Concorde’s Birthday
CONCORDE, the world’s fastest passenger plane, will soon be over 33 years old. It first __1__ on 2 March 1969 in France. Concorde was developed by both France and Britain. From 1956 these two countries had a _2__ of a supersonic passenger plane. In 1962 they started to __3__ together on the project. The plane __4_ over 1.5 billion pounds to develop. It is the most tested plane in the history. It was given over 5000 hours of testing. Concorde flies at twice the speed of _5__. This means that it _6_ only 3 hours 25 minutes to fly between London and New York, compare with 7—8 hours in other passenger jets. Because of the five-hour time difference between the USA and Britain, it is _7__ to travel west on Concorde and arrive in New York before you leave London! You can catch the 10:30a.m. _8__ from London, Heathrow and start work in New York an hour _9_! Concorde is much used by business people and film stars. Each Concorde is built at a cost of 55 million pounds. Twenty have been built so far. Air France and British Airway _10_ the most. They each have seven planes.

The giant panda is one of the most popular animals in the world. A giant panda can grow up to 1.5 meters long and weigh up to 160kg. People think the giant panda is very lovely. ①So it is not surprising that the World Wide Fund for Nature chose the giant panda as its symbol.The WWF tells people about animals that they are in danger and raises money to save them.
The giant panda only lives in the wild in China. In the early 1980s, were only 1,000 left in the wild. The main reason why pandas are endangered is that the area where pandas can live has become smaller.
The WWF works to help giant pandas in the wild in many ways. One of the ways that helps them is to increase the size of panda reserves(自然保护区). Some reserves need to be joined together by planting bamboo between them to make “corridors”. These are paths that lead from one reserve to another. No one may harm the pandas in these areas. The corridors let pandas move from one habitat (栖息地) to another to look for food. ②People are working very hard to make sure the giant panda does not die out.
【小题1】 How long and heavy can a giant panda grow to be?
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【小题2】 将文中划线的句子①改为被动句。
So it is not surprising that _____________________by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
【小题3】Why are the giant pandas endangered?
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【小题4】 Give a way to help the giant pandas in the wild, please.
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【小题5】 将文中划线的句子②翻译成中文。
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There are four basic skills in English learning — listening, speaking, reading and writing. Ms. Li suggests that students should spend 2.5 hours improving the four basic skills after class every week. According to Ms. Li’s form, Charles has spent        minutes in all (总计) practicing writing during the past three weeks.

A. 1.5                  B. 30              C. 90

Bamboo (竹子) is one of nature's (自然) most surprising plants. Many people call this plant a tree, but it is a kind of grass.

Like other kinds of grass, a bamboo plant may be cut very low to the ground, but it will grow back very quickly. A Japanese scientist reported one bamboo plant which grew 1. 5 metres(4 feet) in 24 hours! Bamboo grows almost everywhere in the world except Europe. There are more than 1, 000 kinds of bamboo.

Not all bamboo looks the same. Some bamboo plants are very thin. They may only grow to be a few centimetres wide while others may grow to more than 30 centimetres (1 foot) across. This plant also comes in different colours, from yellow to black to green.

Bamboo has been used to make many things such as hats and kitchen tools( 厨房用具). Because it is strong, bamboo is also used to build buildings.

Many Asian countries have used bamboo for hundreds of years. They often use bamboo for buildings and supporting (支撑) new buildings and bridges while they are being built.

In Africa, poor farmers are taught how to find water using bamboo. These African countries need cheap way to find water because they have no money, and their fields often die from no rain and no water. Bamboo pipes( 管子) help poor farmers bring water to their thirsty fields without spending a lot of money.

1.How is bamboo like grass?

A．It grows quickly.     B．It's wood. `         C．it is easy to cut.     D．It is very thin.

2.Though you can see bamboo everywhere, it doesn't grow      .

A．in China           B．in Europe          C．on mountains      D．in Africa

3.Why is bamboo used by African poor farmers? Because       .

A．it is cheap                             B．it has different colours

C．it is strong                             D．it has been used by Asians

4.Bamboo pipes can      .

A．make money       B．be trees           C．grow quickly       D．carry water

5.In Asia, bamboo has been used for      .

A．a short time

B．many thousands of years

C．many hundreds of years

D．about 100 years