A company planning to open the first hotel in space says it is on target to accept its first paying guests in 2012 despite critics (評(píng)論家) questioning the investment and the length of time for the multibilliondollar project.
     The Barcelonabased architects of the Galactic Suite Space Resort say it will cost $4.4 million for a threenight stay at the hotel.This price also includes an eightweek training course on an island.During their stay, guests would see the sunrise 15 times a day and travel around the world every 80 minutes.
     Galactic Suite Ltd's CEO Xavier Claramunt says the project will put his company in a leading position of a new industry with a huge future ahead of it, and forecasts space travel will become common in the future."It's very  normal to think that your children, possibly within 15 years, could   spend a weekend in space, "he told Reuters Television.
     A promising space tourism industry is beginning to take shape with construction in progress in New Mexico of Spaceport America, the world's first facility (設(shè)施) built specifically for passengers.British industrialist Richard Branson's space tours firm, Virgin Galactic, will use the facility to send tourists to space at a cost of $200,000 a ride.
      Galactic Suite Ltd, set up in 2007, hopes to start its project with a single pod (分離艙) in orbit 280 miles above the earth."It will take a day and a half to reach the pod, and the passengers will join it for three days, "Claramunt said.More than 200 people have expressed an interest in traveling to the space hotel and at least 43 people have already reserved it.
     The numbers are similar for Virgin Galactic with 300 people already paid or signed up for the trip, but unlike Branson, Galactic Suite says they will use Russian rockets to transport their guests into space from a spaceport to be built on an island in the Caribbean.But critics have questioned the project, saying the length of time that will be used is unreasonable and also where the money is coming from to support the project.

1. What's Xavier Claramunt's attitude towards the space tourism industry?
A. Quite critical.     
B. Slightly worried.
C. Highly optimistic.  
D. Fully satisfied.

2. Virgin Galactic's guests will be transported into space by using rockets produced in________.
A. Spain  
B. America
C. Britain  
D. Russia

3. Which of the following is one of the critics' concerns about this project?
A. It is hard to ensure the safety of tourists.
B. There are many technical difficulties.
C. It will be a waste of resources.
D. It may lack support in money.

4. According to the passage, traveling to the space hotel ________.
A. will soon be possible for common people
B. has attracted the attention of some people
C. will make a large profit for the tourist industry
D. is considered an industry with a huge future by many people

5. What's the best title for the passage?
A. The world's first space hotel is to open in 2012
B. The world's first commercial spaceport is being built
C. Space tourism:a surprising new industry
D. Space travel will become common in 15 years

     Kasey Kaczmarek:When I read "Would My Dad Love Me?"by Martha, I related to how Martha felt
about her father.I always wondered if my dad cared about me, or if he even loved me.All the kids would
be with their dads and they would ask me where my dad was, and I would tell them that he was out of
town.For all you kids who have a dad, tell him how much you love him because there are plenty of kids
who would love to have a dad.
     Armen Abidian:This article describes everything about me and my life.When I was about 3 years old,
my mother and father had a big argument and got divorced.Now I'm 13 years old and I haven't seen my
father for 10 years.Just like Martha, I don't know what he looks like now, whether or not he's got married to a different woman, or if he has another child.
     Emma Ramirez:When Martha talked about how "most girls have dads who take them to their practices, buy them things and play with them", I thought I was one of those girls.I never stopped to think about how there are girls who have always dreamed of having those things but don't have a father.After reading what  Martha wrote, I told myself I would always appreciate the days I spend with my dad because I am very
lucky to have a dad who does so much for me.
     Stephanie Felix:This article reminded me of how much I missed my dad when I was younger.I really
relate to this article because I used to always wonder about my dad, but not any more.Life without my
father has made me more independent and responsible.By reading this article I remember all of this and I
was able to understand what the writer was talking about.

1. The above four paragraphs are most probably ________.
A. comments on a book about a girl who has no father
B. comments on Martha's opinion about parents' love
C. four people's thoughts after reading Martha's article
D. letters to Martha to comfort her

2. What does the passage suggest?
A. Martha's father didn't love her.
B. Martha didn't grow up with her dad.
C. Martha was brought up by her grandparents.
D. Martha's parents got divorced when she was 13.

3. What does Kasey Kaczmarek suggest kids do?
A. Not ask other kids where their dads are.
B. Be kind to those kids who don't have a dad.
C. Tell their fathers how much they love them.
D. Spend as much time with their fathers as possible.

4. After reading what Martha wrote, Emma Ramirez ________.
A. decided to spend more time with her father
B. told herself to appreciate all that she had
C. realized how badly she behaved in the past
D. found how lucky she was to have a dad

5. Who became more independent and responsible living a life without a father?
A. Kasey Kaczmarek.  
B. Stephanie Felix.
C. Emma Ramirez.  
D. Armen Abidian.

     Eddie McKay, a onceforgotten pilot is a subject of great interest to a group of history students in
Canada.
     It all started when Graham Broad, a professor at the University of Western Ontario, fofund McKay's
name in a footnote in a book about university history.McKay was included in a list of university alumni
(校友) who had served during the First World War, but his name was unfamiliar to Broad, a specialist
in military history.Out of curiosity, Broad spent hours at the local archives(檔案館)in a fruitless search
for information on McKay.Tired and discouraged, he finally gave up.On his way out, Broad's glance
happened to fall on an exhibiting case showing some old newspapers.His eye was drawn to an old
picture of a young man in a rugby uniform.As he read the words beside the picture, he experienced a
thrilling realization."After looking for him all day, there he was, staring up at me out of the exhibiting case,
"said Broad.Excited by the find'Broad asked his students to continue his search.They combed old
newspapers and other materials for clues.Gradually, a picture came into view.
     Captain Alfred Edwin McKay joined the British Royal Flying Corps in 1916.He downed ten enemy
planes, outlived his entire squadron(中隊(duì))as a WWI flyer, spent some time as a flying instructor in
England, and then returned to the front, where he was eventually shot down over Belgium and killed in
December 1917.But there's more to his story."For a brief time in 1916 he was probably the most
famous pilot in the world, "says Broad."He was credited with downing Oswald Boelcke, the most
famous German pilot at the time."Yet, in a letter home, McKay refused to take credit, saying that
Boelcke had actually crashed into another German plane.
     McKay's war records were destroyed during a World War ? air bombing on London-an explanation
for why he was all but forgotten.
     But now, thanks to the efforts of Broad and his students, a marker in McKay's memory was placed
on the university grounds in November 2007."I found my eyes filling with tears as I read the word '
deceased' (陣亡) next to his name, "said Corey Everrett, a student who found a picture of Mckay in
his uniform."This was such a simple example of the fact that he had been a student just like us, but instead of finishing his time at Western, he chose to fight and die for his country."

1. What made Professor Broad continue his search for more information on McKay?
A. A uniform of McKay.
B. A footnote about McKay.
C. A book on McKay.
D. A picture of McKay.

2. What did the students find out about McKay?
A. He trained pilots for some time.
B. He lived longer than other pilots.
C. He died in the Second World War.
D. He was downed by the pilot Boelcke.

3. McKay's flying documents were destroyed in________.
A. Belgium
B. Germany
C. Canada  
D. England

4. We can learn from the last paragraph that McKay________.
A. preferred fight to his study
B. went to war before graduation
C. left a picture for Corey Everrett
D. set an example for his fellow students

5. What is the text mainly about?
A. The research into war history.
B. The finding of a forgotten hero.
C. The pilots of the two world wars.
D. The importance of military studies.

     Ask savvy investors(投資者) how they learned their first lessons about money, and they'll probably tell you lessons their parents taught them.
     The money values we learn as children stay with us the rest of our lives. If you are a parent, teaching
your children the value of saving and investing will benefit them the rest of their lives. Here's what you can
do:Help your child begin to save. Open savings accounts for your children, and teach them how the bank
adds interest to their savings that makes their money grow. Encourage your children to save a little from
every bit of money they receive, such as allowances, birthday gifts, etc. You may even want to set up a
matching program, contributing fifty cents for each dollar your child saves.
     Teach your child  about stocks (股票).  A  child in elementary  school  can  start  learning about how
businesses  work. Once your child understands the basics,  ask him or her to think about  some of  the
businesses that might be good stock investments. Then use Morningstar Mutual  Fund  Guide(available
at your library)to find a quality mutual fund that holds some of these companies, or a mutual  fund  that
caters  to children  such as the  Stein  Roe Young Investor Fund. Many funds accept regular monthly
investments as low as $50 a month, so these funds can be a good way to teach children about the stock
market while saving for their college education.
     Encourage early IRA(個(gè)人退休金賬戶)saving. The new Roth IRA is a great way for children who
are working in summers or after school to begin saving for their future. Imagine how much money you'd
have today if you had saved $3,000 a year since you were a teenager!
     Let your kids handle their own money. We all learn by doing, so letting your kids manage a segment
of their budget(預(yù)算)will let them earn valuable financial lessons.They may make mistakes, but they will
be small mistakes that may help them avoid larger mistakes as adults.

1．Which would be the best title for this passage?

A．Why to Teach Your Children to Save
B．How to Teach Your Children to Save
C．Tips for Saving for Children
D．Start Good Saving Habits Early

2．A matching program means ________.

A．that you should set a good example to your children
B．that you should provide enough money for children so that they can save some
C．that you encourage your children to compete with each other in saving
D．that you encourage your children by giving some extra money for them to save

3．According to the author, you should teach your children about investment when he/she is ________.

A．in the kindergarten  
B．in primary school
C．in middle school  
D．in college

4．Which of the following is NOT an advantage of the Stein Roe Young Investor Fund?

A．It is usually with high benefits.
B．It accepts regular monthly investments.
C．It accepts small investments as low as $50 a month.
D．It caters to children who can afford small investments.

     Facebook means never having to say goodbye.The social media website has earned a reputation for
reconnecting old friends.Last week,a guy whom I hadn't seen since my bachelor party five years ago sent me a friend request.I accepted and waited for "Easy E" to send me a greeting of some kind.He had sought me out,after all.
     I learned from his profile that he was in a relationship and had a son.However,I'm pretty sure we won't ever write walltowall,let alone email each other.But he'll remain a friend of online until one of us makes a
point of removing the other from his official list.
     My pool of friends consists of family members,college buddies,coworkers from past and  present,and
friends of friends.There are 35 in all.If I spent some time uploading old email addresses,I'm confident that
I could increase my friend count actually.
     A person could make a mission out of reconnecting with childhood friends,former  classmates,distant
cousins, and those one would like to get to know better.And some people can even handle hundreds of
onscreen relationships,keeping up with the daily happenings of  their small army of companions.After all,
there are worse fates than having too many friends.
     Thanks to email,the inability to schedule facetoface meetings no longer means a  friendship must come
to a close. But even with email, people will lose touch if one or both  parties  stop  writing  back. That's
normal.People move from school to school,job to job,city to city.You never have to feel guilty for breaking away.Every day,the masterminds of Web 2.0 find new ways of making human communication  easier.However,convenience can be a crutch(拐杖)  Some things shouldn't be simplified.When it comes to friendship,
there can be no shortcuts.

1．According to Paragraph 1,the website is famous because ________.

A．it has an interesting name of "Facebook"
B．it helps people get in touch with old friends
C．it can send people a greeting of some kind
D．it reminds people of events in the past

2．From the second paragraph we can learn that the writer ________.

A．would write to the friend quite often
B．a(chǎn)sked the friend to email him
C．did get some information about the friend
D．would keep in touch with the friend forever

3．Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A．There are 35 people in the author's list of friends right now.
B．The author communicates with all the 35 friends by emails.
C．The list of 35 friends doesn't include the old email addresses.
D．It is not difficult for the author to increase his friend count.

4.What does the writer mean by saying "However,convenience can be a crutch(拐杖)"?

A．The masterminds of Web 2.0 also sell crutch online.
B．Taking a crutch is a new way of making friends online.
C．Convenience is dangerous for human communication.
D．Convenience is not really good for human communication.

1. Which may serve as the best title of the article?

A. Cars Helping You to GrowUp
B. Driving into the GrownUp World
C. Teenagers' Driving in America
D. Recognized Point of Becoming an Adult

2. 16yearold drivers have more accidents possibly because________.

A. they want to show themselves off
B. they are never experienced drivers
C. older people always drive better
D. they never drive carefully on the road

3. Which may NOT be taken into consideration when deciding whether to buy a car?

A. How well off the family is.
B. Whether the kid is old enough.
C. What traffic condition there is around.
D. Whether it's practically needed.

1. According to the analysis, compared with normal children today, children treated as mentally ill 50 years ago ________.

A. probably suffered less from anxiety
B. were considered less individualistic
C. were less isolated physically
D. were probably less selfcentered

2. What does the author mean by saying "we can't turn the clock back" in the third paragraph?

A. It's impossible to forget the past.  
B. The social reality children are facing cannot be forgotten.
C. It's impossible to slow down the pace of change.
D. Lessons learned from the past should not be forgotten.

3. The author thinks that the conclusions of any research about people's state of mind are ________.

A. illogical  
B. confusing
C. surprising  
D. questionable

     Too often we accuse others of not listening, pretending   that we ourselves are faultless, yet in our
hearts we know that many of the mistakes we make come about because we haven't listened carefully
enough. We get things wrong because we haven't listened carefully enough. We get things wrong because we haven't quite understood what someone meant when they were talking to us. Anyone who has ever
taken the minutes of a   long meeting will know how hard it is to remember-despite the benefit of
notes-exactly what everyone said. But success depends on getting things right-and that means listening.
     Listening is not the same thing as hearing which is not quite an effort. It demands attention and
concentration. It may mean quizzing the speaker for additional information or for clarification-it is always
better to ask than to continue regardless and get things wrong. However, if you allow your mind to
wander onto something else, even for a few minutes, you'll miss what the speaker is saying -probably
at the very moment when he or she  is saying something critical. And not having heard, you won't know
you've missed anything until it's too late.
     The most common bad habit we have is to start thinking of what we are going to say about the
subject long before the other speaker has finished. We then stop listening. Even worse, this often adds
rudeness to inattentiveness, as once you have decided what to say there is a fair chance you will interrupt
to say it. Good listeners don't interrupt. In fact it is often worth explaining the main idea of what you have
just been told before going on to make your own points. Nobody is offended by this and it shows that
you have listened well.
Above all, be patient and accept that many people are not very good communicators. It's helpful to
remember that the ways people move and position themselves while they are speaking can reveal a
great deal about what they are saying. Equally important you should put yourself in the other person's
place, both intellectually and emotionally; it will help you to understand what_they_are_getting_at and
form a response. But don't be too clever. Faced with a know-all, many people keep quiet because they
see no point in continuing.

1. Which is the best title for this passage?

A. Don't be too clever
B. Be a good listener
C. Don't miss anything critical
D. Think of the speaker

2. In the last paragraph, the underlined words mean ________.

A. what they imply
B. what they like
C. what they attack
D. what they achieve

3. According to the passage, which of the following is the  writer's opinion?

A. If you want to be a good listener, you should be very clever and emotional.
B. Speakers won't continue talking when their listeners explain what they’ve heard.
C. If you don't want to get things wrong, it's important to be a good listener.
D. It's hard to be a good listener because listening tests you on your intelligence.

4. What is the lesson we can learn from this passage?

A. Don't accuse others of not listening while talking with them.
B. Don't get anything wrong if you miss what the speaker is saying.
C. Listening inattentively may cost you the loss of your success.
D. Think carefully of what you're going to say before the speaker finishes.