Celebrations spread across China when Shanghai, the Oriental Pearl, was given the right to host the 2010
World Expo on December 3.
     Shanghai won the honor after beating rivals from Russia, Mexico, Poland and South Korea.
     "I'm very proud of being Chinese," said Wang Kaibo, a Senior 2 student of the Middle School Affiliated to
Beijing Medical University."The winning of the expo is a victory, not only for Shanghai residents, but for the
people of the whole Chinese nation." Bidding (申辦) for the expo shows that China is more confident of playing
a more important role on the international stage. It's competing for large events and the next one could be the
World Cup, Wang said.
     The World Expo 2010 and the 2008 Beijing Olympics will become the twin shining stars of China's
development over the next 10 years, said experts.
     The World Expo is known as "Olympics of the economic, cultural, scientific and technological fields". It is
usually held every five years and lasts for six months.
     The Olympics, World Cup and World Expo are considered three top international events in the world.
     China is the first developing country to win the expo bid in the event's 151-year history.
     Not only will it attract more foreign investment to China, but experts say that the half-year-long exhibition
will bring at least 70 million visitors to Shanghai.
     The World Expo is a great event for different countries to exchange social, economic, cultural and scientific
achievements, and also help to encourage new technology and ideas.
     The expo was first held in London in 1851. It has a history of global influence. 
     The Eiffel Tower, built during the Paris World Expo in 1889, became the symbol of the French capital.
     Many historic inventions, such as the telephone and airplane, all made their first appearance at a World Expo.

1. The winning of bidding for the World Expo 2010 and the 2008 Olympic Games implies _____.

A. China is beginning to play a more important part on the international stage
B. China has played the most important role in the international affairs
C. China has become a developed country ever since 53
D. China is the first Asian country to win the expo bid in history

2. As we know, in general, the World Expo is usually held every years, while the Olympics
is usually held every ____ years.

A. 4; 5
B. 5; 4
C. 4; 4
D. 5; 5

3. By bidding for the expo and the Olympics, we are sure that _____.

A. China will beat rivals from Russia, Mexico, Poland and South Korea
B. China will become a super country in the United Nations
C. China will build a famous tower like Eiffel Tower as the symbol of the capital
D. China will develop more quickly than before and will benefit a lot from them

     Handshaking, though a European practice, is now often seen in big cities of China. Nobody knows exactly
when the practice started in Europe. It is said that long long ago in Europe when people met, they showed their
unarmed (無(wú)武器的) hands to each other as a sign of goodwill. As time went on and trade in cities grew
rapidly, people in cities began to clap each other' s hands to make a deal or to reach an agreement. This practice was later changed into shaking hands among friends on meeting or leaving each other."Let' s shake (hands) on
it" sometimes means agreement reached.
     Do the Europeans shake hands wherever they go and with whomever they meet? No. Sometimes the
Chinese abroad reach out their hands too often to be polite. It is really very impolite to give your hand when the
other party, especially when it is a woman, shows little interest in shaking hands with you and when the meeting does not mean anything to him or her. Even if, for politeness, he holds out his unwilling hand in answer to your uninvited hand, just touch it slightly. There is generally a misunderstanding (誤解) among the Chinese that
westerners are usually open and straightforward, while the Chinese are rather reserved (保守的) in manner. But
in fact some people in western countries are more reserved than some Chinese today. So it is a good idea to
shake hands with a westerner only when he shows interest in further relations with you.

1. In the old days in Europe, people put out their unarmed hands to each other ______.

A. to make a deal
B. to greet each other
C. to show friendliness
D. to reach an agreement

2. The first paragraph mainly tells us _______.

A. where handshaking was first practiced
B. how handshaking came about
C. about the relationship between handshaking and trade
D. about the practice of handshaking both in Europe and in China

3. According to the text, which of the following statements is true?

A. Westerners are more reserved than the Chinese.
B. Westerners are unwilling to shake hands.
C. We should make a judgment before shaking hands.
D. We shouldn't' t shake hands with European women.

4. The main purpose of the text is______.

A. to tell us some differences between the East and the West
B. to offer us some important facts about handshaking
C. to introduce us to some different customs in the West
D. to give us some advice before we travel abroad

     The Sahara Festival is a celebration of the very recent past. The three-day event is not fixed to the same
dates each year, but generally takes place in November or December. It is well attended by tourists, but even
better attended by locals.
     During the opening ceremonies, after the official greetings from the government leaders, people who
attend the festival begin to march smartly before the viewing stands, and white camels transport their riders
across the sands. Horsemen from different nations display their beautiful clothes and their fine horsemanship.
One following another, groups of musicians and dancers from all over the Sahara take their turn to show off
their wonderful traditional culture. Groups of men in blue and yellow play horns and beat drums as they
dance in different designs. On their knees in the sand, a group of women in long dark dresses dance with their
hair: their long, dark, shiny hair is thrown back and forth in the wind to the rhythm of their dance.
     The local and visiting Italian dogs are anxious to run after hares. The crowd is on its feet for the camel
races. Camels and riders run far into the distance, and then return to the finish Line in front of the cheering
people.
     Towards the evening, there comes the grand finale of the opening day, an extremely exciting horserace.
All the riders run very fast on horseback. Some riders hang off the side of their saddles. Some even ride
upside down-their legs and feet straight up in the air-all at full speed. Others rush down the course together,
men arm in arm, on different horses. On and on they went. So fast and so wonderful!

1. The Sahara Festival is a festival which _____.

A. has a very long history in North Africa
B. is held in the same place on the same day
C. is attended mainly by the people in the Sahara
D. is celebrated mostly by travelers from different countries

2. Before the races begin, _____ take part in the activities during the opening ceremonies.

A. musicians, dancers, horses and hares
B. camel riders, musicians, dogs and hares
C. horsemen, dancers, camels and dogs
D. musicians, officials, camels and horses

3. The underlined word "finale" in the fourth paragraph most probably means the ______of the opening day.

A. first part
B. middle
C. last part
D. whole

4. This passage mainly tells readers _____.

A. what happens on the opening day of the Sahara Festival
B. how people celebrate during the three-day Sahara Festival
C. what takes place at the closing ceremonies of the Sahara Festival
D. how animals race on the first and the last days of the Sahara Festival

     Olaf Stapledon wrote a book called First and Last Men. in which he looked millions of years ahead. He
told of different men and of strange civilisations (文明), broken up by long 'dark ages' in between. In his
view, what is called the present time is no more than a moment in human history and we are just the First
Men. In 2,000 million years from now there will be the Eighteenth or Last Men. 　　
     However, most of our ideas about the future are really very short-sighted. Perhaps we can see some
possibilities for the next fifty years. But the next hundred? The next thousand? The next million? That's much
more difficult. 　　
     When men and women lived by hunting 50,000 years ago, how could they even begin to picture modern
life? Yet to men of 50,000 years from now, we may seem as primitive (原始的) in our ideas as the Stone-Age
hunters do to us. Perhaps through the cribe, These words, which I have just made up, have to stand for things
and ideas that we simply can't think of. 　　
     So why bother even to try imagining life far in the future? Here are two reasons. First unless we remember
how short our own lives are compared with the whole human history, we are likely to think our own interests
are much more important than they really are. If we make the earth a poor place to live because. we are
careless or greedy (貪婪) or quarrelsome. our grand-children will not bother to think of excuses for us. 　　
     Second, by trying to escape from present interests and imagine life far in the future, we may arrive at quite
fresh ideas that we can use ourselves. For example, if we imagine that in the future men may give up farming,
we can think of trying it now. So set you imagination free when you think about the future.

1. A particular mention made of Stapledon's book in the opening paragraph _______.　　

A. serves as a description of human history 　　
B. serves an introduction to the discussion 　　
C. shows a disagreement of views 　　
D. Shows the popularity of the book

2. The text discusses men and women 50,000 years ago and 50,000 years from now
in order to show that ______. 　　

A. human history is extremely long 　　
B. life has changed a great deal 　　
C. it is useless to plan for the next 50 years 　　
D. it is difficult to tell what will happen in the future

3. Spundels and ballalators are used in the text to refer to _______. 　　

A. tools used in farming
B. ideas about modern life 　　
C. unknown things in the future
D. hunting skills in the Stone Age

4. According to the writer of the text, imagining the future will _______. 　　

A. serve the interests of the present and future generations 　　
B. enable us to better understand human history 　　
C. help us to improve farming 　　
D. make life worth living

     Australia is famous for its beautiful beaches. And Australian people love swimming and going to the beach.
But it wasn't always that way.
     Different Climate, Different Habits
     When Europeans first invaded Australia, the only people here who were good at swimming were the
Aboriginal people. The Europeans came from climates where it was too cold to swim. However the warm
climate of Australia soon changed their attitude to swimming. At first, only men swam. They swam without
any clothes on-there were no women to see them.
     Cover up!
     By the 1880 and 1890s visiting the beach was very fashionable. People wore everyday street clothes-much
more than people wear at the beach today.
     In those days people believed they should cover their most body so it would not be seen by the opposite
sex. Special bathing costumes were designed for women. This costumes used a lot of cloth and were very
heavy when wet, making it difficult to swim.
     Laws Made and Laws Changed
     The government decided to stop men swimming naked. It passed a law which forbade bathing between 6
am and 7 am. But in 1903, the laws changed; people could swim in the daytime, but they had to wear
neck-to-knee costumes.
     The Shrinking Costume
     As time passed, swimming costumes became smaller and more convenient.
     At first men and women were covered from neck to knee. Then arms became bare. Then more of the legs
were uncovered. Each new change was regarded by many as shocking and rude and people wrote letters to
the newspapers complaining about the new costume. Nowadays some people go to special"nude beaches" to
swim naked.
      However, most people cover their bodies more than they did ten years ago-not because they think bare
skin is shocking-but to protect their skin from the harmful rays of the sun.

1. Which of the following statements about the climate of Australia is TRUE?

A. It made European settlers think differently about swimming.
B. It changed European settlers' swimming costume.
C. It made European settlers feel much hotter.
D. It made European settlers have to swim naked.

2. What should swimmers do during the late 19th century?

A. They should hide when they meet a person of the opposite sex.
B. They should cover their body to avoid being seen by the opposite sex.
C. They should wear many heavy clothes on beaches.
D. They should wear special wet costumes designed for them.

3. What does the underlined sentence mean?

A. People were surprised by each new change and criticized it.
B. People were amazed by each new change and praise it.
C. Only newspapers were in favor of each new change.
D. Only newspapers thought poorly of each new change.

4. What can we conclude from the last paragraph?

A. People worry about getting skin cancer from too much sun.
B. People protected their swimming costumes from too much sun.
C. People are greatly shocked by the nude beaches.
D. People think it rude to swim with the smaller costumes.

     For photographers lacking training, experience and even the ability to click a shutter button, they produce
remarkable pictures. Under the sea, deep in the woods and high in the sky, furry, feathery and leathery-skinned
creatures are opening up vistas (遠(yuǎn)景) by taking cameras where no human can go.
     This is the world of animal-borne imagine celebrated last month at a conference sponsored(supported) by
the National Geographic Society for the 20th anniversary of its Crittercam, the device that started it all.
     Since its debut (首次公開(kāi)露面) in 1987 on the back of a turtle, the Crittercam and similar devices
developed by others have grown smaller and more powerful.
     "It's more than just a camera now," said Greg Marshall, the marine biologist and now filmmaker who
invented the Crittercam."We are now including more instruments to gather more data while at the same time
The idea of attaching video cameras to animals came to Mr. Marshall in 1986 on a dive off Belize when a shark
apporoached him. When the animal quickly turned away, he noticed a shark with a sucker fish on its belly. He
came up with the idea that putting a camera in place of the sucker fish would allow people to witness the
shark's behavior without disturbing it.
     Crittercams have been attached to sharks, sea lions and other marine animals, and, more recently, to land
animals.
     Birds are a new addition, Mr.Marshall said. Dr. Christian Rutz of Oxford recently reported on tiny cameras
called feathercams that monitor the crows in the South Pacific. It has discovered that crows are smarter than
anyone knew they not only use twigs (嫩枝) and grass stems as tools to root out food, but they also save their
favorite tools to use again.
     Tracey L.Rogers, director of the Australian Marine Mammal Research Center in Sydney, said crittercam
was a powerful tool in her work with leopard seals (豹斑海豹) in Antarctica. "In studying animals," Dr.
Rogers said at the meeting,"you want to see how our animal models align (與……一致) with reality. With a
camera, you actually see what they do. You don't have to guess."

1. What's the text mainly about?

A. The advantages of crittercam.
B. The development of Crittercams in the past 20 years.
C. How crittercam was invented.
D. How crittercam works.

2. What inspired Marshall to invent crittercam?

A. The sight of sucker fish clinging to a shark on a dive.
B. The thought of how to photograph animals better.
C. Noticing a shark eating a sucker fish on a dive.
D. Seeing a shark with a camera on its belly on a dive.

3. According to Dr. Rogers, crittercam ____.

A. can clear up all your doubts about animals
B. is the most powerful tool in studying animals
C. enabled her to observe the crows in the South Pacific closely
D. helped a lot with her research on leopard seals in Antarctica

4. All of the following are improvements of crittercams EXCEPT that ____.

A. the size is becoming smaller
B. more instruments are involved to gather more data
C. they allow researchers to see where and how animals live
D. they are able to be applied to smaller animals such as birds

     We can read of things that happened 5.000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write.
   1   The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas-  2   These legends are useful
because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down
what they did. Anthropologists(人類(lèi)學(xué)家) wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples
now living in the Pacific Islands came from.    3       
     But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are
forgotten.   4      
     Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, because this is easier to shape than other kinds. 
  5   Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who
made them have disappeared without trace.

A. They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away.
B. descriptions of what important events happened in ancient times.
C. But there are some parts of the world where even now people can't write.
D. legends handed down from one generation of story-tellers to another.
E. So scientists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first "modern men"
    came from.
F. But there is some doubt who began to write.
G. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.

     The world's first subway was built in London in 1863. At the time, the government was looking for a way
to reduce traffic problems. The poor areas of the city were so crowded with people. So the officials decided
to make it possible for workers to live outside of London and travel easily to work each day. If people had a
convenient way to get to and from work, they would live outside of the city and this would help reduce the
pressure. From these problems, the idea of the London Underground was born.
     The plans for building the Underground met with several problems, but the first track was finally opened in
January,1863. A steam train pulled the cars along the first underground track which was six kilometers long.
About 30,000 people got on the subway the first day. They were treated to comfortable seats and pleasant
decorations inside the cars. However, the smoke from the engine soon filled the air in the tunnels. Fans had to
be put in the tunnel later to keep the air clean enough for people to breathe. Even with its problems, riding the
Underground did become popular. It carried nine million riders in its first year.
     Modem subways have come a long way since the early days of the London Underground.
     Today there are more than one hundred underground systems around the world. Shopping malls built in
traffic stations have helped the popularity of subways. Nowadays many stations include underground
department stores, supermarkets and restaurants. Shoppers never have to go above ground!

1. What is the best title for this passage? (within 10 words)
_____________________________________________________________________
2. What does "Shoppers never have to go above ground!"(in Para 3) mean? (within 10 words)
______________________________________________________________________
3. Which sentence can be replaced by the following one: "Although there were such prolems,
      people loved to take subways."
______________________________________________________________________
4. What problems led the British government to build the London Underground? (within 10 words)
______________________________________________________________________
5. Translate the underlined sentence into Chinese.
_______________________________________________________________________

     No one knows yet the accurate number of lives which have been lost in this terrible fire. But reports
suggest that it is more than one hundred.
     A wall of flames fifty feet high and at least one hundred and fifty miles wide is now racing towards
the forests and rich farmlands of southern Victoria. Towns less than one hundred miles from Melbourne
will be in danger unless the wind changes. People are rushing excitedly into the streets. The police have
warned them not to see the fire but many people are doing so.
     The cause of the fire is unknown. No rain has fallen in this part of Australia for three months, and the
hot, north-west wind from the great central desert is blowing at more than thirty miles an hour.
     The firefighters are travelling to the fire by road, rail and air. But it is not easy to get there. Flames and
fallen trees have cut off or blocked roads and railway lines. The thick smoke often prevents them from
finding the air strips (飛機(jī)跑道).
     It is said that the fire has brought the greater danger to the country since the Second World War.

1. By the time the article was written, the fire ____.

A. had just broken out
B. had been put out
C. was spreading violently (猛烈地)
D. was coming to an end

2. The writer wrote this article mainly to tell people ____.

A. the fire was terrible and dangerous
B. it was impossible to put out the fire
C. more than one hundred people died of the fire
D. to join in the fight against the fire

3. In the 4th paragraph, the writer suggested that ____.

A. the fire would soon be controlled by the firefighters
B. it would be very difficult to put out the fire
C. the government was paying great attention to the fire
D. the fire had caused great losses and the airport was in danger

4. The underlined word "accurate" in the first sentence has the same meaning as ____.

A. recent
B. whole
C. rough
D. exact