【推荐1】Plants are very important living things. Life could not go on if there were no plants. This is because plants can make food from air， water and sunlight. Animals and man cannot make food from air, water and sunlight. Animals get their food by eating plants and other animals. Therefore animals and man need plants in order to live. This is why we find that there are so many plants around us.
If you look carefully at the plants around you， you will find that there are two kinds of plants： flowering plants and non-flowering plants. Flowering plants can make seeds. The seeds are protected by the fruits. Some fruits have one seed， some have two， three or four， and some have many seeds. But a few fruits have no seeds at all. An example of a fruit without seeds is the banana fruit. Most non-flowering plants do not grow from seeds. They grow from spores（胚芽）. Spores are very small. Some spores are so small and light that they can float in the air. We may say that spores are quite the same as seeds. When these spores are all on wet and shady places， they usually grow into new plants.
1. The main idea of the first paragraph is that ________.

A．plants are important for life	B．plants cannot grow without air
C．there are many plants in the world	D．we can not live without water

2. What can we infer(推断) from the passage？

A．Of all living things animals are most.

B．Spores are seeds.

C．All fruits of flowering plants have seeds.

D．Without plants, man will die out.

3. What is the meaning of the underlined word?

A．Kept.	B．Guarded.
C．Prevented.	D．Surrounded

4. This passage may be taken from ________.

A．a medicine book	B．a novel
C．a science magazine	D．an experiment report

【推荐2】Let These Plants Swat the Bugs for You

Some plants get so hungry they eat flies, spiders, and even small frogs. What’s more amazing is that these plants occur naturally (in special environments) in every state. In fact, they’re found on every continent except Antarctica.

You’ve probably seen a Venus’ flytrap. It’s often sold in museum gift stores, department stores, and even supermarkets. A small plant, it grows 6 to 8 inches tall in a container. At the end of its stalks（茎）are specially modified leaves that act like traps. Inside each trap is a lining of tiny trigger（触发）hairs. When an insect lands on them, the trap suddenly shut. Over the course of a week or so, the plant feeds on its catch.

The Venus’ flytrap is just one of more than 500 species of meat-eating plants, says Barry Meyers-Rice, the editor of the International Carnivorous Plant Society’s Newsletter. Note: Despite any science-fiction stories（科幻小说）you might have read, no meat-eating plant does any danger to humans.

Dr. Meyers-Rice says a plant is meat-eating, only if it does all four of the following: “attract, kill, digest, and absorb” some form of insects, including flies, butterflies, and moths. Meat-eating plants look and act like other green plants—well, most of the time.

All green plants make sugar through a process called photosynthesis（光合作用）. Plants use the sugar to make food. What makes “meat-eating” plants different is their bug-catching leaves. They need insects for one reason: nitrogen（氮）. Nitrogen is a nutrient that they can’t obtain any other way. Why?

Almost all green plants on our planet get nitrogen from the soil. “Meat-eating” plants can’t. They live in places where nutrients are hard or almost impossible to get from the soil because of its acidity（酸度）. So they’ve come to rely on getting nitrogen from insects and small animals. In fact, nutrient-rich soil is poisonous to “meat-eating” plants. Never fertilize（施肥）them! But don’t worry, either, if they never seem to catch any insects. They can survive, but they’ll grow very slowly.

1. Venus flytrap ________.

A．is a small plant which grows in a container.

B．is a kind of plant which gets hungry easily.

C．can attract, kill, digest and absorb some form of insects.

D．grows 6-8 inches tall

2. From the passage, we know ________.

A．“meat-eating” plants are found on every continent

B．all green plants get nitrogen from the soil

C．bug-catching leaves make “meat-eating” different from other plants

D．some “meat-eating” plants in the rainforest do danger to humans

3. “Meat-eating” plants grow very slowly, ________.

A．so you’d better fertilize them

B．probably because the source of nitrogen is cut off

C．simply because they can’t absorb nitrogen from the soil

D．and then they will die slowly

4. Which of the following is true?

A．“Meat-eating” plants look and act like other green plants.

B．No insects, no “meat-eating” plants.

C．The reason why Venus flytrap needs flies is that it needs to get nutrient from them.

D．Green plants make sugar at night.

5. What s the underlined word nutrient in paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．化学物

B．营养物

C．肥料

D．氮氢化合物

【推荐3】A fisherman I know named Joar Hesten called me late in April last year. A beluga whale was swimming around his boat near the northern tip of Norway. It appeared to be wrapped in a tight harness (套子), and Hesten didn’t know what to do. Belugas are usually found in groups in areas with ice and glaciers (冰川) —rarely alone along the Norwegian coast. As a marine biologist, I knew that the harness needed to be removed as soon as possible. I had no idea how puzzling it would turn out to be.

We contacted the local government. When inspector JørgenRee Wiig and his crew met with the fishing boat, they doubted Joar Hesten had clearly been trained. The mystery deepened when he got into the water to remove the belt. Attached to the harness were a camera mount (支撑架) and clips with the words (in English) “Equipment St. Petersburg.” The stuff didn’t look like anything that a scientist would use to track whales. The rescuers and I wondered whether he’d been trained for a special purpose. We named him Hvaldimir—the Norwegian word for “whale”.

A week after his discovery, Hvaldimir followed a sailboat to Hammerfest harbor, about 25 miles from where he was first spotted. He was thin: He wasn’t eating on his own and seemed unlikely to survive in the wild. Later the authorities decided to feed him; his meals became daily tourist attractions in Hammerfest. Hvaldimir became so popular in Hammerfest that rules had to be posted for interacting with him.

Yet when I slipped into the water to examine Hvaldimir, I was most struck by his friendliness—and his loneliness. During our swim together, Hvaldimir pulled off one of my flippers (脚蹼), which sank into the deep. I shouted to him underwater, and he dived for it. A few minutes later, he returned with my flipper balanced on his nose and presented it to me.

In June Hvaldimir left Hammerfest, in much better shape than when he arrived. Since then he has traveled along the coast of northern Norway, apparently feeding himself.

1. What endangered the whale most according to the author?

A．Getting separated from its group.

B．Being spotted by humans.

C．Being caught by the harness.

D．Being driven away from his familiar surroundings.

2. What puzzled the author and other rescuers about Hvaldimir?

A．His poor condition.	B．His mysterious identity.
C．His strange tracks.	D．His faraway birthplace.

3. What can we learn about Hvaldimir in Hammerfest?

A．He was taken good care of in a zoo.

B．He was transported there by a fishing ship.

C．He was well trained to entertain humans.

D．He might feel comfortable with the presence of humans.

4. Why did the author shout at Hvaldimir?

A．To test its hearing.

B．To express his anger to it.

C．To ask it to pick up his flipper.

D．To prove his training was a success.

【推荐3】All of us eat every day, but most of us don’t understand nutrition. We often make mistakes in talking about good diet.

For example, many people think that foods such as rice, bread and potatoes will make one grow fat. In fact, these foods are very good to one’s health. They are good sources of many vitamins. And in comparison with steak and beef, they contain less amount of calories.

Some people don’t like canned(罐装的) or frozen vegetables, because they think fresh vegetables cooked at home are always better. This is again wrong. In fact, whether the vegetables are good or not depends more on how they are prepared. Overcooking, for example, destroys good qualities of vegetables. Vegetables cooked in too much water can lose a large amount of vitamins.

It is widely believed extra vitamins provide more energy. But taking more than the body needs doesn’t make it function better.

It is also wrong to say that vegetables grown in poor, worn-out soil are lower in vitamins than vegetables grown in rich soil. The vitamins in our foods are in the plants themselves. They don’t come from the soil. However, the minerals(矿物质) in a plant depend on the minerals in the soil.

In short, there are many false ideas about nutrition. We need to correct them.

1. This passage is mainly about_______.

A．nutrition

B．vitamins

C．vegetables

D．health

2. Rice, bread and potatoes do good to people’s health mainly because_______.

A．they make people fat

B．there are lot of vitamins in them

C．they contain less amount of calories compared with steak and beef.

D．both B and C.

3. Why don’t some people like canned or frozen vegetables? Because______.

A．they think fresh vegetables contain less vitamins

B．they think fresh vegetables contain more vitamins than the canned or frozen ones

C．they don’t think the canned or frozen vegetables are fresh

D．they don’t think the canned or frozen vegetables taste as good as the fresh ones

4. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．Many people know almost everything about nutrition.

B．Food such as rice, bread and potatoes make people fat.

C．vegetables grown in poor worn-out soil may have the same amount of vitamins as vegetables grown in rich soil.

D．extra vitamins provide less energy.

5. The point of the passage is that______.

A．the minerals in a plant depend on the minerals in the soil

B．people make mistakes when talking about good diet

C．taking more vitamins than the body needs doesn’t make it function better

D．vegetables cooked in too much water can lose a large amount of vitamins