1. Where are the rainforests?
Rainforests cover six per cent of the Earth’s surface. There are rainforests in many parts of the world but the biggest forests are in South America, Africa and South East Asia. There aren’t any rainforests in Europe or North America.
2. What’s in the rainforests?
About 75% of all the types of animals that we know come from rainforests. Thousands and thousands of animals live in rainforests. There are many very beautiful birds, insects and  reptiles. Many of them live in the trees, more than 30 metres from the ground. There are also thousands of different plants—and lots of tall trees! It is always hot in a rainforest and
the ground is always wet. It is also dark.
3. Why are the rainforests important?
The rainforests are very important for us. We need them! The trees and other plants in the forest help to make the air that we breathe. They give us wood, rubber, fruits and many of our medicines.
4.    
Unfortunately, in many places, the rainforests are in danger. For example, many years ago there was a large rainforest in Java. There were thousands of different plants and animals in the forest, but now there is nothing. People chopped down the trees because they wanted to grow rice. Many animals lived in the rainforest. Some of them went to other parts of Java but many of them disappeared — forever. The same thing is happening now in many other parts of the world. The rainforests are in danger.
【小題1】In which of the following places can we find rainforests according to Paragraph 1?
A. In the UK.   B. In Asia. C. In the USA.  D. In France.
【小題2】Which of the following belongs to a kind of “reptile”?

A．A sparrow.

B．A swallow.

C．A snake.

D．A butterfly.

【小題3】Which might be the best title for Paragraph 4?

A．What’s happening to the rainforests?

B．What can we find in the rainforests in Java?

C．Why did people chop down the trees in the rainforests?

D．Why did many plants and animals disappear in the rainforests?

【小題4】What is the writer’s purpose of writing the article?

A．To tell us how to survive in the rainforests.

B．To help us know some living things in the rainforests.

C．To tell us to care about the protection of the rainforests.

D．To give us advice on how to make full use of the rainforests.

Doing experiments can be interesting, and you may try the following experiments at home. Make sure that you’ll do them with an adult.

【小題1】How many experiments are there in the pictures?

A．Six.

B．Five.

C．Three.

D．Two.

【小題2】The following are the instructions on how to do “Step 2” in these experiments. Which one is the right order?
a. Pour 3/4 of the water away. 
b. Put a balloon on the bottle.
c. Put the bottle in a bucket of hot water. The air rises into the balloon.

A．a(chǎn), b, c

B．a(chǎn), c, b

C．b, a, c

D．c, a, b

【小題3】What can you see in the bottle at last in Experiment A?

A．Some ice.	B．Some water.
C．Some ice and water.	D．A cloud and some water.

【小題4】What will happen to the balloon in “Step 3” in Experiment C?

A．It will be bigger.	B．It will be broken.
C．It won’t change.	D．It will be in the bottle.

Wild animals are our friends, but many of them are getting fewer and fewer. We should try to protect them. The four animals below are now in danger.
Tibetan Antelopes
Tibetan antelopes (藏羚羊) are medium-sized animals. They mainly feed on grass. They are usually found in groups of about 20. They are killed for their wool, which is warm, soft and fine and can be made into expensive clothes. Although people can get the wool without killing the animals, people simply kill them before taking the wool. The number of them is dropping year by year. There are less than 75,000 Tibetan antelopes left in the world, down from a million 50 years ago.
Golden Monkeys
Golden monkeys are mainly found in Sichuan, Gansu, Shanxi provinces and Shengnongjia mountainous area of Hubei Province. Golden monkeys have golden-orange fur. They move around in the daytime, usually in groups of as many as 100 to 200 heads, or 20 to 30 heads. They feed on fruits and young leaves of bamboos. But people are destroying the environment where they live. Trees and bamboos are disappearing, so golden monkeys have less and less to eat.
Elephants
Elephants are very big and strong. They are bigger than any other animals on land. They are grey and have long trunks and tusks. They have poor eyesight, but very good hearing and smell. They can lift heavy things and break down branches with their trunks. Elephants are very friendly towards each other and towards their neighbours. Normally, they live in a group for many years. Young male elephants do not leave the group until they are about 12 years old. Now, there are very few elephants in the world. The number of them is becoming smaller and smaller because their living areas are used for farming. Also, people hunt them for their tusks.
Wolves
Wolves are not very big. They have grey fur. Wolves have very good eyesight, hearing and smell. Wolves’ food is various. They eat animals, insects and snails. They are friendly to each other and never attack people. They do not kill for fun. Wolves are in danger, too. They are losing their living areas because people cut down forests. Soon they will have no home or food.
【小題1】Tibetan antelopes usually live in groups of about _______.

A．20

B．30

C．100

D．200

【小題2】Which of the following animals are the biggest on land?

A．Tibetan antelopes.	B．Golden monkeys.
C．Elephants.	D．Wolves

【小題3】Which of the following sentences is right?

A．There are less than 7,500 Tibetan antelopes left in the world now.

B．Golden monkeys usually move around during the night.

C．Elephants have good eyesight, but very poor hearing and smell.

D．Wolves are friendly to each other and they never attack people.

【小題4】What can be the best title of the passage?

A．Wild animals in danger

B．How to hunt wild animals

C．Animals in the zoo

D．How to train the animals

Ever thought of moving to a new country? How about starting a new country? Patri Friedman is planning to do just that. He left Google years ago to set up the Seasteading Institute. And his dream is to build seasteads-----floating micro-nations in the middle of the ocean.
So, what will life on a seastead be like? Probably a bit like life on a cruise liner (游輪), but much larger, with shops, gyms, swimming pools, schools and other areas. In fact, the early seasteads may actually be specially-rebuilt cruise liners. But as science advances, Friedman believes they’ll become more like floating cities, with several hundred people.
Seasteading raises a lot of questions. First of all, how will the new countries make money? The Seasteading Institute has suggested several money-making ideas, including ocean-based theme parks, casinos (賭場(chǎng)) and fish farming. There’s also the questions of safety. With storms, typhoons and pirates (海盜) , the high seas are a dangerous place. However, the Institute says that it can stand bad weather and prevent crimes with its well-designed systems.
So, is this just a day dream? Well, maybe not. One of the people behind the project is Peter Thiel. He founded PayPal and was one of the first investors (投資者) in Facebook. So far, he’s donated $ 500,000 to the project.
And Friedman isn’t wasting any time. He recently announced the creation of the Poseidon Award. This will be given to the first seastead with fifty people. Friedman is hoping to hand out the award in 2015.
【小題1】Where did Friedman use to work?

A．In Facebook.

B．In Seastead Institute .

C．In PayPal.

D．In Google.

【小題2】A future seastead may be most likely to look like ___________________.

A．a(chǎn) cruise liner

B．a(chǎn) floating city

C．a(chǎn) theme park

D．a(chǎn) fishing farm

【小題3】What can we infer from the passage?

A．Friedman is planning to move to a new country.

B．Friedman is worried about the safety of seasteads.

C．Friedman has got some supporters for his project.

D．Friedman has already won the Poseidon Award.

【小題4】Which of the following can be the best titles of this passage?

A．Seasteading: a new idea of living

B．Seasteading: a wild way of farming

C．Peter Thiel: a man behind the project

D．Patri Friedman: a crazy day dreamer

A Simple Scientific Experiment

Below is a description of a single scientific experiment. It shows us how iron reacts ( 反應(yīng)) with air and with water. Aim : To find out if iron rusts( 生銹) (a) in dry air ; (b) in water that has no air in it ( air- free water) ; (c) in ordinary water. Materials : 3 clean iron nails ( 鐵釘) ; test tubes ; test tube holder ; cotton wool ; oil ; Bunsen burner.

Iron in dry air Method (1)Put some iron nails at the bottom of a test tube. (2)Push some cotton wool down the tube. (3)Leave the tube for one week. Result After one week, the nails have not rusted. Conclusion Iron does not rust in dry air. Iron in air-free water Method (1)Half-fill a test tube with water. (2)Boil the water for three minutes. (This makes sure there is no air in the water. (3)Put two or three clean nails in the water.

(4)Add some oil to the water. (This will keep air out of the water.) (5) Leave the tube for one week. Result The nails do not rust in the tube with air-free water. Conclusion Iron does not rust in air- free water. Iron in ordinary water Method (1)Half –fill a test tube with water and add two or three clean nails. (2)Leave the tube for one week. Result The nails rust in the tube with ordinary water. Conclusion Iron rusts in ordinary water. (238 words)

【小題1】In the first part of the experiment the cotton wool is most probably used to ______________.

A．keep the air dry	B．keep the tube wet
C．make the nails rust	D．keep the tube clean

【小題2】What are necessary steps to make sure the water in the tube is air free?
①Leave half a tube of water in it              
②Boil the water for some time
③Put some clean iron nails in the tube           
④Add some oil to the water

A．①②

B．①③

C．②③

D．②④

【小題3】We can conclude from the experiment that only ____________ makes iron rusty.

A．dry air

B．cotton wool

C．ordinary water

D．a(chǎn)ir-free water

Information is received into our brain by attention, and its quality determines (決定) how well it will be processed, saved and used afterwards.
All information we receive is chosen by our attention. Factors (因素) affecting (影響) our attention are personal interest, experience, ability, feelings, knowledge, environment, timing, and so on. The same information may attract different forms and levels of attention from different people. Some people can get and save the information easily; some may have great difficulty; while others may just turn a blind eye to it. To the same information, one may even pay different levels of attention at different times. But if the facts work together, the quality of attention may be better. Therefore, it is not surprising to see that somebody with average intelligence (智力) can have excellent performances in some fields.
The good news is that a person's attention can be shaped, trained and made stronger by effective exercise. With this in mind, we should keep improving the quality of our attention.
【小題1】"it" in Paragraph 1 means _______.

A．information

B．brain

C．a(chǎn)ttention

D．quality

【小題2】All information we receive depends on _______.

A．information itself	B．our attention
C．our intelligence	D．the environment

【小題3】Which is not the factor that affects our attention according to the passage?

A．Interest and experience.

B．Experience and knowledge.

C．Ability and feelings.

D．Food and drinks.

【小題4】About attention, which of the following statements is right?

A．People always have the same level of attention.

B．People pay the same attention to the same information.

C．A person may pay different levels of attention to the same information at different times.

D．All factors affecting attention never work together.

【小題5】According to the passage, _______ can help people to make their attention better.

A．speaking more	B．effective exercise
C．hard work	D．high intelligence

Shenzhen's fast development has made it become China's most crowded city! There are about 15 million people living on its 1991square kilometers. On each square kilometer averagely live 7500 people. It is 1080 more than that in Hong Kong, and nearly 800 more than that in Guangzhou.
Besides, Shenzhen owns 2 million local vehicles, and about 300000 vehicles from other places also run on the local roads every day. The total length of the city's road is 6041 kilometers. It means each resident only owns 0.58 meters of road!
As a result, the city is facing serious environmental and resource problems. One of the problems is water shortage. The amount of fresh water for each person of the city is only 25% of the country's average. What's more, most of the water drunk by Shenzhen people comes from other areas.
【小題1】According to the passage, which of the following makes Shenzhen so crowded?

A．Shenzhen has not enough water.

B．There are too many people

C．Shenzhen is developing very fast

D．Shenzhen is too small

【小題2】There are _______ people living in Shenzhen now.

A．a(chǎn)bout 1991

B．a(chǎn)bout 15000000

C．a(chǎn)bout 150000

D．a(chǎn)bout 300000

【小題3】In Hong Kong, there are _______ people on every kilometer?

A．a(chǎn)bout 7500

B．a(chǎn)bout 1080

C．a(chǎn)bout 800

D．a(chǎn)bout 6420

【小題4】Which problem in Shenzhen is not mentioned in the passage?

A．Traffic accidents.	B．Water shortage.
C．Environmental problems	D．Population problem.

【小題5】Which is the best title for this passage?

A．Largest Population in China.

B．Biggist Problems in Shenzhen

C．Busiest Roads in Shenzhen

D．Most Crowded City in China

①The Dream It is everyone’s dream to work at home or not work at all．You can plan your own hours and work when you want to．There is no more rush hour and no hours that people waste when they get to and from a job every day．
②The Fact The fact is that this dream can be attained．You can stay at home，work when you want to  and make money when you need to．There are plenty of opportunities for you to make money at home，just by using your computer and the Internet．
③Start Today! Educate yourself，look closely into all the opportunities and decide on what works best for you．It will not happen during one night，but you can make the decision today and start to make it happen today．
④How Could You Do It? Do you have a blog（博客）or a personal website like millions of other people?  Are you using it to make money? Most of these blog and website owners are not．But you can do that!
⑤          When you have your computer and the Internet working for you，your businesses will be working for you 24 hours a day，seven days a week．You will make money while you sleep，travel or do whatever you want to do all day long．
⑥Get Going! There are many ways you can make money with your computer．And you can begin your Stay-at -home businesses with just a little money．What are you waiting for?
【小題1】In which part of a newspaper would you most probably read this passage?

A．Sports

B．News

C．Culture

D．Business

【小題2】What does the underlined word“attained”in Point ② mean ?

A．Broken

B．Achieved

C．Lost

D．Destroyed

【小題3】What’s the best title for Point ⑤ ?

A．Sleep 24 Hours a Day

B．Make Money Every Moment

C．Play All Day Long

D．Travel Around the World

【小題4】Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage ?

A．People need a lot of money to start a stay – at – home business.

B．People can even use their blogs to make money.

C．People can plan their own time when they work at home.

D．People can make the best decision and start to make it happen today.

【小題5】How is the passage organized ?

A．By using famous people’s words.

B．By giving reasons only.

C．By showing a topic and giving solutions

D．By telling old stories

The population of the Earth is growing faster. It is important that we look after the Earth. We need it!
The Earth gives us a lot of things. We also give the Earth a lot, but some of the things are not good.

In nature, when something dies, other animals and plants get food from it. Every animal or plant gives food for other animals or plants. However, animals can’t get food from many of the things that we ‘give’ the Earth. Animals and plants can’t eat metal, plastic and glass. These things will stay in the ground for many, many years.
Some rubbish is very dangerous for plants and animals. In some places, many animals live together. One animal makes food for many more animals. If we put rubbish and chemicals in the water, the plankton(浮游生物) can die. If there isn’t any plankton, many animals have nothing to eat.
So what can we do? Don’t leave any rubbish in the countryside! Don’t make so much rubbish!
【小題1】The Earth gives us ___________.

A．food

B．rubbish

C．chemicals

D．pollution

【小題2】When something dies in nature, _________.

A．water and grass are polluted

B．plastic and wood become food

C．other animals and plants get food

D．metal and glass stay in the ground

【小題3】We must _______ to look after the Earth.

A．put metal in the ground	B．use more wood
C．keep frogs in the water	D．make less rubbish

E—schoolbags
Is your schoolbag too heavy to carry? The e-schoolbag will help you. It is said that e-schoolbags are going to be brought into use in Chinese middle schools soon.
Heavy schoolbags have been a serious problem for a long time. But the e-schoolbag will work it out. An e-schoolbag is much lighter than a usual schoolbag. Perhaps, the e-schoolbag should be called an e-textbook. It is as small as a usual book, but it can still have all the things for study, such as a textbook, an exercise book and so on. They can be made into chips(芯片) like stamps. The students can read the text page by page on the screen, take notes, or even send e-mails to their teachers. They only need to put the right chip into the e-schoolbag and then the students can use it.
Some people say that e-textbooks can be easily broken, while others say it is not good to student’s eyes. But only time will tell.
【小題1】What is the e-schoolbag used for ? It can’t help students _________.

A．take notes

B．send e-mails

C．lighten(減輕) the schoolbag

D．read the text in the paper book

【小題2】What’s the e-school like?

A．It’s bigger than a usual book.

B．It’s just as big as a usual book.

C．It’s as big as a stamp.

D．It’s not as small as a usual book.

【小題3】How can e-schoolbags have all the things for study?

A．They are made into stamps

B．They are made into chips.

C．They are called e-textbooks

D．They put the books into e-schoolbags.

【小題4】Which statement is NOT true according to the passage?

A．That e-schoolbags may be easily broken

B．It may not be good to student’s eyes.

C．They have been into use in school in China.

D．The e-schoolbag will solve the problem of the heavy schoolbags.