Howard Dill is a giant among giant pumpkin growers. He grew world champion pumpkins for four years running，from 1979 to 1982，and missed winning the fifth year by a mere 5 pounds. Today，his Dill Atlantic Giant seeds are sold worldwide to more than 50 seed companies. The pumpkins grown from his Dill Atlantic Giant seeds commonly weigh in at over 1,000 pounds.“I don’t have any training in genetics ；it was all trial and error，”Dill says. He inherited his love of pumpkins from his father and has enjoyed growing them for years.
Dill still grows giant pumpkins, but not for competition. In the fall, visitors come to enjoy the pumpkin patch on his 90-acre farm in Nova Scotia，Canada. He plants ten acres of pumpkins for Halloween and two acres of giant pumpkins. One of giant pumpkins was recently baked into 442 pumpkin pies and sold at $ 5 each for charity.
It you want to try growing a giant pumpkin, Dill recommends starting with a soil test and then adding fertilizer as needed. Plant the giant pumpkin seed. A giant pumpkin can gain 15 to 20 pounds a day， so careful watering—every day or two—is essential. You should wait about 130 days until the pumpkin matures and then you can harvest it.
Dill’s favorite pumpkin set the Guinness Book record in 1981. It weighted 493.5 pounds. “I’ve grown them larger since， but that one meant a lot,” he remembers. “I never would have predicted ten years ago that there would be a 1,000-pounder，but there are many of them now，”says Dill。The 2006 world record holder is Larry Checkon of Pennsylvania. He grew a 1,469 pounder. Dill says, “These world champions are grown from my seeds， so I feel like a winner right along with them.”What can we learn about the world champion pumpkin of 1983?
| A．It weighed over 1,000 pounds. |
| B．It was missing after the competition. |
| C．It was 5 pounds heavier than that of 1982. |
| D．It was 5 pounds heavier than Dill’s biggest one that year. |
One of Dill’s giant pumpkins earned .
| A．$2210 | B．$442 | C．$1000 | D．$1469 |
In the third paragraph Dill mainly tells about .
| A．how to do a soil test | B．how to plant the giant pumpkin seed |
| C．when to water the pumpkin | D．how to grow a giant pumpkin |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Howard Dill is well trained in genetics. |
| B．Howard Dill grows pumpkins just for competiton. |
| C．Dill felt proud of Larry Checkon’s champion pumpkin. |
| D．Dill’s favorite pumpkin is the heaviest of all those he has ever grown. |
Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
| A．Gardening Giant: Howard Dill | B．World Champion Pumpkin |
| C．Dill Atlantic Giant Seeds | D．How to Grow Giant Pumpkins |
Being sociable looks like a good way to add years to your life. Relationships with family, friends, neighbours, even pets, will all do the trick, but the biggest longevity(长寿)boost seems to come from marriage or an equivalent relationship. The effect was first noted in 1858 by William Farr, who wrote that widows and widowers（鳏夫）were at a much higher risk of dying than their married peers. Studies since then suggest that marriage could add as much as seven years to a man’s life and two to a woman’s. The effect holds for all causes of death, whether illness, accident or self-harm.
Even if the odds are stacked against you(the conditions are not favourable),marriage can more than compensate. Linda Waite of the University of Chicago has found that a married older man with heart disease can expect to live nearly four years longer than an unmarried man with a healthy heart. Likewise, a married man who smokes more than a pack a day is likely to live as long as a divorced man who doesn’t smoke. There’s a flip side, however, as partners are more likely to become ill or die in the couple of years following their spouses; death, and caring for a spouse with mental disorder can leave you with some of the same severe problems. Even so, the odds favour marriage. In a 30-year study of more than 10,000 people, Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School describes how all kinds of social networks have similar effects.
So how does it work? The effects are complex, affected by socio-economic factors, health-service provision, emotional support and other more physiological mechanisms(机制).For example, social contact can boost development of the brain and immune system, leading to better health and less chance of depression later in life. People in supportive relationships may handle stress better. Then there are the psychological benefits of a supportive partner.
A life partner, children and good friends are all recommended if you aim to live to 100.The best social network is still being mapped out, but Christakis says:” People are interconnected, so their health is interconnected.”William Farr’s study and other studies show that________.
| A．social life provides an effective cure for illness |
| B．Being sociable helps improve one’s quality of life |
| C．Women benefit more than men from marriage |
| D．Marriage contributes a great deal to longevity |
Linda Waite’s studies support the idea that________.
| A．older men should quit smoking to stay healthy |
| B．Marriage can help make up for ill health |
| C．The married are happier than the unmarried |
| D．Unmarried people are likely to suffer in later life |
It can be inferred from the context that the “flip side”(Line5,Para2)refers to________.
| A．the disadvantages of being married |
| B．The emotional problems arising from marriage |
| C．The responsibility of taking care of one’s family |
| D．The consequence of a broken marriage |
What does the author say about social networks?
| A．They have effects similar to those of a marriage. |
| B．They help develop people’s community spirit. |
| C．They provide timely support for those in need. |
| D．They help relieve people of their life’s burden |
What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
| A．It’s important that we develop a social network when young. |
| B．To stay healthy, one should have a proper social network. |
| C．Getting a divorce means risking a reduced life span. |
| D．We should share our social networks with each other. |
The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, “Hi, girl! My name is Rose. I’m 87 years old. Can give you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may! “and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age ?”I asked. She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel!”
“No seriously “I said. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” “she told me.
Over the course of the year, Rose because a campus icon（偶像）and she easily made friends wherever she went .She loved to dress up and she reveled（陶醉）in the attention bestowed（赠给）upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us.
“We do not stop playing because we are old“; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only two secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success/You have to laugh and find humor everyday. Your’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die!” she said.
“The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change.” Have no regrets. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Song of Rose”. She challenged each of us study the lyrics(歌词)and live them out in our daily lives.
At the year’s end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.Rose made herself known to the author in a _______ manner.
| A．serious | B．cold | C．crazy | D．humorous |
From the information provided in the passage, we know________.
| A．Rose finished the college degree within a year |
| B．Rose did realize her dream of meeting a rich husband and getting married through college education |
| C．Rose enjoyed her campus life very much |
| D．Rose grew so old that she stopped playing |
Rose delivered the speech________.
| A．at the graduation |
| B．which she prepared carefully |
| C．ended with ”The Song of Rose” |
| D．to challenge all the other speakers |
According to her speech,________.
| A．whenever you have a dream, you succeed |
| B．All people don’t grow up while growing older |
| C．Rose usually regretted having done something |
| D．a nine-year-old is as old as a 87-year-old if he doesn’t do anything |
The best title for the passage can be________.
| A．Growing Older or Growing Up | B．It’s Never too Old to learn |
| C．Humour Does Count | D．Challenge Yourself |
In Western countries people have been using the installment （按揭）plan since the first half of the twentieth century. Today, a large number of families in Great Britain buy furniture, household goods and cars by installments .In the U.S., the figure is much higher than in Great Britain, and people there spend over 10 percent of their income on the installment plan.
The price of an article bought on installments is always higher than the price that would be paid by cash. There is a charge for interest. The buyers pays one quarter or one third of the price as a down payment when the goods are delivered to him. He then makes regular payments, weekly or monthly, until the full price is paid up. The legal ownership of the goods remains with the seller until the final payment has been made.
Installment buying has advantages and disadvantages. It can help couples with small incomes to furnish their homes and start housekeeping, It increases the demand for goods, and in this way helps business and employment. There is ,however, the danger that when business is bad, installment buying may end suddenly, making business much worse. This may result in a great increase in unemployment. If the people on the installment plan lose their jobs, they will probably not be able to make their payments. If great numbers of people are not able to pay their installment debts there is a possibility that businessmen cannot collect their debts and will therefore lose money. If businessmen lose money or fail to make a satisfactory profit, it becomes more likely to have a depression. This is why, in some countries, the government controls the installment plan by fixing the amount of the down payment to discourage people from buying more than they can pay for on the installment plan.Which of the following is true about the installment plan?
| A．British families just use the installment plan to buy furniture. |
| B．More than 10 precent American families buy things on installment. |
| C．Americans spend more on installment buying than British people do. |
| D．The payment of installment buying is easier than buying by cash. |
Goods bought on installments are more expensive than goods bought by cash because_________.
| A．the buyer has to pay extra money as interest |
| B．the delivery of the goods charges extra money |
| C．the buyer has to pay a down payment |
| D．The service offered by installment plan charged extra money |
What will happen to a buyer if he fails to make the full payment for an item bought on installments?
| A．He might lose his job |
| B．He will stop owning the item he has bought |
| C．He will have to sell what he has bought |
| D．He will go into debt |
The advantages of installment buying might include all the followings EXCEPT that _________.
| A．purchasing power is strengthened |
| B．Employment might be increased |
| C．People develop a good habit of saving money |
| D．Young couples are able to furnish their homes |
In some countries, the government controls the installment plan to_________.
| A．increase employment |
| B．avoid depressions |
| C．ensure that businesses make good profits |
| D．ensure that people can pay for what they buy |
Green invaders are taking over America. Not invaders from space, but plants! You might not think of plants as dangerous, but in this case they are threatening nature’s delicate food chain.
The invaders are plants brought here from other countries to make gardens and yards look pretty. Ever since people started to arrive on America’s shores, they have carried along trees, flowers, and vegetables from other places. Now there are so many of those plants, they are crowding out the native plants that have lived here since before human settlers arrived.
And that’s a problem, says Dr. Doug Tallamy. He’s insect expert at the University of Delaware. He explains that almost all the plant-eating insects in the United States are specialized, which means they eat only certain plants. Monarch butterfly caterpillars(幼虫),for example, dine on milkweed. If people cut down milkweed and replace it with another plant, the butterflies will not have the food source that they need to survive.
But the trouble doesn’t stop there. When insects can’t get the right plants to eat and they die off, then the birds don’t have enough bugs for their meals. Tallamy points out that almost all migrating birds depend on insets to feed their young.
“We cannot let the plants and animals around us disappear.” says Tallamy, “The way to preserve them is to give them food to eat. But when we plant non-native plants, we are clobbering the food chain, because then we don’t have the insects the birds need to live.”
Fewer of the right plants mean fewer bugs, and fewer bugs mean fewer birds. And that’s bad for the Earth, because we need a variety of living things to keep the planet healthy and beautiful.
The good news is, garden centers sell native plants. “Just Google ‘native plants’ and your location, and you can find out which plants really belong where you live,” says TallamyHow did green invades arrive at America?
| A．They fell down from space. |
| B．They floated to the America’s shores. |
| C．They were brought in from foreign countries |
| D．They has lived here since human settlers arrived |
According to Dr.Tallamy, which of the followings about the insects in the US is NOT true?
| A．Almost all the plant-eating insects in a place eat certain plants. |
| B．Monarch butterfly caterpillars can’t survive without milkweed. |
| C．If insects can’t eat the right plants, they will find another one. |
| D．The insects’ death will greatly affect the migrating birds’ survival |
The underlined word “clobber” in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to _________.
| A．protect | B．damage | C．create | D．collect |
We can know whether a plant is native by _________.
| A．Googling on the Internet | B．asking Dr. Doug Tallamy |
| C．looking up in books | D．searching in garden |
What is the best title of the pass age?
| A．Green invaders——local living things |
| B．Green invaders——dangerous food chain |
| C．Green invaders——environmental protectors |
| D．Green invades——threat to local nature |
A new chapter in space exploration has been opened up after NASA confirmed that their mission to bomb the Moon had found “significant quantities” of frozen water. Scientists said the “exciting” findings had gone “beyond expectations” as fully formed ice was found in a crater on the planet. The water was found in one mile high dust that was kicked up by the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite(LCOSS) last month when it crashed into the Cabeus crater near the Moon's south pole.
“Indeed，yes，we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit，we found a significant amount，”said Anthony Colaprete，project scientist and principal investigator for the ￡49 million space mission.
“This is a great day for science and exploration，” said Doug Cooke，associate administrator of NASA. “The remarkable results have gone beyond our expectations. It is incredibly exciting.”
The identification of water-ice is important for purely scientific reasons，but also because a supply of water on the Moon would be a vital resource for future human exploration. The findings，which completely contradict previous beliefs that the Moon was a dry place，justify the controversial mission. Over the last decade，scientists have found some hints of underground ice on the Moon's poles，mainly in the form of compounds of hydrogen but this is the best evidence yet.
The discovery is expected to have major implications for the future of lunar exploration，and a ready supply of water could help set up lunar bases or launch missions to Mars. Mr Colaprete said that it should be possible to purify the water for drinking even though it appeared to be mixed with poisonous methanol(甲醇)．Which of the following is TRUE of the “bombing”？
| A．It damaged the Moon surface severely. |
| B．It would do harm to the space environment. |
| C．It confirmed the existence of water on the Moon. |
| D．It would help the research on Mars. |
The underlined word “NASA” in the first paragraph maybe referred to ________.
| A．a base in space |
| B．a new kind of bomb |
| C．a part of the Moon |
| D．a government department |
Why is the finding of water on the Moon so important?
| A．People on the earth use more and more water. |
| B．In the future lots of people will live on the Moon. |
| C．The water will be a supply for future human exploration in space. |
| D．Because the water is mixed with poisonous methanol. |
How is the whole text developed?
| A．Providing some facts. |
| B．Following the order of space. |
| C．Making comparisons. |
| D．Analyzing causes. |
Which of the following is the best title of the text?
| A．Water Found on the Moon after NASA “Bombing” |
| B．Unbelievable Space Research |
| C．Possible Base on the Moon |
| D．Mysterious Water Found on the Moon |