WASHINGTON-Laura Straub is a very worried woman. Her job is to find families for foreign teenagers who expect to live with American families in the summer.?

It's not easy, even desperated.?

“We have many children left to place:40 out of 75,”said Straub, who works for a Paris based foreign exchange programme called LEC. ?

When exchange programmes started 50 years ago, more families were willing to help others. For one thing, more mothers stayed home.?

But now, increasing numbers of women work outside the home. Exchange student programmes have struggled in recent years to sign up host families for the 30 000 teenagers who come from abroad every year to have some courses for one year in the United States, as well as the thousands more who take part in summer programmes.

School systems in many parts of the US, unhappy about accepting non-taxpaying students, have also strictly limited the number of exchange students they accept. At the same time, the idea of hosting foreign students is becoming less exotic(异国情调的).?

In searching for host families, who usually receive no pay, exchange programmes are increasingly broadening their requests to include everyone from young couples to the retired.

“We are open to many different types of families,”said Vickie Weiner, eastern regional director for ASSE, a 25-year-old programme that sends about 30 000 teenagers on one?year exchange programmes worldwide.?

“For elderly people, exchange students keep up young—they really do,”said Jean Foster, who is hosting 16-year-old Nina Porst from Denmark.?

Foreign teenagers come to American families with the purpose of _______.

A. finding their parents in America      B. finding good jobs in America?

C. learning the culture of America       D. enjoying the life of America

In the past, Straub's job was easy, because American families _______.?

A. needed more money to live      B. had fewer children to support?

C. had spare rooms to rent     D. were not as busy as now

To deal with the problems in recent years, Straub and her workmates have to _______.

A. ask different kinds of families for help

B. limit the number of the exchange students?

C. borrow much money to pay for the costs

D. force some families to accept students

French surgeons have performed what they said on Wednesday was the world's first partial face transplant--- giving a new nose, chin and lips to a woman attacked by a dog.

Specialists from two French hospitals carried out the operation on a 38-year-old woman on Sunday in the northern city of Amiens by taking the face from a brain-dead woman, who had hanged herself just hours before the operation. Her family agreed on the operation.

 “The patient is in an excellent state and the transplant looks normal,” the hospitals said in a brief statement after waiting three days to announce the pioneering surgery.

The woman had been left without a nose and lips after the dog attacked her last May, and was unable to talk or chew properly. Such injuries are “extremely difficult, if not impossible” to repair using normal surgical techniques, the statement said.

The statement did not say what the woman would look like when she had fully recovered, but medical experts said she was unlikely to resemble the woman who had been the source of her new face.

The operation was led by Jean-Michel Dubernard, a specialist from a hospital in Lyon who has also carried out hand transplants,

Skin transplants have long been used to treat burns and other injuries, but operations around the mouth and nose have been considered very difficult because of the area's high sensitivity to foreign tissue.

Teams in France, the United States and Britain had been developing techniques to make face transplants a reality

There was a short-term risk for the patient if blood vessels became blocked, a medium-term danger of her body rejecting the new skin and a long-term possibility that the drugs used could cause cancers.

Experts say that although such medical advances should be celebrated, the transplant had thrown up moral（道德的）and ethical(伦理的)issues. Little is known about the psychological effect of the transplant.

The best title for the passage would be ________.

A. French Woman has First Partial Face Transplant

B. First Face Transplant Opens Debate

C. Risks and Ethical Problems of a Face Transplant

D. A Complete Face Transplant of a French Woman

Why did the woman need such an operation?

A. Her face had been bitten by a dog

B. Her face had been burnt in a fire.

C. She was born especially ugly

D. She wanted to test such an operation.

The underlined word "resemble"  means ________.

A. to remember forever

B. to recognize immediately

C. to set as an example

D. to present similarity or likeness to

What can we learn about the operation?

A. The woman had used the dead woman' s whole face.

B. There has arisen a debate about the operation.

C. The woman will suffer from psychological damage soon.

D. Such transplants have been performed by doctors.

UK

Attention, Harry Potter fans: The sixth novel in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter stories, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood, will go on sale in the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia on July 16, 2005

Italy

According to a recent study, there are now more dogs and cats in Italian homes than children. There are at least 14.5 million dogs cats in Italian homes compared with 8.7 million children under the age of 15．Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe. A psychologist said that pets were loved by many young Italians who could not have or did not want to have children. In Italy, spending on pets has increased by 20 percent in the past five years.

US

The start of a new years is time when many Americans like to think about ways to make improvements for the future. But this year, instead of the usually New Year’s resolution(决心) to lose weight, quit smoking or exercise more, the US Department of Homeland Security is urging Americans to create a family emergency plan for any terror attack.

France & Iraq

    The two French journalists who had been held hostage(扣为人质) in Iraq for 124 days were freed last week. Christian Chesnot, 37 and Georges Malbunot, 41, were kidnapped along with their Iraqi driver on Aug, 20 in Iraq. French Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, said that the French government had not paid ransom(赎金) for their release.

From the news above we know that health is usually most being talked about in _________

       A．UK   B．Italy  C．US    D．France

The content order of the passage is___________

       A．society, life, politics, business B．life, society, business, politics

       C．business, society, life, politics D．business, politics, society, life

Which is the suitable title for the second passage?

       A．The Lowest Birth Rates   B．More Pets Than Children

       C．Great Change On Money Spending D．A scientific Research Report

The two journalists were held hostage on ___________.

       A．August 20 B．April 18   C．May 17     D．April 16

People of Burlington are being disturbed by the sound of bells. Four students from Burlington College of Higher Education are in the bell tower of the ___1___ have made up their minds to ___2___ the bells nonstop for two weeks as a protest (抗议) against heavy trucks which run ___3___ through the narrow High Street.

“They not only make it ___4___ to sleep at night, but they are ___5___ damage to our houses and shops of historical ___6___,” said John Norris, one of the protesters.

“__7___ we must have these noisy trucks on the roads,” said Jean Lacey, a biology student. “Why don’t they build a new road that goes ___8___ the town? Burlington isn’t much more than a ___9___ village. Its streets were never ___10___ for heavy traffic.”

Harry Fields also studying ___11___ said they wanted to make as much ___12___ as possible to force the ___13___ to realise what every body was having to ___14___. “Most of them don’t ___15___ here anyway,” he said, “They come in for meetings and that, and the Town Hall is soundproof(隔音), ___16___ they probably don’t ___17___ the noise all that much. It’s high time they realized the ___18___.”

The fourth student, Liza Vernum, said she thought the public were ___19___ on their side, and even if they weren’t they soon would be.

___20___ asked if they were ___21___ that the police might come to ___22___ them.

“Not really,” she said, “Actually we are ___23___ bell-ringers. I mean we are assistant bell-ringers for the church. There is no ___24___ against practising.”

I ___25___ the church with the sound of the bells ringing in my ears.

1. A. college   B. village       C. town   D. church

2. A. change   B. repair  C. ring    D. shake

3. A. now and then B. day and night     C. up and down      D. over and over

4. A. terrible   B. difficult     C. uncomfortable   D. unreasonable

5. A. doing     B. raising       C. putting       D. producing

6. A. scene     B. period C. interest       D. sense

7. A. If   B. Although    C. When  D. Unless

8. A. to   B. through      C. over    D. round

9. A. pretty     B. quiet   C. large   D. modern

10. A. tested   B. meant C. kept    D. used

11. A. well     B. hard    C. biology      D. education

12. A. effort   B. time    C. trouble       D. noise

13. A. townspeople B. other students    C. government officials  D. truck drivers

14. A. stand    B. accept C. know  D. share

15. A. shop     B. live     C. come  D. study

16. A. but       B. so       C. or       D. for

17. A. notice   B. mention     C. fear    D. control

18. A. event    B. loss     C. action D. problem

19. A. hardly  B. unwillingly C. mostly       D. usually

20. A. I   B. We     C. She     D. They

21. A. surprised     B. afraid  C. pleased       D. determined

22. A. seize    B. fight   C. search D. stop

23. A. proper  B. experienced       C. hopeful      D. serious

24. A. point    B. cause  C. need   D. law

25. A. left      B. found  C. reached      D. passed

Jean is a bright young lady who comes from a rich and famous family. She goes to a good university and has everything that money can buy. Well, almost everything is good. But the problem is that Jean’s family are so busy that they can hardly find time to be with her. So Jean spends a lot of time on her QQ. She likes being anonymous(匿名), talking to people who do not know about her famous family and her rich life. She uses the name Linda on QQ and has made a lot of friends who she keeps in touch with quite often.
Last year Jean made a very special friend on QQ. His name was David and lived in San Francisco. David was full of stories and jokes. He and Jean had a common interest in rock music and modern dance. So it always took them hours to talk happily on QQ and sometimes they even forgot their time. Of course, they wanted to know more about each other. David sent a picture of himself: He was a tall, good looking young man with big, happy smile. As time went by, they became good friends and often sent cards and small things to each other.
When Jean’s father told her that he was going on a business trip to San Francisco, she asked him to let her go with him so that she could give David a surprise for his birthday. She would take him the latest DVD of their favorite rock singer. But when she knocked on David’s door in San Francisco, she found that her special friend was a twelve-year-old boy named Jim!
【小题1】Jean spends a lot of her time on QQ because she is _________.

A．rich

B．young

C．lonely

D．talkative

【小题2】The reason why they even forgot their time is that they _________.

A．talked in delight on QQ

B．hated study

C．fell in love with each other

D．had similar hobbies

【小题3】Why did Jean leave her home for San Francisco?

A．To amaze David.

B．To be on a business trip.

C．To be invited to Jim's birthday party.

D．To send some gifts to Jim.

【小题4】The following states are true about Jean EXCEPT that _________ according to the passage.

A．she is a university student

B．she was born in a wealthy family

C．she made a friend named Jim younger than her

D．she uses her family name on her QQ

【小题5】We could believe that Jean was _________ when seeing Jim himself instead of David at his door.

A．delighted

B．disappointed

C．regretful

D．confused