A story from the Bible tells of old Babylon, where the men decided to build a tower that would touch the sky．But God was unhappy, and he made them speak different languages．They couldn’t understand each other, so their dream never came true．

Yet the dream remains alive: if all men speak the same language, they can do anything．L．L．Zamenhof from Poland was among the men who pursue this dream．He developed Esperanto（世界语）between 1877 and 1885．

As the most successful man-made world language, it is spoken by over two million people around the world．Last month, the World Esperanto Congress（大会）, dealing with language rights, ended in Sweden．The 2004 conference will be held in Beijing．Most Esperanto speakers are in Central and Eastern Europe and in East Asia, particularly Chinese mainland．

Esperanto has two advantages．First, it’s easy．Each letter has exactly one sound and there are just 16 basic grammar rules．The second advantage is that it belongs to no one country．But Esperanto has only reached a small number of people compared with natural languages widely used around the world-such as English or Chinese．While these languages are deeply connected with their nations and cultures, Esperanto doesn’t have this background．

Will Esperanto really become a global language? It remains a question．

The writer tells us a story at the beginning to          ．

           A．explain why men have been making the effort to create a language shared by all

              B．explain why men now speak different languages

              C．show the relationship between man and God

              D．prove that language is very important

What does the underlined word “pursue” in the second paragraph mean?

              A．“Realize”．     B．“Work for”．   C．“Be against”． D．“Follow”．

What is the basic difference between Esperanto and English?

              A．More people speak English than Esperanto．

              B．Esperanto words are easier to spell．

              C．Esperanto has fewer grammar rules．

              D．Esperanto is not supported by any country or culture．

What does the story mainly talk about?

              A．Advantages and disadvantages of Esperanto．

              B．Men’s dream of sharing the same language．

              C．The most successful planned language-Esperanto．

              D．Comparison of Esperanto and other languages like English and Chinese．

A cheap drug that can stop bleeding in people recently injured in an accident could potentially save the lives of tens of thousands worldwide, a new study says.

  Researchers studied the effects of tranexamic acid （凝血酸）, or TXA, in more than 10,000 injured people in 40 countries who received the drug within 8 hours of being injured. The study was published in the medical journal Lancet. Doctors found that patients who got TXA had a 15percent lower chance of dying from hemorrhage than those who didn’t get it . They also had a 10 percent lower chance of dying from any other cause, including organ failure and a head injury. The study was paid for by the British government.

  The drug is commonly used in wealthy countries during elective surgeries(外科手术) to stop bleeding , but isn’t used for accident victims. TXA is off-patent and made by many companies. It costs about $4.5 per gram, and a typical dose is two grams. It is usually given via an injection（注射） and would be relatively easy to introduce, even in poor countries, experts said.

  Previous tests of the drug regarded its use in elective surgeries, such as heart operations, but this was the first study to test the drug on accident victims. Doctors were worried it might increase side effects such as blood clots （凝块）in the heart and lungs, strokes, or heart attacks. There was no evidence of that in the Lancet study, though the authors said it was possible they might have missed some of these incidents.

  For people between 5 and 45, accidents are the second leading cause of death worldwide after AIDS, and about 600,000 injured patients bleed to death every year. Experts estimated that if TXA were readily available, between 70,000 and 100,000 lives a year could be saved. Though the drug wasn’t tested on children , experts said it would almost certainly work with them as well.

The underlined word” hemorrhage” in Paragraph 2 probably means ________

 A. serious illness    B. heart disease     C. heavy bleeding   D. lack of drug

What can we learn about TXA from the passage?

 A. It can only be made in England     B. It was only used in operations before

 C. It is a patented drug              D. It is mainly used in poor countries

Doctors were worried about using TXA because ________

 A. a lot of patients died unexpectedly after using it

 B. it has no treatment effect on patients

 C. it can cause blood clots or stroke

 D. they hadn’t used it on accident victims before

What do we know from the last paragraph?

 A. It is a pity that TXA wasn’t widely used on injured patients before

 B. Tests have proved that TXA can be used on children

 C. People between 5 and 45 should be injected with TXA every year

 D. Accidents are the first leading cause of death worldwide.

C
After watching my mother deal with our family of five, I can’t understand why answer to the
question, “What do you do?” is always, “Oh, I’m just a housewife.” JUST a housewife?” Anyone who spends most of her time in meal preparation and cleanup, keeping the house clean, attending PTA meetings, leading a scout troop, playing taxi driver to us kids when it’s time for school, musical lessons or the dentist, doing volunteer work for her community is not just a housewife. She’s the real Wonder Woman.
Why is it that so many mothers like mine think of themselves as second．class or something similar? Where has this notion come from? Have we males made them feel this way? Has our society  made“going to work” outside the home seem more important than what a housewife must face each day?  I would be every curious to see what would happen if a housewife went on strike．Dishes would  pie up．Food in the house would run out．There would be no learn clothes when needed．Walking and bus riding would increase．
I doubt if the man of the house would be able to take over．Oh，he would probably start out with the attitude that he can do just as good a job，but how long would that last? Not 1ong, once he had to come home each night after work to more housework. There would be no coming home to a prepared meal; The kids would all be screaming for something to eat, clean clothes and more bus fare money. Once he quieted the kids, he’d have to clean the house, go shopping, make sure that kids got a bath, after clearing out all the dog hairs from the bathtub. Once the kids were down for the night, he might be able to craw（爬）into an unmade bed and try to read the morning newspaper.
64．What does the writer’s mother NOT do according to the first paragraph?
A．Cooking.            B．Tidying the house.  
C．Driving a taxi.         D．Some unpaid work.
65．The underlined word “notion” in the second paragraph can be replaced by the word        .
A．mother     B．citizen      C．similarity  D．thought
66．We can learn from the second paragraph        .
A．mothers are actually great women  B．our society looks down upon housewives
C．housewives should go on a strike    D．doing housework is not important at all
67．The possible main idea of the third paragraph is        .
A．men should share housework with their wives
B．attitude is not the only thing needed to do a job well
C．kids are the most challenging part of the housework
D．men are unlikely to handle the work of a housewife

B
When a rather dirty, poorly dressed person kneels at your feet and puts out his hands to beg for a few coins, do you hurry on, not knowing what to do, or do you feel sad and hurriedly hand over some money? What should our attitude to beggars be? There can be no question that the world is full of terribly sad stories. It must be terrible to have no idea where our next meal is going to come from. It seems cruel not to give some money to beggars.
Certainly, most of the world’s great religions (宗教) order us to be open-hearted and share what we have with those less fortunate than ourselves. But has the world changed? Maybe what was morally (道德方面) right in the old days, when one knew exactly who in the village had suffered misfortune and needed help, is no longer the best idea. Quite a few people will not give to beggars. Let us look at their arguments.
First, some believe that many city beggars dress up on purpose to look pitiable and actually make a good living from begging. Giving to beggars only encourages this sort of evil (恶行). Secondly, there is the worry that the money you give will be spent on beer, wine or drugs. Thirdly, there is the opinion that there is no real excuse for begging. One might be poor, but that is no reason for losing one’s sense of pride and self-dependence.
Related to this is the opinion that the problem should be dealt with by the government rather than ordinary people. Some people think beggars should go to the local government department and receive help.
It is hard to come to any final conclusion; there are various cases and we must deal with them differently. A few coins can save a life in some situations, and even if the money is wasted, that does not take away the moral goodness of the giver.
59. What is mainly discussed in the passage?
A. Moral deeds of people.         B. Religious activities of the church.
C. Moral goodness of the giver.     D. Arguments on giving to beggars.
60. What can we infer from the sentence “But has the world changed?” in the second paragraph?
A. People no longer know who suffers misfortune in the village.
B. Some people will not do what was morally right in the past .
C. We don’t meet with those who need help any more.
D. Now it is the government’s duty to help the beggars.
61. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
A. Some people dress up to pretend to be beggars.
B. Some beggars want money to help their children go to school.
C. Some beggars use the money to buy drugs.
D. Some beggars have no excuse for begging.
62. In the last paragraph, the writer thinks that it is hard to come to any final conclusion, because______.
A. the cases can be so different
B. there are so many beggars
C. there is so much money wasted
D. there are so many different arguments

Last year, on report card day, my son and a bunch of his 13-year-old friends piled into the back seat of my car, ready for the last-day-of-school party at McDonald’s. “Jack got a laptop for getting straight A’s, and Laurie got a cellphone,” one boy said. “Oh, yeah, and Sarah got an iPod Nano, and she’s only in third grade,” said another. “And how about Brian? He got $ 10 for each A.”
I suddenly became concerned. These payoffs might get parents through grammar school, but what about high school and beyond? What would be left after the electric guitar, the cellphone, and the portable DVD player?
I saw the road ahead: As the homework load increased, my income would decrease. I saw my comfortable lifestyle vanish before my eyes-no more of those $ 5 bags of already-peeled organic carrots. No more organic anything!
I started to feel surprised and nervous. Would every goal attained by my two children fetch a reward? A high grade point average? A good class ranking? Would sports achievements be included in this reward system: soccer goals, touchdowns, runs-batted-in? What about orchestra? Would first chair pay more than second? I’d be penniless by eighth-grade graduation.
“We never paid anything for good grades,” said my neighbor across the street, whose son was recently accepted at MIT. “He just did it on his own. Maybe once in a while we went out for pizza, but that’s about it.”
Don’t you just hate that? We’re all running around looking for the MP3 player with the most updates, and she’s spending a few dollars on pizza. She gets motivation; we get negotiation.
1．The sentence “As the homework load increased, my income would decrease.” in the third paragraph probably means _____________.
A．taking care of the children would influence my work
B．I would spend more money on my children’s homework
C．reducing children’s homework load would cost me a lot
D．more rewards would be needed as the children grew up
2．We can tell from the passage that the author’s son was in ___________.
A．primary school B．junior middle school   C．high school        D．university
3．It can be inferred from the passage that ____________.
A．if you pay the children for good grades, they would take it for granted
B．if you buy children pizza for good grades, they would work harder
C．children would not ask for rewards when they enter high school
D．children would not ask for rewards when they enter university
4．The example of the author’s neighbor shows that ____________.
A．pizza is the best way to motivate children
B．reward is not the only way to motivate children
C．the author’s neighbor was very poor
D．the author’s neighbor’s son didn’t like reward
5．What is the author’s attitude toward paying children reward for good grades?
A．Favorable B．Ambiguous      C．Disagreeable    D．Unknowable