What’s that smell? Do you hear that noise? Taste this! Look at me! Feel this, isn’t it soft? When you hear, or even use these phrases, you probably don’t stop to think about why we use them. Well, it’s because of our senses. Without us even knowing, our sense organs (nose, eyes, ears, tongue, and skin) are taking in information and sending it to the brain for processing. If we didn’t have them, we would not be able to smell, see, hear, taste, or touch anything!
Senses are the physical means by which all living things see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Each sense collects information about the world and detects changes within the body. Both people and animals get all of their knowledge from their senses, and that is why senses are so important.
All senses depend on the working nerve system. Our sense organs start to work when something stimulates（刺激） special nerve cells, called receptors, in a sense organ. Once stimulated, the receptors send nerve impulses along sensory nerves to the brain. Your brain then tells you what to do. For example, your sound receptors are often attacked by billions of sound waves. When these signals reach the part of the brain called the cerebral cortex（大脑皮层）, we become conscious of the sounds.
Our group really learned a lot about the senses while creating this website. We hope that you are able to get just as much out of it. Please feel free to comment about anything on the site by e-mailing us. Also, don’t forget to sign the guest book! Thanks for visiting our site. Come back soon!
60. This article is most probably taken from a _____.
A. newspaper             B. magazine                 C. website                 D. novel
61. Senses are very important because _____.
A. both people and animals get all of their knowledge from them
B. they are used to communicate with others
C. they can prevent the organs from being attacked
D. they can tell you what the stimulus is
62. Which of the following tells you what stimulate you?
A. The nerve cell.      B. The receptor.          C. The nerve impulse.   D. The brain.
63. According to this article, the following are all functions of the senses, EXCEPT _____.
A. collecting information about the world  
B. detecting changes within the body
C. sending nerve impulses to the brain 
D. serving the brain when needed

The Antarctica is actually a desert.
The Antarctica is all ice all the year. The warmest temperature ever recorded there is zero at the South Pole. Explorers(探险家) used to think that a place so cold would have a heavy snowfall. But less than ten inches of snowfalls each year. That is less than half an inch of water. Ten times that much moisture(水分) falls in parts of the Sahara.
The little snow that falls in Antarctica never melts(融化). It continues to pile up deeper and deeper year after year and century after century. When the snow gets to be about eighty feet deep, it is turned to ice by the weight of the snow above it.
1. Antarctica is called a desert because it _____.
A. is sandy
B. has the same temperature as a desert
C. has little moisture
D. all of the above
2. The Antarctica has _____.
A. ten times as much moisture as the Sahara
B. the same amount of moisture as the Sahara
C. about one-tenth the moisture of the Sahara
D. none of these
3. The snow in Antarctica is very deep because it _____.
A. never stops falling
B. piles up year after year
C. never melts
D. Both B and C
4. The best title for this passage is “_____”
A. A Strange Continent
B. The Antarctica—An Ice Desert
C. Snowfall at the South Pole
D. The World’s Greatest Desert

阅读下面的短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
When I smoked with my family, I would feel so   16  and good that nothing else in the world seemed so   17 . I thought that smoking weed (烟草) was okay since many of my family members and people at my school smoked.  18  ever happened to them.   19  I started smoking weed a lot more during lunch and after school. I never thought   20  of it. At that time I just wanted to smoke. Then I began to   21 in school. I would   22  classes, come home late and spend all my money. I would spend   23  8 to 18 dollars a day. I never thought   24  that marijuana (大麻) had a bad effect on those things. Maybe my coming to class high (神智恍惚) was the reason why I was failing or coming home late. As I continued to smoke marijuana, I began to notice that I would always have the strong desire to smoke and that I would get   25  cigarettes if I smoked those, but I don’t.   26  I have learned more about marijuana, I have   27  the amount of marijuana that I use. I don’t want marijuana to be the most important in my life. I’m not smoking every day, and not spending as much money. Since I have   28  on my habit, I am   29  more money. I’m ready to go back to school and do good, so that I can make myself  50 . Everyone is always saying how weed   31  your mind and how it solves problems. I think it only brings more   32 . Marijuana is not good for your body or your brain. I’m not trying to tell you not to smoke, I’m just letting you know that marijuana can be   33  to your health, and   34  it may cause some long term negative (负面的) effects. Help yourself now, before it is too late. I don’t want to lecture anyone, just   35  my experience with you.
【小题1】

Allan goes everywhere with Birgitta Anderson, a 54-year-old secretary. He moves around her office at work and goes shopping with her. ‘Most people don't seem to mind Allan,’ says Birgitta, who thinks he is wonderful. 'He's my fourth child,' she says. She may think of him and treat him that way, buying his food, paying his health bills and his taxes, but in fact Allan is a dog. Birgitta and Allan live in Sweden, a country where everyone is expected to lead an orderly life according to rules laid down by the government, which also provides （提供）a high level of care for its people. This level of care costs money. People in Sweden pay taxes on everything, so aren't surprised to find that owning a dog means yet more taxes. Some people are paying as much as 500 Swedish kronor in taxes a year for the right to keep their dog, money that is spent by the government on dog hospitals and sometimes medical treatment for a dog that falls ill. However, most such treatment is expensive, so owners often decide to pay health and even life insurance （保险）for their dog. In Sweden dog owners must pay for any damage （损坏）their dog does. A Swedish Kennel Club official explains what this means: if your dog runs out on the road and gets hit by a passing car you, as the owner, have to pay for any damage done to the car, even if your dog has been killed in the accident.
【小题1】 Birgitta pays taxes for Allan because         .

Now some women are spending a weekend at Mother’s Camp（营地）. There, husbands and children are not allowed. Why would a woman want to take a vacation without her family? Some women say they need time to be alone.
At Mother’s Camp a woman has room to herself. She can sleep, read or watch TV, and no one will bother her. No children will ask, “Mom, what’s for dinner?” No husband will say, “Oh, dear, I can’t find any clean socks.” In fact almost 50% of women in the United States work outside the home. Many of them work full-time and then come home to a second job----taking care of their homes and families. These working women say one of their biggest problems is housework.
In the United States, working wives do about 75% of the housework. Many of their husbands say they want to help. But then they burn the rice or they can’t find the pans. They ask so many questions that their wives decide it is easier to do the job themselves.
Some women go to Mother’s Camp just to get a break from housework. For two days they don’t cook, they don’t clean, they don’t look after their children and husbands. What do they do? They enjoy warm, sunny weather, walking, swimming or boating in a clear blue lake and sing songs around the campfire. They relax away from home. They have a really wonderful vacation at Mother’s Camp.
【小题1】 From this passage we can see      in the United States.