Winter begins in the north on December 22^nd. People and animals have been doing what they always do to prepare for the colder months. Squirrels (松鼠), for example, have been busy gathering nuts from trees. Well, scientists have been busy gathering information about what the squirrels do with the food they collect.
They examined differences between red squirrels and gray squirrels in the American state of Indiana. The scientists wanted to know how these differences could affect the growth of black walnut (黑胡桃) trees. The black walnut is the nut of choice for both kinds of squirrels. The black walnut tree is also a central part of some hardwood forests.
Rob Swihart of Purdue University did the study with Jake Goheen, a former Purdue student now at the University of New Mexico. The two researchers estimate that several times as many walnuts grow when gathered by gray squirrels as compared to red squirrels. Gray squirrels and red squirrels do not store nuts and seeds in the same way. Gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time in a number of places. But they seldom remember where they buried every nut. So some nuts remain in the ground. Conditions are right for them to develop and grow the following spring. Red squirrels, however, store large groups of nuts above ground. Professor Swihart calls “death traps for seeds”.
Gray squirrels are native to Indiana. But Professor Swihart says their numbers began to decrease as more forests were cut for agriculture. Red squirrels began to spread through the state during the past century.
The researchers say red squirrels are native to forests that stay green all year, unlike walnut trees. They say the cleaning of forest land for agriculture has helped red squirrels invade Indiana. Jake Goheen calls them a sign of an environmental problem more than a cause

1. 1.

   The study done by Rob Swihart and Jake Goheen is to ________  

   1. A.
      find out the living conditions for squirrels
   2. B.
      do something to get rid of squirrels
   3. C.
      learn squirrels’ influence on black walnut trees
   4. D.
      save the forests in the American state of Indiana
2. 2.

   The difference between gray squirrels and red squirrels mainly lies in ________   

   1. A.
      the way they gather the walnut
   2. B.
      the place they store the walnuts
   3. C.
      the time they have winter sleep
   4. D.
      the place they have winter sleep
3. 3.

   When Professor Swihart says “death traps for seeds”, he actually means that ________    

   1. A.
      nuts above the ground will not develop into plants
   2. B.
      red squirrels eat more nuts than gray squirrels
   3. C.
      gray squirrels and red squirrels will have severe fights
   4. D.
      seeds can be traps for other animals in the forest
4. 4.

   According to the passage, which of the following is true?

   1. A.
      Gray squirrels do more harm to the forest than red squirrels
   2. B.
      Red squirrels and gray squirrels have helped the spread of walnut trees
   3. C.
      The cleaning of forest land benefits red squirrels directly
   4. D.
      The black walnut is equally attractive to both gray and red squirrels

In a Chinese modern dance competition on TV one very unique couple won one of the top prizes.The lady，in her thirties，was a dancer who had ____ since she was a little girl.Later in life，she lost her entire left arm in an accident and fell into a state of ____ for a few years.

Someone then asked her to coach a children’s dancing group.From that point on，she realized that she could not ____ dancing.So，she started to do some of her old routines，but，having lost her arm，she had also lost her ___.It took a while before she could even make simple turns and spins without ____.

Then a few months later she ____ a man in his twenties who had lost a leg in an accident.She was determined to find him and ____ him to dance with her.He had never danced.And to dance with one leg...He said，“Are you ____ with me？No way！”

But，she didn’t ____，and he agreed to think about it.“I have nothing else to do anyway，” he thought.Then she started to ____ him dancing.The two ____ a few times because he had no concept of using muscle，how to ___ his body，and knew none of the ____ things about dancing.When she became ____ and lost patience with him，he would walk out.____，they came back together and started training ____.

They hired a choreographer(舞蹈指导) to ___ routines for them.She would fly high (held by him) with both arms (a sleeve for an arm) flying in the air.He could bend ____ by one leg with her leaning(倚靠) on him，etc.

When I watched this I didn’t ____ realize that she was missing an arm ___ I was focusing on the guy with only one leg.Really quite amazing!

1.A.operated B．played

C．trained? D．competed

2.A.relief? B．depression

C．confusion? D．recovery

3.A.learn? B．understand

C．forget? D．face

4.A.chance? B．balance

C．advantage D．promise

5.A.following? B．checking

C．noticing? D．falling

6.A.heard of? B．searched for

C．came across? D．waited for

7.A.require B．allow

C．lead? D．persuade

8.A.arguing? B．joking

C．discussing? D．agreeing

9.A.carry on? B．give up

C．settle down? D．set off

10.A.teach? B．show

C．leave? D．watch

11.A.broke up B．gave in

C．put off? D．returned back

12.A.change? B．present

C．improve? D．control

13.A.important? B．interesting

C．basic D．special

14.A.excited? B．annoyed

C．moved? D．shocked

15.A.Unfortunately? B．Eventually

C．Generally D．Jokingly

16.A.seriously? B．differently

C．publicly? D．gradually

17.A.discover? B．arrange

C．perform? D．design

18.A.raised? B．kept

C．supported? D．carried

19.A.still? B．hardly

C．nearly? D．even

20.A.because B．if

C．before? D．though

The home service industry in Beijing is expected to become more attractive both as a job and as an industry.
Sources at the Beijing People’s Political Consultative Conference said resistance to home service work is melting away from minds of the city’s laid-off workers. The Conference suggested the establishment of municipal (市政的) centers which supervise (监督) property management, household mending and installation, and house keeping services. Modern city life is creating a need for industrialization home services. This will create job opportunities for laid-off workers, said vice director of the Social Judicial Committee of the Conference.
Beijing residents have long desired a home service industry. The demand is expected to drive new economic growth. There are few high quality home help services in Beijing and customers are always complaining.
In the past, few laid-off workers in Beijing desired to work as home helpers, jobs largely taken by young women from the countryside. At the same time, some city residents have not felt safe trusting rural girls with modern household machines or with their small children. Many people would pay more for reliable house keepers who are more familiar with city life, but they have had no way of getting one, even though the city is home to thousands of laid-off workers.
By the end of June this year, there were 30,600 jobless workers in the city. Most of them are women in their 40’s, who are not blessed with particular skills and who have had their work ethics (准则) shaped by the planned economy. Many of them were at a loss when they first realized they had lost their jobs and a way of life they had got used to for decades. They never imagined being laid off by state owned enterprises; they never considered other kinds of employment. For them, the private sector (部门) meant taking risks; house-keeping implied lower social status. Gao Yunfang, 44, is a pioneer who is breaking the ice. She sells the Beijing Morning Post in the morning, and works at two households in the afternoon. She earns 1,000 yuan per month. So she no longer worries about her daughter’s tuition at a university in Shanghai.
1. What is talked about in the passage?
A. Home service.          B. Modern city life.              C. Laid-off workers.      D. Social status.
2. What does the word “ laid-off” in the passage mean?
A. Heavily-burdened.    B. Old                          C. Inexperienced.          D. Jobless.
3.    Why didn’t the laid-off workers like to do home services in the past?
A. Low salary.                                                        B. Lower social status.  
C. Dirty working condition.                              D. Too much extra work.
4.    Why were many laid-off workers at a loss?
A. Because they didn’t get used to the new way of life.     
B. Because they are too old to find a new job.
C. Because they dislike being laid off. 
D. Because they think they lost their social status.

Foreign ministers of the two countries hold regular meetings,     they can exchange views on international issues of both concern.