Like most July days, it was hot．I stepped into a tiny ice-cream shop to cool off with a chocolate ice-cream．It was a very   21  store with little round tables and chairs．

As I entered, I found a very old woman bent over a  22  near the door．Her back was so 23 twisted （扭曲） by some misfortune that her face nearly  24 the tabletop．1 sat down  25  her a couple of tables away．

"Poor woman," I thought．"What does she  26 life? Why does God let people live so long past their prime （盛年）?"

As I thought, another  27 lady entered the shop and sat down with her．Soon the two of them were  28  childhood days．They talked of how little the shop had changed in 70 years．In minutes, the two of them were shaking with  29 .

I looked again at the first woman, then in the  30 on a nearby wall, catching a picture of myself．I was wearing a dirty shirt．She was  31  dressed in white, her face carefully made up and her hands  32  with gold rings．I was  33 ．She was laughing．I was putting the   34  of my life together．She had millions of   35 memories to recall．  36 I was worried about getting old．She was old, but it wasn't   37  her．As I left the shop, I thought of my  38  question about God letting people live past their prime．Why, that woman was more  39  to life than I was．Age has not  40 her spirit． 

 Water goes around and around Earth in a never ending journey called the water cycle（循环）. The sun heats up lakes, oceans, and other wet places on Earth. When the water gets warm enough, it changes into vapour. Plants also give off lots of water vapour. Some of this water vapour cools off high in the sky and becomes clouds. Then it falls back to Earth in a new place as rain or snow. This cycle happens over and over again.

The ground can absorb water like a sponge (海绵). If you could see this groundwater, it wouldn’t look like a lake or river. The groundwater is mixed in with the rocks and sand that lie in layers(层) below Earth’s surface.

Groundwater moves along slowly. How slowly? Maybe 1.5 kilometres in one century. Some of this water has been underground for thousands of years. And once groundwater is pumped out of the ground from a deep well（井） by people, it may take hundreds of years for another water to take its place.

1.In which order does water go around Earth?

a .Fall down as rain or snow.  b. Heated up by the sun on lakes, oceans and other wet places.

c. Cool off high in the sky.     d.  Form clouds.     e.  Change into vapour.

2.The groundwater seems to________.

3.The underlined word “pumped” in the passage can be replaced by________.

4.What conclusion（结论） can we draw from the passage?

All plant cells are capable of taking up water. Even dead ones do to a certain degree. Absorption（吸收）of water by dead cell walls makes wood become larger. In common land plants, the living cells of roots take up most of the water. Land plants without roots do exist, however. Those greenish-yellow lichens（苔藓）you see on rocks in the high mountains have no roots. Half a billion years ago, when water plants started to enter the land, the first land plants did not have roots.

Even among the flowering plants, one finds rootless forms. These flowering plants are “the higher plants” because they evolved（进化）recently and are thus considered higher on the evolutionary scale（进化度）. In the Peruvian desert, there grows one of these rootless higher plants, a bromeliad. It is a relative of the pineapple. Even if this plant had roots, they would be of no use, because where the plant grows, it never rains. The plant gets its water only from the dew（露水）it collects at night, when its leaves cool off. Such rootless plants, of course, can be moved with ease, but they will only grow when they are placed out in the open. If they are placed too near a house, the radiation from the heat of the house prevents the leaves from cooling and so prevents dew from forming, and the plant dies. In the southern United States and in Puerto Rico, one sees bromeliads growing high above the streets on the insulation（绝缘物）of electric wires. These plants get their water from rain, and the only soil they ever come in contact with is the dust that may blow on their leaves.

1．Wood becomes larger because of    .

A．dead cell walls                                           B．water entering dead cells

C．the growth of cells                                   D．the death of cells

2．The “bromeliad” is a plant that   .

A．has useless roots                                      B．is a pineapple

C．can grow anywhere                                 D．takes up water through its leaves

3．The most suitable title for this passage is “    ”.

A．Absorption of water by plants                     B．Rootless plants

C．Plants in the desert                                        D．Higher plants

How to Make the Most of Your Time 
Time management is important in our daily life. There never seems to be enough hours in the day to accomplish all you need to do. Here are some tips that might be of some help to you .
1. Set up a plan. Go for a week at a time, and prioritize the most important ones. Include things you want to accomplish. Focus mostly on the things that are important to you.
2. Control your stress. No matter what kind of pressure mounts on you, try to keep cool. Stressing out can lead to an early breakdown, which is definitely counter-productive (事与愿违) when you have a list of things to do. It's easier to take a 10-minute break and cool off than work all week with built up stress.
3. Shut your door. When working under a schedule, perform your important tasks with your door shut to get them done. This will ensure a better quality time to get what needs to be done done.
4. Focus on one thing at a time. Forget trying to multi-task! You will lose concentration, and it will take you longer to accomplish what you set out to do.
5. Just say "no." If you are constantly interrupted, and you really don't have the time to help out, just say "no." You're only one person, and you can't save the world by yourself!
6. Stop wasting time on the phone. While talking on the phone, keep your conversations short, and to the point and you'll waste much less time.
7. Be realistic. You can only do what you can do. Don't set out to accomplish the impossible. Do your best, but keep realistic expectations of yourself.
8. Relax. The most important thing is remember to take time to relax, and regroup. You need a break every now and then to keep working efficiently. Even if it's a 10-minute walk, get away from your list and get refreshed.
As families today get busier and busier, it's important to your own mental health to keep things on track. Don't delay; get your life in order now.
64. What does the underlined word “prioritize” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. choose something by thinking carefully            
B. recognize the difference between things
C. put many things in order of importance            
D. get rid of something that is unwanted
65. We should avoid stressing out because ____________.
A. it may cause us to fail to work normally          
B. it may limit the speed to get things done
C. we don’t have enough energy to keep working     
D. we are supposed to have a break while working
66. Which statement would the author agree to?  
A. Try multi-tasks, and we can get more done.         
B. It is impolite to refuse to help others at work.  
C. Having breaks regularly may delay our tasks.       
D. It is wise to be aware of what we can achieve.
67. By writing the text, the author would like to ___________.
A. ask readers to share their time management skills  
B. offer some advice on how to make full use of time
C. invite readers to discuss how to improve life quality 
D. persuade readers to spend less time on daily routine

One warm May day, two eighteen – year – old students from San Francisco State College decided to cool off with a swim at Bakers’ Beach． The two students were named Robert Kogler and Shirley O’Neill． They headed out to sea for a distance of 50 metres． Robert was in front．
“Suddenly, I heard him scream,” Shirley recalls． “I looked round and saw this great grey thing going up in the air． The water seemed to be alive．”Robert screamed again． “It’s a shark! Get out of here!”
An eye – witness, Army Sergeant Leo P． Day was on guard at the nearby army post． He saw exactly what happened next． “I could see this boy struggling with the shark in the water,” he said． “The sea was red with blood． He was shouting and signalling someone to go back, go back． Then I saw the girl． She was swimming towards him． She completely ignored his warning．”Shirley reached Robert, and tried to take his hand．“When I pulled, all I could see was his arm, handing by a thread,” she said．
So she put her arm about Robert’s back, and started to swim towards the shore． She kept praying “Don't’ let it attack again!” That journey to the shore seemed to last for hours． At last, as they neared the shore, a fisherman threw them a line, and pulled them both the rest of the way．The young man had lost a lot of blood, and died two and a half hours later, From the teeth marks, experts identified the attacker as a Great White Shark．For what Sergeant Day called “the greatest exhibition of bravery I have ever seen,” the President of the US gave Shirley a medal for bravery．
【小题1】When Albert was attacked by a shark Shirley        ．