It was a weeknight. We were a half dozen guys in our late teens, hanging around “the flat” — as usual. The flat was poorly furnished, which, after some time, grew tiresome. We wanted action.
We got in a car, big enough for all of us to crowd into — and off we went, in search of adventure. We soon found ourselves at Blue Gum Corner, a place named after the huge old blue gum tree that stood by there, a well-known local landmark. It stands at a minor crossroad leading to our town. The trunk is tall and smooth with no handholds for climbing. About six metres from the ground the first branch sticks out over the road. We parked beneath the huge old tree and discussed what we might do. All of a sudden we hit upon an idea — a hanging! I was chosen as “hangee”.
The plan was quite simple. As I stood upon the roof of the car, the rope (绳子) was threaded down my jacket through my collar and down one leg of my jeans. I put my foot through the loop at the bottom. There I hung, still. The boys rolled about laughing until, a car, I hear a car! Before they ran to hide in the nearby field, they gave me a good push so that “the body” would swing as the car drove by.
To our disappointment, the car simply turned off for town without even slowing. The boys came out of their hiding places and we discussed the situation. Surely they had seen me, hadn’t they? Then we heard another car. The act was repeated, but still without any obvious reaction. We played the game about five or six times, but as no one seemed to notice, we abandoned the trick.
What we did not know was that every car that had passed had unquestionably seen “the body” and each one, too scared to stop, had driven directly to the local Police Station. Now at that time of the night, the local policeman was sound asleep in his bed, so the first person sent to the scene was the traffic officer that happened to be on duty that particular night. He had been informed that some person had been killed, by hanging, at Blue Gum Corner. When he arrived, the body was gone! And he was hearing “unnatural sounds” from the surrounding area. As far as he knew, some fierce animal was hiding in the field before him, possibly dragging a body behind him — and we thought we were scared!
He went to his radio and made a call that really began to worry us. I lay so close that I could hear every word. He called for the “armed police” and a “dog team, better make it two” and he had a “serious situation” at Blue Gum Corner. Then the police officer arrived. After a briefing from the traffic officer he decided not to go into the field until armed police and dog teams arrived. Now two spotlights were on the field and none of us could move.
As luck would have it, police cars cannot leave their spotlights on all night without charging their batteries. So, after a time, the two officers began lightening the field by turns, allowing us the opportunity to move on our fours for freedom. One by one, we all managed to steal away and make our way home. Behind us we left what must have looked like a small city of lights, police cars, roadblocks, barking dogs, armed officers and an old rope hanging from a tree.
When I think back to that night, to that tree, to what the drivers of the cars think happened, to what police believe happened, and to what I know happened, I am reminded of a simple truth — our eyes see darkness and light, color and movement, our ears hear only vibrations (振动) in the air. It is how we explain these vivid pictures that shapes our “reality”.The boys made the “hanging” plan in order to ______.
| A．make a fool of the police |
| B．draw public attention |
| C．seek fun and excitement |
| D．practise acting skills |
Seeing that no car passing by stopped, the boys must have felt ______.
| A．discouraged | B．proud |
| C．annoyed | D．confident |
Why was the traffic officer sent to the scene of “hanging”?
| A．Because a fierce animal kept the traffic in disorder. |
| B．Because the local policeman was not available at that time. |
| C．Because some naughty kids were playing a terrifying game. |
| D．Because many scared drivers turned directly to him for help. |
The boys managed to escape from the field when ______.
| A．the two police cars were being charged |
| B．the police officer was taking over the duty |
| C．the traffic officer was making a call for help |
| D．the two spotlights were not working together |
What is conveyed in the passage?
| A．Actions speak louder than words. |
| B．The truth lies beneath the surface. |
| C．Experience is the best teacher. |
| D．To see is to believe. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Blue Gum Tree | B．A Body Found Hanging |
| C．Escape to Freedom | D．A Disappointing Experience |
Less TV Reduce Kids Weight
PALO AITO, California—“Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter—even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise,” US researchers said last week.
A study of 192 third and fourth grades, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds （0.91 kg） less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet.
“The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity,” said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician （儿科专家）at Stanford University.
“ American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubled over the past 20 years,” Robinson said.
In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third.
Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continue their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet nor took part in any extra exercise.
“One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around and burning off calories,” Robinson said.
“Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more,” Robinson added. The author tries to tell us in the first two paragraphs that ____.
| A．children will get fatter if they eat too much. |
| B．children will get thinner if they eat less. |
| C．children will get fatter if they spend less time watching TV. |
| D．children will get fatter if they spend more time watching TV. |
According to the passage, the time American children usually spend on watching TV ____.
| A．is more than four hours a day. | B．is less than four hours a day. |
| C．doubled in the last twenty years. | D．is more than on any other activities. |
Which of the following is right ?
| A．Children usually eat fewer while watching TV. |
| B．Children usually eat more while watching TV. |
| C．Children eat the same amount of meals while watching TV. |
| D．Children usually eat nothing while watching TV. |
Why can watching TV increase kids’ weight according to the passage ?
| A．They usually eat more while watching TV. |
| B．They burn off fewer calories. |
| C．They change their diet while watching TV. |
| D．Both A and B |
SHANGHAI - Health experts in Shanghai are calling for more protection for young children as the latest research shows about half of the youngsters are suffering from secondhand smoke.
About 45 percent of children suffer passive smoking in families, 50 percent in public places, and almost 6 percent on public transportation, shows a research released by the Shanghai Children's Medical Center on Tuesday.
"Not only adults but also children and newborn babies are at risk for the adverse effects of p
assive smoking," said Tang Jingyan, a doctor at the Shanghai Children's Medica
l Center.
"Actually, those young children whose bodies are still growing and developing are more sensitive to the effects of secondhand smoke."
Research has shown that children who are exposed to secondhand smoke will suffer from more colds, coughs and sore throats, and they are more likely to suffer from bronchitis, pneumonia and will have a higher risk of developing cancer.
Doctors even suggested that children suffering passive smoking are more likely to have behavioral problems and may not develop mentally as qui
ckly as their peers．
Other research by the Shanghai Children's Medical Center has found that more than 80 p
ercent of child patients in the center live in a smoke-filled household, where one or both parents smoke．
"Though doctors have stressed the harm of passive smoking over and over, it is still hard to reach a totally 'smoke free' home," said a pediatrician named Zhang Yiwen, noting that parents are often tempted to smoke even though they have learned the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.
China has 540 million people suffering from passive smoke, 180 million of them younger than 15．The age of smokers is also getting lower, earlier reports said.
"There are more young smokers than before．You can see young people wearing a school uniform and carrying a schoolbag light a cigarette on the street．Some of them are even female students," said Jing Xingming, a professor of children's developmental behavior at the center.
"Children like to imitate adults, especially their parents．If parents often smoke at home, it is very likely children will develop 
a smoking habit, which can cause a vicious circle," Jin said.
Reports from the Ministry of Health said China has about 350 million smokers, of whom 15 million are underage smokers．Also, around 40 million of the country's 130 million children aged between 13 and 18 had tried smoking, and 15 million had become addicted to tobacco.What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．About half of the youngsters are suffering from secondhand smoke. |
| B．Experts are calling for more protection for youngsters from smoking. |
| C．More and more youngsters are picking up the habit of smoking. |
| D．Smoking does great harm to the health of the youngsters. |
What kind of the youngsters most possibly develop a habit of smoking?
| A．Children of non-smoking mothers. | B．Children of non-smoking fathers. |
| C．Children of heavy smokers. | D．Children from some smoking centers. |
Which of the following disease may not be connected with secondhand smoking?
| A．Cancer. | B．Behavioral problems. | C．Sore throats. | D．Coughs. |
The underlined word “vicious” in the last paragraph but one most probably means ___________.
| A．complete | B．simple | C．great | D．bad |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．About 80% of the children in the Shanghai Children's Medical Center smoke heavily. |
B．About 45 percent of children suffer passive smoking in  the Shanghai Children's Medical Center. |
| C．About 540 million people are heavy smokers in China. |
| D．Children aged between 13 to 18 are more likely addicted to smoking. |
Swedish master medical photographer Lennart Nilsson is a pioneer in medical photography．In association with researchers and with the help of advanced, specially designed equipment, he has documented the inside of man down to the level of a cell with his camera.
Born in Strängnäs, a satellite city of Stockholm, in 1922, Nilsson got his first camera from his father when he was 11 years old．From the early stage, he has been interested in looking at ants and taking photos of them.Throughout the years, he has devoted special attention to capturing the creation of a human being, from conception to birth.
In 2006 when his photo book Life was published in both Swedish and English, he was invited to give a lecture at the Stockholm bookstore．He vividly described to the public how he took the photos so that the development process of the embryo can be understood better．Finally when he was signing his name in the book, I asked him what made him so passionate about working on this, he stopped writing and thought for a second, “I think it is the respect for life,” Nilsson said.
Nilsson began his career as a photographic journalist in the middle of the 1940s and published a numbe
r of 
pho
to-essays in Swedish and foreign magazines, including "Polar Bear Hunting in Spitzbergen" (1947) and Midwife.
“When I went to the professor to take the embryo photo, I was looking around and then I saw something which was unbelievable, it was 
a tiny human embryo lies in a very special place, a 10-20 millimeter embryo with hands, arms and eyes, and I got a shock,” Nilsson said.
Nilsson began experimenting with new photographic techniques in the mid-1950s to report on the world of ants and life in the sea．H
is revealing macro-studies were published in his book on ants, Myror (1959), and in the Life in the Sea (1959), and in Close to Nature (1984)．In the 1960s special designed, very slim endoscopes (内窥镜))made it possible f
or him to photograph the blood vessels and the cavities (空洞) of the body with the necessary depth of field and, in 1970, he used a scanning electron microscope for the first tim
e, he was also considered the pioneer for three dimension digital pictures of the body organs.
After his photographs of human embryo were published, he was encouraged to continue photographing the origins of human being.
Nilsson is very modest and sincere．At age of nearly 88, he is still cooperating with colleagues in Karolinska Institute where the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is selected every year.
“He can forget all the other things when 
he is working and he is still working diligently,” Mrs Nilsson told People’s Daily Online.Why does Nilsson want to document the creation of a human being?
| A．Because he is a pioneer in medical photography. |
| B．Because he has been interested in taking photos. |
| C．Because he thinks it a way to show respect for life. |
| D．Because he wished to win a Nobel Prize. |
What ca
n we learn from the passage?
| A．Nilsson was the only expert in medical photography. |
| B．Nilsson’s camera is specially designed. |
| C．Nilsson’s photo book Life is better received than his other books. |
| D．Nilsson has always been working alone． |
How many books written by Nilsson are mentioned in this passage?
| A．3． | B．4. | C．5. | D．6. |
Which of the following word can Not be used to describe Nilsson?
| A．Passionate. | B．Devoted. | C．Forgetful. | D．Dillgent. |
What can be the title for the passage?
| A．Nilsson, a pioneer medical photographer. |
| B．Nilsson, a pioneer medical publisher |
| C．Nilsson, a person of rich experience |
| D．Nilsson, a talented photographer |
Tayka Hotel De Sal
Where: Tahua, Bolivia
How much: About $95 a night
Why it’s cool: You’ve stayed at hotels made of brick or wood, but salt? That’s something few can claim．Tayka Hotel de Sal is made totally of salt—including the beds (though you’ll sleep on regular mattresses (床垫) and blankets)．The hotel sits on the Salar de Uyuni, a prehistoric dried-up lake that’s the world’s biggest salt flat．Builders use the salt from the 4,633-square-mile flat to make the bricks, and glue them together with a paste of wet salt that hardens when it dries．When rain starts to dissolve the hotel, the owners just mix up more salt paste to strengthen the bricks.
Green Magic Nature Resort
Where: Vythiri, India
How much: About $240 a night
Why it’s cool: Ridding a pulley(滑轮)-operated lift 86 feet to your treetop room is just the start of your adventure．As you look out of your open window—there is no glass!—you watch monkeys and birds in the rain forest canopy．Later you might test your fear of heights by crossing the handmade rope bridge to the main part of the hotel, or just sit on your bamboo bed and read．You don’t even have to come down for breakfast—the hotel will send it up on the pulley-drawn “elevator”.
Dog Bark Park Inn B&B
Where: Cottonwood, Idaho
How muc
h: $92 a night
Why it’s cool: This doghouse isn’t just for the family pet．Sweet Willy is a 30-foot-tall dog with guest rooms in his belly．Climb the wooden stairs beside his hind leg to enter the door in his side．You can relax in the main bedroom, go up a ffew steps ot the loft in Willy’s head, o
r hang out inside his nose．Cotta “go”(想要方便一下)? Although you have a full private bathroom in your quarters, there is also a toilet in the 12-foot-tall fire hydrant outside.
Gamirasu Cave Hotel
Where: A
yvali, Turkey
How much: Between $130 and $475 a night.
Why it’s cool: This is caveman cool! Experience what it was like 5,000 years ago, when people lived in these mountain caves formed by volcanic ash．But your stay will be much more modern．Bathrooms and electricity provide what you expect from a modern hotel, and the white volcanic ash, called tufa, keeps the rooms cool, about 65℉in summer．(Don’t worry—there is heat in winter.)Which of the following about Tayka Hotel de Sal is true?
| A．The hotel is the cheapest among the four mentioned. |
| B．Everything in the hotel is made of salt. |
| C．It is on an island in the Pacific Ocean. |
| D．It is located on a prehistoric lake. |
What is the similarity of the four hotels?
| A．Being expensive. | B．Being beautiful. | C．Being natural. | D．Being unique. |
What does the underline part “Sweet Willy” refer to?
A．The building of Dog Bark Park Inn B&B.
B．The name of a pet dog of the hotel owner.
C．The name of the hotel.
D．The name of the hotel owner.Which of the hotel makes you have a feeling of living in the far past
?
| A．Tayka Hotel De Sal | B．Green Magic Nature Resort |
| C．Dog Bark Park Inn B&B | D．Gamirasu Cave Hotel |
What may be the purp
ose of the writer writing th
e passage?
| A．To show his wide knowledge. | B．To introduce some inte resting hotels. |
| C．To develop business in tourism. | D．To attract attention from the readers. |
It is believed that it took about 800 thousand to 1 million years for the earth's population to reach the 250 million total which existed at the end of the first century AD. For some time after that, disease, famine(饥饿) and war kept the population increase down to a rate of 1 percent a year so that more than 15 centuries passed before the population reached 500 million. But in the next 250 years, up to 1850, the population of the world shot to 1 billion and today it has reached 3.5 billion. Scientists say that in the next 35 years the population of the world will double, reaching almost 7 billion by the year 2010.
When experts are asked what are the most effective measures that can stop over population, they reply that at least three measures can be considered.
(A) Increasing sources and supply of food for under-developed countries.
(B) Increasing the industrialization of under- developed countries.
(C) Controlling birth.
The experts add, however, that none of the above measures can be effective by itself, and that all must be combined into one whole program. They also agree that without controlling of births, any other measures are doomed (注定) to failure.The population _______ because of disease, famine and war.
| A．didn't increase | B．became less |
| C．increased slowly | D．still increased very fast |
The population of the world doubled between the year _______.
| A．1850 and today | B．100 and the year 1400 |
| C．100 and the year 1600 | D．1 and the year 100 |
Which of the following is true?
| A．the richer the country is, the faster the population increase. |
| B．Birth control is the most important way to control the growth of population. |
| C．the population in the developed countries is increasing faster than that in the underdeveloped countries. |
| D．It is impossible to control the increase of the population. |
The passage was written in ________.
| A．1850 | B．1936 | C．2001 | D．1975 |