Space vegetables are grown from seeds (种子) that have been taken to space and brought back to the earth. The seeds are affected by the radiation (辐射) and low gravity in space. When they are brought back to the earth, these seeds produce vegetables that are bigger and healthier than normal vegetables. However, some people worry about eating space vegetables. They think that space vegetables might not be good for us and could make us get sick because of the radiation in space. However, people should not be frightened because space vegetables are very healthy.
Here are some facts that you should know about space vegetables.
Space vegetables are grown from seeds that are carefully chosen. When seeds are brought back from space, they are tested to make sure that they will be safe to eat.
Space vegetables are better for you than normal vegetables. For example, space tomatoes stay fresh for twenty days, which is one week longer than normal tomatoes.
After genetically modified (转基因) food appeared in the market, people worried that they were eating unknown things. For example, if nut genes (坚果基因) are put inside potatoes, people allergic (过敏的) to nuts might get sick from eating these potatoes because they do not know they are also eating nuts. Unlike genetically modified food, space vegetables have not been genetically changed. This means that no new genes are put into the vegetables. Therefore, there are no dangers of eating something unknown.
| A．more delicious | B．healthier and bigger |
| C．more dangerous | D．cheaper and healthier |
| A．is grown in space | B．has nothing unknown |
| C．has been genetically changed | D．has no new genes |
| A．seven | B．thirteen | C．twenty | D．twenty-seven |
| A．space vegetables are grown in space |
| B．everybody worries about eating space vegetables |
| C．space vegetables are safe and good for people to eat |
| D．space vegetables may bring illness to us because of the radiation in space |
You may feel interested in students in other countries. Do they have so much homework? What do they do in their free time? People did a survey in China, Japan, South Korea and the US last year. This is the result.
Who studies the hardest?
Chinese students spend the most time in studying. About half of Chinese students spend more than two hours on their homework every day.
Who sleeps most often in class?
Japanese students fall asleep（睡着）in class more often. About 45% of them sometimes doze off in class. It’s 32% in South Korea, 21% in the US and 5% in China.
Who is the most distracted（分心的）?
American students are the most active in class, but also the most distracted. 64.2% of them chat with friends in class. 46.9% of them eat something in class, and 38.9 % of them send e-mails or read other books in class.
What do they do after school?
In their free time, most Chinese students study or surf the Internet. Most American students hang out with their friends. Most Japanese students do exercise. Most South Korean students watch TV.About ____ of Chinese students spend more than 2 hours doing their homework every day.
| A．50% | B．45% | C．64.2% | D．38.9% |
According to the survey, ____ students sleep in class most often.
| A．Chinese | B．Japanese | C．American | D．South Korea |
The underlined phrase “doze off” means ____ in Chinese.
| A．听音乐 | B．玩游戏 | C．看小说 | D．打瞌睡 |
Most American students ____ in class.
| A．chat with friends | B．play games |
| C．eat something | D．send e-mails |
Which of the following sentence in the passage is TRUE?
| A．All Chinese students do their homework every day. |
| B．Some American students send e-mails in class. |
| C．No Japanese students do exercise. |
| D．Most American students chat with friends in their free time. |
Last summer, Mark became a middle school student. He took an English test in the first month. Mark was a good student and he worked hard. He finished the questions easily until he read the last one: “Everyone sees our school’s cleaner every day. What’s her first name?” Of course, this question is a little special. Mark saw the woman some times. She was tall and her hair was dark. But Mark didn’t talk with her and didn’t know her first name. The test was over. Then one student asked the teacher, “Is the last question very important in this test?” “Yes,” said the teacher. “In our life, we meet many hard-working people. They are important. You should care about them. You should smile at them or say ‘hello’ to them.” Mark never forgot that question. He also learned that woman’s first name. It was Kathy.What test did Mark have in his first month in the middle school?
| A．Math. | B．Physics. | C．English. | D．Chinese. |
What did Mark know about his school’s cleaner?
| A．She was a little special. |
| B．She was tall with dark hair. |
| C．She often talked with the students. |
| D．Mark knew her first name. |
What did Mark’s teacher think of the last question?
| A．It was fun. | B．It was interesting. |
| C．It was boring. | D．It was important. |
What does the sentence “You should smile at them or say ‘hello’ to them.” mean?
| A．我们应该尊重辛勤劳作的人。 |
| B．我们应该信任辛勤劳作的人。 |
| C．我们应该帮助辛勤劳作的人。 |
| D．我们应该向辛勤劳作的人学习。 |
What’s the title（标题）of the passage?
| A．A Special Question |
| B．A Hard-working Cleaner |
| C．A Good Teacher |
| D．A Clever Student |
On the terrible day, father took me to school. When he stopped in front of the school, I didn’t want to get out of the car. I looked at the students outside the building and suddenly felt sick. I slowly opened the car door and slowly got out. The body brace(支架) I wore made it hard for me to move and made me feel ugly. How I wished I were still in my school with all my friends. I didn’t know anyone here. I could feel that everyone was looking at me. I was sure that I would be the ugliest and strangest person they had ever seen. Tears fell on my new dress.
I struggled(奋力) to get through that day, and all the day for the following three days. I feel ugly for most of the time. I could hardly wait to take off the brace.
That day finally arrived on a rainy Thursday in Spring. I was so surprised and excited when the doctor said that I could take off the brace. From that day on, I began to love rain. I was free at last.
I danced up the stairs to the school building the next morning. I wanted everyone to see me, but to my surprise, no one said a word about my brace for the whole day, even Danielle, my best friend. I couldn’t wait to ask her, “Danielle, don’t you notice anything different about me? It’s the brace. The brace is gone.”
Danielle just looked at me and said, “ I know the brace is gone, but I don’t think it’ll make much difference. With or without it, you are still my friend.”How did the girl feel when she first went to the school?
A.She was surprised
B. She was upset.
C. She was angry.Which of the following is TRUE?
A.The girl’s classmates didn’t like her because she was strange.
B.The girl was always unhappy while she was wearing the brace.
C.The girl’s classmates changed their ideas after she took off the brace.The girl took off her brace ___________.
A.The following three days
B. the next day
C. on a rainy ThursdayThe girl _____________ in that school before she wore the body brace.
A.had never studied
B. had already studied
C. had known some friendsWhat do we learn from the passage?
A.Danielle was quite different from the others in the class.
B.It was not ugly to wear a brace.
C.Few of the girl’s classmates thought that she was ugly.
Renting a color television makes more sense than buying. Here’s why:
1. The longer you rent (租), the less you pay. Each year the monthly rate is reduced. You can reach a low rate of not much more than $12 a week.
2. Service is fast and free（免费）. We can have your set installed (安装) in two days. If anything goes wrong, we’ll have it fixed the same day or lend you another set while we’re mending it. And don’t forget: service and spare parts are free!
3. If you don’t have an aerial (天线), we’ll install one for you, and that will be free, too. All you have to pay is the installation charge (安装费)!
4. You can choose from all kinds of models, and what’s more, if after a certain period of time, and you would like a new model, you can change. How’s that for service?
5. No deposit (押金) is needed. You pay only the monthly rental fee. But if you pay in advance, you can save money. Pay twelve months’ fees when you begin to hire, and we’ll give you a month’s hire(雇用) without charge.
6. If you decide that you want to stop renting and buy the set you have on hire, this can be arranged—with a generous allowance (折扣) for the fees already paid.From the passage we know _______________________.
A. the more you rent, the less you pay
B. the longer you rent, the less you pay
C. if you rent a TV set for a long time, service and spare parts will be freeWhat is the good of paying twelve months’ fees when you begin to hire?
A. One and a half months’ hire free of charge.
B. One month’s hire free of charge.
C. Half a month’s hire free of charge.What does “pay in advance” mean?
A. You pay the rent for a period of time before you actually get the television.
B. You pay the rent in front of anyone.
C. You will be the first to pay the rent.If you want to rent a color television, ____________________.
A. leasing company (租赁公司) can have your set installed the same day
B. you can have a choice of sets to rent
C. leasing company will install an aerial for you free of chargeThis passage is a (an) _______________________.
A. bookB. reportC. advertisement
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 (标题) 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 (出版) 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 Internet. 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 |
From the passage we can see thatwhen 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 |
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 |
Newspapers ______________ are the most popular in the world.
| A．in English | B．in Chinese |
| C．in other language | D．with many pages |
According to the passage, besides newspapers, people also get information from _______.
| A．magazines | B．Advertisements |
| C．e-mails | D．Internet |