The most important holiday in spring, especially for Christians, is Easter. This Christian holiday is not on the same date every year，but it’s always on a Sunday. It can be any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. Many people celebrate Easter by buying new clothes. Children celebrate by hunting for colored eggs that their parents have hidden around the house. People also give Easter baskets filled with candy and other goodies to one another to celebrate the day.
But the holiday is more than new clothes and good things to eat. On Easter, many people go to church to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection（复活）from the dead. Most people color Ester eggs. Some people hide them. Others just eat them. But no matter what one does with Easter eggs，they are an important Easter tradition throughout the Western world. People from many different cultures celebrate Easter. In both America and Belgium, children look for Easter eggs hidden on lawns and in bushes. In America, children believe the eggs are hidden by the Easter bunny (兔子).But in Belgium, the hidden eggs are supposed to have fallen from church bells. In Bulgaria (保加利亚), red Easter eggs are lucky in churches. Bulgarian families also hit these Easter eggs together to see whose is the strongest. The winner looks forward to good fortune that year. Still dozens of other Easter traditions exist. In parts of Austria，for example，children sing from door to door and are rewarded with colorful eggs.
【小题1】Easter comes _______.

阅读下面短文 ，掌握其大意 ，然后从36-55各题所给的四个选项中 ，选出最佳选项。

Preparing for tomorrow

       Sixth-grade schoolteacher Ms．Shelton believed in readiness．Students remembered how she walked in on the first day of class and began writing words of eighth-grade on the    36    ．They quickly protested that the words were not on their    37     and they couldn’t learn them．

       Their teacher insisted that the students could and would learn these    38    ．She said that she would teach them something that should be given．Ms．Shelton    39     by saying that one of the students in the classroom could go on to    40    , maybe even be president someday, and she wanted to prepare them for that day．

       Ms．Shelton spoke those words many years ago．  41     did she know that someday one of her students—Jesse Jackson—would take them    42    ．She believed that if they were well prepared, they could    43    high goals．

       Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “People only see what they are    44     to see．” If that’s true, then it is also    45     that they only become what they are prepared to become．And many things in life are just about getting ready．

       “I want to be doing something more    46     with my life than what I am doing now,” a young man once said to me．He    47     what he was doing was just not that important．Other people have said things to me such as, “I only    48     I had a meaningful relationship．” And, “I’d really like to get a better job, but I just don’t see    49    ．”

       You fill in the blanks．What is it you would like to    50     that isn’t happening? Perhaps the answer is that you are not yet    51    ．Maybe you need more time to prepare before you are truly ready for that which you    52    ．

       Think of today as another chance to   53    yourself for the exciting future you are looking for．Today is not wasted．If you desire more from    54    , then you can use today as training．For you will experience only what you are prepared to    55    ．Something wonderful can happen．And you can use today to get ready for tomorrow．

A．desk      B．wall  C．chalkboard       D．door

A．duty      B．desk  C．mind D．level

A．words    B．grammars C．pronunciations  D．sentences

A．started   B．ended       C．warned     D．reminded

A．greatness       B．wealth      C．honor              D．failure

A．Seldom  B．Little C．Hardly      D．Totally

A．nervously      B．eagerly     C．seriously   D．simply

A．keep      B．have  C．set     D．achieve

A．prepared       B．forced      C．attracted   D．tempted

A．proper   B．exact C．legal  D．true

A．difficult B．significant C．pleasant    D．interesting

A．boasted  B．behaved    C．felt    D looked

A．wish      B．expect      C．hope  D．imagine

A．what      B．when C．why  D．how

A．survive  B．happen     C．gain  D．win

A．adventurous   B．active       C．ready D．intelligent

A．concern  B．arrange     C．adore D．desire

A．prepare  B．enjoy C．imagine    D．conduct

A．history   B．nature       C．life    D．marriage

A．suffer    B．experience       C．struggle    D．work

Have you seen Jurassic Park? In this film, scientists use DNA kept for tens of millions of years to clone dinosaurs. They find trouble, however, when they realize that the cloned creatures are smarter and more dangerous than expected. That’s nothing more than a fiction.

But could we really clone endangered animals?

    To date, the most successful attempt to do so was the cloning of a gaur, a rare ox-like animal from southeast Asia. Scientists used a cow to bring the cloned baby gaur, named Noah. Two days after birth, however, Noah died from a common bacterial infection. Other endangered species that may be cloned include the African bongo antelope (羚羊), the Sumatran tiger, the cheetah (猎豹), and the giant panda.

Next, could we really clone extinct animals?

In theory? Yes. To do this, you need a well-kept source of DNA from the extinct animals such as wool mammoth (毛象), Tasmanian tiger, or even dinosaur, and a closely related species, still living, which could serve as a surrogate mother.

In reality? Probably not. On the one hand, it’s not likely that extinct animals’ DNA could survive undamaged for such a long time. Cloning such extinct animals as wool mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, or dinosaur is much more difficult due to the lack of properly well-preserved DNA. On the other hand, for example, a gaur can have a cow as a surrogate mother, definitely not a monkey. But what about an extinct animal as unique as the panda? What species could possibly serve as a surrogate mother?

   Cloning presents many exciting possibilities. However, even if extinct animals were brought back, they could not survive in today’s world. Not only do most extinct animals have no habitat to love in, but the other plants and animals they depended on for food may also be gone as well.

1. It can be learned from the text that ________.

A. the gaur is an extinct species

B. the gaur lives in Asia and is endangered

C. scientists have cloned the African bongo antelope

D. both the cheetah and the giant panda live in Asia

2.The underlined words “a surrogate mother” probably refer to a female who ______.

A. gives birth to a baby of its own                 B. cannot give birth to a baby

C. gives birth to a baby for another female             D. provides DNA

3.The difficulty in cloning an extinct species is the lack of ______.

A. both the well-preserved DNA and a surrogate mother

B. both the habitat to live in and the well-preserved DNA

C. both the well-preserved DNA and plants to live on

D. both the habitat to live in and plants to live on

4.In the author’s opinion, it is possible that ______.

A. all the extinct species may be cloned

B. extinct species may be cloned and easily survive

C. a gaur can have a monkey as a surrogate mother

D. some extinct species may be cloned, but not survive

D
Film cameras and digital cameras work in a similar way.
Film cameras
After all, a film camera is basically a light – proof (不透光的) box. It has a lens (镜头) system to focus light onto the film at the back of the camera.
Let’s suppose that we are outside on a beautiful summer day trying to take a picture of the family dog. We are using a film camera. We finally get the dog to lie still. You point the camera at him. What happens? Light goes into the camera lens and hits the shutter. In other words, nothing happens yet. Now let’s say that the dog looks really cute and you decide to snap a picture. What happens? When you press the button, the shutter open for a very short period of time. A small amount of light passes through and hits the film at the back of the camera. This creates an upside-down and reversed (反向的)image on the film.
When you finish the roll of the film, you can take it to the photo shop to develop it and you will have a great picture of your dog!
Cameras come with different lens lengths. Why does it matter? Many small cameras have shorter focal lengths, which means that there is a small distance between the lens and the place where the light focuses at the back of the camera. This gives you a large view of the area you are taking a picture of. Lenses with a long focal length show a smaller area but allow you to focus on distant objects and make them bigger. They are often called telephoto lenses. A good example of a long focus lens is one that is used by sports photographers to get photos of football players as if they were standing right beside them.
Digital cameras
In digital cameras, the light falls not on film but onto a sensor (传感器)called a CCD (Charge Coupled Device). This digitally converts(转变) light and colour into a digital information or pixels (象素). The CCD is the heart of any digital camera and usually the most expensive part ---- depending on how good it is.
67．Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A．Both digital and film cameras focus light onto the film.
B．All cameras have a sensor.
C．Digital cameras and film cameras have something in common. .
D．Small cameras usually have longer focal lengths.
68．In the “Film cameras” part, you fail to take the picture of the dog because _____.
A．light goes into the camera lens and hits the shutter
B．you haven’t aimed the camera at the dog
C．the image of the dog is not created
D．the sensor fails to convert light and colour into a digital information
69．The main reason that sports photographers can get clear and big photos of players is that _ ___.
A．they use digital cameras  B．the lens of their cameras is excellent
C．their focus lenses are short      D．their focus lenses are long
70．Generally speaking, a digital camera’s price is ____.
A．closely related to the quality of the CCD
B．irrelevant to the quality of the CCD
C．closely related to the lens
D．irrelevant to the lens

A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack(裂缝) in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
This went on daily. The perfect pot was proud of its accomplishment. Of course, the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream.
“I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologise to you.”
“Why?” asked the bearer. “What are you ashamed of?”
“I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back. And you do no get full value for your efforts” the pot explained.
The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, “As we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”
As they went up the hill, the cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it a little.
The bearer said, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?” That is because I have known about you, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walked back from the stream, you have watered them. For two years, I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.”
【小题1】Why did the cracked pot feel ashamed?