1 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Apples are ready to pick when the skin color deepens and the fruit comes away     1     (easy) from the tree. The presence of windfalls (风吹落的果子) is a good     2     (indicate) that fruits are ready to pick. Not all apples are ready     3     the same time, so pick regularly as most of them are fully developed.

To pick an apple, cup it in your hand, lift, and twist gently. It should be separate from     4     (it) end. Always touch apples gently     5     (avoid) injuring them, and never tug (拽) an apple from the tree     6     you may damage the fruiting spurs (枝丫) or cause apples nearby to drop.

Early season apples are eaten best soon after     7     (pick) as they don’t store (储藏) well. Midseason apples will store for a few weeks, and late season apples should be good for up to six     8     (month). Apples chosen for storage must be in perfect condition. Check stored apples regularly and remove the ones that     9     (be) going soft, brown, or rotting,

Store your apples in a cool but frost-free, dark, well-ventilated place such as a shed or garage. Make sure they don’t touch, or else wrap them in newspaper. Different species store for different lengths of time — keep them separate and use those     10     have a shorter storage life sooner.

2 . How to Control Weeds When Planting

No matter what you choose to grow in the garden, at some point, you will have to deal with unwanted plants, known as weeds.     1     Even a tomato plant can become a weed if it grows where you don’t want it to.

    2     Weeds can bring many problems. They steal nutrients and water. Weeds can also bring harmful bugs and diseases into your garden. Some weeds release chemicals that can slow the growth of nearby plants.

It is important to note that some weeds are not all bad. In fact, you can eat them. Dandelions (蒲公英) are also viewed as a weed by many people.     3     And you can eat or use nearly every part of the plant. But even other weeds can do good things in our garden. The roots of weeds can prevent the soil from being blown away by wind or washed away by rain.

However, left to grow on their own, weeds can take over a garden. To slow the growth of weeds, add a layer of weed-free, organic material to the top of your garden, around the plants.     4    

A simple and effective method of weed control is to break up the surface layer of the soil. But you must do this regularly. Do not turn the soil over.     5     If you turn the soil over, you give those seeds the light and air they need to grow. Probably the best way to fight some weeds is to eat them! Just make sure they are, in fact, eatable.

A．But their leaves are also full of nutrients.

B．This makes it difficult to reshape a garden.

C．A weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place.

D．This improves the soil and keeps weeds from growing.

E．Besides being unwanted, what else do weeds do to a garden?

F．Buried in the soil are weed seeds, waiting for the right conditions.

G．So, before we hurry outside to kill all the weeds, consider their good side.

3 . In 2010, Barack Obama was to pay a visit to Mumbai’s Gandhi Museum, where palm trees full of me dotted the grounds. Before his visit, Indian authorities removed every last sign of me from the premises for fear that the president of the United States would be taken out by one of me landing on his head.

Let’s get this out of the way: My reputation as the killer fruit of countless innocents was then and still is a myth. A repeatedly misinterpreted 1984 study greatly exaggerated the number of deaths I caused by hitting and the vicious rumor spread. Today, the only things about me to die for are the sometimes too-delicious foods you humans make with me, which include macaroons, pi a coladas, rich curries, and custard pies. A decade ago, health experts briefly gave me a halo because some of my saturated fat (饱和脂肪) called medium-chain triglycerides, can raise beneficial HDL cholesterol. And no wonder: I’m a long-lasting source of food and water, and my fibrous flesh is used to make rope, mats, mattress stuffing, and fishing nets. My shell can be turned into charcoal for fire or used as a bowl or musical instrument. My leaves are used for thatching roofs and making brooms and baskets, while my trunks are used for building houses, boats, and drums. My tree’s roots have many folk medicinal uses and produce pigments that become dyes — and their frayed ends have even been repurposed as toothbrushes.

In World War II John F. Kennedy was trapped on an island. He scratched a message for help into a coconut shell, and two coast-watchers delivered it to Allied forces, who managed to rescue him. The coconut shell sat on JFK’s desk in the Oval Office throughout his presidency and now is a center-piece of the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston — as proof that we coconuts don’t take lives, we save them.

1. What did Indian authorities do to welcome Barack Obama?

A．They took down all the coconuts.

B．They tried to protect him from being attacked.

C．They prepared a lot of coconut juice to treat him.

D．They got rid of the potential natural threat to safety.

2. How did coconuts get the bad reputation as the killer fruit‖ ?

A．It has always remained unknown.

B．A research in 1984 was overestimated.

C．Fake statistics were believed by many people.

D．News on coconut accidents in 1984 travelled on wings.

3. What can be inferred from the second paragraph?

A．The flesh outside the shell is eatable.

B．Coconut roots can be turned into furniture.

C．Coconut appeals to people a lot as a delicacy.

D．Coconut is yet to be proved beneficial to health.

4. Which can be the best title for the text?

A．Coconut — A Welcome Fruit

B．Coconut — A Mistaken Fruit

C．Coconut — A Life-saving Fruit

D．Coconut — A Multi-function Fruit