【推荐1】In the morning when we arrived on foot at Dunmont the d'Urville, the French scientific base on the Adelie coast of east Antarctica, we had to break up a thin layer of ice that had formed over the hole we had drilled the day before. The hole went right through the ten-foot-thick iceberg. It was just wide enough for a man and below it lay the sea. We had never tried to dive through such a small opening. I went first. Pushing and pulling with hands, knees, heels and tips on my swim fins, I moved through the hole.

The bottom surface of the sea ice is a thick mixture of floating ice blocks and my fall had set them in motion. They were meeting on the holes as if it had been an upside-down drain(排水管). By the time I pushed one arm into the icy blocks, it was three feet thick.Grabbing the safety rope, I was scared and pulled myself up inch by inch, but my shoulders got stuck. Suddenly I was astonished by a sharp blow on the head: Cedril Gentil, one of my dive companions was trying to dig me out and his spade had struck my skull(头盖骨). Finally, a hand grabbed mine and dragged me into the air. Today's dive was over—— but it was only one of 32.

I have come here with another photographer, Vincent Munier at the invitation of film maker Luc Jacquet, who's working on a sequel (续集) to his 2005 accomplishment,March of the Penguins. While Jacquet films emperor penguins and Munier photographs them, my team will document life under the sea ice.

I've worked for decades as the deep diving photographer at first in the Mediterranean Sea, where I learned to dive thirty years ago. Later, a passion for new mysteries took me elsewhere. I have dived to 400 feet of South Africa to photograph rare coelacanths（ a large fish） and for 24 straight hours off Fakarava, in French Polynesia, to witness the pairing of 17,000 groupers. But this exploration to Antarctica is unlike any other. Here we will be diving deeper than anyone has dived before under Antarctic ice —— and the conditions will be beyond harsh.

1. Why was the layer of ice the author chose thin?

A．Because it was formed more recently.

B．Because it was near their research base.

C．Because the water there was shallower.

D．Because the temperature there was higher.

2. What frightened the author when he wanted to return to the surface？

A．The safety rope was missing.

B．Floating ice blocks were about to fill the hole.

C．An unknown creature attacked him.

D．His workmate hit his head by tool to save him.

3. Why did the author dive into the Antarctic?

A．To record his trouble in the sea.

B．To conduct a research under the sea.

C．To photograph the pairing of penguins.

D．To shoot the sea-born life for Jacquet.

4. What does the author intend to do in the last paragraph?

A．Introduce his achievements.

B．Show his special interest in diving.

C．Stress that the exploration to Antarctica was unique.

D．Add some scientific background Information.

【推荐2】It’s a Saturday morning in a large courtyard. Young designers sell their creations, from fine tea sets to hand-painted earrings. I could be in east London until standard Chinese tones remind me I’m in Jingdezhen, a small Chinese city.

Centuries ago, when Europeans first saw Chinese porcelain, it seemed so fine that they concluded it must have been made with magic and called it “white gold”.

They couldn’t find out how it was made, but they knew where it came from: the town of Changnan. Changnan porcelain was so in demand that early traders began calling the whole country by this town’s name.

Two million years after porcelain’s invention, the town, now called Jingdezhen, is still one of the world’s most important centers for porcelain production.

“The people are the most important treasure here. Their roots are deep in history,” says Zhang Jia. She’s part of a new wave of designers who have come to Jingdezhen to learn techniques handed down and refined over a hundred generations. “This is the best place to study porcelain in China, perhaps in the entire world,” she adds.

Chinese artists aren’t the only ones drawn here. Founded in 2005 by Caroline Cheng, the Pottery Workshop runs classes for visitors from around the world.

Paul told me that when he first visited Jingdezhen there were no street lamps and only dirty pavements. There were workshops but their goods were bought by traders and sold elsewhere. These days, stylish cafes and bars pop up next to concept stores. At one such shop, I admired some tiny teacups like birds.

With the popularity of the Pottery Workshop, China’s young people are more interested in unique individually-made products. Many of the designers are using Jingdezhen’s master craftsmen to make them because they know they offer quality, attention to detail.

1. What makes the writer realize that he is in China?

A．Fine tea sets.

B．Fine Chinese porcelain.

C．Hand-painted earrings.

D．Standard Chinese tones.

2. Why did early Europeans call Chinese porcelain “white gold”?

A．Because it was made in China.

B．Because they knew it came from Changnan.

C．Because they thought it was made with magic.

D．Because they liked it so much and it was in demand.

3. Zhang Jia came to Jingdezhen in order to ________.

A．study techniques of making porcelain

B．pay a visit to some of her foreign friends

C．enjoy the beautiful scenery of Jingdezhen

D．know something about Jingdezhen’s history

4. From what Paul said we can learn ________ .

A．the goods in the workshop were not popular in western countries

B．in the past Jingdezhen was a poor and dirty place

C．many foreign visitors came to Jingdezhen to study porcelain

D．China’s young people were more interested in unique products

【推荐3】First Day at School

It was my first day at school in London and I was half-excited and half-frightened. On my way to school I wondered, what questions the other boys would ask me and practiced all the answers: “I am nine years old. I was born here but I haven’t lived here since I was two. I was living in Farley. It’s about thirty miles away. I came back to London two months ago.” I also wondered if it was the rule for boys to fight strangers like me, but I was tall for my age. I hoped they would decide not to risk it.

No one took any notice of me before school. I stood in the center of the playground, expecting someone to say “hello”, but no one spoke to me.

My teacher was called Mr Jones. There were 42 boys in the class, so I didn’t stand out there, either, until the first lesson of the afternoon. Mr Jones was very fond of Charles Dickens, so he asked several boys if they knew Dickens’ birthplace, but no one guessed right. A boy called Brian, the biggest in the class, said “Timbuktu” and Mr Jones went red in the face. Then he asked me. I said “Portsmouth” and everyone stared at me because Mr Jones said I was right. This didn’t make me very popular, of course. “He thinks he’s clever,” I heard Brian say.

After that, we went out to the playground to play football. I was in Brian’s team, and he obviously had Dickens in mind because he told me to go in goal. No one ever wanted to be the goalkeeper.

“He’s big enough and useless enough,” Brian said when someone asked him why he had chosen me.

As the boy kicked the ball hard along the ground to my right, I threw myself down quickly and saved it. All my team crowded round me. My bare knees were grazed and bleeding. Brian took out a handkerchief and offered it to me.

“Do you want to join my team?” he said.

At the end of the day, I was no longer a stranger.

1. The writer prepared to answer all the following questions EXCEPT “________”.

A．How old are you?

B．Where are you from?

C．Do you want to join my team?

D．When did you come back to London?

2. We can learn from the passage that ________.

A．boys were usually unfriendly to new students

B．the writer was not greeted as he expected

C．Brian praised the writer for his cleverness

D．the writer was glad to be a goalkeeper

3. The underlined part “so I didn’t stand out there” in paragraph 3 means that the writer was not ________.

A．noticeable

B．nervous

C．important

D．surprised

4. The writer was offered a handkerchief because ________.

A．he was in Brian’s team

B．he was no longer a new comer

C．he was beginning to be accepted

D．he pushed a player on the other team