What’s the most important thing for you to have in your life? Somebody mentions hard-work, others suggest knowledge, love and luck.
　　If you arrange the 26 English letters alphabetically(按字母表的顺序)and use numbers to represent each of them, for example, 1 for a, 2 for b, 3 for c…, you can change an English word into a number. So hard-work becomes 8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11="98," meaning 98 is its mark; knowledge: 11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5="96," while love: 12+15+22+5="54," and luck: 12+21+3+11="47," a small mark. None of these words can give one a full mark. What about money? It can’t , either.
　　Then what else? Don’t be worried. You can always find an answer to a problem in your life, when you change your way of looking at things or doing things, or your attitude. Yes, attitude is the word. See for yourself: attitude:1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5=100，a full mark.
　　Most times people hope for a better life. It is possible if you will have a change for the better after you have changed your attitude. When you change your manner and become friendly to others, you’ll meet more smiling faces towards you.
【小题1】In the writer’s opinion, what is the most important thing in a person’s life?

On Nov.18th, 1908, three men went up in a balloon. They started early in London. The headman was Auguste Gaudron, and the other two men were Tannar and Maitland. They had a big balloon and they were ready for a long way.

Soon they heard the sea. They were carrying the usual rope, and it was hanging down from the basket of the balloon. At the end of the rope they had tied a metal box. This could hold water, or it could be empty. So they were able to use the box to change the weight of the balloon. The three people were also carrying some bags of sand.

After the sun rose, the balloon went higher. It went up to 3,000 metres, and the air was very cold. The water in the balloon became ice. Snow fell past the men's basket, and they could see more snow on the ground. The men tried to throw out some more sand; but it was hard. They tried to break the icy sand with their knives, but it was not easy. The work was slow and they were still falling, so they had to drop some whole bags of sand. One of them fell on an icy lake and made a black hole in the ice.

　　At last they pulled the box into the basket. It was still snowing; so they climbed to get away from the snow. They rose to 5,100 metres! Everything became icy. They were very cold and  they decided to land. They came down in Poland　heavily but safely. They had travelled 1,797 kilometres from London!

1.Where did they start their travel on Nov.18th, 1908?

2.What was the metal box used for?

3. Why did they have to drop some whole bags of sand during the travel?

4. How long did they travel in the end?

5.

What do you think of the three people and their travel? (请自拟一句话作答)

Several years ago, a television reporter was interviewing three of the most important people from local businesses. One was a very rich banker, another owned one of the largest companies in the world, and the third owned many buildings in the center of New York.
　　The reporter was talking to them about being important.
　　“How do we know if someone is really important?” the reporter asked the banker.
　　The banker thought for a few moments and then said, “I think anybody who is invited to the White House to meet the President is really important.”
　　The reporter then turned to the owner of the very large company. “Do you agree with that?” she asked.
　　The man shook his head, “No. I think the President invites a lot of people to the White House. You’d only be important if while you were visiting the President, there was a telephone call from the president of another country, and the President said he was too busy to answer it.”
　　The reporter turned to the third man. “Do you think so?”
　　“No, I don’t.” he said. “I don’t think that makes the visitor important. That makes the President important.”
　　“Then what would make the visitor important?” the reporter and the other two men asked.
　　“Oh, I think if the visitor to the White House was talking to the President and the phone rang, and the President picked up the receiver, listened and then said, ‘it’s for you.’”
【小题1】This story happened in ________.
A. U.N.             B. U.S.A.               C. U.K.      D. P.R.C.
【小题2】There are________in this passage.

On June 26, 2000, two scientists, called Francis Collins and Craig Venter, told the world that they could now read the whole “map” of the human body: DNA. DNA is something that everybody has, and it tells the body what to do. DNA is the reason that we look like our mother and father, because we get some of their DNA to make our own.

People have been trying to understand the human body for a long time. In 1860, Gregor Mendel discovered a special reason why we look the same as other people in our family. It is because of small things named “genes” in our body. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick made another discovery and found out that those small parts are real messages written in the DNA with a special language.

　　In 1961, Marshall Nirenberg and Johann Matthaei found a message in DNA showing how DNA tells the cell (细胞) to build its parts. Scientists have now found all the words in the DNA map, but we still do not understand what they all do. By understanding what just one “word” means, we can help save more people from several illnesses.

　　Most people hope that this will help make better medicine and help sick people. Other people worry that when people begin to know more words and find out lots of other information, we might use it in a wrong way, just to make people more attractive, or stop sick people from getting jobs. Man would have to meet a lot of trouble if DNA technology (技术) wasn’t limited (限制) in use.

1.When did we first know why we look like other people in our family?

A. In 1860. B. In 1953. C. In 1961. D. In 2000.

2.What did the two scientists first discover in 1961?

A. The “map” of DNA. B. A new illness.

C. The language of DNA. D. A message of DNA.

3.What can we do if we understand some “words” of the language inside the body?

A. Make people get new jobs.

B. Make medicine for illnesses.

C. Make maps of human.

D. Make people less attractive.

4.What do people think about this work?

A. It can cause good or bad results.

B. It can cause only good results.

C. It can cause good results but won’t work.

D. It can cause only bad results.