The question whether there is life on Mars (火星) has made the public think a lot for more than a century. The closest look showed Mars to be a dusty, cold world, covered by air too thin to breathe. A British spaceship and Europe's Mars spaceship plan to land on Mars or enter orbit (轨道) around it. One of the NASA’s (美国宇航局) spaceships is expected to land on January 3, the other is going to land on the opposite side of Mars on January 24. Since 1960, over twenty spaceships sent to Mars have failed. Most have been lost on flying up or landing because those are the most difficult times of any flights.     Scientists wanted to find out whether there was water in Mars. In October, a team of scientists reported that Mars had been a dry wasteland. But weeks later, a second team reported differently that they had found some marks showed clearly that they were made by the rivers. Such marks told us that Mars was a warmer place billions of years ago — just as life first appeared here on Earth. Scientists at once raise a question: if what they said is true, what happened on Mars? Then what about the earth?
【小题1】Which is right about Mars?

根据短文内容选择正确答案．

【小题1】If Jet goes from Beijing to Kunming，he can take the train_____.
A. D31l    B.T6l    C．K9018
【小题2】From the table(表格)we know there are two trains from_____to other places.
A．Beijing    B．Shenzhen    C．Changsha
【小题3】If Li Lei buys two tickets of K9018,he should pay_____yuan.
A．333    B．297    C 594
【小题4】 It is   kilometers from Shanghai to Xi’an．
A. 1,463    B. 1,509    C. 854
【小题5】Which of the following is TRUE according to the table?
A. Z92 is very crowded.
B. The train D311 is from Beiiing to Xi’an.
C. Lots of people take the train T61.

A
Several years ago，a television reporter was talking to three of the most important people in America. One was a very rich banker，another owned one of the largest companies in the world，and the third owned many buildings in the center of New York.
The reporter was talking to them about being important. “How do we know if someone is really important？” the reporter asked the banker.
The banker thought for a few moments and then said， “I think anybody who is invited to the White House to meet the President of the United States is really important. ”
The reporter then turned to the owner of the very large company. “Do you agree with that？” she asked.
The man shook his head， “No. I think the President invites a lot of people to the White House. You‘d only be important if while you were visiting the President， there was a telephone call from the president of another country，and the President of the US said he was too busy to answer it. ”
The reporter turned to the third man. “Do you think so？”
“No， I don‘t，” he said. “I don’t think that makes the visitor important. That makes the President important. ”
“Then what would make the visitor important？” the reporter and the other two men asked.
“Oh， I think if the visitor to the White House was talking to the President and the phone rang， and the President picked up the receiver， listened and then said， ‘It’s for you. ‘ ”
【小题1】This story happened in _______.

The giraffe is the tallest modern land animal. It can be over 5. 5 meters tall. Its neck alone may be 1. 9 meters long. Yet the giraffe has only seven bones in its neck, the same number as in the humans’. Even a small bird has many more bones in its neck than a tall giraffe. Each bone in a giraffe’s neck is very long, while the bones in a human’s neck are short. That makes the difference. A female giraffe gives birth to one baby at a time. The baby, called a calf, is about 1. 9 meters tall at birth. By the age of eight it is full-grown. The giraffe eats mostly leaves. Because it has a long neck, it can reach the leaves high up on the trees.
【小题1】In this passage the underlined word “giraffe” means _______.

Many people are interested in UFOs and there are a lot of reports about them. One report of UFOs came from a British plane on its way from New York to London in 1954.The British plane was flying over an island at 19,000 feet when the captain(机长) noticed that something was on their left and a little lower(更低) than their plane. It was about five miles away.
“It was not one object but several ones.” the captain said, “We saw one large and six smaller objects. I sent out a radio report about them and I got some information that the other planes were coming out to meet us. Before the planes arrived, the smaller objects went into the big object. The big object then became smaller and moved away fast.”
【小题1】A British plane flew to _______ in 1954.

(B)
Every day in China, about 200 million children go to school. Many of them take school buses. What should we do to keep these students safe on the road?
On April 5, the State Council (国务院) published new rules about school bus safety. These new rules are much stricter than the old ones.
Under the new rules, local governments must make sure that students attend nearby schools or boarding (寄宿的) schools to reduce traffic risks. Also, local governments must help kids in the countryside reach their school buses.
From now on, school buses have a speed limit of 80km per hour on highways and 60km per hour on normal roads. While on the road, other cars must let school buses go first.
The new rules also say that school buses must never be overloaded (超载的). They have a speed limit of 80 km per hour on highways and 60 km per hour on normal roads.
There are many other rules as well. A school bus must have more than seven seats. On each bus, there must be at least one adult to keep an eye on the kids. Each school bus must have a fire extinguisher (灭火器), a first aid box and a GPS.
Last year, a series of school bus accidents happened in China. To stop such accidents, the Central Government decided to strengthen the rules for school buses.
The most serious accident happened in November in Gansu, when a nine-seat minibus crashed. There were 62 children inside, and 21 of them died.
【小题1】When did the State Council publish the new rules ?.

Let’s go camping
What do we do when we go camping? First, we work out a plan. We take food, clothing, a knife, and things for cooking and eating. We take things to keep us away from insects(虫子) and the sun.
Then we put everything into the car and we drive to the woods(树林、林地). We look for a place for campers(露营者) and we look for a good place for our tent(帐篷). The place should have a lot of moving air. This will keep some insects away. High land with water on both sides of it is good. Then we put up our tent. We put everything into the tent, and we are ready for fun. We can swim in the lake, walk in the woods, climb a mountain, row a boat, or go fishing.
In the evening we come back to the tent, we build a big fire because it can keep the insects away. We sit around the fire and talk. We may tell interesting stories or we may sing songs.
At night we lie down on the grass. We can look up at the stars. It is a busy day, so we try to go to sleep early.
Everything is dark. Everything is quiet. We hope we won’t hear music from the radio in the next tent. We hope it won’t rain.
【小题1】Before going camping we should first         .

C
There are 5 channels on British television and each channel has several news programs all day long. Some programs are only for 3 minutes but some are one hour long. The people who read the news are called news presenters and because they appear on television every day, they are very famous.
This is a popular news presenter in England called Trevor McDonald, in the news studio. He presents a program called “News at Ten”every Monday to Friday evenings.
Another popular news presenter is Kirsty Young. She has a more modern style of reading the news, as you can see, she sits on the desk not on a chair!
Television news presenters need to have worked as journalists because they have to write most of the news that they read. Sometimes an important new event happens after the program has started, so the presenter has to be able to read something without looking at it first. They must always keep calm even when there are many changes during the program. At the end of “News at Ten”Trevor McDonald says “And finally...”. Then he reads an unusual or interesting item. It’s a famous saying in England now.
【小题1】Who sits on the desk to read the news?

Every day in China, about 200 million children go to school. Many of them take school buses. What should we do to keep these students safe on the road?
On April 5, 2012，the State Council(国务院) published new rules about school bus safety. These new rules are stricter than the old ones.
Under the new rules, local governments must make sure that students go to nearby school or boarding schools to reduce traffic risks . Also, local governments must help kids in the countryside reach their school buses.
From now on, school buses have a speed limit of 80 km/h on highways and 60 km/h on normal roads. While on the road, other cars must let school buses go first.
The new rules also say that school buses must never be overloaded (超载的).
There are many other rules as well. A school bus must have more than seven seats. On each bus, there must be at least one adult to keep an eye on the kids. Each school bus must have a fire extinguisher (灭火器), a first aid kit (急救箱) and a GPS.
A series of school bus accidents happened in China in 2011. To stop such accidents, the Central Government decided to strengthen (加强) the rules for school buses.
The most serious accident happened in Gansu in November,2011. When a nine-seat minibus crashed. There were more than 60 children inside, and 21 of them died.
I hope such terrible things won’t happen again and all of us can pay more attention to the safety of the students.
【小题1】What did the State Council publish on April 5, 2012?

Everyone has a dream job and we all hope our dreams can come true. Mr Black works as a reporter at a TV station. He wants to know what jobs teenagers are going to do when they grow up. He went to the Evergreen School to do a survey last Friday.
Mr Black asked the students to discuss with each other and then fill in the form with a pen. He told them to tell the truth. Mr Black thought most students would be teachers. The teacher is one of the best professions(职业) in the world. Maybe some students would be scientists. Rich knowledge would help them. A few students would be soldiers(士兵) because they could keep our country beautiful and peaceful.
Teachers helped Mr Black before school was over. They gave out one thousand eight hundred papers to the students. When the survey’s result came out, Mr Black and the teachers were surprised. Please look at the results.