Last spring, members of Alaska’s Troop 34, based in Fairbanks, trudged (跋涉) out into the snowy wilderness to take part in their state’s Take a Kid Trapping program. In many parts of the state, beavers （海狸）are pests and need to be controlled.
The 10－to－12－year－old girls found out where beavers lived, set traps, and skinned the two animals they caught. The girls hope to catch ten more beavers so that the entire troop can make mittens and hats with the fur. They also want to cook beaver meat.
Troop leaders and members say the Scouts are doing a good deed by helping control the state’s beaver population. But animal－rights activists say trapping is cruel. They want the Girl Scouts to stop in their tracks.
Beavers aren’t only causing a problem in Alaska. Residents in Sampson County, N.C., have turned to a local committee to help them battle the growing beaver population there.
County landowners are frustrated after the county spent more than $ 50,000 in eight years trying to reduce the beaver population through a government program. The joint state and federal program included paying money to trappers for every beaver carcass they trapped.
Many local residents say that the program didn’t work because there were too few trappers. That’s why the county set up its own committee to investigate other ways to control the area’s beaver population.
The county will rely on its own beaver－trapping program. It has hired a trapper to set traps in various areas. The county will pay $10 for every beaver carcass.
Why do many people say that beavers are a nuisance? For beavers to survive, they need lots of water. Water provides the large rodent （啮齿动物）with a place to hide from meat – eating animals. Beavers also store food underwater for the winter. When there’s not enough water in a particular area, beavers get busy building dams.
Beaver dams can cause major flooding and damage to the surrounding countryside as the animals cut down trees to use in their construction projects. Beavers build canals to transport heavy objects.
【小题1】What is Alaska’s Troop 34?

As you may expect, life in space is much different from life on earth. So of course people need some time to get used to it. How do they live, work and play up there?

         Space food keeps getting more like the food we eat at home on the earth. In the past, astronauts could eat only freeze-dried food. But now the space station has water, microwave ovens and fridges. So astronauts can eat more usual kinds of food, like fruit, vegetables and ice cream!

         All people in the ISS（国际空间站）have their own rooms. There’s no gravity, so they have to attach themselves to their beds, or they’ll float away! That may seem like a hard way to sleep, but astronauts say that sleeping in space is actually not too bad.

         This is more important in space than on Earth. There’s not much gravity in space. Astronauts don’t stand up, sit down or walk in space, so their muscles don’t have to work much. They exercise on bikes and other machines for about two hours every day while they’re in space. In this way, they can still keep strong and healthy when they get back home.

         Easy things like brushing your teeth can be hard in space with low gravity. Water doesn’t flow out of a tap, it floats in a bubble（水泡）! Astronauts used a special hose（软管）to take showers. And when they’re finished, they use a vacuum（真空的）hose to suck the dirty water off of their bodies. How do you go to the toilet in space? They use a special “air toilet”. It uses air, not water, to take everything away.

         What do astronauts do when they aren’t working? They read books, play cards, listen to music or send e-mail to their friends and family. Sometimes they just sit and look out the window. Doesn’t sound like much fun? But what if you could see planet Earth out of your window, with a sunset or sunrise every 45 minutes?

1． Which of the following can be the title of this passage?

         A. Life In Space.        B. Space Food. C. Showers In Space.        D. A Visit To Space

2．From this passage we know that _______.

         A. astronauts eat quite different food in space from what they eat on the earth

         B. astronauts ate only fruit in space in the past

         C. astronauts can only eat freeze-dried food now

         D. astronauts can only eat fruit and vegetables now

3．Astronauts attach themselves to bed so as to ________.

         A. keep themselves warm                                             B. prevent themselves from floating away

         C. have a good sleep                                                       D. feel better

4．Astronauts have to do exercise for two hours every day because ________.

         A. they have nothing to do in space                  B. they are told to do so

         C. they do so to keep healthy                              D. they do so to prevent them from sleeping

5．From the last paragraph we can guess that ________.

         A. the sun moves fast around the earth

         B. the earth circles round the sun very fast

         C. the earth is very small

         D. the spaceship circles round the earth once every 90 imnutes

We all write________, even when there’s not much to say.

 A. now and then  B. by and by   C. step by step   D. more or less

Mary Jean Price Walls graduated second in her class in 1950.She had high hopes when she applied to a local college,Southwest Missouri State College.But after sending off her application，she spent months waiting for a reply.It never came.

Worse than simply being denied admission(拒绝接收)，the school didn’t reply to her at all.It wasn’t a matter of her school records，but of her skin color：Wallsis African American，and in those days，that fact alone closed a lot of doors. “I was sad and I was hurt,”Walls told ABC News.“I did not expect the skin color would affect my application.I thought I could go to university like other students.”

Four years later，the government declared that all schools should not discriminate against(歧视)African Americans— but it was too late for Walls.She’d moved on with her life, becoming a wife and a mother，and working as an elevator operator.She retired last year，at the age of 77.

She stayed quiet about the unfairness she’d faced in Missouri State.Her son，Terry，went through school records and found that she’d been the first black student to ever apply to the college.Today,four percent of the Southwest Missouri State College body is African American—including Terry.

Although it’s too late for Missouri State to change the past，the school is awarding Walls with an honorary degree(荣誉学位)from the school.While she knows it’s too late for herto change the course of her own life with the degree，it’s a chance for her to show her family that Missouri State has changed in the last 60 years，and there’s not a single door closed to them anymore.

1.Walls couldn’t enter the local college because________.

A．her examination performance is too bad

B．girls were not allowed to go to college

C．she was an African?American student

D．her parents had no enough money to support her

2.Before she was denied Walls thought that________.

A．her application would be accepted as others’

B．it was hard to become a college student

C．it was impossible for her to be admitted

D．she could be the best student in her college

3.What can we know about Walls’s son?

A．He helped his mother get the honorary degree.

B．He is a good student who teachers like best.

C．He was admitted by the college once his mother applied to.

D．He wants to be a government official who can help his mother.

4.What can we infer from the passage?

A．Walls did not fight for her right to education.

B．The college did not receive Walls’s application.

C．Walls got a good job after she received the degree.

D．The government gave Walls some money for the wrongs.

5.Walls’s honorary degree suggests that________.

A．she could change her life with the degree

B．her dream of going to college has come true

C．she has been leading a happy life with her family

D．great changes have taken place in Missouri State

One dark stormy night, an elderly couple hurried into a hotel and asked whether they could be put up for the night. “I’ m very   36   ,” the clerk on night shift said politely, “we are all    37 tonight. But you could stay in my room if you don’t    38 . As I’m on duty, I’ll be staying up in the office anyway,” The young man gave the    39 _ advice.
The elderly couple    40  his offer with gratitude(感激). They    41  for the inconvenience they had caused him. The next day, the rain stopped and it cleared up. When the old gentleman went to pay his   42 , the clerk behind the counter was that same helpful young man. “The room you and your wife stayed in is not a proper guest room in this hotel,  43  you don’t need to pay,” said the clerk, with the same friendly smile.
The old gentleman nodded in    44 , “You are an employee that every boss in the hotel business would    45 . Perhaps   46  I’ll build a hotel for you. ” The clerk was amazed but, deciding that the guest must have been joking, he gave the remark no more    47 .
Two years later, the young man received a registered letter(挂号信) from the old gentleman, in which he   48 the experience of that dark stormy night. The letter also enclosed（附上） a formal    49  and a round-trip air ticket to New York, asking the young man to pay a visit.
At a street comer in Manhattan, the young man met his   50  guest. The old gentleman, pointing to a magnificent new    51  towering over the crossroads, said, “Look, that is the hotel I    52 to build for you. I hope you will manage it for me. Remember what I said then? Well, I was serious about it.”
“But…will there be any conditions, sir? Why do you choose me? And who are you?”
“My name is William Aster. There’s not any condition.   53  I told you before, you are the best employee…!”
This building was none    54 the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Starting business in 1931, this hotel has been a symbol of supreme status and honor in the city of New York. The young man who became its first    55  was George Boldt, the man who turned Waldorf into one of the most glamorous hotels in the world.