1 . Have you ever noticed the Mu Us Desert (毛乌素沙漠) in the northwest when you read a map of China? If you haven’t, then you probably never will. That’s
You might wonder: Why is this happening? Who is the “killer”? Well, it is the
In Yulin, there are many other fighters. One of them is Guo Chengwang. He started to plant trees in his village when encouraged by the government in 1985. Guo is now in his nineties. His children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have
These trees have made a big difference. In Yulin, the number of sandy days has
| A．why | B．how | C．because | D．when |
| A．trouble | B．result | C．importance | D．reason |
| A．necessary | B．serious | C．useless | D．harmless |
| A．received | B．forgotten | C．changed | D．continued |
| A．dropped | B．stayed | C．risen | D．disappeared |
2 . Fiery Visitors from Outer Space
1. On the next clear summer night, look up into the sky. If you are lucky, you may see a “shooting star”. They look just like stars falling down from the sky.
2. But shooting stars are not stars at all. The real name for a shooting star is “meteor”. There are millions of meteors out in space. They are pieces of rock and metal. When they are in space, meteors do not glow. In fact, we can’t see them at all. But when a meteor comes close to the earth, it starts to fall toward the earth. As it passes through the air, it gets very hot. It starts to glow, and finally it begins to burn. We see the burning meteor as a shooting star.
3. Sometimes meteors travel by themselves in space. But many meteors travel in groups called swarms. The swarms have orbits like planets have. They pass close to the earth every year. A famous swarm is the Perseid swarm. It passes close to the earth in summer, usually in August. Each year a few meteors from the Perseid swarm fall to the earth, so August is a good month to watch for shooting stars.
4. Most meteors are small, so they burn up before they crash into the earth and are buried in the ground. Once a meteor reaches the earth, we call it a meteorite. The biggest meteorite, which weighs seventy tons, landed in Africa.
Question 19
1. Circle the main idea of paragraph 3.
| A．Sometimes meteors travel by themselves in space. |
| B．Sometimes meteors travel in swarms. |
| C．A famous swarm is the Perseid swarm. |
| D．August is a good month to watch for shooting stars. |
Question 20-23
Match the word on the left with the phrase on the right that fits best by writing letters.
2.
3.
4.
5.
a. a famous swarm of meteors
b. a meteor that has reached the earth
c. the real name for a shooting star
d. a group of meteors
Question 24-25
Answer questions in complete sentences and in your own words.
6. Why is August a good month to watch shooting stars?
7. There is an old saying that if you make a wish when you see a shooting star, your wish will come true. So when you see a shooting star, what wish will you make? Why?
3 . Drums
When we think of a drum we usually think of a musical instrument. The drum has also been used for years as an important tool for communication. The human voice is very good for communication, but it cannot be heard very far. As early humans began to live in groups, runners were sent from village to village with important messages, but that took a lot of time. It was discovered that beating on hollow logs could be heard for greater distances, and so a new form of communication called “talking drums” was born.
In many early communities, a large drum was set in the middle of the village to help send messages to nearby tribes. The drums could be hit with hands and sticks. Some of the larger drums could be heard up to sixteen miles away!
A group in West Africa made an amazing talking drum system. Their drums were made of round pieces of wood that were four to five feet long. A skin (often an elephant ear) was stretched over one end of the wood and was held in place by a rope. The skin was tightened or loosened to make higher and lower sounds. They had learned to use the drums so well that they could actually copy the language that they spoke! The drums sounded like a person speaking in a voice loud enough to be heard far away.
Most systems of drum communication used a series of beats that meant something. The messages usually told of danger, death, war, or other news of great importance. The message could be sent very far by a relay system. That is, one village would send a message and a nearby village would hear it. They would then repeat the message on their drums, sending it to their neighbors. Some relay systems worked so well that they could send a message about 200 miles very quickly.
Although “talking drums” became a good system of communicating over distances, it had one very big problem. Their enemies could understand the drum messages, so they would know what was being said or planned. Communication by drums certainly wasn’t perfect!
Question 1-4
True or False. Decide the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
1. The main idea of the passage is that drums can be heard over great distances.
2. Drums are only used as a musical instrument.
3. People in West Africa tightened the skin over the drum to make a lower sound.
4. Drums made by people in West Africa could speak.
Question 5-7
Select the meaning which most closely matches the word, as it is used in the text. Circle the correct letter.
5. communication
| A．traffic | B．speech | C．intercourse |
| A．extend | B．bounce | C．run |
| A．delay | B．pass | C．beat |
Question 8-10
Passive and active verb forms
These sentences are in the passive form and are adapted from the text. Rewrite the sentences below using the active form.
8. It was discovered that beating on hollow logs could be heard for greater distances, and so a new form of communication called “talking drums” was born.
9. A skin (often an elephant ear) was stretched over one end of the wood and was held in place by a rope.
10. The message could be sent very far by a relay system.
4 . Zak’s grandfather, Stan, was very famous. Why? Because he had a very, very, very long white beard(胡子).
One day, Zak asked his grandfather, “When you sleep，do you put your beard over or under the quilt(被子)?”“I’m not sure. I never care about that, ”said his grandfather. “I’ll look tonight.”
Stan got into bed that night and pulled up the quilt. Then he remembered his grandson’s question. Aha!His beard was under the quilt. But wait. Did that feel right?
He lifted his beard from under the quilt and put it above it. This also didn’t feel right. So he put the beard under the quilt again. But he soon felt it would be better if it were out. The beard went in and out—first under the quilt, then over it, under, over, all night long.
Stan spent a sleepless night.In the morning, he was so tired and unhappy that he cut his long beard right off!
Stan’s wife was so happy. She advised Stan to cut that beard off many times, but he never did it. Now a simple question made him do that．
根据上述内容，判断下列句子正误，正确的写“A”，错误的写“B”。
1. Stan was very famous for his long white beard.
2. Stan never cared about Zak, his grandson.
3. In the very beginning,Stan’s beard was under the quilt.
4. That night Stan was sleepless and tired because of the question.
5. Stan listened to his wife’s advice to cut the beard off.
5 . Some parents said that they had difficulty in getting along with their children. I heard many parents complaining that their teenage children are rebelling. I wish it were so. At your age you ought to be growing away from your parents. You should be learning to stand on your own two feet. But take a good look at the present rebellion. It seems that teenagers are taking the same way of showing that they disagree with their parents. Instead of striking out boldly on their own, most of them are holding firmly at one another’s hands for reassurance.
They claim they want to dress as they please. But they all wear the same clothes. They set off in new directions in music. But somehow they all end up crowded round listening to the same record. Their reason for thinking or actin g in thus-and-such a way is that the crowd is doing it. They have come out of their cocoon (蚕茧) into a larger cocoon.
It has become harder and harder for a teenager to stand up against the popularity wave and to go his or her own way. Industry has firmly carved out a teenage market. These days every teenager can learn from the advertisements what a teenager should have and be. And many of today’s parents have come to award high marks for the popularity of their children. All this adds up to a great barrier for the teenager who wants to find his or her own path.
But the barrier is worth climbing over. The path is worth following. You may want to listen to classical music instead of going to a party. You may want to collect rocks when everyone else is collecting records. You may have some thoughts that you don’t care to share at once with your classmates. Well, go to it. Find yourself. Be yourself. Popularity will come — with the people who respect you for who you are. That is the only kind of popularity that really counts.
1. In this passage, the author wants to tell______.| A．teenagers to try to decide things for themselves |
| B．readers to try to be popular with people around |
| C．parents to try to control and guide their children |
| D．people to try to understand and respect each other |
| A．There is no popularity that really counts. |
| B．It is not good for a teenager to disagree with his or her classmates. |
| C．What many parents are doing is helping their children to go on their own ways. |
| D．Most teenagers claim to do whatever they want, but they are actually doing the same. |
