Millions of Americans return from long-distance trips by air, but their luggage doesn’t always come home with them. Airline identification tags（标签） can come loose, and the bags go who-knows-where. And passengers leave all kinds of things on planes.
The airlines collect the items and, for 90 days, attempt to find their owners. They don’t keep them, since they’re not in the warehouse business. And by law, they cannot sell the bags, because the airlines might be tempted to deliberately misplace luggage.
So once insurance companies have paid for lost bags and their contents, and they no longer belong to passengers, a unique store in the little town of Scottsboro, Alabama, buys them. The “Unclaimed Baggage Center,” is so popular that the building, which is set up like a department store, is the number-one tourist attraction in all of Alabama. More than one million visitors stop in each year and take one of the store’s shopping carts on a hunt for treasures.
Each day, clerks bring out 7,000 new items, and veteran（老练的）shoppers rush to paw over them. You can find everything from precious jewels to hockey sticks, best-selling novels, leather jackets, tape recorders, surfboards, even half -used tubes of toothpaste.
The store’s own laundry washes or cleans all the clothes found in luggage, then sells them. The Unclaimed Baggage Center has found guns, illegal drugs and even a live rattlesnake.
The store has a little museum where some of its most unusual acquisitions（获得物） have been preserved. They include highland bagpipes, a burial mask from an Egyptian pharaoh's tomb, and a medieval suit of armor.
Statistics indicate that less than one-half of one percent of luggage checked on U.S. carriers is permanently lost and available to the store. Paragraph1 shows that many passengers lose their luggage because______.
| A．they are forgetful |
| B．they are in a hurry |
| C．there is no lost and found office in many airports |
| D．the owners of some luggage can’t be identified |
The reason why the airlines cannot sell the bags is that ______.
| A．they have to find the owners |
| B．they are likely to make a profit on the bags on purpose |
| C．some bags are expensive |
| D．they have to keep the bags as long as possible |
The Unclaimed Baggage Center is very popular because______.
| A．there's a large variety of goods. |
| B．all thethings there are very cheap. |
| C．visitors may purchase something undervalued. |
| D．Visitors will enjoy some amusing activities there. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．A little museum will keep all the precious unclaimed baggage. |
| B．The percentage of passengers who lose their baggage for ever is small. |
| C．The things in the Unclaimed Baggage Center are articles for daily use. |
| D．People are not allowed to buy the illegal things in the store. |
What is the main purpose of the passage?
| A．To introduce how the unclaimed baggage in the airports is handled in America. |
| B．To introduce an attractive place to tourists. |
| C．To remind passengers of taking care of their baggage. |
| D．To advise the airlines to find the owners of the unclaimed baggage. |
Few people would question the value of taking part in sports for young people. With proper training, supervision, protective equipment and techniques, and a proper emphasis on winning, sports can develop a healthy body and spirit and a life-long interest in being active and fit. Without such measures, childhood sports can lead to injuries and even paralysis or death.
Even in the best conditions, no activity can be risk-free. But most serious hazards are preventable. Cyclists and football players can reduce their risks by wearing helmets; hockey players by wearing masks; basketball and tennis players by wearing eye guards; baseball players by wearing batting helmets.
Besides, risks to individual players can often be found, and thus prevented, through a properly performed medical examination before a child plays. For accidents that may not be preventable, having an emergency plan, first-aid equipment and someone trained to use the equipment can be lifesaving.
Still, each year, according to the American College of Sport Medicine, more than 775,000 children under 14 are treated in emergency rooms for sports injuries, but early half of them are preventable. An estimated 300,000 athletes experience exercise-related head illnesses each year, and almost all of them should have been avoided.
Further, from half to three-fourths of sports-related concussions（脑震荡）are never even diagnosed; the injured are often sent back to play too soon and put at risk of another more serious brain-damaging concussion. To help reduce these risks, the National Centre for Sports Safety, with the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, offers a three-hour online safety course for coaches for $28 at www.sportssafety. org.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．All the accidents can be prevented. |
| B．All the accidents cannot be prevented. |
| C．Lives can be saved so long as there is proper equipment. |
| D．Lives cannot be saved even if there is proper equipment. |
What does the underlined word “hazard” in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．Mistakes |
| B．Diseases |
| C．Dangers |
| D．Situations |
It is implied in the passage that _____.
| A．prevention of injuries is not paid enough attention to. |
| B．children under 14 are more easily hurt in sports. |
| C．most head illnesses are related with exercise. |
| D．none of the head illnesses should have happened. |
What can coaches mainly learn from the online safety course?
| A．How to cure brain-damaging concussion. |
| B．How to diagnose brain-damaging concussion. |
| C．How to predict the possibility of brain damage. |
| D．How to deal with the injured properly. |
Every person has their own way of saying things, their own special expressions. Many everyday American expressions are based on colours.
Red is a hot colour. Americans often use it to express heat. They may say they are red hot about something unfair. When they are red hot they are very angry about something. The small hot tasting peppers found in many Mexican foods are called red hots for their colour and their fiery taste. Fast loud music is popular with many people. They may say the music is popular with many people. They may say the music is red hot, especially the kind called Dixieland jazz.
Pink is a cool colour. The traditional blues music in the United States is the opposite of red hot music. Blues is slow, sad and soulful. Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded a famous song—Mood Indigo—about the deep blue colour, indigo. In the words of the song: “You aren’t blue till you’ve had that Mood Indigo.” Someone who is blue is very sad.
The colour green is natural for trees and grass. But it is an unnatural colour for humans. A person who has a sick feeling in his stomach may say he feels a little green. A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from high waves may look very green.
Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as his friend’s, like a fast new car. That person may say he is green with envy. Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars of greenbacks. Dollars are called greenbacks because that is the colour of the back side of the paper money.
The colour black is often used in expressions. People describe a day in which everything goes wrong as a black day. The date of a major tragedy is remembered as a black day. A blacklist is illegal now. But at one time, some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations.If you had your wallet stolen while doing some shopping, you may call it _____.
| A．a white day |
| B．a black day |
| C．a red day |
| D．a green day |
Suppose Mr. Brown says he is very happy because his three children are all in the pink, this means all his children are .
| A．lucky and wealthy |
| B．gentle and modest |
| C．fit and healthy |
| D．creative and energetic |
When she got home and found nothing had been done by her husband, Jane was really .
| A．red hot |
| B．green |
| C．blue |
| D．black |
In the following paragraph, the writer might tell the reader something about .
| A．unpopular organizations in the world |
| B．people’s response towards a black day |
| C．the influence of the traditional blues |
| D．more words about a colour, such as brown |
A villa designed to resist earthquakes with “self-healing” cracks in its walls, thanks to nanotechnology applications with self healing polymers(聚合物), is to be built on a Greek mountainside. The villa’s walls will include special particles that turn into a liquid when squeezed under pressure, flow into cracks, and then harden to form a solid material.
The Nano Manufacturing Institute (NMI), based in Leeds University, will play a key role in an EU project to construct the home by December 2010. The project, called “Intelligent Safe and Secure Building”(ISSB) is funded under the EU’s Sixth Framework program. This potentially life saving scheme is led by German building manufacturer Knauf. The villa will be built in Amphilochia, in western Greece, where Knauf currently runs a manufacturing plant. If the experiment is successful, more tremor-resistant(防震)homes could be built in earthquake zones across the globe. NMI chief executive Professor Terry Wilkins said, “What we’re trying to achieve here is very exciting. We’re looking to use polymers in much tougher situations than ever before on a larger scale.” Monitors contained in the villa’s walls will be able to collect vast amounts of data about the building over time.
Wireless sensors and Leeds designed radio frequency identity tags will record any stresses and vibrations, as well as temperature, humidity and gas level. The walls are to be built from novel load-bearing steel frames and high strength gypsum board. Professor Wilkins said, “If there are any problems, the intelligent sensor network will be able to alert residents immediately so they have time to escape.” If whole groups of houses are so constructed, we could use a larger network of sensors to get even more information. “If the house falls down, we have got hand-held devices that can be used over the rubble to pick out where the embedded(嵌入的)sensors are hidden to get some information about how the villa collapsed.” Also, we can get information about anyone who may be around, so it potentially becomes a tool for rescue.The aim of the passage is to .
| A．report a piece of interesting news |
| B．promote tremor-resistant homes |
| C．inform us of the nanotechnology development |
| D．tell us about a tremor resistant home |
The villa can resist earthquakes because .
| A．it will be built on a special place |
| B．the cracks in its walls can be healed by the polymers |
| C．the special particles can make its walls stronger |
| D．the intelligent sensor network can tell people where there is a crack |
If the tremor resistant home falls down, .
| A．no one can be hurt in the earthquake |
| B．the intelligent sensor network will stop working |
| C．rescue work can be done more quickly and accurately |
| D．a warning signal will be given to other residents |
Speaking in his first National Day Rally speech on 15 August, Prime Minister Lee Hsien said Singapore’s education system was set for more reforms in the years ahead, particularly for the primary and secondary education. Read the summary of his thoughts on education below.
For a start, the government is prepared to send an additional 3,000 teachers to Singapore schools, cut the courses of study even further and change the way the mother tongue, especially Chinese, is taught. But, for the changes to be successful, parents need to help.
Singapore has a devoted group of teachers and principles and quite a few of them are outstanding, but the Republic’s schools can be even better. To help the schools make a jump in quality, the government plans that within the next 6 years, it will send 1,000 more teachers to primary schools, 1,400 to secondary schools and 550 more to junior colleges. Each school would decide how to use its extra teachers. Some may want to make classes smaller so students get more individual attentions while others may have new teachers assist more senior teachers, but the overall goal is to give teachers the time and space to come up with ways to bring out the best in their students.
More teachers must not mean more homework, however. In fact, the Prime Minister wants to see the courses cut down so that there is less pressure on the students. Good grades are important but they should not be the only goal students have. PM Lee is convinced that “we must teach less so that our children can learn more.”
Another change will be in the teaching of the mother of tongue so that students can become more fluent. The key is to teach Chinese as a living language not just an academic subject like Latin. Therefore, the focus should be on speaking and reading the language. To do this, there must be an environment outside the classroom that is contributing to strengthening the Chinese lessons.The text is mainly about in Singapore.
| A．the education reform |
| B．adding more teachers |
| C．the mother tongue |
| D．ways of teaching |
The general goal of using extra teachers is to .
| A．make classes smaller |
| B．assist more senior teachers |
| C．teach more |
| D．help teachers improve teaching quality |
PM Lee holds that the students should .
| A．do more homework |
| B．give up higher grades |
| C．study more courses |
| D．be given more time to learn more |
The key to teaching Chinese well is to .
| A．make it academic |
| B．have a creative environment |
| C．give more Chinese lessons |
| D．encourage speaking and reading a lot |
The measures to be carried out will have pressure taken off .
| A．teachers |
| B．students |
| C．parents |
| D．the government |
When Frida Kahlo’s paintings were on show in London, a poet described her paintings as “a ribbon(丝带)around a bomb”. Such comments seem to suggest Kahlo had a big influence on the art world of her time. Sadly, she is actually a much bigger name today than she was during her time.
Born in 1907 in a village near Mexico City, Kahlo suffered from polio(小儿麻痹症)at the age of seven. Her spine(脊柱)became bent as she grew older. Then, in 1925, her back was broken in several places in a school-bus accident. Throughout the rest of her life, the artist had many operations, but nothing was able to cure the terrible pain in her back. However, the accident had an unexpected side effect. While lying in her bed recovering, Kahlo taught herself to paint.
In 1929, she got married to Diego Rivera, another famous Mexican artist. Rivera’s strong influence on Kahlo’s style can be seen in her early works, but her later works from the 1940s, known today as her best works, show less influence from her husband.
Unfortunately, her works did not attract much attention in the 1930s and 1940s, even in her home country. Her first one-woman show in Mexico was not held until 1953. For more than a decade after her death in 1954, Kahlo’s works remained largely unnoticed by the world, but in the 1970s her works began to gain international fame at last.What does the phase “a much bigger name” in Paragraph 1 most probably mean?
| A．A far better artist. |
| B．A far more gifted artist. |
| C．A much stronger person. |
| D．A much more famous person. |
The terrible pain Kahlo suffered was caused by .
| A．polio | B．her bent spine |
| C．back injuries | D．the operations she had |
Kahlo’s style had become increasingly independent since the .
| A．1930s | B．1940s |
| C．1950s | D．1970s |
What is the author’s attitude toward Kahlo?
| A．Devotion. |
| B．Sympathy. |
| C．Worry. |
| D．Encouragement. |