The dirt road made our car jump as we traveled to the Millennium Village in Sauri, Kenya. We passed the market where women sat on the dusty ground selling bananas. Little kids were wrapped in cloth on their mothers’ backs, or running around in bare feet and torn clothing. When we reached the village, we walked to the Bar Sauri Primary School to meet the people. Welcoming music and singing had almost everyone dancing. We joined the dancing and clapped（鼓掌）along to the joyful, lively music. The year was 2004, the first time I had ever been to Sauri.
The Millennium Village project was created to help reach the Millennium Development Goals, which were set by the United Nations in 2000. The plan is to get people out of poverty, assure（确保）them of access to health care and help them stabilize the economy and quality of life in their communities. The goals are supposed to be met by 2015; some other targets are set for 2025. But our first sight of Sauri showed us there was plenty of work to do.
On that day in 2004, we followed the village leaders into Yala Sub-District Hospital. It wasn’t in good shape. The rooms were packed with patients who probably wouldn’t receive treatment, either because the hospital did not have it or the patients could not afford it. There was no running water or electricity in the hospital. It is hard for me to see people sick with preventable diseases who are near death when they shouldn’t have to be. I just get scared and sad.
Malaria（痢疾）is one disease, common in Africa, which is preventable and treatable. Mosquitoes carry malaria, and infect people by biting them. Kids can die from it easily, and adults get very sick. Mosquitoes that carry malaria come at night. A mosquito net, treated with chemicals that last for five years, keeps malarial mosquitoes away from sleeping people. Each net costs $5. There are some cheap medicines to get rid of malaria too. The solutions are simple, yet 20,000 kids die from the disease each day. So sad, and so illogical. Mosquito nets could save millions of lives.
We walked over to see the farmers. Their crops started to die because they could not afford the necessary fertilizer（肥料）and irrigation. Time and again, a family will plant seeds only to have an outcome of poor crops because of lack of fertilizer and water. Each year, the farmers worry: Will they harvest enough food to feed the whole family? Will their kids go hungry and become sick?
Many kids in Sauri didn’t attend school because their parents couldn’t afford school fees. Some kids are needed to help with housework, such as fetching water and wood. In 2004, the schools had minimal supplies like books paper and pencils, but the students wanted to learn. They all worked hard with the few supplies they had. It was hard for them to concentrate, though, as there’s no midday meal.
Great changes have taken place in these years. Today, Yala Sub-District Hospital has medicine, free of charge. Water is connected to the hospital, which also has a generator（发电机）for electricity. There are no school fees, and the school now serves midday meals for the students. The attendance rate is way up. All this is encouraging supporters of the Millennium Villages project.
There are many solutions to the problems that keep people poor. What it will really take is for the world to work together to change poor areas forever. When my kids are my age, I want this kind of poverty to be a thing of history. It will not be an easy task. But Sauri’s progress shows us all that winning the fight against poverty is achievable in our lifetime

1. 1.

   In Paragraph 1, the writer describes the kids’ clothes to show that _________________

   1. A.
      local children spent a lot of time outside
   2. B.
      local parents were not responsible
   3. C.
      local villagers were very poor
   4. D.
      local villagers were very friendly Zxxk
2. 2.

   What is mainly discussed in Paragraph 3?

   1. A.
      Medical conditions
   2. B.
      Agriculture
   3. C.
      Education
   4. D.
      Economy
3. 3.

   What does the underlined word “minimal” in Paragraph 6 probably mean?

   1. A.
      Many
   2. B.
      Few
   3. C.
      Colorful
   4. D.
      Various
4. 4.

   Because there was no midday meal in school, _________

   1. A.
      kids lacked energy to study attentively
   2. B.
      many kids dropped out of school
   3. C.
      kids made more efforts to study hard
   4. D.
      many kids had to go back home for lunch
5. 5.

   This story is mainly about _____________

   1. A.
      the education in an African village
   2. B.
      the schools and hospitals in an African village
   3. C.
      the poverty and the progress of an African village
   4. D.
      the author’s car journey to an African village

The dirt road made our car jump as we traveled to the Millennium Village in Sauri, Kenya. We passed the market where women sat on the dusty ground selling bananas. Little kids were wrapped in cloth on their mothers’ backs, or running around in bare feet and torn clothing. When we reached the village, we walked to the Bar Sauri Primary School to meet the people. Welcoming music and singing had almost everyone dancing. We joined the dancing and clapped（鼓掌）along to the joyful, lively music. The year was 2004, the first time I had ever been to Sauri.

The Millennium Village project was created to help reach the Millennium Development Goals, which were set by the United Nations in 2000. The plan is to get people out of poverty, assure（确保）them of access to health care and help them stabilize the economy and quality of life in their communities. The goals are supposed to be met by 2015; some other targets are set for 2025. But our first sight of Sauri showed us there was plenty of work to do.

On that day in 2004, we followed the village leaders into Yala Sub-District Hospital. It wasn’t in good shape. The rooms were packed with patients who probably wouldn’t receive treatment, either because the hospital did not have it or the patients could not afford it. There was no running water or electricity in the hospital. It is hard for me to see people sick with preventable diseases who are near death when they shouldn’t have to be. I just get scared and sad.

Malaria（痢疾）is one disease, common in Africa, which is preventable and treatable. Mosquitoes carry malaria, and infect people by biting them. Kids can die from it easily, and adults get very sick. Mosquitoes that carry malaria come at night. A mosquito net, treated with chemicals that last for five years, keeps malarial mosquitoes away from sleeping people. Each net costs $5. There are some cheap medicines to get rid of malaria too. The solutions are simple, yet 20,000 kids die from the disease each day. So sad, and so illogical. Mosquito nets could save millions of lives.

We walked over to see the farmers. Their crops started to die because they could not afford the necessary fertilizer（肥料）and irrigation. Time and again, a family will plant seeds only to have an outcome of poor crops because of lack of fertilizer and water. Each year, the farmers worry: Will they harvest enough food to feed the whole family? Will their kids go hungry and become sick?

Many kids in Sauri didn’t attend school because their parents couldn’t afford school fees. Some kids are needed to help with housework, such as fetching water and wood. In 2004, the schools had minimal supplies like books paper and pencils, but the students wanted to learn. They all worked hard with the few supplies they had. It was hard for them to concentrate, though, as there’s no midday meal.

Great changes have taken place in these years. Today, Yala Sub-District Hospital has medicine, free of charge. Water is connected to the hospital, which also has a generator（发电机）for electricity. There are no school fees, and the school now serves midday meals for the students. The attendance rate is way up. All this is encouraging supporters of the Millennium Villages project.

There are many solutions to the problems that keep people poor. What it will really take is for the world to work together to change poor areas forever. When my kids are my age, I want this kind of poverty to be a thing of history. It will not be an easy task. But Sauri’s progress shows us all that winning the fight against poverty is achievable in our lifetime.

53. In Paragraph 1, the writer describes the kids’ clothes to show that _________________.

A. local children spent a lot of time outside

B. local parents were not responsible

C. local villagers were very poor

D. local villagers were very friendly

54. What is mainly discussed in Paragraph 3?

A. Medical conditions.                             B. Agriculture.

C. Education.                                                 D. Economy.

55. What does the underlined word “minimal” in Paragraph 6 probably mean?

A. Many.                            B. Few.                C. Colorful.                 D. Various.

56. Because there was no midday meal in school, __________________.

A. kids lacked energy to study attentively

B. many kids dropped out of school

C. kids made more efforts to study hard

D. many kids had to go back home for lunch

57. This story is mainly about _____________________________.

       A. the education in an African village

B. the schools and hospitals in an African village

C. the poverty and the progress of an African village

D. the author’s car journey to an African village

A new idea called “business at the speed of thought” is quite popular in our business world. It makes quick marketing progress, but it also presents a terribly dangerous way to run a company. Here’re the main points: The businesses today that will succeed are those able to jump around in high spirits. Chances must be seized immediately and decisions made quickly. Everyone needs more immediate answers, and the window of expected response to any questions has dropped from weeks to days even to hours.

The problem with this way of thinking is that too often such quickness comes at the expense of properly understanding the details of a situation. Sure, the networked society allows us to gather information within a short time, but does it really speed up our ability to make better decisions? How do you balance the need for speed with sharp and correct thinking? That’s the puzzler on the minds of a lot of people these days, including Future Shock author, Alvin Toffler, who studies the idea in our cover story. It’s also a subject of a new study by Kepner Tregoe. It reports that 77 percent of managers believe that during the past three years the number of decisions they made each workday has increased. But 85 percent of those same people say the time given to making those decisions has either decreased or stayed the same. Result: Speed kills. Different opinions are not shared. Other choices are dismissed too easily. Aims never seem to be clear. On the contrary, good records aren’t kept about how successful decisions are made. If your company really does well, the Kepner report suggests taking apart the decision-making process and figuring out what you did right. Study your successes, as well as your failures. Fast decision-making is a necessity sometimes-no question about that. But decisions are only as good as the brains that go into them. By that measure, many of today’s decisions are weak and could cut some companies off at the knees. Business may be keeping the quickness of thought, but it’s going to be torn to pieces if managers are not thinking with great care and patience.

1．The underlined word “window” in the first paragraph can be replaced by _________.

       A．a period of time (during which an activity can or must take place)

       B．means (of observing and learning about people)

       C．opening (in the wall or roof of a building, car)

       D．screen (on which a film is shown)

2．The Kepner report shows that _________.

       A．managers should make efforts to pay attention to the weaknesses of fast decision-making

       B．when mangers make a decision, they should make full use of their brains

       C．if mangers don’t think quickly, business may be torn to bits

       D．managers should make records of successful decisions

3．What is the author’s attitude towards quick decision-making?

       A．Quick decision-making has proved of great help in marketing.

       B．The fact of quick decision-making does business much good.

       C．Quick decision-making makes some managers work harder.

       D．The idea of quick decision-making has some disadvantages.

ScienceDaily (May 28, 2010) --- Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) have made important progress in work that should lead toward robots that can not only walk and run very well, but use little energy at the same time.

Studies are moving closer to designing robots that could do dangerous work, create prosthetic limbs（假肢）for humans that work much better than in the past, or even help some people who use wheelchairs to get “walking” abilities.

“Researchers have been working toward robot movement for a long time,” said Jonathan Hurst, a professor at OSU. “What we’ve done is to study what behavior is really possible for a robot.”

The movement of humans and other animals is difficult to copy. Using little energy, they can move easily over hard areas, and enjoy balance from muscles（肌肉）. They have different ways to deal with forces, such as holding something hard in place rigidly（牢牢地）, like the act of holding a cup of coffee level during a car ride. In their recent studies, the OSU researchers proved that these two abilities are mutually exclusive（相互排斥的）. Humans deal with this problem by using pairs of muscles. For a robot, the more it’s able to do one of these tasks, the less able it is to do the other.

Presently, robots that can walk and run must be as rigid as possible while walking. But this way uses a lot of energy. The OSU researchers are working toward something that has similar or better performance, but uses far less energy, and is closer to the abilities of animals.

“So there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to build robots with good movement ability,” Hurst said. “Clearly this might be useful in highly dangerous situations. But I could also see great improvements possible with prosthetic limbs that work much better than present technology. ”

72. The robots being studied by researchers at OSU ______.

A. are successful now

B. use little energy

C. do better than before

D. can run faster than humans

73. Which of the following have researchers been studying all the time?

A. The robots’ movement

B. The robots’ weight

C. The robots’ sizes

D. The robots’ walking speed

74. The underlined words “two abilities” in Para.4 refer to ______.

A. walking and running

B. walking and holding

C. moving and using little energy

D. moving and balancing

75. According to Jonathan Hurst, we know that robots with good movement ability ______.

A. can be used in medical science

B. are only used in highly dangerous situations

C. will hardly be created in the future

D. will have a bad influence on man