1 . Traffic lights are red, yellow and green. They are very important signals (信号). Traffic lights are usually placed at busy street corners to help control traffic. Sometimes, they are on streets near schools and shops, too. Most young children are taught what each of the colored lights means, so everybody can stay safe.

The first traffic signals were used for trains. The signals were put alongside railway tracks   (轨道). The color red was used to mean “stop” because it warned people of danger. A red light was also the easiest color to see from a distance. Train drivers could see the red “stop” light ahead and had enough time to slow down and stop their trains. A green light was used to mean “take care” and a white light meant “go”.

However, there were many dangerous accidents on the train tracks. Some train drivers thought a star shining in the night sky was a white light that meant “go”. So the signals were swapped. The “go” light was changed to green and the “take care” light was changed to white.

During these times, people travelled by train or in carts pulled by horses. Years later, when cars were built, people began to drive them because they could travel much faster than horses. However, the road rules for drivers were not very clear and many people were hurt crossing the roads. Yellow warning signs had to be placed beside the roads to remind drivers to take care and allow people to cross safely.

Today, towns and cities all over the world have traffic lights. Red and green lights match the signals used on the railways. Yellow lights are easy to see, so they are used to warn drivers that they should slow down and prepare to stop.

1. Why was the color red used to mean “stop”?

A．It reminded people of traffic rules.

B．It helped trains run smoothly.

C．It gave people a warning of danger.

D．It was the first color people thought of.

2. What does the underlined word “swapped” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Designed.

B．Exchanged.

C．Suggested.

D．Compared.

3. In which order did the “take care” light develop?
a. A white light               b. A green light.                      c. A yellow light.

A．a一c一b

B．b一c一a

C．a一b一c

D．b一a一c

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The advantages of traffic lights.	B．The history of traffic lights.
C．The importance of traffic lights.	D．The meanings of traffic lights.

3 . Just like Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty is a famous cartoon character. You can see her on many ______ of things, like bags, clothes, food and books. People all over the world love the ______ Hello Kitty.

44 years ago, a Japanese company Sanrio made Hello Kitty. It first ______ on a wallet. To people’s ______, in the artist’s design, Hello Kitty is a ______! That’s why people always see her ______ with two feet.

Hello Kitty is in the third ______ in her school. Her favorite ______ is apple pie. She lives with her parents and twin sister ______ London. It is quiet there. And her grandpa and grandma live far away in a forest. On weekends, her father often drives his ______ to take them to visit her ______. It’s ______ that Hello Kitty even has a pet cat like herself.

The artist said 44 years ago, many Japanese worked and ______ in Britain, so she made Hello Kitty a(n) ______ person. Hello Kitty has a very______ life now. She’s the symbol of all the good things.

1.

A．shapes

B．kinds

C．colors

D．prices

2.

A．cute

B．careless

C．angry

D．possible

3.

A．wrote

B．brought

C．appeared

D．turned

4.

A．hope

B．surprise

C．answer

D．dream

5.

A．girl

B．boy

C．cat

D．dog

6.

A．laughing

B．talking

C．standing

D．eating

7.

A．floor

B．grade

C．name

D．place

8.

A．drink

B．person

C．restaurant

D．food

9.

A．inside

B．from

C．near

D．far

10.

A．bike

B．car

C．horse

D．bus

11.

A．friends

B．teachers

C．grandparents

D．classmates

12.

A．interesting

B．important

C．different

D．normal

13.

A．played

B．lived

C．solves

D．invited

14.

A．Australia

B．British

C．Chinese

D．American

15.

A．difficult

B．meaningless

C．happy

D．unlucky

4 . Horses are useful animals to human beings. Domestic (驯养的) horses now pull ploughs (耕地), race in the Kentucky Derby, and carry police. But early horses weren't tame (驯服的) enough to perform these kinds of tasks. Scientists think the first interactions humans had with horses were far different from those today.

Thousands of years ago, people killed the wild horses that lived around them for food. Over time, people began to catch the animals and raise them. This was the first step in domestication.

As people began to tame and ride horses, they chose to keep those animals that had more desirable characteristics. For example, people may have chosen to keep horses that had a gentle personality so they could be ridden more easily. People who used horses to pull heavy loads would have chosen to keep stronger animals. Characteristics like strength are partly controlled by the animals' genes. So as the domesticated horses reproduced, they passed the characteristics on to their young. Each new generation of horses would show more of these chosen characteristics.

Modern day horse breeds (血统) come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. This variety didn't exist in the horse population before domestication. The Shetland horse is one of the smallest breeds—typically reaching only one meter tall. With short, strong legs, the animals were bred (养育) to pull coal out of mine shafts (矿井) with low ceilings. Huge horses like the Clydesdale came on the scene around 1700. People bred these heavy, tall horses to pull large vehicles used for carrying heavy loads.

The domestication of horses has had great effects on societies. For example, horses were important tools in the advancement of modern agriculture. Using them to pull ploughs and carry heavy loads allowed people to farm more efficiently. Before they were able to ride horses, humans had to cross land on foot. Riding horses allowed people to travel far greater distance in much less time. That encouraged populations living in different areas to interact with one another. The new form of rapid transportation helped cultures spread around the world.

1. Before domestications horses were ________.

A．caught for sports

B．hunted for food

C．made to pull ploughs

D．used to carry people

2. The author uses the Shetland horse as an example to show _________.

A．it is smaller than the Clydesdale horse

B．horse used to have gentle personalities

C．some horses have better shaped than others

D．horses were of less variety before domestication

3. Horses contributed to the spread of culture by _________.

A．carrying heavy loads	B．changing farming methods
C．serving as a means of transport	D．advancing agriculture in different areas

4. The passage is mainly about __________.

A．why humans domesticated horses

B．how humans and horses needed each other

C．why horses came in different shapes and sizes

D．how human societies and horses influenced each other

5 . Hot Dog is popular. It's not a dog, but a cooked sausage in a long piece of bread. Here are some stories and facts about it from English websites.

HISTORY of Hot Dog The 1600s A German called Johann Georghehner created the "dachshund" sausage. "Dachshund" is a German small long thin dog. The 1860s The very first hot dog - the "dachshund" sausage in a roll - was sold by Germans in New York. It became popular in the US later. 1871 Charles Feltman, a German, started the first Coney Island hot dog stand. It made hot dogs known to more people. 1893 Chris Von Der Ahe started the American tradition of eating hot dogs at baseball parks, making hot dogs more popular. 1901 A New York cartoonist. Tad Dorgan, saw the red hot "dachshund sausages sold on streets. He wanted to draw a picture of it, but he wasn't sure how to spell "dachshund, so he simply wrote "Hot Dog". It is widely believed how Hot Dog had its name. 1949 The first vegetarian hot dogs came out.

HOT DOG FUN FACTS World record for eating hot dogs: 73 in ten minutes. Hot dogs were one of the first foods eaten on the moon ! About 150 million hot dogs are eaten by Americans each July 4th. About 21 million hot dogs were sold at American baseball parks in 2010. New Yorkers eat more hot dogs than any other city population in the US.

1. Americans started the tradition of eating hot dogs at baseball parks in ___________.

A．1871

B．1893

C．1901

D．1949

2. It's believed that the name "Hot Dog" was created by _______________.

A．Tad Dorgan	B．Charles Feltman
C．Chris Von Der Ahe	D．Johann Georghehner

3. What can we know about hot dogs from the passage?

A．New Yorkers like eating hot dogs most in the world.

B．Germans eat about 150 million hot dogs each July 4th.

C．A world record says someone ate 73 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

D．About 21 million hot dogs were sold in America in the 1860s.

6 .

In Australia there is a famous island called Fraser Island. A great many visitors come here for holidays every year. Why? The reason is that it is special.     1     . In fact, it is the largest sand island in the world. It's about 200 kilometers long and 240 kilometers wide.

Though the island is a popular place of interest, there is no airport on the island. The long beach along the east coast works as the airport.     2     .

On the island there are sand hills without any plants, but there are forests with old trees, beautiful flowers and over a hundred lakes, too.     3     .

Every year, visitors come to enjoy the island's natural beauty. People like camping and hiking there.     4     . Animals were killed for food and this made them in danger of extinction (灭绝). They threw rubbish everywhere, and the lakes were seriously polluted.

    5     . Rules have been set up. For example, visitors are not allowed to use motorboats (摩托艇) or go fishing in the lakes, and they mustn't leave any rubbish.

A．Planes arrive and leave from here

B．Anyone who breaks the rules will be punished

C．The island is completely made of sand

D．Unluckily, visitors have caused many problems

E．Many kinds of birds and animals live in the forest

F．So it is time to protect the environment of the island

7 . 阅读下面材料,在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。将答案填写在答题纸的相应位置。

Next time you hold a book in your hands, stop and think. Like most other things in the modern world, it is the result of thousands of years of human invention.

First, came the invention of writing,    1    (probable) about 5, 500 years ago. With writing, people did not have to remember everything in their heads. They could communicate with people that they never    2    (see) and share their knowledge with insure generations.

Later, the Greeks were well-known for their literature (文学) and science, but their "books" looked very different    3    the books of today. They were called scrolls (卷轴). They were difficult to use and took a lot of space in a library. About 2,000 years ago, books with lots of pages    4       (invent).

For more than a thousand years, the pages of books were made from animal skin. That changed in       5    thirteenth century, when Europeans learned about a very    6    (use) Chinese invention: paper.

But the biggest change for books in Europe came in 1439, when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. Before that, books in Europe were copied by hand, so they were very expensive. Many more people could afford the books    7    were produced on a printing press.

These days it is difficult    8    (imagine) a world without books. But human invention does not stop. Every year, more    9    (story) are bought as e-books and read on a screen.

Will anyone turn the pages of a traditional book in the future,    10    will books, like scrolls, soon disappear?

8 . Canberra is     1     capital of Australia. It is a modern and lively city with a population     2     403, 468.

History   Canberra is the eighth largest city in Australia. It is, about 238 km from Sydney and 507 km from Melbourne. Sydney is     3     (big) than Canberra. People in Sydney wished to make their city the capital. It was difficult for the government     4     (make) the decision. Then the government chose a place to build the new capital. It was between Sydney     5     Melbourne, the two largest cities. In 1927, the city was set up. It became the capital and was named Canberra. “Canberra”     6     (mean) “a place to get together”.

Culture   Canberra is a beautiful city     7     trees and flowers everywhere. There’s a Flower Festival in September each year. People can enjoy all     8     (kind) of beautiful flowers and welcome the spring to arrive. The man-made Lake Burley Griffin is in the centre of the city, It’s about 11 km long. People like to ride bikes, walk or run around the lake. In Canberra, there’re many famous     9     (university) like the Australian National University and the University of Canberra. The National library and the National Museum of Australia are also famous     10     (place) that people like to visit.

9 . 补全短文阅读下面短文，根据短文内容，从短文后的A—E选项中选出适当的选项补全短文，使短文完整、通顺。
    1     It has around 3 billion fans — nearly half the world’s population! And about 300 million people play this game. That’s 4 percent of the world’s population!
    2     Many people in old days played early forms of this modern game. Cuju(蹴鞠)，a ball-kicking game in China, was reported as early as 2,500 B.C. Around the same time in Greece, people were also playing a similar ball game with any part of the body except hands.
But modern soccer didn’t become official(官方的) until 1863. An Englishman called Cobb Morley introduced the idea of a soccer association(联盟).     3     From then on, other associations in the countries were set up. They came together to build up the FIFA, which organizes the World Cup.
It’s not easy to tell what makes soccer so popular.     4     Soccer needs only two feet and a ball. This makes it a sport that developing countries can easily play. Some of the sport’s best players come from these poor nations.
    5     The sport’s no-hands rule makes beautiful dance — like movements on the field. What’s more, this sport excites the heart. Teams might score only a few times each match, so matches can turn around suddenly.
No one knows who will win at the next World Cup. But one thing is certain: The world will be watching.

A．He also wrote the sport’s official rules.

B．Soccer is the world’s favorite sport.

C．Soccer performances are pleasing to the eyes.

D．It’s hard to say where soccer’s birthplace is.

E．But one reason is how simple the sport is.

10 .

In China, writing brushes. ink sticks. paper and ink stones are called the     1     （四）Treasures of Study.

The writing brushes are     2     （主要地）made of the hair of animals. Those made of wool are called yanghao and those made of the weasel’s（鼬）tail are called langhao. Their artistic effects cannot     3     （复制）by any other pens.

The ink stick is the pigment（颜料）used in writing and     4     （绘画）. The ink stick produced in Huizhou is of high quality. In the Song Dynasty, its producing     5     （地区）was changed into Huizhou, and it was then called the Hui ink Stick.

Paper is one of     6     （重要的）writing materials, which is made of plant fibers. Papermaking was invented in the Western Han Dynasty, and Cai Lun improved its making     7     （方法）, which helped the development of Chinese paper industry     8     （在……期间）Song Dynasty. papermaking technology was improved day by day, and more and more kinds of paper were developed     9     （提供）different using choices.

The ink stone was     10     （已经）very popular in the Han Dynasty. The Ming and Qing dynasties saw the appearance of many famous ink stones. They can not only be used in writing but also for admiration.