Carnival does not take place only in Louisiana. There are many celebrations around the world.

　 In Brazil, the celebration is supposed to go on from the Saturday before Mardi Gras(四旬斋前的最后一天)to Mardi Gras Day, but in some Brazilian cities the celebration can last seven or eight days. Just like New Orleans, not many important things are decided in Brazil from New Year’s Day to Mardi Gras Day because everyone is preparing for or celebrating carnival. Most Brazilian parades have a subject, which could be political and historical. The parades had to have a subject related to Brazil until 1996. Some cities in Brazil do not have a street carnival but they might have an indoor ball.

　 Bolivia has carnival parades for children and then more parades for adults. The children dress up in costumes and march in the streets. The adults make traditional dance groups and dance in the streets. But the main part of Bolivia’s carnival is getting wet. Almost everyone gets wet from water balloons and water buckets. In Oruru, Bolivia, their carnival is held in the last ten days of the carnival season. People there participate in crafts and dancing, but their main carnival event is a ceremonial parade that lasts for twenty hours and parades for four kilometers. Over 20,000 dancers are involved as well as 10,000 musicians. This parade attracts at least 400,000 people.

　 The carnival in Venice, Italy is often regarded as the most carefully prepared carnival and lasts the ten days before Lent (四旬斋). Many events are held in the canals including shows, concerts, dances, and water processions(队列). The official ending to the celebration is the ball held in St. Mark’s Square.

(　 )1. What’s the best title of the passage?

　 　A. Carnivals around the world. B. History of carnival. C. Customs of carnival. D. Carnival parades.

(　 )2. From the passage we learn that in Brazil　　　　 .

　 　A. all urban residents celebrate carnival for a week

B. people prepare for or celebrate carnival after Mardi Gras Day

C. the parades should have a subject related to Brazil　　　　　 D. not all cities have a street carnival

(　 )3. The most important feature of the celebration of carnival in Bolivia is that 　　　 .

A.children wearing costumes march in the streets B. adult dance groups dance in the streets

C.people participate in crafts and dancing　 D.nearly all people are sprayed with water

(　 )4. Which of the following statements shows that the author pays special attention to the carnival in Bolivia?

　 A. The time of celebrating carnival in Bolivia is mentioned.

　 B. There are details and numbers about carnival celebrations in Bolivia.

　 C. Events or performances for carnival celebrations in Bolivia are mentioned.

　D. Participants in the carnival celebration in Bolivia are mentioned.

(　 )5. Which of the following areas or countries prepares the most carefully for their carnival according to the passage?

　　A. Louisiana.　　 B. Bolivia.　　　 C. Venice.　　　 D. Brazil.

Speeding off in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in for an unwelcome surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobiliser (锁止器), and a radio signal from a control centre miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again.

The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car contains a mini-cellphone, a micro- processor and memory, and a GPS (全球定位系统) satellite positioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the control centre to block the vehicle's engine management system and prevent the engine being restarted.

In the UK, a set of technical fixes is already making life harder for car thieves. 'The pattern of vehicle crime has changed,’ says Martyn Randall, a security expert. He says it would only take him a few minutes to teach a person how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10 years old.

Modern cars are far tougher to steal, as their engine management computer won't allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition (点火) key. In the UK, technologies like this have helped achieve a 31% drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997.

But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars, often by getting hold of the owner's keys. And key theft is responsible for 40% of the thefts of vehicles fitted with a tracking system.

If the car travels 100 metres without the driver confirming their ID, the system will send a signal to an operations centre that it has been stolen. The hundred metres minimum avoids false alarms due to inaccuracies in the GPS signal.

Staff at the centre will then contact the owner to confirm that the car really is missing, and keep police informed of the vehicle's movements via the car's GPS unit.

66. What's the function of the remote immobilizer fitted to a car?

A .To allow the car to lock automatically when stolen.

B. To prevent the car thief from restarting it once it stops.

C. To help the police make a surprise attack on the car thief.

D. To prevent car theft by sending a radio signal to the car owner.

67. By saying 'The pattern of vehicle crime has changed' (Lines 1-2. Para. 3). Martyn Randall suggests that ____.

A. self-prepared tools are no longer enough for car theft

B. the thief has to make use of computer technology

C. it takes a longer time for the car thief to do the stealing

D. the thief has lost interest in stealing cars over 10 years old

68. What is essential in making a modern car tougher to steal?

A. A GPS satellite positioning receiver.　      B. A unique ID card.   

C. A special cellphone signal.                D. A coded ignition key.

69. Why does the tracking system set a 100-metre minimum before sending an alarm to the operations centre?

A. To give the driver time to contact the operations centre.

B. To allow for possible errors in the GPS system.

C. To keep police informed of the car's movements.

D. To leave time for the operations centre to give an alarm.

70. What will the operations centre do first after receiving an alarm?

A. Start the tracking system.         B. Locate the missing car.

C. Contact the car owner.　         D. Block the car engine

A team of researchers in California has developed a way to predict what kinds of objects people are looking at by scanning what’s happening in their brains.
When you look at something, your eyes send a signal about that object to your brain. Different regions of the brain process the information your eyes send. Cells in your brain called neurons(神经元) are responsible for this processing.
　　The fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging功能性磁共振造影) brain scans could generally match electrical activity in the brain to the basic shape of a picture that someone was looking at.
　　Like cells anywhere else in your body, active neurons use oxygen. Blood brings oxygen to the neurons, and the more active a neuron is, the more oxygen it will consume. The more active a region of the brain, the more active its neurons, and in turn, the more blood will travel to that region. And by using fMRI, scientists can visualize which parts of the brain receive more oxygen- rich blood--and therefore, which parts are working to process information.
　　An fMRI machine is a device that scans the brain and measures changes in blood flow to the brain. The technology shows researchers how brain activity changes when a person thinks, looks at something, or carries out an activity like speaking or reading. By highlighting the areas of the brain at work when a person looks at different images, fMRI may help scientists determine specific patterns of brain activity associated with different kinds of images.
　　The California researchers tested brain activity by having two volunteers view hundreds of pictures of everyday objects, like people, animals, and fruits. The scientists used an fMRI machine to record the volunteers' brain activity with each photograph they looked at. Different objects caused different regions of the volunteers' brains to light up on the scan, indicating activity. The scientists used this information to build a model to predict how the brain might respond to any image the eyes see.
In a second test, the scientists asked the volunteers to look at 120 new pictures. Like before, their brains were scanned every time they looked at a new image. This time, the scientists used their model to match the fMRI scans to the image. For example, if a scan in the second test showed the same pattern of brain activity that was strongly, related to pictures of apples in the first test, their model would have predicted the volunteers were looking at apples.
　　 51. What is responsible for processing the information sent by your eyes?
　　A A small region of the brain.
　　B The central part of the brain.
　　C Neurons in the brain.
　　D Oxygen-rich blood.
　　52. Which of the following statements is NOT meant by the writer?
　　A Cells in your brain are called neurons.
　　B The more oxygen a neuron consumes, the more blood it needs.
　　C fMRI helps scientists to discover which parts of the brain process information.
　　D fMRI helps scientists to discover how the brain develops intelligently.
53. "Highlighting the areas of the brain at work" means
　　A "marking the parts of the brain that are processing information"
　　B "giving light to the parts of the brain that are processing information"
　　C "putting the parts of the brain to work"
　　D "stopping the parts of the brain from working"
　　54. What did the researchers experiment on?
　　A Animals, objects, and fruits.
　　B Two volunteers.
　　C fMRI machines.
　　D Thousands of pictures.
55.What is the best title for the passage?
A Mind-reading Machine
B A Technological Dream
C Device that can Help You Calculate
D The Recent Development in Science and Technology

The flag, the most common symbol of a nation in the modern world, is also one of the most ancient. With a clear symbolic meaning, the flag in the traditional form is still used today to mark buildings, ships and other vehicles related to a country.
The national flag as we know it today is in no way a primitive artifact. It is, rather, the product of thousands of years’ development. Historians believe that it had two major ancestors, of which the earlier served to show wind direction.
Early human beings used very fragile houses and boats. Often strong winds would tear roofs from houses or cause high waves that endangered travelers. People’s food supplies were similarly vulnerable. Even after they had learned how to plant grains, they still needed help from nature to ensure good harvests. Therefore they feared and depended on the power of the wind, which could bring warmth from one direction and cold from another.
Using a simple piece of cloth tied to the top of a post to tell the direction of the wind was more dependable than earlier methods, such as watching the rising of smoke from a fire. The connection of the flag with heavenly power was therefore reasonable. Early human societies began to fix long pieces of cloth to the tops of totems (图腾) before carrying them into battle. They believed that the power of the wind would be added to the good wishes of the gods and ancestors represented by the totems themselves.
These flags developed very slowly into modern flags. The first known flag of a nation or a ruler was unmarked: The king of China around 1,000 B.C. was known to have a white flag carried ahead of him. This practice might have been learned from Egyptians even further in the past, but it was from China that it spread over trade routes through India, then across Arab lands, and finally to Europe, where it met up with the other ancestor of the national flag.
【小题1】 The underlined word “ vulnerable” in paragraph 3 means _______.

Employers fear they will be unable to recruit (招募) students with the skills they need as the economic recovery kicks in, a new survey ___21___.
Nearly half of the organizations told researchers they were already struggling to find ___22___ with skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), ___23___ even more companies expect to experience ___24___ of employees with STEM skills in the next three years.
The Confederation of British Industry___25___694 businesses and organizations across the public and ___26___sectors , which together employ 2.4 million people.
Half are ___27___ they will not be able to fill graduate posts in the coming years, while a third said they would not be able to ___28___ enough employees with the right A-level skills.
　　“___29___ we move further role recovery and businesses plan ___30___ growth, the demand for people with high-quality skills and qualifications will ___31___.” said Richard Lambert, Director General, CBI. “Firms say it is already hard to find people with the right ___32___ or engineering skills. The new government must make it a top ___33___ to encourage more young people to study science-related ___34___.”
　　The survey found that young people would improve their job prospects (预期) ___35___ they studied business, maths, English and physics or chemistry at A-level. The A-levels that employers ___36___least are psychology and sociology. And while many employers don’t insist on a ___37___ degree subject . A third prefer to hire those with a STEM-related subject.
The research ___38___ worries about the lack of progress in improving basic skills in the UK ___39___. Half of the employer expressed worries about employees’ basic literacy and numeracy（计算) skills, while the biggest problem is with IT skills, ___40___ two-thirds reported concerns.