March 20th is World Water Day every year. According to a report from the United Nations, more than half of the world's major rivers have serious water loss and are polluted.

The Yellow River, the world's fifth longest river, watered some of the oldest farms on earth. But now it has a serious problem.    1.    In most of the past 35 years, it didn't reach the sea.

The Nile in Egypt, running 6, 650 km, is the longest river in the world. 2.Now it is down to 2 billion m' or so.  Australia's Murray River reaches the sea only every other year.  One fifth of America's Rio Grande has no water, either.

____3.   

Mostly it's damming (筑坝) and global warming that make rivers dry.

____4.    Now about 45, 000 of them lie across the world's rivers. They hold back around 15% of the world's fresh water from running to the sea.

Global warming is making things worse. Warmer weather takes water away.  The glacier (冰川) are becoming smaller.   5.    Global warming has had certain effects on water sources (源头). Droughts (干旱) happening around the world make people pay more attention to this fact.

根据短文内容及首字母提示，填写所缺单词，并将答案填写在答题卡相应位置上。

Did you know that you can help the environment if you buy recyclable products instead of non-recyclable ones? Look for the recycle s  【小题1】   – three arrows that make a circle – on the package. Recyclable products are usually made out of things that already have been u 【小题2】   . It usually takes less energy to make recycled products than to make new ones. The more energy we save, the b  【小题3】  .
Imagine that it's a hot summer day. You put an ice cream on the sidewalk, and it melts. W  【小题4】   does this happen? Well, you probably know that the sun causes the ice cream to melt. But you may not know that the sun produces solar energy. Solar energy is a 【小题5】    way of saying "energy that comes from the sun." Solar energy can be used to heat homes, buildings, water, a【小题6】     to make electricity. Today, more than 200,000 houses in the United States make use of the s 【小题7】    energy.Cars are an important part of life for most people. But cars also cause pollution and give out a lot of greenhouse gases into the air. L 【小题8】   , there are some cars that are better for the environment. These cars can travel longer on a smaller amount of gasoline. They don't p  【小题9】    as much, either. Using these kinds of cars can help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the air.
Many things, l 【小题10】    computers, TVs, stereos, and VCRs, have special labels on them. The label says "Energy" and has a picture of a star. Products with the ENERGY STAR^® label are made to save energy. Buying products with ENERGY STAR^® labels will help protect the environment.

What is your zodiac（生肖） animal? According to the Chinese lunar calendar（农历）, 12 animals mark 12 different years. It is the basis of the Chinese zodiac. Nowadays, Chinese zodiac animals have worldwide fame and are increasingly popular among western people.

The zodiac is an important part of Chinese culture. People believe that the characteristics of a zodiac animal influence the personality of every person born in that year. For example, people born in the Year of the Tiger are considered powerful and brave.

Zodiac animals also have some social functions. When people think it is not proper to ask: “How old are you”, they may change their question to “What is your zodiac animal?” With this question, you can figure out roughly which year someone was born and the person’s age.

Zodiac animals are not special to China. Many countries share a similar zodiac culture with China. For example, in the Japanese Zodiac, a wild boar（野猪）takes the place of a pig and the Vietnamese（越南的）zodiac has a cat instead of a rabbit.

But have you ever wondered how these 12 animals were chosen to represent each year? According to legend, the Jade Emperor（玉皇大帝）invited all the animals to join him for Chinese New Year. Only 12 animals went to see him. As a reward he named a year after each one in the order they arrived. The ox would have been the first to arrive, but the rat sat on his back and jumped off just before they arrived to come in first place.

1.The characteristics of a zodiac animal may influence the _____ of every person

born in that year.

A．appearance        B．personality        C．hobby            D．education

2.“What is your zodiac animal?” is a question used to find out a person’s______.

A．age              B．name             C．job              D．weight

3.In the Japanese zodiac, we don’t see the zodiac animal：_______

A．wild boar          B．rabbit            C．dragon           D．pig

4.According to the last paragraph, we know that ____ was the first animal to arrive.

A．ox               B．rat               C．pig               D．cat

What’s the red star in the sky through a telescope(望远镜)? It is Mars. Do you want to know more about it? Take the “Mars Orbit Express”!

    “Mars Orbit Express” is a space probe (探测器). It was sent towards Mars by American scientists on August 12th，2005. Its tasks are to study Mars’ atmosphere and return photos to Earth. But before that “Mars Orbit Express” must travel about 100 hundred million kilometers and seven months. It reached Mars’ orbit(轨道)in March，2006.

     Mars and Earth have similar weight and size. However，Mars is closer to the sun than Earth. Mars is very cold. The average temperature is below 50℃. The temperature at noon only reaches 20℃ during a Mars day. Its atmosphere is mostly CO2. It has much sand and two moons---Phobos and Deimos.

     Scientists think Earth and Mars had similar beginnings 4.6 billion years ago. But while Earth supports millions of lives，Mars becomes bad. “Earth easily could have turned out like that.” said an scientist, “It is important for us to find out why and Mars Orbit Express’ should do that.” “Mars Orbit Express” also would help scientists to learn what might happen to Earth in the future.  “Mars Orbit Express” would work for about four years.

1. What can you see through a telescope when watching Mars? ________.

  A. Much sand           B.A red star         C. Its atmosphere         D. Its size

2.One of the tasks of Mars Orbit Express is _______.

A. taking pictures of Mars         

B. studying the weight of Mars

C. finding out distance between Earth and Mars

D. telling the time it takes to go from Earth to Mars

3.Compared with Earth，_______.

  A. Mars has a long history           B. Mars is big and heavy

  C. Mars is close to the sun           D. Mars’ atmosphere is mainly O2.

4. Which might be the proper title for the passage?

A. Mars：differences from Earth      B. A probe：to learn more about Mars

C. Mars: change of temperature       D. A probe：to tell the future of Earth

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.　　
This is an old English saying. Have you heard of it before? It means that we must go to bed early and get up early in the morning. Then we shall be healthy. We shall also be rich (wealthy) and clever (wise).　　
This is true. The body must have enough sleep to be healthy. Children of young age should have ten hours’ sleep every night. Children who do not have enough sleep cannot do their work very well. They will not be wise and they may not become wealthy!　　
The body also needs exercise. Walking, running, jumping, swimming and playing games are all exercise. Exercise keeps the body strong. Exercise also helps the blood (血液) to move around inside the body. This is very important. Our blood takes food to all parts of our body. The head also needs blood .Exercise helps us to think better!　　
【小题1】If we get up early and go to bed early , we’ll _________ .