【推荐1】阅读下面短文，根据短文内容，完成表格中所缺的信息, 并将答案填写在下面相应题号的位置上（不超过3个词）。
            It is one of the most famous books in the world: yet it has no story and no interesting characters, no exciting beginning and no satisfying ending. And yet this book keeps being printed and it keeps growing. At its last printing, it was 20 volumes (卷), with nearly 22,000 pages. This book is one of the most famous dictionaries in the English-speaking world, the Oxford English Dictionary.

The Oxford English Dictionary or OED for short, began in 1857 as just an idea of a group of people who thought the world needed an English-language dictionary to show the history of English words from 1150 CE to the present. It wasn’t until the late 1870s, however, when James Murray joined the project that it began to grow. Murray planned for a dictionary of about 6, 400 pages in four volumes, completed in 10 years.

James Murray (1837-1915) did most of his work in a small metal building called the Scriptorium. That small building, hot in summer and cold in winter, was the place where Murray and his assistants (助手) collected millions of pieces of paper, each one with a word and an example sentence or phrase written on it. Murray and his assistants worked hard, but after five years they had only reached the word ant!

It was not until 1928 that the dictionary was told to the public completed and published: 10 volumes with over 400,000 words and phrases. James Murray did not live to see the completion of his life’s work, he passed away in 1915, over ten years before OED came out.

As soon as the dictionary was published, however, the editors started to update (更新) it! In 1933, the Oxford English dictionary was reprinted in 12 volumes. Between 1972 and 1986, four more volumes were added with new technical and scientific vocabulary and words from other English-speaking countries, such as Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In 1989, the entire (整个的) dictionary was reprinted in 20 volumes! Three years later, all 20 volumes were put onto CD, and the entire dictionary is available online today.

With about 600,000 words and three million quotations (引语) from over 1,000 years of English, the OED not only records where the English language has come from but has also become an important part of the history of English-speaking cultures around the world.

The book that keeps on growing
Facts and features	●It was 20 volumes with nearly 22,000 pages. ●It has about 600,00 words and 3 million quotations from over 1,000 years of English. ●Although it has no story or interesting characters, etc., it keeps being printed and it keeps growing! That is to say, it is     1     in the English-speaking world.
2	The Oxford English Dictionary
		began just as an idea to show the history of English words from 1150 CE to the present.
		began to grow when Murray joined. Murray with his assistants worked hard, patiently and carefully under     3    .
		was completed and published in 10 volumes.
		was reprinted in 12 volumes.
		was added up to     4     volumes
		was reprinted in 20 volumes.
		was put onto CD.
		is available online.
Importance and values	●It is one of the most famous dictionaries in the English-speaking world and also one of the most famous books in the world. ●It is not only     5     the beginning of English language but an important part of the history of English-speaking cultures.

【推荐3】Most of us use alarm clocks to wake up at the right time for school or work. We look at our watches to know the right time for the bus or train. However, there is also a right time to eat, sleep, exercise, and take medicine. We can’t look at a clock for the right time for these activities. We must listen to the clock which we all have inside our bodies: the biological clock.
       Barbara Wells exercised every morning. She woke up at 6:00 a.m. She ran about two miles before she went to work. But Barbara’s legs and back started to hurt. She did some exercise before she ran. But her legs and back still hurt. She ran slower, but the pain didn’t stop. Barbara talked to her doctor. The doctor said, “Don’t run in the morning. Try to exercise later in the day. That is the time when your body is at the right temperature for exercise.” Her legs and back didn’t hurt anymore.
       Today, doctors are learning more about chronobiology, the study of the biological clock. They are learning about the importance of time to our bodies. For example, it is best for people to go to sleep on time every night and to eat only when they’re hungry. Also, doctors discovered that some illness, such as heart problems, happen most often in the morning. This information tells them that the best time to take heart medication is at night. When patients take heart medication at night, they may prevent a heart problem in the morning.
       Many doctors believe chronobiology can help us live healthier lives. It may be the right time to listen to these doctors!
1. Do we all have the biological clock inside our bodies?
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2. How far did Barbara Wells run every morning?
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3. What’s the best time to take heart medication?
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4. According to the passage, what should you do to live a healthier life?
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【推荐1】阅读短文，然后在文后思维导图内完成内容摘要，每空不超过三个词，并将答案写在答题卡的相应位置。

The Rocky Mountains are a large group of mountains on the North American continent(洲). The Rockies are found in the western part of North America. They stretch(连绵) from Canada in the north to the United States in the south. The southern part of the Rockies ends in the state of New Mexico.

The Rockies are the longest mountain range in North America. They have many high peaks(山峰). The highest is Mount Elbert in Colorado. It is three miles high.

In the summer, the Rockies are warm and dry, though it does rain sometimes. During the winter, the weather is wet and cold. Heavy winter snow falls in the higher parts of the Rockies.

Many people like to visit these mountains. They ride bikes, hike on trails, ski, or fish. A special area called Rocky Mountain National Park is in Colorado. The national park is reserved(留出) for people to visit. Visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park can see the wild animals that live there. These animals include elk(麋鹿), moose(驼鹿), mountain goats, and mountain sheep.

In the summer, the Rockies are warm and dry, though it does rain sometimes. During the winter, the weather is wet and cold. Heavy winter snow falls in the higher parts of the Rockies.

Many people like to visit these mountains. They ride bikes, hike on trails, ski, or fish. A special area called Rocky Mountain National Park is in Colorado. The national park is reserved(留出) for people to visit. Visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park can see the wild animals that live there. These animals include elk(麋鹿), moose(驼鹿), mountain goats, and mountain sheep.

1. ________
2. ________
3. ________
4. ________
5. ________

【推荐2】

Wood’s cycad is a striking plant, tall with a green crown and bright orange cones. Found in a Zululand forest in 1895, it is the only cycad of its kind, and a male. “The loneliest plant in the world, right here,” a guide tells visitors touring the Durban Botanic Gardens in South Africa. Without a female it will never reproduce, though measures have been taken to make clones of it.

Cycads date from the time of the dinosaurs. But some of the kinds might not be around much longer. They are the world’s most threatened plant group. South Africa’s cycads, most of which are found nowhere else in the world, are especially endangered. All cycads are dioecious（雌雄异株的）, so that seed production is no longer possible with the rarest of the species. And surprisingly, it is those who love the cycad most that pose the biggest danger—collectors who want exotic varieties for their private gardens. Slow-growing adult cycads, some hundreds of years old, sell for tens of thousands of dollars. “People see them as a status symbol,” says the senior gardener Phakamani Xaba. In fact, 25 of South Africa’s 38 cycad species are threatened with extinction. Two of the world’s cycad species have been wiped out in the wild since 2003. With wild stocks diminishing, thieves have turned to breaking into protected gardens and reserves.

To prevent theft, plants have been fitted with microchips, but thieves use X-ray scanners to find them and hack them out. Rare cycads are now sprayed with special invisible paint. Scientists are testing radio frequency identification tags on cycads that could send out alerts.

The major difficulty in stopping the illegal trade is the fact that leaves removed for transport, it is difficult to distinguish the trunk of an endangered species from one that is legal to sell. A DNA database, using gene sequences, is being tested to help with identification.

Xaba says it is probably too late to save some cycad species. He feels sad that collectors are almost never caught. For extreme collectors, rarity only makes a cycad more desirable.

Fortunately, some governments have been aware of the problem. Take South Africa as an example, strict regulations on the illegal trade of rare cycads are being implemented.

根据短文，在下面表格中填入恰当的内容完成摘记，每空不超过三个单词。

Cycads: The    1
A typical    2	Wood’s cycad has only one    3
Present situation	•The number of the wild cycads is    4     •Two cycad species have died out and twenty-five are at risk of extinction.
5     of the situation	•Cycads are dioecious, which makes it hard for the rare ones to fertilize. •Cycads face the serious problem of    6
Difficulty in conservation	7
8     of conservation	•Scientists use technologies to save cycads such as putting    9     •Governments make special    10

【推荐3】Whenever you walk past a cafe, you might be drawn in by the smell of freshly made coffee. But the minute you try this dark drink you will regret it, because it tastes like bitter Chinese medicine.

Why does something that smells so good taste so bad? Many people are curious about this, but now scientists say they have found the answer—it lies in our “second sense (感觉) of smell,” according to the Telegraph.

“We have two senses of smell,” explained Barry Smith, professor of the University of London. “One is when you breathe in things from the environment, and the other is when the air comes up the nose and is breathed out through the nose.”

When we drink coffee, for example, the act of swallowing (吞咽) sends a burst of smell up the back of our nose from inside the mouth. This wakes up the second sense of smell in our brain. But it is weaker and less sensitive (敏感的) to flavors (味道). As a result, it gives us a completely different feeling.

In fact, the second sense of smell plays a big part in our eating experience. It may be common sense that we smell through our nose and taste using our tongue (舌头). But the truth is 80 percent of what we think of as taste actually reaches us through smell. Just hold your nose while eating and you will notice that your tongue can only catch a very small part of the flavor.

1. What does the 1^st paragraph show us?
____________________________________________________________________
2. Why does something that smells so good taste so bad?
____________________________________________________________________
3. What is the “second sense of smell”?
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4. Which body parts play a role in sensing the flavor?
____________________________________________________________________
5. According to the last paragraph, how do we get the real taste when eating, by smelling or tasting?
____________________________________________________________________
6. What does this passage mainly talk about?
____________________________________________________________________