Number　 sense is not the ability to count. It is the ability to recognize a 　 1　 in number. Human beings are born with this ability. 2 ，experiments show that many animals are, too. For example, many birds have good number sense. If a nest has four eggs and you remove one, the bird will not　 3 . However, if you remove two, the bird 4 leaves. This means that the bird knows the 　5　 between two and three.

Another interesting experiment showed a bird's 6 number sense. A man was trying to take a photo of a crow(乌鸦)that had a nest in a tower, but the crow always left when she saw him coming. The bird did not 7 until the man left the tower. The man had an 8 .He took another man with him to the tower. One man left and the other stayed, but they did not 9 the bird. The crow stayed away until the second man left, too. The experiment was　 10 with three men and then with four men. But the crow did not return to the nest until all the men were 11 .It was not until five men went into the tower and only four left that they were 12 able to fool the crow.

How good is a human's number sense? It's not very good. For example, babies about fourteen months old almost always notice if something is taken away from a 　13 group. But when the number goes beyond three or four, the children are 14　 fooled.

It seems that number sense is something we have in common with many animals in this world, and that our human 15 is not much better than a crow's.

1. A. rise　　　　　　　 B. pattern　　　　　　　　　　　　　 C. change　　　　　　　　　　 D. trend

2. A. Importantly　 B. Surprisingly　 C. Disappointedly D. Fortunately

3. A. survive　　　　　　　　 B. care　　　　　　　　 C. hatch　　　　 D. notice

4. A. generally 　　　　　　 B. sincerely　　 C. casually　　　　　 D. deliberately

5．A. distance 　　　　　 B. range　　　　 C. different　 　　　 D. interval

6．A. amazing 　　　　　 B. annoying　　　　　 C. satisfying　 D. disturbing

7. A. relax　　　　　　　　　 B. recover　　　　　　 C. react　　　　 D. return

8. A. appointment　　　　 B. excuse　　　　　　 C. idea　　　　　 D. explanation

9. A. fool　　　　　　　　　　 B. hurt　　　　　 C. catch　　　　 D. kill

10.A. repo　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. repeated　　 C. designed　　 D. approved

11.A. confused　　　　　　 B. gone　　　　 C. tired　　　　　 D. drunk

12.A. gradually　　　　　　 B. luckily　　　 C. strangely　 D. finally

13.　 A. single　　　　　　　 B. small　　　　 C. local　　　　 D. new

14. A. seldom　　　　　　　 B. temporarily C. merely　　　 D. often

15. A. sight　　　　　　　　　 B. nature　　　 C. ability　　　　 D. belief

There were two interesting pieces of news items in the paper a few years ago. One was about a man who received a bill from the telephone company for $ 2,000 a month for doing nothing.
　　The connection between the two news items is simple; computers-the best invention of the 20th century. The telephone bill came from a computer which made a terrifying mistake; that man’s bill was only $ 23.26. The other item was not as amusing. A man walked into the unguarded computer room of a large packaged food company and expertly programmed the computer to pay him $ 2,000 a month for raw meat which he “supplied ” to the company. Of course he never sent the meat, but he certainly received the money . The computer wrote out a bill, and even “signed ” it. It was only a random (随便) check that uncovered the trick. It could be happening in thousands of other companies all over the world.
　　Computers are not the magical workers that some people say they are. They make mistakes, they’re sometimes slower than human beings and they’re easily fooled.
　　The US used to conscript (征兵) people with the help of a computer. The army sent out a card, which had to be filled in and sent back. It was easy to avoid being called up simply by spreading candle-wax(腊) on the card. The computer couldn’t read the card, and did nothing with it.
　　It’s in our everyday life that computers cause many problems. Let’s get back to using people instead of computers, before a mistake that we can’t put right.
【小题1】In the first paragraph we can conclude ______.

There were two interesting pieces of news items in the paper a few years ago. One was about a man who received a bill from the telephone company for $ 2,000 a month for doing nothing.

　　The connection between the two news items is simple; computers-the best invention of the 20th century. The telephone bill came from a computer which made a terrifying mistake; that man’s bill was only $ 23.26. The other item was not as amusing. A man walked into the unguarded computer room of a large packaged food company and expertly programmed the computer to pay him $ 2,000 a month for raw meat which he “supplied ” to the company. Of course he never sent the meat, but he certainly received the money . The computer wrote out a bill, and even “signed ” it. It was only a random (随便) check that uncovered the trick. It could be happening in thousands of other companies all over the world.

　　Computers are not the magical workers that some people say they are. They make mistakes, they’re sometimes slower than human beings and they’re easily fooled.

　　The US used to conscript (征兵) people with the help of a computer. The army sent out a card, which had to be filled in and sent back. It was easy to avoid being called up simply by spreading candle-wax(腊) on the card. The computer couldn’t read the card, and did nothing with it.

　　It’s in our everyday life that computers cause many problems. Let’s get back to using people instead of computers, before a mistake that we can’t put right.

1.In the first paragraph we can conclude ______.

2.The main idea of the second paragraph is _______.

3.Computers ______.

4.The writer thinks _______.

D

  　　Award­winning author Emma Donoghue's latest book, Room, is a unique and amazing story about a boy's experience living in a small，windowless room with his mother. The 11' x 11' space between the walls of the room is actually all the boy knows because he was born there and has never left. Room will horrify ，surprise, sadden, and finally delight you. Attracted from the start, readers of all sorts won't want to put Room down.

◆First published in the U. S. in September 2010

◆Publisher: Little Brown

◆321 Pages                                                                                                                                     

　　Literary master Ian McEwan returns with Solar, a novel about a Nobel prize­winning physicist. The physicist's personal life is in a mess as his fifth marriage breaks，but this time he actually loves his wife and wants to make things better. Solar is a funny story, completely unusual and as good as anything the writer has ever written.

◆Published in March 2010

◆Publisher: Knopf Doubleday

◆304 Pages                                                                                                                                     

　　One Day by David Nicholls was an international bestseller before it was released in the U. S. in June. Although it is well written and funny at times, don't be fooled—this isn't a good­feeling romantic comedy. If you decide to read it, be prepared for some heavy moments.

◆Published in the U．S. in June 2010

◆Publisher: Vintage Contemporaries

◆437 Pages                                                                                                                                     

　　Fall of Giants by Ken Follett is the first book in a new trilogy (three books)that will take readers through the major events of the twentieth century by following five families. In Fall of Giants, most of the action centers on World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution. Although Fall of Giants is more than 1,000 pages and has many characters，the story is remarkably connected.

◆Published in September 2010

◆Publisher: Dutton

◆1,008 Pages                                                                                                                                  

1.Which of the following is NOT true according to the text?

A. Ian McEwan once won the Nobel Prize.

B. Fall of Giants is mostly set in wars.

C. One day is written by David Nicholls.

D. Solar is a funny story about a physicist.

2.We can know from the text that ________.

A. the main character of Room has a wide range of knowledge

B. Solar is the only book that Ian McEwan has ever written

C. all the four books were not published in the same month

D. One Day is a funny romantic comedy that sells very well

3.We can infer from the passage that ________.

A. the sixth of Ian McEwan's marriages broke

B. Room by Emma Donoghue has a happy ending

C. the publisher of One Day is Little Brown

D. Dutton and Ken Follett are both publishers

MONTREAL--He may be the world’s richest man, but that didn’t prevent Bill Gates from falling for an April Fool’s day joke by two Quebec radio comics (喜剧演员) pretending to be Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

Montreal French-language station CKMF--FM said last Wednesday that staffers (工作人员) Marcantoine Audet and Sebastien Trudel had a 10-minute telephone chat with Microsoft Corp boss Gates on April 1.

The broadcast was aired on their nightly show last Tuesday and repeated last Wednesday.

“We were happy. We had been calling Microsoft persistently (坚持不懈地) for four weeks,” Trudel said.

Trudel said he and his colleague had already fooled Canadian pop singer Celine Dion and Formula One (一级方程赛车) driver Jacques Villeneuve on their show.

“This time, we wanted to give ourselves a challenge with somebody more difficult to reach,” Ttudel said.

He said he was surprised that Gates’s assistants did not check to see if it was really the prime minister’s office on the line.

Trudel said they imitated (模仿) Chretien’s heavily accented English, talking about the economy, asking about Microsoft’s Windows operating system and inviting the multibillionaire to visit a well-known Montreal strip joint (运动服合资企业).

The radio host said that Gates was not amused by the fake interview.

“He did not seem angry but he did not find it so funny,” the comic said.

Bill Gates was fooled mainly because ______.

 A. his assistants were not careful enough          

B. the Canadian Prime Minister helped the two comics

C. the two comics imitated the Canadian Prime Minister so well        

D. it was April Fool’s Day

We can conclude from the passage that the two comics ______.

A. liked to fool famous people on their show  　

B. thought that Gates was not a great challenge to them

C. had a good knowledge of Bill Gates and his Windows operating system

D. were not quite satisfied with their tricks

Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?

A. Gates ‘April Fooled’                             B. Two Comics and Their Tricks

C. Two comics and Their Show　　　　　　D. A Fake Interview