1 . Ireland has had a very difficult history. The problems started in the 16th century when English rulers tried to conquer (征服) Ireland. For hundreds of years, the Irish people fought against the English. Finally, in 1921, the British government was forced to give independence to the south of Ireland. The result is that today there are two “Irelands”. Northern Ireland, in the north, is part of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland, in the south, is an independent country.
In the 1840s the main crop, potatoes, was affected by disease and about 750,000 people died of hunger. This, and a shortage (短缺) of work, forced many people to leave Ireland and live in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. As a result of these problems, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 6.6 million in 1851.
For many years, the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Today, many people still work on the land but more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside, where things move at a quieter and slower pace.
The Irish are famous for being warm－hearted and friendly. Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer, once said that the Irish were “the greatest talkers since the Greeks”. Since independence, Ireland has revived (复兴) its own culture of music, language, literature and singing. Different areas have different styles of old Irish songs which are sung without instruments. Other kinds of Irish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.
1. What does the author tell us in Paragraph 1?| A．How the Irish fought against the English. |
| B．How Ireland gained independence. |
| C．How English rulers tried to conquer Ireland. |
| D．How two “Irelands” came into being. |
| A．food shortages and a lack of work in the 1840s led to a decline in population |
| B．people are moving to the cities for lack of work in the countryside |
| C．it is harder to make a living as a farmer than as a factory worker |
| D．different kinds of old Irish songs are all sung with instruments |
| A．the Irish character | B．the Irish culture |
| C．Irish musical instruments | D．a famous Irish writer |
| A．Life in Ireland | B．A Very Difficult History |
| C．Ireland, Past and Present | D．The Independence of Ireland |
2 . Not long ago, people could only buy organic food in small shops. Today it is common in most major supermarkets. The reason for the increase is that more and more people are demanding food grown without chemicals. Since the 1990s, organic farm production has gone up continuously. This pattern is expected to continue around the globe.
Australia leads the world in land used as for organic agriculture. It has four times as all of Asia. However, most of the land is not very fertile, and it only produces a modest amount of food. Argentina is a distant second, followed by Brazil, the United States and China. In Africa, only a very small amount of land is registered for organic farming. That does not mean Africa relies on chemicals. In fact, many farmers do not use chemicals because they cannot afford them. Yet there are no programmes for these farmers to prove they do not use chemicals. Without these programmes their food can never be approved organic.
India has had the most dramatic recent increase in organic farming. Like many other countries, India sees continual growth in organic food sales around the world. This, of course, leads to growth in profits. Sales of organic food were more than doubled from 2000 to 2005. Like India, many countries are trying to increase commercial organic farming to get a share of the sales. This has led to criticism. Some people believe that organic farming should not just be about making money. They think the goal is to help the environment. Others say organic farming will not continue if it is not profitable. They say that people should be able to make money while providing healthy food for mankind.
1. What is the passage mainly about?| A．Organic food has become much more common. |
| B．Organic farming is growing around the world. |
| C．People do not want to eat food with chemicals in it. |
| D．Countries all want to make money from organic farming. |
| A．More and more people demand chemicals to grow food. |
| B．Organic food is good for Earth and the human beings. |
| C．There are fewer chemicals available to the human beings. |
| D．Profits from organic farming help make approval programmes. |
| A．India uses the least land to organic farming. |
| B．Brazil uses less land to organic farming than China. |
| C．the US is the fourth largest organic farming country. |
| D．China and India have the same amount of organic farmland. |
| A．people who eat food with chemicals have shorter lifespan. |
| B．India will soon become the largest country of growing organic food. |
| C．more countries will farm organically as the environment gets worse. |
| D．there will be fewer organic farms if the demand for organic food goes down. |
3 . Famous People Who Begin With Difficulties
Oprah Winfrey
Probably having one of the most famous success stories, Oprah was born into a poor family in Mississippi, raised by a single mother living on welfare. She was physically, and mentally abused during her childhood. Despite her initial struggles as a young girl, she turned herself into one of the most successful talk show hosts of our time.
Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey has been the star of some of the most successful movies of all time. But Carrey grew up extremely poor in Canada. When he was a teenager, his family took security jobs in a factory to help pay the bills. And during his first stand-up comedy performance, he was booed off （喝倒彩） the stage. Not shortly after, he made it big on In Living Color and then went on to star in Dumb & Dumber, The Mask, and Ace Ventura in the same year!
James Dyson
If you thought Thomas Edison’s failures were bad, let me introduce you to James Dyson, the famous inventor of the Dyson vacuums （真空吸尘器） you see all over the television. Dyson developed over 5,000 failed prototypes （原型） before finding the bagless vacuum brand. Not only that, he put his entire savings account into his prototypes over fifteen years! Luckily, the bagless vacuum worked.
Stephen King
Before Stephen King became known as a great living writer—having written over 60 novels, many of which have been adapted for film and television—King was rejected over and over again. In his memoir, On Writing, King describes how he used to post his rejection letters on the wall for inspiration. His first novel, Carrie, was rejected 30 times.
1. What do Oprah and Jim have in common?| A．They were abused by parents. | B．They grew up in poor families. |
| C．They were hired as comedians. | D．They found jobs in a factory. |
| A．He repaired the failed prototypes. | B．He developed over 5,000 brands. |
| C．He put all efforts into marketing. | D．He invented the bagless vacuum. |
| A．Oprah Winfrey. | B．Stephen King. | C．James Dyson. | D．Jim Carrey. |
4 . Orchid Island is a striking travel destination full of natural beauty. Due to popular demand, we’ve assembled two- and three-day tour packages to ensure you’ll see the best the island has to offer.
ISLAND ADVENTURES TRAVEL AGENCY
Package options and prices
Two-day tour $406
Three-day tour $606
What to expect
Our tour begins with a scooter(小型摩托车) tour around the island. In the late afternoon, it’s time to head to the beach for a wonderful snorkeling adventure. Finally, we’ll close out the first day by taking in an Orchid Island sunset over the Qingqing Grassland. The following morning, you’ll witness an unforgettable sunrise at Dongqing Bay. Later, you’ll travel around the island on your scooter and observe traditional Tao fishing boats. You’ll even have the option of rowing out to sea on one of these boats for a small additional expense.
The three-day tour costs an additional $200, but it’s well worth the extra expense. It includes a historical tour of traditional underground houses and a visit to the well-known Lover’s Cave.
• Both packages include round-trip boat tickets from Fugang Port to Orchid Island.
• Snorkeling equipment rental and professional instruction are included.
Reminders
Travelers are required to present ID at Fugang Port.
Travelers must have a scooter driving license for scooter rentals.
1. What can you do at the end of the first day of the tour?| A．Go snorkeling. |
| B．Camp at Dongqing Bay. |
| C．Ride a scooter around the island. |
| D．Enjoy the sunset over the Qingqing Grassland. |
| A．It features scooter driving. |
| B．It gives tourists round-trip ferry tickets. |
| C．It involves a visit to the Lover’s Cave. |
| D．It includes boarding traditional fishing boats. |
| A．Receiving professional instruction. | B．Rowing a traditional boat out to sea. |
| C．Renting snorkeling equipment. | D．Renting a scooter. |
5 . Last fall, the Great Salt Lake hit its lowest level since record keeping began. The lake sank to nearly six meters below the long-term average. The lake’s shrinking threatens to upend the ecosystem, disturbing the migration and survival of 10 million birds, including ducks and geese.
Duck hunters aren’t the only ones worried about the Great Salt Lake. The decades-long decline in lake level is raising alarm bells for millions of people who live in the region. The low lake level and increasing salts in the lake water threaten to destroy economic mainstays like agriculture, tourism and mining. Exposed salts can also reduce air quality and so threaten public health.
Saline lakes (咸水湖) are terminal lakes. They have no rivers flowing out of them. As water disappears, salts are left behind. At the same time, the people who live in these deserts use freshwater for crops, homes and industry. Residents get water from streams and rivers into canals, pipelines or reservoirs before it reaches the lakes. And as the lakes shrink, the salt in water increases.
Lake Poopo, a highland lake in Bolivia that used to stretch 90 kilometers long and 32 kilometers wide, is now a salty mud flat. The Aral Sea shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, once the world’s fourth largest lake, has at times in recent decades shrunk to a tenth of its historic 68,000-square-kilometer surface area. Some saline lakes, like Nevada’s Winnemucca Lake, dried up so long ago — the waters that fed it were led to agricultural fields — that most people have forgotten they were ever wet.
The good news is that people still have time to halt the Great Salt Lake’s decline by using less water. Cutting agricultural and other outdoor water use by a third to half through a combination of voluntary conservation measures and policy changes would allow the lake to refill enough to support the region’s economy, ecology and quality of life. If this succeeds, the Great Salt Lake can be a model for how to save other saline lakes around the world.
1. What do we know about the Great Salt Lake from the first two paragraphs?| A．It is home to ducks. | B．It will disappear soon. |
| C．It will be less important. | D．It’s been shrinking for years. |
| A．Their current states. | B．The challenges they face. |
| C．Measures to restore them. | D．Reasons why they become saltier. |
| A．Stop. | B．Boost. | C．Adapt. | D．Learn. |
| A．The Great Salt Lake Is Getting Smaller |
| B．The World Is Becoming Drier and Drier |
| C．Saline Lakes Need Freshwater Deadly |
| D．Many Lakes in the World will Disappear |
6 . A jobless man applied for a job as an office boy at a big company. The HR manager interviewed him and then watched him cleaning the floor as a test.
“You are employed,” the HR manager said. “Give me your email address and I’ll send you the application to fill in, as well as the date when you may start.”
The man replied, “But I don’t have a computer or an email account.”
“I’m sorry,” said the HR manager. “We can’t accept persons who do not use email.”
The man left with no hope at all. With only ten dollars in his pocket, he decided to go to the supermarket and buy 10 kg tomatoes. He then sold the tomatoes from door to door. In less than two hours, he succeeded to double his capital. He repeated this three times, and returned home happily with 60 dollars.
The man realised that he could survive in this way, and started to go every day early, and return late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled every day. Shortly, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own delivery vehicles. Five years later, the man was one of the biggest food retailers (零售商人) in the US.
He started to plan his family’s future and decided to have a life insurance. He called an insurance broker(经纪人) and chose a protection plan.
When the conversation ended, the broker asked him his email address. The man replied, “I don’t have an email account.”
The broker answered surprisingly, “You don’t have an email account, but you have succeeded to build an empire. Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an email?” The man thought for a while and replied, “Yes, I’d be an office boy at a company!”
1. Why couldn’t the man have the job at the big company?| A．Because he was lazy. |
| B．Because he didn’t pass the test. |
| C．Because he didn’t have an email account. |
| D．Because he didn’t clean the floor. |
| A．tomato | B．money | C．time | D．operation |
| A．He is one of the biggest food retailers in the world. |
| B．He started his career as an office boy in the supermarket. |
| C．He didn’t give up though he failed the interview. |
| D．He didn’t want to accept the job at the big company. |
| A．Misfortune may be an actual blessing. |
| B．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
| C．Accidents will happen. |
| D．No pains, no gains. |
7 . 
Cheating can happen in a lot of different ways.When people cheat,it’s not fair to other people，like the kids who studied for the test or who the true winners of a game were.
Many people like the action of cheating.In their opinion,it makes difficult things seem easy,like getting all the right answers on the test.But it doesn't solve the problem of not knowing the material and it won't help on the next test—unless the person cheats again.
Some people lose respect for cheaters and think less of them.The cheaters themselves may feel bad because they know they shouldn't get that good grade.And,if they get caught cheating,they will be in trouble at school，and maybe at home,too.
Some kids cheat because they're busy or lazy and they want to get good grades without spending the time studying.Other kids might feel like they can’t pass the test without cheating.Even when there seems to be a “good reason” for cheating,cheating isn’t a good idea.
If you were sick or upset about something the night before the day and couldn’t study,it would be better to talk with the teacher about this.And if you don’t have enough time to study for a test because of swim practice,you need to talk with your parents about how to balance swimming and school.A kid who thinks cheating is the only way to pass a test needs to talk with the teacher and his or her parents so they can find some solutions together.Talking about these problems and working them out will feel better than cheating.
1. What does the author think when kids cheat in class?| A．It is unfair to other people. |
| B．It does harm to their health. |
| C．Teachers should punish them. |
| D．Teachers shouldn't stop them at once. |
| A．Because they think the material in the test is very difficult. |
| B．Because they want to do better than the others. |
| C．Because cheating can make hard things seem very easy. |
| D．Because they have little time to study their lessons. |
| A．Some kids can’t pass the test without cheating. |
| B．Why kids cheat in the test. |
| C．Cheating isn’t a good idea. |
| D．Some kids don't spend the time studying. |
| A．Cheaters are often thought highly of. |
| B．People show no respect for those who cheat. |
| C．Parents whose kids cheat are often in trouble. |
| D．Kids cheat in the test because of swim practice. |
8 . In the Northern Wei Dynasty, there
On a winter morning, the army was again recruiting(征募)new
During the next 12 years, Mulan managed to keep her identity(身份) a(n)
The story has a special meaning in the Chinese society, which shows that females, if they are determined,can also do
| A．took | B．lived | C．had | D．rented |
| A．unusual | B．narrow | C．major | D．equal |
| A．students | B．teachers | C．workers | D．boys |
| A．officials | B．soldiers | C．classmates | D．partners |
| A．younger | B．advanced | C．elder | D．formal |
| A．dress up | B．focus on | C．apply for | D．fall apart |
| A．in case of | B．other than | C．due to | D．instead of |
| A．cut | B．rescued | C．damaged | D．put |
| A．to | B．for | C．in | D．from |
| A．date | B．gap | C．secret | D．event |
| A．survived | B．destroyed | C．contacted | D．admired |
| A．emperor | B．host | C．master | D．expert |
| A．carved | B．struggled | C．refused | D．designed |
| A．recognized | B．called | C．graduated | D．hiked |
| A．graceful | B．great | C．positive | D．curious |
9 . Once there was a little girl who had many misfortunes in life and was struggling with problems. One day she felt so upset that she couldn’t help
Sensing her
About twenty minutes later, he turned off the
Seeing the little girl was still confused, he then
| A．explaining | B．complaining | C．requesting | D．obtaining |
| A．fortunate | B．permanent | C．memorial | D．miserable |
| A．depression | B．desire | C．enthusiasm | D．curiosity |
| A．study | B．kitchen | C．bedroom | D．cupboard |
| A．absorb | B．listen | C．observe | D．seize |
| A．cool | B．freeze | C．melt | D．boil |
| A．cruel | B．silent | C．noble | D．modest |
| A．lights | B．microwaves | C．burners | D．taps |
| A．rough | B．plain | C．precious | D．fragile |
| A．Therefore | B．Moreover | C．However | D．Otherwise |
| A．exposed to | B．connected with | C．committed to | D．motivated by |
| A．revolved | B．proceeded | C．teased | D．responded |
| A．emergency | B．dilemma | C．choice | D．adversity |
| A．sufficiently | B．generously | C．differently | D．primitively |
| A．coffee beans | B．potato | C．egg | D．chef |
10 . Electronics woven (编织) into fabrics promise to open up all kinds of interesting possibilities, from clothing that monitors muscle activity and tracks breathing, to garments that can talk to one another. Developing pliable power sources to go with them is an equally important field of research, so scientists at the University of British Columbia have put forward a particularly impressive solution that they say could be the first ever battery that is both stretchable and washable.
To develop a battery with such capabilities, the scientists reimagined the way these devices are put together. Rather than forming a lithium-ion battery packed with hardened materials inside a rigid exterior, the team turned to an alternative chemistry in zinc-manganese (锌锰) dioxide, which is appealing for its low cost and safety. These materials were ground down into tiny pieces and inset in a polymer (聚合物) to form very thin and stretchable layers.
“We went with zinc-manganese because for devices worn next to the skin, it’s a safer chemistry than lithium-ion batteries, which can produce deadly compounds when they break,” says Nguyen.
The resulting battery is flexible and can be stretched to twice its normal length, has a specific capacity of 160 mAh g-1 and keeps 75 percent of its capacity over 500 charge and discharge cycles. Impressively, the team found the battery to withstand 39 wash cycles so far.
The team is now working to improve the power output and lifetime of the battery, and says the creation has already attracted commercial interest, with the cost expected to be similar to a standard rechargeable battery. They imagine it being put to use in watches and patches that measure vital signs, and in smart clothing that does much the same thing.
1. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “pliable” in paragraph 1?| A．Strong. | B．Multiple. |
| C．Reliable. | D．Flexible. |
| A．Safety. | B．Hardness. |
| C．Comfortableness. | D．Convenience. |
| A．Its stretch length. | B．Its washability. |
| C．Its massive capacity. | D．Its charge speed. |
| A．Electronic clothing is well received. |
| B．Clothing fitted with new battery is on the way. |
| C．Flexible and washable power sources woven into clothing will be available. |
| D．Electronics woven into fabrics open up possibilities. |
