阅读理解

　　You are what you eat. This saying has provided scientists with clues(线索) about the diet of hominids--our early relatives of 3 million years ago.

　　Studying carbon atoms(碳原子) locked up in tooth enamel(珐琅质), two researchers argue against the widely held belief that hominids ate little more than fruits and leaves. Sponheimer and Julia Lee-Thorp of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, report their findings in Friday's Science.

　　There aren't many clues for us to know the life of early hominids. The shape of hominids' teeth offered the first clues. Large and flat-edged with thick enamel, they looked perfect for eating nuts and fruits, different from the sharp teeth one would want to tear into meat with. The first stone tools, which would help in eating meat, didn't appear until about half a million years later.

　　Scientists have also found marks on hominids' teeth with patterns very similar to those on the teeth of modern-day fruit eaters. Sponheimer and Lee-Thorp tried a new method, looking at the chemical composition of the tooth enamel. They studied the enamel for the carbon-13. Animals that eat grasses have higher carbon-13 levels than those eating fruits and other plants.

　　What they found was that the teeth of the hominids had an in-between amount of carbon-13, which meant not only they were eating fruits, they were eating a lot of grasses, or animals eating grasses. The lower carbon-13 levels could also come from eating certain types of insects(昆虫).

　　But there are people who understand differently. Prof. Ungar of the University of Arkansas agrees the study offers new suggestions of hominid diet, but disagrees about the suggestion that meat could explain the lower carbon-13 levels.

　　One suggestion might be true though--take good care of your teeth. In 3 million years, a scientist might be using them to figure out what you ate for dinner.

1．Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

[　　]

A．Protect Your Teeth

B．What the Hominid Ate

C．Where the Hominid lived

D．The Formation of Tooth Enamel

2．Before the two scientists findings, most people thought that hominids _____.

[　　]

A．lived half a million years ago

B．ate mainly fruits and leaves

C．used tools to dig grass

D．had sharp teeth

3．The two scientists findings were mainly based on the study about _____.

[　　]

A．the shape of hominids' teeth

B．the teeth marks of early fruit eaters

C．the grasses of 3 million years ago

D．the make-up of the tooth enamel

4．What is it that Prof. Ungar finds doubtful?

[　　]

A．Hominids possibly ate grass-eating animals.

B．Hominids probably had different diets.

C．Hominids were basically fruit and grass-eaters.

D．Hominids had lower level of carbon-13 in their teeth.

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

　　On average, American kids aged 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more than they did in 1991. They also did more household work and took part in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet (芭蕾舞). Involvement in sports, in particular, rose by almost 50％ from 1991 to　2003: boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls log half that time. All in all, however, children's free time dropped from 40％ of the day in 1991 to 25％.

　　“Children are affected by the same time crunch(短缺) that affects their parents,”says Sandra Hofferth, who headed the recent study of children's timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. (However, children in both double-income and“male breadwinner”families spent similar amounts of time communicating with their parents, 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.)

　　All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.“Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself,”says T. Berry Brazehon, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to develop their relationships with their peers (同龄人), but kids aged 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week being engaged in it.

　　The children sampled(抽样) spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing“free time”watching televisin. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If they're spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids aren't replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Let's face it, who's got the time?

1．By mentioning“the same time crunch”(in Paragraph 2) Sandra Hofferth means _____.

[　　]

A．children have little time to play with parents

B．both parents arid children suffer from lack of free time

C．both parents and children have trouble managing their time

D．children are not taken good care of by their working parents

2．According to the author, the reason given by Sandra Hofferth for the time crunch is _____.

[　　]

A．totally true

B．quite believable

C．rather difficult to understand

D．not based on facts

3．According to the author a child develops better if _____.

[　　]

A．he has plenty of time reading and studying

B．he is free to communicate with his working parents

C．he is left to play with his peers in his own way

D．he spends more time on school activities

4．The author finds the fact that American kids _____.

[　　]

A．do less and less household work

B．are spending more and more time watching TV

C．are engaged in more and more structured activities

D．get enough attention from their working mothers

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

　　You are watching a film in which two men are having a flight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead!

　　Of course he isn't really dead．With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars or even catch fire, are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks.

　　There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress(床垫). Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar!

　　But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman's success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is?blown up”in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.

　　Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they had dangerous lives. They often get serious injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff a thousand feet high. His parachute failed to open, and he was killed.

　　In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only.　Men no longer dress up as women when actress have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stunt-girls.

1．Stuntmen are those who _____.

[　　]

A．often dress up as actors

B．prefer to lead dangerous lives

C．often perform seemingly dangerous actions

D．often fight each other for their lives

2．Stuntmen earn their living by _____.

[　　]

A．playing their dirty tricks

B．selling their special skills

C．jumping out of high windows

D．jumping from fast moving trains

3．When a stuntman falls from a high building, _____.

[　　]

A．he needs little protection

B．he will be covered with a mattress

C．his life is endangered

D．his safety is generally all right

4．Which of the following is the main factor of a successful performance?

[　　]

A．Strength.　　　　　　B．Exactness.

C．Speed.　　　　　　　D．Carefulness.

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

　　Pocket Tape-Recorders on the market now:

　　1)Rose S702 $64

　　This simple model at the bottom of the Olympus range scored the most points for its excellent quality of recording. Background noise hardly affects the sound and recording from a pocket is perfectly possible, but it doesn't turn off automatically.

　　2)Earth M9 $49.95

　　Small and very good looking, the latest offering scored most for appearance. Sounds clear，but there is slight machine noise. The big control buttons are a great improvement on some of the complicated little controls on other tape-recorders. Doesn't switch off automatically but a red light shows if the machine is still running.

　　Tape length: 60 minutes per side. Weight: 230g

　　3) Earth M400 $115

　　Lots of little control buttons that make a noise and are difficult to use. Recording was good but machine noise lost points. Tape counter and automatic switch-off when the tape has finished recording or rewinding are useful.

　　Tape length: 60 minutes per side. Wight: 198g

　　4)Rocket M5 $29.95

　　Cheap and simple compared with the rest, but recording was good as long as there was no background noise. Use only its own make of cassette. No light to show it is on; no fast forward button and the record button makes a loud noise.

　　Tape length: 30 minutes per side. Weight: 285g

　　5)Land 585 $80

　　Handsome and simple to use, but reading is very poor at more than the recommended distance of 5cm-designed for dictation. No recording light.

　　Tape length: 15 minutes per side. Weight: 220g

1．Which machine produces the best recording with the least unwanted noise?

[　　]

A．Rose S702.　　　　　　B．Earth M9.

C．Earth M400.　　　　　　D．Rocket M5.

2．If you want a machine which turns off automatically and weighs very little you should choose the _____.

[　　]

A．R0se S702　　　　　　B．Earth M9

C．Earth M400　　　　　　D．Land 585

3．Which machine is unsuitable for general use?

[　　]

A．Rose S702　　　　　　B．Rocket M5.

C．Earth M400.　　　　　D．Earth M9.

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

　　Queen Victoria was monarch (君王，帝王) of Great Britain from 1837 until her death in 1901. This period is often called the Victorian Age.

　　Queen Victoria was a stern (严厉的，苛刻的)and serious woman. One reason she was so serious was that she had suffered a great loss. When she was twenty years old, she married a German prince named Albert. Victoria and Albert were deeply in love, and their marriage was extremely happy. In 1861, after they had been married for twenty-one years, Albert died, leaving Queen Victoria heartbroken. For the rest of her life, the lonely Victoria mourned his loss. It was customary in those days for a widow to dress in black for a short time after the death of her husband. But Queen Victoria dressed in black for forty years. And for forty years, as another sign of her grief, she wrote many letters on white paper edged in black.

　　Even before Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria was known as a very serious woman. She had a strong sense of duty and worked very hard at all her tasks. In her diary she wrote,“I love to be employed; I hate to be idle.”She never forgot that she was Britain's queen and always acted with great dignity(尊贵；尊严). Victoria had high ideals and moral standards that sometimes made her seem stuffy(古板的). She was also very sure of herself. She always thought that she was right, and she expected everyone to agree with her.

1．Which of the following statements about Queen Victoria is NOT true according to the passage?

[　　]

A．She had great confidence about herself.

B．She ruled Great Britain for sixty years.

C．She enjoyed her marriage to a German prince.

D．She became a serious woman after her beloved husband died.

2．Queen Victoria wrote her letters on white paper edged in black because _____.

[　　]

A．she was a very stern woman

B．black was her favorite color

C．that was one way to show her feelings of sadness

D．it was a custom among monarchs of Great Britain

3．All of the following characteristics EXCEPT _____ can be used to properly describe Queen Victoria?

[　　]

A．moral　　　　　　B．lonesome

C．workaholic　　　　D．compromising(妥协的)

4．The underlined word“mourned”in Paragraph 2 means _____.

[　　]

A．felt sad or sorrowful in a social situation

B．expressed publicly one's sadness because someone has died

C．checked regularly in order to find out what was happening

D．included in group of members, ages, measurements with particular fixed limits

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

　　Do you find getting up in the morning so difficult that it's painful? This might be called laziness, but Dr. Kleitman has a new explanation. He has proved that everyone has a daily energy cycle. During the hours when you labor through your work you may say that you're“hot”. That's true. The time of day when you feel most energetic is when your cycle of body temperature is at its peak. For some people the peak comes during the forenoon. For others it comes in the afternoon or evening. No one has discovered why this is so, but it leads to such familiar monologues (自言自语) as:“Get up, John! You'll be late for work again!”The possible explanation to the trouble is that John is at his temperature-and-energy peak in the evening. Much family quarreling ends when husbands and wives realize what energy cycles mean, and which cycle each member of the family has.

　　You can't change your energy cycle, but you can learn to make your life fit it better. Habit can help, Dr. Kleitman believes. Maybe you're sleepy in the evening but feel you must stay up late anyway. Counteract your cycle to some extent by Habitually staying up later than you want to. If your energy is low in the morning but you have an important job to do early in the day, rise before your usual hour. This won't change your cycle, but you'll get up steam and work better at your low point.

　　Get off to a show start which saves your energy. Get up with a yawn(哈欠) and stretch. Sit on the edge of the bed a minute before putting your feet on the floor. Avoid the troublesome search for clean clothes by laying them out the night before. Whenever possible, do dairy work in the afternoon and save tasks requiring more energy or concentration for your sharper hours.

1．If a person finds getting up early a problem, most probably _____.

[　　]

A．he is a lazy person

B．he refused to follow his own energy cycle

C．he is at his peak in the afternoon or evening

D．he is not sure when his energy is low

2．Which of the following may lead to family quarrels according to the passage?

[　　]

A．Having no idea of energy cycle.

B．Familiar monologues.

C．A change in a family member's energy cycle.

D．Attempts control the energy of other family members.

3．If one wants to work more efficiently at his low point in the morning, he should _____.

[　　]

A．change his energy cycle　　　　　　B．overcome his laziness

C．get up earlier than usual　　　　　　D．go to bed earlier

4．You are advised to rise with a yawn and stretch because it will _____.

[　　]

A．help to keep your energy for the day's work

B．help you to control your temper early in the day

C．enable you to concentrate on your dairy work

D．keep you energy cycle under control all day

5．Which of the following statements is NOT ture?

[　　]

A．Getting off to work with a minimum effort helps save one's energy.

B．Dr. Kleitman explains why people reach their peaks at different hours of day.

C．Habit helps one fit his own energy cycle.

D．You'd better get everything ready the night before if your energy peak is in the evening.

阅读理解

　　Many scientists today are sure that life exists elsewhere in the universe--life probably much like that on our planet. They reason in the following way.

　　As far as scientists can determine, the entire universe is built of the same matter. They have no reason to doubt that matter obeys the same laws in every part of the universe. Therefore, it is reasonable to guess that other stars, with their own planets, were born in the same way as our solar(太阳)system. What we know of life on earth suggests that life will arise wherever the proper conditions exist.

　　Life requires the right amount and kind of atmosphere(大气层). This eliminates(排除) all those planets in the universe that are not about the same size and weight as the earth. A smaller planet would lose its atmosphere; a larger one would hold too much of it.

　　Life also requires regular supply of heat and light. This eliminates double stars, or stars that flash up suddenly. Only single stars that are regular sources of heat and light like the sun would qualify.

　　Finally, life could develop gradually only if the planet is just the right distance from its sun. With a weaker sun than our own, the planet would have to be closer to it. With a stronger sun, it would have to be farther away.

　　If we suppose that every star in the universe has a family of planets, then how many planets might support life? First, eliminate those stars that are not like our sun. Next, eliminate most of their planets; they are either too far from or too close to their suns. Then eliminate all those planets that are not the same size and weight as the earth. Finally, remember that the proper conditions do not necessarily mean that life actually does exist on a planet. It may not have begun yet, or it may have already died out.

　　This process of elimination seems to leave very few planets on which earthlike life might be found．However, even if life could exist on only one planet in a million, there are 80 many billions of planets that this would still leave a vast number on which life could exist.

1．Scientists believe that matter in different parts of the universe _____.

[　　]

A．has different laws

B．has one common law

C．shares the same laws

D．shares no common law

2．The existence of life depends on all except _____.

[　　]

A．a right amount of atmosphere

B．a right quantity of coal and oil

C．regular heat and light

D．a right distance from the sun

3．Which of the following statements is wrong?

[　　]

A．Where there's a planet like our earth，there may be life existing.

B．Proper conditions are necessary to the existence of life.

C．Double stars can provide regular light and heat.

D．A right distance between a planet and its sun is necessary for life.

4．At the end of the passage the author suggests that _____.

[　　]

A．it is impossible for life to exist on other planets

B．earthlike life could only exist on a few planets

C．life could exist on only one planet in a million

D．life could exist on a great number of planets

阅读理解

　　Do you want to know something about the history of weather? Don't look at the sky. Don't look for old weather reports. Looking at tree rings is more important. Correct weather reports date back only one century, but some trees can provide an exact record of the weather even further back.

　　It is natural that a tree would grow best in a climate with plenty of sunlight and rainfall. It is also expected that little sunlight or rainfall would limit the growth of a tree. The change from a favorable to an unfavorable climate can be determined by reading the pattern of rings in a tree trunk. To find out the weather of ten years ago，count the rings of a tree trunk from the outside to the inside. If the tenth ring is far from the other rings, then it is certain that plenty of sunny and rainy weather occurred. If the rings are close together, then the climate was bad for the tree.

　　Studying tree rings is important not only for the history of weather, but also for the history of man. In a region of New Mexico you can find only sand--no trees and no people. However, many centuries ago a large population lived there. They left suddenly. Why?

　　A scientist studied patterns of dead tree rings which had grown there. He decided that the people had to leave because they had cut down all the trees. Trees were necessary to make fires and buildings. So, after the people destroyed the trees, they had to move.

　　In this instance studying tree rings uncovered an exciting fact about the history of man.

1．It is understood that in a favorable climate _____.

[　　]

A．tree rings grow close together

B．tree rings grow far apart

C．trees in New Mexico will grow big and tall

D．people can cut down most of the trees in New Mexico

2．Why did ancient people usually live where there were plenty of trees?

[　　]

A．Trees provided them with shades.

B．Trees indicated plenty of sunlight and rainfall.

C．Trees were materials for cooking and building houses.

D．Trees provided them with fruit and food.

3．Scientists are interested in studying tree rings because they can tell _____.

[　　]

A．a lot about what happened in history

B．whether a particular tree was healthy or not

C．whether people took good care of the trees or not

D．how old the trees were

4．By studying the dead tree rings in Mexico the scientist found out _____.

[　　]

A．where the people had to go

B．what the people had to eat

C．how the people left

D．why the people had to leave

5．The people had to leave the region of New Mexico because _____.

[　　]

A．they had cut down all the trees

B．there were many trees there

C．they had no water

D．bad weather stopped the growth of trees

阅读理解

　　Culture means any human behavior that is learned in human society. All of the meaningful parts of a culture are passed on to different generations through tradition or social learning. From this viewpoint, all human groups have a culture. Culture exists in agricultural as well as industrialized societies.

　　Culture is necessary for the survival and existence of human beings as human beings. Practically everything humans know, think, value, feel, and do is learned through taking part in a sociocultural system. This statement is well supported by some well-written cases. Here is one of the cases of children growing up apart from human society. In the province of Midnapore in India，the director of a children's home was told by local villagers that there were“ghosts(鬼)”in the forest. Upon looking into the case, the director found that two children, one about eight years old and the other about six years old, appeared to have been living with a pack of wolves in the forest. These children were the ghosts described by the local people. In his diary, the director describes his first view of Kamala(as the older child was named) and Amala(the name given to the younger child):

　　[Kamala was] a terrible-looking being…the head a big ball of something covering the shoulders…. Close at its heels there came another terrible creature exactly like the first, but smaller in size. Their eyes were bright and sharp，unlike human eyes….[They were] very fond of raw meat and raw milk….Gradually, as they got stronger, they began going on all fours, and afterwards began to run on all fours…. Just like squirrels.

　　Children learn human language in the same way they learn other kinds of human behavior--by taking part in a cultural community. They learn a certain human language as well as certain kinds of human behavior through their membership in a certain cultural community.

1．From the passage we can learn that _____.

[　　]

A．human beings can develop human abilities only if they are raised by their biological parents

B．Amala and Kamala were raised in a forest by ghosts

C．human beings will not grow up human unless they are raised by human beings in human culture

D．culture refers only to the high art and classical music of a particular society

2．Who were the“ghosts”of the Midnapore forest seen by the local villagers?

[　　]

A．They were two children，Amala and Kamala，who ran on fours.

B．They were two squirrels．Amala and Kamala，who ran on fours.

C．They were two young wolves，Amala and Kamala, whose eyes were bright and sharp.

D．They were two children，Amala and Kamala, who were growing up in a children's home

3．How would you understand the description by the director“…they began going on all fours…”in his diary?

[　　]

A．They began to continue with all their four eyes.

B．They started walking with their four feet.

C．They began going with their four hands.

D．They started walking with both their hands and feet.

4．Which of the following do you think is the best title of this passage?

[　　]

A．Wolf-children

B．Cuhure and Human Behavior

C．Culture and Language Learning

D．A Director's Diary

阅读理解

　　Here are a few tips we've put together to help you learn English well.

　　Speak, speak, speak!

　　Practise speaking as often as you can--even speaking to yourself is good practice.

　　Try recording yourself whenever you can．Compare your pronunciation with the master version(版本); see how you can do better and have another go. If you do this several times, you will find that each version is better than the last.

　　Why not learn with someone else?

　　It helps if you can learn with someone else. If you can persuade a friend or family member to study with you, it will make you keep working.

　　Don't get stuck by a word you don't know.

　　Practise improvising(即兴的) ways of getting your meaning across when speaking spontaneously(本能地), even if you don't know the exact words or phrases. Think of things you might want to say whenever you have spare time. Use facial expressions, hand movements, anything to get your meaning across.

　　Language learning is also about intuition(直觉).

　　Guesswork is an important way to learn a new language. When listening to recorded material, you aren't expected to understand everything first time round. If you play the same piece several times, you will most probably understand something new each time.

　　Build up your vocabulary.

　　A wide vocabulary is the key to successful language learning but don't try to learn too much at once. It's best to study frequently, for short periods of time. Take at most six or seven items of vocabulary and learn them. Put them into sentences to fix them in your mind, then come back to them later.

　　And above ail，have fun!

1．Why should one have himself recorded when practising speaking?

[　　]

A．To improve his speaking.

B．To record his own progress.

C．To encourage others to start.

D．To compare himself with others.

2．In the writer's opinion, which of the following is the most important in learning English?

[　　]

A．Speaking.　　　　B．Pleasure.

C．Intuition.　　　 D．Vocabulary.

3．It is implied in the passage that _____ is helpful when learning English.

[　　]

A．body language

B．a good material

C．a good friend

D．a proper dictionary

4．According to the passage, one should _____ when be is learning English.

[　　]

A．always work with other people

B．be able to guess everything new

C．often review what he has learnt

D．take little notice of grammar