importance of human values in considering the environment. If you are to continue to live on the earth, you may well read and act on the ideas in this book.We learn form the text that Wilson cares most about ______.
| A．the environment for plants | B．the biodiversity of our earth |
| C．the wastes of natural resources | D．the importance of human values |
How many species are most important to our present food supply?
| A．Twenty. | B．Eighty. | C． One hundred. |
D．Ten thousand. |
Wilson suggests that one way to keep biodiversity is to _______.
| A．learn how to farm scientifically | B．build homes for some dying species |
| C．make it clear what to eat | D．use more species for food |
We can infer that the text is _______.
| A．a description of natural resources | B．a research report |
| C．a book review | D．an introduction to a scientist |