1 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Where was the Mary Celeste leaving for?

A．Italy.

B．England.

C．The USA.

2. When was the Mary Celeste found?

A．In December 1728.

B．In November 1782.

C．In December 1872.

3. What was the Mary Celeste like when found?

A．It was damaged.

B．It was in good condition.

C．It was robbed.

4. What is unknown about the Mary Celeste?

A．Why the people aboard left it.

B．When it started its journey.

C．How many people were on it.

2 . 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。

Located on a huge rock in the forests of central Sri Lanka, Sigiriya is an     1     (attract) sight now as it must have been when it was first built by a great king in the     2     (five) century A. D. Meaning “lion’s rock”, Sigiriya is entered by way of passageways cut into the rock face.

The castle was later covered by the forest, and only familiar to local villagers. Outsiders used knowledge of its past, mentioned in Buddhist texts, to search     3     the ancient site. In1827, a Scottish officer, Jonathan Forbes, on     4     (hear) local stories about the castle, decided     5     (look) for it. In 1831, he set off to where locals told him and found the remains of the ancient city.

Sigiriya     6     (build) by Kashyapa I, the king     7     ruled the native Sinhalese dynasty, the Moriya. The impressive castle was     8     capital of the Sinhalese kingdom until Kashyapa was defeated (击败) in A. D. 495.

After Kashyapa, dynasties rose and fell, their fortunes shaped by internal (内部的) power struggles and conflicts between native Sinhalese and outside forces from India.

Various     9     (city) held the status (地位) of capital after Sigiriya, such as Polonnaruwa. By the 12th century, however, overall control of Sri Lanka progressively weakened. Sinhalese power retreated (撤退) to the southwest of the island, and the former administrative (行政的) centres, including Sigiriya,     10     (start) to fall into disuse.

3 . 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。

Today, pork is the No. 1 meat product in China, which even     1     (have) symbolic meanings in Chinese culture. In some places, a pig’s head still must be served on the second day of the second month in the lunar calendar     2     (please) the dragons that are awaking from     3     (they) winter sleep.

However, before the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), it was     4     (rare) seen on dining tables. Ancient Chinese doctors even doubted its nutritional value. For example, Sun Simiao (Tang Dynasty) considered     5     (eat) pork for long period of time made people more likely to get sick.

The turning point for pork came in the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279) when     6     not-so-wealthy poet, Su Shi (1037-1101), found his simple ways to cook it. Back then pork was much     7     (cheap) than lamb and beef because it     8     (dislike) by the rich while the poor didn’t know how to cook it properly. Unable to afford either beef     9     lamb, the poet just stewed (炖) pork with radish and shared it with friends. They wrote beautiful poems about the so-called “Dongpo pork”, which instantly gained popularity in southern China     10     the environment was ideal to raise pigs.

4 . In ancient Maya civilization, cacao — which chocolate is made from — wasn’t just for the elites (精英). Traces of the sacred plant show up in antiques from all types of neighborhoods and in and around a former Maya city, researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The finding suggests that, contrary to previous thinking, cacao was consumed at every social level of Maya society.

“Now we know that the ceremonies with cacao were likely played out by everyone,” says AnabelFord, an archaeologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Cacao was sacred to the ancient Maya, consumed in ceremonies and used as a currency. The cacao tree itself was linked to Hun Hunahpu, a Mayan god. Previous research found cacao in burials (墓地), suggesting that its use was restricted to those at the top.

To explore the extent to which cacao was used in broader Maya society, Ford and colleagues examined 54 antiques dating from A. D. 600 to 900. The antiques come from jars, mixing bowls, serving plates and vases thought to be drinking vessels. All the pieces were found in residential and ceremonial civic areas of varying size and status from city centers, foothills, upland areas and the valley around the former Maya city of El Pilar, on the present-day border of Guatemala and Belize.

To identify cacao, the researchers searched for theophylline, a compound found in trace amounts in the plant. The team found the compound on more than half of the samples, on all types of antiques and distributed throughout social contexts.

Future research will move beyond who consumed cacao and explore the role of farmers in managing the critical resource. “A better question is to understand who grew it,” Ford says, because those people probably had greater access to the valuable commodity.

1. What do traces of cacao found in Mayan antiques indicate?

A．Cacao was once unique to Maya society.

B．Cacao was only available to wealthy Mayan people.

C．Cacao was accessible to Mayan ordinary people.

D．Cacao left more traces in the Mayan city center.

2. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?

A．There is no need to do further research on cacao.

B．Mayan people liked eating chocolate very much.

C．Mayan festivals were the same as those of the modern times.

D．There were some limitations in previous research about cacao.

3. Why did Ford and his colleagues examine 54 antiques?

A．To make copies of Mayan antiques.

B．To learn about the Mayan eating habits.

C．To find out cacao’s relationship with the religion.

D．To know about Mayan social groups of cacao use.

4. Which of the following will be the focus of the research about cacao?

A．The varieties of cacao.	B．Ways cacao was spread out.
C．Cacao tree growers.	D．The cacao’s value.

5 . A Michigan farmer Bristle was digging with a backhoe (反铲挖土机) in one of his wheat fields when — bang — it struck a large bone.

Bristle contacted Fisher, a paleontology (古生物学家) professor at the University of Michigan. Fisher rushed to the farm and identified the bone as a fossil of an Ice Age mammoth (猛犸象). Since it was harvest season, Bristle gave Fisher and his students only one day to remove the rest of the fossils from the ground. The team found 20 percent of the animal’s bones, including its skull, tusks, pelvis, and shoulder blades as well as some teeth, ribs, and other bones.

The age of a mammoth can be determined by counting the rings in one of its tusks. Like the rings in a tree trunk, each ring stands for one year of a mammoth’s life. Fisher thinks that the bones are supposed to belong to male mammoth around forty years old. It was probably a rare hybrid of a woolly mammoth and a Colombian mammoth that lived between 11,700 and 15,000 years ago during the Pleistocene lee Age, when ice sheets covered much of Earth’s land.

The bones appeared to have been cut up and some of them were missing, leading Fisher to conclude that early humans must have killed the animal and stored its meat so they could return to it at a later time. Some other indications of human activity include a stone flake (薄片) that might have been from a cutting tool and the arrangement of the neck bones in order. If the mammoth had died naturally, its bones would have scattered randomly.

In the US, fossils found on private property belong to the owner of the land. However, Bristle donated the fossils to the University of Michigan for further study. Fisher hopes to display the bones at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, possibly combined with fiberglass models of bones from other Michigan mammoths to form a complete Mammoth skeleton (骨架).

1. Why was Fisher’s time limited to one day?

A．Because the mammoth was a small one.	B．Because it was easy to remove the bones.
C．Because it was the time of gathering crops.	D．Because Bristle was busy planting in the field.

2. How did Fisher infer the mammoth’s age?

A．By counting the bones.	B．By judging the living age.
C．By measuring the ice sheets.	D．By numbering the tusk rings.

3. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．How the mammoth died.	B．Where the missing meat was.
C．How the stone flake was made.	D．Whether the neck bones scattered.

4. What is Fisher’s wish according to the last paragraph?

A．To own the fossils.	B．To study the mammoth.
C．To complete the skeleton.	D．To promote the university.

6 . Human faces cut into stone up to 2,000 years ago have again been found on a rocky area along the Amazon River in northern Brazil. The stone carvings (雕刻品) appeared as a result of a big drop in water levels because of dry weather in parts of northern Brazil. The water level had dropped to the lowest level in the history of the river.

“People had reported some of the stone carvings before during periods when water levels were low. But now a greater number have been identified. That will help researchers establish the history of the carvings, and more secrets of historical relics will come to light,” researcher Jaime de Santana Oliveira said recently.

One area shows smooth marks in the rock thought to be where natives once sharpened their tools such   as arrows and spears before European settlers arrived.

“The carvings are prehistoric, or precolonial (殖民地时期前的). We can’t be sure of their precise date but based on the evidence of human living places of the area, we believe they are about 1, 000 to 2, 000 years old.” Oliveira said.

The rocky area is on the north shore of the Amazon River near the place where the Rio Negro River joins it.

Oliveira said the carvings were first seen in 2010, but this year’s drought has been more serious than earlier dry periods. The Rio Negro’s levels have dropped 15 meters since July, uncovering large areas of rocks and sand where there had been no beaches.

“This time we found not just more carvings, but the statue of a human face cut into the rock,” said Oliveira, who works for the Brazilian government’s National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute. The organization watches the care of historic places in Brazil.

1. What plays a key role in finding the stone carvings?

A．People’s report.	B．Natural disaster.
C．High technology.	D．Researchers’ effort.

2. What can researchers do with more identified stone carvings?

A．Explore the history of historical sites.	B．Move the valuable carvings to safety.
C．Discover more underwater stone carvings.	D．Make the carvings popular among visitors.

3. What does the underlined word “precise” mean in paragraph 4?

A．Fixed.

B．Exact.

C．Best.

D．Future.

4. What does Oliveira stress in the last paragraph?

A．The human face stone carvings.	B．The number of stone carvings.
C．The real value of stone carvings.	D．The place where stone carvings were found.

7 . The history of the school bus can date back to 1886 when the Wayne Works company made horse-drawn carriages (四轮马车) known as “ school wagons” or “kid hacks” in Indiana.     1    

In the early 1900s, the car industry was beginning to develop fast.    2     The company managed to make its carriages powered by engines. But the design remained mostly the same as that of the previous ones, with students sitting along the walls of the bus while facing inside.

In 1927, a man built the first bus that primarily used steel. Before long, Wayne Works introduced the first all-steel school bus body with safety glass windows.     3     This led to a turning point in the history of the school bus in 1939, when a conference was organised at Manhattan College to develop school bus standards.

Many new national standards were created, determining everything from seating designs to the famous yellow color that school buses still sport today. The reason why the color was chosen was simple.     4    The color is especially easy to see in the early morning and evening light when school buses usually operate.

    5     For example, a variety of changes have been made to enable the school bus to not only be safer but also have better fuel (燃料) economy, be easier to drive, etc. The most creative approach among all of these is probably a kind of stop signal arm that warns traffic of a stop in progress, which states began to require in the early 1950s.

A．Horses were easy to control.

B．Not all chose to paint their buses yellow.

C．Yellow is quite eye-catching to human beings.

D．Before then, many children simply walked to school.

E．Now, school buses have had many more improvements.

F．Still, parents were increasingly concerned for children’s safety.

G．This gave Wayne Works a great opportunity to improve its carriages.

8 . 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。

On Feb 8, 2001, workers at a construction site in Jinsha village, Chengdu, found many pieces of ivory and jade and the hidden ruins of the capital of the ancient Shu Kingdom were brought     1    light by archaeologists. Among the over 5,000 precious relics     2    (excavate)from the ruins, the most eye-catching is the Golden Sun Bird. It is made from delicate gold foil(箔), just one     3    (five)of a millimeter thick. It has two sections: The center is a sun pattern with 12 rays     4    (indicate)the rotation(自转)of the sun and around the sun are four birds flying anticlockwise. According to archaeologists, the four birds symbolize four seasons, while the 12 rays     5    (mean)to represent 12 months of the year. Hence, it could be inferred that over 3000 years ago ancient Shu people possessed     6     good knowledge of astronomy and nature. Furthermore, this masterpiece is believed to be an illustration of an ancient Chinese myth recorded in the classic The Legends of Mountains and Seas,     7     was written about 2,500 years ago. According to the book, ancient people believed the sun was carried up     8    down by birds daily.

In 2005, the pattern was     9    (successful)selected as the symbol of China’s cultural heritage to showcase the ancient Chinese people’s     10    ( wise)and aspirations.

9 . 阅读下面材料，在空处填入适当的内容或括号内单词的正确形式。

Similar     1     people of other nationalities, ancient Chinese people     2     (grasp) or tore food     3     their bare hands at the beginning. Chopsticks, forks, knives and spoons were used much later, of which chopsticks, with a history of thousands of years,     4     (be) a wonder of Chinese dining utensils (器具). Chopsticks are the dining utensils most     5     (frequent) used in Chinese people’s daily life. In ancient China, they     6     (call) zhu.     7     the Chinese began to use chopsticks     8     an eating instrument is anybody’s guess. They were first mentioned in writing in Liji (The Book of Rites), a work compiled some 2,000 years ago. Chopsticks may be made of any of several materials: bamboo, wood, gold, silver, ivory, pewter, and plastics. In cross-section, they may be either round     9     square. Some of them are engraved with colored pictures or calligraphy for decoration. Ordinary chopsticks     10     (use) in Chinese homes are of wood or bamboo, those for banquets are often ivory, whereas gold ones belonged only to the royalty and aristocracy (皇室和贵族).

10 . Mesopotamia was home to some of the very first cities in existence, leading many to link it to the birth of civilization. The origin of these cities is still unknown today, although many theories exist. One suggestion is that the development and building of temples created a place where people would gather, and thus served as points of contact between different groups of people.

Others believe that people sought sanctuary from natural disasters. As the Mesopotamians were able to develop technology to help them control the nearby rivers, such as levees, they could ensure a good crop. They had no need to be nomadic, and were able to settle in one place comfortably. It is for this reason that all the early cities were built along the two major rivers.

From the moment the Sumerians began to form these cities, it forever altered human history. People went from being ruled by nature, to attempting to control it and make it work for them. By 4,500 BCE the first recorded city rose in the form of Uruk. However, the only urban structure at this point was the temple, which regulated all economic and social matters.

The central purpose of these early cities was to help regulate trade, as southern Mesopotamia was reliable on outside resources. This need encouraged the spread of urbanization. However, communication between the cities was difficult, so each city developed into an individual city-state. This led to territorial disputes and, inevitably, war.

In order to keep their cities protected, the Mesopotamians built fortifications, and walled cities rose. Migration to these cities increased, and more buildings were erected. Cities gradually expanded and rulers were proclaimed, who then began looking outwards for trade and conquest.

1. What does the underlined word “sanctuary” mean?

A．Rescue.

B．Stability.

C．Shelter.

D．Accommodation.

2. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．The function of early cities.	B．The structure of early cities.
C．The regulation of early cities.	D．The appearance of early cities.

3. What caused cities to become city-states?

A．War and conflicts.	B．Limited interaction.
C．The spread of urbanization.	D．Competition for resources.

4. What is the best title?

A．The birth of city-states.	B．The first cities in the world.
C．The urban expansion in the world.	D．The conquest of nature in Mesopotamia.