Wateristhemostcommonsubstance(-优题课

A pair of twin-brother ligers, a rare lion-tiger hybrid(杂种), have become superstars in China's southernmost island province of Hainan after becoming the first ligers in the country to reach their first birthday.
Tens of thousands of tourists visited the liger brothers at Hainan Tropical Wildlife Park during the week-long May Day holiday that ended on Sunday, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rare animals. At least 10,000 people signed a red banner when the park celebrated the liger's birthday on May 2. People expressed the hope that the twins would be strong and healthy, the Hainan Daily reports. Zookeepers even made the twins a special birthday cake out of beef and eggs.
The ligers, born on May 2, 2005 , are named 'Ping Ping' and 'An An', which together translate as 'safe and sound'. Their mother Huan Huan is a six-year-old tigress and their father is a four-year – old lion named Xiao Erhei. The couple first gave birth to a liger in June 2004 but the cub (幼兽) died of respiratory(呼吸的）failure 72 hours later.
The pregnancy (怀孕) rate for lion-tiger couples is only between one and two percent and the cubs normally have a short life expectancy due to the differences in their chromosomes(染色体). Zoologists say only six to eight ligers are living in the world. China's first tiger-lion hybrid cub was born at Hongshan Zoo in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, in 2002. But it died a week later.
Ping Ping and An An have broken the survival record set by a liger who lived for 113 days at Hongshan Zoo.
1. Why can Ping Ping and An An become superstars?
A. Because they are the most beautiful ligers.
B. Because they are the cleverest ligers.
C. Because they are the most attractive ligers.
D. Because they are the first ligers to live for a year.
2. Why can't ligers live long ?
A. Because their chromosomes are different.
B. Because they are too small when they are born.
C. Because their parents don't live long.
D. Because they are short of food.
3. How many ligers did the passage mention?
A. Three. B. Four. C. Five. D. Six.
4. What is the best title of this passage?
A. China's longest living twin ligers celebrate their lst birthday
B. Why can't ligers in the world live long
C. How to raise ligers safely
D. The story behind the ligers

The Fourth "21th Century Cup" National English Speaking Competition is to be held in Shanghai.
Organizers: China Daily and Shanghai Broadcasting Network.
Co-ordinater: China University English Speaking Association ( CUESA).
Co-sponsors (联办单位): English Speaking Union (ESU), Lotus Software (China) Co. LtD.,Times Publishing Group of Singapore, Hilton Shanghai, Pearson Education, Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press.
Date: March 26 ( Friday), 2011
Place: Hilton Shanghai.
Competition Format (形式): Each student will present a prepared speech on the given topic, followed by a three-minute off-hand speech and a three-minute question and answer period with the judges.
Prepared speech period: six minutes.
Q & A period: three minutes.
Speech topic: People and Nature: In search of harmony (和谐）in a new age + your personal opinion. (Topics for the off hand speech will be given on the day of competition).
Prizes: Besides books and certificates (证书), the top two winners will be offered scholarships to travel to the annual international English-speaking competition which will be held by the English Speaking Union in London in May, 2011. The third and fourth place winners will be offered a study trip to Singapore, sponsored by the Times Publishing Group. The fifth through 10th place winners will be offered cash prizes. All the competitors will receive certificates from the English Speaking Union and book prizes provided by Pearson Education and Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press. The teachers of the top winners will also receive a one-year membership to the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL).
1. The main purpose of this passage is ________________________ .
A. to invite you to take part in the competition
B. to tell you some information of the competition
C. to help to improve your spoken English
D. to show you how to win the competition
2. Which of the following is NOT mentioned about the Shanghai English Speaking Competition?
A. Where and when it will take place. B. Its program.
C. What each winner will be offered. D. The number of its competitors.
3. Suppose you get the sixth place, you'll________________________ .
A. travel to London for free.
B. become a one-year member of IATEFL
C. get some money, some books and a certificate
D. get a chance to study in Singapore
4. An "off-hand speech" is________________________ .
A. a speech not longer than three minutes B. a speech with a piece of paper in hand
C. a speech without preparation D. a speech which is well prepared

IV. 阅读理解（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）
When I was at university, I studied very hard. But a lot of my friends did very little work. Some did just enough to pass exams. Others didn't do quite enough. Fred Baines was one of them. He spent more time drinking in the Students' Union than working in the library.
Once, at the end of the term, we had to take an important test in chemistry. The test had a hundred questions. Beside each question, we had to write "True" or "False". While I was studying in my room the night before the test, Fred was watching television. Fred usually worried a lot the night before a test. But on that night he looked perfectly calm. Then he told me of his plan.
"It's very simple. There are a hundred questions and I have to get fifty correct to pass the test. I'll take a coin into the examination room. I haven't studied a chemistry book for months, so I'll just toss the coin. That way, I'm sure I'll get half the questions right."
The next day Fred came cheerfully into the examination room. He sat tossing a coin for half an hour as he marked down his answers. Then he left, half an hour before the rest of us.
The next day, he saw the chemistry professor in the corridor .
"Oh, good," he said. "Have you got the result of the test? What mark did I get?"
The professor looked at him and smiled.
"Ah, it's you, Baines. Just a minute."
Then he reached into his pocket and took out a coin. He threw it into the air, caught it in his hand and looked at it.
"I'm terribly sorry, Baines," he said, "you failed."
1. Fred Baines _______.
A. spent quite some time working in the Students' Union
B. worked hard at his lessons but he failed again and again
C. often failed his tests
D. wouldn't work hard so long as he could pass a test
2. Fred looked perfectly calm before the chemistry test because _______.
A. he was already well prepared for it
B. he didn't think the test was so important for him
C. someone had promised to help him out
D. he believed he had found out a way to pass the test without any difficulty
3. The professor told Baines the result of the test by tossing a coin because _______.
A. he hadn't marked all the papers yet
B. he couldn't remember the mark Baines got
C. he wouldn't hurt Baines' feeling by telling him the truth
D. he wanted to teach Baines a lesson

In the UK, students’ residence halls are run as profit-making business, but this can occasionally be to students’ disadvantage.
As many universities choose to contract out their hall’s management to private companies, room rents are rising and student rights are suffering.
In 2006, 55 percent of student rooms were managed by private companies — only 27 percent by universities and colleges, the National Union of Students (NUS) has reported.
These private companies are improving the hall’s facilities in return for higher room rents. The most noticeable example of this trend is the growth in luxury halls. These are halls for students willing to pay more for larger rooms with better services.
Chancellors Court, at Edinburgh University in Scotland, is one such luxury hall. Rooms are divided between standard and large, with larger rooms costing 173 pounds each week, 40 pounds more than smaller rooms. They come with a scenic view, color TV, fast Internet connection and a modern bathroom.
Other luxury halls have private gyms for their residents. Private companies capitalize (用…以牟利) on their investment by renting out the students rooms to travelers over the summer vacation period.
But the NUS is concerned that luxury halls are affecting room rents at standard un-privatized halls. Most students in the UK pay on average 126 pounds a week for a private room in catered (提供餐饮的) halls of residence, the International Students Advice and Welfare organization has reported. According to the NUS, rent in UK halls of residence has risen by almost a quarter from 2005 to 2007.
Veronica King, NUS vice-president of welfare, wants the privatization of university accommodation to stop.
“For the students for whom luxury is not affordable, there is a significant risk that accommodation costs, coupled with the burden of complete fees, may reduce the choice of where to go to university,” she said.
Legal quarrels with privatized halls may also account for some of the 10 percent per year rise in student complaints to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA). The OIA is an independent student complaints scheme that has authority over all higher education institutions in England and Wales.
Rob Behrens, chief executive of the OIA, said he was unsurprised by the rise in complaints. “The bottom line is that students are today more self-confident in thinking about what their rights are and what are the things they can get form the commitments they make.”
1.Why are room rents rising in British universities?
A.Because the world is facing a financial crisis.
B.Because most universities are getting bored about students’ complaints.
C.Because many universities let private companies run students’ halls.
D.Because not all universities can meet the demands of the students.
2. Which of the following is not mentioned about a luxury hall?
A.Students have to pay more for a luxury hall.
B.Students can have a good view in a luxury hall.
C.Students can enjoy their own gym in a luxury hall.
D.Students can have an Internet connection free of charge.
3.Why do some students want to pay more for a luxury hall?
A.Because they just want to show that they are rich.
B.Because they are better served in a luxury hall.
C.Because there are too much complaints about small rooms.
D.Because there are no other choices.

Research shows that humans switch from selfish to unselfish behaviour when they are watched. Do you?
A picture of a set of eyes on a computer screen can cause a change in the way people act. Even images of eyes on a charity donation collection box encourage people to be unselfish, because people put more money in a collection box that has a picture of eyes on it than they do when a flower symbol is on the box.
Manfred Milinski from the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany and Bettina Rockenbach of the University of Berlin, the authors of a new study, found that people act better when they are being watched because they feel they will be rewarded for good behaviour. Their report also referred to other research showing that this response of behaving well when watched is somehow coded into humans and people respond this way unconsciously, or without realising it.
It is not just humans that act unselfishly when they are being watched. A fish called the grooming fish cleans other fish. When other fish are around, it is gentler. When no other fish are around, however, the grooming fish bites chunks from the fish it is supposed to be cleaning.
The researchers suggest that the best way to get people to behave in the correct way is to make them feel watched. This could be the reason for the success of a famous American army poster. On it was a picture of an elderly man staring fiercely and pointing, it appeared, to the person who was looking at the poster. Under the picture was the caption “I Want You”. It encouraged hundreds of thousands of young American men to join the army during the Second World War to fight the Germans and Japanese.
1. The underlined word “coded” (paragraph 3) is closest in meaning to______________.
A. hidden B. programmed C. made D. learned
2. What is the text mainly about?
A. It describes changed behaviour when observed.
B. It details ways to control people's behaviour.
C. It tells how to make people work harder.
D. It discusses different advertising methods.
3. According to the text, which of the following statements is true?
A. People pretend to behave better when they are watched.
B. Fish bite other fish in a fish tank when they are alone.
C. People donate more money when they feel they are watched.
D. Soldiers fought better during World War II because of a poster.
4. Where would the study described in the text most likely be found?
A. In a newspaper. B. In a scientific journal.
C. In an advertising magazine. D. In a science textbook.