We always read reports about costs of oil going up and we will think this is our most valuable material. However, water is the most valuable resource(资源). People in the Middle East are more worried about this than oil. Maybe the next war will be about water.
In the future, to control the quality and quantity(数量), you will use different water for different usages. The water used to wash your car, water your flowers or wash your clothes doesn’t need to be as clean as the water you drink.
One in five people live in countries without enough fresh water and in 25 years, the number is believed to be one in every three people. Our world population is increasing. What do you suppose this will suggest for us in the future? Population control?
Traditional management of the water industry has been out of date since the 1990s. When technologies develop so rapidly in the world, we have loads of information for technologies in the business world, but in the water industry we don’t have any.
Britain and France have already taken measures to successfully improve their water industries. All the water services in Britain have been provided by private(私有的) companies since 1991. Since then, improvement has been made in the rules for their water quality and pricing.
What can you do now for the future? Using water more efficiently(有效地) in your house can make a great difference not only to the world but to your money. Even if you don’t have to pay much now, you will when you start to pay big prices for different water usages.Water shortage is getting more serious because ______________.
| A．the world population is growing up. |
| B．there will be more wars about water. |
| C．people don’t have efficient management of the water industry. |
| D．water services will be provided only by private companies. |
Britain has improved their water quality by ___________.
| A．raising the price of water. |
| B．reducing water pollution. |
| C．changing the management of the water industry. |
| D．opening more private companies for water services. |
Which is the author’s suggestion for us?
| A．Paying less money for water |
| B．Buying more water for future use. |
| C．Using different water for different usages. |
| D．Using as little water as possible in cooking. |
Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Save water and save money |
| B．Easy ways to cut down on your water usage |
| C．Why you should teach your children to save water |
| D．Water is our precious resource—start to save it now |
In recent years, especially during the l960s, there was much discussion about “the brain drain (排干, 流失),” which dealt with the problem of students and learned people who left their own countries for other countries that offered better chances for study, research, and employment．For example, according to a report from U．N., between 1962 and l966 more than 50 percent of all engineering graduates of Iran and 14 percent of Iranian scientists left their country for work abroad．Over 30 percent of Chilean engineers and 15 percent of Turkish physicians also went to work in other countries．Probably the greatest brain drain occurred among young scientists who had gone abroad to study．Many of them had planned to return to their countries to teach but chose to remain in more industrialized nations where they were able to continue their work and their research in fields in which there were no job possibilities at home．The countries that attracted most of these scientists were the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Canada, and Australia.
Recent studies show that the brain drain to the United States may be decreasing．Many foreign scientists are going home again, and in some cases American scientists are leaving the United States for employment in other countries．The main reasons are that good jobs are becoming fewer here, money for national research has been sharply cut, and university fellowships reduced too．However, in the field of medicine the drain to the United States still goes on．Today more than one of every five American doctors is foreign - born, and several thousand foreign doctors immigrate to the United States each year．Over eighty countries have asked the State Department to send students who are skilled in important fields such as medicine back home when their study programs are over.Which of the following is not the reason for “the brain drain”?
| A．Good housing. | B．Better research condition. |
| C．Good job possibility | D．Better chances of study.. |
The brain drain to the United States may be decreasing mainly because __________.
| A．many foreign scientists are ordered to return to their motherlands |
| B．they don’t need any foreign scientists now |
| C．there are fewer and fewer good jobs in the USA |
| D．the universities refuse to provide money for the foreign scientists |
How many American doctors are foreign - born?
A．About half of them. B More than 20 percent
C．Several thousand. D．About 15 percent.Which is the best title for this passage?
A．How to seek a job in the USA. B．Doctors’ immigration to the USA.
C．A strange case. D．The brain drain.
Erik Weihenmayer was born with an eye disorder. As a child hiseyesight became worse and then, at the age of 13, he lost his sight completely. However, he did not lose his determination to lead a full and active life Erik became an adventurer. He took up parachuting, wrestling and scuba diving. He competed in long-distance biking, marathons and skiing. His favorite sport, thought, is mountaineering. As a young man, Erik started to climb mountains. He reached thesummit of Mount McKinley in 1995 and then climbed the dangerous 1000-metre rock wall of EI Capitan. Two years later, while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya with his girlfriend, they stopped for atime at 13,000 feet above sea level－in order to get married. In1999, he climbed Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America. And then , on May 25, 2001, at the age of 33, Erik successfullycompleted the greatest mountaineering challenge of all. He climbed Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. Erik invented his own method for climbing mountains. He carries two long poles: one to lean on and the other to test the way ahead of him. The climber in front of him wears a bell to guide him. Erik is a good team member. He does his share of the job, such as setting up tents and building snow walls. Although he could not enjoy the view, Erik felt the excitement of being on the summit of Everest. He hopes that his success will change how people think about the blind. “When people think about a blind person or blindness, now they will think about a person standing on the top of the world.When was Erik born?
| A．In 1967. | B．In 1995. | C．In 1968.. | D．In 1969. |
What was unusual about his wedding?
| A．He got married on the summit of Mount McKinley. |
| B．He got married when climbing Mount Everest. |
| C．His wedding was held at 13,000 feet above sea level |
| D．His wedding was held after he prepared a lot. |
What is Erik’s special method for climbing a mountain?
| A．He takes his girlfriend with him. | B．He uses two long poles to help himself |
| C．He does his share ofthe jobs. | D．He keeps a good team around him. |
Which of the following shows the right order of what happened?
a. He topped Mount McKinley.
b. He became blind.
c. He challenged Mount Everest.
d. He reached the peak of Kilimanjaro.
e. He climbed the rock wall of EI Capitan.
| A．b a e d c | B．b e d c a | C．a b e d c | D．b a c d e |
It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were not unhappy. After all, their forefathers had lived in the same way for centuries.
Then one day. Some visitors from the city arrived. The told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frog’s legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, and so they wanted to buy frogs from other place.
This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was catch them. Agreement was 
reached, and the children were sent into the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money. For the first time, the people were able to dream of a batter future. But the dream didn’t last long.
The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and, there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn’t just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money earned to buy pesticides(杀虫剂) and medicines. Soon there was no money left.
Then the people realized what was happening. It was the frog. They hadn’t been useless. They had been doing an important job---eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, the insects were increasing more rapidly. They were damaging the crops and spreading diseases.
Now, the people are still poor. But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning.From paragraph I we learn that the villagers __________.
| A．were poor but somewhat content | B．dreamed of having a better life |
| C．worked very hard for centuries | D．lived a different life from their forefathers |
Why did the villagers agree to sell frogs?
| A．They needs money to buy medicine | B．The frogs were easy money . |
| C．They wanted to please the visitors | D．The frogs made too much noise |
What might be the cause of the children’s sickness?
| A．there were too many insects | B．the crops didn’t do well |
| C．the visits brought in disease | D．the pesticides were overused |
What can we infer from the last sentence of the text?
| A．Happiness comes from peaceful life in the country |
| B．Health is more important than money |
| C．Good old day will never be forgotten |
| D．The harmony between man and nature is important. |
The most important use of drifting (漂流) bottles is to find ocean currents. When the position and direction of currents are known, ships can use the forward movement of a current or stay away from currents that would carry them off their course. Benjamin Franklin was one of the first to use bottles in the study of currents. He wondered why British mall ships needed a week or two longer than U.S. ships needed in order to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Franklin thought the Gulf Stream (墨西哥湾流) might explain this difference.
Franklin talked with captains of U.S. ships. He found that they knew each turn of the Gulf Stream. They used the current in every possible way. From his talks with the captains. Franklin made his first map of the Gulf Stream. Then he checked his map by using sealed (密封的) bottles. The map that he finally made is still used, with only a few changes, today. Why are drifting bottles used?
| A．To determine the position of a ship |
| B．To carry message across the ocean |
| C．To predict the direction of a ship. |
| D．To find the direction of a current |
What led Franklin to talk with U.S. captains?
| A．U.S. ships were longer than British ones. |
| B．British ships could sail the Atlantic faster than U.S. ones. |
| C．U.S captains knew more about maps. |
| D．U.S. ships could sail the Atlantic faster than U.S. ones. |
What did Franklin make after his talks with U.S. captains?
| A．A map of the Atlantic Ocean. | B．A map of the Gulf Stream.. |
| C．A map of ocean currents. | D．A map of his first voyage. |
What did Franklin do in order to make an exact map?
A. He compared his own map with other maps
B. He talked with many U.S. captains.
C. Both B and C.
D. He used drifting bottles to check his map.
When Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it was a revolution in communication．Over the last two decades a new means of spoken communication has emerged: the mobile phone．
The modern mobile phone is a more complex version of the two-way radio．Traditional two-way radio was a very limited means of communication．As soon as the users moved out of range of each other’s broadcast area, the signal was lost．In the 1940s, researchers began experimenting with the idea of using a number of radio masts （天线杆）located around to pick up signals from two-way radios．A caller would always be within range of one of the masts; when he or she moved too far away from one mast, the next mast would pick up the signal．（Scientists referred to each mast’s reception area as being a separate "cell"; this is why in．many countries mobile phones are called "cell phones"．）
The first real mobile telephone call was made in 1973 by Dr Martin Cooper．As soon as his invention was completed,, he tested it by calling another scientist to announce his success．Within a decade, mobile phones became available to the public．They have changed the way we do a lot of things．One powerful feature is the Short Message Service （SMS） or text message．It’s the perfect communication method for the busy modern lifestyle．Going to be late? Send a text message! The text message has changed the way we write in English．The language construction became less strict．Traditional rules of grammar and spelling are much less important when you’re sitting on the bus, hurriedly typing "Will B 15mm late-C U @ the bar．（I will be 15 minutes late to see you at the
bar．） Sorry!"．
Over the last few years mobiles have become more and more advanced．We have seen the instruction of cameras, global positioning system and Internet access．
Alexander Graham Bell would be surprised if he could see how far the science of telephone has progressed in less than 150 years．If he were around today, he might say: "That’s gr8（great）! But I’m busy rite now（I am very busy right now）．Will call U2nite（I will call you tonight．）．"The writing style of the passage is a （an）___．
| A．narrative | B．description | C．essay | D．review |
The article is intended to___．
| A．warn people of the possible risks in using mobile phones |
| B．inform readers of the history and benefits of mobile phones |
| C．convince people of the uses of mobile phones |
| D．predict the applications of mobile phones |
What do you think of the writer according to the last paragraph．
| A．Humorous. | B．Ironic. | C．Kind. | D．Worried. |