In the summer of 1978 an English farmer was driving his tractor through a field of wheat when he discovered that some of his wheat was lying flat on the ground. The flattened wheat formed a circle about six meters across. Around this circle were four smaller circles of flattened wheat. The five circles were in a formation like five dots. During the following years, farmers in England found the strange circles in their fields more and more often.
The circles are called “crop circles” because they appear in the fields of grain ― usually wheat or corn. The grain in the circles lies flat on the ground but is never broken; it continues to grow, and farmers can later harvest it. Farmers always discover the crop circles in the morning, so the circles probably form at night. They appear only in the months from May to September.
At first, people thought that the circles were a hoax. Probably young people were making them as a joke, or farmers were making them to attract tourists. To prove that the circles were a hoax, people tried to make circles exactly like the ones that farmers had found. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t enter a field of grain without leaving tracks, and they couldn’t flatten the grain without breaking it.
Many people believe that beings from outer space are making the circles to communicate with us from far away and that the crop circles are messages from them.
Scientists who have studied the crop circles suggested several possibilities. Some scientists say that a downward rush of wind leads to the formation of the circles — the same downward lash of air that sometimes causes an airplane to crash. Other scientists say that forces within the earth cause the circles to appear. There is one problem with all these scientific explanations: crop circles often appear in formations, like the five-dot formation. It is hard to believe that any natural force could form those.In the summer of 1978, an English farmer discovered in his field that ______.
| A．some of his wheat had been damaged |
| B．some of his wheat had fallen onto the ground |
| C．his grain was growing up in circles |
| D．his grain was moved into several circles |
The underlined word "hoax" in Paragraph 3 is probably ______.
| A．a research on the force of winds |
| B．a special way to plant crops |
| C．an experiment for the protection of crops |
| D．an attempt made to fool people |
Which of the following may prove that the crop circles are not made by man?
| A．The farmers couldn’t step out of the field. |
| B．The farmers couldn’t make the circles round. |
| C．The farmers couldn’t leave without footprints. |
| D．The farmers couldn’t keep the wheat straight up. |
One explanation given by scientists for the crop circles is that they are made by _____.
| A．airplane crashes | B．air movement |
| C．unknown flying objects | D．new farming techniques |
Why should I teach my children history? That sounds like a stupid question to even ask. But, as I hear different home schooling teachers discuss history, I get the idea that there may be different reasons for teaching history. Let me briefly explain the three good reasons for studying history and two bad reasons for studying history.
The major reason I see for studying history is that we can learn from the past. I am convinced that the world would be a much better place if more people understood the successes and failures of the past and the things that made these successes and failures. However, as the unfortunately true statement goes "the one thing we seem to learn from history is that we don't seem to learn from history." Perhaps at least in teaching history, to my children I can do a small part in changing this.
A second major reason for studying history is that it is hard to understand the current political climate in the absence of an understanding of its historical context. We can- not even understand why we are and where we are without history, much less (更不必说) try to figure out where we are going or how we should get where we want to be.
I teach my children history, for one more reason. I purchased a set of historical audio (录音机) tapes for our children. My seven-year-old son listened to them over and over. It was my hope that he would become inspired by the accomplishments of people like the Wright brothers to accomplish things by himself. I think that it is good that we celebrate the accomplishments of people like Martin Luther King Jr. if, in doing so, young people are called on to stand for the principles that he stood for and accomplish what he accomplishe D．I also think that by studying people like Adolph Hitler, people can learn to stand against the things that he stood for.What message can we get from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 ?
| A．Many people fail to make good use of history and make the same mistakes. |
| B．Many people aren't clever enough to learn well from the past. |
| C．Many people feel it hard to understand history. |
| D．Many people have no interest in studying history. |
Some historical figures are mentioned in the last paragraph to show ______________.
| A．people can be inspired to do good, while also learning to fight against evil |
| B．people may also learn from bad historical figures |
| C．more celebrations should be held to honor their achievements |
| D．today’s people can also achieve what they achieved |
What would be talked about in the following paragraph?
| A．How to teach history effectively. |
| B．How to get more people to study history. |
| C．Some negative reasons for studying history. |
| D．Some bad historical figures. |
The main purpose of this passage is to ____________.
| A．inspire the parents to teach their children history |
| B．show the importance of history in politics |
| C．explain the reasons why children study history |
| D．introduce the writer' s own way of teaching history |
Animals seem to have the sense to eat when they are hungry and they do not eat more than their bodies need．It has been demonstrated（证明）that rats will, when given a choice over a period of time, prefer water with vitamins(维生素) to water without vitamins even though there is no difference in taste or smell between the two water bottles．When a fragrant（香的）flavor（作料）was added to the vitamin-enriched water, the rats did seem to prefer it and kept drinking it ,even after the vitamins were switched to the clear water．In time, however, they broke the habit and went back to where the necessary vitamins were．
In a classic experiment, babies of 6 to 12 months old were placed in a cafeteria（自助） feeding arrangement, with a wide selection of baby food before them．They were given whatever food they pointed to or appeared interested in．We are told that at first they showed some unusual eating patterns, but that over a period of time they managed to select well-balanced diet．
So, in choosing food, rats and babies do seem to know and act on what's best for them．Apparently, there is a kind of “body wisdom”, which humans soon lose．Most of us do not eat as wisely as we could．Many of our food preferences are culturally determined and influenced by long-formed habits．Some people eat fox, dog and blackbirds, while we eat cows and pigs．So what people eat and how much they eat seems to be greatly influenced by what is going on around them．In the experiment on rats, a fragrant flavor was added to the rats’ drinking water to _____________ .
| A．encourage rats to drink vitamins-enriched water |
| B．test whether rats know which drink is good for them |
| C．find out rats’ preference in flavor |
| D．demonstrate the vitamins are tasteless |
According to the passage ,adults eating habits differ from those of babies because_________．
| A．adults know better than babies what kind of food are good for their health |
| B．adults usually cannot resist the temptation of various delicious foods |
| C．adults have more choices of food than babies in eating patterns |
| D．adults' eating habits are closely related to the social and cultural customs |
The author implied in the passage that most of us_________．
| A．eat a balanced diet |
| B．choose the food that is of nutrition |
| C．have the habits influenced by the surroundings |
| D．like to eat the food with a fragrant flavor． |
As far as their eating habits are concerned, babies and rats are similar in that_________．
| A．both prefer flavored food and drink |
| B．both have the wisdom to choose a balanced diet |
| C．both have the same eating patterns |
| D．both develop a taste for the same kinds of flavors |
China has input several billion yuan of money to stop the dirty water waste on the upper and middle area of the Pearl River from polluting the lowe
r reaches of the river, especially the Macao Special Administrative Region．
The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the upper and middle reaches of the Pearl River has been rapidly urbanized（城市化）and industrialized in recent years, leading to a rise in the amount of urban rubbish to the damage of the land, rivers and atmosphere．
Refuse dumps and special plants in most cities treat rubbish to make it harmless, with 5,800 tons of wastes being burnt, buried or made into fertilizers on a daily basis．
He Suping, a woman engineer with the water resources department in Guangxi said, it is imperative for the autonomous region to treat sewage wastes to protect the area’s Karst terrain（喀斯特地形）and rain water which brings contact between groundwater and surface water, making groundwater more easily polluted．
The Xijiang River, a branch of the Pearl River which runs from Guangxi to neighboring Guangdong Province, provide
s fresh water for a n
umber of riverside cities such as Macao, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Zhaoqing, so Guangxi must begin to treat rubbish quickly to protect the water sources, said Liu Chen, a senior engineer with the Ministry of Water Resources．
The government 2001—2006 plan to spend billions of yuan to turn wastes harmless has been mainly provided by national debt payments and overseas investment．So far wastes treatment projects have received a total of 400 million yuan（48 million US dollars）from national debts and 60 million yuan（7．22 million US doll
ars）from overseas loans（贷款）．The main idea of the passage is __
| A．A large number of waterways have been polluted in China up to now． |
| B．Guangxi and Guangdong have taken the lead in making water clean． |
| C．China's rivers are badly in need of improvement． |
| D．China is making efforts to reduce pollution of the rivers． |
The main idea of the last paragraph is __
| A．The government has no ability to afford the expenses of treating wastes． |
| B．The government has a long-term plan to treat wastes． |
| C．National debt payments and overseas investment are taking an important part in developing China's economy． |
| D．A great deal of money is needed in dealing with wastes． |
The basic reason why the amount of urban rubbish rises in Guangxi lies in _____．
| A．the improvement of people’s living standard |
| B．people’s wasting too much |
| C．urbanization and industrialization |
| D．too many tourists’ coming |
The word “imperative” here probably
means _______．
| A．unnecessary | B．important | C．easy | D．unbelievable |
A story from the Bible tells of old Babylon, where the men decided to build a tower that would touch the sky．But God was unhappy, and he made them speak different languages．They couldn’t understand each other, so their dream never came true．
Yet the dream remains alive: if all men speak the same language, they can do anything．L．L．Zamenhof from Poland was among the men who pursue this dream．He developed Esperanto（世界语）between 1877 and 1885．
As the most successful man-made world language, it is spoken by over two million people around the world．Last month, the World Esperanto Congress（大会）, dealing with language rights, ended in Sweden．The 2004 conference will be held in Beijing．Most Esperanto speakers are in Central and Eastern Europe and in East Asia, particularly Chinese mainland．
Esperanto has two advantages．First, it’s easy．Each letter has exactly one sound and there are just 16 basic grammar rules．The second advantage is that it belongs to no one country．But Esperanto has only reached a small number of people compared with natural languages widely used around the world-such as English or Chinese．While these languages are deeply connected with their nations and cultures, Esperanto doesn’t have this background．
Will Esperanto really become a global language? It remains a question．The writer tells us a story at the beginning to．
| A．explain why men have been making the effort to create a language shared by all |
| B．explain why men now speak different languages |
| C．show the relationship between man and God |
| D．prove that language is very important |
What does the underlined word “pursue” in the second paragraph mean?
| A．“Realize”． | B．“Work for”． | C．“Be against”． | D．“Follow”． |
What is the basic difference between Esperanto and English?
| A．More people speak English than Esperanto． |
| B．Esperanto words are easier to spell． |
| C．Esperanto has fewer grammar rules． |
| D．Esperanto is not supported by any country or culture． |
What does the story mainly talk about?
| A．Advantages and disadvantages of Esperanto． |
| B．Men’s dream of sharing the same language． |
| C．The most successful planned language-Esperanto． |
| D．Comparison of Esperanto and other languages like English and Chinese． |
When I asked my daughter which item she would keep; the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said “the phone”．Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual, because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology．
Point 1 The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic．My daughter comes home from school at 4:00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day．If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?
Point 2 The mobile phone means that we are never alone．“The mobile saved my life,” says Cr
ystal Johnstone．She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton．Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance（救护车）to her rescue．
Point 3 The mobile removes our secret．It allows marketing manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went．
Point 4 The telepho
ne separates us．Antonella Bramante in Rome says, “We worked in separate offices but I could see him through the window．It was easy to get his number．We were so near—but we didn’t meet for the first two weeks!”
Point 5 The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives．Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously（同时地）on chat lines（at least my daughter does．I wouldn’t know what to talk about）．We can talk across the world．We can even talk to astronauts（if you know any）while they’re space-walking．And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access the Internet, the biggest library on Earth．How do you understand ‘Point 1 —The telephone creates the need to communicate,…’？
| A．People don’t communicate without telephone． |
| B．People communicate because of the creating of the telephone． |
| C．People communicate more since telephone has been created． |
| D．People communicate more because of more traffic． |
Which points do you think support the idea that phones improve people’s life?
a．Point 1． b．Point2． c．Point3． d．Point 4．e．Point 5．
| A．c, d | B．a, e | C．a, c | D．b, e |
It is possible to talk to several complete strangers simultaneously through．
| A．the TV screen |
| B．a fax machine |
| C．the phone line hooked up to the computer |
| D．a microphone |
The best heading for the passage is ．
| A．Phone Power | B．Kinds of Phone |
| C．How to Use Phones | D．Advantage of Phones |