When 19yearold Sophia Giorgi said she was thinking of volunteering to help the MakeAWish Foundation (基金会)，nobody understood what she was talking about.But Sophia knew just how important MakeAWish could be because this special organization had helped to make a dream come true for one of her best friends.We were interested in finding out more，so we went along to meet Sophia and listen to what she had to say.
Sophia told us that MakeAWish is a worldwide organization that started in the United States in 1980.“It’s a charity(慈善机构)that helps children who have got very serious illnesses.MakeAWish helps children feel happy even though they are sick，by making their wishes and dreams come true，”Sophia explained.
We asked Sophia how MakeAWish had first started.She said it had all begun with a very sick young boy called Chris，who had been dreaming for a long time of becoming a policeman.Sophia said lots of people had wanted to find a way to make Chris’s dream come true－so，with everybody’s help，Chris，only seven years old at the time，had been a“policeman”for a day.“When people saw how delighted Chris was when his dream came true，they decided to try and help other sick children too，and that was the beginning of MakeAWish，”explained Sophia.
Sophia also told us the Foundation tries to give children and their families a special，happy time.A MakeAWish volunteer visits the families and asks the children what they would wish for if they could have anything in the world.Sophia said the volunteers were important because they were the ones who helped to make the wishes come true.They do this either by providing things that are necessary，or by raising money or helping out in whatever way they can.Sophia found out about MakeAWish because her best friend had________.
| A．benefited from it |
| B．volunteered to help it |
| C．dreamed about it |
| D．told the author about it |
According to Sophia，MakeAWish________.
| A．is an international charity |
| B．was understood by nobody at first |
| C．raises money for very poor families |
| D．started by drawing the interest of the public |
What is said about Chris in Paragraph 3?
| A．He has been a policeman since he was seven. |
| B．He gave people the idea of starting MakeAWish. |
| C．He wanted people to help make his dream come true. |
| D．He was the first child MakeAWish helped after it had been set up. |
Which of the following is true about MakeAWish volunteers?
| A．They are important for making wishes come true. |
| B．They try to help children get over their illnesses. |
| C．They visit sick children to make them feel special. |
| D．They provide what is necessary to make MakeAWish popular. |
Beach volleyball （沙滩排球）is one of those sports that can be an exciting game to play and watch. It’s really easy, and all you need is sand, a net and a group of people, of any age or fitness level, who want to have fun.
Beach volleyball can be played with as few as two people in each team, making a total of four people. However, if you are less skilled and experienced in the game, it will be easier to play with a larger team. The more players you have, the less ground each person will be responsible for covering and the more time they will have to recover between shots. If you only have a few players, each of you will get a lot of running for the ball after each volley (截球). If you are looking for a relaxing, fun, low-key experience, choose larger teams.
Beach volleyball is similar to regular volleyball in its rules. However, even experienced volleyball players do not realize how much more difficult it is to run and jump on sand. Since it is harder to move quickly on sand than a hard surface, play will be much slower than regular volleyball on a court. When an athlete trains for beach volleyball, he will focus on building lower body strength（力量）as well as upper body strength. Strengthening his legs is extremely important. This improves the player’s ability to move quickly and accurately on sand despite the resistance. The ability to jump high and land without injury is necessary for beach volleyball players.
Whether you are in it for the competition, or just to have a great time with your friends, beach volleyball can be extremely exciting and fun. You may start out with friends and may soon fall in love with the sport.When playing beach volleyball, in which of the following situation will you feel most relaxed?
| A．Playing in a 2-person team. |
| B．Playing in a 4-person team. |
| C．Playing in a 6-person team. |
| D．Playing in an 11-person team. |
Why is playing beach volleyball much slower than playing regular volleyball?
| A．Because it is not easy to move on sand. |
| B．Because beach volleyball has a larger court. |
| C．Because the teams of beach volleyball are larger. |
| D．Because beach volleyball players are not experienced. |
We can infer from Paragraph 3 that ______.
| A．experienced volleyball players know clearly it is hard to run and jump on sand |
| B．lower body strength is more important than upper body strength |
| C．a person must have strong legs if he wants to run and jump quickly on sand |
| D．the rules of beach volleyball are the same as those of regular volleyball |
What does the author think of beach volleyball?
| A．It’s a difficult sport. |
| B．It’s not an exciting sport. |
| C．It’s a sport which only a few people love. |
| D．It’s a sport which needs few skills. |
The passage mainly tell us ______
| A．the game of beach volleyball |
| B．how to become a good beach volleyball player |
| C．why beach volleyball is one of the exciting sports |
| D．what should be paid attention to when playing beach volleyball |
Reading newspapers has become an important part of everyday life. Some people read newspapers as the first thing to do in the morning. Others read newspapers as soon as they have free time during the day so that they can learn what is happening in the world.
Sometimes, we do not have enough time to read all the news carefully, so we just take a quick look at the front page. At other times, we may be in such a hurry that we only have a few minutes to look at the headlines of the passage.
Newspapers can be found everywhere in the world. We can get many different kinds of newspapers in big cities, but in some mountain villages we can see few newspapers.
Some newspapers are published once a week, but most of the papers are published once a day with many pages, some even published twice a day! You know different people enjoy reading different newspapers. Some like world news, and others prefer short stories. They just choose what they are interested in.
Today newspapers in English have the largest numbers of readers in the world. The English language is so popular that many Chinese students are reading English newspapers such as China Daily or 21st Century. Also they bring us more and more information with the Internet.From the passage we can see that ________ when people get newspapers.
| A．they read them very carefully |
| B．they just read the headlines |
| C．not everyone reads all the pages |
| D．they have no time to read them |
People read newspapers in order to.
| A．learn the latest news |
| B．meet their own different needs |
| C．read the short stories |
| D．find the morning news |
The underlined word “publish” means “________” in the passage.
| A．出售 | B．印刷 | C．出版 | D．排版 |
Newspapers have so many pages because.
| A．more and more people like to read them |
| B．people enjoy reading something different |
| C．newspapers become cheaper |
| D．more pages mean more money |
According to the passage, besides newspapers, people also get infor mation from .
| A．magazines | B．advertisements |
| C．e-mails | D．the Internet |
In most parts of the world, many students help their schools make less pollution. They join “environment clubs(俱乐部)”. In an environment club, people work together to make our environment clean.
Here are some things students often do.
No-garbage (垃圾) lunches. How much do you throw away after lunch? Environment clubs ask students to bring their lunches in bags that can be used again. Every week they will choose the classes that make the least garbage and report them to the whole school.
No-car day. On a no-car day, nobody comes to school in a car. Not the students and not the teachers! Cars give pollution to our air, so remember: walk, jump, bike and run. Use your legs! It’s lots of fun..
Turn off the water! Did you know that some toilets can waste twenty to forty cubic(立方)meters of water an hour? In a year, that would fill a small river! In environment clubs, students mend those broken toilets. We love our environment. Let’s work together to make it clean.The writer wrote the passage to ask the students to ____________.
| A．clean school | B．make less pollution |
| C．join clubs | D．help teachers |
Environment clubs ask students __________.
| A．to run to school every day |
| B．to take exercise every day |
| C．not to forget to take cars |
| D．to use lunch bags |
After students mend toilets, they save ___________.
| A．a small river | B．a club |
| C． water in cubic meters | D．a toilet |
From the passage we know the students usually have lunch ____________.
| A．at school | B．in shops |
| C．in clubs | D．at home |
Which of the following statements is true?
A.On No-car day, only the teachers can go to school in their cars.
B.In the clubs, students usually work together to make the earth less polluted.
C.The water in the toilet can fill a river.
D.D. Students can take their lunch in paper, so they can throw it after lunch.
London Underground
The world’s first subway was built in London in 1863. At the time，the government was looking for a way to reduce traffic problems in the city of London. The poor areas of the city were so crowded with people that it was almost impossible for horse carriages to get through. The city officials were interested in trying to make it possible for workers to live outside of London and travel easily to work each day. If people had a cheap and convenient way that they could depend on to go to and from work， they would relocate their homes outside of the city. This would help ease(减轻) the pressure of too many people living in the poor parts of London. From these problems，the idea of the London Underground，the first subway system，was born.
The plans for building the Underground met with several problems and delays， but the fast track was finally opened in January 1863. A steam train pulled the cars along the fast underground track which was 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) long. About 30，000 people got on the subway the first day. Riders were treated to comfortable seats (standing up while the train was moving was not allowed),and pleasant decorations inside each of the cars. However，the smoke from the engine soon filled the air in the tunnels with ash and soot(煤灰)，as well as chemical gases. Fans had to be put in the tunnels later to keep the air clean enough for people to breathe. Even with its problems，riding in the Underground did catch on. It carried 9 million riders in its first year.What led the British government to build the London Underground？
| A．Traffic jams and pollution. |
| B．Population and pollution. |
| C．Overcrowding and traffic jams. |
| D．The poverty and subway problems. |
How did the London Underground solve the smoke problem？
| A．It made the tunnels larger. |
| B．It put fans in the tunnels. |
| C．It cleaned the chemical gases in the tunnels. |
| D．It reduced the number of passengers riding in the train. |
The underlined phrase “catch on” most probably means “______”.
| A．be troublesome |
| B．become popular and fashionable |
| C．keep up with |
| D．seize |
Which of the following is TRUE？
| A．To relocate the workers’homes outside London，the government built the subway. |
| B．There were so many problems and delays that in 18th century the first subway opened. |
| C．The subway greatly eased the pressure of traffic. |
| D．There were not enough seats for the passengers the first day the subway opened. |
It seems that the writer is going to talk about ______in the next paragraph.
| A．more problems with subways |
| B．subways around the world later on |
| C．the history and culture of London |
| D．the Beijing subway |
We often think of future. We often wonder what the world would be like in a hundred years’time.
Think of space，perhaps a permanent(永久的) station on the moon will have been set up. Perhaps people will be able to visit the moon as tourists. Cheap rockets for space travel will have been developed，permitting long journeys throughout the solar system(太阳系). When that time comes，people will be taking holidays in space and visiting other planets. Great progress will have been made in medicine，too. Perhaps a cure will have been discovered for the most terrible of all diseases—cancer. Pollution is a problem we must solve. In a hundred years’time it will have been controlled.
All the world will have been developed — even Antarctica. There will be large cities in Antarctica. We already have supersonic(超音速的) flight，but in a hundred years’time we will have supersonic land travel as well.
We will have used up most of earth’s land to build our cities， so floating cities will have been built. The Japanese already have plans for cities of this kind. And there will be cities under the sea. The first of these will have been completed.We will have developed ______ in a hundred years’time，permitting long journeys all over the solar system.
| A．cheap rockets for space travel | B．a plane |
| C．a spaceship | D．a satellite |
Man will also have supersonic land travel ______.
| A．in a year | B．about half a century later |
| C．in the year 2050 | D．about a century later |
The last paragraph mainly talks about ______.
| A．we’ll make good use of space on the earth |
| B．cities under the sea |
| C．Japan will first build floating cities |
| D．earth’s land is in danger |
The best title for the passage is ______.
| A．Travel in the Future | B．Future Life |
| C．Where to Live in the Future | D．Space Travel |