In the deep blue Indian Ocean, there’s a beautiful island (岛) country called Maldives(马尔代夫). It’s the smallest in population and area of all the Asian countries. It has an area of 90,000 km², but 99% of the area is covered by the sea. It has 1,190 islands and is about 820 km from North to South. People live on no more than 200 islands, while another 87 are visited by tourists. Some of the islands are only used for fishing or farming. The capital Maléis is on one of the middle islands, and about 75,000 people live there. The people there are friendly and welcoming. They use their traditional games to welcome people from all over the world. It is sunny on the islands almost every day, and makes them look so beautiful. People can enjoy lots of things in Maldives

1. 1.

   How many people live in the capital Maléis?

   1. A.
      75,000
   2. B.
      90,000
   3. C.
      1,190
   4. D.
      200
2. 2.

   What does the writer mean “Some of the islands are only used for fishing or farming”?

   1. A.
      There are no people living on some islands in Maldives
   2. B.
      Tourists are everywhere in Maldives
   3. C.
      People in Maldives like traveling very much
   4. D.
      People in Maldives can do nothing except fishing or farming
3. 3.

   What does the writer think of the people in the Maldives?

   1. A.
      He thinks they’re boring
   2. B.
      He thinks they’re poor
   3. C.
      They are friendly and welcoming
   4. D.
      He doesn’t like them

The world is an interesting place. Different people like different things. Some people like loud music. Other people don’t. They like   1  music.
Many people like sports, but they do not   2  the same sports. In some countries, cricket (板球运动) is a very popular sport. In others it is not popular   3  all. No one plays it or watches it on TV.   4 , most people like soccer. The World Cup is very popular.   5  of people watch the games on TV.
Different people like different   6 . Some people do not like meat. They eat fruit and vegetables most of the time. Some people do not like   7  or bread. They prefer rice.
Not everyone likes the same color. Most people have their favorite colors. Some people like   8  colors. Others prefer dark colors.
Many people like  9 . Different people like different places. Some people like to go to the country. They like fresh air. Some people like to go to cities because they like   10 . Some other people enjoy beautiful places like mountains or beaches.
What do you like? Have you got an idea?

In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what “keeping up with the Joneses” is about. It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbours.
The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighbourhood outside New York City. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbours.
It was like a race, but one could never finish his race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They moved back to an apartment in New York City.
Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbours. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it “Keeping up with the Joneses” because “Jones” is a very common name in the United States. “Keeping up with the Joneses” came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand’s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are “Joneses” in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.
【小题1】Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ________.

The world is not only hungry but also thirsty for water. This may seem strange to you, since nearly 70% of the earth’s surface is covered with water. But about 97% of that is sea water or salt water. Man can only drink and use the other 3% of fresh water from rivers, lakes, underground and so on. And we can not even use all of that because some of it has been made dirty.
Earth Day is April 22. But on all other days, we must also remember how important water is. The water that we use is the most important natural resource on the earth. Today we face serious water problems. One of them is water pollution. All kinds of things from cars, factories, farms and homes make our rivers, lakes and oceans dirty. Polluted water is very bad for people to drink. And dirty water is bad for fish, too.
How do cars and factories make our water dirty? First they pollute the air. Then when it rains, the rain water makes our drinking water dirty. Dirty rain, called acid rain is also bad for plants, animals and buildings. Scientists say that in 30 years, more than half of the people in the world won’t have enough clean water. We have to learn how to stop wasting water. One of the first steps is to develop ways of reusing it. Today in most large cities, water is used only once and then sent out into a sewer system (下水道). From there it returns to the sea or goes underground.
But even though every large city reused its water, we would still not have enough. So we should make use of sea water by removing the salt in it. If we can take these steps, fresh water won’t be used up.
【小题1】The world is thirsty for water because _______.