An American spacecraft is moving closer to a dwarf planet(矮行星)called Ceres(谷神星). The American space agency's Dawn spacecraft is set to reach the planet-like object in March.
Space agency scientists will then place Dawn in an orbit(轨道) around the dwarf planet. Agency scientists want to know more about ice on Ceres. The spacecraft will gather clues about whether Ceres may have once had conditions to support life as we know it.
Dawn left Earth more than seven years ago on a trip to explore Ceres and another dwarf planet, called Vesta(灶神星). Both dwarf planets are in the main belt of asteroids(小行星), a group of large objects, between the planets Mars and Jupiter.
Marc Rayman is the chief engineer and director of the Dawn mission.
Scientists call Vesta and Ceres "protoplanets(行星) ". Mr. Rayman says they were in the process of becoming full-size planets when, in his words, "their growth was terminated(终止)."
Scientists believe Ceres is made of rock, and covered with ice.
The Dawn mission is based in Los Angeles, California. Scientists there send second-by-second commands to the spacecraft. They direct its every move, including telling it what pictures to take. Dawn will make a map of the dwarf planet. It will also try to discover how Ceres' surface has changed.
Carol Raymond is the deputy principal investigator(副首席研究员) of the project. He says Dawn made an unexpected discovery while orbiting Vesta.
"Instead of being bone dry, which we expected, there were patches on the surface of Vesta that showed significant amounts of water bound in the rocks and possibly even free water that could have flowed on the surface in the past."
She says that if Earth's water came from wet worlds like Vesta and Ceres, then life could have developed there, too.
If Dawn finds that the environment of Ceres could have supported life, scientists may seek to explore the dwarf planet with other scientific instruments.
Dawn will gather information about Ceres until the middle of 2016. It will then continue to orbit the small planet.Which of the following about spacecraft Dawn is true?
| A．It was sent into space in 2008. |
| B． It is orbiting around the dwarf planet Ceres. |
| C． Its destination is just the dwarf planet Ceres. |
| D． It will gather information about Ceres until early 2016. |
What’s the meaning of the underlined word “patches”?
| A．spots | B．roles | C．sorts | D． kinds |
What do we know about Vesta?
| A． It is in the main belt of asteroids between the planets Mars and Venus. |
| B． It is another dwarf planet which Dawn will explore. |
| C． It is becoming a full-size planet. |
| D． It is made of rock, and covered with ice. |
The passage mainly tells us ______.
| A． Spacecraft , Dawn, is researching Ceres. |
| B． What Spacecraft , Dawn, is. |
| C．NASA Spacecraft, Dawn, is moving closer to a 'Dwarf Planet'. |
| D．How Dwarf Planet research program is carried out. |
It was Saturday when the entire summer world was bright and fresh. Tom looked at the fence, which was long and high, feeling all enthusiasm leaving him. He dipped his brush into the whitewash before moving it along the top board of the fence. He knew other boys would arrive soon with all minds of interesting plans for this day. As walking past him, they would tease him for having to work on a beautiful Saturday—which burnt him like fire.
He, putting his hands into his pockets and taking out all he owned with the expectation of letting someone paint, found nothing that could buy half an hour of freedom. At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea occurred to him, pouring a great bright light into his mind. He took up his brush and continued to work pleasantly with calm and quietness.
Presently, Ben Rogers came in sight—munching an apple and making joyful noises like the sound of a riverboat as he walked along. Tom went on whitewashing, paying no attention to the steamboat.
“Hello!” Ben said, “I’m going swimming, but you can’t go, can you?”
No answer. Tom moved his brush gently along the fence and surveyed the result. Ben came nearer. Tom’s mouth watered for Ben’s apple while he kept painting the fence.
Ben said, “That’s a lot of work, isn’t it?”
Tom turned suddenly saying “Here you are! Ben! I didn’t notice you.”
“I’m going swimming,” Ben said. “Don’t you wish you could go? Or would you rather work?”
Tom said, “Work? What do you mean ‘work’?”
“Isn’t that work?”
Tom continued painting and answered carelessly, “Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. All I know is it suits Tom Sawyer.”
“Do you mean that you enjoy it?”
“I don’t see why I oughtn’t to enjoy it.”
“Does a boy have a chance to paint a fence frequently” said Tom.
Ben stopped munching his apple.
Tom moved his brush back and forth—stepped back to note the effect—added a little paint here and there. Ben watched every move, getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed1. After a short time, he said, “Tom, let me whitewash a little.”
Tom seemed to be thinking for a moment before he said, “No, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. If it was the back fence, maybe you could do it. But this fence beside the street is where everybody can see it. It has to be done right.”
“Oh, come on, let me try. I’ll be careful. Listen, Tom. I’ll give you part of my apple if you let me paint.”
“No, Ben, I’m afraid—”
“I’ll give you all the apple!”
Tom handed the brush to Ben with unwillingness on his face but alacrity in his heart. While the riverboat worked and sweated in the hot sun, Tom, an artist sat in the shade close by, munching his apple, and planning how he could trick more of the boys.
Before long there were enough boys each of whom came along the street; stopped to laugh but soon begged to be allowed to paint. By the middle of the afternoon, Tom had got many treasures while the fence had had three layers of whitewash on it. If he hadn’t run out of whitewash, he would have owned everything belonging to the boys in the village.
Tom said to himself that the world was not so depressing after all. He had discovered a great law of human action: in order to make a man cover a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.By using “Tom continued painting and answered carelessly”, the author shows Tom ______ when he was talking to Ben.
| A．made mistakes | B．damaged things | C．was natural | D．wasn’t concentrating |
The underlined word “alacrity” in the last but two paragraph most probable means “______”.
| A．kindness | B．discouragement | C．sympathy | D．eagerness |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage? ________
| A．Tom did not want to go swimming at all |
| B．Tom was asked to help Aunt Polly paint the fence |
| C．Tom did not get along well with his friends |
| D．Tom was very busy that Saturday afternoon. |
We can draw a conclusion from the last paragraph that _______.
| A．forbidden fruit is sweet. | B．a friend in need is a friend indeed. |
| C．all good things must come to an end. | D．a bad excuse is better than none. |
When I first got an e-mail account ten years ago, I received communications only from family, friends, and colleagues. Now it seems that every time I check my e-mail, I have an endless series of advertisements and other correspondence that do not interest me at all. If we want e-mail to continue to be useful, we need specific laws that make spamming(发送垃圾邮件) a crime.
If lawmakers do not do something soon to prohibit spam, the problem will certainly get much worse. Computer programs allow spammers to send hundreds of millions of e-mails almost instantly. As more and more advertisers turn to spam to sell their products, individual(个人的) e-mail boxes are often flooded with spam e-mails. Would people continue to use e-mail if they had to deal with an annoying amount of spam each time?
This problem is troubling for individuals and companies as well. Many spam e-mails contain computer viruses that can shut down the entire network of a company. Companies rely on e-mail for their employees to communicate with each other. Spam frequently causes failures in their local communications networks, and their employees are thus unable to communicate effectively. Such a situation results in a loss of productivity and requires companies to repeatedly repair their networks. These computer problems raise production costs of companies, which are, in the end, passes on to the consumer.
For these reasons, I believe that lawmakers need to legislate (立法) against spam. Spammers should be fined, and perhaps sent to prison if they continue to disturb people. E-mail is a tool which helps people all over the world to communicate conveniently, but spam is destroying this convenience.According to the text, what is the major cause of the flooding spam?
| A．Companies rely on e-mail for communications. |
| B．More people in the world communicate by e-mail. |
| C．More advertisers begin to promote sales through spam. |
| D．Many computer viruses contain spam e-mail. |
According to Paragraph 3, who is the final victim of spam?
| A．The business | B．The advertiser | C．The consumer | D．The employee |
What is the purpose of the text?
| A．To inform | B．To educate | C．To instruct | D．To persuade |
We have been trying all measures to reduce pollution in the past few years. Now people can enjoy a fresh environment everywhere. The following two graphs are adopted from the column of “City Information” on the webpage of Beijing Review.
Graph 1: Olympic Cities Air Quality Report
| City |
Date |
API |
Major Pollutant |
Air Quality Degree |
Quality Condition |
| Beijing |
Sep. 8 |
37 |
N/A |
Ⅰ |
Very good |
| Qinhuangdao |
Sep. 8 |
52 |
PM10 |
Ⅱ |
Good |
| Qingdao |
Sep. 8 |
68 |
PM10 |
Ⅱ |
Good |
| Shanghai |
Sep. 8 |
67 |
PM10 |
Ⅱ |
Good |
| Shenyang |
Sep. 8 |
88 |
PM10 |
Ⅱ |
Good |
| Tianjin |
Sep. 8 |
54 |
PM10 |
Ⅱ |
Good |
Graph 2: Chinese National Standard
| API Values |
Levels of health concern |
Colors |
| When the API is in this range: |
...air quality conditions are: |
...as symbolized by this color: |
| 0 to 50 |
Very good |
Blue |
| 51 to 100 |
Good |
Green |
| 101 to 150 |
Slight pollution |
Yellow |
| 151 to 200 |
Moderate pollution |
Orange |
| 201 to 250 |
Medium pollution |
Red |
| 251 to 300 |
High pollution |
Purple |
| 301 to 500 |
Hazardous |
Brown |
Notes:
**API stands for Air Pollution Index(指数).
**Particulate matter (PM10) is a major component of air pollution that threatens both our health and our environment. It consists of very small liquid and solid particles floating in the air.
**Sulfur dioxide(SO2) acts as an acid．Inhalation(吸入) results in labored breathing, coughing, or a sore throat and may cause permanent lung damage.According to Graph 1, which of the following cities has the worst air pollution?
| A．Qinhuangdao. | B．Tianjin. | C．Qingdao | D．Shenyang. |
If your city is symbolized by either red or purple, the pollution in your city is.
| A．Moderate or high. | B．Moderate or slight. |
| C．Medium or high. | D．Medium or slight. |
Which of the following statements is TURE?
| A．With API value below 150 the air is free from being polluted. |
| B．The colors from purple to Yellow indicate the air quality is becoming much worse. |
| C．When there are floating solid particles and dust in the air, it is dangerous pollution. |
| D．On September 8th the color-symbol of Beijing City’s air quality is ‘Blue’. |
When more citizens are beginning to have labored breathing soon after they are in the open air, it suggests that.
| A．there is a large amount of sulfur dioxide in the air |
| B．it is so cold that they may have caught a cold |
| C．they are starting to cough or have a fever |
| D．they must be infected with permanent lung disease |
Work is a part of living —my grandparents understood that. They lived and worked on a farm that has been in my family for 150 years. They raised chickens for eggs , pigs and cattle for meat . Cows were kept for milk and the cream, from which Grandma made butter and cheese. What little yard they had became a garden.
The Depression, therefore, didn’t make much change in their lives. But it did bring an unending flow of men out of work, drifting from job to job, to the farm. The first to show up at the door of the kitchen was a man in rags. He took off his hat and quietly explained that he hadn’t eaten for a while. Grandpa stood watching him a bit , then said , “There’s a stack of firewood against the fence behind the barn (谷仓). I’ve been needing to get it moved to the other side of the fence . You have just about enough time to finish the job before lunch .”
Grandma said a surprising thing happened. The man got a shine in his eyes and he hurried to the barn at once. She set another place at the table and made an apple pie. During lunch, the stranger didn’t say much, but when he left, his shoulders had straightened. “Nothing ruins a man like losing his self-respect,” Grandpa later told me.
Soon after, another man showed up asking for a meal. This one was dressed in a suit and carried a small old suitcase. Grandpa came out when he heard voices. He looked at the man and then offered a handshake.” There is a stack of firewood along the fence down behind the barn I’ve been meaning to get it moved. It’d sure be a help to me . And we’d be pleased to have you stay for lunch.” The fellow set his suitcase aside and neatly laid his coat on top. Then he set off to work.
Grandma says she doesn’t remember how many strangers they shared a meal with during those Depression days-or how many times that stack of wood got moved.When he was asked to move a stack of firewood, the first man who asked for a meal got a shine in his eyes for he was glad that .
| A．he had found a good job |
| B．he would have something to eat |
| C．he would no longer suffer from the Depression |
| D．he would get what he wanted without losing his self-respect |
The writer’s grandfather asked those jobless men to move the stack of firewood because .
| A．he didn’t want them to have a meal free of charge |
| B．he had been needing to get it moved |
| C．he wanted to help them in his own way |
| D．he wanted to show them his kindness and respect |
The writer’s grandfather was all of the following but .
| A．kind | B．thoughtful | C．wealthy | D．sympathetic |
The best title for the story would be .
| A．The Depression | B．The Pleasure of Helping Others |
| C．No Pains, No Gains | D．Work-A Part of Living |
When Han Duan started her professional career at 16, China’s national women’s football team was defeated in the final of the World Cup by the US. While she was asked to play in her first World Cup in 2003, she largely remained on the bench after the first match.
But things have changed. Now, Han is one of the most important players in China’s team. “I can’t wait to play. Life is short. You must make the most out of it,” Han always says like that.
Han wants every possible honor that a football player can get — an Asian Cup, a World Cup and an Olympic medal. She has always been good at sports, especially swimming and horizontal bars. At school, she was the fastest in the 60m and 100m.
But the reason she picked football was that she wanted to get more compliments (称赞). “Football is for boys. But I feel more fulfilled when I can do better than them and win more compliments,” she said. Later, when she entered a football school, the coach always asked Han to show others what to do.
However, nobody can be good at everything. Han described her singing as “howling” and the only school subject she was good at was Chinese. “I was very happy every time my essay was posted on the wall for my schoolmates to read.” But Han still has some regrets about her school years. Her handwriting was terrible at school. She ever wanted to improve her handwriting but didn’t achieve much.
“My fans ask for my signature (签名), so I’d better practice and practice. It’s not too late,” she says.In the World Cup in 2003, Han Duan was a(n) ______.
| A．member of the audience | B．unimportant player |
| C．team captain | D．fan of a sports star |
What does the underlined part in the second paragraph imply?
| A．Han Duan seizes every chance to learn more to fulfill herself. |
| B．Han Duan never wastes any of her practicing time. |
| C．Han Duan seizes every chance to take part in matches. |
| D．Han Duan has become ill and she will die quite soon. |
According to the passage, we know that Han Duan ________.
| A．has won an Asian Cup, a World Cup and an Olympic medal |
| B．was good at sports when she was at school |
| C．did very well in singing and Chinese when she was at school |
| D．often gets compliments because of her beautiful handwriting |
From the fourth paragraph, it can be inferred that Han Duan most probably ________.
| A．felt sad as the boys laughed at her |
| B．felt proud as she got compliments from others |
| C．felt sad as she was too strong as a girl |
| D．hated herself as she couldn’t do anything else well |
What’s the best title of this passage?
| A．Growth of a sports star. | B．The World Cup. |
| C．Honor of a football player. | D．Star of tomorrow. |