Bananas are one of the world’s most important food crops. They are also one of the most valuable exports. Bananas do not grow from seeds. Instead, they grow from existing plants. Bananas are threatened by disease because all the plants on a farm are copies of each other. They all share the same genetic weaknesses. For example, the Cavendish banana is most popular in North American and European markets. However, some kinds of fungus organisms easily infect the Cavendish. Black Sigatoka disease affects the leaves of Cavendish banana plants. The disease is controlled on large farms by putting chemicals on the plants’ leaves. Farmers put anti-fungal chemicals on their crops up to once a week. 
Another fungal disease is more serious. Panama disease attacks the roots of the banana plants. There is no chemical treatment for this disease. Infected plants must be destroyed. Panama disease has affected crops in Southeast Asia, Australia and South Africa. There is concern that it may spread to bananas grown in the Americas. This could threaten an important export product for Central and South America.
The International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain supports research on bananas. The group has headquarters in France and other offices in the major banana-growing areas of the world. The group says that more research must be done to develop improved kinds of bananas. The group says that fungal diseases mainly affect only one kind of banana. In fact, there are five hundred different kinds of bananas. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has said that the Cavendish banana represents only 10% of world production.
The U. N. agency says farmers should grow different kinds of bananas. This protects against diseases that affect only one kind. Experts warn that disease may cause the Cavendish banana to disappear. This happened earlier to another popular banana because of its genetic weakness against disease. What does this passage mainly tell us?
| A．Bananas are the world’s most important food crops. |
| B．The risk to a popular banana shows need to grow other kinds. |
| C．There are five hundred different kinds of bananas. |
| D．How to grow bananas in different countries. |
Bananas are threatened by disease because .
| A．they grow from seeds |
| B．they are one of the most valuable exports |
| C．the only way to prevent it is to put chemicals on their leaves |
| D．they have genetic weaknesses against disease |
Panama disease .
| A．doesn’t belong to fungal disease |
| B．affects the leaves of banana plants |
| C．destroys bananas more seriously than Black Sigatoka disease |
| D．has spread to bananas all over the world |
We can infer from Paragraph 3 that .
| A．the center of the group is in the US |
| B．the Cavendish banana covers only a small part of the yield of bananas |
| C．the key to solving the disease is to research all kinds of bananas |
| D．each fungal disease affects five hundred different kinds of bananas |
The Luck of the Irish
Look at a map of Britain, and the island on the left is Ireland. It’s a small but beautiful country with a long tradition of folk music. Up until 10 years ago just about the only thing that Ireland was famous for was its specialty black beer.
Now Ireland is famous around the world for its music with names like "Kenya","U2" ,"Van Morrison"and more recently "the Corers". "Boyzone",one of the world's top boy bands ,is from Ireland too.What's more,Boyzone member shane has twin sisters,Adele and Heavy,who are members of "B Witched"
The "Boyzone"story is interesting because they were created in 1993 by Dublin nightclub owner John Reynolds.They advertised in newspapers to find members for the group and 300wannabe pop stars applied!
Ronan,who was just 17 when he dropped out of school to make his bid for stardom,and shane,who had been working as trained mechanic in his father's garage when he left to join Boyzone,were both lucky enough to be chosen. The other members are shoe-shop attendant stephen lately,former mechanic Mike Graham and one-time clothes store assistant Keith Dully.
Many people expect bands that have been created by the music industry to produce boring music which doesn't become popular. Even the boys themselves knew they the would not easily achieve international pop music success.
Boyzone quickly proved that they were more than just pretty faces and have sold millions of records around the world.At the moment ,they are not big stars in America,but they say that will change,when they begin a tour of the United States.
Ronan will shortly also start recording as a solo artist. That does not mean the band will spilt yet,but we can expect Boyzone to split sometime in the next 18 months or so.Ronan has also recently become involved as one of the managers of new Irish boy band "West Life" whose song "Swear It Again"has recently been Number 1 in the British charts. Ireland is famous for now.
| A．its black beer | B．its long tradition |
| C．popular music | D．its scenery |
The words “wannabe pop stars” in the third paragraph mean.
| A．the pops who want to join the band |
| B．the persons who want to become pop stars |
| C．the pop stars who want to become more popular |
| D．the persons who want to be as famous as they are |
Boy zone was formed by members in 1993.
| A．3 | B．4 | C．5 | D．6 |
Acording to the passage, we know that.
| A．Boy zone will split some day |
| B．Boy zone was successful because it was created by music industry |
| C．The boys in Boy zone were certain that they would be famous one day |
| D．Boy zone are going to perform in the States for Americans love them very much |
Liu Hui is very excited. The students in a school in Shanghai will go to the USA with his parents during the Spring Festival.
“Overseas touring has always been a dream for me,” he said happily.
Nowadays, Chinese people enjoy longer holidays, such as the three “Golden Week Holidays”(the Spring Festival, May Day and National Day). They have more time to travel. Rising incomes also make travelling abroad realistic for ordinary Chinese people.
Nearly 7 million Chinese travelled overseas in 2001, according to the National Tourism Administration(国家旅游局). The most common problem travellers face is how to choose the best routes(路线).
By the end of 2002, Chinese citizens were allowed to travel to 19 foreign countries and regions at their own expense.
The top 10 places included Hong Kong, Macao and Thailand. European countries are also becoming increasingly popular.
“More and more Chinese people have shown interest in travelling to Europe, particularly France and Finland,” said Tan Wen, a general manager of China Youth Travel Service. “Sooner or later, there will be a peak（高峰） in European tours.”
Another consideration is choosing the right travel agencies and finding the best price. The China Consumers’ Association（CCA，中国消费者协会）offered tips to consumers on choosing the right travel agencies to help prevent a relaxing vacation from turning into a costly disaster.
“Price should not be the single most important factor in choosing a travel agency,” said Zhang Yuanchao, CCA vice-secretary general. Consumers are advised to choose large State travel agencies with good reputations and official approval to organize overseas tour groups.
Zhang’s association dealt with more than 5, 000 complaints about travel agencies（旅行社） last year. And the majority of the complaints were about random changes in travel routes, bad tour guides, and forced shopping.
Travellers were warned to look carefully at their contracts with agencies and to buy travel insurance(保险). How many reasons are given in the article as to why ordinary Chinese people are traveling abroad more today?
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
According to the passage, what is the biggest problem Chinese travelers face when going overseas?
| A．Choosing the best travel agent. |
| B．Deciding the best way to get to the places they want to go to. |
| C．Traveling to Europe. |
| D．Cost. |
According to the passage, what seems to be the most common result of choosing a bad travel agency?
| A．People buy more souvenirs than they had planned to. |
| B．People spend more money than they had planned to. |
| C．People go to different places than they had palnned to. |
| D．People complained more than they had planned to. |
The underlined part “random changes” probably means that.
| A．the travelers agreed with the changes. |
| B．the travel agency didn’t make any changes. |
| C．the travel agency refused to changes the routes. |
| D．the travel agency changed the routes or time without following the original plan. |
It was Monday. Mrs Smith’s dog suffered from hungry, but there was not any meat in the house.
Considering that there was no better way．Mrs．Smith took a piece of paper, and wrote the following words on it: “Give my dog half a pound of meat．” Then she gave the paper to her dog and said gently: “Take this to the butcher, and he's going to give you your lunch today．”
Holding the piece of paper in its mouth, the dog ran to the butcher's．It gave the paper to the butcher．The butcher read it carefully, recognized that it was really the lady's handwriting and soon did it as he was asked to．The dog was very happy, and ate the meat up at once．
At noon, the dog came to the shop again．It gave the butcher a piece of paper again．After reading it, he gave it half a pound of meat once more．
The next day, the dog came again exactly at noon．And as usual, it brought a piece of paper in the mouth．This time, the butcher did not take a look at paper, and gave the dog its meat, for he had regarded the dog as one of his customers．
But, the dog came again at four o'clock．And the same thing happened once again．To the butcher's more surprise, it came for the third time at six o'clock, and brought with it a third piece of paper．The butcher felt a bit puzzled．He said to himself, “This is a small dog．Why does Mrs．Smith give it so much meat to eat today?”
Looking at the piece of paper, he found that there were not any words on it!It seemed that the dog knew well that the paper Mrs．Smith gave it_______．
| A．might do it much harm |
B．could do it much good |
C．would help the butcher |
D．was worth many pounds |
From its experience, the dog found that ________．
| A．only the paper with Mrs Smith's words in it could bring it meat |
B．the butcher would give the meat to it whenever he saw it |
C．Mrs Smith would pay for the meat it got from the butcher |
D．a piece of paper could bring it half a pound of meat |
The butcher did not give any meat to the dog __________．
| A．before he felt sure that the words were really written by Mrs．Smith |
B．when he found that the words on the paper were not clear |
C．because he had sold out all the meat in his shop |
D．until he was paid enough by Mrs Smith |
At the end of the story, you'll find that _______．
| A．the dog was clever enough to write on the paper |
B．the dog dared not go to the butcher's any more |
C．the butcher was told not to give any meat to the dog |
D．the butcher found himself cheated by the clever animal |
The China Daily newspaper group is hunting for English-language senior business editors, senior copy editors, copy editors and graphic designers to strengthen its international team. We offer a competitive salary package, free accommodation with utilities paid for, 90 per cent medical reimbursement, a seven-day paid leave, eleven day public holidays and a return ticket to the country of residence.
Senior Business Editor
You must:
Assist the Business editor in setting goals and working on achieving them;
Be an excellent team person who can generate ideas and think creatively and be able to rewrite totally if needed and mentor junior staff;
Ideally have been working or have worked in a position of responsibility and understand what leadership entails;
Have had at least five year’s editing experience working on editing the Business Desk and be familiar with industry software.
Senior Copy Editor
You must:
Work on shifts in the Business Desk and usually have the last word before the page is sent to print;
Edit or rewrite copy and give snappy headlines and captions;
Have had at least two years’ editing experience working on editing desks and be familiar with industry software.
CopyEditor
You must:
Be good at editing or rewriting copy and writing snappy headlines and captions;
Be able to work on shifts for different pages, and usually have the last word before the page is sent to print;
Have two years of editing experience working on copy desks, and be familiar with industry software.
Graphic Designer
You must:
Have excellent skills in information graphics;
Be good at illustrations and freehand drawings;
Be experienced in newspaper or magazine layouts;
Have a good sense of typography;
Have good news judgment;
Be wellversed with Macintosh software, including in Design, Illustrator and Photoshop;
Be fluent in English.
For enquiries or to apply, write tojob@chinadaily.com.cn.What is the purpose of this passage?
| A．To describe the positions of the China Daily newspper group. |
| B．To deseribe the working conditions of the China Daily newspaper group. |
| C．To tell you how to become part of this group. |
| D．To advertise for recruiting some good employees. |
What is not required about Graphic Designer?
| A．Be well-versed with Photoshop. |
| B．Have excellent skills in information graphics. |
| C．Having a good sense of typography. |
| D．Writing snappy headlines and captions. |
Which can be the title of the advertisement?
| A．China Daily: Newspaper | B．China Daily: New Employees Wanted |
| C．China Daily: An International Team | D．China Daily: The Best Working Condition |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Free accommodtions are available to the workers. |
| B．The workers there can enjoy a seven-day leave without pay. |
| C．The senior business editor’s only job is to help the business editor to set goals. |
| D．The employees have the right to enjoy eleven day public holidays. |
A study involving 8,500 teenagers from all social backgrounds found that most of them are ignorant when it comes to money. The findings, the first in a series of reports from NatWest that has started a five-year research project into teenagers and money, are particularly worrying as this generation of young people is likely to be burdened with greater debts than any before.
University tuition feesare currently capped at £3,000 annually, but this will be reviewed next year and the Government is under enormous pressure to raise the ceiling.
In the research, the teenagers were presented with the terms of four different loans but 76 per cent failed to identify the cheapest. The young people also predicted that they would be earning on average £31.000 by the age of 25, although the average salary for those aged 22 to 29 is just £17,815. The teenagers expected to be in debt when they finished university or training, although half said that they assumed the debts would be less than £10.000. Average debts for graduates are £12,363.
Stephen Moir, head of community investment at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group which owns NatWest, said. "The more exposed young people are to financial issues, and the younger they become aware of them, the more likely they are to become responsible, forward-planning adults who manage their finances confidently and effectively."
Ministers are deeply concerned about the financial pressures on teenagers and young people because of student loans and rising housing costs. They have just introduced new lessons in how to manage debts. Nikki Fairweather, aged 15, from St Helens, said that she had benefited from lessons on personal finance, but admitted that she still had a lot to learn about money.Which of the following can be found from the five-year research project?
| A．Students understand personal finances differently. |
| B．University tuition fees in England have been rising. |
| C．Teenagers tend to overestimate their future earnings. |
| D．The students' payback ability has become a major issue. |
The phrase "to raise the ceiling" in paragraph 2 probably means "______".
| A．to raise the student loans | B．to improve the school facilities |
| C．to increase the upper limit of the tuition | D．to lift the school building roofs |
According to Stephen Moir, students _______.
| A．are too young to be exposed to financial issues |
| B．should learn to manage their finances well |
| C．should maintain a positive attitude when facing loans |
| D．benefit a lot from lessons on personal finance |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Many British teenagers do not know money matters well |
| B．Teenagers in Britain are heavily burdened with debts. |
| C．Financial planning is a required course at college. |
| D．Young people should become responsible adults. |