1 . Today China is the world’s biggest consumer of wheat. But it wasn’t always that way.

Wheat only came to the area now known as northern China toward the end of the Neolithic (新石器) period, some 4,600 years ago. Initially, wheat didn’t seem to be so delicious and had been treated as a crop of desperation rather than a cooking delight. The first farmers of northern China primarily grew millet (粟), starting as early as 11,500 years ago. By the time of the Tang dynasty, wheat had replaced millet, becoming a major crop. But relatively little was known about exactly why this shift occurred.

In an attempt to track the answer, I accumulated (积累) a collection of nearly 1,200 data points covering more than 50 sites from the mid-Neolithic, about 9,000 years ago, to the collapse of the Eastern Han dynasty in 220 AD. The sites were across 8 modern provinces, ranging from Gansu province in the northwest to Shandong province in the east.

One possible explanation is a major climate shift, called the Holocene Event 3, which happened 4,000 to 4,500 years ago. At that time, the climate became colder and drier across continents, causing damage to crop production.

On top of this, the late Neolithic period was also a time of rapid population growth around the world. With an ever-increasing population and unsteady crop production, it is reasonable to assume that Neolithic farmers in northern China were struggling.

Wheat, it turns out, actually needs more water than millet, making it seem a poor choice for a dry period of history. But importantly, it can be sowed after millet has been harvested. That, we think, is the most likely reason why the people across northern China started to grow wheat.

From more extreme weather to changing coastlines, climate change has always brought unexpected and sometimes dramatic changes to societies. In this instance, the consequence of the Holocene Event 3 in northern China proved, eventually, delicious.

1. What can we learn about wheat from the second paragraph?

A．It replaced millet for its great taste.	B．It was a poor choice at the beginning.
C．It outnumbered millet 4,600 years ago.	D．It was the earliest crop grown in China.

2. What do the figures in paragraph 3 show?

A．The author found the exact answer.	B．The author did the research cautiously.
C．The author did extensive research.	D．The author was good at collecting data.

3. What was probably the main reason for northerners in China to grow wheat?

A．The water supply was enough then.	B．The harvest of millet was not satisfying.
C．It adjusted to the weather conditions better.	D．It had an alternative sowing season with millet.

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

A．How was millet introduced to China?

B．Why did Chinese farmers switch to wheat?

C．How did China become the biggest wheat consumer?

D．How was China’s wheat growth affected by climate change?

6 . Judging from recent surveys, most experts in sleep behaviour agree that there is virtually an epidemic (流行病) of sleepiness in the nation. “I can’t think of a single study that hasn’t found Americans getting less sleep than they ought to,” says Dr. David. Even people who think they are sleeping enough would probably be better off with more rest.

The beginning of our sleep-deficit (睡眠不足) crisis can be traced to the invention of the light bulb a century ago. From diary entries and other personal accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries, sleep scientists have reached the conclusion that the average person used to sleep about 9.5 hours a night. “The best sleep habits once were forced on us, when we had nothing to do in the evening down on the farm, and it was dark.” By the 1950s and 1960s, that sleep schedule had been reduced dramatically, to between 7.5 and 8 hours, and most people had to wake to an alarm clock. “People cheat on their sleep, and they don’t even realise they’re doing it,” says Dr. David. “They think they’re okay because they can get by on 6.5 hours, when they really need 7.5, 8 or even more to feel ideally vigorous.”

Perhaps the most merciless robber of sleep, researchers say, is the complexity of the day. Whenever pressures from work, family, friends and community mount, many people consider sleep the least expensive item on his programme. In our society, you’re considered dynamic if you say you only need 5.5 hours’ sleep. If you’ve got to get 8.5 hours, people think you lack drive and ambition.

To determine the consequences of sleep deficit, researchers have put subjects through a set of psychological and performance tests requiring them, for instance, to add columns of numbers or recall a passage read to them only minutes earlier. “We’ve found that if you’re in sleep deficit, performance suffers,” says Dr. David. “Short-term memory is weakened, as are abilities to make decisions and to concentrate.”

1. People in the 18th and 19th centuries used to sleep about 9.5 hours a night because they had _________.

A．no drive and ambition	B．no electric lighting
C．the best sleep habits	D．nothing to do in the evening

2. According to Dr. David, Americans _________.

A．are ideally vigorous even under the pressure of life

B．often neglect the consequences of sleep deficit

C．do not know how to relax themselves properly

D．can get by on 6.5 hours of sleep

3. Many Americans believe that _________.

A．sleep is the first thing that can be sacrificed when one is busy

B．they need more sleep to cope with the complexities of everyday life

C．to sleep is something one can do at any time of the day

D．enough sleep promotes people’s drive and ambition

4. The underlined word “subjects” in Paragraph 4 refers to _________．

A．the performance tests used in the study of sleep deficit

B．special branches of knowledge that are being studied

C．people whose behaviour or reactions are being studied

D．the psychological consequences of sleep deficit

8 . Scholars and researchers have tried to discover what personality characteristics go along with success in intercultural experiences. Their findings have often been unclear or incomplete. But three characteristics stand out in their reports: patience, a sense of humour, and the awareness of being unclear.

Patience, of course, is the ability to keep calm even when things do not go as one wants them to, or hopes they will, or has been sure they will. Impatience sometimes brings improvements in relations with other people, but usually it does not.

A person with a sense of humour is less likely to take things too seriously and more ready to see the humour in her own reactions. The value of a sense of humour really needs to be paid more attention to.

“The awareness of being unclear” is a more difficult concept than patience or a sense of humour. Foreigners often find themselves in situations that are unclear to the newcomers. That is, they do not know what is happening in the situation. Perhaps they do not understand the local language well enough, or they do not know how some system or organisation works, or they can’t be sure of different people’s roles in what is going on. “It’s like I just got here from the moon,” a Chinese graduate student who newly arrived in the United States said. “Things are just so different here.”

1. The passage mainly tells us _________.

A．that it’s not easy to travel abroad

B．that humour is very important in communication

C．three characteristics in dealing with foreigners successfully

D．three main ways useful for communicating with foreigners

2. According to the passage, what characteristic should be most focused on?

A．Patience.

B．The awareness of being unclear.

C．The sense of humour.

D．Understanding each other.

3. “The awareness of being unclear” refers to   _________.

A．knowing the meaning of an exact situation

B．not stating clearly what happens

C．the ability to keep calm

D．being aware of the unclear situation

10 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. opposite        B. really              C. process        D. actually        E. surprisingly        F. rebellion    G. different          H. human          I. positive        J. endless        K. change

The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the     1     of the popularly—held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after     2     family quarrels.

An important new study into teenage attitudes     3     shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious and selfish but     4     they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making     5    . They don’t want to rock the boat.”

So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. Maybe this     6     view of family life should not be unexp-ected. It is possible that the idea of teenage     7     is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as     8     beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents     9     only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth     10     from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”