A mouse looked through a hole in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package； what food might it contain? He was astonished to discover that it was a mouse trap!
Running to the farmyard，the mouse shouted，warning everyone，“There is a mouse trap in the house，there is a mouse trap in the house．”The chicken，with her head high，glared at the mouse and said，“Shut up．Little Ugly．This is a great concern to you，but it has nothing to do with me：I can’t be troubled by it．”
The mouse turned to the pig and told him．“There is a mouse trap in the house．”“I am so sorry，Mr Mouse，”said the pig sympathetically，“but there is nothing I can do about it but pray；you are always in my prayers．”
The mouse turned to the cow，who said，“A mouse trap，am I in great danger，huh?”
Now the mouse had to face the farmer’s mouse trap alone．
That very night a sound was heard through the house，like that of a mouse trap catching its prey．The farmer’wife rushed to see what was caught．In the darkness，she did not see it was a big poisonous snake whose tail the trap had caught．The snake bit the farmer’s wife．The farmer rushed her to the hospital．She returned home with a fever．It is said that drinking fresh chicken soup will help treat fever，so the farmer took his sharp knife to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient．His wife’s sickness continued，so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock．To feed them，the farmer killed the pig．The farmer’s wife did not get well，in fact，she died，and so many people came for her funeral．The farmer had the cow killed to provide for all of them to eat．
So next time when someone is facing a problem，don’t say that it has nothing to do with you．We could see from the passage that the mouse was ．
| A．good at cheating others | B．dishonest |
| C．kind and warm-hearted | D．foolish |
Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The others help the farmer kill the cow． |
| B．The mouse trap was very practical． |
| C．The pig is more friendly than the other animals． |
| D．The farmer’s family had no friends at all． |
What can we learn from the story?
| A．Traps can always cause chain reactions． |
| B．It is better to be safe than to be sorry． |
| C．Sometimes when the least of us is threatened，we all might be at risk． |
| D．To keep the balance of nature is the duty of us all． |
Doctors have known for a long time that extremely loud noises can cause hearing damage or loss.The no
ise can be the sound of a jet airplane or machines in factories of loud music or other common sound at home and at work. A person only needs to hear the noise for little mire than one second to be affected.
An American scientist has found that using aspirin (阿斯匹林) increase the temporary (暂时的)hearing loss or damage from loud noise. He did an experiment using a number of students at a university who all had normal hearing. He gave them different amounts of aspirin for different periods of time, then he tested their hearing ability. He found that students who were given four grams of aspirin a day for two days suffered much greater temporary hearing loss than those who did not use aspirin. The hearing loss was about two times as great.
The scientist said millions of persons in the U.S. use much larger amounts of aspirin than were used in his experiment. He said these persons face a serious danger of suffering hearing loss from loud noise..
.Doctors have long known that__________.
| A．one may lose his hearing when he hears a terribly loud noise. |
| B．one may become deaf when he hears a loud noise. |
| C．loud noises can cause damage to the hearing of the young people only |
| D．common sounds at home are not harmful to the ear |
.
.One conclusion you can draw from the passage is that aspirin________.
| A．makes hearing damage from loud noise worse |
| B．should never be taken more than four grams |
| C．can damage one’s hearing when it is given more than four grams daily |
| D．always increases hearing loss by two times |
.
. The American scientist did his experiment in order to find ________.
A．how  much aspirin would affect a person’s hearing |
| B．how much aspirin should be given in the treatment of the patients with hearing damage from loud noise |
C．whether aspirin would incr ease the temporary hearing damage from loud noises |
| D．whether the people who had hearing damage should use aspirin |
One night last February, a seventeen-year-old Duffy drove home along a winding road, he saw a strange light thrown against the tree. “I knew it wasn’t the moon”, he said. “I drive this road all the time and I notice little things out of place.”
Duffy stopped his car and got out to examine. Below him far down in the deep valley lay a broken car with its headlights on. Thirty minutes earlier, a man had driven off the edge of the road, which h
as no guardrail. His car fell and rolled end over end, landing on its top more than two hundred feet below.
Duffy rushed to call for help, then returned and got down to reach the injured driver. Snow covered the valley and the temperature was below freezing. After struggling back up the cliff, Duffy took off his jacket and shirt and wrapped the injured man in time, along with the blankets from his car.
Life-saving deeds are starting to become usual action for Duffy, the oldest of seven children. When he was 12, he saved his ten-year-old brother from drowning. Two years ago, his three-year-old sister ate rat poison, and Duffy cleaned out her mouth, make her drink milk to protect her stomach and called doctors.
“We have tried to teach the children good values, and it looks like we have got some reward for it.” His father says..The strange light came from ________.
| A．The bright moon. | B．Duffy’s car. |
| C．The broken car in the valley | D．an unknown place |
.The phrase” landing on its top” means the car lay_________.
| A．on the top of the cliff | B．with its wheels upward |
| C．with its head upward | D．on the road as usual |
. Duffy wrapped the man because_________.
| A．he was badly injured | B．he had lost too much blood |
| C．he had nothing on | D．it was too cold that day |
. From the above article, we can see Duffy has saved ________ at least.
| A．two | B．three | C．four | D．five |
Special Bridges Help Animals Cross the Road
----Reported by Sheila Carrick
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.
Most people know this joke. But recently, some people have been much more worried about how the grizzly bear(灰熊)and mountain lion can cross the road.
"Millions of animals die each year on US roads," the Federal Highway Administration reports. In fact，only about 80 ocelots, an endangered wild cat, exist in the US today. The main reason? Road kill. "Ecopassages" may help animals cross the road without being hit by cars. They are paths both over and under roads. "These ecopassages can be extremely useful, so that wildlife can avoid road accidents," said Jodi Hilty of the Wildlife Protection Society.
But do animals actually use the ecopassages? The answer is yes. Paul Beier of Northern Arizona University found foot marks left by mountain lions on an ecopassage that went under a highway. This showed that the lions used the passage.
Builders of ecopassages try to make them look like a natural part of an area by planting trees on and around them. Animals seem to be catching on. Animals as different as salamanders(火蜥蜴) and grizzly bears are using the bridges and underpasses.
The next time you visit a park or drive through an area with a lot of wildlife, look around. You might see an animal overpass!.
. The writer uses the example of "ocelots " to show that .
| A．wild animals have become more dangerous |
| B．the driving conditions have improved greatly |
| C．an increasing number of animals are killed in road accidents |
| D．the measure for protecting wildlife fails to work |
.
. From the news story, we know an ecopassage is .
A．an underground path for c ars |
| B．a fence built for the safety of the area |
| C．a bridge for animals to get over a river |
| D．a path for animals to cross the road |
.
. The writer asks visitors and drivers to look around when traveling because .
| A．wild animals may attack cars | B．wild animals may jam the road |
| C．they may see wild animals on ecopassages | D．they may see wild animals in the park |
"Yes, but what did we use to do before there was television?" How often we hear statements like this! Television hasn't been with us all that long, but we are already beginning to forget what the world was like without it. Before we admitted the "one-eyed monster" into our homes, we never found it difficult to occupy our spare time. We used to enjoy civilised pleasures. For instance, we used to have hobbies, entertain our friends and be entertained by them, go outside for our amusements. We even used to read books and listen to music occasionally. Now all our free time is regulated by the "goggle box". We rush home for our meals to be in time for this or that programme. A sandwich and a glass of beer will do—anything, providing it doesn't interfere with the programme. The monster demands and obtains absolute silence and attention. If any member of the family dares to open his mouth during a programme, he is quickly silenced.
Whole generations are growing up addicted to the television. Food is left uneaten, homework undone and sleep is lost. The television is a universal t
hing that makes people calm. It is now standard practice for mother to keep the children quiet by putting them in the living-room and turning on the set. It doesn't matter what the children will watch—so long as they are quiet.
Television encourages passive enjoyment. We become content with second-hand experiences. It is so easy to sit in our armchairs watching others working. Little by little, television cuts us off from the real world. We get so lazy, we choose to spend a fine day in semi-darkness. Television may be a splendid medium of communication, but it prevents us from communicating with each other. We only become aware how totally irrelevant television is to real living when we spend a holiday by the sea or in the mountains. In quiet, natural surrounding, we quickly discover how little we miss the King television..
. Through the passage, the writer aims to tell us ________.
A．how television is  damaging our health |
| B．how to keep away from watching television |
| C．that television is doing harm to our life |
| D．all of us find it difficult to live without television |
.
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．Second-hand experiences provided by television are harmful. |
| B．We can enjoy our life without television. |
| C．Television is a necessary way of communication. |
| D．Television is becoming irreplaceable in our daily life. |
.
. What's the main reason for parents to put the children before a television set?
| A．To save more time for housework. |
| B．To help them sleep earlier. |
| C．To keep them quiet. |
| D．To help them learn more knowledge from television. |
.
By saying "we never found it difficult to occupy our spare time," the writer means ________.
| A．television occupies too much of our spare time |
| B．it's easy for us to find some spare time to enjoy the television |
| C．we have less spare time after we have television |
| D．it's difficult to spend our spare time without a television |
In the United States, friendships can be close, constant, intense, generous, and real, yet fade away in a short time if things change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greeting for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while—then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship where it's left off and are delighted.
In the States, you can feel free to visit people's homes and share their holidays without fear that you are taking on a lasting obligation. Do not hesitate to accept hospitality because you cannot give it in return. No one will expect you to do so for they know you are far from home. Americans will enjoy welcoming you and be pleased if you accept their hospitality easily.
Once you arrive there, the welcome will be full and warm and real. Most visitors find themselves easily invited into many homes there. In some countries it is considered inhospitable to entertain at home, offering what is felt as "merely" home cooked food, not "doing something" for your guest. It is felt that restaurant entertaining shows more respect and welcome. Or for various other reasons, such as crowded space, language difficulties, or family custom, outsiders are not invited into homes.
In the United States, both methods are used, but it is often considered more friendly to invite a person to one's home than to go to a public place, except in pure business relationships. So, if your host or hostess brings you home, do not feel that you are being shown inferior treatment..
. In the United States, friendships might ________ if things become different.
| A．disappear little by little | B．last forever |
| C．be heartbreaking | D．end suddenly |
.
All the following factors but ________ prevent people from inviting their friends home for
dinner according to the passage.
| A．different languages | B．naughty children |
| C．different customs | D．small houses |
.
. We can infer that ________ in America according to this passage.
| A．friendships are difficult to get but easy to lose |
| B．it is hard for a person to pick up the friendship when he comes across his long lost friend |
| C．you might be considered as a person hungry for social activities if you accept an invitation too easily |
| D．people care little about where they are invited to go for dinner |
.
. Why is giving a dinner party at home considered less hospitable in some countries?
| A．Because eating at the restaurant is a sign of respect. |
| B．Because having dinner at home seems less friendly. |
| C．Because dishes prepared at home are less delicious. |
| D．Because a dinner at the restaurant is more expensive. |