The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889, in memory of the 100th birthday of the French Revolution. The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII of England, opened the tower. Of the 700 suggestions that were handed in, Gustave Eiffel’s was chosen.

However, at first, it was not well accepted by all and a group of people — including many well-known writers and painters at that time — were fiercely against its design.

Being about 300 meters in height, and 7,000 tons in weight, it was the world’s tallest building until 1930. It was a great project for France. 300 workers took two years to build it. It isn’t an ordinary building, since it is almost made of steel. For example, its body moves around at most 12 cm in heavy wind. Moreover, its height changes up to 15 cm according to the temperature.

It was almost destroyed in 1909, but was saved because of its antenna(天线), which is used for communication at that time. Beginning in 1910 it became part of the International Time Service. French radio and French television have also made good use of its height.

The Eiffel Tower has also seen a few strange things. In 1923, a journalist rode a bicycle down from the first level of it. And in 1954, a mountain climber climbed on top of it and tried to measure its exact height.

Anyway, although its birth was difficult, it is now well accepted all over the world. It has been considered as one of the symbols of Paris.

1.The passage mainly tells us ________.  

A．the history of the Eiffel Tower

B．some information about its design

C．what the Eiffel Tower was used for

D．how it became one of the symbols of Paris

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to this passage?

A．Many people couldn’t accept the Eiffel Tower at the beginning.

B．It was the world’s tallest building for hundreds of years.

C．A journalist rode down from the Eiffel Tower in 1954.

D．The Eiffel Tower was saved because of its height.

3.The French Revolution took place in _______.

A．1889             B．1923             C．1789             D．1930

第二部分：阅读理解(第一节20小题。第二节5小题；每小题2分，满分50分)

第一节：阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项，并在答题纸上将该

选项标号涂黑。

     When you are little, the whole world feels like a big playground. I was living in Conyers, Georgia the summer it all happened. I was a second grader, but my best friend Stephanie was only in the first grade. Both of our parents were at work and most of the time they let us go our own way.

     It was a hot afternoon and we decided to have an adventure in Stephanie's basement. As I opened the basement door, before us lay the biggest room, full of amazing things like guns, dolls, and old clothes. I ran downstairs, and spotted a red steel can. It was paint. I looked beyond it and there lay even more paint in bright colors like purple, orange, blue and green.

     "Stephanie, I just found us a project for the day. Get some paintbrushes. We are fixing to paint. " She screamed with excitement as I told her of my secret plans and immediately we got to work. We gathered all the brushes we could find and moved all of our materials to my yard. There on the road in front of my house, we painted big stripes ( 条纹) of colors across the pavement (人行道). Stripe by stripe, our colors turned into a beautiful rainbow. It was fantastic!

     The sun was starting to sink. I saw a car in the distance and jumped up as I recognized the car. It was my mother. I couldn't wait to show her my masterpiece. The car pulled slowly into the driveway and from the look on my mother's face, I could tell that I was in deep trouble.

     My mother shut the ear door and walked towards me. Her eyes glaring, she shouted, "What in the world were you thinking? I understood when you made castles out of leaves, and climbed the neighbors' trees, but this! Come inside right now !" I stood there glaring back at her for a minute, angry because she had insulted (侮辱) my art.

     "Now go clean it up!" Mother and I began cleaning the road. Tears ran down my cheeks as I saw my beautiful rainbow turn into black cement.

     Though years have now passed, I still wonder where my rainbow has gone. I wonder if, maybe when I get older, I can find my rainbow and never have to brush it away. I guess we all need some sort of rainbow to brighten our lives from time to time and to keep our hopes and dreams colorful.

1. What did the writer want to do when his mother came home?

   A. To introduce Stephanie to her.          B. To prevent her from seeing his painting.

   C. To put the materials back in the yard.    D. To show his artwork to her.

2. In his mother's eyes, the writer __ .

   A. was a born artist                          B. always caused trouble

   C. was a problem solver                      D. worked very hard

3. The underlined word "rainbow" in the last paragraph refers to __ .

   A. the rainbow in the sky                     B. the stripes on the pavement

   C. something imaginative and fun              D. important lessons learned in childhood

4. It can be learned from the passage that parents should       .

A. encourage children to paint          

B. value friendship among children

C. discover the hidden talent in children 

D. protect rather than destroy children's dreams

任务型阅读 (共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分)
请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。
Waste to Energy—JUST BURN IT!
WHY BURN WASTE?
Waste-to-energy plants generate (产生) enough electricity to supply 2.4 million households in the US. But, providing electricity is not the major advantage of waste-to-energy plants. In fact, it costs more to generate electricity at a waste-to-energy plant than it does at a coal, nuclear, or hydropower plant. 
The major advantage of burning waste is that it considerably reduces the amount of trash going to landfills. The average American produces more than 1,600 pounds of waste a year. If all this waste were landfilled, it would take more than two cubic yards of landfill space. That’s the volume of a box three feet long, three feet wide, and six feet high. If that waste were burned, the ashes would fit into a box three feet long, three feet wide, but only nine inches high!
Some communities in the Northeast may be running out of land for new landfills. And, since most people don’t want landfills in their backyards, it has become more difficult to obtain permits to build new landfills. Taking the country as a whole, the United States has plenty of open space, of course, but it is expensive to transport garbage a long distance to put it into a landfill.
TO BURN OR NOT TO BURN?
Some people are concerned that burning garbage may harm the environment. Like coal plants, waste-to-energy plants produce air pollution when the fuel is burned to produce steam or electricity. Burning garbage releases the chemicals and substances found in the waste. Some chemicals can be a threat to people, the environment, or both, if they are not properly controlled.
Some critics of waste-to-energy plants are afraid that burning waste will hamper (妨碍，阻碍) recycling programs. If everyone sends their trash to a waste-to-energy plant, they say, there will be little motive to recycle. Several states have considered or are considering banning waste-to-energy plants unless recycling programs are in place. Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York City have delayed new waste-to-energy plants, hoping to increase the level of recycling first.
So, what’s the real story? Can recycling and burning waste coexist? At first glance, recycling and waste-to-energy seem to be at odds (不一致), but they can actually complement (弥补) each other. That’s because it makes good sense to recycle some materials, and better sense to burn others.
Let’s look at aluminum, for example. Aluminum mineral is so expensive to mine that recycling aluminum more than pays for itself. Burning it produces no energy. So clearly, aluminum is valuable to recycle and not useful to burn.  
Paper, on the other hand, can either be burned or recycled—it all depends on the price the used paper will bring.
Plastics are another matter. Because plastics are made from petroleum and natural gas, they are excellent sources of energy for waste-to-energy plants. This is especially true since plastics are not as easy to recycle as steel, aluminum, or paper. Plastics almost always have to be hand sorted and making a product from recycled plastics may cost more than making it from new materials. 
To burn or not to burn is not really the question. We should use both recycling and waste-to-energy as alternatives to landfilling.
Waste to Energy—JUST BURN IT!

My mother always says that I’m born to dance ballet．But that September when I was in a ballet  36  and went to do a turn，something just happened. I heard it and I surely   37  it．I went right to a doctor and got an MRI，which  38  a lot of damage to my knee——a(n)  39  injury for a dancer．I had to have a(n)  40  .

Everything had been going so well and now I had this huge injury．Dance was my life，but 41，I wasn’t going to be able to do it for a year or possibly never again．

My dad was really a big inspiration for me. He was  42   a battle against cancer at that time．He showed me how to make it through a  43  situation．I thought that if he could do that，I could handle this，too．  44  my operation，I had great difficulty walking，but I knew that if I really worked hard，my injury would   45  ．

Several months later, I definitely wasn't at my strongest，but I could   46  a class. The dancing I did was basic   47    that my knee could handle．

Once we started practicing in the fall，I was beginning to feel like myself again．One day，I   48   the schedule and my name was next to Eliot Feld．I thought it must be a(n)   49  because he is very famous in the ballet world．But it wasn’t．He  50   me and taught me a lot of things．At l8，I had a solo performance! It was a big  51  ．I was so excited and felt like a real ballerina．After the   52  ，Eliot said，“You know, you have a gift—and you are also made of   53  ．"That，coming from him，was the   54  compliment(赞美)I have ever received．I’d like to think that   55  my injury made me strong．

1.A．school       B．class                  C．team                   D．play

2.A．felt                 B．accepted           C．broke                 D．touched

3.A．pointed                  B．said                 C．showed             D．read

4.A．necessary                B．important          C．practical    D．deadly

5.A．operation    B．cry         C．holiday                D．test

6.A．all of a sudden        B．in time                C．at present D．once in a while

7.A．leading                   B．losing              C．fighting             D．inventing

8.A．wonderful     B．difficult             C．positive             D．heavy

9.A． At                       B．During              C．After       D．Over

10.A．move                B．go                     C．die                    D． heal

11.A．take up                 B．get through        C．break into D．set out

12.A．damages             B．activities           C．moves                 D．breathes

13.A．stole                   B．checked          C．faced                  D．borrowed

14.A．problem                B．opportunity        C．mistake                D．task

15.A．held                B．obeyed            C．received  D．encouraged

16.A．success                B．secret             C．surprise            D．position

17.A．performance       B．speech                C．competition  D．match

18.A．mud                    B．wood              C．steel               D．gold

19.A．simplest                B．greatest           C．deepest   D．smartest

20.A．turning to     B．1etting out         C．setting up           D．dealing with

At 10 years old, Flynn Mc Garry became sick of the meals his mother cooked for him. So the Los Angeles native took matters into his own hands and started making his own dinners. One of his specialties? Trout with braised leeks(韭葱炖鲑鱼).

Now 13, the young chef is being praised as a “food prodigy(神童)”. He will spend his summer apprenticing with some of the best chefs at LA’s famous restaurants, MSNBC Nightly New reports.

Mc Garry began making a name for himself in the culinary(烹饪) world when John Sedlar, owner of the trendy Playa Restaurant, let Mc Garry take over the kitchen for a special nine-course meal. The meal sold out almost instantly.

“Flynn is a very unusual young man, and he’s very, very passionate,” owner John Sedlar told MSNBC.

By usual teenage boy standards, it’s true. So strong is his passion for cooking that the young man has turned his bedroom into an experimental kitchen laboratory.

Instead of video game consoles, baseball trophies and movie posters, Mc Garry’s room is lined with mixers, pots and pans, cutting boards and a stainless steel worktable. It’s where Mc Garry cooks his monthly pop-up dinners, which are served from his family’s dining room, a monthly supper club he calls Eureka.

Mc Garry is deft(灵巧的) and confident in the kitchen, with skills he’s been practicing since he was a child. What started out as a means of self-preservation from his mom’s unsatisfactory cooking has turned into a passion that the teen hopes to develop into a career.

“My goal? Michelin three stars, a restaurant in the top 50 list,” he told MSNBC. “Hopefully the top five.” Meanwhile, Mc Garry’s 13-year-old resume is already richer and more impressive than most cooks many times his age.

Mc Garry isn’t the only talented young prodigy to surprise experts in his field in recent years. At just 17 years old, physicist Taylor Wilson is already teaching graduate-level courses in physics and has built a functioning nuclear reactor.

1.Mc Garry first started cooking ___________.

A．for himself                            B．as an experiment

C．in his own bedroom                      D．with a teacher’s guidance

2.Compared with many adult chefs, Mc Garry ________.

A．has the best cooking equipment in his kitchen

B．is inventive and has many new specialties to his name

C．has much and impressive cooking experience for his young age

D．wants to open his own Michelin three-star restaurant

3.The author mentions Taylor Wilson in the last paragraph to ______.

A．prove that Flynn’s success is not a rare case

B．compare his talent to that of Flynn Mc Garry

C．introduce a young talent in a different field

D．suggest experts should be trained at a young age

4.Where does this text probably come from?

A．A recipe book                          B．A restaurant introduction

C．A career guide                         D．A news report